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the application of the victories of Deborah and Gideon, to the future deliverance of the Jews and destruction of their enemies. Compare Psalm lxxxiii. 9-18. with Judges iv. and v. and vii. 25.

IV. Fourthly, I appeal to the analogy of sound doctrine: not indeed for an independent proof, but for a corroboration of what appears to me to be already proved.

It has been the practice of the best Christian divines, in all ages of the church, to derive illustrations from the Lord's dealings with the Jewish nation, explanatory of the doctrines of the New Testament, and of the dealings of God with his believing people in Jesus Christ. The warrant for this practice rests on the typical nature of the Jewish nation and history. The nation was a type of the church: the promises of the land of Canaan, to the nation, were typical of the promises of final salvation, body and soul, to the people of God and the whole history of the nation was typical of the experience of New Testament believers.

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Thus the sovereign choice, from amongst his brethren, of a man of the Chaldeans, Abraham, the son of Terah, the father of the nation: the sovereign rejection of his son Ishmael, and confirmation of the promise to Isaac; and the still

more marked distinction made between the two sons of Isaac before the children were born, or had done any good or evil;-illustrate in the most striking manner the election of God's sovereign grace, to the exercise of which he vindicates his undeniable prerogative, saying, "Have not I a right to do what I will with my own?" and which he has so put into righteous operation, that an Apostle, commenting upon this very point, lays it down as a general truth, not to be gainsayed, that salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.*

Thus, again, the long-suffering of God with the Jewish nation, as it is written, " Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity nevertheless he regarded their affliction. when he heard their cry; and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies;" (Psal. cvi. 43-45; see also Hosea xi. 7, 8, 9)-illustrates touchingly the patient love of Jesus our Lord towards the ungrateful and provoking members of his mystical body. To this long-suffering the Jewish nation was indebted for its continued existence; and every disciple of Jesus Christ may well

*Rom. ix. 16-23.

say, "It

is of the Lord's mercy that I am not consumed,"

66 if thou wert extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand?"-" not that thou art slack concerning the fulfilment of thy promises or threatenings, as men count slackness; but thou art long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."*

Thus, also, the holy jealousy of the Lord over the Jewish nation, giving them into the hands of their enemies for their national offences, requiring repentance from them, promising repentance to them, and bringing them to repentance, before he delivered them from bondage ;-illustrates the paternal chastisement and watchful care of which all the children of God in Christ Jesus are partakers, for "he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,” he prunes sharply every fruit-bearing branch, that it may bring forth more fruit. The effect of such discipline is thus beautifully described by the Apostle, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11,

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Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of ;....................for behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, Psal. cxxx. 2 Pet. iii. 9.

*Lam. iii. 22.

yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!" Now as the dealings of the Lord with the Jewish nation, in times past, illustrate this doctrine of the church; so also does this doctrine, now existing in the church, confirm our interpretation of the prophecies, that thus it shall be again with the Jewish nation. Their sorrow must precede their restoration.

We may go one step further, though the subject more properly belongs to our next Lecture, and say, that the unchanging faithfulness of God to his church, confirmed by many infallible promises, is a token and pledge of the sure accomplishment of his promise of final restoration

*To those who maintain that no such promises are given; that certainty in the matter of salvation is a most dangerous doctrine; that the Lord Jesus Christ travailed in agony and bloody sweat even unto death, leaving it to the option of fallen creatures, whether he shall ever see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, or not; there is of course no strength in this branch of analogy. But to as many as are persuaded that Jehovah has mercifully taken the end as well as the beginning of this work into his own hand; that his purpose is unchangeable, and his covenant, for the accomplishment of it, ordered in all things and sure; that the revealed office of the Holy Ghost is effectually (by means, indeed, of motives working in the moral constitution of the creature, but still effectually and invariably) to apply what the Lord Jesus has perfectly prepared; and that the final salvation, therefore, soul and body, of every member of the mystical body of Christ is infallibly certain, because God is unalterably true. To as many, I repeat, as are cast into

to the Jews, when their uncircumcised hearts shall be humbled, and when he shall remember his covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, and shall remember the land. Concerning the church, we say, salvation is promised to the penitent; and except they repent, they cannot be saved: and, again, repentance is promised to them that they may be saved; and being penitent, saved they most surely shall be. Concerning the Jewish nation, we say, restoration is promised to the penitent nation; and except they repent, they cannot be restored: and, again, repentance is promised to them that they may be restored; and being penitent, restored they most surely shall be.

V. Finally, those prophecies which seem opposed to the view here taken of the penitence of the nation, and which have been frequently quoted against it, apply, I conceive, to a totally different branch of the subject. In Ezekiel xx. 42, 43, we read, as addressed to the Jewish nation, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand

the mould of this sound and orthodox doctrine of the Catholic church, there is, in the analogy before us, a demonstration of the return of the Jews to their own land.

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