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LECTURE IV.

LEVITICUS XXVI. 40-42.

"If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass that they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me. And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then, their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land."

We have now considered the separation and the depression of the Jewish people. Their separation from the commencement of their history, including, first, the whole twelve tribes, then the kingdom of Judah as distinguished from the outcasts of Israel, and subsequent to the time of Messiah, the same kingdom of Judah considered nationally, as dis

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tinguished from the remnant of individuals converted in each succeeding age to the faith of Christ -their depression, during the times of the Gentiles, called by our Lord, in Matthew xxiv. 29, "the tribulation of those days," or as it is expressed in the parallel passage in Luke xxi. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

We have further considered what we are to understand by this expression, the times of the Gentiles; and advanced some arguments in proof of the opinion that the dispensation under which we now live will end in like manner as the times of the antediluvian dispensation, and the times of the Jewish dispensation ended; being designed for the separation of an elect church from amongst the nations, which is to find its completion in the return of Christ, its head, previous to the introduction of that glorious purpose of universal mercy which Jehovah has revealed towards our fallen world.

We thus advanced in our subject to the conclusion of this present dispensation; and then, and there, we found the Christian churches apostate, and ruined; a remnant only being saved: then and there also, we found the Jews a separate people. We now repeat our question, what is then to be done with the Jews? Has God revealed his further intentions concerning them; and if so, what are those intentions?

This leads us into the region of simple, unassisted prophecy. As long as we had history and observation for our companions, we had an occasional, and, I must be bold to add, an unanswerable appeal to them: but now, we go where no man can follow, who requires any further proof than the simple dictum of the Holy Scriptures, thus saith the Lord. We enter upon a narrow path, clearly traced, indeed, by the inspiring hand of the Holy Ghost, that glorious, ready writer, whose pens are the prophets; but not admitting of any excursive corroboration. History, however, is still of use to us; because, containing the fulfilment of some prophecies, it contains, at the same time, a guide to the interpretation of the prophetic language and it is of use still further, so far as the prophets themselves point to it, as typical, or as containing analogical similitudes. Analogies and types, drawn from revelation itself, cannot of course be expected to have any influence upon the minds of those who deny the divine authority of that revelation; and as I have reason (from various private letters lately received) to believe that some such persons are here present, and have followed the subject with us thus far; I would now, with earnestness and much affection, entreat them, as my beloved brethren and fellow-sinners in Adam, to revert to what has been briefly said upon the fact of the separation of the Jews from all nations, unto this day; and with solemn candour to come to a

resolute determination of mind upon the arguments there adduced; remembering, that it is not the Shibboleth of a party amongst men that is at stake; but their own everlasting salvation, both body and soul. The condition of such persons is truly appalling. In the good providence of God, they have been baptized in the name of his dear Son, and have had the oracles of his truth intrusted to their care, and pressed upon their perusal: they have thus been transferred from the wide waste of Tyre and Sidon, into the cultivated enclosure of Chorazin and Bethsaida. But they have despised the baptism; they have resisted the Holy Ghost; they have neglected, nay even denied the Scriptures: under the watchful care of the husbandman, they have proved barren cumberers of the ground; yea, worse, they have been as noxious weeds, distilling poison, and blighting, by their baneful influence, many a fair and promising flower. They cannot stand in the judgment, absolutely, as ignorant and comparatively irresponsible heathen men: no, they must appear before God relatively as deserters and apostates. May the abounding mercy of Jehovah, in Christ Jesus, whom they deny, be extended to them with power, now while it is yet time; pardoning all their sins, including this deadly sin of unbelief: and may the Holy Ghost graciously guide them into the saving truth of the Holy Scriptures!

With the great majority, however, amongst us, thus saith the Scripture, is all sufficient proof. Our

difficulty is in ascertaining unequivocally what the Scripture does say; and our differences of opinion, one from the other, are differences of interpretation only, not of standard.

The question now before us is, What has God revealed concerning his purposes towards the Jews, at and subsequent to the termination of the times of the Gentiles? An adequate answer to this inquiry would include a great variety of particulars. On the present occasion, let us specially consider THEIR PENITENCE IN THEIR DISPERSION, as immediately leading to their restoration to the land of their forefathers.

They shall acknowledge their iniquity, and the consequent righteousness of God's chastisements: they shall recognize his hand, in their dispersion among their enemies they shall accept their punishment from him, as a token of holy love; and they shall cry to him for deliverance out of their distresses. These shall be the beginnings in them of the manifestation of God's sovereign mercy towards them, preparatory, and immediately antecedent to their restoration. This state of mind and heart is frequently spoken of, as the obviously implied condition, upon the performance of which their restoration hangs suspended: but God has graciously made the condition of one promise, the subject matter absolutely of another; thus pledging himself to work in them, all that he requires from them.

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