and will take no warning, but wilfully follow the devices of their own heart: Be hold the feverity of God towards them that fell; that is, fuch as wilfully departed from God, and fell away from their conftancy and profeffion. V. It is the duty of Chriftians to be looking to the difpenfations of God even towards others, and reading his mind upon his fharp and fore judgments upon other neighbours about them: Behold the feve rity of God. VI. A ferious and confcientious confidering of God's executing juftice and judg ment upon finners about us, will prove a notable mean to keep us humble, and to caufe us pafs the time of our fojourning here in fear; for this is the argument to keep them from being high-minded, and make them to fear: Behold the Jeverity of God on them that fell. VII. Tho' God be executing judgment, according to strict juftice, upon obftinate rebels; yet all that will not fo fhut out his goodness, but fuch as he hath a mind to manifeft his goodness unto, fhall, notwith ftanding thereof, taste of the fame: But towards the goodness. them from others, walk not worthy of them, nor do thofe duties which are called for at their hands; then will God be provoked to dry up the fprings of his goodnefs, and draw back his hand; If thou continue in his goodnefs: otherways thou alfo halt be cut off. XI. Serious thoughts of the hazard which we are in of lofing our privileges, will make us keep a low fail, and walk humbly under our enjoyments; for this is another motive; Other ways thou also salt be cut off. VERSE 23. And they also, if they bide not fill in unbelief, fhall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 'HE apoftle having thus preffed humi lity upon the believing Gentiles, he returns to speak of the conversion of the Jews; and in this verfe he layeth down a fourth argument proving the fame, which he further explaineth in the next verfe. The argument is taken from God's power; God is able to graff them in again: for as improbable and unlikely like a thing it feemeth to be, to say that the Jews, who have been long cut off, fhall ever be taken in again; yet there is nothing too hard for God, all things are poffible with him; and becaufe this would feem a loose argument to fay, God is able to do it, therefore it fhall be; because God is able to do many things, which he will never do; therefore the apoftle fets down the fum and fubftance of the covenant, as the basis of this argument; and fo it is true the argument a poffe IX. As we fhould always remember that ad effe, or from God's power and abilility, we are but tenants at will, and have not to prove that a thing fhall be, is not strongan abfolute and e'ernal tack of his good-ly conclufive; but where his faithfulness is nefs; fo the thots of this fhould VIII. God's goodnefs towards us, in the time when his anger and difpleasure is broken forth upon others, fhould lay ftrong bonds on us to walk humbly before God; for this is the argument by which he preffeth these to humility, Behold the goodness f God to thee: As his goodnefs fhould then be most remarkable, fo fhould the fenfe of it have the deeper impreffion up On us. ep thou us humble and mindful of our duty; tre- X. When a people whom God hat ho noured greatly with privileges, and made partakers thereof when he hath removed engaged, and his promise or covenant layeth the ground, then fuch an argument as this may be well built upon it. Therefore he fays; And they alfo, if they bide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in again; that is, If once they fhall repent, and return from their faithleffnefs and unbelief, then 3 M 2 they III. When God has once begun to fmite a people, and denude them of their pri vileges and enjoyments which they have once been favoured with, for their contempt thereof, and their unworthy walking thereunto; fo long as they continue in their fins, and are not turning home by repentance, they have no ground to expect that God fhall caft the whip out of his hand, and return to them with his wonted mercies and loving-kindi. shes; for when he fays, if they abide not still in unbelief, they shall be graffed in, he fuppofeth, that if, or as long as they, abide in unbelief, they fhall not be graffed in. they fhall be graffed in again, It was becaufe of their unbelief, they were cut off, and when this fin of theirs fhall be at an end, then fhall they be graffed in; for this is the nature of the covenant, that they fhall be owned as his people, fo long as they walk as his people; and when they repent, he will remember their iniquities no more; and this ground being laid down, then God's almighty power comes fitly in to loofe all knots. Neither doth this if, or fuppofition, make the matter uncertain, but hereby the Lord's way of doing good to his people is held forth: This is his method of doing good to his people, first they must repent and turn from their wickednefs, which they cannot do without his grace, and then followeth his mercy and goodness. OBSERVATIONS. I. Tho' people, when God is entering into judgment with them, be ready to take up hard and unfuitable thoughts of him, and of his procedure, and to account him too rigorous and fevere upon them; yet if they would fearch their own ways more narrowly, they would find juft caufe why God should deal fo with them: therefore to clear the ground of God's feverity which he used towards the Jews, he fets their unbelief here, as the caufe of it, faying, And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, &c. II. When a people have once turned their back on God, and are runing down the hill, by apoftacy and defection, it is not an eafy matter to recover them foon again; but fo fatisfied are they with their ways, and fuch delight take they to follow the imaginations of their own vain hearts, that it is no eafy matter to get them reclaimed, nor is it ordinary to fee them repent and return for a long time: for the Jews here turned their backs on God thro' unbelief, and have continued in that condition many ages; and this the apoftle fuppofeth, when he fays, If they abide not still in unbelief, &c. IV. How long foever a people that are in covenant with God, fhall be lying under the fore rod of an angry God, and how improbable foever it feem, that that people fhall again be reftored to their wonted dignity and privileges; yet when that people fhall return to the Most High by unfeigned repentance, and avouch their owning of him as theirs, he both can and will manifeft himfelf unto them, as in the days of old, and honour them as before: for the Jews, for as long as they have been drinking of the cup of God's anger, fhall be graffed in, when ever they fhall leave off their courfe of unbelief, and look to him whom they have pierced, by a true faith: And they alfo, if they bide not still in unbelief, fhall be graffed in again. V. God's purpofes and decrees, tho' they be abfolute in themfelves, yet fhould they not loofe our hands from diligence in feting about the means whereby God, in his ordinary way of difpenfation, brings about the execution of thefe decrees of his, but rather fhould ftir us up to fervency and diligence: for tho' the apostle be here proving, that God hath indeed a purpofe to graff the Jews in again, yet the means to that end are comprehended in that fame purpofe; and therefore he fays here, they all be graffed in, if they bide not still in unbelief: Not as if this if made the matter pendulous and uncertain, but as holding holding forth the ordinary means and way how the decree will be executed, viz. by their believing, and this to fir up the Jews to repent and return, and others to deal with God for that fpirit to them; therefore is it fet down as a condition, not of the purpofe, but of the execution of the purpofe. VI. It is beyond the reach of man's power to bring a people who are ftrangers to God into a church-ftate, and into fubjection unto Chrift, man's nature being fo averfe therefrom; and it is only the power of Jehovah that can effectuate this; it is a work that will even call for the arm of the Almighty God is able to graff them in: The churching of the Jews again will be a work of God's right-hand, and no lefs will take off the prejudices of the Jews, and bring them to a fubmiflion to Christ. VII. Men are very ready to meafure God's power by their own apprehensions, and to think, that what looks improbable unto their fhallow capacity and reafon, is beyond the reach of the right-hand of Omnipotency thefe Romans, and other Gentiles, thought it fo improbable and unlikely, that a nation fo univerfally caft off, and fo juftly, fhould ever be brought home, and therefore were ready to think it beyond God's power too; and for this caufe the apoftle fets down this ground, that God is able to graff them in. VIII. Thoughts of God's infinite power will be comfortable and refreshing unto a people who are upon the repenting hand, and turning home to God; and faith then acting on God's almighty power, will bear up a peoples head, and make them fee beyond mountains of difficulties and improbabilities; when the Jews are repenting and falling off their unbelief, then may they gather comfort and confolation from this, that God is able to graff them in. VERSE 24. For if thou wert cut out of the olive-tree, which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these. which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive-tree? T God's power, is here further exHE former argument, taken from plained. The Jews had fuch a prejudice at the gofpel, that it feemed very impro- bable that ever they fhould be brought to welcome it; and fo it feemed very unlikely th that ever they fhould be enchurched, being now, because of their unbelief, unchurched; but here the apoftle cleareth how eafily it will be got done, by fhew-ing how eafily he did that which feemed more improbable, viz. he ingraffed the Gentiles, who were aliens to the commonwealth of Ifrael, and ftrangers to the covenant with promife; they were growing in a wild ftock, a ftock never cultured nor graffed by God's fpecial care; the flock on which they grew was not taken within the hedge by a covenant, and yet God took the branches of thefe wild flocks, and graffed them into Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, which was against nature; and fince God did that, much more may, he make that nation, which once was growing on this good stock, and are ftill natural branches of Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, the root, tho' now withered, take life again, and draw fap from that old fappy root, › and fo grow up in this covenant. OBSERVATIONS. I. All mankind now, fince the fall, be-ing naturally enemies to God, and out of his favour and friendship, are in a most wild and forlorn condition, till he take them within the compafs of a covenant; for the Gentiles, before God took them in, and the Jews alfo, before he covenanted with them, were an olive which was wild by nature. II. Howbeit many who are led with fenfe and carnal reafon, think the condition of that people best who abound most with worldly wealth, tho' they be ftran- | accomplishing of that, fhould fully afcergers to God; yet the condition of fuch a tain us of his performing that which feems people who are externally in covenant lefs difficult therefore fays he, How much with God, had they little in a world to more, &c. boaft of, is far better, having God and his ordinances among their hands, and the way to life eternal laid open; fuch are called a good olive: Unfpeakable is the advantage that redounds to a people by a covenant, and by being his profeffed fubjects. III. Tho' God has, in his deep wildom and unspeakable love and free grace, ap pointed an ordinary way how this covenantrelation fhall pafs, viz. from father to fon; yet he has not bound up his own hands from working befide, or contrary unto, this ordinary or natural way, fo as he may not, for the glory of his majefty and matchlefs free grace, take a people into covenant who are not lineally defcended from fuch as were in covenant before; for he took the Gentiles, who were cut out of the olivetree which is wild by nature, and graffed them, contrary to nature, into a good olive tree. IV. Serious and thorough confideration of the former paffages of God's provi dence, would strengthen our faith in aftertimes, when we fee his work meet with new difficulties, and impediments laid in the way afreth; for to perfuade the Gentiles that it was eafy with God to bring home the Jews, he reminds them of his wonderful work in bringing in the Gentiles; and whoever doth rightly ponder and confider the wonderful work of God, in ferv ing the Gentiles heirs to Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, will not think it impoffible for him to restore the off-broken Jews again If thou wert cut off, &c. fays he, how much more ball the natural branches be graffed into their own olive-tree. V. Altho', in refpect of God's almighty power, there be not fome things more eafy, and fome things lefs eafy and more difficult; yet to us there are fome things which appear more improbable, and God's VI. The relation which the off-caft Jews have yet unto Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and the covenant made with them, may anfwer any difficulty which appeareth to us in their future converfion and reftoration; for they are called yet natural branches, and the olive is called their own clive. VERSE 25. For I would not, brethren, that ye fhould be ignorant of this mystery (left ye fhould be wife in your own conceits) that blindness in part is happened to Ifrael, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. THE HE apofile, in the following verfes unto verse 33. being to prove further the converfion and restoration of the Jewish nation, he cleareth the thefts a little further; and therefore in this verle he affirmeth, 1. That this blindness which is judicially befallen the nation of the Jews, the true pofterity of Jacob or Ifrael, is not to be perpetual; as it did not fall upon all and every one of that nation, fo neither is it to ftay on continually; it is but to abide for a time; Blindness in part is happened to Ifrael. 2. He prefixeth a time to it, until the Gentiles be come in; that is, until the church of Chrift fhall take in the body of the Gentiles; or, until the gospel have gone thro' the Gentile nations, and there fhall be a greater flocking of the Gentile nations unto the kingdom of Chrift, and embrace the gofpel of Chrift, and fo have come in to the church, then fhall their hardnefs or blindnefs have an end. 3. He telleth that this bufinefs was a mytery, a matter which they fhould not quarrel at, tho' they could not well fee through it; 4. and fuch a mystery as they would do well to be thoroughly feen in; I svoull not have you ignorant of this mystery: And, withal, 5. he bears in a check for their proud and haughty conceit they had of themfelves, and of their own knowledge; as if he had faid, You think you know all things pretty well, and you are puffed up with a conceit of your own knowledge, but I would have you convinced of your ignorance in this particular, for it is a mystery. And, 6. he gives them a kind ly compellation of brethren, the more to gin upon their affections, and to make them willing to take with their ignorance in this particular, and to acquaint them felves more with the truth of it. OBSERVATIONS. I. Reproofs will not work kindly where there is any prejudice conceived against the reprover; but they work beft where the reproved is convinced of the real love and affection of the reprover, and that his check and reproof flows from love, and a holy earnest defice to have them favingly inftructed: therefore that the check which he afterward gives them for their pride, might work the more kindly, he ufeth this warm compellation of brethren firft; Brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Il. As knowledge is a moft defirable thing in itself, being a piece of the loft image of God; fo any part of this which man attaineth unto, when it is not fanctified, is ready to puff up poor fouls with a vain and froathy conceit of their worth and parts, 1 Cor. viii. 1.: Left ye should be wife in your own conceits. III. The ferious confideration of the depths and myfterioufnefs of points of truth, as being beyond the reach of human reafon, fhould lay the vain conceits, and proud fpeeches of haughty men, and convince them fo of their blindnefs and Ignorance, as fhould keep them humble and low in their own eyes; he would have them confidering how this matter was a mystery, that thereby they might be keeped from becoming wife in their own conteits; I would not have you ignorant of this mystery, left ye fhould be wife in your own conceits. IV. Tho' there be fome points of truth neceflary unto falvation, which are fet down in plain terms, fo as every body may reach them, in fome meafure; yet there are other truths wraped up in obfcurity, fo as every ordinary capacity cannot reach them, and will be an exercife unto fuch as think themfelves mot able to dig into that mine; there are fome truths called mysteries, as being hid: I would not have you ignorant of this mytery. See Mark iv. 11. 1 Cor. xv. 51. Eph. i. 9. and iii. .3. 1 Tim. iii. 9. 16. II. V. Tho' there be fome truths of a fe cret and deep nature, tranfcending natural capacity, and more darkly revealed and unfolded than others in the word; yet the Lord alloweth all to acquaint themfelves with thefe mysteries, fo far as God hath given ground in his word: tho' none fhould curiously dive into the matter further than they have a warrant, and a threed of God's word to guide them out and in; yet it is both fafe and commendable to be fearching even the depths, fo far as we have warrant: Brethren, I would not have you ignorant of this mystery. VI. The way of God's difpenfations: with his old people of the Jews, fince they got that fatal ftroke, and his way of taking them home again, now after they have been fo long caft out, and the time when, and the mean how, God will fhew wonders to thefe dead people, and make these dry bones to live, is a mystery that carnal reafon cannot reach nor fathom: It is called a mystery. VII. Tho' God be loth to strike or give up a people who are in covenant with him, yet were a people never fo honoured of God with privileges and fpecial favours, and had never fuch relation to fuch as are high in favour with God, when that people grow defperately wicked, and refufe all means of peace, God will draw out his rod, and whip them with fore and dreadful |