in no wise pass till all be accomplished, their remaining to this day unaccomplished, is to the church of Christ a pledge for the faithfulness of God, of Israel's still future restoration to the land of their fathers.

If the strange scepticism, which has prevailed among many Christians and Christian divines upon a point, which is attested with such unequivocal plainness and remarkable fulness in the word of God, has rendered it proper for us to detain you so long in the examination of the leading Scriptures by which it is established, it is proper to add, as a further confirmation of what has been advanced, that there neither has been, nor is there now any scepticism upon this point among those who are more especially interested in it-the seed of Israel themselves. "In

a day of yearly atonement on which his ministrations were to be performed. And in regard to at least a great portion of the sacrifices mentioned in the prophet, so far from being spoken of as simply commemorative, they are plainly described as expiatory-a remembrance is constantly made of sin, as in times of old, and the very same language used concerning them, which we find written concerning the legal sacrifices in the books of Moses. If, therefore, such things were all done away in Christ, as unsuited to the New Testament dispensation, even in its present state of comparative weakness, how can they possibly be found suitable when it has attained to its state of millennial glory? And, besides, there is another part of the prophet's description which seems utterly incompatible with that state of prospective glory; for if there be any thing more expressly affirmed and more frequently repeated concerning it than another, it is that the Messiah is to be the sole King of his church and people, seated upon the throne of David. But in the vision of Ezekiel, mention is made of a prince who can by no possibility be the glorified Messiah; for he is spoken of as a man of flesh and blood, requiring an inheritance of land for the supply of his bodily wants, having sons who should succeed to him in his inheritance, and as a sinner lying under the same yoke of sacrificial observances, which was imposed upon the people. So that, if there be things connected with the vision, which give it the form and appearance of a prophecy, begetting expectations of events sometime hence to be brought into accomplishment, there are other things which seem, we might almost say, with still more conclusive certainty, to preclude the possibility of these expectations being verified; and with such difficulties on the one side and the other, our only wisdom appears to be to leave this portion of Scripture out of the discussion, which we now hold concerning the future prospects of Israel; as touching this point, it seems by reason of our imperfect discernment to utter an uncertain sound, and it should therefore neither be allowed to prejudice what other Scriptures clearly establish, nor be held as proving what they have left unsettled.

all parts of the earth," says a recent writer, "this extraordinary people, whose name and sufferings are in every nation under heaven, think and feel as one man on the great issue of their restoration-the utmost east and the utmost west, the north and the south, both small and large congregations, those who have frequent intercourse with their brethren, and those who have none, entertain alike the same hopes and fears. Dr. Wolff heard these sentiments from their lips in the remotest countries of Asia; and Buchanan asserts, that wherever he went among the Jews in India, he found memorials of their expulsion from Judea, and of their belief of a return thither." (Quarterly Review for Dec. 1838.) This belief and the desire connected with it, have not only continued to subsist, but have rather increased in strength, 'as we are assured by the report of many witnesses; and now, at the lapse of eighteen centuries since the time of their expulsion from the land of promise, the conviction is almost universal among the families of Israel, not only of the undoubted certainty, but of the near approach of their final return, and prayer is constantly made in their synagogues that the Lord would be pleased to hasten it.

If it be inquired how, or by what instrumentality, this event is likely to be accomplished, we can only return a very general answer-it being the general method of prophecy, (would that it had been more carefully attended to!) to use the utmost plainnessin foretelling events, but the utmost caution in pointing out the means by which they are to be accomplished. There can be little doubt, however, from the general strain of prophecy upon the subject, that the complete and final accomplishment of the restoration in question, shall both require and receive the immediate and signal interposition of Heaven-that it shall be begun by the Jews themselves, prompted simply, it may be, by their longing desire to obtain the fulfilment of the prophecies, on which God has caused them to hope, but shall be opposed by the united councils and collective strength of many na

tions, leagued together by a common spirit of avowed hostility to the cause of God, as well as of determined opposition to the wishes of his ancient people— that in the desperate struggle, which shall ensue, the Lord will interpose his Almighty arm, in a manner which it might be presumptuous to attempt now to particularize, but which shall have the effect of confounding with signal overthrow the designs of these ungodly adversaries of Zion, and of establishing the seed of Jacob in secure and undisturbed possession of their ancient territory. It seems unquestionable, that however silent and gradual the restoration of Israel may be in its commencement, and however certain as to its final issue, it shall be effected amid judgments of the most terrible and appalling nature; nay, there are the strongest reasons to believe that it shall be preceded by a conflict, such as has never been fought, and a season of affliction such as has never been experienced upon the earth. (Dan. xii. 1; Joel iii.; Zech. xiv.) That nations, as nations, shall both league themselves against the fulfilment of this purpose of God, in behalf of the Jews, and suffer the most fearful judgments for their opposition, is written with the utmost plainness; whether any nations, as such, shall take part with them, is not so expressly declared as to be made the matter either of confident affirmation or of positive denial; but there can be no doubt that as God will be much displeased with, and sorely punish those nations who combine to prevent the restoration of his ancient people, so it is the duty of Christian nations to be preparing the way for their return; instead of "helping forward the affliction," to favour the well-grounded prospects of the scattered remnant. Do you ask how this may be done?— Simply by promoting, as much as possible, the work of their conversion. There may, indeed, be room to doubt whether the entire conversion of the Jewish people shall have taken place before the era of their restoration, or something in this respect may still remain to be done through means of the supernatural events which that era shall develope; but that at least

the greater part of them shall have previously embraced the faith of the Gospel; nay, and that this general if not universal conversion shall be the prompting cause, the moral ground, which is to bring on the accomplishment of God's purpose concerning their restoration, may be regarded as in a manner certain, both from the grand resistance with which their return is to be met, being to come from the Antichristian faction, on whom the signal vengeance of Heaven is to fall; and from their "remembering the Lord in far countries" being assigned as a special reason for his remembering them to bring them back, (Zech. x. 9; Isa. lxv. 10, comp. with 2 Chron. vi. 37,) as well as their being brought, when they do come, to "the place of the name of the Lord of hosts," in the character of a present or holy offering to the Lord. (Isa. xviii. 7; lxvi. 20; Zeph. iii. 10.) To deal kindly, therefore, to blinded Israel, and press the work of their Christian enlightenment, is to bear them onward in a manner to the realization of their hopes; it is to fulfil the charge of the prophet, "Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people;" and doubtless when the Lord shall arise out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth and avenge the cause of his elect, he will not be unmindful of those who have sought the good of ancient Israel, but will save them from the calamities which shall overtake the wicked.

III. We have now passed two most important stages in the future history of the Jewish people. The first in point of magnitude, and partly at least also in point of time, is their conversion, to the faith of Christ. Many persons conceiving this alone important, are disposed to rest satisfied there, and think it somewhat over-curious to push our inquiries further. But if God has thought fit to reveal and promise more concerning them, why should we refuse to follow? If it was wise in God to bring into the prophetic record intimations of other events to be fulfilled in their future career, it, must surely be proper for us to make ourselves acquainted with these; and we

have accordingly found, that the restoration of the Jews to the land first promised to Abraham, and afterwards for many centuries possessed by their fathers, may be just as confidently reckoned on, as an event in their future history, as their conversion to the faith of the Gospel. But, perhaps, some who are willing to go with us thus far, may be disposed to reclaim against going any further, convinced that any thing beyond must be unsafe and hazardous conjecture. Our reply again is, that if God has seen meet to reveal and promise more, why should we not endeavour to ascertain more? How, otherwise, can we acquit ourselves of the responsibility resting upon us as the keepers of God's prophetic testimony to the church? It is our confident belief that there are other things still written with all plainness concerning the coming condition of the Jewish people, and which we may expect with the utmost certainty to have a place in their future history. Of these, however, we shall speak very shortly, and shall embrace them all under this concluding proposition, that after they are converted and restored, the Jews shall exhibit in a man-ner the most pre-eminent and glorious, the fulfilment of the promise made to their forefather, when the Lord said to him as the representative of his whole elect posterity: "I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing-and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."**

* Gal. iii. 16, may possibly suggest itself to some persons as tending to discountenance the supposition that the prediction here quoted has any special reference to the Jews, but that it has its fulfilment in Christ. A little reflection, however, may satisfy us that this is not the case. The apostle there asserts that "the promises were made to Abraham and his seed," and from the word "seed" being used in the singular, concludes that one must have been thereby intended, viz. Christ-not Christ, however, as an individual, but the whole body of which Christ is the Head, as he afterwards gives us more distinctly to understand, when he says, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed;" so that the word "Christ" is here used as in 1 Cor, xii. 12, in a collective sense, as including the whole spiritual body of Christ. To this one body, that is, to the company of sincere believers in every age, whether under the Law or under the Gospel, the promises were made, and certainly neither Jew nor gentile can inherit any spiritual blessing out of Christ. But there is nothing