LETTER III.

The literal application of the Old Testament prophecies to the future circumstances of the Jewish nation, incompatible with the genius of Christianity.-The character of the Jews as the Church, not as a favourite nation, the specific object of prophetic allusion.-Importance of this fact.-The prophets moved by "the Spirit of Christ."-The dispensation of Christianity, the fulfilment of God's covenant with Abraham..-"The times of the restitution of all things," what it refers to.-The Divine object in selecting the Jewish nation.-Inference.-New Testament allusions to the Old Testament language, and the use made of those allusions, against the doctrine.-Testimonies of John the Baptist, Joseph of Arimathea, Simeon, Anna, Zacharias, Gabriel, St. Paul, James, Peter, and Christ himself.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I HAVE now to consider the following question. "How far does the genius of Christianity accord with the literal application of the Old Testament prophecies to the future circumstances of the Jewish nation?"

To suppose such accordance, we must relinquish the idea that the idea that the special

relation in which the Jews formerly stood to their Divine Ruler was that of the visible Church, and we must conclude that the selection of their nation as the peculiar people of the Most High, was made without any apparent end, and without any reference to the welfare of the world in general, as its ultimate design; and that we have been hitherto wrong in supposing that, from the days of their Father Abraham to the Christian æra, they constituted the infant Church which, in its maturity in "the latter days," should comprise the whole world, when all its kindreds, tribes, and people should be "blessed in faithful Abraham, beneath the universal sway of Zion's King." To suppose an accordance between the genius of Christianity and the limited application of the Old Testament prophecies in question to the Jews only, we must consider that, previous to the Christian æra, they were addressed most specifically and primarily, not as the Church, but as a favourite nation, and that their character as the visible Church, the "Mountain," destined, at last, to fill the whole earth,

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was not the specific object of prophetic allusion.

But this will be objected to by all who believe in the Divine authenticity of the Christian Scriptures; for upon the fact that Israel constituted the Church, rest the present value of those "oracles" formerly "committed" to the Jews, and the connexion subsisting between those oracles and the New Testament.

To deny this, will be to deny the divine inspiration of the Apostle in the 8th of Hebrews, before cited, in which he applies the phrase, "the house of Israel and the house of Judah," as referring to the general Church in the days of Christ.

If, then, the prophets addressed the CHURCH in reference to the period of Christianity, they must be understood as referring to the CHRISTIAN Church, in which, distinctions, such as Jew, Gentile, &c., are all lost. We learn also, from apostolic authority, that the prophets were moved by the "spirit of Christ," searching what, or what manner of time it did signify when it testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow; and

that "all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days," (Acts iii. 24); and the next verse evidently implies that the dispensation of Christianity was the fulfilment of the covenant which God made with the fathers, "saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." "The times of the restitution of all things," mentioned in verse 21, (if the allusion be to any thing of which earth will be the stage,) can only refer generally to the state or condition of things, and not to the adventitious circumstances of things; to the reign of righteousness, interrupted by the fall, but re-established for ever, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and not to the re-establishment of any particular earthly kingdom, Jew or Gentile." But the direct allusion of this phrase seems to be, like Matt. xvii. 11, to Mal. iv. 6, and other passages predicting the return of human affections to the Being who best deserves them, and from whom, alas! they have been too long alienated. Compare Luke i. 16, 17.

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Admitting, then, that the Divine object, as developed in the New Testament, in selecting the Jewish nation as the depositary of the Divine will, and the subject of Heaven's peculiar favour, was, that in Abraham's seed all nations should be blessed, a literal application of the prophecies in question, to the future circumstances of the Jewish nation, appears to be at variance with the genius of Christianity.

The frequent allusions, also, in the New Testament, to the figurative language employed in the Old, to describe the promised glory of Messiah's kingdom, and the use made of those allusions, furnish powerful evidence that the glory promised to Israel "in the latter days," was exclusively "the knowledge of the glory of God," which should universally prevail, and make "Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth, a joy of many generations." A "kingdom" was promised, and the carnal Jews expected" that when Messias came, he would restore all things," in a manner consonant with their own secular views: in the spirit of those views, he was asked, "Wilt thou, at this time, restore again the