are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flefk Chrift came, who is over all, God bleffed forevermore. Amen."

In these verses we have St. Paul's ardent wishes for the welfare of his countrymen, the Ifraelites.

6. "Not as though the word of God had taken none effect. For they are not all Ifrael, which are of Ifrael."-Not that the Gospel hath been rejected by the whole nation. For there is a real difference among the natural defcendants of Ifrael, and fome are of a better difpofition than others."

7. "Neither because they are the feed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Ifaac fhall thy feed be called."-Nor, because they are the natural offspring of Abraham, can'we infer that they inherit his difpofition. For, as in the ancient transaction of God with Abraham, God told him that, though he were concerned for Ifhamael, in Ifaac fhould be his peculiar feed, and in his line, his feed, by eminence, the Meffiah fhould arife.

8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the feed."-To explain myfelf clearly; the child which Abraham had by Hagar was not to be confidered as a child of the covenant; but he who was born to Abraham, in confequence of the fpecial promife of God, was to be accounted as the covenant feed.

9. "For this is the word of promife, at this time, will I come, and Sara fhall have a fon."

For

For the promise was this, at this time will I come and thy wife Sara fhall have a fon.

10-14. "And not only this; but when Res becca alfo had conceived by one, even by our fath. er Ifaac, (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might ftand, not of works, but of him that calleth.) It was faid unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Efau have I hated."

And not only was God pleafed to prefer Isaac to Ishmael, to be the covenant feed of Abraham; but, when Rebecca came to have twin fons, God was pleafed again to continue the line of the covenant feed in Jacob rather than in Efau; and he fignified this to Rebecca, before the children were born, or either of them had any merit or demerit, on account of any thing they had done; that God might appear to act as a fovereign, and not from partial affection, when he said, I have prefered Jacob to Efau, to be the covenant feed of Abraham: and the Edomites fhall be in fervitude to the Ifraelites.

15. What fhall we say then? is there unright. çoufness with God? God forbid."

What fhall we fay of this conduct of God? fhall we call it unrighteous ? Far be it. God had an undoubted right to establish his covenant with Ifaac rather than with Ifhmael; and afterwards, with Jacob rather than Efau. Neither of them had a

natural

natural right to claim covenant and ecclefiaftic priv

ileges.

15. 16. "For he faith to Mofes, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and will have compassion on whom I will have companion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth; but of God that showeth mercy."

As God faid to Mofes, that he would choose his own objects of mercy and compaffion; fo it is not with man always, by his own will and exertions, to command the bounties of fortune or grace.

17, 18. "For the scripture faith to Pharaoh, even for this fame purpose have I raised thee up, that I might fhew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy; and whom he will he hardeneth."

As it was faid to Pharaoh, for this end have I fuftained and fupported you in life, though you have deferved death; to make you an inftrument of displaying my glorious name and power over all the earth and thus fhow to the world, that I will be a fovereign in difpenfing or withholding mercy.

:

19, 20, 21, 22. "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? who hath refifted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that replieft against God? Shall the thing formed fay to him that formed it, Why haft thou made me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the fame Jump to make one veffel unto honor, and another

unto

unto difhonor? What if God, willing to fhow his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long fuffering the veffels of wrath fitted to deftruction ?"

You will, perhaps, afk, Why does God find fault? who ever did refift his power? Nay, but confider, that, as the potter hath an undoubted right to make a vessel to honor, of a part of a lump of clay, and of the other part, a velel to dishonor, if he pleases; fo God, if he is willing to delay the deftruction of fuch as have long deferved it, as in the cafe of Pharaoh; that he may difplay his character, to advantage, before the univerfe; hath as undoubted a right to do it.

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

That God, on the other hand, may make known the riches, of his goodness, to thofe whom he had chosen to be the objects of his mercy.

24, 25, 26. "Even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As hẹ faith also in Ofee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it fhall come to pass, that in the place where it was faid unto them, Ye are not my people; there fhall they be called the children of the living God."

To proceed to a full explanation of what I have meant by God's fovereign mercy and compassion, and

his right to harden whom he will; I mean that he hath shown mercy and compaffion to us, both of the Jewish nation, and of the Gentile world, to whom he hath fent the Gofpel, and whom he hath adopted and called into covenant and church-eftate: according to former predictions of the prophet Hofea, concerning the call of the Gentile world by the gofpel. God hath made up the present chriftian church, in part of Jews, and in part of Gentiles; and this is his fovereign mercy to them: Whilft he hath permitted the unbelieving among the Jews and Gentiles, to fuffer a temporary exclufion from his church and people.

27, 28, 29. "Efaias alfo crieth concerning Ifrael, Though the number of the children of Ifrael be as the fand of the fea, a remnant fhall be faved: For he will finish the work, and cut fhort in rightcoufnefs; because a fhort work will the Lord make upon the earth. And, as Efaias faid before, Except the Lord of fabaoth had left us a feed, we had been as Sodoma, and had been like unto Gomor rah."

Efaias, also, looking forward to Chriftian days, and foreseeing the infidelity of the Jews, cried out, that, of a numerous nation, a few comparatively fhould embrace the gofpel falvation; and that, if God had not been very merciful to Ifrael, in former ages, as well as in the day's of the Gofpel, the pation of the Jews would have been reduced to deAtruction, like Sodom and Gomorrah.

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