Jews is the signal for the extermination of all other nations; and our carnal race is sealed with the stamp of death, so sure as their carnal race is sealed with the stamp of an everlasting inheritance in this transitory world. But it is impossible to our view, that they should have an eternal inheritance in this world of mortality, whose heavens and earth pass away. Taking their restoration to be "the hope of Israel," as doubtless it is, the New Testament reconciles all difficulty, by showing this promised restoration to be the resurrection of the dead in Christ. This is the restitution of Israel and "of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," Acts iii, 21. This is the hope of Israel, for which creation waits with groans and travailing pains; to wit, "the redemption of our body," Rom. viii, 23, "in Jesus and the resurrection."

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The Old and New Testaments harmonize on this point, as they do on the others preceding. Their language is different, as becomes independent witnesses: but the fact is made out by both alike, as becomes faithful witnesses. The time is, "when God shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you," Acts iii, 20. "The day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion," Isa. xxxiv, 8. It is when "he will utterly destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations he will swallow up death in victory: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation," Isa. xxv, 7. This wonderful passage portrays "the hope of Israel,"-"a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees well refined."

In 2 Cor. iii, 16, the Holy Spirit assures us "the veil is done away in Christ," and "the veil shall be taken away" from the Jews. In Heb. x, 20, "the veil" is expressly declared to be "the flesh," which veil was manifestly done away in Christ, by his resurrection and the same veil will he remove away from the Jews, and from covering the face of all nations, when "he will swallow up death in victory:" that is, in the resurrection of the dead. 1 Cor. xv, 54. Then, and not before the resurrection, the Lord God wipes away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people

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he takes away from off all the earth; and "the ransomed of the Lord," (they are his people, ransomed with his precious blood,) "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away," Isa. xxxv, 10. This is the hope of Israel: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. ii, 9.

In Daniel xii, 2, it is written, "At that time (the time of the restoration) shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book: and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."-The Jew understands this deliverance and this resurrection to belong wholly to his own people, and the scene to be laid in this world, where Daniel and the holy dead are to stand in their lot among the restored of Israel in Palestine: on the contrary, the Christian understands by the people who are delivered, all believers in Jesus Christ; and the scene of their deliverance is the end of the world, when the judgment will sit, and the books be opened, and Daniel, with the holy dead out of every kindred and nation, will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The time in these two interpretations concurs in the coming of Messiah in glory and the difference lies in the carnal and exclusive spirit of Judaism on one side, and the universal and heavenly spirit of Christianity on the other. The former takes hold of this natural world and natural heart; the latter discards this world, and requires a new creation, to fit the holy people to see God and to enjoy him for ever. Jews and Christians agree in this Deliverer, that he is Messiah and in the time of his deliverance, that it is at his coming but they differ in their name of the Messiah, and also of the subjects of this deliverance; save that he is Messiah, and Israel are his people.

The almanac-maker sets out the four seasons of the year in their order, and describes their character, that men may note the progress of time, and prepare for winter. So Daniel the prophet has noted the progress of time in four divisions of the world's great year, from his day to the end of time, when "many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." Four great monarchies give VOL. II.-14

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[April, their names to the four prophetic seasons: and the last of the four has three grand divisions, marked in Daniel's image, and noted in the book, that men may take warning: these three divisions are known by the legs of iron, the feet of iron and clay, and the subdivision of the toes. Similar divisions are noted in the life of the fourth beast by his time without horns, his time with ten horns, and his time while one horn came up among the ten, displacing three, and ruling over the residue unto the end. Christians and Jews agree that we are living in the last division of the fourth season of the great year of prophecy, and have run ten or twelve hundred years toward the end of that: but men do not take warning the world does not regard it. Because the time is mercifully prolonged, it were folly to conclude it has no end. And what follows the last term of the fourth monarchy, and the last season of prophetic times? Is it a Jewish monarchy in the blood of old Adam? Is it a kingdom of the carnal Israel? Is it an empire of mortals? Read Daniel vii, 7, to the end, and see if the coming of the King of the fifth monarchy is not like unto him described by Enoch, the seventh from Adam, accompanied by myriads of saints, to execute judgment upon all the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds. See if there be any limit to that empire, whose King will have "dominion' and glory, and a kingdom that all people, and nations, and languages shall serve him." Mark, and see whether it is the carnal Jews, or "the saints of the Most High, shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." And consider whether time and this world will endure long enough for such an empire !-See, when "the judgment shall sit," whose kingdom they shall take away, "to consume and to destroy it unto the end;" whether it is any dominion now upon the face of the earth, and the name of it. And whether the succeeding one is not given to an immortal race, even "to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."

As a man, he is of the seed of Abraham and David; and he is "the King of the Jews," crucified with mockery and derision in this world, but having an eternal throne of power and great glory in the world to come. Before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession, (1 Tim. vi, 13,) to wit, "Thou sayest that I am a King; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth," John xviii, 37. That truth is: He is the King, not of the Jews only, but of all in every nation who believe on his name. His kingdom is not of this world, or of time; but of the celestial world to come, where lies the city and

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country which Abraham sought; and into which "the hope of Israel" is to enter in the resurrection of the dead. This appears to be the testimony of Jesus, and the spirit of prophecy: this is the gospel of Christ, and of the kingdom of heaven. This is the promise made in Eden, The woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's head and the promise made to Abraham, That he should be the heir of the world. This is the end of the law, and the perfection of grace, "Jesus and the resurrection."

The astronomer could never devise the solar system.

It was a full match for the highest human skill to discern and to demonstrate the laws which govern the various motions of the heavenly bodies: nor could the theologue invent this perfect fitness of the Jewish and Christian economy in all their prominent parts; it is enough for man to discern and to demonstrate it; to admire and to adore the heavenly hand which wrought the work, and gave it to the world. We have briefly sketched some of its outline, which volumes cannot fill; and the harmony of the parts is good witness to the perfection of the whole scheme. No frame ever came together with less hammering, each tenon to its mortise. The ingenuity of the wood-carrier did not invent so glorious a device; but only the divine Master who framed the universe, and prepared the plan of salvation, and gave to each part its due proportion, and its living form: to his name be all the praise.— The law of gravitation is not more universal in the material world than the testimony of Jesus in the prophecies: and the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies conflict with the law of gravitation, even as the apparent return of the Jews conflicts with the constant "looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God:" but astronomy does not open to the natural eye a more beautiful exhibition of divine wisdom, benevolence, power, and love, in the exact movements and changes of the starry frame, than revelation unfolds to the eye of faith in the harmony, and precise accord of the promises, the prophecies, and the gospel, in the testimony of Jesus and the resurrection. Some of the stars appear to stop and to retrace their course; some appear to start out of their places and fall to the earth; and a great majority to encircle the earth, immovably fixed: but it is demonstrated that these contrarieties of appearance are the necessary result of one uniform law of gravitation, and they owe their being, not to any exemption from that law, but solely to the relative positions of the beholder and of the luminaries. So, promises in the Bible seem greatly to conflict one with another, and some to fail altogether, and others to make no pro

gress toward a consummation; while to the well-instructed they open a luminous system of glorious holiness, perfect order, and illimitable extent, and it is demonstrated of nearly all that no contradictions exist; but all are consistent in JEsUs, and will be consummated in the resurrection of the dead.

Remarks on the practical influence of this doctrine.

The interpretation of the promises to Israel in favor of the natural Jews is proper Judaism, which is, and ever was a national, sectional, temporal, proud, selfish, and unchristian form of doctrine. From Constantine to Napoleon, from the mission of Paul and Barnabas, to inquire of the apostles and elders about this same doctrine of Judaism, to this day, it has been the source of "no small dissension and disputation," whether any but the circumcised can inherit the promise made of God unto the fathers. "Some which went out from us have troubled you with words; subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment," Acts xv, 24. Our Judaizers trouble the church with the leaven of the same doctrine. They do not enjoin circumcision; they repudiate it; but, at the same time, they admit it to be a most salutary ordinance; for, while it is nothing worth, separate from Christian baptism, joined with that it is a great thing, giving the subjects of this rite the sure prospect of high pre-eminence among their Christian brethren whose circumcision is of the heart only, even entitling them and their circumcised offspring to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the rising empire of Judaism for ever, over and above the privileges of Gentile Christians. This is the spirit of the doctrine, if we understand it. It teaches that the Jews are a superior people; that they have loftier claims to the divine favor; that they have peculiar and valuable promises, not common to the Gentiles; and that they have very flattering hopes and prospects in this world, even the universal dominion of it-all others being vassals of the circumcised.

It is worth while for worldly Christians to inquire the way for them and their offspring, to inherit a share of the honors of the Jewish empire to come; especially since the times of the Gentiles seem to be almost accomplished, and the times of the Jews ready to begin. It is no small benefit for a worldling to gain, by adding to his Christian profession that of Judaism, and keeping what he can of the law of Moses. He need not have a Jewish father or mother to entitle him to inherit the Jews' promises. It is probably enough for him to make an honest profession of Judaism, put the