(Acts vii. 38), "Who received the lively oracles given to us." This word "oracles" is rendered, in Cruden's Concordance, by the Hebrew word Caphoreth, (see Exodus xxv. 18, 20, 22,) which covered the Mercy Seat by the glorious Shechinah, which was the Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of Fire by night, that covered the camp of the Israelites, and truly pertains and belongs to them, and to no other people, neither is it any where promised to the Gentile church under the Gospel, but through the literal Jew or Israelite at the winding up or fulness of this Gospel dispensation; therefore God asks this question through Moses, "For what nation* is there so great, who hath God so nigh them (ah! here is the meaning of the word "Caphoreth," the Oracles, which availeth the Jew "much every way,") as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" (See Deut. iv. 7.)

And they having been chosen and set apart by God, and blessed by this oracle and testimony communicated to them through Moses, is the very reason assigned by God himself, that the Jews, as a "people, hath found grace in his sight," and were to be considered as his people, and were to be "separated as his people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth;" and the very

*See 2nd Sam. vii. 23; and Psalms cxlvii. 19, 20.

reason for all this is, that to them were committed the Oracles, and belonged the Glory, as we may be more fully convinced by reading the thirty-third chapter of Exodus, 13th to 23rd verses, thus: "Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that

I may find grace in thy sight; and consider that

this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence (i. e. the Angel of My Presence, the Cloud of Glory,) shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all people that are upon the face of the earth." These last words correspond perfectly with the Apostle's words, that "the advantage of the Jew, and the profit of circumcision, is much every way." "And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy Glory." Ah me! here Moses strikes again the highest chord on David's harp. "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I

will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face*: for there shall no man see me, and alive. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen."

And I have not the least doubt that, as the calling of the Gentiles by this Gospel dispensation excited the jealousy of the Jews, so the calling in again of the Jews, and blessing them with the exceeding excellency of the Shechinah Glory, will provoke the jealousy of the Gentiles; and they will never brook it, nor humble themselves before it but they will have God to contend and fight against in that day, and not man, nor the poor, despised, forlorn Jew, who is now a by-word and reproach amongst all nations.

It will all be in vain in that day, to quote the many abstract and particular blessings promised to the Gentiles, or spiritual Israel, as they call themselves, "when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in." This dispensation is good in its day but its end is Glory, and not merely Light; and the very Light of this dispensation will incease

* "Face of God" is the fullest manifestation and discovery of God's character to man; and this is the Shechinah Glory.

the Glory, as Paul says in 2 Cor. vii. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stone, was glorious, so that the childern of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away--how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For ifthe ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed the Glory.

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the Glory that excelleth; for if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

And here is the great and astounding mystery to us Gentiles, that the Jew is to be the administrator of Glory, of the ministration of the Spirit, in the first place; as Paul says, "Who has made us able ministers of the New Testament-not of the letter but of the spirit;" and he was a Jew, and if he had not been a Jew he could not have been one of the ministers of this Glory of the New Testament, seeing God had confirmed his promise by an oath, and "called out of heaven the second time," and swore by himself (and he could swear by none greater,) that "because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless

thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." (See Gen. xxii. 11-19.) And here is the succession and unbroken line of blessing: first, Abraham; second, Jesus Christ; thirdly and lastly, the Jew. The Jew in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in the Jew. And here the first is now last, and soon the last will be first; for "salvation is of the Jew." And this at once clears up who the younger son is, mentioned in the 15th chapter of Luke, 11th verse, who obtained from his father his "portion of goods, but who went into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living." Admitting this younger son to be the literal Jew, all is clear and plain, as is corroborated in the birth of Esau and Jacob, without being forced to the necessity of that mystical and spiritualizing interpretation of making out the elder son to be the flesh, or Esau, and the younger son to be the spirit, or the spiritual birth, Isaac. * This last interpretation must be far

* The absurdity of this interpretation will at once appear, if we only look at the 31st verse of the 15th of Luke; for the father, addressing the eldest son, (i. e. flesh), says, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Now will any one say, the flesh is always with God? or all that God has belongs to the flesh? this would indeed be strange and revolting doctrine.