worthy," and says "these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us;" i. e. some better thing for us all, as such enduring saints, than a mere worldly inheritance before death. If a temporal Canaan were the true promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that vast multitude of the true Israel by faith, where most of them lived and died, then certainly they received that promise before their death; and the apostle would be wrong to say that they did not, and that they rather confessed themselves pilgrims and strangers on the earth. This apostle also further explains this "better thing" of the promise, and says it is "a better country, i. e. an heavenly;" and proceeds to call it also "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." According to this scripture principle of the promise, and according to these clear explanations by the apostle, the divine promise to Abraham and all his true seed by faith, to the last, must be fulfilled to them in a "heavenly Jerusalem," and never in the return of unbelieving Jews to Palestine.

3. The scripture principle that God's word, containing Israel's promises, "is spiritual," is understood to show, that such promises cannot, of course, be so secular, or carnal, as the return of the natural Jews to Palestine. The apostle in his commentary upon "the law," and "the testimony," of "Moses," and "the prophets," says: "We know that the law is spiritual;" as though we all ought to know, that the promises of this spiritual word of the Lord, are not so carnal as to gratify the carnal mind of unbelieving Jews, in a temporal land. And this same apostle, in all his instructions, dwelt on spiritual things, while reasoning "out of the Scriptures" of the Old-Testament promises, and says, that he only compared "spiritual things with spiritual," as an "able minister of the" divine word, "not of the letter, but of the spirit," for, as he said, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Christ also affirms the same; being by his spirit in the prophets when they wrote, to inspire their writings and make them his own, he says of his own words, (surely including those of the promise in the Old Testament) "My words are spirit and they are life." These inspired commentaries on the spiritual and life-giving promises of the Old Testament, certainly forbid our supposing them to be so carnal and lifedestroying, as a temporal land, for unbelieving Jews, even should they afterwards come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved.

4. The scripture principle that all interpretations of the promise, which flatter the wicked, are false interpretations, shows that the saints are to enjoy these returning promises

in heaven, rather than the natural Jews in Palestine. For certainly, there is nothing but "wo! wo! wo!" to be said to the wicked Jews except they repent, while the prophets are condemned by the Lord who shall prophesy smooth things unto them, or daub with untempered mortar, saying "peace, peace, where there is no peace." And what could be more directly prophesying smooth things, and saying peace, peace to the unbelieving Jews, than telling them, that the Abrahamic promises for a land, are all theirs, and for a worldly possession? And what flattering song of seducing spirits could have more effectually flattered them to remain so long as they have still unbelieving Jews?

5. The scripture principle that all interpretations of the divine promises are false which naturally diminish the "comfort" of the spiritual mind, or "make the heart of the righteous sad," shows that these returning promises are for the saints, and not for the Jews, a worldly land.

The Lord everywhere aims to comfort the faithful saints with exceeding great and precious promises; and requires all his prophets or teachers of his word to do the same. And they did it anciently, in such words as, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people;" "Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees;" "Let not your heart be troubled;" "Wherefore comfort one another," &c. And further, the Lord severely reprobates those who "with lies make the heart of the righteous sad." But certainly, to take these precious returning promises away from spiritually-minded saints, who, like Abraham and other pilgrims, have their hearts set on them, in pursuit of a heavenly and promised country, could only make them sad, so far as made to believe that they were intended rather for the ungodly Jews in the present world.

6. The principle that the infinite and everlasting things of God's word are always to be taken literally, and never figuratively, shows these gathering or returning promises for a land to be for the saints a "heavenly country," rather than for the Jews' return to Palestine. It will be remembered that this promise of a land, to Abraham and his seed, was originally for an "everlasting possession," and for an "inheritance forever," and that the predictions of its fulfilment frequently connect it with the things of the "judgment" -"day of the Lord"-coming of "God"-"new heavens and new earth," and with eternity itself. Now, unless we admit the opposite apparent monstrous principle, that the Lord himself borrows infinite and everlasting things, and even eternity itself, as mere figures of finite and momentary things; certainly, all these infinite and everlasting things

are literal, and will be fulfilled at the literal "judgment"-literal"day of the Lord"-literal "coming of the Lord," with a land or city for the saints which will be literally "everlasting," and literally and "forever" "their own land," or "heavenly country."

II. As proposed, I proceed to prove the position before us, by the presentation of a few scripture facts on the subject.

1. It appears to be a scripture fact, that ten of the twelve Jewish tribes are not as a distinct people now on the earth; and never have been, since their bodies were entombed, soon after their utter revolt and being cast off by the Lord. And if not, they can never literally go back. And though some may suppose they yet remain, as the aborigines of America, or elsewhere, as a distinct people, it is certain that no such thing is anywhere foretold of those ten tribes by the prophets. either of the Old or New Testaments. More than this, it does rather plainly appear from 2 Kings, chapter xvii., that on being conquered by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, they immediately became amalgamated with the Assyrians, all the common enemies of the Lord. And sure, it is plain enough, from the whole connexion, that they had no desire to keep themselves distinct as a peculiar people of God, for they utterly renounced him, and all their former privileges as his people, and wilfully mingled themselves with his enemies, and became his enemies before being cast off. And as further proof that they did so amalgamate themselves with God's common enemies, it will be recollected how Christ, some hundreds of years after, went through Samaria, where they had formerly dwelt as a distinct nation; and how ready he found the woman at the well, and many others of the Samaritans, to believe on him, as their expected Messiah; though the more self-righteous Jews disowned them as Jews altogether, and would have no dealings with them. And who were those Samaritans where the ten tribes dwelt, and were looking for the same Messiah as the other Jews, if they were not the mingled descendants of those ten tribes? Then where else on earth shall we now look for those tribes, but in the dust of Samaria and Assyria, or in the mingled blood of the Gentiles in all the world, and in ourselves, for aught we know?

2. It is a fact, that in all the New-Testament sayings about Israel, and Israel's promise of being "grafted in,"of becoming "life from the dead," &c., there is not a word said which can be construed as expounding any of the OldTestament return-promises to Israel, as foretelling the natural Jews' return to Canaan. But surely, had Paul and the other inspired expounders of the Old-Testament promises

so understood them, they would naturally, repeatedly, and clearly have so explained them, instead of speaking of them so exclusively and uniformly as given rather for "a better country, that is an heavenly."

3. It is also a fact, that Christ, in his three years' preaching to the Jews personally, never explained any of the divine promises as for the natural Jews' return; neither did he ever give them the least kind of a promise of anything good on their remaining Jews. And yet, he personally, distinctly, repeatedly, and even roughly too, denounced them all as Jews; calling them "Pharisees," "hypocrites," "fools," "serpents," and a "generation of vipers;" and as guilty of the blood of all the prophets from first to last. And as such, he threatened them with the sure "damnation of hell," and with their utter desolation as a "house," people, or 66 generation," when at his coming they must acknowledge him as the "blessed" "of the Lord." But had Christ understood Moses and the prophets as foretelling a return for the natural Jews, as many do now, why did he not sometimes say, as many have said since that time, that the Jews were God's peculiar people, his covenant people,-his chosen and elect people, and that, as natural Jews, they were entitled to the promises of Abraham's children, rather than deal with them so roughly, as even to denounce them as the children of the devil, and not to "escape the damnation of hell?"

4. It is also a fact, that Abraham, who was the first man to have inherited a temporal Canaan, if that had indeed been the "everlasting possession" promised his natural seed after him, never for a moment inherited it for himself. It is true, he dwelt on it as a stranger, during a short pilgrimage, dwelling in tents, going where he would, to sojourn; and that he, and Isaac, and millions of his posterity, lived and died there; yet inspiration tells us that God never gave, even Abraham, any "inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him."* Why shall we then say, that the natural Jews shall yet go there to inherit it as "an everlasting possession," seeing that their natural father, Abraham, lived and died there without inheriting a foot of it for himself?

5. It is further a scripture fact, that Abraham, the father of the faithful, never understood the promise to be for a worldly inheritance. He neither sought it, nor desired it. But he did rather seek "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God." And so it was with all

*Acts vii. 5.

his ancient believing posterity. They had "no continuing city" on earth, and expected none here, to fulfil their blessed promise of a city of rest; but confessed, rather, "that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," in pursuit of their promised land, "better country," and "heavenly Jerusalem." And could the present surviving natural Jews, on going to that land, any more inherit it, as the promise to Israel, than did the millions of their ancestors who lived and died there, without receiving, or looking for, their promised possession in that country?

III. Our position is to be proved, by showing its harmony with those promises of "return," as they explain themselves where recorded.

1. "For I will take you [Israel or saints] from among the heathen, [unbelievers, or enemies of God] and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”*

If there be any scripture promises for the natural Jews' return to Palestine, this, surely, is one of the most prominent of them. But in seeing that this is a promise for a heavenly land for the saints, rather than for the natural Jews' return, we need only to remember, that mortals can have no land, nor possessions of "their own," in this world, where they are all but stewards of the Lord's goods, for the moment, and then to give account for their improvement; while “the silver and the gold, and the cattle," yea, and "the world, and the fulness of it," are all the Lord's. And yet, the saints have a "land," "better country," or "heavenly Jerusalem," which is, and will be, "their own land" literally, and forever and ever; being their promised possession, and purchased for them by the blood of their adorable Redeemer.

In further seeing that such is the blessed nature of this promise, its connexion tells us that it will be fulfilled when God shall have perfectly "cleansed" this gathered and returned people; and they shall be his people, and he “will be their God; and when this promised land shall be "like the garden of Eden." And in case the natural Jews should literally return to Palestine, would that literally fulfil this heavenly promise? Could they literally inherit it "forever and ever," "like the garden of Eden?"

2. "Behold, I will gather them [Israel or saints] out of all countries, whither I have driven them, in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath, and will bring them again to this place, and cause them to dwell safely."

This, also, is one of the most conspicuous passages many times understood to foretel the natural Jews' literal return.

Ezek. xxxvi. 24. † Ib. 25-29, 35.

Jer. xxxii. 37.