First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." xi. 11, "" I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid : but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them (the Jews) to jealousy." From hence, we learn, not only that extending the blessings of the gospel to the Gentiles, would, in the first place, excite the anger, and jealousy, and enmity of the Jews; but, also, that eventually the Jews being recovered from their stupidity and carelessness about the things of God, and perceiving the Gentiles to be in possession of the riches of the Messiah, would be moved to a holy emulation, that they might not be surpassed in the service of Jehovah by any people.

To this agree the words of our Lord: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" by which it is clearly implied, that when the times. of the Gentiles are fulfilled, Jerusalem shall not be trodden down any longer. And it is equally clear, that until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, all attempts to raise up Jerusalem as a nation must fail. We say, as a nation, because individuals may be raised up,

and Christians may be, as they have been, the favoured instruments of doing what the apostle to the Gentiles laboured and prayed for, that is, of saving some.

" all

Thus, as during the times of the Jews, were not Israel who were of Israel :" the whole nation being called, but only a remnant really chosen and saved; so now, during the times of the Gentiles, all are not Christian who are of Christendom: all are called, but only a few are chosen and saved. The way of life is narrow. And in hope of a universal salvation, we are waiting for the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who will bruise the serpent's head, restore the Jews, and cause the whole Gentile world to flow together to the glory of the Lord, as manifested in the church of Israel. This harmonizes the scriptures, and provides for the rich abounding mercy of Jehovah to the world in due time, without attempting to mar the symmetry of the gospel, by arguing for the salvability of the heathen nations during this dispensation. God concluded the Jews in unbelief saving a remnant. He will conclude Christendom in unbelief saving a remnant. And when he hath concluded all in unbelief, and secured to himself for ever the acknowledgment of

every creature, that salvation is of grace, then he will have mercy upon all! "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."-Rom. xi. passim.

These then, we conceive, are the designs of the present dispensation-1. To take a people out of the Gentiles. 2. To provoke the Jews to jealousy-so making way for the restoration and conversion of the Jewish nation, and the happiness of the whole heathen world.

II. With respect to the termination of the times of the Gentiles, it may be considered either as to its nature, or as to its date.

The nature of it will be to all Christendom, what every day of it is to some individuals in Christendom, that is, a separation, everlasting salvation to some, the damnation of hell to others. Of this most important and alarming statement, we have, what appears to me, direct and satisfactory proof in the ancient prophecies, in the parables of our Lord, and in the apostolical epistles.

In the ancient prophecies.-The chief enemies of the Jewish nation, during the times of the Jews, were Edom and Babylon. Edom, who

shook off the yoke of Jacob according to the prophecy of Isaac, and Babylon, who held Judah in a seventy years captivity. It is the general opinion of the Christian church, that the Jewish nation was a type of the true spiritual church of Christ, whence the application so constantly made of the Old Testament promises, to what is called the spiritual Israel of God. Upon the same principle, we maintain, that the enemies of the Jewish nation were types of the enemies of the church of Christ, and make a similar application of the Old Testament denunciations of wrath against what we call the spiritual or mystical Babylon, or Edom, or Moab. The circumstances of the times in which the prophets lived, supplied a language, in the use of which, as applicable to those times and circumstances, the Holy Ghost overruled the mouths of the prophets to speak of greater things than those. Thus, in the opening of the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah, the language is swelled far beyond the description of any literal victory which the Jews ever gained, under of their leaders, over Edom or Babylon.

any

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this, that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?--I, that speak in righteousness,

mighty to save.

Wherefore art thou red in

thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?—I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me: for, I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment; for the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." This passage is usually applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, at his first coming to make an atonement for sin; but will the language bear such an application? At that time, our Lord shed his own blood only; here he is described as stained with the blood of his enemies. At that time, he manifested his loving kindness and tender mercy towards his enemies, making intercession for them even in the agonies of death. Here, he is described as treading them down in his anger, and trampling them in his fury. At that time, peace, and love, and free forgiveness, were in his heart towards the vilest of sinners, evidenced in his reception of the expiring thief; here he is described as having the day of vengeance in his heart. When, therefore, it is maintained that for their blood we should read his blood, that for anger and fury, we should read loving-kind