"Lord, build-Lord, build- In haste! in haste! even in our days, "Lord, build-Lord, build Build thy house speedily. In haste! in haste! even in our days, In haste! in haste! even in our days, We conclude, for the present, with what Bishop Lowth calls a "formulary of humiliation,” “a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion.” "Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not thou, O God, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a very little whiled our adversaries have trodden down d According to the chronology of our most learned writers, about 3740 years have elapsed since the promise first made to Abraham, that the land of Canaan should be given to him and thy sanctuary: we are thine: thou never barest rule over them: they were not called by thy name. Oh! that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away Be not wroth, very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee; we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a his seed for ever. During these 3740 years, it will be found that the whole period during which any part of the posterity of Abraham have possessed the promised land, has not exceeded 1481 years; for, from the entrance of Israel, under Joshua, into Canaan, till the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, are 1551 years, from which, the seventy years' captivity in Babylon being subtracted, there remain 1481 years; and as the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria in the year 721 before Christ, this part of Abraham's seed have possessed the land of promise only 730 years, out of the whole period of 3740 years. If there is to be no national restoration of Israel to the land of their fathers, we may well ask what is to become of the promises so often repeated, that God would give unto Abraham, and his seed, the land of Canaan for ever? Are we to suppose that, in this respect, there is to be a deviation from the general rule of Divine procedure, as laid down by St. Paul, that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance?" This would not only be contrary to those general assurances of the Divine faithfulness and veracity which are to be found in the Scriptures, but altogether inconsistent with the many express promises to the posterity of Abraham, of their restoration to their own land in the latter days.-Jewish Expositor for 1821. wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation! Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore ?" (Isaiah lxiii. and lxiv.) 123 LECTURE V. EZEKIEL XXxvii. 21, 22. "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." THESE words, and numerous predictions similarly worded, seem to require, for their fulfilment, the actual restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel to the land occupied by their forefathers, and their permanent establishment therein as one nation. We have already argued, and I trust on scriptural grounds, (the only ground which in this question can supply firm footing for a moment,) in favour of the opinion, that at the conclusion of the times of the Gentiles, God will give to the Jewish people a penitent spirit, to confess their iniquity, and accept their deserved punishment at his hand, preparatory to their restoration to Judea; and we concluded, by strengthening our interpretation upon this important point, by an analogy drawn from the doctrines of the New Testament, the revealed dealings and purposes of God, as they relate to the Catholic church of his elect people in Jesus Christ. Our present object is to state more expressly, and to defend, that interpretation on which our faith rests in anticipating the literal re-occupation of Palestine by the Jews. It may, perhaps, appear, to some of you, that this point is so clearly and repeatedly stated by the prophets, and is now so generally admitted, that it does not require any detailed proof: and there may be some feeling of impatience among you, at our dwelling so long upon what you consider the plain, and easy, and obvious parts of the subject, anxious as you are to have the deeper and more neglected branches of the prophetic records pressed upon the attention of the church. I cannot, however, forget, that this fundamental point is still denied by many who profess, and who seem truly to enjoy the religion of the New Testament. Neither can I lose sight of the importance of being well fortified with scriptural authorities in support of this literal restoration, which seems to me to be inseparably connected with the glorious personal |