Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

understand it, there is no ambiguity, or difficulty in our Lord's explicit declaration, that the Jews shall be scattered through all nations, and that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. Since this prediction was delivered, the Jews have been led away captive by the Romans, and to this present hour continue dispersed over the face of the whole earth. Jerusalem has never ceased to be trodden down of the Gentiles; being successively occupied by the Romans, the Persians, the Saracens, the Turks of the Selzuccian race, the Egyptian caliphs, the Latin Christians, the Egyptian caliphs a second time, the Mamalucs, and the Turks of the Ottoman race. last are its present masters; and ere the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, it is destined likewise to be trodden down by Antichrist. But, when those times are fulfilled, then it will cease to be trodden down; and, after all the political changes which it has witnessed, will once more revert to its ancient possessors, the children of Judah. Thus are the Jews themselves, through the whole period both of their dispersion and restoration, a standing evidence of the divine mission of him, whom they refuse to acknowledge as the promised Messiah.

These

PROPHECY XLII.

The restoring of the kingdom to Israel.

Acts i. 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

COMMENTARY.

This is another oblique prediction of the restoration of Israel. Our Lord does not answer the question of his disciples, by telling them that they were completely mistaken in their belief that the kingdom would be restored

to Israel, but only by informing them that it was not for them to know the times or the seasons; thus tacitly allowing that such a restoration would, sooner or later, assuredly take place *.

We are at present in just the same state of uncertainty that they were, respecting the precise era of this great event. For, although we know in general, as they likewise might have known, that Judah will begin to be restored at the end of the 1260 years; yet, in particular, we cannot be positive respecting the true date of those 1260 years; we can merely pitch upon such a one as appears to us most probable; the event alone can bring certainty, to men, for the Father hath put in his own power the times and the seasons. To myself the year 606 appears the proper date: but, after all, it is very possible that I may be quite mistaken, as Mr. Mede and other of my predecessors have been before me.

PROPHECY XLIII.

The present rejection and final conversion of the Jews, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come.

Romans x 1. I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew—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 to jealousy. 12. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world,

* They seem to have expected, that, when the Spirit was in "so extraordinary a manner poured out, and the world according to Christ's prediction (John xvi. 8.) convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, the whole nation of the Jews would own him for the Messiah, and so not only shake off its subjection to the Romans, but itself rise to very extensive and perhaps universal dominion. The word aroxabisaves intimates the shattered and weakened state, in which Israel now was. And I cannot but think our Lord's answer may intimate, it should at length be restored, though not immediately, or with all the circumstances they imagined; which concession seems the most satisfactory answer to Rabbi Isaac's objection against Christianity, from his mistaken sense of these words." Dr. Doddridge's Comment. in loc.

and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? 13. For I speak to you, Gentiles; inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: 14. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flock, and might save some of them. 15. For, if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 16. For, if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy and, if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17. And, if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive-tree wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree; 18. Boast not against the branches. But, if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. 20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. 21. For, if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 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.

25. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; That blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 25. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28. As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but, as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. 29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 30. For, as ye in times past have

not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; 31. even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

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!

COMMENTARY.

The whole mystery of the call of the Gentiles, the rejection of the unbelieving and Jews, and the final conversion of their posterity in the last ages, is here very fully and explicitly set forth. The Jews were rejected of God, because they rejected and crucified the Messiah. But, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, or, as our Lord expresses it, when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled; that is to say, when the times of the four great monarchies of the Gentiles shall have expired, and when the three times and a half shall have come to their close: then shall the natural branches, now no longer abiding in unbelief, be graffed into the good olivetree of the Church.

The events of the day shew, that the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles cannot be very remote; for the last times of atheism and infidelity, so minutely described and predicted by the apostolical prophets *, have indisputably commenced: but the times of the Gentiles are not yet altogether fulfilled, their fulness is not yet perfectly come in; because we still behold Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles. Nevertheless, when the appointed three times and a half shall have expired, the Lord will assuredly begin a wonderful work in the earth. He will go forth in his wrath, and cut off those ingraffed branches that have not continued in his goodness: and at length, after the destruction of Antichrist is completed, all Israel, in both his great divisions, shall be converted and saved. Glorious will be the inauguration of the Millennian Church! If the fall of the Jews have been hitherto the

See my Dissert. on the 1260 years. Chap. 3.

riches of the world; and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles: how much more their fulness! In the hand of God, they shall be a most powerful instrument of spreading the Gospel through all nations. The harvest of the first advent shall not be comparable to the harvest of the second advent. For the name of Christ shall be known from the east to the west; and his praises shall be heard in the utmost parts of the earth. Israel shall be made the seed of the Church; and thus, from first to last, will prove the true Jezrael of God*.

I think it right to observe, that Mr. Mede, Dr. Whitby, and Dr. Doddridge, have given an interpretation of the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles, different from that which I have done. By this phrase they understand the great conversion of the Gentiles to Christianity at the time of the second advent: but, in adopting such an interpretation, they do not seem to have sufficiently considered the order of events. We learn from St. Paul, that what he terms the fulness of the Gentiles is to come in previous to the general conversion and restoration of Israel: whereas the second great harvest of the Church, or the universal conversion of the Gentiles to the faith, is to be posterior to it, and in a great measure the consequence of it. Antichrist is first to be overthrown, and the whole house of Israel to be brought back both to their own land and the fold of the Church: then, and not till then, the general conversion of the Gentiles is to take place. In short, how can the Jews be made instruments of converting others, how can they become the seed of the Millennian Church, unless they themselves be first converted? But the fulness of the Gentiles comes in before the conversion of the house of Israel: therefore it cannot denote the conversion of the Gentiles, which will not be accomplished till afterwards, and that by the instrumentality of the now converted Israelites, as we are repeatedly taught in various prophecies. It is somewhat remarkable, that Dr. Doddridge does not seem to be

Hosea i. 11. ii. 22, 23.

"Blindness in part hath happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Whence it is plain, that the fulness of the Gentiles must first come in; and afterwards the blindness of Israel be removed.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »