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would be quite disgusting, on the contrary, to quote at length the absurdities of the heathen hymns.

"The differences, therefore, which existed between the Jews and other nations in their civil institutions, continues farther, it has appeared so as to impart a peculiar complexion to their literature. Their writings treat of the Creator in the same sublime tone and language as that which is inculcated in the law. And this without exception. From the earliest to the latest of the Hebrew authors, there is an interval of at least one thousand two hundred years. Yet from the first to the last there is no contradiction. All their writers seem to have imbibed, from the same fountain, the same idea. Some parts may labour more than others under the disadvantage of translation scrupulously literal from a language imperfectly understood: but all agree in describing the unity, superintending power, and goodness of the Creator. To this spirit so universally diffused, the few gleams of genius which I have exhibited from heathen authors, and which occasionally break out from the heaviest clouds of error and obscurity, will no more bear comparison, than the blaze of a meteor to the steady light of the sun.' "*

* Records of the Creation, &c., by J. B. Sumner, vol. i. pp. 129-143.

LECTURE XIX.

CANAAN.

ITS DESTINY.

THE Jews have for many centuries been ejected from Canaan, and the Gentiles have been in possession of it. But notwithstanding the former have so long been dispossessed of their peculiar inheritance, they still continue a distinct people. Hence arises a question of considerable interest, and a question which has undergone considerable discussion—namely, Will this country ever be restored to its former occupants?-in other words, Will the Jews be reinstated in the possession of Palestine ?-The further discussion of this question will not, we presume, form an inappropriate conclusion to our series of lectures on Canaan.

A great portion of the Christian church, as the fact of its having been the subject of discussion supposes, take the affirmative of the question. They maintain that many of the prophecies of the Old Testament, which predict a return of the Jews, the prosperity of Judea, and the future glory of Jerusalem, received but a partial accomplishment in the return under Cyrus, and that they can receive a full accomplishment only in a literal return that is yet future.

That many of these prophecies have yet received but a partial accomplishment, there can be but little

doubt; but whether their full accomplishment will be literal or spiritual, is the question to be considered.— Those who take the negative of it maintain that against a literal return there are the following weighty objections:

I. The silence of the New Testament on the subject." The New Testament is indeed in perfect har mony with the predictions of the Old, that, ultimately, 'all shall know the Lord,' but does not hint in the remotest way at a literal restoration of the Jews to the national possession and inheritance of their own land. Now, as nothing is more striking than the general harmony subsisting between the Old and New Testaments, it must, at least, be admitted as very singular, if, as it is alleged, every prophet foretels the event in question, and is inspired to give it a prominence in his annunciations, that the New Testament writers, who were Jews, never confirm the prediction. Supposing this discrepancy, or absence of harmony to exist, it surely is capable of being accounted for; and, in order to this, perhaps it will be said that the predictions of the Old Testament prophets having been addressed to the Jews as a nation, might very properly refer to future events, interesting to them as such, but not particularly so to any other people, and therefore unnecessary to be touched upon by those whose business it was to write and speak for the benefit and instruction of the universal church.

"This answer is very unsatisfactory: for, in the first place, provided the restoration of the Jews is to take place, the event is as important to the Jews now, and it was as important to the Jews of apostolic times, as it was to the Jews of old; and if they are to form so considerable, so pre-eminent a part of the Christian church, as it is said by some they will, the New Testament will be their 'sure word of prophecy,' as well as ours; and the predicted restoration was surely a

direct subject for apostolic confirmation and comment, and claimed the general suffrage of the New Testament writers; while, on the other hand, if those prophecies referred to predict no other events than such as occurred previous to the Christian era, or only the general prosperity of the cause of Christ, the difficulty arising from an apparent want of harmony between the Old and New Testaments vanishes. Again, it is urged, that the predicted restoration lays the Christian body under certain obligations, and devolves upon it certain duties, in reference to the event; if so, Christians needed some specific instructions on the subject under the new dispensation, because without them they were liable, as facts prove, to question the existence of the prediction itself, and, consequently, of the obligations and duties involved.

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Secondly, in the epistle to the Hebrews, written by a Jew, and displaying a most complete acquaintance with the old dispensation, and with the condition and views of their nation, and in which, as it was written to converted Jews while their nation was in a state of great temporal abasement, some reference to their future national prosperity might have been expected, and would certainly have been interesting, there is no encouragement given to the opinion. But in the eighth chapter, and also in the ninth and tenth, the nature of the 'new covenant,' made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,' is explained as essentially different from the old, which is described as 'ready to vanish; and this new covenant' obviously means the gospel dispensation, and, consequently, cannot be considered as having an exclusive application to the Jews.

"Thirdly. The apostle Paul, whose heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was, that they might be saved, and who so often and so warmly expresses the solicitude of his soul for his brethren according to the

flesh,' and who wrote to explain to them their ancient ritual, and to prove the fulfilment both of that and of prophecy in the person and gospel of Christ; and who, in his epistle to the Romans, expressly, and at considerable length, refers to their existing circumstances and future conversion, never once alludes to such an event as their literal restoration to Palestine, and national importance. Nor did even our Lord, who was also himself a Jew, and foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and wept at the prospect of its woes.

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'Nor will it satisfactorily account for the silence of the New Testament writers, supposing the doctrine to be true, to say, that when the New Testament was penned, the Jews were not yet dispersed; and that, therefore, any allusion to their restoration, before that event had taken place, would have been unnatural. The New Testament writers were fully aware that Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and the destruction of the city involved the dispersion of its inhabitants. Christ himself, as already noticed, had predicted that event, and the prophecies which are supposed to imply the future restoration of the Jews, speak quite as explicitly of the re-building of Jerusalem; and, with the information they possessed, and with the prophecies in mind, it would have been quite as natural, and in place, (provided they had regarded it as a matter of truth and importance,) if they had noticed and confirmed the testimony of the prophets to the re-building of Jerusalem, as it was to refer, as they did refer, to the abrogation of the Jewish polity, and to the prophetic testimony that, eventually, all Israel shall be saved.' Besides, the answer imagined would suppose the silence of the New Testament writers to be maintained out of regard to what was natural in a certain degree, to the neglect of what was (according to those who assign the answer) important in a much greater degree. For the order of nature is preserved,

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