sible to treat of the one without likewise treating of the other " ("Restoration of Israel," p. 3); and accordingly his dissertation upon the first of these subjects is made but a supplement to his treatise on the other. This seems hard; for surely the interest which Christians may feel in the future history of Israel is in danger of depression if, before we can intelligently receive the prophecies relating to it, we must needs digest a certain number of octavos about "the 1260 years."

The mode of investigation to be adopted may well be determined by Holy Scripture itself; and, if so, since prophecies can be found asserting the coming restoration and conversion of Israel, but not of necessity involving an investigation of the events which lead to it, we are justified in treating the subject irrespectively of such events; although it may be perfectly true that, were certain other prophecies selected, we could not with propriety do so. We may select one class of prophecies, and leave alone the other. This plan it is proposed to pursue on the present occasion; for belief in a coming revival of the Jewish nation is yet in its infancy; that is eagerly anticipated for Greece which Christian hearts deny to Palestine! The great body of the Christian Church, not excepting some who are very eminent in piety, either denies or disregards it. Able commentators, by reason of a false and pernicious scheme of exposition, have overlooked it, and have also overlooked the damage they have done thereby, in some minds, to the Word of God. We have yet to convince; and it seems an unlikely and unreasonable way of attempting this, when we embarrass the inquiry with speculations about mysterious dates, and contradictory disquisitions upon the Book of Revelation.

In our first efforts to produce conviction, the subject should be placed before the mind in the simplest manner possible; stripped to the utmost of its adjuncts, however seductive they may be. Is, or is not, a future national restoration and conversion of Israel foretold? Is, or is not, such conversion (if foretold) to take place after the restoration? Is, or is not, the direct occasion of such conversion

predicted? These are three questions which suggest themselves at once to an inquiring mind, and the affirmative of each is advocated in these pages, in which they are examined with reference to the Hebrew Scriptures.

No one, it is believed, will object to the position that, upon a question concerning the Hebrew people in the first degree, we properly look for arguments and information to the Hebrew Scriptures; and, in point of fact, it is found that the great mass of predictions which foretel the redemption of the sons of Jacob, and the reconstitution of their nation, is contained in the writings of their own prophets. Accordingly, our argument is confined to certain selections from those prophets, and the New Testament of Christians is alluded to but occasionally, as being, to the hearts of Christians, an inspired expositor of various passages in the Old. But, in a concluding chapter, care has been taken to exhibit two facts, so often forgotten, viz., 1. That the New Testament does contain several passages not uncertainly predictive of the national restoration and conversion of all Israel; and, 2. That the spiritual interpretation, which the New Testament so frequently puts upon the Old, does by no means invalidate, or justify our disputing, that literal interpretation which is claimed by, and undoubtedly belongs to, the Jew.

Professor Lee, in a work to be more particularly alluded to, suggests certain elements, or principles, of criticism, by which he had himself been guided in his inquiry, which seem of a character to command immediate compliance: they are-1. A strict regard to the character of the Sacred Volume, and to the modes of thinking and acting, under which those who committed it to writing lived and died. 2. The grammar and rhetoric of the Hebrew language, for which he used respectively his own Grammar and the "Philologia Sacra" of Glassius. 3. A careful observance of the usages of Scripture. 4. To make Holy Scripture its own interpreter, as to which he thought he perceived that the parallel places were applicable to a much greater extent than usually supposed. 5. The

citations made in the New from the Old Testament. (Lee's "Inquiry into Prophecy," Introd., pp. 88-92; and p. 1.) All of which appear to be good and just conditions, with which, in this volume, a very humble attempt has been made to comply. But, such conditions accepted, especially as regards the language, there are, probably, many learned Hebrews who will be astonished to hear that he who propounded them has maintained that all prophecy, extending to Israel as a nation, has already been fulfilled.

Of the above principles of criticism I know not which is the most important, but all of them bear a close relation to the assumption upon which the present investigation is founded, viz., that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God; and that, therefore, so far as He intended man to understand it, whatever is necessary for its doctrinal elucidation may be found within itself; or, as it has been well expressed, "When the Maker of the world becomes an author, his word must be as perfect as his work." (Jones' "Fig. Language," p. 1.) Thus, just as we search into material creation alone for explanations of the phenomena of nature, so we dig deep into the Word of God alone for discoveries in the wonders of revelation.

In pursuing this inquiry, great respect has been cherished for the opinions of others, and if in any particular it is presumed to differ, an effort has been made to assign sound reasons for doing so. Of those writers who advocate the cause of Israel, I have consulted only the works of Mr. G. S. Faber, and of Mr. Bickersteth, but not until my own opinions had been formed. The manner in which Mr. Bickersteth has touched upon the leading features of the question is at times exceedingly happy; but his work was not intended to be of a demonstrative character: on the contrary, it consists of pulpit discourses delivered in different places at various intervals; and sometimes, therefore, assumes with all its excellence those positions which had yet to be established. They contain, of course, his own views of various Scriptures, delivered in an admirable spirit, with the object of present practical good before him,

but afford him scarcely opportunity of developing the arguments by which those views, however sound, were supported. His work, too, enters frequently upon the subject of millennian glory.

A similar observation applies in some degree to Mr. Faber's. For whoever looks into his "View of the Prophecies relative to the Conversion, Restoration, &c., of Judah and Israel," will perceive that to follow him satisfactorily it is necessary first to have read his "Dissertations upon the 1,260 Years," subsequently replaced by his "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy." The book consists of citation at length of several prophecies, with very concise comments upon them, which comments are referred to opinions he had already advanced in that distinct work upon the duration, history, and fall of Antichrist. It is, perhaps, owing to this fact, in accordance with the distinction between the prophecies foretelling Israel's restoration already noticed, that certain prophecies upon which Mr. Faber has advanced the least are those of which the fullest use has been made in the present investigation, e.g., Isaiah xxix.-xxxiii.; Ezek. xvi. and xx.; Zech. ix. and x., &c., but with what advantage to the cause the reader alone can judge. There are also two particulars, in which, if I have ventured to offer conclusions different from those of Mr. Faber, it has not been altogether without reason nor unsupported by authority. They are, First. The opinion he has advanced upon Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix., that they predict events which may be expected after the millennium, and are, in fact, predictive of the same events as Rev. xx. 8. I have been at some pains, not only by investigating the terms of the prophecy itself, but also by analyzing Mr. Faber's argument, and by harmonising this prophecy with Isaiah xxix.— xxxiii., Zech. ix. and x., and xii.-xiv., and with the Book of Joel, to show that Ezekiel in such chapters most accurately describes the very events which are to terminate in the conversion of the restored people, and that, therefore, such events are to be anticipated before the millennium, and are not the same as those foretold at Rev. xx., which succeed it. Second. Mr. Faber,

following Bishop Horsley, maintains that part of Judah, or the two tribes, and all of Israel, or the ten tribes, will be restored in a converted state; the rest of Judah unconverted. This is partly true in a sense, but in such a sense only as to confuse the subject. Inasmuch as the national conversion of Israel will be signalized within the Holy Land by the overthrow of his confederated enemies, through a personal epiphany of Messiah; and inasmuch as the report of this wonderful occurrence heralded throughout the world, will be the signal, the accredited signal, for the flocking of sons of Jacob, both of Judah and Israel, to their proper land, they will clearly in one sense reach that land believing that is, believing the report that Messiah is come, and that the kingdom is restored to Israel. But whether that is a belief with the import of the word "conversion" may, I submit, be questioned.

I have endeavoured to exhibit the inconclusiveness of the argument advanced by Bishop Horsley, and adopted by Mr. Faber, to show that any part of that conversion which is the peculiar subject of prophecy will take place before the restoration, as also to point out the particular oversight which led the way to this misapprehension. And throughout this volume it will be seen that the predicted conversion is essentially a national conversion, that is, a conversion nationally signalized of a partial but competent and national restoration of all Israel, united as a people within the Holy Land. This national representation of the people assailed by a multitudinous and confederated foe is delivered by Messiah at Jerusalem; and receiving then the outpoured Spirit of grace and supplications, becomes thus, in the truest sense of the word, converted unto Christ. This is the occurrence of that conversion which is the peculiar subject of the Divine predictions; this is that national conversion, commanding the assent of all the world, which the Word of God invites us everywhere to believe in; this is the event from which dates the fuller and complete ingathering of Israel, which the prophets are unanimous in foretelling; but this ingathering of scattered members of all the tribes towards the