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THE

VINE DISPENSATIONS

AND THEIR

GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT:

CEigjlt 2Di0cour0e0

BREACHED IN HURON COLLEGE CHAPEL

.i*«<*atji.«i/w

DURING MICHAELMAS TERM, 1865.

By J. HELLMUTH, D.D.,

ARCHDEACON OF HURON, PRINCIPAL AND DIVINITY PROFESSOR,
HURON COLLEGE, LONDON, CANADA WEST.

LONDON:
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

TORONTO : JAMES CAMPBELL & SON, and ROLLO & ADAM.
MONTREAL: JAMES CAMPBELL & SON.
I MDCCCLXVI.

»■

PREFATORY NOTE.

HE following course of Sermons
was preached in Huron College
Chapel during the present term, *
(Michaelmas 1865.) They were prepared
in the midst of many engagements and
college labours.

A desire, however, having been ex-
pressed by friends, whose opinion I
value, that they should be published,
I willingly yielded to their request.
My fervent prayer is, that the Holy

^^l 51

PREFATORY NOTE.

Spirit's influence may accompany the
preached Word, and that this feeble effort
in defence of God's truth may be owned
and blessed of God, for the furtherance
of His own glory, and the good of His
Church.

Huron College, London, Canada West,
December 1865.

CONTENTS.

I. INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE— THE GRADUAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIVINE DISPENSA-
TIONS,

II. ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS

OF THE PENTATEUCH,
in. THE TESTIMONY OF THE MOSAIC RECORD, .

IV. THE SELECTION OF THE JEWISH NATION FOR

THE PRESERVATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE
OF THE TRUE GOD,

V. THE TYPICAL NATURE OF THE MOSAIC

RITUAL, .

VL THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS THE SPIRIT OF

PROPHECY, .....

VII. THE CONVERSION AND FINAL RESTORATION

OF THE JEWS, . . .

Vin. THE CONVERSION AND FINAL RESTORATION

OF THE ]EWS~contmued, .

PAGE

64
86

107
128
150

«^> .,.,^mmmm^i^Kmm

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE— THE GRADUAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIVINE DISPEN-

SATIONS.

Eph. Hi. 10, II.

((

To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in
heavenly places, might be known by the church the mani-
fold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

O investigate the grounds upon which we
L>uild our confidence in the Scriptures,
as containing a revelation from God,
can never be a useless employment.
Even such whose faith is most firmly estab-
lished, feel themselves sometimes disturbed by
the unexpected assault of those who should be
the defenders of the faith.

f^MMi

2 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

The great enemy of our souls is also contin-
ually seeking to surprise us in some unguarded
moment ; and, when he cannot persuade us to
rebel against the acknowledged will of God, he
will endeavour to insinuate doubts concerning
the truth of revelation. Those doubts may not,
indeed, prevail so far as to make us reject its
testimony ; yet they cannot fail, whilst they
remain in the mind, to occasion great perplexity
and uneasiness. It is, therefore, by no means
unprofitable, even to established Christians, occa-
sionally to review the reasons which ^hey have
to give of the hope that is in them.

We fear that many, who, in the present day,
bear the name of Christians, are far from having
considered the subject with the attention which
it deserves. Born in a Christian country, and of
parents professing that religion, they have been
taught, from their infancy, to look upon the
Bible as the word of God. But they have
never seriously investigated the evidences by
which it is proved to be so ; nor have they any
better reason to give for their believing, than
that their ancestors believed before them.

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. 3

I would, by 110 means, be understood to in-
sinuate that, in order for a man to be convinced
of the truth of Christianity, he must of necessity
have studied a treatise on its evidences; much
less is it to be supposed, that the conviction
resulting from such study is all we are to under-
stand by faith. Even illiterate persons may
acquire a persuasion of the truth of Scripture, as
satisfactory to themselves, and as powerful in its
practical effects, as can be attained by the most
profound theologian. For he who has experi-
enced the power of divine grace in converting
him from sin to holiness; h^- who has been
brought to perceive th- agreement between his
own natural condition, and the account given in
the Bible of the fallen state of man ; he who
has obtained a saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as his Redeemer, and of the Holy
Spirit, as his Sanctifier ;— this man, believing "on
the Son of God, hath the witness in himself," and
has an evidence of the truth of Christianity
which, though he may not be able to communi-
cate to others, is abundantly satisfactory to
himself, and is sufficient to fill him with all

4 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

peace and joy in believing. Still, even to such
persons, it must be highly desirable to know
how they may answer the cavils of unbelievers,
who unhappily, in this age of perverted reason,
are to be found in every rank of society. ^

So extensively has the baneful poison of scep-
ticism and rationahsm been diffused of late, even
throughout the mother country, v/here Chris-
tianity seems to shine with brighter lustre than
in any other land, and that not only by pro-
fessed infidels, but by those who unhappily hold
posts of honour and emolument in the Church-
that it is impossible for any person, who keeps
up an intercourse with society, to be secure
against hearing the truths i.f our holy religion
attacked and ridiculed.

It becomes, therefore, the duty of every one
professing the Christian name t- make himself
thoroughly acquainted vdth the proofs of that
religion ; and more especially is this the duty of
all tliose who are, and intend to be, ministers of

the gospel.

There seems great reason to believe that the

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

scep-
;, even
Chris-
i than
^ pro-
Y hold
arch —

keeps
secure
eligion

ry one
iiimself
3f that
duty of
sters of

lat the

attacks which have been made against the Scrip-
tures, or portions of them, arise from an imper-
fect acquaintance with their contents, which
these persons have never perhaps studied in a
regular and connected manner, and much less in
the original language. The same cause pre-
vents numbers who are by no means to be
ranked with unbelievers, from having just views
of the design of revelation.

To benefit both these classes will be my
humble aim in this, and in a few following dis-
courses ; and may the Holy Spirit's influence
accompany and bless the preaching of the Word
for Christ's sake.

It is not my present purpose to direct your
attention to the subject, how much man stands
in need of revelation; how suitable the doc-
trines of Scripture are to his condition and his
wants; and how little they have the appear-
ance of being the offspring of mere human
reason ; but my design is to enlarge upon the
gradual progress of the divine dispensations, and
to show that the truths of religion have been un-

6 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

folded in such a manner as none but a Being of
infinite wisdom and almighty power alone could
have devised.

It is to this gradual development of the divine
counsels that the apostle seems to refer in the
words of the text, which hint at a plan of the
sublimest nature, and such as could have been
formed and executed by no finite agent. He
represents the eternal and all-glorious God as
having " created all things by Jesus Christ, to
the intent that unto the principalities and powers
in heavenly places, might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord."

The words here rendered "according to the
eternal purpose," {icaTCL nrpode^iiv tcov alcovwv,)
seem capable of being more accurately trans-
lated, " According to the predisposition of the
ages ; " and hence we are led to consider this
world as u spacious theatre, formed for the
manifestation of God's glorious attributes to
every order of intelligent creatures. His deal-
mo-<; with the Church are represented as having

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

reference to celestial, as well as terrestrial,
beings ; for, " to the principalities and powers
in heavenly places " are to be made mani-
fest "by the Church the manifold wisdom of
God."

These are subjects which we are assured the
angels desire to look into ; and, therefore, they
surely well deserve our attention, who are the
parties immediately concerned in them.

The principalities and powers in heavenly
places may meditate on these things with de-
light, because they afford a marvellous display
of the perfections of that God, whom with the
utmost affection and reverence they continually
adore ; and because they also make known His
designs of mercy to a race which, though now
degraded by sin, is destined to be made partaker
of a glory, scarcely, if at all, inferior to their own.
But surely they have a far stronger claim on
our study, to whose immortal happiness they re-
late ; surely we must justly be deemed inexcus-
able if we turn away from them with careless
indifference. .

I trust I shall have your serious attention oro-

8 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

portioned to the importance and dignity of the

subject.

My purpose is to trace the gradual development
of that plan which infinite wisdom and goodness
have formed for the recovery of fallen man.
But, since it has pleased God to make known
His designs on this subject through the peculiar
instrumentality of one chosen nation, it will be
to their history that I shall chiefly confine my-
self, by illustrating the testimony which, either
willingly or unwillingly, the Jews bear to the
religion of Christ.

To inquire why God did not see fit completely
to communicate the plan of the Christian dis-
pensation to the fallen ancestors of mankind, is
presumptuous in beings who ought to consider
the slightest intimations of mercy as far more
than they deserve. Yet, since this is a degree of
presumption to which the daring boldness of
rationalism and scepticism has risen, it may not
be improper to offer a few observations on the

subject.

God has graciously adapted His communica-

i.:, *.-. fi,^ i.M^ot-ofinrlirirf q.nH ranarities of

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

those to whom they were made. The plan of
salvation through the incarnation and expiatory
sacrifice of the Son of God, must be acknow-
ledged to be highly mysterious. Even in this
advanced age of the world, and after so much
preparatory instruction, many sincere Christians
find a difficulty in fully comprehending it ; and
it is probable, that even those who enter most
fully into the meaning of the Scripture declara-
tions on the subject, are far from possessing the
accurate views which they shall possess when
they no longer see through a glass darkly, but
are permitted face to face to contemplate their
Redeemer. How much more difficult, then,
must the comprehension of such a design have
proved in the infancy of the human intellect, and
to persons overwhelmed with guilt and confusion
as our first parents were when standing before
the presence of their offended Maker. Enough
was it for them to know that He, though justly
displeased by their transgression, had mercy yet
in store, and, though He inflicted upon them a
part of that punishment which their crime de-
served, would neverti '^css provide a method

THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

by which they might be delivered from its most
fatal consequences.

Let us remember what was the condition of
the first generations after the fall. Compelled to
derive their subsistence from the cultivation of
the earth, which had been visited with the curse
of barrenness ; forced to defend themselves from
the inclemencies of the weather, and from the
fierce attacks of animals now become hostile to
them ; and wholly unacquainted with the arts of
civilised life, and having no means by which to
defend and protect themselves, — they had little
leisure for meditating on deeply mysterious sub-
jects, and stood in need of sensible impressions in
order to be duly affected with the divine presence
and government. There is great reason to be-
lieve that the knowledge of God was kept up
amongst them by some visible manifestation
which He made to them of His glory, and that
by immediate revelation He gradually afforded
such fresh light as at various intervals He saw
fit to bestow.

Had the whole scheme of Christianity been
revealed in the earliest ages, and had the glori-

I i

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

ous work of redemption been then performed,
there is great reason to beHeve that these sub-
lime mysteries would soon have been involved
in allegory and disguised by fiction, so that,
after some generations had elapsed, scarcely any
knowledge of the true religion would have been
transmitted to posterity. That this conjecture
is far from being unfounded, seems manifest
from the gross corruption of primitive truth
even amongst the wisest nations of the heathen
world. Search the Roman, the Grecian, the
Egyptian annals; peruse the writings of their
poets and philosophers ; and see how faint are
the traces of those religious communications,
which were made to t/ieir ancestors in common
with those of the Jewish nation.

Instead, therefore, of repining against Provi-
dence for reserving the full manifestation of the
gospel to a more enlightened age, an age in
which knov. ledge of every kind was extensively
diffused and carefully preserved, we ought to be
thankful for the gradual revelation of His merci-
ful designs, and for the powerful evidence which
this very mode of communicating them affords.

THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

This is another subject highly deserving our
attention. Revelation must either be made im-
mediately to every individual, or be communi-
cated at some particular time or times, and to
some particular persons, for the instruction of
others. To the former plan many obvious objec-
tions might be urged ; to the latter it becomes
highly important that sufficient evidence should
be afforded to carry conviction to every candid
mind. Now, much of this evidence must of
necessity have been withheld had the whole
plan of redemption been made known imme-
diately after the fall.

One powerful evidence which our religion
possesses, is afforded by the miracles which
attended its propagation. A miracle is an in-
terruption of the ordinary course of nature,
caused by a power which is manifestly superior
to any with which we are acquainted. Without
a knowledge, then, of the ordinary course of
nature, it would be impossible to judge what is,
and what is not, a violation of it ; and such
a knowledge can only be acquired by long
experience, and attentive observation of the

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

phenomena of the universe. It must be mani-
fest, therefore, that sufficient knowledge could
not have been possessed by the rude ancestors
of mankind, for miracles performed in their
presence to have been deemed a convincing
proof of revelation.

From prophecy also, we in these latter ages
derive very satisfactory evidence of the truth
of the Scriptures, and of their divine inspira-
tion. But the argument derived from prophecy
acquires its force from the fulfilment of those
events which had been foretold at a remote
period. A very considerable time, therefore,
must of necessity have elapsed before the vali-
dity of this argument could be entertained.

If this reasoning be allowed, we must confess
that it would have been very difficult for us to
have been satisfied of the reality of divine
revelation, had it been vouchsafed at once to
our first parents, and to their immediate off-
spring.

On this account, therefore, we may see reason
to admire the wisdom of God in making Himself
known to new created man bv a vlm'hlp ^nn^ar-

T^E GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

ance, and continuing to reveal His will by some
immediate communication from Himself, until
the human understanding had arrived at such a
pitch of maturity as to be capable of judging of
the authenticity of a revelation delivered by in-
spired messengers.

The period actually chosen for the full dis-
covery of His gospel, was one in which the facul-
ties of man had attained the utmost degree of
cultivation ; when arts and philosophy flourished ;
when imposture could scarcely escape detec-
tion ; and when it was certain that anything
professing to emanate from the Deity must of
necessity provoke the most serious scrutiny.
At that period also the world was fully peopled ;
one great empire had extended its influence and
its language over a very large portion of the
•rlobe, and means had been provided for the
rapid difl"usion of divine truth to the most dis-
tant nations.

Another important reason for delaying the
full discovery of the gospel, might be to render
mankind more sensible of its value and import-
ance. We know that sceptics have in all ages

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. 15

been ready to deny the necessity of revelation.
They have asserted, that the intellect of man is
abundantly capable of discovering all things
necessary to his well-being, and that divine in-
struction is for him unnecessary. But the his-
tory of those ages which elapsed before the
manifestation of the gospel, sufficiently confutes
these arrogant pretensions.

We find men, who had carried arts and sciences
to the utmost height, who had pushed the re-
searches of philosophy to the furthest extent,
and who yet were worshippers of " an unknown
God;" we find these very men slaves of the
most abject, the most degrading superstition.
Then came a few poor fishermen and mechanics
unfolding and preaching truths to mankind, which
the sages of Egypt and of Greece had assiduously
sought for in vain.

Thus it was, as the apostle Paul declares :—
" After that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that be-
lieve."

The despised discioles of T^c.,c .yU, — .u.

l6 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

wise men of this world accounted fools and
enthusiasts, were made the instruments of com-
municating the glad tidings of life and salvation

to mankind.

But whilst I offer with diffidence suggestions
like these, I would by no means presume to
imagine, that I have pointed out the reasons
which induced the great Sovereign of the uni-
verse to make known His glorious plan of re-
demption by gradual revelations and successive
dispensations.

It is sufficient for us to perceive, that He did
so make it known ; and it will be our wisdom, as
it is our duty, thankfully to accept the gospel
scheme, and to profit by the instruction which He
has been thus graciously pleased to afford. All
that I have attempted has been to show that
none has a right to complain of the lateness of
the full revelation, and that there is great reason
to believe that no time could have be:;!j more
proper than that which was actually cliosea lor

the purpose.

Yet, though I dare not undertake to explain
of the divine proceeding, I shall

, VI : ■•1

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. I;

not hesitate to derive from that proceeding
arguments in favour of the truth of Scripture.

After a repeated perusal of the sacred volume,
and a serious meditation on its contents, I know
of nothing which strikes me more forcibly, than
the wonderful harmony of its various parts, and
the unity of design which seems to pervade the
whole of it.

The restoration of fallen man from his state of
guilt and condemnation, to the favour and to the
image of God, seems to be the great object to
which every page has reference. Had the Bible
been written at once, and had its various parts
been all composed by the same author, we need
not have been surprised at the uniformity of de-
sign which we discover in it. But, since the
several treatises of which it is composed were
written by upwards of thirty different authors,
and at intervals very remote from each other,'
during a period of not less than 1500 years, it
is altogether impossible that there should have
been any collusion between them, and that they
could have followed any preconcerted plan of
human formation.

1 8. THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

HoW; then, can this unity of design be accounted
for, but by ascribing it to Him, unto whom
are known all His works from the beginning of
the world, and "who at sunr!ry times ar d in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, and hath in these last days spokeii
unto us by His Son!"

The glorious plan which He had formed was
at all times present to His mind ; but He saw
fit to make it known to man by progressive dis-
coveries, first affording them, when overwhelmed
with the darkness of guilt and condemnation,
some faint gleams of hope, and then causing it
to shine forth with gradually increasing bright-
ness, until "the Sun of Righteousness arose" in
perfect splendour, as the Saviour of the world.

To trace the gradual evolution of this eternal
purpose of God— to point out the succession of
the ages or dispensations which He had pre-
ordained—to show how the Church, and es-
pecially the Jewish Church, has been appointed
to make known His manifold wisdom under all
the various circumstances in which it has been

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. 19

placed,— such is the design which I have pro-
posed to myself, and which I shall labour,
through God's grace, to execute to the best of
my ability.

I am sensible that these views are far from
being recommended by the charms of novelty,
and that they have been set forth with great
ability by many who have treated of the evi-
dences of divine revelation. But novelty is not
my object ; nor can it with propriety be the
object of one who has to traverse a region which
has already been so carefully explored.

The attacks of the rationalistic party, within
the bosom of our own Church, have of late been
so frequent, and have been carried on in so many
different ways, that the friends of revelation have
been excited to bring forward every argument in
its defence ; and they have exerted themselves
successfully to refute all the cavils of their ad-
versaries, and to prove that the fortress of our
faith is erected on " the Rock of Ages," and is not

to be shaken though assaulted vvith the utmost
fury.

THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

Instead, therefore, of attempting to employ
new arguments, I shall content myself with dis-
playing the solidity of those which we already
possess. I shall invite you to walk about our
Zion, to go round about her and tell the towers
thereof I shall entreat you to mark well her
bulwarks, that you may be well convinced how
much reason we have for our confidence, and how
firm that foundation is on which the hope of the
believing Christian is stayed.

The Scriptures, if rightly understood, carry
within themselves sufficient evidence. The de-
sign with which they were composed is unspeak-
ably glorious ; the plan which they set before us
is inexpressibly sublime. The more they are
studied, the more reason shall we find to ac-
knowledge their indisputable truth, and to adore
the boundless wisdom and immeasurable good-
ness of their divine Author.

To Him who is the giver of all wisdom, do we
now look up for divine guidance and blessing in
the task which we have undertaken. And may
I ask your fervent prayer, that God's Holy Spirit

THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS.

may be present with us, and cause this feeble
effort of ours for the defence of Bible truth to
redound to His glory, the good of His Church,
and the well-being of immortal souls.

And now unto God and our Father, be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

II.

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF
THE PENTATEUCH.
n

Deut. xxxi. 24-26.

'« And it came to pass, when Moses had mp.de an end of writing
the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that
Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law,
and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee."

HE survey which I have proposed to
take of the divine dispensations for
the recovery of fallen man, w'lW un-
avoidably lead us to look back upon
the first ages of the world. Of these we can
find no satisfactory account, except in that
volume which has been always ascribed to
Moses the Jewish lawgiver. To his testimony

:ness of

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 23

we shall have frequent occasion to appeal ; and
it may, therefore, be important to set before you
a summary view of the evidence by which the
authority of his writings is supported.

The first point to be established is, that the
five books called the Pentateuch were really writ-
ten by Moses. In proof of this fact we have the
uninterrupted testimony of the Jewish nation,
from their origin even to the present time. Such
a testimony is in all similar cases considered a
sufficient evidence.

Whatsoever doubt there may be of particular
circumstances recorded by Herodotus — though
many of them are monstrous fables concerning
the Egyptians — no person has ever doubted that
he was the author of the works ascribed to him
by the unanimous consent of all ages.

It is universally allowed, that the histories
ascribed to Thucydides and Xenophon were
written by the authors whose names they bear,
and this is supported solely upon the authority
of tradition ! Why, then, should we doubt the
tradition of the Jews concerning the books of
Moses.? That tradition is confirmed by the

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

testimony of many heathen writers, who certainly
had as good opportunities of judging as ourselves,
and who agreed in quoting these books as having
been written by the Jewish lawgiver.

Thus Diodorus Siculus says : — " Amongst the
Jews, Moses represents that God who is called
JAO as the author of his laws." The pas-
sage in Longinus in which he calls him, "A man
of no ordinary character," is known to every
student ; as are the references which the histo-
rians Tacitus and Justin make to him. Eusebius,
in his valuable book " De Preparatione Evange-
lical," cites several ancient authors, whose works
have not reached our times, but whose testimony
to Moses is very striking. We possess, however,
a still stronger evidence that these books were
written by Moses. They contain not only the
history, but also the religious ritual and judicial
ordinances of the Jewish nation, which are so
closely interwoven with the narrative, that they
are incapable of being separated from it.

The observation of the law, therefore, proves
the authority of the lawgiver. The Jews could
never have been persuaded to believe that the

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 2$

ceremonies of their worship, and the rules of
their civil polity, had been prescribed by Moses,
unless they had known them to be so.

Let the ordininces of their law be seriously
examined, and they will be found such as no
individuals, and still less a nation, could have
been induced to receive unless enforced by the
highest authority.

How painful was the rite of circumcision !
How severe were the punishments denounced
against those who profaned the Sabbath, or
wilfully violated any other injunction of the
moral or ceremonial law ; how burdensome also
and expensive were the sacrifices ! Surely, had
any person professing to speak in the name of
Moses attempted to persuade the people to
observe such a law, he would have been treated
by them with scorn and abhorrence.

But it must be observed, that these books do
not merely prescribe some particular ceremonies
as ordained by Moses, and only occasionally
observed; they record them as having been
continued without intermission from the time
that he ordained them. Can it then be imagined

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

that, at some remote period after the death of
Moses, an impostor could have persuaded the
people, not only that they had always known,
but that they had always observed this law —
that their male children had universally been
circumcised on the eighth day from their birth —
that on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan,
they had constantly slain and feasted on the
Paschal Lamb in memory of their deliverance
from Egypt — that fifty days after they regularly
kept a feast in memory of the giving of the law
from Mount Sinai — that every seventh year, at
another feast, they had been accustomed to
emancipate all their Hebrew bond-servants, and
in a solemn assembly of the whole nation to
read this law in the most public manner ; — nay,
that the original copy of the law written by the
hand of Moses himself was preserved amongst
them, deposited in a sacred chest together with
some other things which had been laid up there
as memorials of certain signal instances of
divine interposition. Could it be possible, I say,
for any man to believe these things if he had

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 27

never heard of them until the moment that the
impostor addressed him ?

In the text we find a declaration that Moses
wrote all the words of the law, by which, as
might be proved by various circumstances, the
whole of the preceding books is intended— and
commanded the Levites to lay it up in the ark
of the testimony, that it might be a witness
against all who should in any future age dispute
its authority. I am desirous to lay particular
stress upon this point, because it affords a ready
answer to those who, from a passage in the 2d
Book of Chronicles, are disposed to raise an
objection against the authority of the law of
Moses. .

In the 22d chapter of 2 Kings, and the 34th
chapter of 2 Chronicles, we are told that Hilkiah,
being commanded by King Josiah to repair the
temple, " found a book of the law of the Lord
given by Moses," and sent it to the king, who
was much disturbed on reading it, and imme-
diately took measures to reform those abuses
which had grown up during the reigns of his

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

predecessors. Now from this circumstance,
some persons are disposed to argue, that the
writings of Moses were at this time unknown
among the Jews, and therefore might possibly
have been forged about that period. The text,
however, will assist us to explain this cir-
cumstance in a very different manner. It
was not that the law of Moses had been
wholly lost amongst the Jews, so that no copy
of it remained except the one found in the
temple ; but only that the book there discovered
was most probably the original autograph of
Moses, which, according to his direction in the
text, had been laid up in the side of the ark, and
afterwards, during the idolatrous reigns which
preceded that of Josiah, concealed in some place
of greater security. .

The Pentateuch itself had befen long preserved
by the ten tribes, who for three hundred and
fifty years had formed a distinct kingdom from
that of Judah, and would never have received
this book from the subjects of it. Besides, had
the law been till then unknown, how shall we
account for the existence of the temple, the

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 29

repair of which had led to the discovery of the
book ? How shall we account for the origin of
the priesthood and sacrifices, and for all those
religious institutions which these very books of
Kings and Chronicles record? How could
Josiah in so short a time have distributed a
sufficient number of copies to make his people
acquainted with the ceremonial of the Passover,
which was so soon afterwards celebrated in the
most solemn manner ?

Surely they would have been disposed to re-
sist the appointment of an ordinance like this, if
they had until that moment been wholly strangers
to it. We cannot, therefore, reasonably doubt,
that, though the children of Israel had grossly
failed in the observance of the laws ordained by
the Pentateuch, they were nevertheless convinced
cf their divine authority, and of their having
been delivered to them by the ministiy of Moses.
Having thus, I trust, proved that he was the
author of the Pentateuch, I shall endeavour to
show the credibility of the history contained
in it.

We will consider, in fhf- fir^f «io^^ fi._.

part

PWfWfWiJ

mma

^PHipiMHi

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

of it which relates to the times preceding his
own. Concerning these a little reflection must
convince us, that it would have been impossible
for him to deceive his readers. Consider how
few generations are represented by him as hav-
ing intervened between the creation of the world
and his own time. There were but six persons,
according to his statement, to communicate the
tradition from Adam to himself. He represents
Methuselah as having been during two hundred
and forty-three years contemporary with Adam,
and ninety-eight years with Shem. (The chron-
ology of the Samaritan Pentateuch makes this
yet more striking, so that Adam was contempor-
ary with Noah.)

Again, Isaac was for fifty years contemporary
with Shem, and for one hundred and twenty
years with Jacob. Joseph also, the son of Jacob,
was contemporary with Amram, the father of
Moses. Now, it cannot be imagined that a
tradition which passed through so few hands
could be materially corrupted. It cannot be
supposed but that all those who lived at the
same time with Moses must have possessed a

I )

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. fi

general knowledge of the events which he relates.
These events were too remarkable not to have
been the subjects of frequent conversation. The
history of the creation ; the selection of Abra-
ham ; the descent of the Israelites from him— all
these were facts too remarkable to have been
credited by those who had received no tradition
concerning them from their forefathers. Had
Moses intended to deceive, he would never have
represented the lives of the Patriarchs as of so
long duration, and ^/lat at a time when the ordi-
nary term of human life was reduced nearly to
the present standard. Let the manner also of
his narrative be observed.

Of the ages which preceded the deluge he
gives us but a brief account, relating such things
only as tended to establish those important facts
-the creation, the fall, and the promise of the
Messiah ; but in proportion as he comes nearer
to his own time, his narrative becomes more
part..ular, and he details facts which could
easily have been disproved had they been false,
and which cannot be acknowledged as true'
without confessing the most signal interpositions

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

of the Deity with respect to the Jewish nation.
To specify no other particulars — the overthrow of
Sodom and Gomorrah ; the miraculous birth of
Isaac; the signal preservation and elevation of
Joseph — all these are facts which the Israelites
never could have been persuaded by him to be-
lieve, had they not known them to be true, and
which, if admitted to be true, must confirm the
credibility of the whole narrative in which they
are recorded. But if we see reason to admit the
authenticity of the statements which Moses has
left us of the events preceding his own time, how
much more powerful are the reasons which in-
duce us to believe his account of the transactions
in which he was immediately concerned !

There are only two suppositions, which can be
alleged to account for the general reception of
these writings by the Jewish nation, if we deny
the truth of the history contained in them. We
must either suppose that Moses deceived the
Israelites, or else, that they voluntarily joined
in the imposture for the sake of exalting them-
selves in the eyes of other nations as the chosen
people of God.

I I

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 33

I shall first show that Moses did not deceive
the Israelites. Let us consider what motive
could induce him to make such an attempt
Was It the desire of power and dignity ? Yet in
what manner could he have had better hopes
of securing these, than by continuing in the
situation to which he had been raised by the
humanity and partiality of Pharaoh's daughter '
Brought up in the court of that powerful monarch
m.t> ated into all the wisdom of the Egyptians'
havmg every prospect to succeed to the highest
dignities of that mighty kingdom-could ambi-
t.on induce him to forsake all these advantages
m order to share the fortunes of an enslaved and
persecuted people, who were subjected to the
most cruel oppression ? Surely such a supposi-
tion IS too improbable to obtain credit with any
man who has studied human nature. But ad
mitting for the sake of argument, that he aspired
to the glory of delivering his brethren from their
bondage, and that he esteemed the honour of
being accounted the restorer of their freedom to
be more desirable than all the riches of Egyptian
royalty, were the measures which he pursued

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

such as were likely — considered merely as human
proceedings — to effect his purpose ? Would any
man of qommon prudence, at a time when those
whom he was anxious to deliver felt unwilling
to support him, have ventured into the king's
presence, and have demanded the liberation of
his countrymen under the pretence of being
divinely commissioned to require it ? Would
he not have conspired secretly rather than have
thus prematurely avowed his pretensions ? Would
he have pretended to perform miracles of such a
nature, that any imposition in them could not
have escaped detection ?

When he had by every means collected his
people together and prepared them for depar-
ture, would he not have taken the readiest way
to Canaan, instead of causing them to turn aside
into a defile which did not lead them towards
that country, and from which, should their
enemies pursue them, they could not possibly
escape, unless the Red Sea were miraculously
divided to afford them a passage ?

Having conducted them out of Egypt, would
he have led them about in the wilderness, in-

GENUINENESS OF THE rENTATEUCII. 35

■Stead of marching hastily forward, so that the
nations which they were to invade should have
no notice of their intentions ? Would he have
detained them so long in that wilderness that
the whole generation which he led out of Egypt
as well as himself, should die there? If ambi'
t.on influenced him, would he have taken no
means for the establishment and perpetuation
of his power? Would he have transferred the
rule from his own sons to a person of another
tnbe and family? If he wished to have the
honour of founding a new religion, would he
have laid the basis of it in a priesthood, the con-
tinuance of which must depend entirely on the
preservation of a family of one man, who had
only four sons, of which two died almost as soon
as the priesthood was established ?

But it would take too much time to enumerate

all the proofs, that Moses could not have in

tended to deceive the people. That he would

not have been deceived himself, nor have acted

.under the influence of an enthusiastic spirit is

evident from the wisdom of his laws, and from

the unwillingness with which he

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

self to have accepted the divine commission.
Neither could he, even had he been desirous of
it, have deceived the people. The claim which
he made to their attention was founded on an
appeal to miracles ; and those miracles were of
such a nature that no man possessing eyes and
understanding could have been deceived con-
cerning them. Was it possible, for example, that
Moses could persuade the Israelites that they
had seen the rivers of the Egyptians changed
into blood — their lands covered with frogs — their
corn and cattle destroyed by hail and lightning
— their whole country obscured by palpable
darkness, whilst all the children of Israel had
light in their dwellings, and that all these plagues
were inflicted at his word ? Could he have per-
suaded them to believe the destruction of all the
first-born of Egypt in one night, if they had not
witnessed it .'' — that they had passed through the
Red Sea as on dry land, the waters standing as
a wall on each side till they were gone over, and
then immediately closing for the destruction of
their enemies ? Could he have made them be-
lieve that thevhad seen Mount Sinai encompassed

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 37

with flames and smoke ; that they had felt a
tremendous earthquake, and had heard the law
contained in the Ten Commandments delivered
from the midst of the fire, with a noise so terrific
that they unanimously besought God that they
might no more hear His voice, but that He
would thenceforth speak to them by a mediator?
Are these miracles of such a nature that any
craft, any combination of philosophical powers,
could produce such a deception ?

False miracles are generally wrought in secret,
and are of short duration. But the miracles to
which Moses appealed were wrought in the pre-
sence of 600,000 men, besides women and chil-
dren, all of whom were immediately concerned
and interested in the proceeding.

Many also of the miracles which he records
were such as continued for years together ; such
were the pill-rs of cloud and of fire which regu-
lated their marches and encampments ; the water
issuing from the rock which followed them ; the
manna on which they fed for forty years, and of
which a specimen was preserved to all succeed-
ing generations ; the preservation also of their

3«

ON TIIK AUTHENTICITY AND

clothes from decay and of their feet from being
swelled in their marches during the same period.
I appeal to any man of common sense,
whether an impostor would have dared to call
600,000 men to attest a declar^J*. -. of buch
facts if not one of them had taken ^ .c? It is
evident that these are transactions of such a
nature as to preclude the possibility of deception
and imposture. As little foundation can there
be for the opinion that the Israelites, though not
imposed upon, yet conspired with Moses to
deceive the world. So far from acting in con-
cert with him, we find them continually mur-
muring and rebelling. No sooner did they
encounter any difficulty than they immediately
wished to return to Egypt. They accused
Moses of deception in not having conducted
them to the good land which he had promised,
and complained bitterly that the honour of the
priesthood was confined to one family ; nay, not
only did the rest of the nation rebel against him,
but even Aaron and Miriam in one case opposed
him. Surely these were not persons who would
have acted in concert with Moses for the decep-

GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 39

tion of mankind. But if, by any means, they
could have been persuaded to conspire with him
in such an attempt, would they have concurred
in attesting a narrative like that contained in the
Pentateuch ?

Almost every page of it presents to us some
account of their infidelity, their ingratitude, and
their folly. Would a nation, anxious to advance
Its reputation, have acknowledged the truth of
what is related concerning their worship of the
golden calf.? Would Aaron have suffered his name
to be introduced in such a manner ? Would the
family of Korah have permitted Moses to em-
bellish his narrative with a relation which brands
them and their adherents with perpetual infamy.?
Could the Israehtes have endured those perpetual
reproaches with wh^ch he loads them, declaring
that they were a stiffiiecked people, that they
had been rebellious against the Lord from the
first day that he knew them, and that they
would in succeeding ages continue to resist his
law .?

Let any man attentively read the 326 chapter
of this book of Deuteronomy, in which Moses

ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND

describes in such strong terms the folly and
wickedness of the people, and predicts their
future rebellions and miseries, with which they
should in consequence be overwhelmed, and I
will venture to say that to any candid mind the
preservation of this portion of Scripture, and the
testimonies which the Jews have in all ages
borne to its authenticity, will be a convincing
evidence of the divine mission of Moses.

Instead of imagining that the Israelites would
have conspired to countenance the imposture of
a man who, on this supposition, so cruelly insults
them, we have only to wonder that they have
not long since destroyed every copy of his
book, in order that they might prevent the
record of their acts from coming to the know-
ledge of mankind.

The same consideration strengthens the argu-
ments which I have already used to prove that
no other person than Moses could have been
the author of these books.

That which the Israelites would not have
borne from him, they certainly would not have
borne from any other to whom they could not

GK -rUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 41

but be much less indebted. Never would they
l«ave consented that such di.sgraceful represen-
tations of their conduct should have been handed
down to posterity; never would they have
allowed so burdensome a ritual, and so severe
a code of legislation, to be introduced amongst
them.

Most astonishing is it, and worthy of particu-
lar attention, that amidst all the various circum-
stances in which the descendants of Israel have
been placed, they have uniformly adhered to
tlicr law with the most persevering constancy
Though they were perpetually prone to idola-
try, yet they never attempted to invalidate the
authority of that law by which idolatry was
forbidden. Though they neglected the precept
wh.ch commanded that every seventh year the
land should be left untilled, they never pretended
to deny that such a precept had been given them.
Though a great variety of sects have sprung
up among them, and diiiferent parties have at
different times prevailed, the law of Moses has
been always reverenced as the standard of doc-
trine and of duty. The Pharisees, who ass^-rt^H

ON THE AUTllKNTiriTY AND

the resurrection from the dead, and the Saddiicecs,
wlio tlenied that resurrection, aUke acknovvledfrcd
the authority of Moses. The Samaritans, whose
temple was on Mount Gerizim, as strongly as-
sertetl the divine inspiration of the I'entateuch
as the Jews who worsliipped on Mount Zion.

To this day, the whole nation adheres to it.
All conspire to declare themselves the descend-
ants of Abraham. All assert that Moses led
their forefathers out of I':gypt, and commimi-
cated the law which was given them frt)m Sinai.
All agree in looking forward to the coming of
the Trophet, whom he assured them that God
would raise up unto them like unto himself, and
to whom he commanded them to hearken.

If, then, it be reasonable in any case to assent
to historical testimony ; if it be impossible that
a whole nation could be deceived with respect
to the plainest fiicts performed before their
eyes ; if men are naturally indisposed to pre-
serve the record of their own disgrace, and to
hold themselves up to the eyes of mankind as
foolish and ungrateful— the Jews could never
have been deceived by Moses, or any person

(IKNUINKNKSS OF TIIK I'lONTATKUC!!!. 4^

writinjr i„ his name, nor could they have wilfully
conciiiTcd in attesting the truth of an unfaithful
narrative.

The books of Moses, therefore, have the inclubi-
table characteristics of truth, and the information
they j;ive us concerin-n^; the origin and fall of
man, and the divine proceeilings with respect to
Jiini, are to be received as records of the utmost
certainty.

Having thus establisliecl a basis on which to
found my reasoning, I shall, in the ensuing dis-
com-ses, endeavour to prove that the nation of
which Moses was the lawgiver, was chosen by
God as the instrument to make known His in-
tentions of mercy In Christ Jesus, to the children
of men.

Let us, tlierefore, with grateful adoration
receive the J>entateucli as inspired of God, in
which we have the record-by prophecy, vision,
and typc-of Christ, who gave Himself for us ;
to whom, with the Katlier and the Holy Ghost'
be ascribed all ]ionour, glory, might, majesty'
and dominion, now and for ever. Amen.

III.

««

THK TESTIMONY OF TIIK MOSAIC RECORD.

Ill It. i. I, 2.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manner.; spake in time
past unto tlie fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son."

I IF. ari^tinicnts vvliich were broiiirht for-
uartl in the last discourse were, I
trust, sufficient to establish the autho-
rity of the books of Moses. I shall
therefore, without scruple, adduce the testimony
of those books with respect to the communica-
tions vouchsafed to mankind by the Deity in the
first ages of the world. The words of the text
seem to afford a very proper introduction to such
a disquisition, bee? use they manifestly intimate
that, though the discoveries relative to religion
differed as to the times and modes of their com-

TESTIMONY OK THK MOSAIC KirORD. 45

nuinication. they all had reference to that one
great plan vvhieh has been fnlly revealed to us
by the Son of God. We are here plainly told
that the k-novvled^^e of divine thin^rs was not
vouchsafed at once: "God si,ake ../ sun./ry
ttmcsr Jfe made Himself known to our Hrst
parents before the fall, He afterwards gave them
an intimation of the plan which He had in view
for their recovery ; to Enoch. Noah, and Abra-
liam, he made successive discoveries of Himself
and His intentions, until, at length, He selected
a peculiar people, to whom He gave a written
revelation, accompanied by a system of cere-
monial institutions which we shall liereafter per-
ceive to liave had a typical signification. "/;/
divers manucrsr also, did He speak to them.
Sometm.es He assumed a visible appearance,
and addressed them with an audible voice ; some-
times He made known His will by dreams and
visions ; sometimes by secret inspirations. The
types, to which I have alluded, may likewise be
considered as another mode in which He spake
to them, and were a standing revelation of His
intentions.

THE TESTIMONY OF

In the prosecution of my design, I hope to
point out the harmony of all these communica-
tions and their exact agreement with the gospel
dispensation, for which they were intended to
prepare the way. If these premises can be
satisfactorily established, the inference will
readily follow, that it was the same God, who
thus "at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in time past to the fathers by the pro-
phets, that hath in these last days spoken to us
by His Son."

Though the account which Moses has given
us of the earliest ages is extremely concise, it
sufficiently fulfils the purpose for which it ap-
pears to have been designed, that of showing
the gradual unfolding of the divine intentions
with respect to the human race. He tells us
that man was originally created in the image
and likeness of God — by which is evidently
meant the resemblance of His moral perfections,
— and that he was placed in a state of happiness.
The duration of this state was to depend upon
his observance or neglect of a positive injunction
given him. Though this injunction was of the

THE MOSAIC RECORD.

easiest and most reasonable nature, yet man was
unhappily prevailed upon to disobey it. By that
disobedience he drew down upon himself the
divme displeasure ; he deprived himself of his
. resemblance to the Deity ; he not only forfeited
the glorious privileges which he originally pos-
sessed, but also entailed on himself and his de-
scendants mortality and ruin. This unhappy
departure of man from a state of innocence gave
rise to the Christian dispensation, of which an
obscure hint was vouchsafed immediately after
the falk To this hint we must, in the first place,
direct our attention.

It is unnecessary at this time to detail the
particulars of the first transgression, or to vindi-
cate Its history from the objections of infidels
because this has been repeatedly done in the'
most satisfactory manner. All that is necessary
is sufficiently expressed, and with this we ought
to content ourselves. We are told that man
was tempted to disobedience ; that the tempter
assumed the form of a serpent ; and that upon
that serpent, a sentence was pronounced of so
remarkable a nal

iture, that it could not fail

THE TESTIMONY OF

engage the most serious attention of those for
•whose instruction it was designed, (Gen. iii.)

Now the generality of interpreters have ap-
plied this sentence, not so much to the serpent,
who was the agent employed by the tempter, as
to the tempter himself. They have considered
it not merely as foretelling a warfare between
the human race and serpents, but as signifying
that there should, in after times, spring up, from
the seed of the woman, a person who should be
the Head and Captain of a chosen generation,
between which generation and the devil an un-
ceasing contest should exist ; and that this contest,
producing in the first place some degree of in-
jury to the Champion and His followers, should
end in the complete destruction of the enemy of
mankind, and in their deliverance from the state
of ruin into which he had plunged them.

It must be acknowledged that this interpre-
tation contains more than can be legitimately
argued from the words themselves ; yet a little
reflection will convince us, that to expound these
words in a merely literal sense, would be greatly
to underrate their meaning. Consider the con-

THE MOSAIC RFXORD

49
dition of our fallen ancestors at this awful mo-

of the,r Judge, overwhelmed with confusion and
error Could it afford then, any consolation to
be told that a mutual hatred should exist for ever
between mankind and serpents ; and that these
-Pt.es should, in succeeding ages, occasionally
b te the heels of men who should revenge them^
selves by crushing their heads ?

Is it to be imagined that the mention of an
.ncdent comparatively so trifling could have
been important to them, or that it could have
encouraged the contrite offenders to cherish
hopes of divine mercy ? Yet that they should
be thus encouraged was necessary, unless God
designed to give them up to despair, and to de-
pnve them of eve^ incitement to repentance
and renewed obedience.

If, however, we view the matter in the other
hght_,f we consider the sentence pronounced
upon the serpent as a mystical intimation of
mercy to mankind, it will then appear both
suited to the occasion, and worthy of the Divine

^eing. It must, therffnro havp -°- - •

' '^> 'lave ajioraea our

THE TESTIMONY OF

first parents no small satisfaction to hear that
enemy condemned, and to be assured that
one of their descendants should completely de-
stroy his power. They might reasonably infer
from this declaration, not only that they were
not so conquered by their enemy as to be unable
to maintain the contest with him, but also that
they should in the end be completely victorious.
They might even venture to hope that they
should regain by victory all that they had lost
by defeat ; that as by the triumph of their
enemy they had been deprived of righteousness,
of paradise, and of immortality, so by his de-
struction they should obtain a restoration to a
state of holiness, and to the blessings connected
with it. That our first parents would have de-
duced such inferences as these from the sentence
pronounced upon the serpent — had no additional
light been afforded them — is more than I will
venture to suppose ; but that they did cherish
expectations of this kind, and that further infor-
mation was afforded them, seems capable of
proof from the sequel of the history.

After the declaration made to Adam — "In

1.1

THE MOSAIC RECORD,
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat b.ead till

thou eturn ■ 'V ""'° '"^' ^'^'^

coH./ , . ^""^ ^''' circumstanee re-

rded ,s th,s.. -And Ada. called his wifel

li" N ""'"^^^'"^-^'--fa,

living. Now, It is'ropQonnki ^

reasonable to supnose fhnf
m so short a narrative, nothin, is record'e w^'
may not be regarded as a matter of considelb t
-Portance. The mention, therefore, of h" 1
name which Adam now gave his ;ife ' W
particular attention. ^

herTr';K'th";;'"^°'■""~^^''^--'^-"ed
ner TON, the femmme of b^^n, »„ „ ^^

her formation out of his =„Ke^ ,

this stat^ nf • . ■ ^"bstance ; but no^v, in

time that the sentence of mortality had been
pronounced upon them both, he caL her H n
Eve, ass,gnmg this remarkable reason that'
he w the mother of all living. But h;w a •

use th,s language, had he been wholly destitute

orhope.. Might not the sad sentence p^onoutd
' ^^''^ ™°« naturally induced him to

of hope
upon

THE TESTIMONY OF

represent her as the mother of dcatJi, on account
of her having seduced him to sin, and having
rendered him and his posterity mortal, rather
than as the parent of life, because a race of
mortal men were to spring from her ? But if we
consider him as discerning in some degree the
design of that prophecy which foretold that her
seed should bruise the serpent's head, we may
readily infer that he called her " tJic mother of ail
living,'' because from her was to spring that
glorious offspring who should be the restorer of
life and immortality.

We find Eve, a short time afterwards, using
language no less remarkable than that employed
by her husband. She gave birth to Cain, and
said : — " 1 have gotten a man from the Lord,"
(mn^ J1X '^^)^ •'Jl^Jp) which ought to be rendered,
according to the original, '' I have acquired,"
or, "am in possession of the man, even Jeho-
vah."

The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel strongly
confirms this interpretation. He thus para-
phrases the passage : — " And Adam knew his
wife, who desired the Angel : and she conceived

THE MOSAIC RECORD.

and bare Cain, and said, I have obtained the
man, (or a man,) the Angel, the Lord," a title
by which the Jews always understood the Mes-
siah.

The sanguine expectation of Eve led her to
hope that the promise would be immediately
fulfilled. She thought that the divine seed was
already given, and that the victory over the
mfernal serpent was to be immediately obtained.
Too fatally did the event disappoint her expecta-
t'on. But though she erred with respect to the
time when the prophecy was to be fulfilled, her
error confirms the opinion that she understood
to what it referred, and that she looked forward
to the mcarnation of Jehovah for the purpose of
triumphmg over her seducer.

When the character of Cain proved that he
could not be the promised seed, Eve probably
fixed her hopes on Abel ; and when his death
gave the first example of mortality, her faith
did not fail, but prompted her to look upon her
next son as the heir of better expectations. She
therefore gave him the name of m, which sig-
nifies "replaced," or "appointed." s.vin,. "God

THE TESTIMONY OF

hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel
whom Cain slew."

The event proved, that though he was not the
very Redeemer, yet he was the person from
whom the Redeemer was to spring. He became
the father also of a religious progeny, who were
distinguished from the profane descendants of
Cain, and who might be considered as the seed
of the woman, in opposition to the offspring of
that fratricide, whose descendants might not un-
justly be called the seed of the serpent.

Amongst the descendants of Seth, we find
Enoch particularly distinguished for his piety.
It is recorded of him that he "walked with God,"
and his translation could not fail to convince his
contemporaries that the sentence of mortality
was capable of being superseded, and that
rewards in a future state were provided for those
who should exercise repentance, faith, and holy
obedience in the present.

But the distinction between the families of
Seth and of Cain did not endure for any con-
sidei-able time. We find that they became
blended together by intermarriages, and most

THE MOSAIC RECORD.

disastrous consequences followed the unhappy
union of the two families. It produced a deplor-
able corruption of manners :-" And God saw that
the wckedncss of man was great in the earth, and
that eveo' imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually ; the earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence." Religion seemed to find no shelter
amongst any of the children of Seth, with the
exception of the descendants of Enoch.

We have every reason to believe that his son
Methuselah followed his pious example, and
we find in his grandson Lamech a remarkable
instance of faith. We are told that he " begat a
son, and called his nameiVW., (nj) saying. This
same shall comfort us concerning our work and
toil of our hands, because of the ground which
the Lord hath cursed." This language seems
to imply, that he looked upon his son either as
the promised seed, by whose means the curse
denounced upon the earth for Adam's sin should
be repealed, or at least as the person from whom
that promised seed should descend. This proves
not only that the original promise was in ..„.„!

THE TESTIMONY OF

well understood, but also that the expectation
of its fulfilment was carefully preserved by the
descendants of Adam.

Noah was likewise an eminent pattern of
righteousness ; and whilst all the rest of man-
kind was immersed in wickedness, he alone "was
a just man, and perfect imhis generation,"— he
alone "walked with God."

In the days of Noah the great Lord of the
universe would no longer bear with His rebellious
creatures, but determined to involve the whole
human race in one common catastrophe, except
the family of this His faithful servant.
. After the flood God was pleased to renew His
coverjgnt with Noah; the curse of barrenness
seems to have been in some measure repealed,
and an assurance was given that it should no
more be renewed. The promised seed was also
limited to the family of Shem, who was as
eminent for piety as Ham was for profanity.

These two became again the leaders of two
different parties in the world. The descendants
of Ham soon plunged themselves into the
grossest idolatry and wickedness, deifying the

THE MOSAIC RECORD. 57

material powers of the heavens, and worship-
ping them witli the basest and most indecent
ceremonies.

In process of time the progeny of Shem seem
likewise to have been infected with idolatry, and
there is great reason to believe that the know-
ledge of true religion would have been com-
pletely lost, had not God been pleased to select
and set apart one of Shem's descendants, by
calling Abraham from his native country, and
appointing him to be the father of a chosen
people, and the ancestor of the promised
Saviour.

Thus have we traced the gradual communi-
cation of religious knowledge from the fall of
man to the selection of Abraham and his family.

Brief as is the account which Moses has given
of these early transactions, it is sufficiently ex-
plicit to convince us that man from the earliest
ages enjoyed the light of revelation, and was
encouraged to look forward to the time when
the incarnate God should retrieve the fatal
effects of the fall, and should make complete
reconciliation for the sins of the whole world.

THE TESTIMONY OF

The book of Job might perhaps be here re-
ferred to, as bearing testimony to this great
truth.

That it is no fictitious narrative, but the Jiistory
of a real personage who hVed somewhat before
the time of Moses, seems to be a fact decisively
proved, notwithstanding the ingenious but un-
solid arguments of the learned Warburton. In
that book we find the plainest acknowledgments
of the corrupt state of human nature, and the
most distinct avowal of the expectation of a
Redeemer who should stand at the latter day
upon the earth, and be the restorer of life and
immortality.

There is one subject, however, on which I
think it necessary to offer some remarks before
I conclude the present discourse. The universal
practice of sacrifices from the earliest ages, cor-
roborates in a very powerful manner the opinion,
that the means by which human redemption
should be effected were revealed to the fallen
parents of mankind. Amongst the heathen
writers we find none that can give any satis-
factory reasons for this custom; yet, in all

THE MOSAIC RECORD. 50

nations, it seems to have been looked upon as
the best method of propitiating the Deity In
the new world, as well as in the old, this mode
of worship prevailed. The sacrifices which were
offered in Mexico and Peru, when those countries
were first discovered, were no less bloody than
those of the Greeks and Romans ; and, however
they might differ concerning the Deity wor-
shipped, in this way of serving Him they all
agreed, though there is no grotmd for supposing
that they had any communication with each
other. The history which we have now been
reviewing, does not indeed expressly declare that
sacrifices were, in the first instance, of divine
appointment ; but it gives us sufficient reason
for concluding that they were so. In the first
place, we find it said, that immediately after the
fall our guilty ancestors were clothed by God
himself with the skins of beasts. Now, when
we consider that they had already provided
themselves with a covering, and that the per-
mission to feed upon animal food was not
granted till after the flood, there seems no way
of accounting for the slaying of these beasts

THE TESTIMONY OF

but by supposing that they were offered in
sacrifice, and that the appointment of their
skins for a covering was designed to typify the
concealment of our guilt by the righteousness of
the great Atoner.

Immediately afterwards, we read of the obla-
tions brought by Cain and Abel ; and find that the
sacrifice which the latter made of an innocent
animal was accepted by the Deity, whilst the
offering of the fruits of the ,arth brought by the
former was not approved. Whence arose this
difference ? Why did Abel presume to destroy
one of the creatures of the Almighty, unless he
were assured that he should please Him by
doing so ? We know that God does not accept
offerings which spring from the mere fancy of
the worshipper, and have no foundation in His
appointment ; and surely an offering of this kind
was one that, d priori, no man could have thought
likely to be acceptable. The apostle Paul tells
us, that it w^s faith which made the sacrifice of
Abel more acceptable than the offering of his
brother, and calls that sacrifice irXeiova dvaiav, a
word evidently derived from Ovw, to slay.

THE MOSAIC RECORD.

Now how could Abel offer In/ait/^, if no com-
mand had been given to him ? and to what could
his faith have respect, but to the atonement one
day to be made for sinners ? The language of
God himself to Cain seems to convey this idea :
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?''
If thou art a righteous person, free from any
stam of sin, thine own merits may gain favour
for thee: "but, if thou doest not well'" -which no
man in his fallen state can do-'' sin lieth at the
door." The word rendered sin is kDH, which in
other parts of Scripture signifies "a sin offering-"
and the word rendered /.>//, is p^, which rather
means croi^c/iet/i, and which, it may be remarked
agrees in gender not with the word r)^J^o^, but
with the beast which should be offered.

Another remarkable circumstance is, that we
find a distinction made between clean and
unclean animals before the flood; which as
they were not used for food, can only be
accounted for on the supposition that the clean
were set apart for sacrifice, as they afterwards
were by the law of Moses, and as appears to
have been the case with Noah's sacrifice.

THE TESTIMONY OF

111

Should these reasons, however, not be deemed
sufficient to prove that sacrifices were originally
of divine appointment, the very early and con-
stant use of them seems clearly to show, not
only that it met with the divine approbation,
but also that it arose from a right understanding
of the prophecy contained in the sentence pro-
nounced upon the serpent. The death of the
victim might aptly typify that bruising of the
heel of the woman' s ^rr^, the effect of which was
to be the cmshing of the serpent's head.

And, though the heathens did not retain a
remembrance of the true origin of sacrifices, yet
their forgetfulness in this respect is no more
than took place with respect to various other
religious institutions ; the practice of which they
retained, though they did not remember what
had led them to adopt it. Amongst the true
servants of God, right views of the subject seem
evidently to have prevailed ; and fbw as are the
particulars related concerning them, there seems
sufficient reason to conclude, that to the very
first progenitors of mankind and their immediate
descendants, enough was made known concern-

THE MOSAIC RECORD.

(-i

■ng the important doctrine of the atonement to
revive their drooping spirits, and encourage them
to ook to their Creator as a God of mercy, as
well as to hope that the time would come when
they should be completely restored to His favour
a.>d reinstated in those glorious privileges of
which their sin had deprived them.

Happy, beyond measure, are we who now no
longer see these things through the veil of typical
institutions, but are blessed with the full revela-
tion of our Redeemer.

Let us prize our advantages as we ought Let
us place our sole dependence on His atoning
sacrifice ; and, remembering with what a price
we are ransomed, resolve from henceforth to
glonfy God with our body and with our spirit

which are Gods; to whom, with the Son and
the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour, glon,
might, majesty, and dominion, now and for ever'
Amen.

'■;

IV.

THE SELECTION OF THE JEWISH NATION FOR
THE PRESERVATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE
OF THE TRUE GOD.

ExoD. xix. 5, 6.
"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep
my covenant, th.a ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people : for all the earth is mine. And ye shall
be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
Ihese are the words which thou shall speak unto the chil-
dren of Israel."

E are now to consider that remarkable
dispensation of Providence, by which
one family was selected from amongst
all the descendants of Noah to be
intrusted with the divine oracles, and to be
rendered instrumental in preserving the know-
ledge of the true God, and of His gracious pur-
poses to mankind.

The selecon of the Jewish nation has been

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS, ETC. fij

abused by infidels into a pretence fn ,,

jHe divine proceedings wfth t^^^''^^"^

represent it p«; a« j ^'^^ "aiity. They

evil heart of unbelief. P°=sessed of an

Unreasonable, liowever and r.. <■
"Section is, it wouid not' be prC^ ^ '''.<=
by unnoticed. Let h u ^^^^ '^

^''ayhe ve, Xr: ~;^^^^^^^^^^^

peculiar favour thus, extended to the "

the same who on other occas on ' "''

revelation is needless, and tha , ""'' ''^'

powers of man ar. =K 7 "^ Unassisted

man are abundantly eaual f^ f k j-

covery of those truths which respeth"

being both here and hereafter. W^rthtr""
-nt well founded, there sureircou'd H

reason for the complaint which has been nol"/
because, on this hypothesis nofV ""°'"^^'';

held from the CxenX „a u'"^ ^'' ^''*-

v-Ttnnie nations whirh fk^-

reason was not able to supply "" °^"

If revelation be unneces.,^, .,.. _ .,. . .

/, lIic witiiiioiding

TlIK JF.WS TUF. C.UARniANS OF

it from any particular persons can be no injury
to thctn ; if, on llio contrary, it be ackiunvled^ed
of such hi^L;h importance, one o( the main j^rountls
on which our ailversaries justify their rejection
of the Scriptures is taken from them, and they
must be compelled to confess that the exist-
ence o{ some revelation from Cioil is a natural,
if not a necessary consequence of His benevo-
lence.

lUit the partiality complained of did not in
reality exist. The essential truths of reli^^ion
were from the fust conununicated to all mankintl.
We have seen how Adam was cheereil by the
promise of .i Retleemer ; and we are assured
that the covenant, when renewed with No;di,
was made known to all his children. Had their
descendants persevered in obedience to the
divine precepts, they would not have been ex-
cluded from the Church, or from the favour of
God ; but through their own wilful disobedience,
they lost that knowledt^e of Him which they
originally possessed. It was ** because that when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful ; but became vain in their

■'H.iKN,.wt,..;i.,;.,;,„.,,,|.:T,„>..;,;o,, (,j
^.na,ina,l,.„, .,, ,„.,,. f,..,,,,, „,,,, ,,.^ „,,^^_
e-ul. I olcss,,,,; ,|,..n,s..|vo.s t., I,c wis.. ,|,...

^" '" '■'■'■"" ^" ' '"-"• >-."wi...„c, ,;.., „,J

">'•'» np (u a ,v|m,l,.,l,. mimr
/^">l- is 11.0 acconnl wind, a Chrfs.ian apostle

J-l.lK.wn,i„f;..,r,|,clr.,w„ l„sl„ria„,s ami
«'aU:,.K.,U will ,... ..,, „,,,„,„^^ ,,, J ^

I' i"t ni.ili..,ial powers of thr
iicavctis in the nli,.. r .i •
Crca...,-. ' '' "' "'"'■ ""■'•'■|"'tcMt

Tl,cy clcir,c..l also „,.,> ,,,„,,,„, ,,„^^^^^^^
and at lcnj,'lh, ,„„ti„fr ,!,(,,,. t^^,, „,„ ,,,. '
a;W«. U. ,H,.,.o. .,i pla:.;: . ':;: .:;;
t.t.c.s,a,Klwit,.t.K..sa,.,c.clotc.staM.a,K,|,ccn
service. ^'»i"nis

S- n.pi.1 was tl,i.s corruption of the tn.o rclipon
>.at wo „K.y roasonal-ly behWo it wo„l<, havj

cxtoncdtlnon,„„„tal.thofannlio.sorthooarth

■f had not boon chosen, and by signal into

positions of I>rovi,l..>,r,. .„ ,.nf i r -

i)i^.ventcd, from forget-

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

ting the true God, and from imitating the idola-
trous practices of the succeeding nations.

The selection of one family, therefore, to be
the depositary of the divine oracles, so far from
being an injury, was in truth a benefit to the
rest of mankind. I have already suggested
some of the reasons, for which we may suppose
that the advent of the Messiah was delayed till
the maturity of the human race. Yet, though it
might be advisable to delay that advent, it was
nevertheless highly important that the know-
ledge of the divine intentions should be preserved
until the period of their accomplishment arrived.
The preservation of this knowledge was neces-
sary for the consolation and instruction of those
generations which were to precede the appointed
era of human redemption : it was necessary also,
in order that the correspondence between the
prediction and the event might be fully manifest.
If we rift the ancient traditions of the heathens
from the fables with which they are intermingled ;
if we collect and arrange the scattered fragments,
we may distinctly trace the expectation which
prevailed among the Gentiles, concerning a

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 69

great Deliverer who was to make I lis appearance
amongst men. The notions, however, which
they entertained on this subject were very im-
perfect; they had preserved nothing which could
be considered as a direct prophecy concerning
the Messiah's coming ; nor could the identity
of the person laying claim to that title be ascer-
tained by comparing the features of his character
with their ideas of it. Had the oracles of God,
therefore, been left to float unprotected on the
ocean of tradition, they would long since either
have been dispersed in scattered fragments, or
have been lost in the depths of oblivion ; but,
being collected into the ark of the Jewish
Church, they were conveyed steadily along
the stream of time, until they reached that
period when their accomplishment in Him to
whom they all had reference could be fully
ascertained.

But it may be once more objected, admitting
that it was right to select one particular nation
for this important purpose. Why were the Israel-
ites chosen ? Were they not a people manifestly
unworthy of the divine favour .? Does not their

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

own history represent them as in the highest
degree ungrateful and rebellious ? It does ; but
it at the same time declares that God did not
choose them on account of their worthiness, nor
on account of their importance amongst other
nations :— " The Lord did not set His love upon
you, nor choose you, because ye were more in
number than any people ; for ye were the fewest
of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because He would keep the oath which
He sware unto your fathers." It is evident,
therefore, that the cavils of sceptics on account
of the unworthiness of the Jews falls to the
ground. As far as any human agency had any-
thing to do with the choice, it was the faithfulness
of their forefathers, and especially of Abraham.
He was, indeed, a memorable instance of piety.
He was found faithful when his family were
idolaters. He cast himself wholly on the pro-
vidence of God, and in compliance with His
direction forsook his kindred and his country.
His faith triumphed over the greatest difficulties,
so that he against hope believed in hope — "he
staggered not at the promise of God through

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. ;i
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to
God ; being fully persuaded that what He had
promised, He was able to perform." When sub-
jected to the severest trial which ever mortal
man endured, he was still faithful, and was
therefore rewarded by being made the father of
many nations, and the ancestor of that Messiah
in whom all the nations of the earth were to be
blessed. The faithfulness of the ancestor may,
therefore, in some measure (as far at least as
human judgment is concerned) make up for the
unworthiness of the progeny.

But let the nature of that unworthiness be
well considered. What is there that can be
alleged against the Jews, with which the Gen-
tiles may not with equal force be charged?
Did the Jews give way to idolatry .?--so did
the Egyptians and Chaldeans, the Phoenicians,
and the Canaanites.

Though it must be confessed that the Jews
were faulty, yet I may safely challenge those
who are so forward in vilifying them, to pro-
duce any nation of antiquity which deserved
a better character ? Skilled as the Egyptians,

72 THE JEWS THE GUARDfANS OF

and their colonists the Greeks, were in human
wisdom and philosophy, did they excel in re-
h'gious knowledrre or in moral purity ? Surely
whoever will minutely investij^ate the history
of these nations, as recorded by their own
writers, will find that there was no supersti-
tion which they did not cherish ; no vice, how-
ever odious in itself, and however debasing to
human nature, in which they did not without
shame indulge.

Since then, unworthy as the Jews were, no
other nation can be found more worthy ; since
in selecting them God conferred a just reward
on the faith and piety of their ancestors ; since
they were not chosen for their own sakes, but
for the sake of conferring the most essential
benefits on mankind in general, let presump-
tuous men no longer dare to arraign the con-
duct of Providence, nor to censure a dispensa-
tion which has been productive of unspeakable
advantages to the whole human race.

Having thus, I trust, justified the selection
of Abraham and his family, I shall endeavour
to show that they were instrumental in pre-

THE KNOWLEDCiK OK THK TRUE GOn. 73

serving the light of divine trnth, and in dif-
fusing it amongst the surrot.nchiig nations.

The books of profane antiquity which have
reached our time arc so much more recent than
the period now under consideration, that it is
difficult to collect information on this subject
from any except Jewish and Christian writers
But as some of these composed their works
principally for the instruction of the heathens
and appealed to books which (though now lost)
were m those days extant, we may safely cm-
ploy their testimony for the illustration of those
brief accounts which are given us in Scripture.

The Bible informs us that, after Abraham
had continued for some time in Canaan, he
was induced by a famine, which afflicted Ihat
country, to go down into Egypt. He was
there rendered ilkistrious in the eyes of Pharaoh
and his princes, by a remarkable interposition
of the Deity in his favour. From thenceforth
they treated him with the utmost deference a
deference which we cannot doubt that he would
■nprove for the religious advantage of the
people.

74 THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

Josephus plainly tells us that he did so, and
that he gave them much valuable instruction
both with respect to human and divine know-
ledge.

Eusebius, in his "Fraeparatio Evangelic^,"
cites many ancient writers, who give the same
account of him, and represent him as a man of
singular piety and wisdom.

The Persians long retained the memory of his
excellence and instructions; and the Arabians,
who were descended from him in the line of
Ishmael, to this day venerate his name, and
doubtless for a considerable time observed his
precepts. That they did so we may infer from
the singular piety of Job, as well as from that
of Jethro the priest of Midian.

Maimonides tells us, that Abraham left a book
behind him on the subject of instructing pro-
selytes. At any rate, his zeal for the honour
of God and the instruction of mankind must
have produced the happiest effects for the time
being. The same may be said to a certain
extent of Isaac and Jacob.

In this salutary manner was the family of

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 75

Abraham employed to disseminate the know-
ledge of the true God, and to enter their solemn
protest against idolatry throughout those ex-
tensive regions where learni.ig and commerce
peculiarly flourished, and from whence the know-
ledge of such memorable transactions could not
fail to be very widely diffused.

But it was in Egypt especially that God was
pleased to signalise His power, and to establish
His pre-eminence over every other object of
worship. For this purpose, by a wonderful
series of providential dispensations, Joseph the
son of Jacob was first carried into Egypt as a
slave, and then exalted almost to the throne
of Pharaoh, becoming a benefactor to that
kingdom, and to all the lands surrounding
In this elevated station he appears to have
continued till his death,' which was about
eighty years afterwards. During that interval
we may be assured that he employed his power'
and exercised his rare abilities, in counteract-
ing the progress of superstition and idolatry,
and in promoting the knowledge of true re-
ligion.

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

By the benefits which Joseph was enabled
to confer on the Egyptians, he not only gained
a favourable reception for the dictates of a pure
theology, but also provided a secure asylum for
his family, until it had become strong enough
to survive the oppressions which it was destined
to sustain from the cruelty of this ungrateful
nation.

It may not be improper to take notice in
this place of the light which has been thrown
upon the history of this period by the students
of Oriental literature. It has always seemed
difficult to explain the circumstance of Pharaoh's
possessing sheep and employing shepherds, at
a time when shepherds were an abomination to
the Egyptians ; nor has it failed to excite sur-
prise that another king should so soon arise
who knew not Joseph. The account also which
Josephus, in his book against Apion, extracts
from Manetho concerning the Hyesi or shep-
herd-kings, has occasioned no small perplexity
to the learned. These difficulties are now re-
moved by the Sanscrit writiners

It appears from thence, that Egypt and its

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 77

histoiy were well known to the Hindoos, and
that a tribe, called the Palli, emigrated from
Hindostan, and established itself in Egypt.
These Palli either left India before the doctrine
concerning the transmigration of the soul into
the bodies of inferior animals was propagated
by Buddha, or else, as is highly probable, were
expelled on account of their opposition to it.
Like other shepherds, they fed on the flesh of
sheep and goats, which the Egyptians rever-
enced as sacred animals, and the eating of which
they consequently abhorred.

It seems, therefore, to have been by a signal
interposition of Providence, that this Hindoo race
was brought into Egypt, and possessed itself
of the supreme power a little before the period
that Joseph was brought into that country.
After enjoying the pre-eminence for two hundred
and fifty-nine years, they were expelled by a
general insurrection of the native princes.

"It was," as a writer observes, "under this
new dynasty of Egyptian kings,* who knew
not Joseph, and to whom shepherds were an

i.e., ihe native princes who e::pelled the Palli.

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

abomination — an abomination not only because
they reared cows, sheep, and goats (the gods
of Egypt) for the purpose of feeding upon
them ; whereas fish, grain, and some kinds of
birds formed the principal provision of the native
Egyptians— but because the PhcEnician shep-
herds were the conquerors of their country, and
ruled them two centuries and a half with a rod
of iron ;— it was under this dynasty, I say, that
the Israelites were so grievously oppressed, from
a spirit of deep-rooted revenge in their new
sovereigns and of jealousy of their increasing
numbers ; and it was also on one of the Pharaohs
who constituted it that their Almighty Deliverer
got Himself glory by involving the tyrant and
his host in the waters of the Red Sea." *

Whoever will compare the whole of the state-
ment given by this writer with the account
which Joscphus has preserved of the Hyesi or
shepherd-kings, will see what a striking corres-
pondence there is between them, and how remark-
ably they explain and corroborate each other;
they will also, if attentively studied, be found to
* Vide Maurice's Hist, of Hindostan, vol. ii., part i, p. 203.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE COD. 79

yield a strong confirmation to the narrative of
Moses.

The ancient princes of Egypt having thus re-
covered the dominion of which they had been
for a timedeprived, revenged themselves on the
children of Israel for the injuries which they had
sustamed from the former pat ons of that chosen
people, and returned to the idolatries from which
they had probably been in a degree restrained
In those idolatries the Israelites seem to have
been but too much disposed to join with their
oppressors; and therefore God established in
the fullest manner His superiority to the false
deities of Egypt, whilst by the most signal
displays of His power. He opened a way for
His people's deliverance.

We must by no means consider the pla ^ues
which Moses was commissioned to inflict on the
^gyptian.s, as arbitrary exertions of Omnipo
tcnce. Several eminent writers have proved
that each of these plagues was peculiarly adap-
ted to the case of t!,:'? people.

Their gods were made their tormentors, or
were involved in hk, suffering with themselves ;

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

and those things which their Wind superstition
regarded with peculiar veneration were rendered
instrumental for their punishment. Their sacred
river, in which they performed their ablutions,
was changed into blood, which they regarded
with the greatest horror ;— its fish, esteemed
sacred, also died, and filled the land with pesti-
lential vapours. From the same river proceeded
frogs, which defiled their land, and rendered
their palaces and temples hateful. The affected
delicacy and externa' purity which they ob-
served in their persons (notwithstanding the
detestable impurities practised in their temples)
were assaulted by the plague of lice, — a plague
that compelled even the magicians to acknow-
ledge the finger of God. Then followed the
grievous murrain, a judgment "very significant
in its execution and purport. For, when the
distemper spread irresistibly over the country,
the Egyptians not only suffered a severe loss,
but what was of far greater consequence, they
saw the representations of their deities, and
their deities themselves, sink before the God
of the Hebrews."

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE COD. 8l

On the otlier plagues the like observer
may be marfp ■ „ » , observations

hardened £^ \ °"'^ "' '''^>' -^'<=^ the

.raened Egyptians with crraduallv ;„

severity, but also made ^J~y-'"^'^'^^^'"S
"dols more apparent '^°''"'^' °' *^'^

"AXnjr:ro;r--°--'-

cute udo-monf • " fi ^ ^^^^ ^^e-

jua^mcnt . thus reasonable was thr. • r
cnce of Tethro '' M t i ^^ ^"^^r-

jLcnro— Now I know that T^i, t. •
greater than all ^ods • fnr ' J ^ ^^^^ ''

departure. But in 'a sh ^'t I™ " ''''
having given this reluctant '"'''"'"^

followed them with hi pi" TT""' ^"'
all his host. ' '" '''^"°t«' and

nav n^ . ^^ "^ prudent fjeneral

nearest way to Ca„aa ^ '"""^ '^ *^

encamp ,„ a narrow defile, where they

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

had an arm of the sea before them, inaccessible
mountains on the one hand, and the Red Sea
itself on the other. Whilst thus encamped
Pharaoh overtook them, and then it became
evident that God had brought the Israelites
into this apparently ruinous situation for the
purpose of making His triumph more incon-
testible, and of involving their adversaries in
inevitable destruction.

The Red Sea was commanded to divide its
waters in the midst, and to raise them as a
wall on either hand, till the children of Israel
were passed over. It obeyed the mandate of
its Creator ; it afforded a safe and easy passage
to His people ; and at His word it again closed
its waters, and overwhelmed at once the chariots
and the princes, and the host of Pharaoh.

Thus signally were the great leaders of idol-
atry discomfited ; thus marvellously were the
children of Israel employed, as soon as they
became a nation, to set forth the praises, and to
vindicate the honour of Jehovah. By His al-
mighty hand they were conducted safely through

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE COD. 83

the waste and howling wilderness ; they were
sustained by a miraeulous supply of food when
no natural n,eans of obtaining it appeared, and
were at length led in triumph to take possession
of the promised land, whose inhabitants-as
the behaviour of Rahab and the Gibeonites
proves-wcre well acquainted with the mi<.htv
aets of the Lord, and, though unwilling to obey
H,s laws, could not refrain from aek„owledgin<.
His supreme dominion. "

Their long abode in the wilderness, instead of
bemg, as some daring infidels have pretended a
ground of objection to the conduct of Divine
Providence, was admirably subservient to the
des,gn of their Almighty Sovereign. Had they
been led immediately into Canaan, they might
have been in g.eat danger of lapsing into its
dolatrous practices, which very much resembled
those of the country they had left. This delay
m the wilderness afforded time for the inhab.^
tants of Canaan either to repent of and forsake
the,r m.quities, or to fill up the measure of them,
and thus become ripe for vengeance

THE JEWS THE GUARDIANS OF

But what was of the utmost importance, it
gave an opportunity of establishing such a
system of religious ceremonies and of political
ordinances as could not easily have been in-
troduced, except whilst they were living together
as one family, and had no concerns to occupy
them but such as were of a religious nature. To
this system of ritual observances, which was
established during the abode of Israel in the
wilderness, I propose to call your attention in
the next discourse ; in which I shall endeavour
to give you some idea of their typical import,
and to prove that by these the Jews were made
God's witnesses with respect to those things
which have since been more clearly revealed
under the gospel dispensation.

Let us, my brethren, who enjoy full gospel light,
admire and adore the infinite love of God, who,
in His manifestations to the Church and to the
world, gave a revelation of His will, clear and
distinct — though " at sundry times and in divers
manners" — concerning the salvation of mankind,
and through a long series of years by the instru-

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 85

mentaxity of the Jewish nation— prepared the
way for the introduction of His most blessed
Son, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

And now unto God, and our Father, be glory
for ever an^^ ever. Amen.

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THE TYPICAL NATURE OF THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

Col. ii. 17.

•' Which are a shadow of things to come ; but the body is

of Christ."

E have traced the history of the chil-
dren of Israel from the time of the
call of Abraham, their great pro-
genitor, to their emancipation from
Egyptian bondage. Hitherto they had chiefly
borne testimony to the true God by declaring
those traditions which they had preserved un-
corrupted concerning the revelations made by
Him, and by worshipping Him in opposition
to the imaginary deities of the heathens. But

TYPICAL NATURE OF MOSAIC RITUAL. 8/

being now assembled in the wilderness, and
living together as one great family detached
from every other nation, they received from
God himself a law of ceremonial observances,
which rendered them in an especial manner
witnesses to the truth of the Christian dispen-
sation.

It is of the utmost importance that the nature
and design of this law should be well under-
stood ; because, whilst we are ignorant of it, we
shall not only be unable to comprehend a very
large portion of the Old Testament, but shall
also find many passages in the New, exceedingly
dark and unintelligible.

The apostle Paul found it often necessary to
guard his Gentile converts against the errors
of those false teachers, who maintained the
necessity of uniting with a belief of the gospel
an observance of the Mosaic ritual. It is on
this subject that we find him reasoning in the
chapter from which my text is taken. He
exhorts the Colossians that "as they have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so they should
walk in him;" that they should neither allow

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

the pretended wise men of this world to " spoil
them through philosophy and vain deceit," nor
the Judaising teachers to entangle them in their
traditions. He asserts, that by their baptism
. they were buried with Christ, and risen again
through faith in His resurrection— wherefore
they had no need of the outward circumcision
of the flesh which had the same import ; neither
should they allow any man to judge them in
meat or drink, nor in respect of an holy day, or
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. For
these, he says, "are a shadow of good things
to come, but the body is of Christ."

We are not likely, my brethren, to fall into
those errors against which St Paul wished to
guard th^ Colossians ; nevertheless, it may be
profitable for us to meditate ^a the relation
between the shadow and the substance; be-
cause such meditation may increase our con-
viction of the truth and excellence of our holy
religion ; may give us an insight into the typi-
cal nature of the Mosaic ritual, and may incite
our gratitude for deliverance from the burden-
some yoke of the ceremonial law, and for the

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

enjoyment of the substantial blessings of the
gospel.

When we consider with what minute exact-
ness every particular relative to the tabernacle
and its utensils was prescribed to Moses by
God himself, who strictly charged him to make
all things after the pattern which was showed
him in the mount ; when we remember that the
workmen employed in their construction were
specially inspired for the purpose; when we
seriously study the dirr .^tions given for the con-
secration of the priests, and for every part of
their ministry,— we cannot but imagine that
something more than can be learned from the
bare letter was intended. This opinion is greatly
strengthened by the recollection of David's ear-
nestness in studying the divine law. What need
was there for him to meditate on it day and night,
if it contained nothing more than a description of
ceremonies, which were obvious to the most super-
ficial observer > Why should he have prayed so
earnestly, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may be-
hold wondrous things out of thy law," if he did
not believe that truly wonderful and important

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

lessons were to be derived from it ? Surely the
ardour of his inquiries must convince us that he
looked beyond the letter to the spirit, and was
able to pierce that veil which is represented as
covering the face of Moses.

Viewed in any other way, the Jewish ritual
seems wholly unintelligible and insignificant ;
but viewed according to the light which is thrown
upon it by the writers of the New Testament,
and especially by St Paul in his Epistle to the
Hebrews, it appears a noble system, worth) of
its Divine Author, and admirably calculated for
the purpose which it was designed to answer.
I would therefore invite you, brethren, to take
such a survey as our time may permit of the
principal features of this ritual. In doing which
I would begin with the tabernacle, because the
first directions given to Moses related to it and
its furniture.

The first part was "the court of the taber-
nacle," mentioned Ex. xxvii. 9. This court was
surrounded by a net-work, through which what-
soever was passing on inside might be seen by
the people ; and it seems probable that they

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

were allowed access within it, at least, on par-
ticular occasions. Within this was the tcber-
nacle, consisting of two parts, the one the holy
place, into which the priests continually entered
to perform the daily services ; and the other,
the holy of holies, into which none were allowed
to enter except the high priest ; and he only,
on one particular day in the year* but even then
not without the blood of the expiator>^ sacrifice,
which he had offered, as well for himself, as for
the errors of the people. Considering, then, the
Jewish government as a theocracy, we here
contemplate what we may perhaps venture to
call the royal pavilion of the Deity, as we find
Him saying to Moses : " Let them make me a
sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."
Here it was that they were to pay their devo-
tions to Him, and here to receive those oracles
which He was graciously pleased to deliver to
them. But the explanations given us by St
Paul teach us to enter more fully into the sense
of these sacred symbols. The outer court seems
to represent to us the visible church, into
which all who profess the true religion gain

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

admittance, but in which sincere and insincere
professors are blended together. The boun-
daries of it would in this case indicate the
separation of God's people from the unbelieving
world, and from all who are strangers to the know-
ledge, the worship, and covenant of Jehovah.

From the outer court we proceed to the
tabernacle, which, taken in its primary sense,
denoted the habitation of the Lord with Israel ;
in its more special sense, however, it denoted
the human nature of Christ, in whom dwelt
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The
outer part of this tabernacle was made of
coarse materials, but the inner part of such as
were highly valuable. So our blessed Lord —
outwardly He appeared to be " without form or
comeliness, and to have no beauty in Him that
we should desire Him," though He was in Him-
self "the brightness of His Father's glory, and
the express image of His person." The taber-
nacle also seems to have denoted the spiritual
church of Christ, composed of His sincere and
faithful worshippers, who are " an holy temple

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

unto the Lord, and arc built together for an
habitation of God through tlic Spirit."

Lastly, we proceed to the most holy place,
which St Paul expressly declares to have been
a type of lieaven, that sanctuary which is the
special residence of the divine glory, as this was
of the Shechinah, by which God condescended to
make Himself at different times visible to mor-
tals. Here were deposited the golden censer,
and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about
with gold, over which were the cherubims of
glory overshadowing the mercy-seat.

Concerning these, though the apostle did
not see fit at that time to speak particularly, he
evidently intimates that much might be spoken.
In a former chapter he had said,— ^'Seeing
that we have a great High Priest that is passed
into the heavens, . : . let us come boldly
unto the throne of grace"— the ark therefore,
of which the covering is always called the pro-
pitiatory or mercy-seat, was doubtless intended
to represent that heavenly throne of grace, on
which God is pleased to represent Himself as

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

seated to hear the petitions of all who ask in
His Son's name.

From the tabernacle we naturally turn our
attention to him who was appointed to minister
in it, and therefore may consider what was pre-
figured b}^ the Aaronic priesthood.

It appeared that in the first ages of the world,
the head of every family ministered in divine
things before God, as we know was the case
with Noah, Jacob, and Job. Afterwards the
priestly office seems to have devolved upon the
chief magistrate of the city or kingdom, as in
the instance of Melchisedec, who was both king
and priest ; and in like manner Moses officiated
previous to the consecration of Aaron. When
the priesthood was established in his line, it was
required that the priest should be of honourable
and legitimate birth ; that he should be free
from bodily defects ; and that he should cherish
mental purity.

Let us consider how these things agree with
our blessed Saviour. Even as to earthly parent-
age He was of the most honourable descent : of

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

the line of Jtidah ; of the family of David, and
born of a pure virgin. But who can express
the inherent dignity of His nature considered as
the Son of God. He was indeed " holy, harm-
less, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens." But as the Jewish
high priest could not take upon him the office
except as being called of God, no more did our
blessed Saviour. He was chosen of a tribe
different from that of Aaron, and made a priest,
not after his order, but after the order of
Melchisedec, whom St Paul abundantly proves
to have been superior to Levi, and of course to
all his descendants. And as the Jewish high
priest was consecrated, so was the Lord Jesus.
Aaron was first washed with water, and in like
manner was our Lord baptized in the river
Jordan. Aaron was anointed with oil, but Jesus
with the Holy Spirit, and that in a pre-eminent
degree, from whence He derived His character-
istic name of Messiah or the Christ, which had
from the earliest ages been appropriated to Him.
The resemblance might be traced in many

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

minute particulars, but it is necessary to hasten
onwards to the consideration of the manner in
which the priest's office was exercised.

This may be regarded as consisting of three
parts : — The offering gifts and sacrifices for sins ;
the interceding for the people ; and the pro-
nouncing a solemn benediction on them. That
part of the priestly office which relates to the
offering gifts and sacrifices demands our chief
attention. ,

The r\r\^'0 (Mincha) which our translators
render meat-offering, (though flower and bread-
offering would have been more accurate,) was of
a eucharistic nature, and was never presented
or accepted for the remission of sin, nor was
any promise of forgiveness annexed to it,
except when the offerer could not procure an
animal sacrifice. The victims which were to
be offered were to be free from every kind of
blemish or defect ; they were to be brought to
the door of the tabernacle, and there slain to
the honour of God ; after which either a part,
or the whole, was to be burnt upon the altar.

The sin-offering is described in the fourth

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

chapter of Leviticus. Its name (NDH) imports
an atonement for sin. The person offering it was
to lay his hand upon the head of the victim
thereby symbolically transferring his guilt to
it ; and then, the whole sacrifice, skin and all,
was to be carried without the camp and burnt,'
and its ashes were to be poured out into a
clean place.

Here we see a striking type of our ble^ .^d
Lord's d^ath and burial. He was made to bear
the sins of us all. He was offered up without
the camp, and his body deposited in a clean
place, a new tomb where never man before had
been laid.

But the sacrifice offered by the high priest
on the great day of atonement, was the one
which in the most striking manner shadowed
forth the death and resurrection of our Re-
deemer.

Clothed in the holy vestments, the high priest
was on one solemn day in every year to take
first a bullock, which was to be offered for him-
self and his family ; and then two goats, which
he was to present before the door of the taber-

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

nacle. He was next to cast lots upon the goats,
in order to determine which should be offered
in sacrifice, and which should be the scapegoat
to be set at liberty. After this he was to slay
the bullock, carrying a portion of the bloud
within the veil of the sanctuary with sweet in-
cense, which was to be burnt, so that the cloud
of smoke should ascend before the mercy-seat
whilst the blood was sprinkled upon and before
it There was he to kill the goat appointed for
the sin-offering, which was for the people, and
sprinkle its blood in like manner ; making thus
an atonement for the holy place, because of the
uncleanness and transgressions of the children
of Israel, and doing the same also for the taber-
nacle of the congregation.

By this offering he made an atonement both
for his own household and fc/ the whole nation.

Returning now into the outer court, he was tp
sanctify the altar by the mingled blood of the
bullock and the goat, hallowing it from the un-
cleanness of the children of Israel. Having thus
** made an end of reconciling the holy place, and
the tabernacle of the congregaaon, and the altar,

THE MOSAIC RITUAL. 99

he was to lay both his hands upon the head of
the live goat, and confess over him all the ini-
quities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon
the head of the goat, and sending him away by
the hand of a fit man into the wilderness-and
thus tlie goat bore upon him all their iniquities
unto a land not inhabited, and was let go in the
wilderness." This part of the service ended, the
priest changed his garments, and offered the
usual burnt-offering ; and the bodies of the
bullock and the goat, which had been slain as
sm-offerings, were to be carried forth without the
camp, and burnt ; both he who burnt them, and
he who had carried the scapegoat into the' wil-
derness, washing their flesh and their clothes
before they were again admitted into the con-
gregation.

•This service is thus briefly explained by St Paul :
— '^nto the second (tabernacle) went the high
priest alone once every year, not without blood
which he offered for himself, and for the errors
of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying,
that the way into the hnhVcf of -|i -

100

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was
yet standing : which was a figure for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices, that could not make him that did the
service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.
But Christ being come an high priest of good
things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building ; neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood, he
entered in once into the holy place, having ob-
tained eternal redemption for us." Again : —
" Almost all things are by the law purged with
blood ; and without shedding of blood is no re-
mission. It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should be
purified with these ; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of the
true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us : nor yet that he
should offer himself often, as the high priest
entereth into the holy place every year with

THE MOSAIC RITUAL. jqi

blood of others ; (for then must he often have
suffered since the foundation of the world :) but
now once, in the end of the world, hath he ap-
peared to put away sin by the sacrifice of him-
self. And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment ; so Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many : and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin unto salvation."

Guided, then, by these instructive observations
of the apostle, we may readily perceive, that
the solemnities of the great day of atonement
were a lively representation of the sacrifice of
Christ for our redemption. He was at once
both Priest and Sacrifice. The Jewish high
priest, being himself a sinner, was obliged to
offer for himself as well as for the people ; but
Christ made an atonement only for our guilt.
Two goats were of necessity employed on this
occasion, because it was designed to point Him
out, both as dying for our sins and as risen
again for our justification. The ofte represents
Christ crucified making an atonement by His
blood—the other represents Him bearing away

102

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

our guilt, which was laid upon His head, and
carrying it away that it should no more be
remembered against us. The high priest enter-
ing into the holy place figured His ascension
and entry into the highest heaven, there to
appear in the presence of God for us. His re-
turn to bless the people, represents His second
coming to receive His faithful servants to im-
mortal glory. This leads me to mention two
other parts of the priestly office which have not
yet been considered.

As the public intercessor, when Aaron entered
the sanctuary, he bore upon his breast and his
shoulders the names of the children of Israel ;
so does Christ bear the names of His people in
His heart and mentions them before God, in
whose presence He ever liveth to make inter-
cession for them. And as the high priest was
authorised to pronounce a solemn blessing on
the Jewish nation when assembled for public
worship, so did Christ before His ascension
solemnly bless His disciples; and so will He
in a yet sublimer manner address all His faith-
ful servants, when he cometh in His glory,

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

103

saying, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, in-
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world."

Having seen that the Mosaic law offered a
striking typical illustration of the means which
God has ordained for the redemption of man-
kind, we have only to consider in what manner
our purification from original sin was shadowed
forth in it. That all mankind are born in sin,
appears evidently to be taught by the remark^
able law recorded in the twelfth chapter of
Leviticus. It is there ordained, that, "If a
woman have conceived seed, and have born a
man child, then she shall be unclean seven days,"
&c. &c. In how lively a manner does this or-
dinance proclaim that all mankind are born in
sin, depraved in nature, and stand in need of
spiritual purification. But, besides the natural
depravity of all men, there were many other
cases of legal impurity described by Moses, any
one of which, whilst it continued, excluded the
person labouring under it from the privilege of
joining in the t. orship of the congregation. The
principal method of removing this pollution w;

ba»

104

THE TYPICAL NATURE OF

by washing in pure water, which evidently
symbolised the purifying influences of the Holy
Spirit. This God intimated by His prophet
Ezekiel, when He gave that reviving promise to
Israel of the change which He will produce in
their hearts at their final restoration :— " Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean," &c. &c. "A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ;
and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."
David also evidently alludes to the spiritual
design of this ceremonial purification, when he
says, — "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be
clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow," &c. &c. " Create in me a clean heart,
O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

In this therefore, as in all the other ordinances,
we see that the apostle truly said, — " These are
a shadow of things to come, but the body is of
Christ." We have taken but a brief and rapid
glance at some of the ceremonies of the Mosaic
ritual, yet enough to see that they shadowed
forth the Christian dispensation. If time had

THE MOSAIC RITUAL.

105

permitted me to enter upon the subject of the
passover and the other Jewish festivals, we
should have been led to the same conclusion.
But so far as we have been able to proceed, we
may see abundant cause for thankfulness on
account of our enjoyment of those substan-
tial blessings which in these institutions were
shadowed forth. We have Christ, who is the
body of them all ; in Him we are circumcised
with the true spiritual circumcision. By Him,
as the great High Priest over the house of God,
we are introduced into the true sanctuary, that
as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, we
may offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Him. We have access into the
holiest of all through His atoning sacrifice ; we
can draw nigh with confidence to the mercy-
seat ; we can consult the lively oracles which
romt out the path to holiness and heaven ; we
feed upon the bread of life— everything, in short,
which is needful to give peace of conscience,
confidence in the divine mercy, support in life,
and hope in death, is freely imparted to us.
Let us, then, be indeed thankful that the shadows

I06 TYPICAL NATURE OF MOSAIC RITUAL.

are fled away, and the true light now shineth.
Let us hold fast the head— even the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is our great High Priest, who
has entered on our behalf within the veil, and
is thus for a short season concealed from us who
are worshipping in the outer court of the sanc-
tuary. But soon will He return, soon will He,
who '' was once offered to bear the sins of many,
appear the second time unto them that look for
Him without sin unto salvation." Then shall
we, as many as thus look for Him, "appear with
Him in glory." Let these considerations ani-
mate us patiently to bear up under present
trials, which are designed to prepare us for the
blissful portion reserved in heaven for us ; — let
us, girding up the loins of our mind, be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to
be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Of which grace, may God of His in-
finite love and mercy make us all partakers,
for His blessed and holy name's sake. Amen.

VI.

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS THE SPIRIT OF
PROPHECY.

Rev. xix. lo.
" The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

HESE words occur in that very in-
teresting part of the book of Revela-
tion where St John, having seen in
prophetic vision the downfall of the
mystic Babylon, and the consequent exultation
of the Church under the emblem of her marriage
with Christ, declares that he fell down at the
feet of the angel, by whom these glorious mys-
teries were disclosed, with an intent to worship
him. This worship the angel repels, saying :—
" See thou do it not : I am thy fellow-servant,

io8

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

and of thy brethren that have the testimony of
Jesus : worship God ; for the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy."

When we consider the manner in which this
spirit of prophecy was dispensed, and in which
its testimony was conveyed, we can scarcely fail
to acknowledge that the hand of God was most
signally displayed in it. We have already
taken notice of some of the earlier intimations
which He vouchsafed to particular persons
concerning His designs of mercy through the
Messiah. But we are now to survey a spectacle
still more remarkable. We are to observe a
whole nation selected for the preservation of the
oracles of God — a succession of men during
many centuries constantly predicting the same
event — declaring that a glorious Personage
should arise from among themselves, who should
be the author of unspeakable blessings to man-
kind, and should establish a spiritual and eternal
kingdom.

It was for this purpose especially that the Jew-
ish nation was separated from all the families of
the earth, that they might preserve uncorrupted

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 109

the revelations which God was pleased to vouch-
safe, and might bear an effectual and beneficial
testimony to the rest of mankind.

It would be impossible, within the narrow
limits of a sermon, to enumerate, and still more
to investigate, all the predictions concerning the
Messiah which are contained in the Jewish
Scriptures. Nor is the task necessary ; for they
have been collected with the utmost assiduity,
and their fulfilment demonstrated by many able
writers. Yet that I may not leave my subject
incomplete, and that our memory may be re-
freshed, I will briefly touch on some of those
predictions, and refer such as are desirous of
fuller information to the many valuable treatises
on Christianity, especially to the dissertations
of Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, and to
Hengstenberg's Christology.

We have already seen how the promise of
the Messiah, which was originally given to
Adam, was further confirmed to Noah, and
limited to the family of Shem. We have noticed
likewise its restriction to the posterity of Abra-

ham bv his son Tcoi/- ,•« ^,-1--— u- ^ ,

^ — x5«tn_, m vvnuiix lie was assured

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

that all the nations of the earth should be
blessed.

Amongst the remarkable prophetic blessings
which Jacob pronounced upon his children im-
mediately before his death, we find the well-
known prophecy which has always been under-
stood to limit the descent of the Messiah to the
family of Judah, as well as to mark the time of
His appearance.

We find a remarkable passage in the fifth
chapter of the first book of Chronicles, where
the writer, in recounting the descendants of Reu-
ben, observes parenthetically that "Judah pre-
vailed above his brethren, and of him came the
chief ruler." The original word for " ruler " is
1^-DJ/, which the Septuagint renders rfr^ovixevov,
and both the Syriac and Arabic, " the King Mes-
siahy This seems to afford a convincing evi-
dence that He was expected to be a descendant
of that tribe. But the latter part of Jar* b pr:--
phecy is still more important, because it declares
that " the sceptre should not depart from Judah,
nor the lawgiver from between His feet, until
Shil'^u c nc and that to Him should the gather-

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 1 1 j

ing Of the people be." That this passage was
understood to refer to the Messiah is clear from
various expositors. The Targum of Onkelos
on this passage is very remarkable. He renders
it :— " One having the principality shall not be
taken away from the house of Judah, nor a scribe
from his children's children for ever; until the
Messiah shall come, whose is the kingdom, and
to Him the people shall obey."

The prophecy of Balaam is another which
well deserves to be considered, as it shows that
even to the other nations some intelligence on
this subject was communicated, and because it
not improbably gave rise to the journey of the
Magi, who followed the guidance of a star till
they came to the lowly habitation of Jesus.
The prediction of Moses concerning the future
rise of a prophet like unto himself, has been
. shown by Eusebius in ancient, and by Bishop
Newton and others in modern times, to cor-
respond precisely and exclusively to the char-
acter and actions of our blessed Saviour ; and
this doubtless was the opinion of those Jews

who, after witnessing the miraculous suddIv of

1. i. J —

112

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

■

food provided by Him for the multitude in the
wilderness, excLimed : " This is of a truth that
Prophet that should come into the world." The
next limitaiion of the promised seed was to the
family of David, who was himself an eminent
type of Christ, and predicted many remarkable
particulars concerning Him with the minutest
exactness. The 22d and 69th Psalms men-
tion many circumstances relative to His suffer-
ings, which every careful reader of Scripture
will be able immediately to apply ; and we know
that the words with which the former of these
two psalms commences formed part of His
dying exclamation. In the 40th Psalm we
find Christ himself declaring that He would
come, according to what had been written of
Him, to fulfil the will of God by offering
Himself instead of the legal sacrifices. Bishop
Home, in his commentary on this psalm, takes
notice of an emendation of the original text
which has been proposed, and which, by a
scarcely perceptible alteration in the form of
one word or two letters, brings it to the reading
of the Septuagint and of St Paul, " a body hast

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 113

thou prepared me." The 49th Psalm is a very
remarkable one, and will be found by those who
study it in the original to be full of gospel
doctrine. The 7th, 8th, and 9th verses well
deserve attention. After speaking of those who
trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the
multitude of their riches, the psalmist adds :
— " None of them can by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, (for
the redemption of their soul is precious, and it
ceaseth for ever,) that he should live for ever,
and not see corruption." There is a very in-
teresting comment on this by a Jewish doctor
—Rabbi Moses Hadarsan— who says :— " This
verse is spoken of the King Messiah, who
shall die to redeem the fathers, and after that
shall live for ever : He shall not see corruption."
The gloss also of a Rabbinical work— Sephra
and Midrash Tehillim— is worth taking notice
of:— "A man shall not say my father was
righteous, by his merit T shall escape or be de-
livered ; Abraham delivered not his son Ishmael,
and Jacob delivered not his brother Esau : he
says a brother shall not redeem. &c. &c. to .Jo..

114

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

nify that no mere man shall redeem any." The
I loth Psalm is acknowledged by the Jews them-
selves to relate to the Messiah. It was by a
citation from this that our Lord perplexed the
Pharisees when He asked them, " What think
ye of Christ .-* whose son is he ? They say unto
him, The son of David. He saith unto them,
How then doth David in spirit call him Lord,
saying, The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit thou
on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy
footstool ? If David then call him Lord, how
is he his son ? " This same psalm records the
solemn oath by which Jehovah appointed His
only-begotten Son to a far nobler priesthood
than that of Aaron ; it alludes to His suffer-
ings under the image of His drinking of the
brook in the way ; but it enlarges more fully on
His triumph, it foretells the complete subjuga-
tion of His enemies, and the establishment of
His dominion over a willing people.

From the Psalms — many more of which might
have been cited as referring evidently to Christ
— we proceed to the prophet Isaiah, who has
been justly called the Evangelical Prophet, on

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. ,15

account of the particular delight which he seems
to have felt in enlarging on the Messiah's advent
office, and kingdom. '

His predictions concerning these are indeed
mterwoven with many which relate to the tem-
poral condition of the Jews, and the nations with
wh,ch they were connected. This was observ-
able m the writings of all the prophets, and for
obvious reasons. The covenant which God made
with the children of Israel was of a twofold
nature. One part of it was temporal and re-
spected their continuance in possession of the
land of Canaan and their enjoyment of national
blessings, on condition of their abstinence from
■dolatry, and their obedience to the laws pre
scribed to them. The other part was spiritual
and related to those far nobler benefits which
were to be conferred on them, and on all man-
kind by the Messiah. Hence we often find an
allusion to both these heads of promi.se in the
same prediction, and in many instances we find
sp.ntual blessings foretold by images which
m.ght at first sight seem to relate wholly to
worldly advantages. The union of these two

ii6

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

subjects had this important effect, that when the
Jews found these predictions fulfilled, which
related to events that were near at hand, they
were the more disposed to credit those which
related to a more distant period.

The celebrated Pascal observes, that the pro-
phets intermingle national prophecies with those
concerning Messiah, in order that these latter
might not be without proof nor the former with-
out advantage. These remarks may be exem-
plified in that memorable prediction, contained
in the 7th chapter of this prophet.

When Ahaz, king of Judah, was under great
anxiety lest his kingdom should be overthrown,
and the house of David destroyed, Isaiah was
sent and particularly directed to take his son
Shear-jashub, who was then very young, in his
hand, to assure Ahaz that within sixty-fi'^e years
the Syrians should be conquered, and the Israel-
ites carried away captive. He was also to de-
clare that before the child Shear-jashub should
knowhow to refuse the evil and choose the good —
i.e., should arrive to years of discretion — that the
land should be forsaken of both her kings ; or

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.

ii;

rather, as Bishop Lowth more correctly renders
it: "The land should become desolate, by
whose two kings he was distressed." So far the
prophecy related to Ahaz, and the fears which
he at that time entertained with respect to Israel
and Syria. But in order both to confirm their
hopes, and at the same time make this temporal
deliverance the means of leading their thoughts '
forward to still higher blessings, the prophet,
when Ahaz perversely refused to ask that sign
which God commanded him to ask, took occa-
sion to give the most glorious and comforting
sign, not to the house of David only, but to the
whole human race, by predicting the birth of
Messiah, who had been so long since foretold to
spring from that family. " The Lord himself
shall give you a sign ; Behold, a virgin shall con-
ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel." Parallel with this prediction is that
no less remarkable one of Jeremiah, (xxxi. 22 :)-
"How long wilt thou go about, O thou backslid-
ing daughter > for the Lord hath created a new
thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man."
This Bishop Pearson has very satisfactorily

ii8

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

proved, both from the Hteral meaning of the
Hebrew words, and from the testimony of the
ancient Jews themselves, to be incapable of any
other than that obvious sense which Christian
interpreters give to it.

In the 9th chapter of Isaiah, the Messiah is
foretold, if possible yet more explicitly : — " Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and
the government shall be upon his shoulder : and
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace," — titles which manifestly be-
long to our blessed Lord, and which can be
applied to no other. In the 40th chapter He is
beautifully and justly described as feeding His
flock like a shepherd ; gathering the lambs with
His arms, and carrying them in His bosom, and
gently leading those that are with young.

The 42d thus speaks of the satisfaction which
He was to make to the divine justice : — " The
Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake ;
he will magnify the law and make it honourable."

The description given of His sufferings in the
53d chapter so exactly agrees with the facts of

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 1 19

the gospel history, that there is no need of en-
larging here upon it.

In the book of the prophet Micah we find a
prediction which the chief priests and scribes,
whom Herod consulted, applied to the Messiah,'
—"But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out
of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been
from of old, from everlasting." That this pre-
diction was very remarkably fulfilled— as far as
related to the birth of Christ—is well known ;
for by a signal interposition of Providence the
Virgin Mary was obliged to remove to Bethlehem
from her own city Nazareth, at the very time
that her delivery drew nigh.
. The next prophecy to which I shall refer you is
that of Zechariah, in which he describes the entry
of the Messiah into Jerusalem thus : " Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter
of Jerusalem : behold, thy King cometh unto
thee : he is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and
riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ^

ass. It is not mp'rf^Ur r\n np/^/-4.,«f ^r ^l-_ ^j

— -s. ™^..^i^ ^ii ciLvOuni, ui Liic exact

120

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

fulfilment of this in our Saviour's character and
conduct that I have referred to it, but also that
I may have the opportunity of noticing Bishop
Sherlock's excellent illustration of it. In his
fourth dissertation on prophecy he shows that
God, in order to keep the children of Israel in a
more implicit dependence on Himself as their
King and Protector, forbade them the use of
horses and chariots in war, and did not allow
their princes to keep them ; it was on this
account the judges of Israel rode on asses, which
are much finer animals in the East than those
to which we are accustomed. David himself
rode on a mule, and ordered Solomon to do so
on his coronation day ; and when the Jewish
princes multiplied horses and chariots, they lost
the protection of God and drew down ruin on
their country. The Pvlessiah, therefore, was not
to be such a King as these, but one just and.
lowly, and bringing salvation with Him, not by
the efforts of human power, but by the exercise
of the strength of the Most High.

In conformity with this interpretation, the
prophet proceeds to foretell — as others had done

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.

121

—that the use of the horse, the chariot, and
other wariike implements, should be cut off from
Israel in the days of Messiah.

As the time of His coming drew nearer, the
prophets spoke with increasing clearness. Thus
Malachi in the name of God declares : " Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye
seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight
in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts." Parallel with this is one, which I
omitted to notice, in the 40th chapter of Isaiah,
—"The voice of him that crieth in the wilder-
ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God."

Again, the prophet Haggai,— " Thus saith the
Lord of hosts ; Yet once, it is a little while, and
I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the
sea, and the dry land ; and I will shake all
nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come :
and I will fill this house with glory, saith the
Lord of hosts. . . . The glory of this latter
house shall be ereater than of fh^ fortri^r o^n-u

122

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

the Lord of hosts ; and in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts."

Having brought forward so many predictions
which can fairly be applied to no other person
than to Him whom we worship as the Author
of our salvation, I will content myself with pro-
ducing in addition only the one memorable pro-
phecy contained in the address of the angel
Gabriel to Daniel, in answer to the prayers which
he had offered for the deliverance of his people
from their captivity : — " Seventy weeks are deter-
mined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city,
to finish the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint
the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand,
that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Mes-
siah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three-
score and two weeks : the street shall be built
again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for himself : and the

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHKCY. 1 23

people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof
shall be with a flood, ^nd unto the end of the
war desolations are determined. And he shall
confirm the covenant with many for one week :
and in the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the
overspreading of abominations he shall make
it desolate, even until the consummation, and
that determined shall be poured upon the de-
solate."

It would not at this time be in my power to
enter into a discussion of the various explanations
which have been given of this important pro-
phecy. That which has been most generally
received, is the one of the learned Dr Prideaux.

Like Sir Isaac Newton, he calculates the be-
ginning of the seventy weeks from the commis-
sion granted by Ezra in the seveftth year of Ar-
taxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, which was
in the month Nisan in the year of the Julian
period 4256. Reckoning from that period
seventy weeks of years (equal to 490 years) we
arrive at the vear nf fbf» Tiiiior. n^^W'^-' ^^^^ :-,

124

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

the very same month of which, namely Nisan,
our blessed Lord offered Himself up on the cross
as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Thus far Dr Prideaux and Sir Isaac Newton
agree. The latter, however, considers the seven
weeks next mentioned as relating to a period yet
future, and which shall take place at the return
of the Jews from their present dispersion. He
also calculates the sixty-two weeks from the
twentieth year of the same Artaxerxes, and
makes them end in the very year of our Lord's
death. Dr Prideaux, however, considers the
angel as dividing the seventy years into three
periods : — i. From the commission given to
Ezra to the establishment of the civil and ecclesi-
astical polity of the Jews, seven weeks or forty-
nine years. 2. From thence to the time when
John the Baptist opened the gospel dispensa-
tion, sixty-two weeks, or 434 years. 3. From
thence to the death of Christ one week or seven
years, making on the whole 490 years.

I am aware that considerable difficulties at-
tend all the explanations which have been
given of this prophecy ; yet they are such as

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.

^25

by no means aflfoct the main argument derived
from it: for it plainly determines the time of
the Messiah's coming to a period, which every
exposition agrees in placing very near that in
which Jesus actually did come, and was cut off.
It plainly asserts that this event shall take place
before the destruction of the Jewish polity, as we
know it did, and therefore it furnishes us with
an unanswerable argument against the Jews, who
deny that the Messiah has yet made His appear-
ance in the world.

Even in the rapid survey which we have
taken of some amongst the many prophecies
relative to the Messiah, we must have seen that
the Jewish nation have been made witnesses to
a glorious personage, who was from the earliest
period foretold as the Redeemer of mankind,
and that the testimony contained in their sacred
writings manifestly refers to Him whom we
acknowledge as the Christ, the Saviour of the
worid. We find that the whole train of prophets
which arose in this favoured nation foretold
with gradually increasing clearness the advent
of the Messiah, and related particulars minutely

126

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS

descriptive of Jesus of Nazareth. There cannot
be the sHghtest ground for supposing that these
prophecies were interpolated to suit His char-
acter, for the greater part of these were written
before and during the Babylonish captivity,
after which they were collected by Ezra into
the sacred canon. The last prophet Malachi —
as the Jews admit — wrote about four hundred
years B.C. About three hundred years before
Christ, the Septuagint translation was made,
which prevented all possibility of interpolation,
and caused the knowledge of God's gracious
intentions to be widely diffused throughout all
the civilised nations of the heathen world.
After this period, we find such frequent allu-
sions to the Jewish Scriptures amongst the.
Greek and Roman writers as prove that they
had excited considerable attention. Virgil
seems to have studied them with peculiar
diligence, and in one poem almost literally
copies the language of Isaiah. The result was
a universal expectation of the Messiah's com-
ing, an expectation to -./hich Suetonius, Taci-
tus, and others bear an unsuspected witness

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 127

-an expectation which, doubtless, prepared
mankind in no inconsiderable degree for the
reception of the gospel, when it pleased God
that it should be preached unto them. Con-
templating this wonderful and harmonious
arrangement of prophecy, it seems impossible
not to be struck with the glorious display of
the Divine wisdom and goodness which it
affords. One ray of light broke forth after
another upon a world which sin had over-
whelmed with darkness and with sorrow till
at length "the Sun of Righteousness " appeared
and life and immortality were fully brought to
light by the gospel.

May He, who has vouchsafed thus graciously
to make known to us His designs of mercy
mcline our hearts, by the teaching and influence
of the Holy Spirit, to embrace His offers, and
to hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering, for the sake of His beloved Son our
Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, be glory and majesty
dommion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.

VII.

THE CONVERSION AND FINAL RESTORATION
'^ OF THE JEWS.

HosEA iii. 4.

•'For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a
king, and without a pvince, and without a sacrifice, and
without an image, and without an ephod, and without
teraphim. "

HAVE endeavoured in the foregoing
discourses to show how remarkably
the Jews were employed to bear
witness to the Messiah until the time
of His appearance in the world. The spectacle
which we are now to contemplate may at first
sight appear totally inconsistent with that which
we have hitherto surveyed. We are to behold
the Jews rejecting that very Messiah, whose com-

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 129

ing they had so eagerly anticipated, and as a
punishment, they themselves are rejected, for the
present at least, from being the chosen people of
God.

A superficial observer might be tempted to
imagine that the refusal of the Jews to acknow-
ledge the divine mission of Jesus affords a pre-
sumptive argument against it. He might at
least consider it as unaccountable, that they who
had been favoured with such remarkable predic-
tions concerning the Messiah, and who had, above
all other nations, been accustomed to desire His
advent, should, when that advent took place be
allowed to harden themselves in unbelief I tr'uJt
however, that it will not be a veiy arduous task
to show that these events were foreseen in the
divine counsels, and formed a part of the great
scheme of Providence respecting the kingdom
of Christ, and the salvation of mankind.

In order to understand the circumstances
which led to the rejection of Jesus by the Jew-
ish nation, we must look back upon the state of
that nation at the time of His first coming.

Before the Babylonish captivity, the Jews had

130

THE CONVERSION AND

been remarkably prone to idolatry; but when
they returned from it, they fell into errors of a
different nature. They adhered, indeed, with
considerable steadfastness to the worship of the
true God, but they allowed that worship to de-
generate into mere formality. They laid great
stress upon the external and ceremonial part of
their religion, they overlooked and neglected
the spirit of the divine precepts, and substituted
an ostentatious observance of traditional custon. :,,
in place of taking the Word of God alone for
their guidance in the path which leads to true
holiness and life.

Pride and luxury advanced with rapid strides
amongst them. The priesthood became cor-
rupt and licentious. The people were split into
a great variety of sects and parties, the most
prominent of whom were the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, and the Essenes. The great body
of the people, given up to worldly principles,
seemed in every respect to have lost sight of
spiritual life and light. They had not, how-
ever, relinquished their hope of a Messiah. They
were, on the contrary, aware that the period

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 131

marked out by their prophets must be near at
hand, and they eagerly expected His appear-
ance, imagining that He would deliver them
from the Roman yoke, under which they
groaned, and would exalt their nation to the
summit of temporal grandeur, erecting His
throne above that of Augustus, and making all
the princes of the earth His tributaries.

Possessed as they were with these lofty expect-
ations, they could not in the meek and lowly
Jesus recognise the Messiah, though He bore
all the characteristics described in the prophetic
writmgs ; besides, the maxims which He incul
cated were the reverse of those by which they
were governed.

Instead of asserting His pretensions to royalty
and calling upon His countrymen to burst their
fetl 's and to cast away the yoke which galled
them. He invited them to become the subjects
of a spiritual and heavenly kingdom. He pro-
mised them deliverance, indeed, but it was de
hverance from sin. He offered them succour
agamst their enemies, but they were the enemies

oftheirsouls. R^ ir»„^i , .t .

-. -_ ,..,„«,^ icpiuvca tneir teachers

132

THE CONVERSION AND

Ke set at naught those traditions by which they
had made the commandments of God of none
efifect. He insisted upon inward sanctity as pre-
ferable to outward ceren: .;.n He also gave
them to understand that v day was at hand
when all the nations of the earth should be
admitted to a participation of all the privileges
which they had so long enjoyed exclusively.

Doctrines such as these were little calculated
to gain acceptance with the great body of the
Jewish nation. There were, indeed, some who
waited for the consolation of Israel ; but of the
multitudes who flocked around Him to hear His
instructions, to witness His miracles, and to par-
take of His benefits, only a small number con-
tinued steadily attached to Him, and not one
had the courage to stand forward and vindicate
His innocence when He was arraigned before
the Jewish Sanhedrim.

The populace, indeed, retained almost to the
end the expectation that He would assume the
regal character; they considered this expecta-
tion as confirmed by His solemn entry into
Jerusalem, after having in the most signal

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 33

manner raised a dead man from the grave, and
they therefore hailed His approach to the holy
city with loud acclamations of " Hosanna to
the Son of David ; Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."
But when, a few days afterwards, they saw
Him bound by the command of their high priest
and rulers, and dragged as a criminal before the
Roman governor, their hopes of deliverance by
His means were wholly at an end— they allowed
themselves to be persuaded that He was an im-
postor ; and they who had so lately rent the air
with acclamations in His praise, exclaimed with
no less vehemence, " Crucify him, crucify him."
Such was the reception which the Son of God
experienced when, after being so long expected,
He made His .ppearance in the world. Instead
of receiving the honours due to His transcendent
dignity. He was treated with insult and re-
proach ; He was sold for the price of the mean-
est slave ; He was made an object of derision to
the lowest of the people ; His back was torn
with scourges. His face was defiled with spit-
ting ; He was crucified as a common malefactor,

134

THE CONVERSION AND

He expired in ignominy and anguish. Thus
low did He who was to be the Saviour of man-
kind stoop. But here His humiliation ended.
Within three days, according to His own pre-
diction, He burst the bonds of death and rose in
triumph from the grave. He abode forty days
upon earth, for the purpose of reviving the hopes
of His disciples by convincing them of the
reality of His resurrection, and making them
more fully acquainted with the mysteries of His
kingdom. He then, in the presence of them all,
ascended into heaven with power and great
glory, angels attending to show reverence to
their sovereign, and announcing His second ap-
pearance to call the nations of the earth to
judgment.

From this period a new dispensation com-
menced. On the day of Pentecost, which was
ten days after, the Holy Spirit miraculously de-
scended on the Church, and especially on the
apostles, endowing them with many supernatural
gifts, especially with the power of speaking
divers languages, and enabling them to preach
the gospel with such a divine energy that

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 35

thousands were by one address converted to the
Christian faith. The great body of the nation,
however, continued in unbelief; and though
they were urged with the prophecies of their
own Scriptures which had been manifestly ful-
filled in Jesus, and though they witnessed the
most evident displays of the divine power, they
still persevered in their unbelief, till at last God
gave them up to the fury of the Romans. The
lofty ramparts in which they trusted were not
levelled to the ground till they had suffered a
siege during which the utmost miseries from
pestilence and famine prevailed. Their glorious
temple was destroyed by fire ; their priests were
slain by the sword; myriads fell victims to
calamities of every description, and the remnant
were either sold as slaves or scattered as exiles
and fugitives over the face of the whole earth.

We will now, with humility and reverence,
inquire in what manner these events are to be
accounted for.

The rejection of the Messiah by the Jews,
though apparently contrary to the purpose for
which they were selected, (/>., of bearing witness

136

THE CONVERSION AND

to Him) was yet foreseen and provided for in
the divine counsels. Thus we find the apostles
in their prayer acknowledging, "Of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast
anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were
gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy
hand and thy counsel determined before to be
done." This acknowledgment they built on
that prophetic declaration in the 2d Psalm, —
" The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against his Anointed," (H^IC^D.)

Many other passages might be selected out of
the Psalms to the same effect. I will, however,
content myself with a few quotations from the
prophet Isaiah. In chap. viii. 13, 14, he says :
"Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him
be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he
shall be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stum-
bling and for a rock of offence to both the houses
of Israel." In chap. xlix. 5-8, it is written:
" And now, saith the Lord that formed me from
the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 137

again to him, Though Israel be not gathered,
yet' shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,'
and my God shall be my strength. And he
said, It is a light thing that thou shouldcst be
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and
to restore the preserved of Israel : I will also
give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou
mayest be my salvation unto the end of the
earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of
Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom n.an
despiscth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to
a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise,
princes also shall worship, because of the Lord
that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, In
an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a
day of salvation have I helped thee : and I will
preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of
the people, to establish the earth, to cause to in-
herit the desolate heritages." And again, in
chap. 1. 5, 6: "The Lord God hath opened mine
ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned
away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and
my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I

138

THE CONVERSION AND

hid not my face from shame and spitting." And
in chap. Hii. 1-3: "Who hath believed our re-
port ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord re-
vealed ? l^'or he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground :
he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we
shall see him, there is no beauty that we should
desire him. He is despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him; he
was despised, and we esteemed him not." Many
passages might be cited from the other prophets,
but these are enough to justify the assertio:i
made by St Paul to the Jews of Antioch, —
"Men and brethren, children of the stock of
Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth
God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their
rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the
voices of the prophets which are read every
Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in con-
demning him."

Thus we find it clearly foretold that the Mes-
siah was to be rejected by the Jewish nation.

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JKWS. 1 39

This rejection was necessary to the accomplish-
ing of the purpose for which He came into
the world, lie came, not, as they imagined,
to erect a temporal kingdom, but to make an
atonement for human guilt, which could only be
done by His voluntary humiliation and suffer-
ings. His being treated by His own country-
men as an impostor, and being given up by them
to the Romans that He might be crucified, was
therefore appointed by a divine decree which the
Jews were the guilty and unconscious instru-
ments of fulfilling.

The rejection of Jesus as the Messiah may be
traced to tb<^ fact, that they overlooked those
prophecies which described His humiliation and
sufferings at His first advent, but confined
theif attention to those which foretold lac future
elevation of His kingdom above all temporal
dominions. Hence they expected Him to come
as a mighty conqueror, and would not receive
Him in the guise of a humble Nazarene. Not-
withstanding which, there were some who looked
upon Jesus as the true Messiah, and wf^— able
to see through the shadows of the law to .uc sub-

140

THE CONVERSION AND

stance ; rejoiced in the hope of a spiritual Re-
deemer, and panted for an inheritance in the
celestial Canaan.

Even these were not wholly free from the pre-
judices of their countrymen ; but being influ-
enced by a spirit of true piety, they were con-
vinced by the miracles which Jesus wrought, and
waited for the time when He should fully clear
up the mist that obscured their prospect. These,
when they embraced Christ, gradually became
blended with the general mass of His followers ;
consequently, though their conversion gave at
that time a strong attestation to His doctrine,
it does not at this day aflbrd so distinct and
clear an evidence. Those, however, who ex-
pected a temporal conqueror rejected Him, and
by that rejection, as we have seen, fulfilled the
prophecies, and were the occasion of His death,
by which the redemption of mankind was ac-
complished.

With respect to the rejection of the Jews, for
a time, from being God's people, this also was
clearly foretold by all their prophets, and was in
like manner subservient to very important ends

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 141

which God had from the beginning predeter-
mined.

When Moses commanded them to hearken to
that Prophet whom the Lord their God would
raise up unto them like unto himself, he inti-
mated that some would refuse to do so, and de-
clared that the Lord would require it at their
hands. With wonderful particularity he foretold
the events of that fatal siege which ended in the
destruction of their city and temple, and in the
complete overthrow of their civil and ecclesias-
tical polity : he foretold also their rejection, and
the admission of the Gentiles to their privileges.
Let the 26th chapter of Leviticus, and the 28th
and 32d of Deuteronomy be attentively studied,
and it will be apparent that the calamities
brought upon them by the Romans were fore-
seen from the beginning of their existence as a
nation. Numberless other passages might be
brought from the succeeding prophets, but that
which was already referred to in the 9th chapter
of Daniel may suffice. After declaring that
"the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for him-
^ci., ..„ ^^^s . J\^^^^ ^^g people ot the prince

142

THE CONVERSION AND

that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be with a
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations
are determined." It is well known that Christ
whilst upon earth delivered a most remarkable
prophecy on the subject, and immediately de-
scribed the most important circumstances and
consequences of the siege. This prophecy exactly
coincides with the narratives that Josephus and
Tacitus have left us concerning it.

But this event was in another important re-
spect conducive to the fulfilment of the divine
purposes. It manifested, in the most convincing-
manner, the abrogation of the Mosaic ritual,
which could no longer be observed after the
temple was destroyed, and the priesthood and the
nation dispersed throughout the earth. A full
refutation was hereby given to the Jewish idea
that this economy was to last for ever — a satis-
factory proof was afforded that men were no
longer to worship at Jerusalem, but that the true
worshippers of God were from thenceforth every-
where to pay their adoration to Him in spirit
and in truth. The middle wall of partition had

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. I43

indeed been broken down by the death of Christ,
and by the call of the Gentiles into the Church,
but now everything which contributed to en-
courage separation was removed, and believers
both from among the Jews and Gentiles were
gathered together, so as to form one fold under
one Shepherd.

The real object of the Jewish economy was
now clearly proclaimed. It was made manifest
that the Jewish people had been separated to
preserve the knowledge of the true God, and of
the predictions concerning the Messiah, until He
actually made His appearance. But when the
glorious fabric of the Christian Church was com-
pleted, the legal dispensation which had served
but as a scaffolding for the erection of it was
taken down— the material temple was destroyed,
and that spiritual temple erected which is to
endure for ever. The Jews, however, have not
ceased to be the witnesses of Christ, on account
of their refusal to obey Him, and their conse-
quent exclusion from His covenant. They bear
indeed an unwilling testimony, but it is one
which does not affnrH tVi^ i*»co /^.>n, ,:«,,: ,•

144

THE CONVERSION AND

dence. Had the whole Jewish nation received
the Messiah and agreed in acknowledging the
truth of His religion, they would have become
blended with the common mass of Christians,
and we should by no means have possessed so
satisfactory an attestation, as we now have, of
the predictions concerning Him. Their sacred
books would then have been far from affording
that convincing evidence which they now yield,
because it might have been alleged that they
were forged, or at least interpolated, to gain
credit for a belief with which some Jewish im-
postors had deceived their countrymen. But
now that they reject Christianity, which derives
its main support from the very books which
they themselves acknowledge to have been given
by divine inspiration, they afford an evidence to
the truth of Christianity, the force of which no
candid and reflecting mind can fail to perceive.
It is plain that they would never have allowed
their Scriptuies to be interpolated in order to
support the cause of Christianity, and it is no
less evident from a comparison of those Scrip-
tures with the doctrines and miracles of Jesus,

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. I45

that He was indeed that divine personage who
had been foretold from the eariiest ages as the
Redeemer of lost mankind.

The preservation of the Jews as a distinct
people, notwithstanding all the miseries and
persecutions which they have for so many ages
endured, is a remarkable manifestation of the
hand of God.

Where is the conquered nation which has not
sooner or later been mingled with their con-
querors.'

The Babylonian, the Persian, and the Mace-
donian empires having in turn destroyed each
other, were all at length absorbed by the Roman
This mighty state itself at length became a prey
to the Gothic and Vandalic hordes, and scarr^ly
a descendant of its ancient families can now be
found. But the Jews, though dispersed through-
out the earth, are still preserved as a distinct
people. Though, in conformity with the pre-
diction of the text, they have been for nearly
eighteen centuries without a king, without a
prmce, and without a sacrifice, or any kind of

...... -w^yilliU

nuxiication; though they have been,

146

THE CONVERSION AND

as Moses foretold they should be, a proverb and
a byword amongst all the nations, and their land
a desolation ; still they exist, still they are
numerous, still they retain a strong attachment
to their ancient religion, still they cherish the
hope that their long -looked -for Messiah will
appear and restore their nation to happiness and
glory.

Who that considers this subject with the
attention which it deserves can help discover-
ing the direction of Providence in everything
which has befallen this wonderful people ? It is
manifest that they were chosen to be the guar-
dians and almoners of " the oracles of God ; "
to preserve a light, which should shine in the
midst of darkness, and which should not be ex-
tinguished 'till " the Sun of Righteousness " had
risen upon the earth. Their deliverance from
Egypt, their establishment in Canaan, their
division into two kingdoms, their captivities
and dispersions, all tended to attract the atten-
tion of other nations to those truths which,
though originally revealed to all men, had been
corrupted and obscured by every people but

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 147

themselves. The mixture of temporal with
spintua promises in their law served to make
them cherish it with more scrupulous exactness,
and afforded a powerful motive to those amongst
them who would have been but faintly influenced
by the hope of a future and heavenly felicity.
And when at length, according to the plan of
Providence, they were driven from the land of
Canaan, they carried into every region the authen-
t.c cop.es of their Scriptures; and so anxiously
scrupulous were they to preserve the purity of
the text of the Old Testament, which they
saved from the wreck of their nationality, that
the.r learned doctors counted eveo' book, every
chapter, every verse, every word, every letter
in the Bible, and how often each letter of the
alphabet occurs in it ; and to this day you will
find at the end of each book in the Hebrew
B.ble, the number of chapters, verses, words,
&c. &c., contained in it. Thus they bear an un-
suspected witness to the truths of Christianity
which they themselves blindly reject. That
they should continue a distinct people was as

148

THE CONVERSION AND

plainly foretold as that they should be scat-
tered throughout every nation under heaven ;
for God, we are assured, has glorious designs
concerning them. He has said: — "Fear thou
not, O Jacob my servant, for I am with thee,
for I will make a full end of all the nations
whither I have driven thee : but I will not make
a full end of thee." He has declared that though
"the children of Israel shall abide many days
without a king, and without a prince, and with-
out a sacrifice, and without an image, and with-
out an ephod, and without teraphim;" yet,
"afterwards shall the children of Israel return
and seek the Lord their God, and David their
king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness
in the latter days." We have seen in how
remarkable a manner the former part of this
prediction has been, and to this day continues
to be, fulfilled: the latter part of it suggests
reflections which must be reserved for the
ensuing discourse. In it I shall endeavour to
show that the Jews are destined to bear a still
more signal ' testimony to the faith of Christ,

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 149

when, through divine grace and mercy, they
shall have been converted, and brought to ac-
knowledge Jesus as their Messiah.

And now unto God and our Father be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

rYVf^ft^t^YY^

VIII.

THE CONVERSION AND FINAL RESTORATION
OF THE JEWS — continued.

'^ HosEA iii. 5.

"Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the
Lord their God, and David their king ; and shull fear the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days."

N my last discourse I took occasion

from the preceding verse to consider

the destruction of the Jewish polity,

and the dispersion of the nation in

consequence of their rejecting the Messiah, as

well as the evidence which their present condi-

tion bears to the truth of revelation.

The more we reflect upon the subject, the
more convinced must we be that the prophet
could not have known these things if they had
not been communicated to him by divine in-
spiration.

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 151

When he beheld Israel's sinful condition, he
might, indeed, have concluded that they would
drawdown upon themselves heavy judgments:
but to foresee that, though dispersed and dis-
tressed, they should still continue a separate
people— a people without prince or ruler ; that
they should for so Jong a period neither have
the power of offering sacrifices to Jehovah, nor
the inclination to worship an idol; that their
divinely-instituted ritual should be abrogated,
and their self-invented superstitions be com-
pletely laid aside;— to foresee these things, 1
say, manifestly exceeded the utmost stretch of
human foresight, and would have been impos-
sible for any person who had not the Holy
Spirit for his teacher.

To pretend that such a prophecy as this was
written after the event would be in the highest
degree absurd. For, independently of the evi-
dence, both internal and external, that might
be produced to show that Hosea wrote before
the captivity of the ten tribes, the event itself is
one which has taken ages to accomplish ; it is
one of which we at this day are witnesses, for

152

THE CONVERSION AND

the children of Israel even now continue " with-
out a king, and without a prince, and without a
sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
ephod, and without teraphim." The words of
the text, also, which are inseparably connected
with the foregoing verse, relate to an event
which has not yet been accomplished, but which
we have the strongest reason to believe shall in
due season be fulfilled.

Marvellous as have been the dealings of God
with Israel, we are assured that yet more
glorious things are in reserve for that highly-
favoured nation. Unfaithful as she has proved
herself to the covenant of her God, He has not
cast her off for ever. Though He has given her
a bill of divorcement, and has betrothed to him-
self a Church from amongst the Gentiles in her
room, yet the strongest assurances have been
made that He has mercy yet in store for her,
and that she shall at the last be made sensible
of the baseness of her infidelity, and be restored
again to favour.

The metaphor which has been here adopted
is suggested by the former part of this chapter.

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 53

and harmonises with many other parts of
Scripture.

The Jewish nation have during their disper-
sion entirely abstained from idolatry. Prone
as they were to it, they have kept themselves
perfectly free from it, and we cannot doubt,
therefore, that the mercy promised to them shall
be displayed in its full extent. The prophecies
which relate to this subject are so numerous
that, were they all to be selected and com-
mented on, they would fill a volume of no in-
considerable magnitude. I will therefore con-
tent myself with citing some which speak of the
restoration and conversion of Israel; of the
destruction of their enemies, and of the conver-
sion of the Gentile nations in consequence of
the marvellous works which God will perform
in their behalf.

So wonderfully is mercy mingled with judg-
ment in the divine dealings, that almost all the
prophecies which have been delivered concerning
their unbelief and its punishment, foretells also
their restoration and conversion.

God had promised Abraham, " I will establish

<Ly

154

THE CONVERSION AND

my covenant between nie and thee, and thy seed
after thee, in their generations, for an everlast-
ing covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy
seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and
to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art
a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an ever-
lasting possession ; and I will be their God,"
(Gen. xvii. 7, 8.)

To this covenant -v^e find a continual reference.
Aftii' describing the calamities which would
come upon them, God continues thus to speak:
— " And yet for all that, when they be in the
land of their enemies, I will not cast them away,
neither will I abhor them, to destroy them
utterly, and to break my covenant with them :
for I am the Lord their God. But I will for
their sakes remember the covenant of their
ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land
of Egypt, in the sight of the heathen, that I
might be their God," (Lev. xxvi. 44, 45.)

A similar promise is given in the 30th chapter
of Deuteronomy, that they shall repent and be
converted, and it is said that "then the Lord
thy God will turn thy captivity, and have com-

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 155

passion upon thee, and will return and gather
thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy
God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be
driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven,
from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee,
and from thence will he fetch thee : and the
Lord thy God will bring thee into the land
which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt pos-
sess it ; and he will do thee good, and multiply
thee above thy fathers.* And the Lord thy
God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart
of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou
mayest live." In Deut. xxxii. 36, it is also said :
—" The Lord shall judge his people, and repent
himself for his servants, when he seeth that their
power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left."
In the psalm which David appointed to be
sung when the ark was brought to Mount Zion,
he reminded the people of this covenant, and in-
sisted on its perpetuity :— " Be ye mindful always

• Witsius justly observes that this was not accomplished in
the return from the Babylonish captivity, and therefore remains
yet to be fulfilled.

15^

THE CONVERSION AND

of his covenant ; the word which he commanded
to a thousand generations ; even of the covenant
which he made with Abraham, and of his oath
unto Isaac ; and hath confirmed the same to
Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land
of. Canaan, the lot of your inheritance," (i
Chron. xvi. 15-18.)

The prophet Isaiah, after giving a most beauti-
ful description of the blessings of Christ's king-
dom, adds : — " It shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second
time to recover the remnant of his people, which
shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from
the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dis-
persed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off:
Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall
not vex Ephraim," (chap. xi. 11-13.)

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 57

He describes the same events in other places :
--" The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away," (chap. xxxv. 10.) " I will bring the blind
by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in
paths that they have not known : I will make
darkness light before them, and crooked things
straight. These things will I do unto them, and
not forsake them," (chap. xlii. 16.) "Thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that
formed thee, O Israel, Fear not : for I have re-
deemed thee, I have called thee by thy name ;

thou art mine Fear not : for I am with

thee : I will bring thy seed from the east, and
gather thee from the west; I will say to the
north. Give up ; and to the south. Keep not
back : bring my sons from far, and my daughters
from the ends of the earth ; even every one that
is called by my name : for I have created him
for my glory, I have formed him ; yea, I have
made him," (chap, xliii. i. 5-7.) " Look unto me,

and hf» \re^ cnir^^rl 'ill i-U^ 1_ _r ^1. _ .1 ^ _

J. ^ ,..«r.-«, C4ix tiic ciiua ui Liic earin : ior I

158

tHE CONVERSION AND

am God, and there is none else. I have sworn
by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in
righteousness, and shall not return. That unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord nave
I righteousness and strength : even to him shall
men come ; and all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel be justified, and shall -^lory," (chap,
xlv. 22-25.) " Thus saith the Lord, In an accept-
able time have I heard thee, and in a day of
salvation have I helped thee : and I will pre-
serve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the
people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit
the desolate heritages ; that thou mayest say
to the prisoners. Go forth ; to them that are in
darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in
the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high
places. They shall not hunger nor thirst ;
neither shall the heat nor sun smite them : for
he that hath mercy on them shall lead them,
ev< n by the springs of water shall he guide them.
And I will make all my mountains a way, and
mv hic-hwavs shall be exalted. Behold. thp<;p

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 159

Shall come from far : and, lo, these from the
north and from the west ; and these from the
land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens ; and be joyful
O earth ; and break forth into singing, O moun-
tains : for the Lord hath comforted his people,
and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up
mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my stan-
dard to the people: and they shall bring thy
sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be
earned upon their shoulders. And kings shall
be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy
nursmg mothers : they shall bow down to thee
with their face toward the earth, and lick up the
dust of thy feet ; and thou shalt know that I am
the Lord : for they shall not be ashamed that
wait for me," (chap. xlix. 8-13, 22, 23.) " Awake
awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on
thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy
city: for henceforth there shall no m6re come
mto thee the uncircumcised and the uncle.n .
Shake thyself from the dust ; arise, and sit
down, O Jerusalem : loose thyself from the
bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

i6o

THE CONVERSION AND

For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves
for nought ; and ye shall be redeemed without
money," (chap. Hi. 1-3.) " O thou afflicted, tossed
with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will
lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires. And I will make
thy windows of agates, and thy gates of car-
buncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ;
and great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established : thou
shalt be far from oppression ; for thou shalt not
fear : and from terror ; for it shall not come near
thee," (chap. liv. 11-14.) ''Arise, shine ; for thy
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover
the earth, and gross darkness the people: but
the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory
shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall
come 'io thy light, and kings to the brightness of
thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and
see: all they gather themselves together, they
come to thee : thy sons shall come from far, and
thy daughters shall be nursed at thy iide

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. l6i

Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated so
that no man went through thee, I will make thee

an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.
Thou Shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles
and Shalt suck the breast of kings : and thou'
Shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and
thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob For
brass- 1 will bring gold, and for iron I will bring
silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron ■ I
will also make thy officers peace, and thine
exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more
be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction
w. hm thy borders ; but thou shalt call thy walls
Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall
be no more thy light by day ; neither for bright-
ness shall the moon give light unto thee : but
the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light
and thy God thy elorv Ti,, , , '

I, 11 u „ ^' ' ■ " • '■"y people also

shall be all righteous : they shall inherit the land
for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of
my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one
shall become a thousand, and a small one a
strong nation : I the Lord will hasten it in his
time," (chap. !x. 1-4; xj-22.) " Behold, the Lord

1 62

THE CONVERSION AND

hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say
ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation
Cometh ; behold, his reward is with him, and his
work before him. And they shall call them. The
holy people, The redeemed of the Lord ; and
thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not for-
saken^' (chap. Ixii. ii, 12.)

In this beautiful manner does the prophet
Isaiah describe the restoration and conversion
of the Jewish nation. Many of these passages,
as well as others which have been unavoidably
passed by, have been erroneously applied to the
success of the gospel when first preached, and
to the selection of a church from amongst the
Gentiles ; whereas, taken according to their
natural sense, and that which best harmonises
with the context as well as with the parallel
parts of Scripture, they describe events of the
most glorious nature whicn yet remain to be
fulfilled. Predictions of the same kind abound
in the writings of the other prophets. In
Jeremiah xxiii. 2-6, we read :— " Thus saith the

Lord God of Israel, I will gather the

remnant of my flock out of all countries whither

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 163

I have driven them, and will bring them again
to the.r folds; and they shall be fruitful and
mcrease. And I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them ; and they shall
fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall
they be lacking, saith the Lord. Behold the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign
and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
just.ce in the earth. In his days Judah shall
be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; and this
.s h,s name whereby he shall be called. The
Lord our Righteousness." Again, we read in
chap. XXX. .0, n:_"Fear thou not. O my
servant Jacob, saith the Lord ; neither be dis
mayed, O Israel ; for, lo, I will save thee from
afar, and thy seed from the land of their cap
t.vity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in
rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him
afraid. For I am with thee, saith the Lord to
save thee: though I make a full end of 'all
nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will
I not make a full end of thee ; but I will cor-
rect thee in measure, and will not leave thee

164

THE CONVERSION AND

altogether unr-m^ h^d." It is also written in
chap. xxxi. y^n, 31-34—" Thus saith 'he Lord,
Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among
the chief of the nations : publish ye, praise ye,
and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant
of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the
rorth country, and gather them from the coasts
of the earth, and with them the blind and the
lame, the woman with child and her that travail-
eth with child together : a great company shall
return thither. They shall come with weeping,
and with supplication? will I lead them : I will
cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a
straight way, wherein they shall not stumble;
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my
first-born. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye
nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and
say. He that scattered Israel will gather him,
and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ran-
somed him from the hand of him that was

stronger than he Behold, the days

come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 165

house of Judah; not according to the cove-
nant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt, (which my covenant
they brake, although I was an husband unto
them, saith the Lord;) but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it
in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And 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 : for I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more."

The prophet Ezekiel describes a very remark-
able vision which was vouchsafed to him, and
which has an evident relation to this subject.
He saw a large valley filled with dry bones,
which, at the command of the Lord, were
covered with sinews and with flesh, and
animated wil

life by His Spirit. This re

rf»<;i 1 f .

i66

THE CONVERSION AND

rection of the bones is declared to be typical
of the restoration of Israel. "Then he said
unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel : behold, they say, Our bones
are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut
off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold,
O my people, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves
and bring you into the land of Israel. And
ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I
have opened your graves, O my people, and
brought you up out of your graves, and
shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live,
and I shall place you in your own land : then
shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it,
and performed it, saith the Lord," (Ezek. xxxvii.
11-14.)

Another emblem is also recorded in the same
chapter. It is the miraculous union of two
sticks, on which the names of Judah and his
companions, and of Joseph and his companions,
had respectively been written. This emblem
is thus explained :— " Thus saith the Lord God,

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 167

Behold, I will take the children of Israel from
among the heathen, whither they be gone, and
will gather them on every side, and bring them
into their own land : and I will ma.xe them one
nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel ;
and one king shall be king to them all : and
they shall be no more two nations, neither shall
they be divided into two kingdoms any more
at all : neither shall they defile themselves any
more with their idols, nor with their detestable
things, nor with any of their transgressions : but
I will save them out of all their dwelling-places,
wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ;
so shall they be my people, and I will be their
God. And David my servant sh.ill be king
over them ; and they all shall ha\ e one shep-
herd : they shall also walk in my judgments,
and observe my statutes, and do them. And
they shall dwell in the land that I have given
unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers
have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even
they, and their children, and their children's
children, for ever ; and my servant David shall
be their prince for ever," (Ezek. xxxvii. 21-25.)

1 68

THE CONVERSION AND

The conversion of the Jewish nation to the
faith of Christ is spoken of so distinctly by the
prophet Zechariah, that it seems truly astonish-
ing that they can shut their eyes to the evidence
which it affords. In Zech. xii. lo, the Lord
speaks thus :~" I will pour upon the house of
David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and
they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness
for his first-born."

That this promise does not, when taken in
its fullest extent, relate to the conversion of
those Jews who were pricked at heart by the
preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost,
will be evident to those who consider the con-
text, in which it is coupled with that of the
destruction of the enemies of Judah, and the
complete re-establishment of the nation at Jeru-
salem. But, of all the prophecies which have
been left us concerning the conversion of Israel,
that of St Paul, in Rom. xi. 25-2;, is the most

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 69

satisfactory:-"! would not, brethren, that
ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits,) that blind-
ness in part is happened to Israel, until the ful-
ness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all
Israel shall be saved ; as it is written, There
shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob : for this is
my covenant unto them, when I shall take away
their sins."

These passages of Scripture, with many others
to the same effect, appear decisively to prove
that a period is fixed in the counsels of Jehovah
when the dispersion of Israel shall be at an end,
and when they shall once more be restored to
the land of their inheritance. They shall be
gathered together from all the nations through
which they have been scattered, and miracles,
even yet more signal than those which attended
their deliverance from Egypt, shall be performed
in their behalf, so that they shall not "remember
the former things, neither consider the things
of old."

Tiic destruction of those who shall oppose

170

THE CONVERSION AND

their return and re-establishment is foretold in no
less emphatic language. After predicting these
events in a passage which has been already
quoted, Isaiah thus continues, (chap. xlix. 25,
26) :— " Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of
the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of
the terrible shall be delivered : for I will contend
with him that contendeth with thee, and I will
save thy children. And I will feed them that op-
press thee with their own flesh ; and they shall
be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet
wine ; and all flesh shall know that I the Lord
am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty
One of Jacob." Again, in chap. lix. 19, 20:—
" They shall fear the name of the Lord from the
west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the
Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against
him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,
and unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob, saith the Lord." Also in chap. Ixiii. 1-4:
— " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with
dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. I/l

Strength ? I that speak in righteousness, mighty
to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine ap-
parel, and thy garments Hke him that treadeth
in the winefat > I have trodden the winepress
alone ; and of the people there was none with
me : for I will tread them in mine anger, and
trample them in my fury ; and their blood shall
be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain
all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is
come."

In Joel iii. 1, 2, 1 6, 17, it is thus written :— " Be-
hold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall
bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusa-
lem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring
them down int9 the valley of Jehoshaphat, and
v/ill plead with them there for my peop:e and for
my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered

among the nations, and parted my land

The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his
voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens and
the earth shall shake : but the Lord will be
the hope of his people, and the strength of the
children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am

1/2

THE CONVERSION AND

the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy
mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy, and
there shall no strangers pass through her any
more."

In Zeph. iii. 8 it is also said :— " Wait ye upon
me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up
to the prey : for my determination is to gather
the nations, that* I may assemble the kingdoms,
to pour upon them mine indignation, even all
my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be de-
voured with the fire of my jealousy." And again,
in Zech. xii. 6, 8 :— " In that day will I make
the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire
among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a
sheaf; and they shall devour all the people
round about, on the right hand and on the left :
and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her

own place, even in Jerusalem In that day

shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jeru-
salem ; and he that is feeble among them at
.that day shall be as David ; and the house of
David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord
before them."

Thus shall this long dispersed and persecuted

:-■

•I

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 73

people be delivered from all their adversaries.
The arm of the Most High shall be made bare
for their defence. He will bring to naught every
counsel and break up every confederacy which
shall be formed against them. Their enemies
shall be smitten with a miraculous and fearful
destruction, but they shall be established m
peace and prosperity under the government of
their long-expected Messiah, whom they shall
acknowledge with mingled joy and lamentation,
confessing their sin in rejecting Him, and wor-
shipping Him now with the most fervent adora-
tion. No longer shall they wish to see the
knowledge of the Messiah restricted to their
own nation, but shall rejoice to become instru-
mental in spreading the glad tidligs of salvation
amongst those who yet remain unacquainted
with the saving truths of the gospel. That the
Jews v/hen brought to the knowledge of Christ,
shall be instrumental in diffusing it, is clearly
foretold uy the prophets ; and when we consider
their miraculous preservation to this day amongst
all the nations of the earth, and consequent ac-
quaintance with all the languages of the different

174

THE CONVERSION AND

people amongst whom they reside, we may
readily conclude that no other missionaries can
be so fully qualified for the purpose.

Isaiah, in his second chapter, (ver. 2, 3,)
says :— " It shall come to pass in the Iuli days,
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and
shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many people shall go
and say, Coiue ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God
of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and
we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall
go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem." Also in chap. Ixi. 6: "Ye shall be
named the Priests of the Lord : men shall call you
the ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches
of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast
yourselves." And in chap. Ixvi. 21-23: "I will
also take of them for priests, and for Levites, saith
the Lord. For as the new heavens, and the new
earth, which I will make, shall rem.ain before
me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your
name remain. And it shall come to pass, that

•

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 175

from one new moon to another, and from one
sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to wor-
ship before me, saith the Lord." The other pro-
phets lead us to entertain similar expectations.
Thus Zephaniah, in chap. iii. 9, 10, "Then will I
turn to the people a pure language, that they
may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve
him with one consent. From beyond the rivers
of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of
my dispersed, shall bring mine offering." Zecha
riah writes thus, (chap. viii. 20-23) :-'' Thus saith
the Lord of hosts. It shall yet come to pass, that
there shall come people, and the inhabitants of
many cities : and the inhabitants of one city
shall go to another, saying. Let us go speedily
to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord
of hosts : I will go also. Yea, many people and
strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of
hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it
shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold
out of all languages of the nations, even s/^aU
take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, say^
ing, We will go with ^ou: for zve have heard that

176

THE CONVERSION AND

God is with your Thus in its fullest extent shall
be accomplished that prediction of the prophet
Malachi (chap. i. u) .--"From the rising of the
sun even unto the going down of the same, m)-
name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in
every place incense shall be offered unto my
name, and a pure offering ; for my name shall
be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of
hosts."

Glorious, indeed, are the predictions which we
have been reviewing. They relate to that dis-
pensation to which all that we had before con-
sidered is subordinate-that dispensation which
shall extend the empire of Christ over every
climate and region of the globe. It is now a
little more than sixty years since the modern
missionary movement commenced, and although
the efforts amongst Jews and Gentiles have been
crowned with God's blessing, little has been
accomplished in comparison with what remains
yet to be achieved. If we consult the oracles of
God, how cheering the description of the ultimate
triumphs of the gospel ! How bright the mis-
sionary pictures !—" The kingdoms of this worid

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 77

shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ." " At the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth; and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Fath^." - The
earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea," &c. &c.

How painful is the contrast between what the
world is, and what it is to be!

According to a late estimate, the world con-
tains a population of about twelve hundred mil-
lions. Of this nearly nine hundred millions are
Pagans, Mohammedans, and Jews—of the latter
about ten millions. The remaining three hundred
millions constitute Christendom. Of this nearly
two hundred millions are Romanists, while some
fifty millions belong to the Greek Church ; the
rest consist of Protestants, many of whom, lias !
it is feared, have the form of godliness, but are
strangers to the power of it. Is this not a truly
appalling picture to behold, and that in the
nineteenth century of the Christian era > We
trace with painful emotion the present condition

178

THE CONVERSION AND

of the world^several hundred millions of human
beings still living in heathen ignorance ! Nearly
two hundred millions blindly adhering to the
superstitious and idolatrous system of Rome.
One hundred millions deluded by the Arabian
impostor, Irwhilc many who call themselves Pro-
testants, and even fill places of high position
within the Church, are not only destitute of vital
godliness, but are actually undermining our Zion.
Whilst we grieve to reflect on this state of
things, we at the same time acknowledge that
all this was foreseen and permitted by Infinite
Wisdom, and, we may be assured, for the
wisest purposes. Though the patience and faith
of the saints have been severely tried— though
the witnesses of Christ have prophesieJ in sack-
cloth—they have still not ceased to prophesy ;
the lamp of the sanctuary has not been wholly
extinguished ; the servants of the Lamb have
not been completely extirpated.

Already has the apocalyptic angel fled through
the midst of heaven, declaring the everlasting
gospel which shall assuredly be made known

FINAL RESTORATION OF THK JEWS. 179

unto them that dwell on the earth, to every
natmn, and kindred, and tongue, and people
The fall of the mystic Babylon is evidently near
at .md, notwithstanding her apparent inroads
upon the Church of God.

We may reasonably expect that the times of
the Gentiles are nearly fulfilled, and that the
period during which the Holy City is to be
trodden under foot is almost expired. We have
the authority of Daniel for believing that when
the Mohammedan imposture and the Papal
domination have lasted twelve hundred and sixty
years, they shall be destroyed, and the restoration
of the Jews shall commence. That the greater
part of those years must have elapsed is notorious
to all who are acquainted with modem history
That the revolutions which have taken place
wthrn the present century in Europe, and the im-
portance and high positions which the Jews have
obtamed, and now hold, throughout the world we
may say, certainly favour the supposition of their
national restoration to the Holy Land. With
humble hope we may look forward to the per-

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i8o

THE CONVERSION AND

feet completion of all those predictions and
promises which have passed in review before us
in the present discourse. Presumptuous, indeed,
would it be to assert that these things will take
place in this generation, or to attempt to fix the
times and the seasons which the Father has put
into His own power; but of this we may be
fully assured, that He will fulfil all His promises,
and bring to pass all things which He hath
spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets,
which have been since the world began.

Let us now pause, and take a brief retrospec-
tive view of the ground over which we have
travelled. We have seen the great Creator of
the universe calling this world out of nothing,
and placing man upon it in a state of probation.
Scarcely are the first human beings created, be-
fore we see them revolting from their heavenly
Sovereign, and entailing guilt and misery on
themselves and on their posterity. We trace
the fatal consequences of their crime in the pre-
valence of universal depravity. At the same
time we trace the promise of a Redeemer given
immediately after the fall, and confirmed by

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. l8l

repeated disclosures. We perceive manifesta-
tions of the power and grace of the Holy
Spirit, in the preservation of a succession of
faithful and holy men amidst the general cor-
ruption of the human race. At one time the
Church is confined to the single family of Noah,
and is shortly after restricted to that of one of
his children. Almost expiring, it is revived in
Abraham and in his descendants. We then wit-
ness the establishment of a new economy. We
find an ecclesiastical polity regularly formed ; a
tabernacle erected in which the divine presence
is gloriously displayed; a peculiar mode of
worship instituted of such a nature as at once
to secure the Israelites from the contagion of
idolatry, and to make them instruments for pre-
serving the knowledge of the true God for the
benefit of all nations.

Though at first in a great measure detached
from the rest of the world, yet, in the course of
time— by commerce, by alliance, and even by
captivity amongst them— they were made in-
strumental to extend the light of revelation
amongst the principal nations of the heathen

182

THE CONVERSION AND

world,— in such a degree, at least, as to prepare
them for the appearance of the Messiah. When
He came, indeed., we saw the greater part of
them rejecting those credentials which so
strongly authenticated His divine mission, and,
in consequence, being themselves rejected from
the distinguished place which they held in the
divine favour. Yet even in this state of degrada-
tion, dispersed and despised as they have been,
they have borne a most convincing, though un-
intentional, witness to the truth of God.

They have realised those prophecies which
had so many ages before been delivered con-
cerning them, as well as borne an unsuspected
witness to those sacred writings which so clearly
point out the Messiah. Preserved thus wonder-
fully, and under circumstances which could not
have failed, without the signal interposition of
Providence, to destroy them from being a nation,
we are assured that they shall yet be gathered
together from every quarter of the globe, shall
be reinstated in the land of their fathers, and be
converted to the faith of their Redeemer. The
exact accomplishment, even to the present time,

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 83

of the predictions which have been delivered
concerning them,— their national identity and
their present condition, are powerful indications
that all things which have been written in the
Scriptures have been written by the inspiration
of God.

For how can we contemplate so wonderful
a series of events— a series beginning with the
creation, continued without interruption to the
present moment, and extending to t!\c consum-
mation of all things— without acknowledging
that it was arranged in the divine counsels be-
fore the world began, and that infinite wisdom,
power, and goodness are carrying on the glorious
design to its full consummation ?

I appeal now to every candid individual
whether, when he contemplates the uniform plan
which pervades the whole of the Bible— when he
considers the testimony which in various ways
has been borne throughout all ages by the
Church of God— he can regard the Scriptures,
or any portion of it, as a fabrication of human
artifice > What though to us some parts of it
may appear dark and hard to be understood, we

1 84

THE CONVERSION AND

may discover abundant reason to conclude that
those which respect past times were clear to the
ages to which they related, and that those which
respect the future shall in due season be unveiled
in perfect brightness. Let none of us, then,
allow our eyes to be closed, nor our hearts to be
hardened by unbelief, but let us receive the
witness which God has given us of His Son— a
witness which, though obscurely intimated in
the earliest ages, has ever since increased in
brightness, and now beams forth in meridian
splendour.

Addressing you, my brethren, who profess to
believe the gospel, I would urge you not to
receive the grace of God in vain. Surely so
glorious a revelation was not vouchsafed to us
that we should simply admire it, but that we
should with meekness receive the ingrafted
word, which is able to save the soul. Let us,
then, more prayerfully study God's Word, which
is able to make wise unto salvation, and which is
as wise as any one need be. Let us remember
the rich inheritance which Christ has purchased
for us with His own precious blood, and unto

FINAL RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 1 85

which we are called. Let us press forward for
the prize of our high calling of God in Christ
Jesus, and tread in the footsteps of that blessed
Redeemer. Let us fervently pray that the
Spirit of grace may be poured upon Israel, and
that the kingdom of Christ may come and com-
prehend within its wide dominion both Jew and
Gentile, so that we may all become one fold
under one Shepherd.

And now to God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost, let us ascribe, as is
most justly due, all glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Bailaniyne, Roberts, 6- Company, Printers, Edinburgh.