before been when he dealt with them in mercy. He had once seen fit to choose them, "above all the nations of the earth," that the adoption, and the glory, and the covenant, and the law, might be theirs. This privilege would be no longer continued. The same counsel which had chosen them, had now rejected them. They were cast off.

In one thing only was there difference. We are not told, why God preferred Isaac to Ishmael, or Jacob to Esau. It was of his own purpose, the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. These are among "the secret things which belong to the Lord our God." Neither does it concern us. But it does concern us, and because it concerns us, it has been clearly revealed, why the Israelites were no longer to enjoy his favour. As he said to Saul, (1 Sam. xv. 26,) "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel;" so he now declares to the Israelites, Because " your heart is waxed gross, and your ears are dull of hearing, and your eyes ye have closed," and ye have put my word of mercy from you, and "judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life:" my Gospel shall be offered to the Gentiles, "for they will hear it."s A new fold shall be opened, and many shall enter into it. They shall come from the north and from the south, and from the east and from the west: and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. For many that are first, shall be last; and the last first. For many are called, but few chosen.5

2 Deut. xxix. 29.

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3 Acts xxviii. 27; xiii. 46.

LECTURE XXVIII.

THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN CASTING OFF THE DISOBEDIENT JEWS, AND RECEIVING THE REPENTANT GENTILES.

ROMANS ix. 19-33.

19. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

So the Jew might argue from what Paul had written, and dispute the goodness of God. You You say, that he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Why doth he yet find fault? We are but doing what "his determinate counsel and foreknowledge" intended should be done. We are not resisting his will, but fulfilling it. Why should we suffer his displeasure?

Here again St. Paul replies by asserting the sovereignty of God. He had followed his own supreme will, in choosing the Jewish nation; he might also follow it in rejecting them.

20. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

As the potter, from the same clay, makes some vessels to noble and sumptuous purposes, and others

1 Acts ii. 23.

for meaner use and as the vessel which he designed for a noble use is sometimes marred, and he turns to a different purpose the same material in his hand: so it has been with us, the Jewish people. God called our nation to honour, and we have been honourable we have had "advantages great every way:" unto us "were committed the oracles of God." And now he takes other nations to honour, and reduces us to dishonour. What have we to reply against God? That has come to pass which is written in the prophet Jeremiah; who has said, (xviii. 3-6,) "I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work upon the wheels. And the vessel which he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.” And who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?

More especially, when in the exercise of his power he has remembered mercy, and has shown forth much long suffering. The vessels which were made unto honour, have long ceased to answer their high purposes, and have been ready to be "marred in the hands of the potter:" fitted to be destroyed. God has endured them long, till the fulness of time is come when mercy might be made known to others: that when the vessels of wrath were cast away, the vessels of mercy might be prepared for glory; ready to receive it: even those whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

22. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction :2

23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24. Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25. As he saith also in Osee,3 (Hosea,) I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

26. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

4

27. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28. For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. 5

It is, therefore, no new thing on the part of God, that he takes a people to himself who were not his people. The prophets had plainly foretold it. Hosea had shown how the Gentiles should be brought to honour, and they who had never known God, should come to be called his children. Isaiah, too, had spoken of a time when the Israelites, once numerous as the sand of the sea, should become a mere

2 Long bearing with the gainsaying and disobedient people. So the ancient commentators.

3 Hos. i. 10, 11, 23.

▲ Is. x. 21-23. The sense is given, not the exact words. 5 Ib. i. 9.

remnant when only a seed should remain of that once flourishing plant which had filled the land of Canaan, and spread its branches into distant nations. If only a remnant should be saved, the larger part must be intended for destruction: if only a seed should be left, the tree must be cut down. One thing, and one only, could have averted this. For Jeremiah had said, when he showed the Israelites that they were as clay in the potter's hand: (xviii. 7, 8:)" At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them."

Here, therefore, is a difference between the clay in the potter's hand, and the Jewish nation in the hand of God. When the potter, out of the same lump, makes one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour, there is nothing which we can perceive in the clay to determine him. It is not so, when the vessels which were made to honour, have been cast off, and their place is filled by others. We are distinctly told, why some have become vessels of wrath, and others of mercy. The one party rejected, the other received, the word of God. One obtained by faith, what the others lost through unbelief.

30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

31. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

32. Wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but