through their afflictions; Antichrist and his followers perish in their rebellion; but there are those who escape, and there are nations that have not heard of God's fame, and Jerusalem is yet to be the joy of the whole earth. The connection of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, with the universal reign of Christ over the earth, is often brought before us in the word of God, after the Redeemer comes to Zion, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon her. Isaiah tells us, the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah lix. 20; lx. 3. So Zechariah connects the coming of the Lord to Jerusalem, and the living waters going forth from thence, with the predictions, the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name One. These are the effects of this kingdom given to Israel on the world at large,—this it is that gives a peculiar interest and blessedness to the Jewish subject, this it is that should make every friend of the human race long with St. Paul for the conversion of Israel-this it is that made him in the 10th and 11th chapters of the Romans, with so full a heart exclaim, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. I say, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew; and then he shows how their recovery and fulness shall be far more the riches of the world than their fall; and the receiving of them again be as life from the dead. And so all the prophets of the Old Testament speak; Isaiah testifies, It is a light thing that thou shouldest 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 to the ends of the earth; and Micah testifies, And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord; and Zechariah testifies, In those days ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirts of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. Testimony to a similar purport might easily be accumulated; its part fulfilment should enlarge our minds to its full glory, just as the first fruits gave the hope of the harvest. To the same effect is the first exhortation of St. Peter to the Jews, Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out; that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. The repentance of the Jews first restored precedes the full restoration of the whole nation, and their restoration precedes the full blessedness of the world! What an important cause, then, is the Jewish cause! With this blaze of divine testimony, O how guilty have we been-I confess it, I feel it, in neglecting the Jews. Has God such purposes of love and mercy towards them? Oh! if we have any thing of the divine mind, we cannot be indifferent to them. In seeking their spiritual welfare, we are indeed most effectually promoting their highest good, and acting in the very spirit of the apostles; we are literally fulfilling the last direction of Christ, who gave this charge, to preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and promoting therewith the full welfare of the hu man race. I hesitate not to say, after labouring for the Gentiles with joy of heart the greater part of my life, since I was called to the ministry, and feeling with increasing warmth the magnitude of that work,-that the church of Christ has far too generally neglected a most important and urgent duty to care for the Jew. I feel guilty myself, and I rejoice in the opportunity of confessing this among brethren and friends, whom I love, in this country; earnestly and affectionately entreating you all liberally to aid in this work and labour of love. DISCOURSE VII. THE TIMES OF THE RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL. [PREACHED AT BRISTOL, OCTOBER 15, and CAMBRIDGE, OCTOBER 26, 1834, AND ALSO AT ST. JAMES'S EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, EDINBURGH, ON WHIT SUNDAY, MAY 19, 1839.] ACTS I. 7, 8. And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power (eŠovσia), but ye shall receive power (dvvaμiv) after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. THE subject on which our Lord is speaking is the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. He is answering the last inquiry which his church put to him while here on earth. When they were come together they asked of him, saying, Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? This was a subject of intense interest to every believer of the Old Testament, and to every attentive disciple of our Lord's public ministry. He had again and again alluded to it. He had given a prayer with reference to it-thy kingdom come-and in his last forty days on earth he had been speaking of the things pertaining to it. No wonder then that the disciples agreed with one mind to ask him when this kingdom should be restored. The answer of our Lord is full of instruction to us as well as to them. It is also specially applicable to us on this sacred festival, when we commemorate the first outpouring of the Spirit on the Christian church. Let us consider, I. The answer given to the inquiry of the disciples. III. The duties which lie upon the church. I. THE ANSWER GIVEN TO THE INQUIRY OF THE DISCIPLES. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. It seems very darkening to their hopes and deadening to their wishes at first sight, very discouraging and discomforting; but let us see if we cannot gather, as we often may, from apparently dark sentences much profitable light and instruction. The very darkness shews us that he could not mean merely a spiritual kingdom: that was already begun -that was set up in power on the day of Pentecost -that he had often described as subsisting and consisting of tares and wheat, good fishes and bad. There was no reason to inquire when this kingdom should be restored, nor to withhold from them the fact of the time and season of its commencement. The inquiry and the answer, then, relate to another form of that kingdom yet unestablished. We may observe next, that our Lord does not in the least deny the fact that the kingdom would be restored to Israel. He had been instructing them forty days in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and he had been opening their understanding to understand the scriptures; they could not have made then so gross a mistake as still to have kept, what, in case no kingdom was to be restored to Israel, would have been a visionary notion; nor would he have at such a time left them in such an error. Again, the words the Father hath put in his own power the times and seasons when the kingdom shall be restored to Israel, assuredly imply that the kingdom shall be restored. Our Lord by them encourages the expectation, and strengthens their hope of the ultimate restoration of the desired kingdom. And this corresponds to his whole previous ministry and to the whole tenor of the prophetic word. You may just mark a similar mode of reply to the sons of Zebedee. When they came to him, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire; and when he asked, What would ye that I should do for you? they reply, Grant unto us that we may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left in thy kingdom. He answers thereto, Ye know not what ye ask, tells them of the sufferings to be gone through, and that the right and left hand seats will be given to those prepared of his Father. We see the wisdom of this reply, and we shall find similar wisdom in the present case. The great hopes that our Lord had all along held out were the kingdom of heaven. From that early promise, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, up to the time when he assured the apostles that he had appointed to them a kingdom, and that they should sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, the hopes which he continually held out had a reference to this kingdom. The prophetic word of the Old Testament brings it before us from Genesis, till we come to the clear and full light of the chronological prophecies of Daniel. |