"He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying,-Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.”*

Such, brethren, are the instances in which the alleged fulfilment comes short of the promises. Do not think, however, from what I have advanced, on this head, that I lay any undue emphasis upon the mere land of Palestine, or attach undue importance to its possession. I consider the land nothing in itself: any other spot in the universe might equally serve as a platform for the purpose of exhibiting God's glory, whether in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath. The land of Palestine becomes important only because it is the land of promise: this it is which invests it with its peculiar interest. God is by his covenant and oath as much pledged to restore and regenerate that land, as he is to restore and regenerate his people. If these articles be disannulled, we have no assurance of the accomplishment of any article not yet fulfilled: our own final redemption, to be consummated in a glorious resurrection, depends on no surer promise: and

*Ps. cv. 8-11.

may

if those for which I contend are not to be fulfilled, then have we nothing certain in God's word. Oh ! it is derogatory to God to conclude that what he covenants with an oath, and ratifies with the blood of his Son, is to be taken at less than his word; it is to mistake the shadow for the substance-a meagre, inadequate, defective, temporary fulfilment, which was but an earnest and token, for the plentitude of the everlasting covenant!

No, brethren, we shall see greater things than these we shall see Israel brought back and glorified in the manner I have stated. Then also will another article of the covenant be fulfilled with a largeness and a glory never yet witnessed; I mean, Israel's becoming a blessing unto all nations. They have already done something as witnesses for God against idolatry and infidelity, and as conservators of the Scriptures, yea, even in their unbelief; but when they shall be restored, they shall exhibit a picture, never yet beheld, of an entire nation, every individual of which will be personally holy. And this their conversion and their unity, and their subordination, together with the striking manifestation of the glory of God in fulfilling these things unto them, is declared both by prophets and apostles to be the great appointed means of

bringing in the entire of the Gentiles; so that they shall prove as life from the dead to a lost and perishing world. Then they among the heathen will say, "The Lord hath done great things for them."* God will "make them a name and a praise among all people of the earth;" "the nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might, they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and fear because of thee." Yea, Israel shall then also become a great missionary nation: "God will speak the word, and great shall be the company of them that publish it;"_" they shall declare his glory among the Gentiles; and all the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him."§

I ventured to say, brethren, that we shall see these great things; which certainly all shall, in their consummation, who have in them the great evidence of their being effectually made partakers of the new covenant, viz. the law of God so written in their hearts, that they inwardly love and delight in it. If only you have this, and are aiming to walk in the steps of the faith of your father Abraham, you shall be accounted the

*Ps. cxxvi. 2. † Zeph. iii. 20. + Micah vii. 17. § Ps. lxviii. 11; Is. lxvi. 19; Ps. xxii. 27.

children of Abraham, and stand in your lot, whatever it may be, in the end of the days.* You shall "see the good of the Lord's chosen, and rejoice in the gladness of his nation, and glory with his inheritance."+ The Church shall then, like the queen of Sheba, witness a greater than Solomon's wisdom; and when she hath seen the glorious house that he hath "built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel," then, like Sheba's queen again, there shall be no more spirit in her; and she shall say, "Howbeit, I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the HALF was not told me!"+

*Rom. iv. 12; vii. 25; viii. 1.

+ Ps. cvi.

1 Kings x. 7; and compare Heb. iii. 6, Rev. ii. 17, Heb. i. 6, Matt. xix. 28, Rev. xx. 4, Is. lii. 1, and Phil. iii. 21.

LECTURE IV.

THE COVENANT WITH DAVID.

BY THE REV. C. J. GOODHART, A.M.,

MINISTER OF ST. MARY'S EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, READING.

2 SAMUEL VII. 17.

"According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David."

"THE Word of God," my dear brethren, "is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This is a powerful description of the way in which the Word of God deals with the individual sinner when it has reached him by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. It places him apart, it singles him out from the whole world, and he stands conscious that God is saying unto him, "Thou art the man." And he feels under the