have been no room for the accomplishment of those numerous predictions, which fix their general conversion, upon a grand and national scale, to the latter ages. Hence every prediction of this nature involves an intimation, that a long stop would be put to the progress of the Gospel, during a middle intervening period: so that, after a certain number of the pagan nations should have been converted during the first ages, a pause (as it were) would take place; and then at length, in the last ages, all those, which had hitherto remained in a state of moral darkness, would be happily and triumphantly brought within the pale of the Christian church.* 2. Thus explicitly is the fact itself recognized in scripture. But * This pause, or at least something very nearly allied to it, is intimated by the prophet Isaiah. "All the inhabitants of the world, and dwellers upon earth, shall see the lifting up, as it were, of a banner upon the mountains; and shall hear the sounding, as it were, of a trumpet. For thus saith Jehovah unto me: I will set still (but I will keep my eye upon my prepared habitation,) as the parching heat just before lightning, as the dewy cloud in the heat of summer. For afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection, and the blossom is become a juicy berry, he will cut off the useless shoots with pruning hooks, and the bill shall take away the luxuriant branches." Isaiah xviii. 3-5. Upon this passage, Bishop Horsley remarks, that the banner is the banner of the cross, to be lifted up more conspicuously, than ever before; and that the trumpet is the trumpet of the gospel, to be sounded more loudly, than ever before, in the latter ages. This, then, he adds, is the sum of the prophecy. In the latter ages, after a long suspension of the visible interpositions of Providence, God, who all the while regards that dwelling-place which he will never abandon, and is at all times directing the events of the world to the accomplishment of his own purposes of wisdom and mercy, immediately before the final gathering of his elect from the four winds of heaven, will purify his church by such signal judgments, as shall rouse the attention of the whole world, and in the end strike all nations with religious awe. At this period, the apostate faction will occupy the Holy Land. This faction will certainly be an instrument of those judgments, by which the church will be purified. That purification, therefore, is not at all inconsistent with the seeming prosperity of the affairs of the atheistical confederacy. But, after such duration, as God shall see fit to allow, to the plenitude of its power; the Jews, converted to the faith of Christ, will be unexpectedly restored to their ancient possessions. The pruning will immediately precede the harvest and the in-gathering. The season of the harvest and of the in-gathering of the fruit, is the prophetick image of that period, when our Lord will send forth his angels, to gather his elect from the four winds of heaven; of that period, when a renewed preaching of the gospel shall take place in all parts of the world. Horsley on Isaiah xviii. p. 95-97, 88, 89, 85. It is impossible not to observe, that, at the very time when an anxious desire to communicate the light of scripture to the whole world, has sprung up after a manner long unknown, the spirit of the antichrist, which is defined by St. John to consist in a more or less intense denial of the Father and the Son, is also peculiarly rampant and active. 1 John ii. 22, 23. iv. 1-3. 2 John 7. Thus are the materials preparing for the last great contest, which, according to the general voice of prophecy, will be decided between the two seas of Palestine. The apostate empire, or the embodied antichrist, lies at present in its predicted state of headlessness or political death: but we are assured, that the same short-lived seventh head, which in our own day has been mortally wounded by the sword of war, will hereafter be healed and restored to life and activity. See my Dissert. on the 1260 days, vol. iii. dissert. 1. it is more than recognized: the rationale of it (if I may so speak) is also most fully and lucidly explained; and upon this rationale, I have ever thought the importance of a society for the express purpose of converting the house of Judah to be pre-eminently establish ed. The truth is, that, whatever partial success may attend missionary exertions in regard to individual Pagans or Mohammedans, the Gentiles will never be converted nationally and upon a large scale, until the Jews shall have been first converted: and the ground of this very important position is, that the converted Jews are destined, in the unsearchable wisdom of God, to be the sole finally successful missionaries to the Gentile world. Such I believe to be the true secret of the small emolument, with which we Gentiles attempt the conversion of the yet unreclaimed Gentiles. The fact of our little success is notorious and indisputable the reason is, because an honour, reserved for others, neither will nor can be conferred upon us. For, if it be the special allotted task of the converted Jews to effect the conversion of the great national mass of the Gentiles; nothing can be more clear, than that the conversion of that great national mass will never be effected by ourselves, whatever partial success may attend our efforts with insulated individuals. But, that such is the special allotted task of the converted Jews, is set forth with sufficient plainness in the volume of prophecy. (1.) Whether the language of prophecy be figurative, or whether it be literal, still it ceases not to maintain the same important position. Zechariah teaches us, that, in the day when the Jews shall be restored to their own land and shall be delivered from their congregated enemies, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem :* and, in the parallel passages of Ezekiel and Joel, which similarly treat of Judah's restoration in the last ages, these same living waters are said to flow out of the temple.t The language, here employed, is doubtless figurative: but, though figurative, it is still perfectly familiar and intelligible to those, who have paid even a moderate attention only to prophetick phraseology. As it is justly observed by Mr. Lowth, while commenting on the passage from Zechariah, "the supplies of grace are often represented in scripture by rivers and streams of water, which both cleanse and make fruitful the ground through which they pass."‡ On this well-known principle then of interpretation, as the meaning of the three parallel prophecies is obviously the same, so it is hard to say what can be intended by the efflux of living waters from Jerusalem or from the temple during the period which immediately follows the restoration of the Jews, unless it be the communication of the gospel to the great body of the now unbelieving Gentiles by the ancient Zech. xiv. 8. Ezek. xlvii. 1---12. Joel iii. 18. Lowth's Comment, on Zech. xiv. 8. people of God immediately after their own conversion.* Under the image of a river flowing out from the temple of Jerusalem, the waters of which gradually rise until they become a mighty stream which cannot be passed over, and which itself communicates health and life whithersoever it cometh, is clearly and aptly shadowed out the beneficent progress of the gospel from the metropolis of the converted and restored Israelites through every province and kingdom of the Gentile world.t Accordingly, what these three prophets teach us figuratively, others teach us plainly and literally and unequivocally. Isaiah tells us, that, when "in the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say; come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."‡ : From this passage we learn, that the figurative living waters, which flow from the temple immediately after the restoration of the Jews, are in truth the law and the word of the Lord; which similarly and at the very same period go forth from Jerusalem and mount Zion, and which similarly and at the very same period bring about the healing, or the life, or the conversion of all nations. Nor can we allow, agreeably to the once prevalent mischievous humour of what was called spiritualizing the prophecies, that the present Gentile Christian church is spoken of in the predictions which have been cited. Isaiah is careful to tell us, that the word, which he saw, concerned Judah and Jerusalem:§ and the whole context of the oracles of Zechariah, and Joel, and Ezekiel, proves, I think, indisputably, that they are incapable of any other application than to God's ancient people, now happily converted and restored. The same remark may be made upon another well known prophecy of Isaiah; which, by the process of spiritualization, has often been perverted from the literal house of Israel, to the Christian church already gathered from among the Gentiles. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to * Every thing that liveth, which moveth whithersoever the river shall come, shall live for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live, whither the river cometh. Ezek. xlvii. 9. + These waters beautifully represent the gradual progress of the gospel. The passage refers to the wide effusion of divine knowledge from Jerusalem, when re stored. By living waters, there is good reason to believe are meant the gifts and graces of the gospel dispensation. That these benefits will be diffused more extensively by the restoration of the Jews, is not obscurely intimated in Rom. xi. 15. Newcome on Ezek. xlvii. 5. Blayney on Zech. xiv. 8. Isaiah ii. 1-3. Isaiah ii, 1. thy light; and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow together; and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged: because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee."* Let any one read attentively the whole prediction, whence this passage is taken; and he will, I think, be satisfied, that the literal Israel of God, now converted and restored to their own land, is the community addressed by the prophet. But, if so, then undoubtedly the house of Israel is described as the appointed instrument of conveying the light of Christianity to the Gentiles. As the progress of the Gospel through the agency of the Jews is represented under the image of living waters issuing forth from the temple of Jerusalem; so, according to the usage of the ancient prophets, we find the same great circumstance depicted also under other figures. In the latter day, when Judah shall have been delivered from the hand of his enemies, "the remnant of Jacob,' we are assured by Micah, “shall be in the midst of many people, as the dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass :''t that is to say, as Archbishop Newcome well remarks, "the Jews contributed to spread the knowledge of the one true God during their captivity in Babylon; the gospel was preached by them, when the Messiah appeared; and it shall again be propagated by their future glorious restoration." Such being the remarkable office of the house of Israel in all ages, we shall not wonder to find them styled by the prophet Hosea," the Jezrael," or "the seed of God." When at length "the children of Judah shall be collected, and the children of Israel shall be united, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up from the earth: then great shall be the day of Jezrael." Why is this singular title bestowed upon God's ancient people? "Great and happy shall be the day," says Bishop Horsley, "when the holy seed of both branches of the natural Israel shall be publickly acknowledged of their God; united under one head, their king Messiah; and restored to the possession of the promised land, and to a situation of high pre-eminence among the kingdoms of the earth. The myriads of the natural Israel, converted by the preaching of the apostles, were the first seed of the universal church and there is reason to believe, that the restoration of the converted Jews will be the occasion and means of a prodigious influx of new converts from the Gentiles in the latter ages. Thus the Jezrael of the natural Israel from the first have been Isaiah lx. 1-5. + Micah v. 7. Newcome on Micah v. 7. To the same purpose speaks Mr. Lowth. That reminant, mentioned in ver. 3, and chap. iv. 7, shall be the instruments of converting those Gentiles among whom they live; and thereupon may fitly be represented by the dews and rains, which come from heaven, and are the means of making the earth fruitful. Lowth in loc. Hos, i. 11. and to the last will prove, a seed sown of God for himself in the earth."* And now let us once more turn from the figured to the unfigured language of prophecy. What does the prophet Zechariah teach us; when, quitting the symbolical style, he speaks plainly and literally and prosaically? "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go up speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." This passage, on the principle of Israel's being the appointed seed of God in all ages, Archbishop Newcome applies with an equivalent degree of largeness. "It refers," says he, " to the great accession of converts which the Jewish church received between the captivity and the coming of Christ, to the number of Christian disciples which the Jewish preachers made, and to the future conversions of which the restoration of the Jews will be an eminent cause." (2.) The Hebrew prophets being thus explicit, we may naturally expect to find the same matter propounded and recognized under the Christian dispensation. St. Paul, accordingly, as he is understood by our best commentators, sets forth, with abundant plainness, this interesting and important truth. "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For, if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead ?"§ The passage before us is commonly supposed to intimate, that the converted Jews would be the grand instrument of finally converting the Gentiles and, I think, with good reason; for, on any other principle of exposition, it is difficult to understand the drift and to perceive the cogency of the apostle's argument. His reasoning is to this purpose. "If the fall of the Jews be the riches of the Gentiles, because in the first ages a Gentile church was gathered out of the world to occupy the place which the Jews once held; how much more eminent ly must the fulness of the Jews, when themselves converted, be the * Horsley on Hos. i. 11, and ii. 23. † Zech. viii. 20-23. Newcome on Zech. viii. 23. |
