ness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27. This conversion of Israel is secured in covenant: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.—This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward girts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their od, and they shall be my people." Jer. xxxi. 31—38. "And they shall be my people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that 1 will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Jer. xxxii. 38—40. "In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten." Jer. 1. 4, 5. "And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." Is. iv. 3, 4. Their mourning shall at once be general and particular. The praise of the Redeemer is, " And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, [where, on the death of the good king Josiah, all Judah and Jerusalem made great lamentation, 2 Chron. xxxv.24, 25.] And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart ; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” Zech. xii. 10–14. xiii. 1. Their national conversion will be sudden and general, when it takes place. But as many have already been converted to the faith of the gospel—and individual conversion we trust shall be greatly increased—so does Prophecy foretell great future destruction as still awaiting them. In the appointed time, however, God's gracious promise will be fulfilled;—“I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” Zech. iii. 9. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them ; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.” Isaiah x. 20, 21. * Although in these precious spiritual privileges, Christians, as pertaining to the spiritual Israel, have an interest, yet are the promises given directly to the literal Israel, whose restoration to their own land is indeed the principal theme of most of the predictions from which we have quoted. That, however, being the subject of the following Section, we have wholly abstained from introducing it in this, although from the intimate connection with which both are predicted, the quota‘tions are often made at the expence of an unnatural rending from the context—a feature which characterizes more or less nearly all the earlier sections of the work. Our design, of concentrating in so limited a space as much as possible of the direct Scriptural Evidence bearing immediately upon the particular doctrines discussed, has rendered this "Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but 1 will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; so s hall they be my people, and I will be their God." Ezek. xxxvii. 23. "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Isaiah xxvi. 1—4. The 12th chapter of Isaiah is a similar song of joy and salvation, prepared to be sung by them at the same time: "And in that day [in the day spoken of in the concluding verse of the preceding chapter, when ' there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, "~ from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that *: he came up out of the land of Egypt,']—And in that *>" day thou shall say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though :k thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become ajs my salvation. Therefore with joy shall we draw H water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day Jj shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, de- fy clare his doings among the people, make mention that ^ his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord ; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel."* unavoidable; but, except in the present section, we have always studied to obviiue the evils which would result from forming a judgment on mere detached fragments, (a m>)de by which, alas! the word of God is often grievously perverted,) by adduring su'il) parts as are calculated to show the general bearing of the whole. Still we would entreat the reader to study with care the contexts of all the passages referred to. * Much of the book of Psalms also, is the inspired matter of Israel's praise, containing the most decided references to the period of their Conversion and Restoration. By attending to the feet, that a large portion of these songs are not designed to celebrate past events, relative to David or any other individual, but are rather prophetic compositions applicable to Israel as a nation, and relative to future times, (as is in general obvious from the internal evidence they contain,) much of the obscurity so skilfully thrown around them by Expositors instantly vanishes, and their beautiful significancy becomes apparent. Do not the systematic perversions of the divine word by commentators too often justify the comparison, aptly made, of their being " spectacles which, instead of aiding an imperfect vision, create a vitiated one?" Although we learn from the prophetic scriptures, that their national conversion will be preceded by great and important events, still we trust it is to be realized at no distant day. Those strong prejudices against Jesus of Nazareth, which formerly prevented their examination of the evidence for the truth of Christianity, are passing rapidly away; and the Hebrew New Testament is now diligently perused by multitudes, with candor. From the numerous instances in which their inquiries have been followed by a perception of its heavenly origin and inestimable value, we look forward to the time, as near at hand, when the love of God shall be more generally shed abroad in their hearts, preparing them for the joyful welcome of the Saviour, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Mat. xxiii. 39. Then the harp so long unstrung, or only waked to breath forth Israel's plaint, shall again be attuned to the heavenly melody of the Redeemer's praise—infidelity shall give place to a lively faith—and instead of their proverbial covetousness, " Holiness unto the Lord" shall be inscribed on all their gains. SECTION IH. RESTORATION OF ISRAEL TO PALESTINE. In all the prophecies of spiritual blessings given to Israel, believing Gentiles, as belonging to the spiritual Israel, have an interest. This privilege is not, however, obtained by any transference having been made of these promises from Israel to the Gentile church. But the literal Israel being the "good olive tree," of which " some of the branches are broken off," believing Gentiles, as branches, are "graffed in among them; and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree"—the Israelites on their conversion being "graffed into their own olive tree." (Rom. xi. 17—24.) On this ground the members of the Gentile church, though not directly addressed, are entitled to take to themselves the consolation of those promises of spiritual enjoyments contained in the preceding Section. But there are other promises given to God's ancient people, peculiar to themselves, and which, from their very nature, can by no means be applied to any Gentile race. For example, to return from the utmost parts of earth, can belong only to those who have formerly been removed thither, which a "return" implies—there can be no gathering from among different and distant nations, except of those who are previously scattered into them—and those only can be brought to the land of their fathers who are the descendants of its former inhabitants. These are, however, some of the privileges promised to Israel, and of which attempts have been made, either altogether to deprive them, or, by changing the nature of the blessings promised, to render their interest in them very equivocal. When such efforts are made, by an unauthorised appropriation, to claim as ours, promises which never were given to any Gentila people, and which never can be realized in their favour, it becomes an imperative duty to vindicate the purpose and promise of God towards the objects of His special and sovereign good |