O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, he that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the heights of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord; for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

The distinction between the Gentiles and Israel, as well as the locality and the temporal blessings, lead us to the literal, and not to the merely spiritual sense. The sorrowing no more at all excludes the past fulfilment. The scattering is literal and visible. We admit it, for we can now behold it. Let us then inherit our Lord's blessing, by believing their future restoration. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

(7.) Jer. xxxi. 37–40. Thus saith the Lord, If hea- ̧ ven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out from beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, from the tower of Hananeel, &c., it shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more at all.

This is a very remarkable promise assuring their future restoration. It meets the objection about the sin and guilt of Israel, as having broken the covenant and forfeited the promise; the names of places are such as to make it very improbable that a merely spiritual sense was intended, and the last part of the prophecy is in the sight of the world unfulfilled.

(8.) Jer. xxxiii. 7—9. I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first; and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have

sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

The promise of pardoning all the iniquities by which the covenant had been forfeited, the restoration of both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and the honour thereby given from all nations to God, and their reverence and fear, clearly Exclude this from a merely spiritual sense, a lost and forfeited covenant, or a past fulfilment.

(9.) The fullest and most complete prophecy of the scripture on this subject, is from the 36th chapter of Ezekiel to the end of his prophecy. Observe particularly-It is concerning the land of Israel, and is addressed unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the vallies. xxxvi. 6. The promise is given (v. 12-15), I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men-thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord God. The very sight of the land of Israel shews this prophecy to be fulfilled. In ver. 24, it is said, I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land; and then follows the richest promises of spiritual blessings yet to be bestowed.

In the 37th chapter the restoration is promised, under the striking and lengthened figure of the resurrection of those who had been long dead.* The

I would by no means exclude a literal resurrection as also intended in this remarkable prophecy, though the chief purpose be to point out the restoration of Israel to their own land, by the admitted fact of the resurrection. (See Tertullian and Jerome) We know certainly, from Dan. xii. 1, 2, that a resurrection from the dead is imme

prophecy is so expressed in the latter part of the chapter, as to meet the peculiarity of the restoration from Babylon, and distinctly to shew a farther restoration. In the return from Babylon a few of the ten ribes came back, as well as larger bodies of the two tribes, and those few are distinctly noticed, and another and farther restoration promised; there is not only Judah and the children of Israel his companions, but Joseph the stock of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions, and these are to be gathered on every side, and brought into their own land, and made one nation in the land, and no more be two nations, neither divided into two kingdoms any more at all....and they shall dwell in the land wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children's children for ever; and my servant David, or the beloved one, shall be their prince for ever. Nothing can be expressed more plainly, explicitly, and absolutely, to reveal a future literal restoration. These chapters, were there nothing else in the scriptures, are, to the author's conviction, conclusive of a literal restoration yet to take place. There has been no united, constant, and uninterupted possession of the land hitherto; it is yet to come.

But the 38th and 39th chapters shew us the troubles through which the Jewish nation will have to pass,

diately connected with the deliverance of Israel. It is also customary with the prophets thus to join together a figurative and a literal resurrection. Hosea (vi. 2) seems to refer, in the words, After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight, first to the restoration of Israel in the third of those thousands of years (2 Peter iii. 8), which have elapsed since their captivity (in 721 before Christ), and also to the resurrection of our Lord ON THE THIRD DAY, which is no where else expressly predicted. 1 Cor. xv. 4. In the resurrection of the saints we have тHE WHOLE OF THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL raised. In the restoration of the ten as well as of the two tribes, we have THE WHOLE OF THE NATIONAL ISRAEL restored and so all Isruel shall be saved. Our Lord uses similar terms to describe the resurrection. John v. 28. The early Fathers applied this passage in Ezekiel to a literal resurrection. See Irenæus, lib. v. ch. 15, 16. See also Martyr's Common Places, part iii. ch. xv. 41-46.

before they have quietly the permanent possession of the land. The prophecy refers to the latter days, and re-gathered Israel in their own land, and its close (xxxix. 28, 29), is in the sight of all men unfulfilled. Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen; but I have gathered them into their own land,

AND HAVE LEFT NONE OF THEM ANY MORE THERE.

Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Every Jew amongst us shews us that this is yet unfulfilled; an allegorical sense is to us too forced, uncertain, and obscure to be intended. How can the expressions in Ezek. xxxix. 25-29, be spiritualized in an application to Gentile believers? It seems to the author impossible in any just sense to do this. It remains then to be fulfilled in the literal restoration of Israel to their own land.

(10.) Hosea iii. 4, 5. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

The children of Israel may mean the whole twelve Tribes, or, as I am rather disposed to think, the ten Tribes (see ch. 1. 11). The ten Tribes did not return with Judah from Babylon, but were left in Assyria and Media. The latter days refers to a period yet to The abiding without a king continues. Neither the return nor the service have yet been accomplished: They remain to be fulfilled.

come.

(11.) Joel iii. 16, 17. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God

dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain, then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any

more.

To this day strangers, enemies to Israel, pass through and possess Jerusalem. The shaking here predicted, we learn in the New Testament is yet to come. Heb. xii. 26, 27. The mere spiritual sense is forced, and inexplicable in the words; we may gather therefore that it is yet to be accomplished in days to come.

(12.) Amos ix. 11–15. In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and will raise up his ruins; and I will build it as in days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord my God.

We have an infallible Commentator, the Holy Spirit, by the Apostle St. James. According to a mode of quoting, not uncommon in the New Testament, (see Discourse ix. in this volume.) the inspired writer when making a quotation, adds farther knowledge from the true author of the word of God. St. James (Acts xv. 15-17.) states the object of the Gentile dispensation-God did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name; and then thus quotes this prophecy: And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins of it, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is, or hath been called (eñirekλntai), saith the Lord, who doeth all things. St. James gathers then from this passage the important truth, clearly implied in it, that before the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David, a people was to be taken out of the Gentiles, seeing