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"THE HOPE OF ISRAEL;"

OR,

THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL IDENTIFIED WITH THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

THE restoration of the Jews, so abundantly foretold by the prophets, is the doctrine also of the apostles. The New Testament harmonizes with the Old Testament. Israel, the seed of the house of Jacob, are themselves in the Bible but a shadow of the heavenly family in Christ, as their tabernacle, their temple, their ritual, their Jerusalem, their Canaan, their Joshua and David, were shadows of the heavenly patterns. And as the shadow is lost in the manifestation of the substance, so does the Jew vanish in the manifestation of the sons of God, and the Jew's Zion vanishes in the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, and his Canaan in the world to come, and his restoration vanishes in the resurrection from the dead. For all the sons of God will be restored in the likeness of their elder brother, Christ, the first fruits of the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom.

This is the true "hope of Israel:" a hope not seen in this world, a hope anchored within the veil, and to be realized when death is swallowed up in victory: at the same time we admit the inheritance of two and a half tribes on this side of Jordan. The word allows it: although we cannot explain how this part of the shadow corresponds with the substance.

The concord of the two Testaments is seen in that the promise of the land, (which is the promise of the LAW,) and the restoration

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193 to the land, (which is the burden of PROPHECY,) and the glad tidings of the kingdom, (which is the GOSPEL of Messiah,) all meet and are fulfilled in "JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION." Their concord is further seen by observing how the most devout and learned rabbis hold by the law on the subject of the resurrection and restoration at Messiah's coming, and by observing the identity of the commonwealth of Christians and Jews in Israel, the oneness of their hopes, of their Deliverer, and of their promised land. Such are the views which we shall attempt to unfold in this brief article.

Both Moses and the prophets speak eloquently of Israel's return to their own land, to be cast out no more for ever; but Moses never, and the prophets rarely speak in plain terms of the resurrection of the dead. The New Testament discourses of the resurrection, and of the kingdom of God; but never says a word about the return of the Jews to Palestine. Moses and the prophets delight to speak of the land of promise, and of the glory of the son of David, and of the empire of the Jews; but of the world to. come, and of the kingdom of heaven, they only stammer and faintly speak while the gospel takes not the least notice of the Jewish empire in this world, but of the world to come it is full from beginning to end. Moses and the prophets did not teach one thing, and the gospel another. The law and the prophets veil the doctrine of the New Testament under the garb of Judaism. What the gospel declares, they only insinuate darkly. The Mosaic dispensation was a dispensation of types; the patterns were shown to Moses in the mount. The law was a shadow of good things to come; but the body is of Christ: the substance of the shadow is in the kingdom of heaven. The seed of the house of Jacob, the holy people, will return and come into possession of the substance in the resurrection of the dead, and in the kingdom of God.

Israel and his family names are the types of the chosen people of God in Christ, circumcised or uncircumcised, out of every age and nation; and Jesus is their exalted Prince and Saviour. Wherever this Prince and his people are spoken of, we may know them, although they are called in the Old Testament by the names of David, Israel, Judah, &c. We make no difficulty of understanding Christ in the prophets by the name of Joshua, or David, Zerubbabel, or the Branch; and we should also understand all his people by the name of Israel, Jacob, Ephraim, or Judah; else we mar the figure, and defeat the instruction given by the prophets. His peculiar people are neither called by their Christian name in the prophets, nor should they be mistaken by their appropriate family name, Israel: and when David is said to gather and to rule

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over them in their own land for ever, we should consider not only that CHRIST is the David of prophecy, but that the celestial country is the seat of his throne, and the risen saints are his people gathered out of all nations, by the voice of the archangel and by the trump of God. This is the holy people whom our Joshua will lead into the heavenly Canaan, and over whom our David will reign for ever and ever.

The New Testament teaches of the coming and kingdom of Christ, in "the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began:" which is in remarkable coincidence with the doctrine of the learned and devout rabbis drawn out of the Old Testament. For the prophets with rapture, from the king on the throne to the shepherd in the fields, describe the land, and people, and Prince of the world to come, in names of this world; and to Christians it is plain that the Prince has burst the gates of death, and that his people follow him into the promised land by the way he went, through the grave; and to the Jewish rabbis it is plain that the country the holy people inherit is delivered from the curse of sin, and the plague of death, and is situated in the new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL, in a treatise on the resurrection of the dead, teaches that it will occur in the days of Messiah, conjoined with Israel's deliverance and restoration to their own land in the world to come. He closes the fifth chapter of his third book in this sort: "What we have said here of the world to come, is not our invention, but is the ancient and faithful tradition. For, as I have before said, the rabbi Moses Gerundensis, and all other men of learning, by 'the last days,' (Isa. ii, 2,) understand the days of Messiah and that the resurrection of the dead will be joined with the gathering of the captives of Israel." This testimony to "the ancient and faithful tradition," maintained by all Jews "of learning," that the resurrection of the dead will be joined with Israel's deliverance in the days of Messiah, may be confirmed by quotations from the most renowned rabbis, to be found in the writings of the learned Mede, Dr. Gill, and others.

The rabbi Eleazer lived in the early days of the second temple, and taught with Jonathan, the Paraphrast, who lived also before the Christian era, that Israel's return in the days of Messiah will be accompanied with the resurrection of the dead. Also the Sadducees asked Gamaliel, Paul's teacher, whence he could prove by the law, that God would raise the dead. This demand would probably puzzle the learned of a more enlightened age, who would

be forced to give it up, we fear, and to yield to the creed of the unbelieving Sadducees; for the Sadducees allowed Gamaliel no rest until he quoted Deut. xi, 21, "Which land the Lord sware unto your fathers, to give THEM :" and, from their not having received the land, Gamaliel argued that they must be raised from the dead, or in respect to them the promise would fail, which is impossible. Many are the proofs of the sort quoted by Gamaliel, and besides these we know not any stronger in the five books of Moses, to convince us of the resurrection of the dead. And so far as these texts go to prove that doctrine, they identify it with "the hope of Israel," even their restoration to the promised land. Rabbi Kimchi on Isa. xxvi, 19, "Thy dead men shall live," says, "The holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of Israel's deliverance." Another says, When the King Messiah comes, the holy blessed God will raise up them that sleep, as it is written: He will swallow up death in victory."

The promises and threatenings of the Old Testament are usually addressed in the second person, to you, and not in the third person, to them, who may come after: and to be literally fulfilled, as all promises should be, those to whom they were personally spoken, you, of all generations, must live again. Of these promises, the restoration of Israel to their own land is among the most frequent and important, and if Gamaliel's and Ben Israel's interpretation be correct, it settles the question of their return, as an event of the world to come. This interpretation is spiritual, is personal, and it is of universal application, and of eternal moment to the faithful, whether Jews, Medes, Parthians, Greeks, Romans, or Americans; it conforms exactly to the doctrine of the New Testament; it repels the error of the Sadducees; and it preserves, in the highest degree, the testimony of Jesus in the spirit of the ancient prophecies. We cannot see any reasonable objection to it in the mind of a Gentile; a Jew born may object, that it allows him no preeminence; though if his faith and truth do not obtain him preeminence, it may be doubted whether his being a son of Abraham will.

A learned rabbi quoted by Gill on Matt. xxii, 31, says, "The holy blessed God promised to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give them the land of Israel. Hence we learn that they will be raised, and that hereafter God will give them the land of Israel." But Paul is most explicit when he identifies "the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers” with the hope of the resurrection from the dead, of which he was called in question by the Jews; and again with "the hope of

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[April, Israel," for which he was bound with a chain. Paul's interpretation did not satisfy his enemies, who pursued him as a ringleader of the Nazarenes; but it accords with Gamaliel's; it satisfied the Pharisees, who rose up in the council, and strove for him; and it should satisfy Christians.*

The promise of the land is the promise of the law: the restoration to the land is the burden of the prophets and the glad tidings of the kingdom at hand is the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. In him all the promises, the prophecies, and glad tidings meet; in him they unite; in him they will be fulfilled together. He is the King of glory, who will recover his people from the land of their enemies, sin and death, and will lead them into the promised land of eternal life, and will give them rest; and he will rule over them with equity for ever. This is the law and the prophets; this is the gospel of Christ and of the kingdom of heaven; this is "the hope of Israel," a people to be manifested in the resurrection of the dead.

"All are not Israel who are of Israel ;" and many are Israel who have not the blood of Jacob in their veins. We call on Israel's God as our God; we invoke his blessing, and expect the answer for the Christian church, the modern Israel, and heirs of the promises, as well as the name, of Israel. God is not the God of the Jews only; Christ is not the King of the Jews only; but of all the faithful: and what is a restoration to Palestine in the flesh to the faithful among the Gentiles? Let the natural seed have this Jerusalem to the spiritual seed belongs the inheritance of the New Jerusalem, which has foundations, and Jesus her Lord. This is the spirit of prophecy. Let the natural seed take their

*"It was the opinion of the Jews that there should be a resurrection in the days of Messiah. The Chaldee paraphrast on Isa. xlix, 8, reads, ‘I give thee for a covenant to the people, to raise the righteous that lie in the dust.' Kimchi on Isa. xxvi, 19, says, 'The holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of deliverance.' And on Jer. xxiii, 20, 'In that he saith YE shall consider it and not they shall consider it, it intimateth the resurrection of the dead.' Aben Ezra on Dan. xii, 2, says, 'The righteous that died in the captivity shall revive when the Redeemer cometh'-and this was so far the opinion of the nation that they understood the term 'the world to come,' of the days of Messiah.”– Lightfoot, vol. v, p. 255: quoted by Vint, p. 298.

Vint also quotes as follows:- "They shall be gathered from their captivity; they shall sit under the shadow of their Messiah; and the dead shall live."Targum on Hos. xiv, Ɛ.

"The Jews call the world to come, the times of Messiah."-Gill, Heb. iv, 9. From such testimony to the prevalent opinions of the Jews as is borne by Ménasseh Ben Israel, Lightfoot, Mede, and Gill, the learned reader can make no appeal; for higher authorities cannot easily be found.

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