preserved in the records of heaven, and the name of Jacob is inscribed upon them by an Almighty hand. "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever." (Jer. xxxi. 35, 36.) The Jews resemble a mighty ruin, on which the storm has often spent its strength, and time levelled its destroying hand. battlements are fallen, and the foundations impaired; yet the edifice still bears the traces of its original grandeur, majestic in its desolation. But there is a promise which survives the wreck of time and the lapse of ages; written in imperishable characters, and conveyed in accents of paternal tenderness and love. "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not

The

comforted, behold,

I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stone. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isa. liv. 11-13.)

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LECTURE VII.

PART II.

INTRODUCTION OF "THE TIMES OF THE

GENTILES."

LUKE XXI. 24.

"Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

THE entire overthrow of the Jewish nation by Titus, and their subsequent dispersion, formed a most remarkable era, not only in the history of nations, but in the purposes of God, and in the general administration of His church. Hitherto that people had been the exclusive depositories of His will, and the only medium of communicating it to mankind. They were the "peculiar people," "the chosen seed," "the royal priesthood" "You only have I known of all the families of the earth."* "Ye are my witnesses."+ "To them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the ser

vice of God and the promises."* But Judah now had ceased to be a people; their beautiful temple was razed to its foundation; Zion was ploughed like a field," and they were "wanderers among the nations." How then was this

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former instrumentality to be replaced, and by what intervention was the Lord henceforth to be made known? Where was to be the church, where its ministrations, and where was the fire that was to burn upon its altars ?

By one of those beautiful figures so frequent in the Bible, the Lord Christ is introduced as thus lamenting the result of his labours, and the failure of his mission to the Jews: "Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God."+ The Holy One of Israel then comforts him by the announcement of the forthcoming Gentile dispensation. "And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of

* Romans ix. 4.

+ Isaiah xlix. 4.

Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."* And again: "In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages.+” This subject leads me to consider "the times of the Gentiles," and the proper import and signification of that expression. I beg particularly to draw attention to this question, because so much error and misconception is connected with it. This misconception it will be my object to endeavour to remove, as the right understanding of the Jewish question, and of several Scriptural passages, are deeply involved in the discussion.

In the following remarks I propose to consider the times of the Gentiles :

I. In their enlarged sense, design, and cha

racter.

II. In their peculiar and prophetic sense; or the time during which Jerusalem will be "trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

III. The termination of this period, the judg

ments that will accompany it, and the glorious results that will follow. The various misconceptions which prevail on these heads, will be severally considered in their right place.

I. The " times of the Gentiles" in their more general and enlarged sense.

In this view we may interpret the words as implying the Gentile dispensation, or period of time allotted to the Gentiles for their probation. The Gentile is one of a series of dispensations, the object of all which is to unfold the manifold wisdom of Jehovah, and to vindicate his equity and truth. The first in order is the dispensation in Paradise, or man in a state of innocency. From this state he fell, and brought sin and death into the world, which proves the failure of that dispensation. The Ante-diluvian period followed; and the universal deluge attests its character and consequences. To this succeeded the Patriarchal, which exhibited, in its earliest ages, the most eminent examples of faith and piety; but the address of the dying Jacob to his children, records how, with the exception of Joseph and a small portion of his brethren, the descendants had degenerated from the piety of their forefathers. (Genesis xlix. 1-27.) Next came the Mosaic dispensation; and the abuse of