to His charge, and say, "Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted His will?"

First they relate to a national question, not to the salvation of individual souls; to the Jews and Gentiles respectively as a body, and as in some measure opposed to one another: not to particular Gentiles now, in the concerns of their own souls with God.]

There is a proof of this, I think—a proof that the Apostle is speaking of the Jews as a nationto be found in the eleventh chapter. After mentioning the blindness and hardness of heart that had befallen them, he adds, "Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but rather through their fall, salvation is come to the Gentiles, to excite them to jealousy." And he then goes on to speak of a time when all Israel should be brought back again; or, in his own words, when all Israel should be saved. Now if he is speaking here of a nation, we can easily understand the force of this consolation: nations do not die, but go on through many generations of individuals; and in the consideration of this their long life, their blessings in one age may be looked upon as making up for their misfortunes in another. But if St. Paul were speaking of the rejection of individuals from the hope of eternal life, what he says would be no longer applicable. What comfort or what compensation can it be to one man who is cast into hell, to be told that his coun

trymen in some future age shall be redeemed to everlasting life? In this matter, each man's fortune, whether for good or for bad, is fixed by his own personal fate, and the happiness or posterity can do nothing to alter it.

misery of his

The question which St. Paul asks, "Have they stumbled that they might fall ?" would, in fact, require a different answer, according as we suppose him to be speaking of the nation of the Jews, or of the particular persons who make up that nation. If the former, then, as a nation never dies, its stumbling in one generation might be abundantly made up by its recovery in another; and so it may be said to have stumbled only for a time, not that it might fall, but that it might rise again the brighter. But if he speaks of particular persons being rejected, then they must have stumbled in order to fall; for how could they be raised up by the redemption of their posterity? Their stumbling must have been final, as they died in their blindness, and could not derive any benefit from the light which was to be vouchsafed after many centuries, to a distant generation of their people.

But if the Apostle is speaking of the Jews as a body, and of the Gentiles as a body, it is clear that he is not speaking of election and rejection with respect to heavenly rewards, but to earthly advantages or privileges, which may be either improved or forfeited by misuse. And thus in the eleventh

chapter, it is said expressly to the Gentiles who were elected, "Thou standest by faith, be not highminded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee." And of the Jews who were rejected, it is said no less plainly," If they continue not in unbelief they shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again." It is quite plain, then, that he is not speaking of election to that glory from which none can afterwards fall; or of being cast out to that darkness from which none can again recover.

Such, then, is the direct subject of these chapters; -not universal, but relating to particular circumstances;-not speaking of the present, but of the past. Yet for us, and for our children after us, it contains an eternal lesson; and that lesson it now remains that I endeavour to develope.

First, that we murmur not when we see others endowed with our advantages who, we think, deserve them less. In these things God is above our questioning; and if we question Him we shall receive no other answer than this: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own ?" Not that His will is arbitrary, but that the reasons on which He acts are not made known to us; "the Judge of all the earth will surely do right:" but we must take His dealings now as those of the Lord of all the earth, satisfied that if we humble ourselves before Him as such now, we shall hereafter be con

vinced of His righteousness, when with His power He will also reveal the secret things of his judgments to those whom He receives into glory.

Secondly, that when we suffer, whether in mind or body, we complain not as though we were hardly treated;-above all, that we do not charge God with our sins, and say, that we were fated by His foreknowledge to do as we have done. To him who makes such an excuse there is no answer given, but one most decisive and authoritative, as if it were an excuse too foolish or too wicked to be reasoned with. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Or hath not the potter power over his clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another unto dishonour ?"

We can always tell by the style of the answer in the Scripture, whether the question was one of a just and reasonable desire of knowledge, and of a fair and honest mind perplexed by a real difficulty; or whether it was one put in dishonesty, or arising from an ignorance that had been wilfully left unenlightened. It is by no means true, that all inquiry concerning the dealings of God with man is at once to be stopped by the question, "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ?" On the contrary, the Scripture contains frequent statements of these dealings, laying them in a manner before

our eyes, for the very purpose of satisfying our minds as to their justice. When the Psalmist tells us that he was greatly perplexed by the sight of the prosperity of the wicked, that he thought to understand it, but it was too hard for him, he adds, that when he went into the sanctuary of God, then understood he the end of these men. God did not repel him by telling him that he ought not to be perplexed; but He held up the veil, in part at least, to show him what would remove his perplexity. But He, who explained all things to His own disciples, would speak to the multitude only in parables. He, who was full of mercy to His active and faithful servants, was pleased to be considered as a hard Master by the wicked and slothful one. So, then, the very tone of the Apostle's answer seems to argue to one familiar with the language of the Scripture, that the question proceeded only out of a dishonest heart, and that he who found it a difficulty must remain without any explanation of it. "Thou knewest that I was an hard man, reaping where I had not sown, and gathering where I had not strown: thou oughtest, therefore, to have given my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury." "Thou sayest that I should not find fault with thy wickedness, because I fixed it by my decree that thou shouldst be wicked. Well, then, I made thee a