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LECTURE VII.

ISA. lii. 9, 10. "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusa lem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

We have now advanced, and, I think, established, from the sure word of God, these important positions concerning the Jewish nation,-1. Although many individuals among them may be, as many have been, converted to Christianity, and thereby incorporated with the church of Christ; yet the Jews, as a nation, shall be preserved to the end, a completely separate people. 2. So preserved separate, they shall be restored as a nation to the possession of that land wherein their fathers dwelled. And, 3. So restored, they shall have our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, to be their king.

There remain two topics more, the subjects of many and most animated predictions, to which I now solicit your attention, and with which I shall conclude.

I. The restored Jewish nation shall have national pre-eminence in the earth.

II. The restored Jewish nation shall prove a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

On these subjects, the language of the prophets is sometimes that of ordinary prediction, but more frequently of rapturous apostrophe and admiration. Addressing the restored Jewish nation, as standing before their eyes in her glory and beauty, they proclaim her to be the glory and beauty of the whole earth: they call also upon the heavens and the earth to rejoice in her redemption, and the manifested glory of her God therein: and they hail the light of the Lord, which shall then have arisen upon her, as the attraction unto salvation of all the ends of the world. "Awake, awake! put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. Break forth into joy, sing together ye

waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

The beam that shines on Zion's hill,

Shall lighten every land;

The King who reigns in Zion's towers,

Shall the whole world command.

I. The restored Jewish nation shall have national pre-eminence in the earth.

This is the main point with Isaiah. He does indeed describe, with all but historical accuracy, the work of salvation by Messiah, at his first coming. He does indeed mourn, over the present degraded state of Zion, till Messiah returns with power as her Redeemer. But when that longed-for era is set before him by the Spirit, however the prelude of his strain may touch on other topics, and introduce the Conqueror as coming with vengeance on Moab, or Babylon, or Bozra, it is but the prelude. The risen glory of the Jewish nation, is the brightness of the field of view, in his prophetic vision. There he hastens, there the chorus rests, and swells, and prolongs, and repeats its tones of ecstatic harmony. The soul of the seer is satisfied with the theme. The Spirit of the Lord is willing that he should be so. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee; the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba, shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore, thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The sons also of them that afflicted thee, shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee, shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the

Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas, thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee.”—The utter impossibility of applying such expressions as these to the Christian church, which has never been so forsaken, corroborates our former arguments, condemns the evasive system of figurative interpretations, and identifies the party addressed by the Prophet, to wit, the long forsaken and hated, but in the end restored and glorious, nation of the twelve tribes of Israel.— "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks; and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and vine-dressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord; men shall call you the ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves."

This prophecy last quoted, describes the nature of the Jewish national glory, when their king shall be king over all the earth. "One king, and his name one.' It will not consist in such elements of superiority, as now constitute the glory of nations. Military and naval prowess, literary fame, commercial prosperity, splendid attainments in the arts and sciences for the enjoyment and embellishment of social life, enlightened and liberal policy, improving revenues-in a word, internal resources, and external power-domestic arrangements, which leave all other nations far behind us; and foreign influence, to dictate laws to the world; making advantageous treaties to the aggrandisement of our empire, and the extension of our commerce; or magnanimously making disadvantageous treaties, to the glory of our generosity. These, and such as these, are now the themes of national triumph; in these consists the preeminence of national glory. But the pre-eminence of the restored Jewish nation, will consist in a superiority of a wholly different nature from this.

The national glory of this dispensation is inseparable from unrighteousness. National honours are now the grand prizes of successful ambition; national emoluments, of successful traffic. Whether combination or opposition be traced in the various wheels of the machine, it is SELF that supplies the moving power: interest and vanity compose the main-springs. Principle is outraged, friendships violated, truth disregarded, consistency scoffed at: envy, hatred, and malice, are inspired into the rival pretenders to the prizes, and pride into their triumphant possessors. Deceit and fraud, dishonesty and dishonour, are in the way; loftiness and tyranny, luxury and self-indulgence, are at the end. This is but too susceptible of proof, if such proof were our present object. Indeed, it is not

* Zech. xiv. 9.

denied, all disguise is thrown off; and the man who would now talk of disinterested patriotism, in any other way than with a sneer at the hypocrisy of the pretension, would be considered as fitter for exportation to Utopia, than for a seat in our senatehouse.

The restored Jewish nation, on the contrary, shall be, what our world has never yet seen, nor shall see, till Israel presents the glorious consummation-A RIGHTEOUS NATION! "In that day, shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. . . . . Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in." "Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand; and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time. I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them. 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: I 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. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new heart also will I give you,. . 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. I will also save you from all your unThe remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.' ”张

cleannesses.

Again, the national glory of this dispensation is inseparably connected with war, and the wretchedness and misery consequent thereupon. It opens various pretexts for aggression to ambitious monarchs: it supplies various themes for irritating eloquence to rival statesmen. Quarrels of pride ensue. Monarchs and statesmen do not fight alone, but drag in their train the thousand kindling spirits of their subjects, ardent to redress the nation's wrongs, to vindicate the nation's glory. Hence the voice of mourning in their lands, the widow's tear, the orphan's cry! delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.

The restored Jewish nation, on the contrary, shall be a

* Isa. xxvi. 1, 2; lx. 21, 22; lxi. 3. Jer. xxxi. 33; xxxii. 39, 40. Ezek. Xxxvi. 24-29. Zeph. iii. 13. Zech. xiv. 20, 21.

peaceful nation; and, under their dominion, there shall be universal and permanent peace in all the earth. "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken: but there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us. . . . . . . In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. . . . . . . And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit, every man under his vine, and under his figtree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem."* The child that was born unto us of the seed of Abraham; the Son that was given unto us of a virgin of the house and lineage of David; the Saviour, on whose unseen arm a chosen people have been long leaning for support, in the midst of temptation, and persecution, and scorn, shall then have the visible government of the world upon his shoulder, and be manifested as the Prince of Peace. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it, with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this."t

Once more. The national glory of this dispensation may consist with infidelity. A man who is an infidel may be a glorious king; a glorious general or admiral; a glorious statesman, poet, artist, or philosopher. Men of any creed, or of no creed, are alike eligible to national honour and glory. Of such a nature is this glory, that its richest laurels may entwine a brow within which the fear, or even the existence, of a God

Isa. xxxiii. 20-24: Psal. lxxii. 7. Micah iv. 1-8. + Isa, ix. 6, 7.