of this promise, under the old covenant, is sufficient to prove the point. For, by this engagement of the covenant, he accounted himself pledged to the nation to be their KING; and, according to the character of that typical and imperfect dispensation, he was their king in the midst of them; dwelling among them, and ruling them, not, indeed, visibly, but, yet, by visible symbols of his presence: the glory of the Lord appearing over the mercy-seat, and "his Urim and his Thummim" being "with Levi, his Holy One." (Deut. xxxiii. 8.)

Now, we argue thus. If, under that dispensation of shadows, these visible displays of the Divine glory were, yet, necessary to the fulfilment of this promise, what can we look for, when the reality is come, which the former dispensation prefigured, but the substance of the Mosaic shadow-the very presence of Deity: Immanuel, God with us? "If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory:" and how can the symbol of Deity be exceeded, but by the actual presence of the Being symbolized? An invisible, spiritual presence of Christ may satisfy the promise, while (as at present) the covenant is made good in the hearts of an invisible, spiritual people. But, when the kingdom shall be visible,

certainly, the King will be so, too.

covenant shall be Israel's national

When the

covenant,

Messiah, their prince, will remember, and fulfil his name, 66 Immanuel, GOD WITH US." He has the promise of the throne of his father David, and that throne he will fill. He is now gone into the far country, "to receive for himself the kingdom:" he is sitting on God's throne, at his right hand, till all things be ripe, for his enemies being made his footstool, and then he will "return, having received the kingdom." (Luke xix. 11—15.) So he told his nation, when he presented himself to them, at the first, as their king, and they rejected him: "Ye shall not see me, henceforth, TILL ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt. xxiii. 39.) Then they shall behold him again. "The Redeemer shall come to Zion," and he "shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke i. 33.) Then that word shall be accomplished, that is addressed to them by their Prophet Zephaniah, (ch. iii. 14, 15,) " Sing, O daughter of Zion: shout, O Israel: be glad, and rejoice with all thine heart, O daughter of Jerusalem: the Lord hath taken away thy judgments: he hath cast out thine enemy: THE KING OF ISRAEL, even the Lord, is IN THE MIDST OF THEE: thou shalt not see

evil, any more.” No: God himself is with them, and is their God: and this will well account for all that singular glory, which is described as resting, in that day, upon Israel: "THY GOD, THY GLORY." "The Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients, gloriously." "I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

The third, and last, of these promises of sanctification, is one

3. Of Divine illumination. "They shall teach, no more, every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."

A partial, spiritual fulfilment, this promise also, like the rest, has, even now, in the experience of all who believe. They "have an unction from the Holy One, and they know all things:" all (that is, for facts compel us so to limit it) that is essential for them to know, connected with the salvation of their souls: such a knowledge herein, as the holiest and wisest, of Old Testament saints, could, in no way, attain.

66

But, if we consider the precise terms of this promise, They shall no more teach, saying, Know the Lord: All shall know me, from the least to the greatest:" we must, at once, acknow

ledge, that, in anything like a strict and literal sense, these words, even as respects the spiritual Church, have never yet had an accomplishment. Mutual exhortations, and helps, and teachings, are still needed, by God's most favoured children, notwithstanding the increase of light, and the superior inward illumination by the Spirit, enjoyed, in our day, above the days of the old

covenant.

It shall be otherwise, in that day of spiritual light, and brightness of glory, that is presently to dawn on Israel. Then this promise of the covenant shall have, in them, its plenary and strict accomplishment. "It shall come to pass, afterward, (says Joel, ch. ii. 28, after the destruction of the northern army,) that I will pour out my Spirit (evidently, as a spirit of illumination,) upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams: your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit." "All shall know me, from the least of them (the servants and the handmaids) unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."

In the day of Pentecost, and in the first days of the Gospel Church, God was pleased to give a little earnest of this grace. We have only to look at 1 Cor. xii. to see how differently things were

ordered, to what they are, or could possibly be, now, in their worshipping assemblies, when (as the apostle tells them) they might "all prophesy, one by one, that all might learn, and all might be comforted." But these gifts presently ceased in the Church. This promise is to have its completeness of truth, when the covenant shall be Israel's national covenant, in the latter days.

The reason of so singular a state of things, so marvellous an illumination of that whole people, one and all of them, that instruction, such as is common with us at present, shall be absolutely useless, and superseded,-The reason (I say) of this, on our view, is evident. The great Prophet of the Church-the true Solomon-"who, of God, is made unto us wisdom," shall then be present with his people Israel, and the anointing upon the head of their king shall flow down to every subject of his blessed rule: "The spirit of wisdom and understanding: the spirit of counsel and might: the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and shall make (them) of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah xi. 2, 3.) Then God's Urim and Thummim shall be with all his holy ones, as, in imperfect type and "pattern" of these "heavenly things," it was with Levi, under the old covenant. "Their sons and their daughters, their old and their young,

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