from the Apostle's remark (1 Pet. i. 10, 11,) although they " inquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of time," &c., or the obscurity and appearance of concurrency might, as in other instances, have been expressly designed by the Holy Ghost. It is observable, besides, that the prophet, in predicting the Jews' return, refers to their bondage in Egypt as the last remarkable captivity, and to the deliverance he now predicts in language exactly according with the phraseology elsewhere used in allusion to the Babylonian captivity, as we have before shewn, "out of the north country and from all countries whither I had driven them."-(verse 3; Zech. vi. 8, Babylon called the north country. Neh. i. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 12, 13; also xxxvi. 24, uttered just about the period of the return from Babylon. Zech. ii. 6; also vii. 14, and viii. 7, 8.) Therefore the necessity of interpreting Jer. xxiii. 7, 8, literally, as referring to gospel-times, is superseded by the literal fulfilment which actually took place under the old economy..

Jer. xxxi.—This chapter, although it may

at first appear to contain strong evidence in favour of the restoration, must, upon examination, it is presumed, be relinquished as affording any such evidence at all. There is nothing in it but may be referred either to Israel's prosperity immediately subsequent to the Babylonian captivity, or to the period when the Church, of which the Jewish nation was only a type, should rejoice in the liberty of the "New Covenant." Verses 35, 36, and 37, may appear positively to guarantee the continued existence of the Jews as a nation, but if applied to the spiritual Israel, the phraseology is undoubtedly true, and requires no further fulfilment; and the Jews, standing now in no other relation to God than that of disobedient children, no reason is apparent, on any ordinary grounds of calculation, why, when their rebellion is removed, they should experience any special interference of divine power in their behalf more than any other nations, similarly scattered abroad, would have reason to expect. Let the Jews become Christians, and immediately they enjoy the civil and religious privileges of Christians,

Ba

and are recognized as such with equal eye by heaven and earth. Supposing their conversion to occur in the gradual manner in which it has hitherto pleased God to translate sinners into the kingdom of His dear Son, the natural conclusion would be that, in the course of time, and without some very extraordinary intervention, they must lose their distinctiveness among the nations; and past events present to retrospection many precedents that might prepare us to expect that such will be the case. Where is Assyria? and where is Chaldea? and where are others? bylon is become a place for dragons, and the satyr haunts her "pleasant palaces," the shadow and the mockery of her kings. The only reasonable ground of demur, or doubt that a similar oblivion awaits the Jews, arises from those prophecies which are now the subject of discussion; and if, notwithstanding the former remarks, the literal fulfilment of the before cited 35th, 36th and 37th verses be insisted upon, compare these verses with chap. xxxiii. 20 to 26. Here precisely the same form of adjuration is used to pledge the continuance

of a ruler over Israel, of the seed of Jacob and David, and the perpetuity of the Levitical priesthood, and yet a prophecy had long been familiar to the Jews, in which a period was explicitly announced (as the fulfilment proved, however they might understand the promise,) when the sceptre should depart from Judah. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. ""*

Understand Jeremiah as predicting the everlasting continuance of the spiritual nation, and the throne of the spiritual David, all is clear, and as clear if the primary meaning be understood, viz. the

* It will, no doubt, be observed (and I do not wish to evade the observation) that I have attributed a meaning to the word "until" in this instance, which I have refused to admit in a former one, (see Letter II. "until the times of the Gentiles.") But in the present case, the sense is fixed by the event; 66 Until Shiloh come," the tribual dignity and jurisdiction of Judah remained; Shiloh came, and the sceptre or authority departed; whereas, in the former case, the sense is not fixed by any event; and I am, therefore, perfectly consistent in assigning that interpretation to the word which appears to me most agreeable to the general tenor of Scripture, and which is shewn to be probably true, by the exts quoted in its support.

return from Babylon, and subsequent national prosperity of the Jews. (Read Nehemiah and Psalm 1xxii. 17.) What strength the prophet's language derives from the words "for ever," in the 36th verse, may be seen by recurrence to the observations before made on that and similar phrases. I conclude, then, that Jer. xxxi. furnishes no evidence in favour of the restoration.

Jer. xxxiii. I think strongly confirms the opinion, that it is not the Jewish people that chiefly occupies the spirit of prophecy, but the Church of Christ; and, indeed, this chapter affords a key to many passages incorrectly adduced, as predicting the restoration. Here, the Christian æra is spoken of in terms almost as explicit as those of the New Testament, and yet, who will interpret "The throne of the house of Israel," and "the Levites," "the burnt-offerings," and "meat-offerings," as signifying any other throne than the spiritual throne of Messiah, or any other priests and sacrifices than such as are in consonance with the "new covenant made with the house of Israel, and the house of