was engaged in wars with the Philistines, and other surrounding nations, through his whole reign, insomuch that he was called a man of blood;' and for that reason the privilege of building the temple was reserved for Solomon. So Christ, though he became king of men at the end of the Jewish dispensation, has been employed in the necessary work of subverting the hostile principalities and powers of this world, till the present time. And it is manifest that he will reign with a rod of iron, and as a man of blood, till all enemies are put under his feet. Then he will pass from the warlike majesty of David," into the peaceful glory of Solomon. This is the transition that remains to be accomplished. The chosen King of Israel has been anointed, has been hunted in the wilderness by Saul, has won his promised throne, has established his everlasting kingdom, and for nearly eighteen hundred years has waged war with the heathen nations around his empire. We look now for the advent of everlasting victory and peace-for the building of the gorgeous temple of the universal church-for the development in heaven and on earth, of all the magnificence of God's wisdom and love.

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§ 58. THE BIRTHRIGHT OF ISRAEL.

WE find among the prominent dogmas of popular Christianity, many notions which certainly did not originate in the sacred writings. For example, the New Testament, instead of enjoining, positively condemns the observance of sabbaths; and yet the idea has come in, and seated itself on the very throne of the conscience of Christendom, that God has commanded men to observe the first day of the week as especially sacred. Again, among all the current assertions of those who are called Christians, there is perhaps not one more frequently repeated and more surely believed, than that the age of miracles is past.' Yet we find not an intimation in the Bible that the original principles of God's administration in respect to miracles, were ever to be changed. The common belief concerning the second coming of Christ-the assumption that the first generation of the Fathers' were the appointed successors of the apostles, that the church of the first ages after the destruction of Jerusalem was nearly as pure as the primitive church, are other instances of popular imaginations, which, though they hold places of essential importance in the common faith, are not even countenanced by scripture. To the same class of fatherless (or perhaps we should say patristic) dogmas, we must assign the prevailing notion that God has abrogated the special relation which formerly existed between himself and the Jewish nation.

We propose in this article to consider the relations of the Jews to God, and to the world. Our object will be to present to our readers a distinct view of the nature of the covenant which God made with Abraham; to show the original distinction which was thereby made between Jews and Gentiles;

to give the evidence that this distinction still exists; to consider the probalk and predicted consequences of the restoration of the chosen people to the favor of God; and lastly, the duties and obligations of the Gentiles towari them.

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Whatever we may now think, or hereafter conclude, concerning the true design of God's covenant with Abraham, and its legitimate consequences, it is obvious without discussion or proof, that its actual consequence has been, to divide the human race into two great parties, called Jews and Gentiles. The distinction between these parties is such as has naturally made occasion for the operation of selfishness and misconception. Arrogance and bigotry have displayed themselves on the one side, jealousy and envy on the other. So that the covenant which made the division, is like a disputed will. Jew, as elder brother and principal heir, has insisted upon that interpretation of the will, which gives him an exclusive inheritance; and the Gentile, as the younger and less favored claimant, has endeavored to set aside the will altogether, or to nullify its invidious provisions by liberal interpretation. In attempting to present a subject thus circumstanced, and to decide the ques tions growing out of it, the difficulty to be encountered lies not so much in the intricacy of the case to be tried, as in the questionable character of the court that is to try it. All men belong to one or the other of the interested parties; so that either we must needs go out of the world, or bring the matter before a court in which lawyers, witnesses, judge and jury, are by their position exposed to prejudice. Yet this difficulty is not insuperable. There is, in law and equity, one case, and only one, in which a witness may testify in his own cause, and a party may be judge and jury of his own case. And that is, when the testimony of the witness, and the judgment of the interested party are against himself. A criminal may, as witness, judge and jury, decide his own case, by pleading guilty. And indeed testimony and judgment which, as in such a case, runs counter to selfishness, is properly regarded as even stronger evidence of honesty, than the testimony and judgment of a merely disinterested party. On this principle, Paul, being a Jew, could freely plead the cause of the Gentiles, with all assurance, for himself, that his testimony was not corrupted by the prejudice of selfishness, and for others, that it would be received as honest and true. On the same principle we, being Gentiles, may take the liberty to become witnesses and advocates for the Jews, without fearing the charge of partiality or dishonesty.

GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM.

The following passages contain the several promises made to Abraham at different times, which, taken together, constitute the covenant whose nature and consequences we propose to examine.

The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' Gen. 12: 1-3. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, [when

he had come into the land of Canaan,] and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.' Ver. 7. The Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it: for I will give it unto thee.' Chap. 13: 14-17. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.-Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years: and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance.-In the fourth generation they shall come hither again. In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.' Chap. 15: 1, 5, 13-18. When Abram was ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God: walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram: but thy name shall be called Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.' Chap. 17: 1-8. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven, [after Abraham had offered Isaac,] and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' Chap. 22: 15-18.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COVENANT.

I. The Nature of the Covenant. These promises are of two kinds, general and specific.

1. 'I will bless thee and thy seed after thee, I will be a God to thee and to thy seed,' &c., are general promises, demanding the largest interpretation which the known power of the promiser admits. If a man should say to a

child-'I will be a father to you,' he would be understood as engaging to do all in his power for the welfare of the child. His meaning might be limited in the mind of the child, and in the minds of other ignorant persons, by other measures of good. For instance, if the child knows no other good than that of eating and drinking, to him the promise only means I will supply you with food.' "If afterwards his knowledge and desire of good, become enlarged, the meaning of the promise is also enlarged. He discovers that clothing, money, education &c., are included in the promise: and finally he learns that his own conceptions are not the measure of his benefactor's meaning; that the promise includes any thing and every thing that a father can bestow upon a son. Thus the general promises which God made to Abraham, however they may have been understood by Abraham then, actually included all the blessings which have been bestowed upon him since, even salvation and eternal life. And the promise concerning his seed- I will be their God' -however it may have been limited in the imagination of the Jews, is actually an engagement to bless them not merely physically, but morally, intellectually, and spiritually-to train them for immortality. Of course it is a promise of all the necessary means of education and salvation. In short, this comprehensive spiritual promise, to be a God to Abraham and to his seed after him,' is one which in its full, natural sense, secured to Abraham and his seed all possible good. All the promises of temporal blessings cluster around this, and are subordinate to it; as appears by the fact that the temporal blessings were all prospective, while this spiritual blessing was then present. God gave not the promised land to Abraham, nor to his descendants, till the fourth generation. The fathers were pilgrims in it, and the children were captives in another land; whereas he said to Abraham, 'I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' And in like manner he manifested himself to Isaac and Jacob, and their children, as their present God. The largest and almost the last promise in the New Testament-the revelation of Jesus Christ is only a repetition of this covenant with Abraham: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.' Rev. 21: 7.

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2. The specific promises of the covenant are, (1,) to give Abraham an innumerable seed; (2,) to give them the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. These promises are physical; and we have reason to believe that at the time the covenant was made, mankind had made so little progress in moral, intellectual, and spiritual knowledge, that any specific promises other than physical, either could not have been expressed for want of language, or would not have been understood, by reason of ignorance.

As we must not suffer the specific promises to eclipse the general, and so imagine that the covenant promised only, or chiefly, physical blessings; neither on the other hand must we suffer the general to swallow up the specific, and so imagine that the covenant promised merely spiritual blessings. If a man should say to a child, 'I will be a father to you-I will do all I can for you-and when you become a man, I will give you a hundred acres of land,' it would be wrong on the one hand to refer the covenant exclusively or chiefly to the hundred acres of land; for education, moral discipline, &c., are far

greater blessings which it is a father's business to dispense, and which are therefore included in the general promise, which general promise is therefore the main part of the covenant. And it would be wrong on the other hand, to regard the specific promise of the hundred acres, as satisfied by the fulfilment of the general promise.

THE DISTINCTION MADE BY THE COVENANT.

To whom were the promises made? The several promises of the covenant may be distinguished with reference to the persons concerning whom they were made. Though all the promises were made to Abraham, they were made for, (1) himself and his descendants, (2) for all nations. The promises for himself and his descendants, were direct, constituting a marriage relation between them and God. The promises for other nations were indirect, making the Jews mediators. I will be a God to thee and to thy seed,' is direct; and in thee shall all nations be blessed,' is indirect. It is as if he had said, 'I will be a husband to Israel, and Israel shall be the husband of all other nations.'

The covenant made with Abraham did not, as the Jews afterwards came to believe, promise blessings to his literal seed, irrespective of their moral and spiritual character; neither did it promise blessings to his spiritual seed, that is, to the followers of his faith, merely, as the Gentiles are disposed to believe. In the first case, God would have been a respecter of persons, without reference to their character, which is unworthy of him; and in the second case, the question might well be asked, and could never be answered as Paul answered it- What advantage then hath the Jew?'-or which is the same thing, What special promise was given to Abraham? A covenant of the kind first supposed, looking merely at the physical posterity of Abraham, would have been a contempt of his spiritual character, and could have been by no means desirable, even to himself. And a covenant of the kind last supposed, looking merely at his spiritual descendants, or followers, would have been, in fact, simply a general promise of blessing to those who fear and serve God, which from the foundation of the world has been given to all, and not specially to Abraham. The real covenant which God made with Abraham, looks both at his physical and spiritual posterity; and the peculiarity of its promise is, that the literal descendants of Abraham shall be the subjects of the special discipline and instruction of God, and of course as a nation shall be the spiritual descendants of Abraham. As all righteousness originates, not with man, but with God, and as he dispenses the gifts of his grace to every man, and, by equal reason, to every nation and family, as he pleases, it was for him to choose the subjects of that instruction and discipline which should make men partakers of his righteousness. And he chose the seed of Abraham, and covenanted with Abraham to give him a spiritual seed out of his literal seed. So that while it is true that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly,' and that God hates sin as truly in a Jew as in a Gentile, and even more in proportion to their greater privileges;-while it is true that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him ;' while it is true that he will destroy the Jew that believes not, and will save