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The Gentiles stand in the favour

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CHAP. XI.

of God, by faith. A.M. cir.4069. Be not highminded, but fear: 22 Behold, therefore, the goodness A. M. cir.4062. 21 For, if God spared not the na-and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, A.U.C.cr.811, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness:

A. D. cir. 58. An. Olymp. cir. CCIX. 2.

A.U.C.cir.811. tural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

b

a Ch. 12. 16.- Prov. 28. 14. Isai. 66. 2. Phil. 2. 12.

1 Cor. 15. 2. Hebr. 3. 6, 14.

A. D. cir 58. An. Olymp. cir. CCIX. 2.

cast out?
Was it not because of their unbelief? And
you
stand by faith: you were made partakers of these blessings
by faith; be not highminded; let this humble, not exalt you
in your own estimation; for if the blessings were received
by faith, consequently not by works: and if not by works,
you have no merit; and, what you have received, is through ||
the mere mercy of God. They once stood by faith; they
gave place to unbelief, and fell: you stand now by faith, but
it is as possible for you to be unfaithful, as it was for them;
and consequently you may fall under the Divine displeasure,

Fit nodo sinus: huc alienâ ex arbore germen
Includunt; udoque docent inolescere libro.
For where the tender rinds of trees disclose
Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows;
Just in that space, a narrow slit we make,
Then other buds from bearing trees we take;
Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close;

In whose moist womb, the admitted infant grows.
DRYDEN.

as they have done; be not highminded, but fear; watch over In all countries the principle is the same, though the mode yourselves with godly jealousy.

Verse 21. For, if God spared not the natural branches] If He, in his infinite justice and holiness, could not tolerate sin in the people whom he foreknew, whom he had so long loved, cherished, miraculously preserved and blessed; take heed lest he also spare not thee. Be convinced that the same righteous principle in him will cause him to act towards you as he has acted towards them, if you sin after the similitude of their transgression: and to this, self sufficiency, and selfconfidence, will soon lead you. Remember, therefore, the rock whence you were hewn; and the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. Depend incessantly on God's free grace, that ye may abide in his favour.

Verse 22. Behold, therefore, the goodness] The exclamation, behold the goodness of God! is frequent among the Jewish writers, when they wish to call the attention of men to particular displays of God's mercy; especially towards those who are singularly unworthy. See several instances in Schoettgen.

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is various.

The apostle having adopted this metaphor as the best he could find, to express that act of God's justice and mercy, by which the Jews were rejected, and the Gentiles elected in their stead; and, in order to shew that though the Jewish tree was cut down, or its branches lopped off, yet it was not rooted up, he informs the Gentile believers that, as it is customary to insert a good cyon in a bad or useless stock, they who were bad, contrary to the custom in such cases, were grafted in a good stock, and their growth and fruitfulness proclaimed the excellence and vegetative life of the stock in which they were inserted. This was the goodness of the heavenly Gardener to them; but it was severity, anotowia, an act of excision to the Jews.

The Reader will observe that this term belongs to engrafting: often, in this operation, a part of a branch is cut off'; in that part which remains in connexion with the tree, a little slit is made, and then a small twig or branch taken from another tree, is, at its lower end, shaved thin, wedge-like, and then inserted in the cleft, after which the whole is tied together, clayed round, &c. and the bark unites to bark; and the stock and the cyon become thus one tree, the juices of the old stock circulating through the tubes of the newly inserted twig; and thus both live, though the branch inserted bears a very different fruit from that which the parent stock bore. I have often performed this operation, and in this very way, with success. And I cannot conceive that the apostle could have chosen a more apt, or a more elegant metaphor. The Jewish tree does not bring forth proper fruit ;

And severity of God] As %50TYS, goodness, signifies the essential quality of the Divine nature, the fountain of all good to men and angels; so aотoμia, severity, as it is here translated, signifies that particular exercise of his goodness and holiness which leads him to sever from his mystical body whatsoever would injure, corrupt, or destroy it. The apostle in these verses a metaphor taken from engrafting, syxExplois, whence the verb εyxetpily, from ev in, and KEYTP to puncture, because engrafting was frequently done by making a puncture in the bark of a tree, and then inserting a bud taken from another. This was the prac-but it will answer well to ingraft a proper fruit-bearing tree tice in the Roman agriculture, as we learn from Virgil, Georg. ii. ver. 73—

Nam quà se medio tradunt de cortice gemmæ,
Et tenues rumpunt tunicas; angustus in ipso

on. The Gentiles are a wild olive, which is a tree that bears no fruit; but it may be made to bear if grafted on the Jewish stock. Some of the branches were cut off, that the branches of this wild olive might be inserted: the act by

When the Jews believe in Christ,

A. D. cir. 58.

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A. D. cir. 58. An. Olymp. cir. CCİX. 2.

A. M.cir.4062. otherwise, thou also shalt be cut || 24 For, if thou wert cut out of A. M.cir.4062. An. Olymp. off. the olive tree which is wild by nacir. CCIX. 2. A.U.C.cir.811. ture; and wert graffed contrary to A.U.C.cir.811. nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural

23 And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in for God is able to graff them in again.

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this there is no kind of necessity, for the original stock, the
Abrahamic covenant, is sufficient to receive them all; and so
Jews and Gentiles become one eternal flock, under one
Bishop and Shepherd of all their souls.

Verse 23. If they abide not in unbelief] So, we find that their rejection took place in consequence of their wilful obstinacy: and, that they may return into the fold, the door of which still stands open.

which this insertion is made, is termed 50s goodness, benignity: the act by which the branches of the original || stock are broken off, is termed aπorquia excision, from ano from, and reuve, I cut, still keeping the metaphor, taken from engrafting, in view. Now, let the apostle's mode of reasoning be observed; the tree is cut down, or its branches are lopped off; but the tree is not rooted up. The Jews have stumbled, but not so as to fall irrecoverably; for, if they abide not still in unbelief, they shall be grafted in, ver. 23. For God is able to graff them in again.] Fallen as they The Gentiles, which are grafted in, on these cut-off branches, are, and degraded, God can, in the course of his providence like the cyon inserted in another stock, partake of the root, || and mercy, restore them to all their forfeited privileges; and which absorbs from the earth the nutritious juices, and the this will take place if they abide not in unbelief; which infatness of the Jewish tree, the blessings and privileges which timates, that God has furnished them with all the power and that people have long enjoyed, in consequence of the Abra- means necessary for faith; and that they may believe on the hamic covenant, ver. 17. the root, the Jewish covenant, Lord Jesus whenever they will. The veil now continues on bears them; not they, the root, ver. 18. As, therefore, the their heart, but it is not a veil which God has spread there, continuance of the Gentiles, as the church and people of but a veil occasioned by their own voluntary and obstinate God, depends upon their interest in the Abrahamic covenant, unbelief; and, when they shall turn to the Lord (Jesus) the the blessings of which they derive through the medium of veil shall be taken away. See what the apostle has said, the Jews; they should be grateful to God, and tolerant to 2 Cor. iii. 6-18. those through whom they have received such blessings. And as in the case of grafting, the prosperity of the engrafted cyon depends on the existence of the parent stock; so the continuance of the Gentiles in this state of favour, (following the metaphor,) in a certain way, depends on the continuance of the Jewish people: and they are preserved, as so many cyons, which are, in process of time, to be ingrafted on the Gentiles; and thus the Gentiles shall become the means of salvation to the Jews; as the Jews have been the means of salvation to the Gentiles. Following, therefore, the metaphor a little further, which seems to have been so well chosen in all its parts; the continued existence of the Jews, as a distinct people, together with the acknowledgment of the Gentiles, that they have derived their salvation and state of blessedness through them; of which Jesus Christ, born of the stock of David, is the author; and the Jewish scriptures, which the Gentiles receive as inspired by God, are the evidence; then, the restoration of the Jews, to the favour of God, is a necessary consequence: and, indeed, seems to be the principal end in reference to which the apostle reasons. And wert graffed contrary to nature] Пapa quo, conThe Gentiles, however, are to take care that the restorationtrary to all custom; for a cyon taken from a burren or useof the Jews be not at their expense; as their calling and less tree, is scarcely ever known to be grafted into a good election were at the expense of the Jews: the latter being stock: but here the Gentiles, a fruitless and sinful race, arê cut off, that the former might be grafted in, ver. 19. Of grafted on the ancient patriarchal stock. Now, if it was

Verse 24. The olive tree, which is wild by nature] Which is xara quoiv, naturally wild and barren; for, that the wild olive bore no fruit, is sufficiently evident from the testimony of the authors who have written on the subject; hence the proverb Axapπorepos ayρio; more unfruitful than the wild olive. Λάκωνες γαρ αγρίαν ελαίαν, αγριππον xaλover for the Lacedemonians term the wild olive aypY See SUIDAS. And hence HESYCHIUS interprets Ayashavos, the wild olive, (the word used here by St. Paul,) by anzpros, unfruitful: and the reason given in DIOGEN. Proverb. Cent. ii. n. 63, is qurov yap 851v & aypitтos anapñor" for the wild olive is an unfruitful tree. On this account the apostle very properly says, thou wert cut, Ex TT5 xata form aypiɛhalou, out of that olive which is uncultivated, because it is barren: the xara quoi does not refer here to its being naturally barren; but to its being commonly, or customarily permitted to remain so. And, that this is the import of the phrase here, is evident from the next clause of the

verse.

The Scripture foretels the

A. D. cir. 58.

CHAP. XI.

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restoration of the Jews.

A. M.cir. 4062. branches, be graffed into their own blindness in part is happened to
An. Olymp. olive tree?
Israel, until the fulness of the Gen-
cir. CCIX. 2.
A.U.C.cir.811.
tiles be come in.

25 For, I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that

a Ch. 12. 16. ver. 7. 2 Cor. 3. 14. Or, hardness.

possible to effect such a change in the state and disposition of the Gentiles, who were able wouw, Ephes. ii. 12. without God, ATHEISTS in the world: how much more possible is it, speaking after the manner of men, to bring about a similar change in the Jews, who acknowledge the one, only, and true God; and receive the law and the prophets as a revelation from him. This seems to be the drift of the apostle's argument.

Verse 25. I would not—that ye should be ignorant of this mystery] Mystery puso, signifies any thing that is hidden, or covered, or not fully made manifest. The Greek word seems to have been borrowed from the Hebrew mister, from the root satar, to hide, conceal, &c. though some derive it from uecia, to be initiated into sacred rites, from pew, to shut up. In the New Testament it signifies, generally, any thing, or doctrine that has not, in former times, been fully known to men: or, something that has not been heard of; or which is so deep, profound, and difficult of comprehension, that it cannot be apprehended without special di- || rection and instruction: here, it signifies the doctrine of the future restoration of the Jews, not fully known in itself, and not at all known as to the time in which it will take place. In chap. xvi. 25. it means the Christian religion, not known till the advent of Christ. The apostle wished the Romans not to be ignorant of this mystery, viz. that such a thing was intended: and, in order to give them as much instruction as possible on this subject, he gives them some characteristic, or sign of the times when it was to take place.

Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits] It seems from this, and from other expressions in this Epistle, that the converted Gentiles had not behaved toward the Jews with that decorum and propriety which the relation they bore to them required. In this chapter the apostle strongly guards them against giving way to such a disposition.

A. M. cir.
A. D. cir. 58.

Air 406-
Au. Olymp.

cir. CCIX.2. A.U.C.cir.811.

26 (And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the

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v, may be borrowed from the goyim, a multitude of nations, which the Septuagint translate by rayos evov. By the pupa, or fulness, a great πληθος είνων. multitude may be intended; which should be so dilated on every hand as to fill various regions. In this sense the words were understood by Solomon ben Melec, isbow bun bıra

The nations of the Gentiles shall be filled with them: the apostle, therefore, seems to give this sense of the mystery, that the Jews will continue in a state of blindness till such time as a multitude of nations, or Gentiles, shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the Jews, hearing of this, shall be excited, by a spirit of emulation, to examine and acknowledge the validity of the proofs of Christianity; and embrace the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We should not restrict the meaning of these words too much, by imagining-1. That the fulness must necessarily mean all the nations of the universe; and all the individuals of those nations: probably, no more than a general spread of Christianity over many nations which are now under the influence of Pagan or Mohammedan superstition, may be what is intended. 2. We must not suppose that the coming in here mentioned, necessarily means what most religious persons understand by conversion, a thorough change of the whole heart and the whole life; the acknowledgment of the Divine mission of our Lord, and a cordial embracing of the Christian religion, will sufficiently fulfil the apostle's words. If we wait for the conversion of the Jews, till such a time as every Gentile and Mohammedan soul shall be, in this especial sense, converted to God, then-we shall wait for ever.

Verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved] Shall be brought into the way of salvation, by acknowledging the Messiah; for the word certainly does not mean eternal glory for, no man can conceive that a time will ever come Blindness in part is happened to Israel] Partial blind-in which every Jew, then living, shall be taken to the kingness, or blindness to a part of them; for they were not all || dom of glory. The term saved, as applied to the Israelites unbelievers several thousands of them had been converted in different parts of the Scripture, signifies no more than to the Christian faith; though the body of the nation, and their being gathered out of the nations of the world; separespecially its rulers, civil and spiritual, continued opposed to ated to God, and possessed of the high privilege of being his Christ and his doctrine. peculiar people. And we know that this is the meaning of the term, by finding it applied to the body of the Israelites, when this aloue was the sum of their state. See the Preface, pag. viii. &c.

Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.] And this blindness will continue till the church of the Gentiles be fully completed; till the gospel be preached through all the nations of the earth, and multitudes of heathens every

As it is written] The apostle supports what he advances

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27 For, this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.)

of salvation to the Jews.

29 For, the gifts and calling of God A. M. cir.40 are without repentance.

A. D. cir. 58. An. Olymp. cir. CCIX.9.

30 For, as ye in times past A.U.C.cir.si.

e

have not believed God, yet have now ob

28 As concerning the gospel, they are ene-tained mercy through their unbelief :
mies for your sakes but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the fathers'

sakes.

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Isai. 27. 9. Jer. 31. 31, &c. Hebr. 8. 8. & 10. 16. Deut. 7. 8. & 9. 5. & 10. 15.

31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

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on this head, by a quotation from Scripture, which, in the main, is taken from Isai. lix. 20. The Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Now this cannot be understood of the manifestation of Christ among the Jews; or of the multitudes which were converted before, at, and for some time after, the day of Pentecost; for these times were all past when the apostle wrote this Epistle, which was probably about the 57th or 58th year of our Lord and, as no remarkable conversion of that people has since taken place, therefore, the fulfilment of this prophecy is yet to take place. In what manner Christ is to come out of Zion; and in what way, or by what means he is to turn away transgression from Jacob, we cannot tell; and to attempt to conjecture, when the time, occasion, means, &c. are all in mystery, would be more than reprehensible.

Verse 27. For, this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.] The Reader, on referring to Isai. chap. lix. 20, 21. will find that the words of the original are here greatly abridged. They are the following:

And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

For the manner in which St. Paul makes his quotations from Scripture, see the observations at the end of the preceding chapter. The whole of these two verses should be read in a parenthesis, as I have marked them in the text; for it is evident that the 25th verse should be immediately connected with the 28th.

21. Amos ix. 9. to the end: OBAD. ver. 17, 21. MICAH iv. 3-7. vii. 18, 19, 20. ZEPH. iii. 19, 20.

Verse 28. As concerning the gospel] The unbelieving Jews, with regard to the gospel, which they have rejected, are at present enemies to God, and aliens from his kingdom, under his Son Jesus Christ, on account of that extensive grace which has overturned their peculiarity, by admitting the Gentiles into his church and family: but with regard to the original purpose of election, whereby they were chosen and separated from all the people of the earth, to be the peculiar people of God, they are beloved for the fathers' sake; he has still favour in store for them, on account of their fore-fathers, the Patriarchs.

Verse 29. For, the gifts and calling of God, &c.] The gifts which God has bestowed upon them; and the calling, the invitation with which he has favoured them, he will never revoke. In reference to this point, there is no change of mind in him; and, therefore, the possibility and certainty of their restoration to their original privileges of being the peo ple of God, of enjoying every spiritual blessing with the fulness of the Gentiles, may be both reasonably and safely inferred.

Repentance, when applied to God, signifies simply change of purpose relative to some declaration made subject to cer tain conditions. See this fully explained and illustrated by himself, Jer. xviii. 7, 8, 9.

Verse 30. For, as ye in times past] The apostle pursues his argument in favour of the restoration of the Jews. As ye Gentiles, in times past, for many ages back;

Have not believed] Were in a state of alienation from God; yet, not so as to be totally and for ever excluded: Have now obtained mercy] For ye are now taken into It may not be amiss to subjoin here a collection of those the kingdom of the Messiah; through their unbelief, by that texts in the Old Testament, that seem to point out a restor-method which, in destroying the Jewish peculiarity, and fulation of the Jewish commonwealth, to a higher degree of filling the Abrahamic covenant, has occasioned the unbelief excellence than it has yet attained.-ISA1. ii. 2-5. xix. 24, and obstinate opposition of the Jews. 25. xxv. 6, &c. xxx. 18, 19, 26. Ix. throughout : to the end: JEREM. XXXI. 10, 11, 12. xlvi. 27, 28. EZEK. xx. 34, 40, &c. xxviii. 25, 26. xxxiv. 20, &c. xxxvi. 8— 16. xxxvii. 21-28. xxxix. 25, &c. JOEL iii. 1, 2, 17, 20,

lxv. 17.

Verse 31. Even so have these also] In like manner the Jews are, through their infidelity, shut out of the kingdom of God:

That through your mercy] But this exclusion will not

God hath concluded all

A. M.cir.4062.

CHAP. XI. in unbelief, both Jews and Gentiles.

A. M. cir.4062.

32 For God hath concluded them able are his judgments, and his ways A. D. cir. 56.

34 For who hath hath known

An. Olymp all in unbelief, that he might have past finding out!

A. D. cir. 58. cir. CCIX. 2. A.U.C.cir.811.

mercy upon all.

An. Olymp. cir. CCIX. 2. the A.U.C.cir.811.

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wis-mind of the Lord? or who hath been his dom and knowledge of God! how unsearch-counsellor?

Ch. 3. 9. Gal. 3. 22.

b Or, shut them all up together. Ps. 36. 6. Job 15. 8. Isai. 40. 13. Jer. 23. 19. Wisd. 9. 13. 1 Cor. 2. 16.-
d Job 11. 7. Ps. 92. 5.
f Job 36. 22.

be everlasting, but this will serve to open a new scene, when, through farther displays of mercy to you Gentiles, they also may obtain mercy; shall be received into the kingdom of God again; and this shall take place whenever they shall consent to acknowledge the Lord Jesus, and see it their privilege to be fellow-heirs with the Gentiles, of the grace of life.

As sure, therefore, as the Jews were once in the kingdom, and the Gentiles were not; as sure as the Gentiles are now in the kingdom, and the Jews are not; so surely will the Jews be brought back into that kingdom.

Verse 32.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief] LovExλEIσe yapo ɛos, God hath shut or locked them all up under unbelief. This refers to the guilty state of both Jews and Gentiles. They had all broken God's law; the Jews, the written law; the Gentiles, the law written in their hearts; see chap. i. 19, 20. and ii. 14, 15. They are represented here as having been accused of their transgressions; tried at God's bar; found guilty on being tried; condemned to the death they had merited; remanded to prison, till the sovereign will, relative to their execution, should be announced; shut, or locked up, under the jailor Unbelief: and there, both continued in the same state, awaiting the execution of their sentence; but God, in his own compassion, moved by no merit in either party, caused a general pardon by the gospel, to be proclaimed to all. The Jews have refused to receive this pardon, on the terms which God has proposed it; and therefore continue locked up under unbelief. The Gentiles have welcomed the offers of grace, and are delivered out of their prison. But, as the offers of mercy continue to be made to all, indiscriminately, the time will come, when the Jews, seeing the vast accession of the Gentile world to the kingdom of the Messiah, and the glorious privileges which they in consequence enjoy, shall also lay hold on the hope set before them, and thus become with the Gentiles, one flock under one Shepherd and Bishop of all their souls. The same figure is used Gal. iii. 22, 23. But the Scripture hath concluded σvvenλedev, locked up all under sin, that the promise, by faith of Christ Jesus, might be given || to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept, εppoupouμɛba, we were guarded as in a strong hold, under the law; shut up, σvyxexheiσμevoi locked up together unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. It is a fine and well chosen metaphor in both places; and forcibly ex

'presses the guilty, helpless, wretched state of both Jews and Gentiles.

Verse 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!] This is a very proper conclusion of the whole preceding discourse. Wisdom may here refer to the designs of God; knowledge, to the means which he employs to accomplish these designs. The designs are the offspring of infinite wisdom, and therefore they are all right: the means are the most proper, as being the choice of an infinite knowledge that cannot err: we may safely credit the goodness of the design, founded in infinite wisdom: we may rely on the due accomplishment of the end, because the means are chosen and applied by infinite knowledge and skill.

Verse 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord?] Who can pretend to penetrate the counsels of God; or fathom the reasons of his conduct? His designs and his counsels are like himself, infinite; and, consequently, inscrutable. It is strange that, with such a Scripture as this before their eyes, men should sit down, and coolly and positively write about counsels and decrees of God, formed from all eternity, of which they speak with as much confidence and decision as if they had formed a part of the council of the Most High; and had been with him in the beginning of his ways! A certain writer, after having entered into all these counsels, and drawn out his black lined scheme of absolute and eternal reprobation, with all its causes and effects; and then his light-lined scheme of absolute and eternal ELECTION, with all its causes and effects; all deduced in the most regular and graduated order, link by link, concludes with ver. 33, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How UNSEARCHABLE are his judgments, and his ways PAST FINDING OUT! But this writer forgot that he had searched out God's judgments in the one case, and found out his ways in the other; and that he had given, as a proof of the success of his researches, a complete exhibition of the whole scheme! This conduct is worthy of more than mere reprehension: and yet he who differs from such opinions, gives, in the apprehension of some, this proof of his being included in some of the links of the black list! We may rest with the conviction, that God is as merciful and good in all his ways, as He is wise and just. But, as we cannot comprehend him, neither can

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