Our apostle having shown, in the end of the foregoing chapter, that the Jews would be rejected, and the Gentiles called, begins this chapter by answering. great and popular objection. Some hereupon might be ready to say, "If this be so, then God has cast away his covenant people, violated his covenant promise, forgot the seed of Abraham his friend." He answers by his accustomed form of denial, God forbid: and then proceeds to show, that the rejection of the Jews was not total: God did not reject them all, but the unbelieving part of them only. And this he proves by producing himself as an instance in the case; I myself, says he, am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

As if he had said, "I am myself. Jew by nature and nation; not. proselyte converted to the Jewish faith, but. Jew by lineal descent, of the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh; yet am not. cast off by God; therefore God has not cast away all his people."

Learn hence, How many unbelievers soever God rejects, he will not cast away one soul that sincerely believes in his Son. and gives up himself to the obedience of the gospel. Believers are God's jewels; he will not cast them away. They are his children, his portion, his inheritance; he will never cast them off. They are united to him by the bond of the Holy Spirit, and he has engaged himself to them by the bond of an everlasting covenant. Believers love God and his truth for ever, and the God of truth will love them for ever. God has not cast away his people.

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Old Testament