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be "no dwelling of the wolf and lamb together;" no "lifting up of an ensign," to bring men to a seeking after Christ; no "filling the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, &c." Therefore, as sure as God is true, this is yet to be fulfilled before the ultimate day of judgement.

Chapter xiv, 1-7.

It is worth noting, that our new translators, even in those episcopal times which were so adverse to our point, do nevertheless concur with us so far, as to give us the contents of the chapter in these words,-" God's merciful restoration of Israel." And they speak well, and are not alone in their opinion; the stream of interpreters generally concurring, that this chapter intends, God's joining both Jews and Gentiles into one Church.

But some may be apt to imagine, that this making Jews and Gentiles into one Church or sheepfold (John x) was fulfilled when the Gentiles were converted in the Apostles' time, beginning in Acts x. But they utterly mistake, if they so think. For those Gentiles, and downwards, were but substitutions and subrogations of them, whilst the Jews fall off, till the fulness of the said Jews shall be brought in; and then, and not till then, is "the fulness of the Gentiles" brought in with the Jews into one Church. So that the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet brought in; much less the fulness of the Jews. For whilst Christ called the Jews, the Gentiles hung off; and whilst he called many Gentiles, the Jews generally fell off. For thus the Apostle tells us in Rom. xi, 30,—“ As ye Gentiles in times past "have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through "the Jews' unbelief; even so also have the Jews now not be

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lieved, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." So that the Jews and Gentiles, for the generality, have been like two buckets in a well,-if one were full, the other was empty, thus continually keeping their vicissitudes, and by turns embracing or rejecting the word of Christ.

The Apostle further shews us the distinct graduals thereof, giving two to each of them. The two of the Jews are thus; first, their root, or first-fruits, or initiation; secondly, their branches,

or lump, or fulness.b The two graduals of the Gentiles are thus : "Some wild branches;" secondly, their fulness. Then mark the close of the Apostle concerning both: "When the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, then all Israel shall be saved;"'d quoting several prophecies of the Old Testament to prove the same. Whence we must necessarily infer, that the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles heretofore, and downward until now, are still but the root, first-fruits, and beginnings ;most of the Jews, and most nations of the Gentiles, not knowing the Lord Christ to this day. Secondly, Jews and Gentiles are not to this day one Church, according to this prophecy of Isaiah xiv,-that "the strangers of the Gentile nations shall be joined to the Jews, and shall cleave to the house of Jacob: and according to the stating of the question by Saint Paul ;—“ That when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, all Israel shall be saved." This will be plainer if we carefully scan all the passages in this text.

v. 1. " For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel." Jacob and Israel must here necessarily comprehend the ten tribes as well as the two; for Isaiah prophesied long after the division of the whole twelve tribes into two kingdoms, and therefore well knew the distinction between Judah and Israel.e And again when he saith, "Strangers (or Gentiles) shall be joined with them," (that is, with Jacob and Israel,) he could not intend to leave out the greater part of Neither indeed

Israel, to whom those strangers are to be joined. has it been fulfilled in the two tribes; since at the return from Babylon, Gentiles joined not with them: nor was it done at the joining of the two handfuls, the one of Jews, the other of Gentiles, in the history of the Acts of the Apostles; since they could no way answer to Jacob, and Israel, and strangers, indefinitely spoken. I have often admonished, that the grand promises, touching Christ's kingdom, have their gradual, successive, progressive impletions. Judah returning from Babylon was a type. The conversion of a handful of them in the Apostle's time was but the first-fruits; (Rom. xi;) but the fulness of Gentiles and Jews is yet behind

b Rom. xi, 12, 16, 18.

c vv. 11, 25.
d vv. 25, 26.
chapters i, 1, and xi, 12.

e Compare

v. 2. Again, we have not seen, that christians have been "servants and handmaids" to the Jews, in a right religious harmony and compliance: for that must be the sense of this promise; or else christians shall have loss, and that in things concerning salvation. Neither have we seen the captive Jews "take them captive, whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors." For in their return from Babylon, it was by voluntary consent of king Cyrus; and at Christ's coming they themselves were captives under Augustus and Tiberius. If any should be of so airy a fancy, as to evaporate this into a figure, that at Christ's coming, the Jews took their captivators captive in a spiritual sense, viz. of conversion; let such remember that converts are the greatest freemen; and that as regards the Jews at that time, alas! "the vail was on them," so that they were generally in a spiritual captivity themselves, like Sampson when his eyes were put out. Besides, Daniel intimates that the Jews' conquest over their enemies should be corporal ;h but we do not yet see, that the Jews either corporally or spiritually have subdued them that captivated them.

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Neither again was that in the second verse ever yet fulfilled, "That the peoples, or Gentiles, should take the Jews, and bring them to their place, &c." Calvin on this place grants, that this was not done after the Jews came out of Babylon;" and gives this reason, that the Gentiles were so far from being the conduct and assistance to the Jews in their return “and settlement, or from contributing their service to them "therein, that they troubled the Jews, and destroyed them from "off the earth;"-quoting Ezra iv, 4, and adding, "that therefore this must be fulfilled in, through, and by Christ." But when was this ever yet done by Christ? Surely never, and cannot be, till the 'little stone (Christ) cut out of the mountain without hands, breaks to pieces the fourfold-mettled image of all the four monarchies of the earth."

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v. 3. The twelve tribes of Jacob and Israel are not yet "delivered from their sorrow, and fear, and bondage." They are in bondage, being scattered amongst all nations. They are in sorrow for that banishment from their own country. And they

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are there in fear, being forced to pay tribute even for their own freedom. Nor were they freed from that bondage in Christ's time; being then captives under the Romans: nor from their fear; since for fear of the Romans, if they should own Christ, they crucified him, and put him to death.

vv. 4-8. Therefore when this deliverance is fulfilled to the purpose, it is done as follows: the Jews shall take up this proverb, "How hath the oppressor ceased. The Lord hath broken the sceptre of the rulers, and the staff of the wicked, "so that the whole earth is at rest and quiet, that they break "forth into singing."

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Chapter xxiv, 23.

Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, "when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in "Jerusalem, and before his Ancients gloriously."*

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The word then' connects this with verses 22, 23. "In "that day, it shall come to pass, that the Lord shall punish the 'host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the "earth upon the earth, (meaning plainly, as the last clause testifies, the Gentile potentates and powers,) and they (those Gentiles) shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison. And after many days they (the Jews, saith Calvin, †) shall be visited. "Then the moon shall be confounded, &c. when the Lord shall

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reign before his Ancients." You now see the context of the word 'then; viz. that upon the great destruction of the impenitent Gentile potentates and powers, the Jews (and if you will include the penitent Gentiles, it shall not grieve us) shall be visited in mercy; and the moon shall be confounded, &c.: that is, the glory of the Church shall be such, that the light of the

*R. Kimchi upon this chapter saith, "This section is to be (fulfilled) hereafter, in the destruction of Edom. Afterward he shall remember the salvation of Israel." To understand what he means by Edom, he bids us (v. 16) look upon the destruction of ROME, mentioned in the whole Book of God.

† Quum igitur hæc ad sustinendos fideles pertinerunt, non dubium quin Judæis dicerentur, apud quos potissimum fides erat, aut potius nusquam apud alios apparebat.

moon and brightness of the sun shall be nothing to it. At which time (as it follows) the Lord of host (in Christ Jesus, saith Diodati,) shall reign on mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, (types of the universal Church,) and that in great glory before his Ancients, who were the Church of the Jews, by blood, as well as by profession; Christ being considered as man,—the local circumstances, Zion and Jerusalem, calling for that notion.

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Calvin again clearly intimates, that his sense of this text is, that Christ shall hereafter establish his Church on earth in a most glorious estate. "I doubt not, (he says,) but the Prophet prosecutes the consolation, which he had touched on in the former verse, to this sense or effect: that when the Lord shall “ visit his people, and shall purge his Church from its filthiness, he shall settle his kingdom; and that in so illustrious a manner, that it shall obscure the sun and stars with its splendor; which kind of speech is usual with the prophets, as we have already seen. But here Isaiah speaks of the body of the "Church, and not only of the Head. Seeing therefore the "Lord will establish his kingdom upon MOUNT ZION, SO great "shall be the magnificence thereof in the instauration of the "people, as that the things that otherwise shone in the sight of

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men, shall now be as darkness; which, that he might express "to the life, he names those things that are most splendent. "The world ruling is improperly explained of God's vengeance: "for although God be said to reign, when he acts the office of "a judge; yet this speech, comprehending within it the kingdom of God in mount Zion, always hath the notation of mercy and salvation. For he speaketh of the restitution of the Church: whence it follows, that this is not fulfilled but in Christ. Making a precise mention of elders or ancients, he "useth a synecdoche, which is exceeding usual in Scripture; for " he taketh a special part of the Church for the whole body of "the Church, yet not without a deliberate purpose. He calls "by the name of ancients, as well the priests as other rulers, who were chief over discipline and manners, and by whose moderation, and prudence, the rest are to be governed. Under their names he comprehends all the people, not only "because they represent the whole body, (as under their shadow

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