their completed work, could say, "Grace, grace," and "Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who hath put such a thing into the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord, which is at Jerusalem," has still the hearts of all men in his hand, and he turneth them whithersoever he will.

405

LECTURE XI.

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS-RESTORATION TO THEIR OWN LAND UNIVERSAL CONVERSION TO THE FAITH OF CHRIST.

BY THE REV.

PATRICK FAIRBAIRN,

MINISTER OF BRIDGETON PARISH, GLASGOW.

Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.-ISAIAH lxii. 4.

We have now arrived at a very interesting and important-if I should say the most interesting and important subject of inquiry connected with the present series of lectures, I should not certainly exceed my own apprehension of its nature, though I do but the more deeply feel my own inadequacy to do it justice. If, however, a sincere and solemn conviction of the soundness of the views, which are now about to be unfolded, as fully authorized by the word of prophecy-if the frequent and not inattentive perusal of this word of prophecy itself, aided by the researches of those, who have brought the most of learning and sobriety of judgment to bear upon the subject, and guided by a simple desire to ascertain the outlines of coming events, as these have been traced by the Spirit of prophecy, who moved the holy men of old to speak the things, which were to be fulfilled in the latter days if these qualifications may bespeak a favourable audience, I may not hesitate to claim from you, in behalf of what is now to be advanced, a patient and attentive hearing. And may the Spirit himself grant, that our inquiry shall be so conducted, as

neither to add to, nor detract from the meaning, which he designed that portion of the prophetic volume, which is to pass under our present review, to convey to the church of Christ.

The subject on which we enter, embraces the future prospects of the Jews, and consequently leads us into that department of prophecy, which remains yet to be fulfilled. The very name of unfulfilled prophecy, we are aware, suggests to many persons the idea of a vague and shadowy region, where all is dim and uncertain, and nothing to be ascertained beyond the general character of certain events likely to befall the church or the world at large. We hold very different views, however, of the prophetic record, and hope to make it plain to you before we close, that there is at least one class of events yet to be fulfilled, which we may as certainly gather from the word of prophecy, as we can assure ourselves of any events which have already taken place, that they were the accomplishment of predictions, which at some former period stood in the rank of unfulfilled prophecy. In proceeding to make this out to your conviction, there is just one postulate, or principle of interpretation, which we need to lay down for our direction, while endeavouring to read out of the word of prophecy the future history of God's ancient people, and that so very reasonable, so readily commending itself to every intelligent mind, that no one, we think, can hesitate for a moment to assent to it. The principle we allude to is, that those portions of prophecy, which have already been fulfilled in the history of the Jewish people, are to be taken as our surest guide for determining the meaning of those other portions, which remain yet to be fulfilled-so that if in the one part the fulfilment that has taken place be unquestionably a literal one, we must look for a literal fulfilment in the other also; or if, through means of a figure, an event of a certain description was in the earlier part of it clearly predicted concerning them, by a change afterwards introduced into that figure, we are to look only for a corresponding

change in their condition, in process of time to be developed, not for an event, in which they have no peculiar or special interest at all.

It were surely to confound all language, and to render the word of God the most inexplicable of writings, to say that one part of a prediction is to be taken in the literal acceptation of its words, and the other converted into allegory; or that the first portion of a figurative description is to be understood of one subject, and the second to be held as referring to another substantially different. If, then, in reading the prophecies, which have been put on record concerning God's ancient people, I find it predicted in terms the most express, that they were to be cast off from being the people of God, torn from their native land, dispersed among all nations, though still preserved separate, treated with the greatest contumely and reproach--and if on searching into history, I also find, that the whole to the very letter has been verified; that they have lost the standing they so long held as the church of the living God; that unwilling banishment from the land of their fathers has for ages been their portion, and that they have not only been doomed to wander as outcasts over the broad surface of the earth, but every where in their wanderings have been made to bear the mark of ignominy, and been exceedingly filled with contempt;shall I doubt, when, on reading further in the same line of prophecy, I find it written in terms equally express, that they are to be re-united to the church of God, re-instated in their ancient heritage, invested with an honour and a glory, which had no parallel even in their days of bygone magnificence-shall I doubt, that these intimations of coming events shall also meet with their exact and proper fulfilment? When I see that God has magnified his faithfulness in giving to the dark side of the prospective history the most literal and complete verification, shall I think so harshly of his character, or so meanly of the consistency of his prophetic word, as to suppose that he will not also verify to the letter the other and

brighter side, but allow it to pass away into some vague generality? The Jew has found it to be no over-drawn or chimerical picture, but a most certain and appalling reality, that judgment was written against him in the oracles of God; and with this history of the prophetic past to direct our judgments concerning the prophetic future, we conclude, by whatever truth, by whatever consistency there is in these oracles of God, that the same Jew must be destined to know it as an equally certain and faithful reality, that he is written there also the subject of distinguished favour, blessing, and glory.

Taking, then, this safe and consistent principle for our guide-namely, that the fulfilment of what is already past, affords the best rule for determining the sense of what is yet to be fulfilled in the prophecies, which concern the Jews as a people-let us go to the word of prophecy, and endeavour to learn, from some of its clearest predictions, whether what we have now intimated is to befall this singular people in the latter days-what, in short, we may warrantably infer to be the most prominent features of their future history. To divide these into separate heads, is to a certain extent to break the chain of evidence, by which they are collectively substantiated; for the prophets seldom speak of the future history of the Jews with reference to its single points, but rather as a combined whole, embracing all or the greater part at one view; yet, for the sake of greater perspicuity and distinctness we shall consider the things predicted under separate heads, and these as nearly as possible in the order which they appear to hold in the word of prophecy itself.

I. Our first proposition, then, is, that the Jews as a people, shall again become the people of God; which of course implies, that they shall be converted to the faith of Christ, becoming in one vast body members of the Christian church.

In the scriptural proof of this point we shall not need to be minute, as the fact, at least of the ultimate conversion of the Jews, is universally admitted