ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."*

It has therefore been by prophecy that God has been pleased frequently to reveal his will to man; that, making known his purpose by a mode which he alone can accomplish, his messages might bear the stamp of Deity: and herein He has shewn His manifold wisdom by giving a right direction to one of the strongest propensities of our nature.

For in one sense it may be said that every person is a prophet. For it is as natural to man to anticipate the future, as to reflect upon the past. He cannot content himself, like those lower animals who lie down in the green pastures, satisfied with their present ease. He looks back to his past course; he turns his eye to his future expectations. Even the Infidel, who denies that the inspired prophecies are the word of God, is himself a propheta false prophet indeed, but still he prophesies for he declares that Death is an eternal sleep that when the body dies, the soul dies; that there is no judgment to come; no state of blessedness for the righteous; no place of torment for the wicked.

Thus, like that evil Spirit by whom "he is en

Isaiah xlvi. 9, 10.

snared," he tries to deceive himself, and to deceive others, by being a false prophet. For it was Satan's lying prophecy, "Ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil," which deprived us of our inheritance. It is the sure word of prophecy, spoken by the God of truth himself, which provides for its final restoration; "I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be thy plagues. O Grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." The wisdom of God therefore, in making known his purposes in the prophetic form, are strikingly visible; for not only does this mode stamp the Divine authority upon his oracles, but guards man from a most dangerous propensity-that of listening to every shallow infidel, or to every self-constituted prophet, who would deceive him to his everlasting ruin.

Among the foremost of these Divine Oracles, we may place the inspired prophecies regarding the Jews.

They have been "a wonderful people from the beginning:”—a people at one time enjoying the greatest prosperity, basking in the sunshine of the Divine favour; God's "peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation."*

* Exodus xix. 5, 6.

Having in their temple the Schechinah, or the symbol of the Divine Presence; and the Lord saying of Zion, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it." SUCH THEY WERE. Now, alas! they are a nation "meted out and trodden down;" a by-word and a proverb among all nations; "without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, and without an ephod:"* having no governor of their own; no independent civil polity; no regular priesthood; no place where they can perform the prescribed ceremonies of their religion; but as they have been described

"Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,
How shall ye flee away and be at rest?

The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave,
Mankind their country, Israel but the grave."

And yet, notwithstanding this their degraded state; notwithstanding there is scarcely a country from which they have not at some time been expelled, or in which they have not suffered dreadful persecution; still they have been so marvellously preserved, that while other nations have entirely perished, or been amalgamated with other nations, to this day they remain a distinct race: still valuing themselves upon their descent; still

* Hosea iii. 4..

retaining their attachment to the land of their forefathers; and still looking forward with anxious expectation to their return thither. So much is this their character, that according to their own striking saying, "PERSECUTION CANNOT CHANGE US: OPPRESSION CANNOT CRUSH US: TIME ITSELF CANNOT DESTROY US."

These peculiarities have made them the theme of the historian, and the admiration of the philosopher. It is however a far, far higher cause which has drawn the hearts of sincere Christians towards them; namely, that "Salvation is of the Jews;"* that God has been pleased so to bind up the felicity of the nations with the prosperity of his ancient people, that it is when the Lord "shall return to Jerusalem with mercies," or when he shall set his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people, assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth;" then, then it is, "that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them; and then shall the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."+

The great mistake which has been made, both by Jews and Christians, has been to consider the religion of the Old Testament, and of the New, as two different religions; whereas in fact they are one and the same; with this distinction, that the faith of the pious Jews, previously to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, was fixed upon a Saviour who was to come. The faith of Christians, on the other hand, rests upon a Saviour who has once "visited us in great humility, and who will come again in glorious majesty."*

the

This Saviour, Abraham, the great progenitor of the Jewish nation, saw by faith. And to him the promise was made that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. He was to be the Father of nations -"the heir of the world." This was the first great unfolding of germ of prophecy given to our first parents in the garden of Eden. A still further development was made by Nathan the prophet, when he was sent to David with this gracious message, "I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his

* Collect for the First Sunday in Advent.

† John viii. 56.

Genesis xii. xvii. xxii.

§ Romans iv. 13.