Most of the Jews externally or eternally rejected at the captivity?

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NaphtaliPress

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Any one think "externally" is right and it should not be "eternally." I'm not 100 percent sure it is wrong but close and want to be sure. So far no votes for externally from my co worker on this project. Done with my last reading of David Dickson's sermons on Lamentations and this was at the end.

Use. Mourne before God as you like. His decree about a temporal stroke will go on, as this people needed not to think that God would restore them to their former state in that age, because He had a special anger at them. As before He said, “pray not thou for this people,” for though Noah, Job and Daniel would stand before me, they shall not save a soul but their own. But these to the sword that are for the sword, and these to the captivity that are for the captivity. For He resolved not to take home the body of this people to Jerusalem again. Albeit some few of them returned, yet the great [number] of this people were cut off. Possibly the great body of this people was externally rejected, albeit not one of the elect was rejected. Then it is clear albeit God’s people would request Him for the {taking away} of temporal judgments which they have drawn on by heavy provocations, He will not |485| grant that request, but will let them lie under that trouble all their days. For albeit they get the kingdom of heaven at the hinder end, yet they may get hell between and there.
 
If you aren't convinced by some second consideration (contextual pattern, e.g.) I would leave the original word. It fits, and could be the exact words used; even if he meant another word, or if doing over he would drop "possibly" at the head of the sentence.

If you got rid of possibly in the sense we now generally use the word, you might never have noticed the phrasing was a little off. Perhaps *eternally* is merely worth a footnote with the caveat "perhaps?"
 
I think the last sentence leans towards reading externally rather than eternally. If the Jews were eternally rejected, how would they get the kingdom of heaven at the hinder end?
 
If the Jews were eternally rejected, how would they get the kingdom of heaven at the hinder end?

Well, the elect are specifically excluded from the ones who were eternally excluded in that paragraph. Are you suggesting that non-elect Jews will be in heaven?

'Eternally' seems to work a lot better than 'externally' in that usage. But, of course, I come at things like this from a legal, not a theological perspective.
 
I'll have to think about both sides of this. In this instance I'll make any comment and alternate reading suggestion in a note; but too fried tonight. I wanted to get through this final read today and managed to do that but took getting up at 3am to do it. Any other opinions are welcome. Thanks all.
 
If I didn't know which word was actually in the text and was given a choice between the two, I might think "externally" fit best. Who is Dickson to speculate that the people were eternally rejected? But it does seem likely that most of them, or their progeny, may never have returned from the lands of captivity and therefore became people externally separated from the covenant community. Of course, they may yet gain the kingdom on the back end, as he says, when the gospel is preached to all nations.
 
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