to be true Jews, for what is Judaism without a temple and sacrifice, without a priest and a theocracy? They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10 : 2); they have the law and the prophets, but the former is reduced to a state of torpor by Talmudic precepts, and the promises of the latter are lost in a cloud of vapid interpretations furnished by blind leaders of the blind (Matt. 15: 14); the vail of Moses still remains on their eyes and their hearts, so that they do not see the clear light of the Gospel in the Old Testament. (2 Cor. 3 : 13-15.) They call themselves Abraham's seed, but they are not the children of Abraham's faith. (Gal. 3:7; John ch. 8; Rom. ch. 4.) They think, indeed, that they worship the God of their fathers, but the God of their fathers is that God who, in Christ, became man that Lord, who is our Righteousness (Jer. 33 : 16,) and Him they rejected; the one God of their fathers has revealed himself as the triune God of the Christians, and, hence, their inflexible and exclusive Monotheism is spurious, or appears in a petrified state. This nation, which, in ancient history, appeared in an isolated position, occupies one which is equally singular in modern history: the people are dispersed among all the nations of the earth, but blend with none: although often persecuted, humbled and oppressed, their strength and numbers are unimpaired. Eighteen centuries have passed away without having succeeded in producing in them an external or an internal change; time, which subdues all things, has been unable to efface their striking peculiarities. They have preserved their nationality without a country, their religion without a worship (cultus), their hopes without a firm foundation; even the features of their countenance have successfully resisted the influence of climate. All these circumstances, and, still more, the most positive promises, both of the Old and of the New Testament, here reveal the finger of God, and teach us that a peculiar lot still awaits this nation. OBS. The significant legend of the Wandering Jew here claims a brief notice; he is unceasingly impelled onward through successive centuries, and cannot find repose, till the Lord whom he blasphemed, re-appears. Israel is the Wandering Jew. 119. Israel's Prospects. The prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision a valley which was full of dry bones (ch. 37), and the Lord said to him: "Son of man, can these bones live?" The prophet prophesied, as the Lord commanded, and behold, there was a noise, there was a shaking, the bones came together, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, the breath came into them, they lived, and stood up upon their feet, &c. And the Lord said: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel." Thus, too, Hosea, after having described their present condition, proceeds to say: "Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." (3: 5.) The apostle Paul says: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery — that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved." (Rom. 11:25, 26.) He implies, in these words, that, even as Israel, considered collectively as a body or nation, rejected the offered salvation (which is not inconsistent with the fact that many individuals nevertheless received it), so too, Israel, as a nation, will hereafter be converted (which, again, is not inconsistent with the continued unbelief of many individuals); but, as he continues, this conversion cannot take place until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (that is, all who have been called and chosen among the Gentiles), so that the words of the Saviour may be fulfilled: Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." (Matt. 19: 30.) Then will those words: "His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matt. 27 : 25), which have hitherto pressed heavily upon Israel as a curse, unfold the blessing which they really contain, for the blood of Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2 : 2), and, consequently, for those of the Israelites also. Then they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, as Zechariah prophesies (12: 10), and, like Joseph's brethren, who bowed down themselves before him, they too shall bow their knees before the son of David, the Son of God, and understand and confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. OBS. - The course of future events alone can decide whether this restoration to the people of Israel of their spiritual inheritance is to be combined with the restoration of their temporal inheritance, with their return to the land of their fathers, and with the recovery of an independent national existence, as numerous promises of the prophets seem to imply. See, for instance, Isai. 43: 1, &c.; Jerem. 32: 37, &c.; Ezek. 34: 11, &c.; 36: 24, &c.; 37: 12, &c.; 39: 25, &c., and many other passages, in which the immediate reference to the return of the captives from Babylon seems, besides, to include a view of another, happier and more glorious return. PART II. THE PLAN OF SALVATION, IN ITS FULFILMENT AND FINAL RESULTS. CHAPTER I. THE MANIFESTATION OF SALVATION IN THE PERSON OF THE REDEEMER. § 120. The Fulness of the Time.-(See § 15 and § 21.) "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” (Gal. 4 : 4, 5.) 1. Judaism and heathenism had now performed the tasks assigned to them respectively, and the way of salvation was prepared and opened both negatively and positively. The human race had been taught to understand, after an experience of 4000 years, that salvation could not be obtained by man's own wisdom and strength not through the Law, of which Judaism itself was a proof,- not through intellectual culture, art, science, or political power, of which the history of heathenism furnished the evidence. The law which was revealed to Israel on Sinai, contained a blessing, but in consequence of the deep corruption of human nature, it was not this blessing, but the curse which -- accompanied it (§ 43. 2, OBS. 2), that was experienced. (Gal. 3: 10.) Thus the knowledge of sin came by the law (Rom. 3: 20; 77), which, like a schoolmaster (Gal. 3:24), brought the true Israelites unto Christ. The Gentiles did not, indeed, possess a divine law, directly given by revelation, but their conscience and their thoughts which accuse or excuse one another, bore witness that the work of the law was written in their hearts. (Rom. 2: 15.) This law, although corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (Eph. 4 : 22), in manifold ways, was nevertheless sufficient to convince them of their moral inability. The acceptable and highly significant public worship of the Israelites, when further developed by Prophecy, had appeared as a shadow alone, or was felt by the religious sense of the enlightened to be a type of a future and better service. The blossoms of the pagan worship, which had exhibited an unnatural and premature expansion in the conservatory of the religion of nature, were found to be sterile, and had fallen to the ground from the unproductive tree, insomuch that in the days of Cicero, it was believed that one soothsayer could not survey another without contemptuous laughter. (Cic. de Div. II. 24.) Hence, although heathenism had attained to the highest eminence with respect to the culture of the intellect, it could not resist the conviction of its own emptiness, and of its entire inability to satisfy the wants of man's moral nature. When these wants began to be deeply felt, heathenism, ignorantly attempting to satisfy them and always disappointed, in vain expected aid from illusory mysteries, the arts of jugglers, and the frauds of astrologers (Chaldæi, mathematici.) 2. Besides this negative mode, which produced the consciousness that certain wants existed, and awakened a certain longing desire, there was also a positive mode in which the way of salvation was prepared and opened. Judaism and heathenism had brought to maturity the genuine fruits of their development which were really designed to be the vehicles of the approaching salvation. Israel's law had preserved in all its purity the doctrine concerning God, as the only God, and the Holy One, the righteous and merciful God, the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, distinct from nature, and infinitely exalted above it, and, nevertheless, ruling and directing nature as an omnipresent and almighty God. Israel's promises had revealed the divine counsel of the redemption of the human race, and described the time and place wherein that redemption would be accomplished. Israel's worship presented to the eye a portraiture of this redemption, and Israel's history had reached its appointed end, which was the manifestation of the son of David, in whom David's earthly and temporal kingdom would be transformed into a heavenly and eternal kingdom (§ 14. OBS. 1).—But heathenism also furnished valuable materials for building up the kingdom of God. In all that related to mental culture, to the arts and to the sciences, it had risen to the highest point which was attainable in ancient times, and was now prepared to render these blossoms of its development, which were not sterile, subservient to the great salvation which proceeded from the Jews. OBS.- Christianity, as the religion of the world, was, in certain aspects, supplied with the materials or contents by Judaism (John 4:22), but with the form, by the science and culture of heathenism. If the results of divine revelation among the Jews had not been placed in combination with the elements of intellectual culture derived from the Gentiles, Christianity would have been confined within the particularistic (exclusive) boundaries of Judaism. These boundaries were removed by the adoption of the form furnished by that culture; the form itself was then exalted and sanctified by the new materials or contents associated with it. 3. Besides, the whole world was swayed by one sceptre; one language was universally understood, and the active trade and intercourse which the universal peace in the world abundantly facilitated, were well adapted to promote the rapid and direct diffusion of the new thoughts and doctrines among men. The Jews derived consolation from the promises given to the fathers, the fulfilment of which they confidently expected (Joseph. Jew. War, VI. 5. 4), and pagans entertained a presentiment of an approaching salvation, which assumed the distinct form of a hope that a great and mighty monarch, proceeding from Judea, would bring back the golden age (Suet. Vesp. 4.; Tac. hist. 5: 13). These expectations were derived in part from the ancient hopes of the human race, but were also, pre-eminently, the result of Jewish doctrines and hopes, for many pagans were inclined to |