hopes on an erroneous foundation, in such an application of the Old Testament. It is one of the privileges too of this day, that we can now freely restore to our brethren the Jews their own promises, without being tempted, by the smart of their enmity, as the early Church was, to rob them, and without impoverishing our own stores of blessings. How large are the thoughts of love of our God!

As a general rule, it must also be admitted, that it is not right to interpret part of the same prophecy exclusively literally and another part exclusively figuratively. Each part of the prophecy must be interpreted throughout, on the same principle. If one part be literally fulfilled, so in due time will the remainder; the gathering, for instance, must be as literal as the scattering; (Jer. xxxi. 10-12.) the reign of the Saviour as the birth of the Saviour. Luke i. 31, 32. This is conclusive as to the accomplishment being yet future of parts of prophecies, which have been sometimes exclusively interpreted in part literally and in part spiritually. Throughout there may be both a literal and a figurative interpretation, but a prophecy cannot be thus partially divided, and exclusively interpreted on different principles.

3. And farther, in all cases we would strenuously assert that THE TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST HAVE AN ACTUAL INTEREST THROUGH HIM IN ALL THE SPI

RITUAL PROMISES of blessings in the Old Testament, as all belonging to Christian believers. Here there is no doubt. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Gal. iii. 29. We have a right through faith in Jesus to the use and enjoyment of such promises; just as the neighbour among the Jews had a right to eat the grapes on the ground, but not to carry away any in a vessel from the owner of the vineyard. Deut. xxiii. 24. Thus the promises of the Old Testament are in the confession

of all properly interpreted, and the church of Christ has thus scripturally applied to itself from age to age all the rich promises of spiritual blessings.

But this should never be done, and need never be done to the injury of the Jew. The inheritance is theirs. The rich reserve is theirs, the moment they welcome Christ. We must not, we need not, rob them, nor weaken their interest in the literal, entire, and complete fulfilment of the prediction in ages to come, when they shall nationally turn to the Lord, and still less should we do it under the pretence of exalting the scriptures by comprising the whole in a merely spiritual sense.

The prophecies seem to be so expressed as specially to guard us against mistakes, for it is impossible in many prophecies, at least with our present knowledge and experience, to sustain a figurative interpretation throughout with consistency; while a literal interpretation, admitting there may be a future fulfilment, is easy, perspicuous, and profitable. Hence we judge all such merely figurative interpretations fail of the full and primary meaning of the Holy Spirit in giving the prophecies for the edification of the church.

2. SOME PLAIN PREDICTIONS PROMISING THE FUTURE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

Let us now give some plain predictions out of that abundance with which God has provided us, always bearing in mind that great rule of interpretation which God himself has given us; all the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward (margin, wreathed) or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Prov. viii. 8, 9.

I will omit the earlier books of scripture and the Psalms, not because of want of evidence in those books (as may be seen in the second Appendix to

this volume), but because of the abundance, and that brevity which is here studied may not be exceeded. I would however just observe how remarkably God has intertwined this doctrine in the Psalms with the devotions of his church, to lead his remembrancers to constant and fervent prayer for the blessing. Isa. lxii. 6, 7.

Let us take a few proofs, then, out of very many from the prophets, and then give the New Testament evidence on this subject.

(1.) Isaiah xi. 11, 12. It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.....And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, &c.

The deliverance from Egypt was a literal and not a spiritual recovery, the second must be like it, literal.* The prophecy was written before the captivity of the two tribes in Babylon, but after that of the ten in Assyria. It was not fulfilled in its plain extent in the return from Babylon. The two tribes then came from Chaldea only, and without miracles. It contains explicit statements of a return, with miracles, which have no obvious spiritual meaning. It remains there

* Some think that the Prophet by the second time refers first to the deliverance from Babylon, and then to an enlarged deliverance a second time from their present dispersion, dwelling on the words the remnant recovered. It appears to me rather to refer as above stated, first to the deliverance from Egypt and then to the remnant which should be still preserved after being scattered in so many different countries. Compare Isa. xliii. 18. Jer. xvi. 14, 15, and xxiii. 7, 8. See also v. 15, 16, and Isa. li. 9-11. In all these passages the great deliverance is contrasted with the deliverance from Egypt as equally miraculous and superior in glory. The return from Babylon was an earnest of the restoration, but clearly did not answer to the extent of this prophecy.

fore to be fulfilled literally hereafter. The whole connection strengthens the view of a future fulfilment.

(2.) Isaiah xviii. 7. In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, Mount Zion.

It is generally now acknowledged that the remarkable prophecy contained in this 18th chapter is yet unfulfilled. The restoration of Israel is, however,

clearly predicted.*

(3.) Isaiah xxxiii. 20. 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 states thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords ever be broken.

This cannot admit of a past fulfilment. It is joined with expressions (v. 1—9,) that do not furnish, as far

* Bishop Horsley, Dr. Buchanan, and others appear to refer the land shadowing with wings to this country. They would make the commencement, not woe, but ho! an exhortatory and encouraging address. This is against all the ancient versions (see Walton's Polyglot and the Jewish Commentaries of Jarchi and Kimchi). It appears to me a prophecy, like the others, not of mercy but of woe, to a nation oppressing Israel. The Hebrew interjection occurs forty-eight times in the Old Testament, and excepting in Isaiah lv. 1. and Zechariah ii. 6, 7. is used by our translators for terms of grief or threatening. It clearly refers to the last days, as is evident from the mention of the harvest and the vintage, (compare v. 5, with Rev. xiv. 15-20, and v. 3, with Matt. xxiv. 30, 31). Overflowing rivers are the figures of nations spoiling another nation. Isaiah viii. 7, 8. Some have thought that it relates to America, and the author's own mind has inclined, without indeed any thing like firm conviction, to that idea. America is a land, to the Jews looking eastward beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, in the large sense of that word, Gen. ii. 13. The native Indians of America have long been supposed, with some foun. dation to be the descendants of the Ten Tribes, and America, both North and South, has been peculiarly a land of line, line, and treading under foot (v. 2, marginal reading,) of the native Indians. But however this may be, the prophecy is clear as to the restoration of Israel, and may lead us to see that there are Old Testament predictions manifestly yet unfulfilled.

as we can judge, a merely spiritual application, so that in neither sense can we so understand it; it remains to be literally fulfilled hereafter.

(4.) Isaiah li. 11-22. The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. -Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury, thou shalt no more drink it again. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.

To this day, and for the last 1800 years, the Jews have been drinking of this cup, and the spiritual church also is now sowing in tears. The prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled, and both the literal and spiritual Israel shall yet partake of its promised mercies.

(5.) Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper; and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord, our righ

teousness.

Mr. M'Neile has a valuable lecture on this passage, shewing abundantly that it yet waits for its literal accomplishment. After proving this, he justly argues, that as Christ is to reign and prosper in the earth, the earth cannot be destroyed immediately on his second coming. And that, whatever change may take place on the earth, the geographical distinctions of countries will remain discernible, so far at least as will be necessary to distinguish Palestine from all the other countries of the earth; and national distinctions will remain discernible, so far at least as will be necessary to distinguish the Jewish nation from all the other nations of the earth.

(6.) Jer. xxxi. 10-12. Hear the word of the Lord,