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OF THE COMING IN OF THE GENTILES’ FULNESS.

James Dodson

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DISCOURSE V.

Rom. xi. 25. “Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

When persons are reduced to a state of manifold privations and grievous sufferings, they are often concerned to know, not merely how it has come upon them and to what extent, but also the time during which they are doomed to continue in it, and when the day of their deliverance will arrive. In the foregoing clause of this verse, the Apostle gives us information concerning the former, “Blindness in part is happened to Israel.” By adding, in the words of this text, “Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” he unfolds all that was necessary to be known concerning the latter. Jewish blindness shall terminate when the fulness of the Gentiles will come in.

Our text reveals a most important event, which, in the merciful and almighty providence of God, will come to pass: The fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. When the Apostle discusses this subject, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of this Epistle, he divides all mankind into two classes—the Jews and the Gentiles. The event mentioned in the text belongs to the Gentiles. Their fulness signifies all the nations of the Gentiles. The Gospel leaven, at this happy period, shall leaven the whole lump. The context explains what is meant by their coming in. They shall be grafted into Christ as the good olive tree, they shall enjoy salvation, their ungodliness shall be taken away, their sins will be forgiven, they will partake of the gifts and calling of God, they shall believe, they shall obtain mercy, and they shall be entered into the bond of God’s everlasting covenant. All these things are mentioned in the context, as the privileges of Jews and Gentiles, when the Lord shall work this wondrous deliverance on the earth; and, therefore, they must be included in the blessedness of the Gentiles, when they come in.

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Our text refers to the event respecting the Jews, as coeval with the deliverance of the fulness of the Gentiles. This event is expressed both by a statement of the misery from which they shall be rescued, and an exhibition of the felicity to which they shall be brought. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved.” The Divine Spirit declares the unchangeable purpose of God, that Israel’s blindness shall end, and their salvation shall begin, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall embrace the Christian religion.

In discoursing on this part of our subject, the following method will be observed.

I. Shew what is imported in the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles.

II. Make some observations concerning the time when the blindness of the Jews shall depart, and their salvation shall commence, at the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness.

I. I am now to shew what the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness does import.

1. It imports that many of the Gentiles have already come in. It is not the calling of the Gentiles, but the coming in of their fulness, that is here foretold. There is a difference between the coming in of the Gentiles and the fulness of the Gentiles. It is of the latter, but not of the former, that the Apostle is here speaking. If a season shall arrive when their fulness shall come in, they, in a partial manner, must have come in before that great and glorious day of the Lord. Our text speaks of their conversion to Christianity in whole, and this imports that they have already become members of the Christian Church in part. Their coming in after Christ’s resurrection, as it was foretold in many parts of the Old Testament Scriptures, so it was intimated in that commission which Christ gave to his Apostles, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Though God made choice among the Apostles, that the Gentiles by Peter’s mouth should hear the Gospel and believe, as in the case of Cornelius and his friends, yet the Apostle Paul was chiefly the chosen vessel unto Christ, to bear his name unto the Gentiles. The account of his labours among them, given by himself, is highly important. “For I will not dare to

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speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about by Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ,” Rom. xv. 18, 19. From Divine predictions, the promises of God, and his own experience, he was so confident of the continued success of the Gospel among the Gentiles, that he concluded a remarkable conference that he held with the chief of the Jews at Rome, a short time before his death, with the following words, “Be it known, therefore, unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it,” Acts xxviii. 28. So wondrously successful was the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, that, even in the days of the Apostles, Gentiles believed, Pastors and Teachers were appointed, Elders were ordained, and Christian Churches were established in almost every Gentile land; so that the words of David were fulfilled in part, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.”

2. These words import that the Gentiles have still continued in the Christian Church, enjoying her spiritual privileges, and have been always coming in through the whole period of the Gospel dispensation. From the time of their first entering into the Church, till the blessed period contemplated in the prediction of the text, the posterity of Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem. The coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles does not only import that they have partially come in before this happy era; but that they have all along enjoyed this honour and felicity. The Gentiles in part will still be in the Church, when their fulness shall be introduced. At no period, from their first and partial entrance into Christ’s Church until their last and total conversion, will the Gentiles be deprived of their membership and privileges in the Gospel sanctuary. From the beginning to the end of Jewish blindness, one generation of Gentile christians shall praise God’s works unto another, and shall declare his mighty acts. The children of the Gentiles shall rise up in their father’s stead, and bear up the remembrance of their Redeemer’s name, by professing his truth, attending on his ordinances, and shewing their Lord’s death till he come. When their fulness shall begin to come in, they will find already in the Church some of their Gentile brethren, who will both help

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them forward, and will hail their introduction into this happy state. In some periods of the Christian dispensation, the number of the Gentiles belonging to the Church and enjoying her privileges, has been more enlarged, and at other times it has been more limited. As it had been with the Jews under the former dispensation, so it has been with the Gentiles under the present economy. With reference to both, sometimes the Church has been more prosperous, her members more numerous, and her profession more pure, than at other periods; but prior to “the fulness of the time,” the Church existed among the Jews, and since that period she has remained among the Gentiles. Although some nations of the Gentiles have lost their christian privileges, the candlestick having been removed from them, yet, at the very same time, the Church has existed and flourished in other parts of the Gentile world. When the Roman Empire became Christian, and at the era of the Protestant Reformation, the number of Gentiles in the Church was greatly enlarged. By the appearance of the Arabian Imposter, by the success of his arms, and by the propagation of his delusions, in the shape of religion, the number of members in the Church among the Gentiles was greatly diminished. The same mournful effect has been produced by the rise and prevalence of the Roman Beast, by his errors and idolatry, and by his sanguinary wars and persecutions. In the darkest ages, however, the Church has existed among those Gentiles, who have enjoyed her privileges and blessings; so that from their first coming in, till the coming in of their fulness, Christ’s Church and all his unsearchable riches have been possessed by the Gentiles.

3. Our text imports, that the bringing in of the Gentiles is the work of God. The words which reveal it are a Divine prediction, declaring to us the purpose of the Eternal; and, therefore, as he alone can accomplish it, it must be his work. Their entry into the Church, in the Apostles’ days, was performed by the Lord. When the admission of the Gentiles into the Christian Church was first intimated to the Jews who had believed, when they had contended with the Apostle Peter for receiving them, and when they had heard the supernatural occurrences by which he was directed and constrained to administer Gospel ordinances to them, “They held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life,” Acts xi. 18. They believed

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and acknowledged it as the work of God, and therefore they were silent. For bringing in their fulness, the same Divine agency must be employed. The Apostle preached the Gospel to Cornelius, to his house, to his kindred, and to his near friends. While Peter was employed in this manner, the power of the Lord was present to heal. “While Peter yet spake those words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them who heard the word,” Acts x. 44. By the same process, the fulness of the Gentiles will be brought in. The circumstances leading to it, accompanying it, and following after it, may vary exceedingly, but the great substance of the work, on every person, and among every people, will be essentially the same. God’s own word will be published, and God’s own ordinances will be dispensed, and the blessing of the Lord accompanying, will make them effectual for causing individuals and societies of men “to turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.” The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the Redeemer’s mediation, both in his humbled and exalted state, will exert his Almighty power, by the personal agency of the Holy Spirit, for converting persons and nations to the faith of the Gospel. In this way the fulness of the Gentiles will be brought in, and the labourers in this part of the Lord’s work will say with joy; “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

4. The text imports that when God shall bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, he will confer on them great and glorious privileges. God’s removing Jewish blindness, and his bestowing salvation on all Israel, are mentioned in the context as glorious operations of Divine mercy and power. His bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles must be considered in the same way. When God gathered the Gentiles into the Church, at the beginning, and in the course of the Gospel dispensation, he bestowed great and precious blessings upon them. But when he shall gather the outcasts of the Gentiles; when their fulness shall come in, it will be a more glorious display of his almighty power and his everlasting love to the nations. He will then bring the residue of the Gentiles from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. When God shall dispel Jewish

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darkness, and confer salvation on all Israel, he will enlighten the benighted Gentiles, and bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God. He will bless them with his word, his Gospel, and his ordinances, by which they shall know their natural guilt and misery, the way of salvation by Divine grace reigning through Christ’s righteousness, and the exercise of faith in Christ for eternal life. They will then be brought from barbarism to civilization, from treating one another with cruelty to kindness and brotherly love, from abominable idolatry to the true worship of God, and from brutal immoralities to that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. What a change will be accomplished on heathenish, mahometan and antichristian Gentiles, when they shall be rescued from their ignorance and delusions, and enlightened with the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Such are the blessings which the converted Gentiles have enjoyed, and which are prepared for the other nations, when their fulness will come in.

5. That many Gentile nations will be found in gross darkness and misery, at the commencement of this blessed era, is also imported in the text. Were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for bringing them in. To shew that many nations will then be found without the enclosure of the Christian Church, it is here predicted that they shall come in. Though the Gentiles have been coming in for many ages, and in many places, and though their number has been very great; their fulness has never been introduced. The Divine operations among the Gentiles, foretold in our text, have not yet been accomplished. The Gentile nations which are still in darkness, both in the extent of territory and number of inhabitants, far exceed those Gentile nations, which at this time enjoy the Gospel. How many nations, great and populous, remain under pagan wickedness and idolatry, in all their different forms, and with all their stupifying and murderous effects! O how many extensive and interesting nations are kept in ignorance of the only Saviour, and are detained in the service of Satan, by following the delusions and absurdities of the eastern Imposter! And how many nations are found, to this present time, worshipping the beast and his image, and receiving his mark on their forehead, or in their right hand, by which they are exposed to Divine wrath. Our text suggests that they will continue in this miserable state, until the prediction contained in it shall begin to be fulfilled.

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6. Our text imports, that, however numerous the darkened nations of the Gentiles may be, they shall be called at this era, and brought into the Christian Church. This is the blessing of which the Apostle speaks, as a matter of absolute certainty; “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.” In these words, the true and faithful God assures us, that Jewish blindness shall be removed, that the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and that all Israel shall be saved. He also assures us, that the Jews shall be delivered from their blindness, and shall be enriched with this salvation, when the fulness of the Gentile nations shall be brought into the Church. The coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness is as certain, as the illumination and salvation of the Jews. The restoration of the Jews to the Church of God, will be attended with the admission of the fulness of the Gentiles into the Christian Sanctuary. These are the important events which are foretold in these words, and this is their connection with one another. By the fulness of the Gentiles is meant all the Gentile nations. Since the fulness of the Jews must signify the whole of that people, the fulness of the Gentiles must denote all the nations of the Gentiles. This apostolic prediction concerning the Gentiles is abundantly confirmed, both in its truth and extent, by many inspired predictions in the Old and New Testaments. I shall mention a few of them, “Ask of me, and I shall give the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,” Psal. ii. 8. “All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee,” Psal. xxii. 27. Isa. ii. 2. Mal. i. 11. and many more, speak with the same precision. With these, the New Testament predictions concur. “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel,” Luke ii. 30, 31, 32. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ,” Rev. xi. 15. Besides this most sure word of prophecy, which must chiefly support our faith in this matter, there are two considerations which may encourage our hope of this universal conversion of the Gentile nations. If we consider what will be the state of religion among the nations for a thousand years, it appears as an impossibility, that any part of the earth can be left in darkness. When Christ’s king-

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dom is erected among some of the nations, that religion, and their faith in it, will be spoken of throughout the whole world. This report, like the trump of God, will inform, rouse and attract the attention of all nations. The number, the zeal and the activity of the Heralds of the cross in those days, will not suffer them to leave any part of the terraqueous field uncultivated. Add to this, the encouraging exertions of our own times. There are few nations of the world, to which the Divine word and the preaching of the Gospel have not been sent. Tracts have been circulated, and schools erected in many lands. If there is already such an approach made to universal illumination, what may we not expect when the millennial day shall burst on the world?

7. That the number of Gentile christians, after their fulness is come in, will far exceed their number in any former period of the church, is also imported in our text. The Apostle here foretells the coming in of their fulness. The accession of the Gentiles to the Church in former times has only been in part, but then their fulness will come in. There will be a fulness of the Gentile nations, and a fulness of their inhabitants who shall come into the Church, either by professing the religion of Jesus, or by truly believing in him, that they may have life. Those Gentile nations who have embraced Christianity, prior to this era, will be exceedingly enlarged, by the increase of sincere professors, by diminishing the number of nominal christians, and removing error and infidelity from their land. The Gentile nations who have not enjoyed the Gospel, shall, in their converted state, bring forth multitudes of spiritual children, and subjects, to him who is “the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.” If we contemplate the number of the nations and their population, who shall then embrace the Christian religion, we will be convinced that the members of the Church in every land, must be a great company. All this is evident from the Apostle’s words: For the fulness of the Gentiles will then come in. From various parts of John’s visions, this truth is also confirmed. The number of the Church’s members who were sealed for the troubles, during the apostacy, are represented by “an hundred and forty and four thousand;” but the number of her members, after the nations are enlightened, is “a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” Rev. vii. 4, 9. The condition of the Church,

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under Antichrist’s reign, is represented by two witnesses prophesying in sackcloth. But her improved state, after the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, is expressed in the following words: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ,” Rev. xi. 3, 15. In Chapter xvii, the Antichristian woman is represented as drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus; sitting on many waters, which signify peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues; and the kings of the earth giving their kingdoms to the beast, and to the woman who rode on it. But in Chapter xviii, the fall of this system and the lamentation of its friends, are proclaimed and described. In Chapter xix, John hears “a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God. For he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornications, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” Such are the inspired descriptions of the number of saints, when the fulness of the Gentiles will be come in.

8. That the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness will be a more marvellous work and a greater wonder, than even the conversion of the Jews, belongs also to the import of the text. The conversion of either of them will be a very glorious display of the Divine perfections, and a most extraordinary accomplishment of the Divine word; but the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness will be the greater of the two. The conversion of the Gentiles will be a more marvellous work of God, and a greater wonder unto men, than the salvation of Israel, because of the number of them who shall be delivered, and because of the previous situation of the parties. The people of the Jews, when they have submitted to the sceptre of their Messiah, will be a very great company; but their number will be small when contrasted with the innumerable multitudes of the Gentile nations. On this account, the Divine glory will be more brightly displayed in the conversion of the many, than in the illumination of the few.—On account of the condition in which they are found, the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness will be more astonishing than the salvation of all Israel. The Jews profess to believe the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and are waiting for their Messiah. The greater part of the Gentile world are ignorant of both. They neither believe the Old Testament, nor are they waiting for a de-

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liverer. Now, it cannot be so marvellous to see a people who believe and know the Old Testament Scriptures, submitting to the additional and corresponding revelations of the New Testament; as it will be to behold the Gentile multitudes embracing the revelations of both, when they were formerly acquainted with neither. Nor can it be so wonderful in our eyes, to behold a people who are earnestly looking for the coming of a Saviour and a Great one, believing in our Lord Jesus Christ, as He whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world; as it will be to contemplate Gentile nations, who never heard of the Redeemer’s name, believing in the person, embracing the righteousness, and bowing to the law of him whom the Father sent to be the Saviour of the world.

9. Our text imports, that the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness will be a joyful sign of the approach, and a grand characteristic of the millennial age. The conversion of the Jews also, will be a sign of the coming, and a special character of that blessed season. The first fruits of Gentile and Jewish converts in our own day, are signs of the coming of that period of felicity to the Church on earth. When we see these things begin to come to pass, let us look up, and lift up our heads; for the Church’s redemption draweth nigh. The four last parts of this mystery, of which the one now under our consideration is the first, belong to the millennium, and will be fulfilled when that period shall arrive. The Apostle in these verses is speaking of the same time of which Daniel speaks, when he says, “Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days;” and of that very season to which John refers, in those words, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” The millennium shall consist in Gentile nations coming into the Christian Church, and in the Jews embracing Christ as the true Messiah, and in both Jews and Gentiles in all parts of the earth, having access, in all Divine ordinances, through Christ, and by one Spirit, unto the Father, for advancing the glory of God, and effecting the salvation of mankind. This is the season we expect, when all the predictions respecting it, both in the book of Daniel and in the revelations of John, shall be fulfilled; and when all the parts of this mystery

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shall be accomplished, both in the coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness, and in the salvation of all Israel.

10. The text likewise imports, that the means by which the Gentiles’ fulness will be brought in, are the same with those that will be employed for bestowing salvation on all Israel. In the Apostle’s declaration of this mystery, it appears that the conversion of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the Jews, are congenial works of God. They do not stand in opposition to one another, like justification and condemnation; but they are Divine operations of the same kind. In both, the parties are rescued from ignorance, guilt, and misery; and are advanced to the knowledge, the service, and the enjoyment of God. Since this change is supernatural, it must be performed by Divine agency; and since it is substantially one in both, it must be produced by the same means. It will not be easy to contrive any other means for accomplishing this end, than those which, in the merciful providence of God, are already put in operation. The unconverted Gentiles, and the unbelieving Jews, need God’s holy word. The very numerous Societies, which support the translating, the printing, and the circulating of the Scriptures, are labouring successfully to supply this want. They need instructors to assist them in understanding and improving the Scriptures. The various Missionary Societies, by sending forth persons qualified and authorised to explain the word and preach the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles, are diligently repairing this breach. They are in great want of education to enable them to read God’s word, for their own instruction and the good of others. The School Societies are actively employed in bestowing this blessing on them. They are also very destitute of profitable reading, for the spiritual instruction of themselves and their friends. The Book and Tract Societies are zealously engaged in bestowing on Jews and Gentiles, this precious mean of religious improvement. By those Divinely appointed means, the God of salvation, through Christ’s mediation, and by his Spirit’s influence, will bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, and will bestow spiritual blessings on all Israel.

We are now to subjoin a few inferences.

1. From this subject, we may see, that under the New Testament dispensation, God’s holy sovereignty has been displayed in his operations among the Gentiles. He has visited some of their

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nations with his glorious Gospel, while some of their kingdoms have been left in darkness. In those Divine works, the Apostle’s words are verified; “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” God’s procedure with the seed of Abraham and Isaac, under the former dispensation, resembles his conduct with the nations of the Gentiles, during the past part of the Christian economy. All the natural seed of Abraham were not incorporated with the Church. Ishmael’s posterity, and Abraham’s children by Keturah, did not belong to the promised seed. Neither did all the posterity of Isaac enjoy this privilege. “Was not Esau, Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.” In like manner, some of the Gentile nations have never been visited with the Gospel of our salvation. Some of those nations have heard, known, and believed this joyful sound, while others of them have not been favoured with those good tidings of great joy unto all people. In the unimpeachable sovereignty of God, some parts of the chosen seed under the Mosaic economy, on account of their sin, were deprived of their religious privileges, and doomed to a state, little better than that of the heathen nations around them. This was the situation of the ten tribes after their revolt from the house of David, and their apostacy from the worship of God in his temple, even when they dwelt in their own land. Soon after their dismal captivity and dispersion, they lost entirely the knowledge of the God of their fathers. Similar to this, is the condition of those Gentile nations who were once enlightened with the glorious Gospel, but are now covered with the gross darkness of Islamism and Popery. All these are Divine operations, by which he displays his sovereignty in doing what he will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. From these things, let our hearts be established in the belief of the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the election of some to eternal life through Jesus Christ. “According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love.” Let those things also reconcile our minds to the exercise of his sovereignty, in disposing and ordering our spiritual frame, our outward lot, and all the comforting or trying dispensations of his providence towards us.

2. From this subject we may contemplate that blessedness which

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God has in reserve for Gentile nations and Gentile churches. In his word, God has spoken good concerning them; and he will do as he has said. The good which is laid up for the darkened nations of the Gentiles, is set before us, by the great voices that John heard in heaven, when the seventh angel sounded his trumpet. These voices proclaimed, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Rev. xi. 15. This shall be done for them, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. This national transformation will be an unspeakable blessing to the Gentiles. Delivered from ignorance, immorality, idolatry, cruelty, and carnal earthly affections, they will be rescued from the greatest degradation and misery. Advanced to the high honour of knowing, serving, and enjoying the Lord and his Christ, they shall be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him.—The blessedness which God has prepared for Gentile churches is also very great. If the receiving of the Jews into the Christian Church will be like life from the dead to Gentile christians; the same effect will be produced on them when they shall behold the Gentile nations flying to Christ as a cloud, and as doves to their windows. God will pour water of refreshment on his thirsty Church, when he sends floods of spiritual blessings on the dry ground. What felicity will then be enjoyed on the earth; for on every people, as their condition may require, there shall be showers of blessings. O what encouragement have we to labour diligently, and to pray earnestly, that the whole earth may be filled with his glory.

3. From this subject, our hearts should be affected with the very great and distinguishing goodness of God to those Gentile nations who have all along enjoyed the Gospel of Divine grace. Their special privileges may be expressed in the words of the Psalmist, “He sheweth his words unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments to Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord,” Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. While the far greater part of the Gentile nations were covered with gross darkness, they have enjoyed the light of the Gospel. While blindness in part has still remained on God’s ancient people, they have been brought to the knowledge of God, and of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ. This has been their special enjoyment for many generations. Oh, that they would praise

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the Lord for his goodness. With gratitude to God our hearts should be filled, when we consider our precious privileges. Unthankfulness to him for such enjoyments, must be a very aggravated provocation in his sight. Oh what concern should fill our minds, that Gospel ordinances, through the power of the Spirit, may be the means of conveying to us and others, the blessings of salvation. Let us, therefore, strive mightily to improve this Gospel, and those ordinances, ever remembering that, if we neglect the great salvation, it will be more tolerable for the darkened Gentiles, and the blind Jews, in the day of judgment, than for us. A frequent remembrance of our responsibility to the Author and Giver of those distinguishing privileges, for the use we have made of them, is our indispensable duty. Ingratitude to God for his Gospel, indifferency about the success of its ordinances, a misimprovement of our precious privileges, and an habitual forgetfulness of the account we must render to God for the use we have made of his word, mark the character of those who know their Lord’s will, but do it not, and who shall be beaten with many stripes. But on the other hand, those christians who sincerely praise the Lord for his Gospel, who pray for the powerful application of it to themselves and others, who religiously improve it by faith and love, and who obey its calls, receive its offers, believe its doctrines, and embrace its promises, discover that they shall enjoy its blessings in time and through eternity.

4. This subject shews us that the condition of the darkened Gentiles is mournful indeed. They cannot be in a better situation, in a moral and spiritual respect, than that in which their fathers were found, when the Apostles preached the Gospel to them. In the New Testament, we have many descriptions of their melancholy condition. Paul, who was the Apostle of the Gentiles, says of them, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led,” 1 Cor. xii. 2. “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,” Eph. ii. 12. “That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts; who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lascivious-

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ness, to work all uncleanness with greediness,” Eph. iv. 18—19. By their total estrangement from those objects that are necessary to salvation, by their abominable idolatry, by their moral depravity, and by their practical wickedness, they are characterized. In all these things, the condition of the unenlightened nations of the Gentiles, in our own day, corresponds exactly to what was their situation in the Apostolic period. They are, therefore, in a very miserable state.

5. This subject tells us, that it is a great honour which God confers on the enlightened Gentiles, when he makes them instrumental in bringing in their own fulness. There are several ways in which christians may be the means of accomplishing this work. By providing for their use the Holy Scriptures, and other means of religious instruction, by actively labouring among them in the places where they dwell, by making liberal contributions for supporting the work, by fervent prayers for its success, by answering objections that are made to this sacred object, by encouraging one another in the performance of those duties, and by proving the truth of our zeal and endeavours in this service, in adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, by a holy conversation among men;—by these may every christian be instrumental in bringing the fulness of the Gentiles to embrace Christianity. The conversion of the Gentiles is a glorious work of God; it must, therefore, be highly honourable to be workers together with him in bringing it to pass. It is a work by which the Father and the Son will be eminently glorified; and who would not account it an honour to be instrumental in promoting the glory of their God and of their Redeemer. By this Divine work, millions of immortal souls will obtain everlasting salvation; it must then be an honour to every person who has been helpful in effecting it. It is also the matter of very many great and precious promises; to be an instrument in the hand of God for fulfilling them, must certainly be a part of the christian’s honour. The bringing in of the Gentiles’ fulness will greatly prosper and enlarge Christ’s kingdom, and will not every christian be ambitious of the honour of promoting the welfare and extent of that kingdom, over which Christ exercises his spiritual dominion. By the performance of those duties, let all christians, according to their abilities and opportunities, seek that honour which cometh from God only.

6. The manner of the coming in of the Gentiles, till their fulness

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shall have entered, is also evident from this subject. They will come in gradually; God could have created all things in a moment, but it pleased him to do it in the space of six days. He also can convert the nations at once, but it appears to be agreeable to his will and for his glory, to accomplish it by degrees. They will come in speedily flying as a cloud, and as doves to their windows. They will come in seasonably; for the Lord will do it in his time. They shall enter individually; for he will gather them one by one. They will embrace the Gospel nationally; for a nation shall be born at once, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. They shall enter the Christian Church in a penitential frame; for they shall come with weeping, and with supplications will he lead them. They shall come in with joy; for they shall then say to themselves and to one another, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready,” Rev. xix. 7. And Oh what encouragement has every christian to continue and enlarge his efforts, in every way competent to him, for bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles. The work is glorious—The performance of it is certain—It is already begun—Some progress has been made in it—And exertions are still increasing. Let every one who names the name of Christ lend his helping hand, for conducting it to its glorious termination.

7. This subject directs our attention to the general scheme of Gospel administrations, of which the calling of the Gentiles, and the inbringing of their fulness, form a most conspicuous part. I know no portion of Scripture that represents this in a more clear and affecting manner, than our Lord’s parable of the great Supper, Luke xiv. 16—23. He begins it thus, “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many; and sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready.” This rich evening entertainment represents the Divine exhibition and offer of all spiritual blessings in Christ to men by the Gospel. As the last dispensation of grace to men, it is prepared and brought forward at the concluding period of time. The persons who were first invited represent the people of the Jews, to whom Christ confined his own personal ministry, and, for a time, the ministry also of his Apostles. Their refusal of his invitation predicted the Jews’ rejection of Christ, his glorious Gospel, and his great salvation. When the servant had reported the matter, his Lord said to him, “Go out quickly into the

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streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” These descriptions of people are a most appropriate figure of the ignorant, idolatrous, and perishing Gentiles, to whom Christ’s servants, according to his command, immediately carried the good tidings of the Gospel salvation. This was accompanied with extraordinary success; for the servant reports, “Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded.” This second period of Gospel ministrations extends to the whole time in which the Church has been established among the Gentiles. It began in the Apostles’ days, and is not yet ended in our own. As the servant added, to his favourable report, “And yet there is room,” a third period of Gospel ministrations is described in the parable, “And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Under this third ministration of the Gospel, the sphere of labour is greatly enlarged, more extraordinary exertions are made, and the consequence of them is, that God’s house is filled completely. The highways and hedges signify the world and its inhabitants, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The extraordinary exertions, required by the command, “Compel them to come in,” refer to the singular dispensations of Divine grace and providence, accompanied with the remarkable effusion of the Holy Spirit, by which the Gentile nations shall embrace our glorious Redeemer, and the Jewish people shall return to the Lord. The great end of this command, and of those exertions, that God’s house may be filled, relates to the conversion of all the objects of Divine love, during the thousand years, and the little season. Christ’s parables of the Marriage Supper, and the Vineyard let out to Husbandmen, represent the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles; but this parable divides the Gospel dispensation into three parts, the last of which finishes the mystery of grace in the Church on earth, while the first and second parts of it unfold clearly the casting out of the Jews, and the admission of the Gentiles into the Church. The coming in of the Gentiles’ fulness, and the salvation of all Israel, will be effected at the beginning of the last period; and we hope, that the preparations for introducing it, have already commenced.