future ages be greatly extended, beyond what has ever yet been actually possessed by Israel as their own. Its borders, as named by Moses, (Exod. xxiii. 31.) and by Ezekiel (xlvii. 13-23.) would appear to extend to the Euphrates on the north, and from Hamath on the Orontes to the Red Sea, down to Kadesh Meribah, (Numb. xx. 12, compared with Ezekiel xlvii. 19.) and from Tamor or Tadmor in the wilderness to the River Nile. (See Tyso's Enquiry after Prophetic Truth, with a map of the boundaries.) The part that is now desert will, according to many promises of the Old Testament, become fruitful. This enlargement of territory is often intimated. The place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell. Isa. xlix. 19, 20; liv. 2. See also Deut. xix. 8, 9.

5. THE DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF OUR FAITH.

Let us farther notice and endeavour to remove some difficulties in the way of our entire faith in the plain scriptural testimony to their future restoration.

THE LENGTHENED period of theIR DISPERSION is

a difficulty in the minds of some. For 2500 years the ten tribes have been separated from Judea. For 1800 years the two tribes that were partially restored from Babylon have been scattered. Is there human probability, then, of their restoration? The answer to this is abundantly given in the scriptures. Look at the past history of the nation. When Abraham was 75 years old, he had to wait another quarter of a century before the promised son by Sarah was given to him; 400 years passed before the promise of Canaan was. realised; and nearly 2000 years ere the promised Saviour was born. Moses predicted that a prophet like himself should rise in Israel; many glorious prophets, from Samuel to Malachi, were raised up, but nearly 1500 years passed before the intended prophet came. Look at the plain predictions of desola

tion; desolate heritages, (Isa. xlx. 8,) waste cities, the desolations of many generations, (Isa. Ixi. 4,) the old waste places, the foundations of many generations, (Isa. Iviii. 12,) many days, (Hosea iii. 4.) Look at the promises of the period of restoration, after many days, in the latter years, in the latter days. Ezek. xxxviii. 8, 16. Look at the precise time predicted of the restored sanctuary, and its being trodden under foot, 2300 mornings and evenings, or years, (Dan. viii. 14,) and see in all this that the lengthened period furnishes no occasion of doubt, but is the very confirmation of the prophecy, and the full assurance of our hopes of its near termination. God's mind is infinite and eternal, he is the everlasting God, he discerns the end from the beginning, he fainteth not, nor is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. Isa. xl. 28. His own gracious and holy purposes, his unchangeable character, his grace and his goodness, his love and his righteousness, thus have their full exhibition and illustration, through all the ages to come of that endless eternity to which we are hastening, and where we shall fully find that, to know him and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, is eternal life.

The great stumbling-block which the Gentile churches meet with, in receiving the doctrine of the future restoration of Israel, is its close connection with the humbling fact of OUR APOSTACY AND COMING JUDGMENTS UPON US. This is so contrary to all our wishes and hopes, and so humbling to our pride and self-sufficiency, that those who have fallen away, and indeed Gentile Christians at large, struggle against its truth with great earnestness. Yet St. Paul warns the Roman church much on this very subject, (Rom. xi. 18–24), and intimates that all are concluded in unbelief. xi. 32. And our Lord himself shews that the last state of the world before his coming shall be similar to that of the state of the world before the deluge. Matt. xxiv. 37-41. To have the Jews restored to

their former eminence, while the Gentiles are judged for apostacy, and then to have future blessings come to our whole earth through restored Jerusalem, is very painful and offensive to Gentile high-mindedness. yet are the signs of the apostacy on the Christian churches too apparent to be denied. See Appendix iii. O what need, then, have we for contrition and humility! With the lowly is wisdom.

Observe the different veils of unbelief, prejudice, and self-wisdom, by which our corruption keeps truth hidden from our view, and thus we forfeit our spiritual privileges. The Jews are under a veil as to Christ being the light of the Gentiles. They cannot see in his humiliation and death, and their rejection, and our receiving of him, their own prophecies fulfilled. The Gentiles, too, are under a similar veil respecting their own apostacy, and the predicted recovered privileges of the Jewish nation. They deny that such privileges are promised, and robbing the Jewish nation, still think that they render thereby a spiritual sacrifice to God. Thus will the Jews be more provoked to jealousy, (Rom. x. 19,) and God will accomplish his own gracious purposes to Israel as he has foretold, For I the Lord love judgment: I hate robbery for burnt offering, and I will direct their work in truth; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles. Isa. Ixi. 8, 9. There is no need on either side of that supplanting of which Esau complained. Gen. xxvii. 36. There is in Christ fulness of blessing for all, and this God designs as his gracious issue of mercy. Rom. xi. 32.

THE DEPTH OF GOD'S MYSTERIES towards both Jews and Gentiles is another difficulty to faith. When we remember the narrowness of our minds, and the selfishness of our thoughts and the corruption of our hearts, we need not be surprized at the difficulties which the Jews, in exclusive possession of privileges,

f

have made to the Gentiles being partakers with them. In a similar manner we Gentiles, when grafted in their place, have felt the like unwillingness to believe in the restoration of the Jews to their covenant privileges, and their own country, and their national pre-eminence. The scriptures represent these things as Divine mysteries. Thus St. Paul expressly cautions us against being ignorant of the mystery of Israel's blindness: I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. Rom. xi. 25: on the one hand there is present blindness to Israel partially, and a fulness to be gathered during it from the Gentiles, (see Heb. xi. 40. Rev. vi. 11,) and on the other hand, at the return of the Redeemer, there is to be the salvation of all Israel; the glorified church consisting of the first fruits of Jews and Gentiles entering into the full salvation ready to be revealed, (1 Peter i. 5,) and the literal Israel delivered from their present dispersion, restored and converted. It is equally a mystery of Christ, made known by the preaching of the gospel through the world, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Ephes. iii. 6. These mysteries will not be finished or fully disclosed, (Rev. xii. 7. 1 Cor. xv. 51. Ephes. v. 31, 32. Rev. xix. 7,) till the close of the times of the Gentiles, the re-gathering of Israel in their own land, the resurrection of the saints, and the marriage union of Christ and his church. Till that time we may expect that we shall all have partial and defective views of the fulness of God's love and righteousness, and the comprehensiveness and depth of his Divine wisdom in all his dealings with Jews and Gentiles.

Another great difficulty is THE WEAKNESS OF OUR

FAITH IN THE PROMISED SECOND COMING OF OUR

LORD and Saviour. The first Christians were so full of eager anticipation of it, that they needed a check. 2 Thess. ii. 1, 2. We are so unbelieving that we need the most awakening admonition. Rev. xvi. 15. After the long cessation of miraculous interference with the ordinary course of events, and after the lengthened continuance of the season of grace for 1800 years, such an interposition is so contrary to our habits and experience, and the common facts of history, so overwhelming and so surprizing, that it is a great difficulty now to realize the plain scriptural testimony. We are also assured that the ordinary transactions of life will go on to the last. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Luke xvii. 28, 30. The prophecies of the restoration of the Jews are intimately connected with this great and plainly revealed event, which is so offensive to the world.

Hence Christians have by no means yet given that close attention to those prophecies, and that full confidence in them, which they justly claim from the plainness and extent of the scripture testimony, and the unutterably important events connected in God's word with the restoration of Israel. If there be reson to think, as there is, that their restoration is clearly predicted, and is near at hand, and if with it be explicitly connected a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, (Dan. xii. 1,) and a change in the dispensations of God both towards Jews and Gentiles, and the overthrow of all wickedness, and the filling the earth with truth and righteousness, then may this subject justly claim the most earnest attention of all the people of God. And if beyond all this, there be connected with the restoration of Israel, as there clearly is, a resurrection of the just, a visible appearance and return of Christ to our earth, and the full establishment of his universal kingdom, then are