326 / 514
318
NONE
EXCLUDED
FROM HOPE.
DIEM.
XTX.
it
includes
all
the heathen
world,
so
that
when the apos-
tle
says,
the gospel brings salvation
both
to the
Jew
and
the
Greek,
he shews
the extent
of
this benefit to
all
man
-
kind
that
hear and receive
it.
It
may be
worth
our
while to
spend
a
few
hints upon
the
order
in
which
the
apostle
represents
the communi-
cation
of
this blessing,
viz.
to
the
Jew
first,
and then
to
the
Greek
or gentile.
When
he
describes, in
the second
chapter of
this
epis-
tle,
the terms or conditions
of
the covenant
of
works,
he
sets
mankind
in the same
order
:
he
pronounces indig-
nation and wrath upon
every soul
that
doth
evil,
of
the
Jew
first,
and
also
of the
gentile
;
but
glory,
honour
and
peace
to every man
that
worketh
good, to
the
Jew
first,
and
also to
the gentile.
So
when
he declares
the
blessings
of
the covenant
of
grace
or
the gospel,
he brings
the
salvation
first
upon the Jews, and then upon
the
gentile nations
:
And
one
reason of it
may
be this,
that
the
Jews
having been
favoured
with an
earlier
and
more
express
discovery
of
the nature and
will
of
God than the
heathens, they
seem to
stand fairest
for the
participation
of
divine
blessings
and that,
even
by
the
law
of
works,
if
life
and righteousness
could have been
obtained
by
it,
as
well
as by
the covenant
of
grace,
or
law
of
faith.
But
if
they abuse
their
knowledge,
and their sacred advan-
tages,
to the neglect
of God
and
godliness,
faith and
works,
they
justly
fall
under
a
more severe
condemna-
tion
every
way,
because their guilt
is
greater.
But there
may
be some
special reasons
given
why
God
thought it proper,
in the
course
of
his
providence,
to send
the
notice
of
this
salvation
by
Jesus
Christ
among the
Jews,
before
he
sent
it
to the gentile world.
I. The
Jews
were
the
chosen people
of
God, the
sons
and
daughters
of
Abraham,
his
friend,
the
first favour
-
ites
of
heaven,
considered
as
a
family
and
a
nation
:
and
as
he
first
preached
to them
the purity and perfection
of
his
law,
whence they might discover
their
own sin
and
misery,
so
he published
his
gospel
of
grace
by
Jesus
Christ
first among them,
and
sent
his
son with the
mes=
sages
of
peace and
forgiveness first to
their
nation.
The Great
God thought it
becoming
his
equity
to
pub-
lish
his
abounding
mercy first
toward
them,
amongst
whom he first
published
his law,
to
skew
them their guilt
5