for the authority of Holy Writ, which as Christians we are bound to maintain. And without departing altogether from that plain method of interpretation, which the common sense of mankind would adopt as that alone adapted to make the Scripture a universal practical book of evidence, and a revelation of the nature, truth, existence, and the future designs of God for man. As if however to yield the most convincing proof to the least credulous reader, the Prophets have inserted many passages describing minutely single objects in the features of Palestine, as their minds were elevated in the visions of God above its plains in the latter days, and they were permitted to behold the busy scenery of its restoration in its cities, its mountains, villages, and extended limits. These form our next section of examination into VI. THE PLACES, BOUNDARIES, AND CITIES, WHICH xxxiv. 2, The actual limits of the possessions which the Hebrew people were to hold, were defined by God to Moses, when in mount Nebo, before his death, he saw the whole spread out at his feet like a well-defined map. The Me- Deutero. diterranean sea, the river Jordan and the country beyond it, the mountains of Edom, and those of Lebanon formed its boundaries. This rich country, which is somewhat larger than England, was never yet to its utmost borders filled by the Jews. The Philistines maintained 3. 13. et seq. Ch. ii. 3. Gen. xv. 18 to end. Ch. xvii. [8. Josh. xxiii. themselves upon the sea coast for several centuries; Judg. i. 27, and remnants of the original nations were permitted by God to exist as trials to the Israelites, because they would not literally obey the commandments of Jehovah. In process of time the kingdom became stronger, and its greater power is observed under Solomon, who possessed as tributaries those people that still remained in the country. This land thus defined is still the possession of the present Jews; and no other nation has any right to it whatsoever. The legality of their claim is the statute of Genesis promulged by God to the nation, never revoked, annulled, or changed. They have only been driven out of it by a temporary violence. They hold themselves still in readiness to take possession of its soil on the first opening by political circumstances. "The Lord their God will bring them into the land which their fathers possessed, and they shall possess it." It was given as the inheritance of the nation, in perpetuity, by the divine owner of the soil. United in their two houses of Judah and Israel, "they shall come together out of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto Ch. xxiii. 7, your fathers." "From all countries whither I have driven them, they shall come, and they shall dwell in Ch. xxxi. 8. their own land. I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth.And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." Such a conveyance of property is not weakened by the lapse of years, because predicted violence only has deprived them of their rights. They still tenaciously maintain their inheritance, and the strong arm of might Deut. xxix. 5. Jer. iii. 18. 8. Verse 17. has hitherto, and up to the present moment alone forces this right into abeyance. The Turk is their oppressor, and the country must be wrested from his gripe. His unbelieving breath poisons the land, and his robber-like jurisprudence tortures, and despoils the Jew of his property and common rights as man. They hold their title-deeds in a volume which time cannot wear out, nor has all the blood shed from their veins been sufficient to blot out one line of the original documents or weaken their effect. "If heaven a 37. above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Jer. xxxi. Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord-I will plant them upon their land, and they shall be no 15. xxxiv. 1 more pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord." Nor are the actual limits of Amos ix. their future possessions less clearly defined, than the original limits to Moses and Abraham. It is still all theirs. It will be yet possessed by them. "They of Deutero. the south (from Jerusalem) shall possess the mount of Esau (in the south part of Palestine); and they of the plain the Philistines (or the coast of the Mediterranean sea); and they shall possess the fields of Obad. 19. Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead." -5. The countries formerly inhabited by the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, beyond the borders of the Dead Sea, are to become tributaries to the Jews. "Egypt," notwithstanding her gigantic efforts to be reinstated as a kingdom, "shall become a desolation, Is. xi. 14. and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness;" which in the case of the last country is already most signally K Joel iii. 19, 20. Amos ix. 12. Obad. 18. Is. lxv. 10. Verse 9. Jer. xxxi. 5. fulfilled, whilst as a contrast "Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." The few wandering inhabitants of Idumea, are only a mere remnant of its former condition, yet these shall be possessed by the new kingdom. Its present population is of Arab race; for the house of Esau "like stubble" has been devoured; and as it was said "there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau,” so strikingly it is accomplished, for Bedouin Arabs occupy their habitations, and none of Esau's people remain. The plain of" Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down." "The mountains," now so waste, shall be inhabited. Samaria," which has been for so many hundred years opposed even in worship to the Jews, they shall then possess, and "plant vines upon its mountains, and eat them as common things." The country around the Dead Sea where Sodom stood will become changed, and though we cannot suppose that the memorials of its destruction, engraven upon the local features of those places, will be ever wholly obliterated, yet its climate and soil may be ameliorated in some degree, and thus its captivity by desolation, famine, and sulphureous barrenness may return. This will be effected "when Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate." "And Jerusalem and her Ezek. xvi. daughters," (or in the language of prophecy), the cities and towns surrounding the metropolis, shall be rebuilt and prosper. The religion will then not be according to the old covenant ("not by thine") but 53-55. Verse 62. *Keith's Evidence of Prophecy. God will establish it by his new one. Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, exists in slavery and ruin, but the Jewish "people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Ye shall be comforted at Jerusalem." Her streets will be cleared of their rubbish, her houses shall be re-erected. "I will build thee and thou shalt 66 any Is. xxx. 19. Jer. xxxi. 4, 12. Joel iii. 17. 14. be built, O virgin of Israel. Jerusalem shall be holy," and the " strangers" of other nations shall not more pass through and trample her down as they have done. In the exulting language of prophecy, inanimate matter and forms are addressed as living things, when God arrays them with a new appearance by his power, and as if instinct with life they are directed to become vocal in his praise, and express the joy of their own transformations. Thus, "Sing," it Zeph. iii is said, "O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem." "The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, Verse 15. he hath cast out thine enemy, thou shalt not see evil any more." The new inhabitants are encouraged to build and prosper; "In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack! Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem." No change of site alters the position of the Holy city, but in the same places and above and surrounded by the sacred dust of their forefathers, the modern Jews raise up their habitations. "In that day the Lord shall defend Verse 7. the inhabitants of Jerusalem. "And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but v. 11. Zech. xii. 6. Verse 7. Ch. xiv. 11. |