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what they do," is what in other words the Holy Ghost puts into the lips of Peter, when, addressing them he says, "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." Acts, iii, 17. It is in immediate connexion with these words, that Peter calls on them to repent and be converted, that their sins might be blotted out, when the times of refreshing should come from the presence of the Lord; "And," says he, "he shall send unto you Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Acts. iii, 20, 21. There are "times of restitution of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of all the prophets." All the prophets connect these times with Israel's repentance, and Israel's restoration, and with the coming of their Messiah. He came once, came to his own,' but his own received him not. Peter, in this very discourse, charges them with having denied the Holy One and the Just with having killed the Prince of life, whom God, however, had raised from the dead. Then in the words we are considering, he calls on them to repent and be converted, and promises, though they have rejected Christ, that if they do but now repent, God will send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens had received till the promised times of restitution. (I need hardly say that this language means till the times of restitution" arrive-not till they expire.) And what is this, but the plain declaration of what the Saviour intimates in his closing words as he left the temple, "Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord?" Till ye shall say. Does this not intimate that they shall see him when they do say this? And so Peter assures them, that if they would repent, God would send Jesus Christ. Of course it was foreseen that this last offer, like every previous one, would be rejected, and the church was to be formed during the interval which was to succeed. But so it was foreseen that Christ would be rejected when he was here in humiliation; and his death, which is salvation to all who believe, is attributed to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, as well as to the wicked hands by which he was actually slain. Alas, this proffered mercy was rejected. They as stubbornly refused the testimony of the Holy Ghost to an exalted Christ, as they had refused Christ himself when here in humiliation. "Ye stiffnecked

and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye." Acts vii, 51. These are the solemn words of Stephen, in his last address to his countrymen, just before they ran upon him and stoned him with stones till he died. Up to this point, mercy had lingered over Jerusalem, and no testimony had been borne to Christ risen and ascended, save there. Now, the testimony leaves Jerusalem, passing first to Samaria, then to the Gentiles. Philip preaches at Samaria ;_ Peter is sent to Cornelius and his house; and Saul of Tarsus, one of the chief persecutors, is converted, and becomes the Apostle of the uncircumcision. Even still, the mercy of God lingers over the Jews; and throughout the Acts of the Apostles, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” is the principle acted upon by those messengers of God's love. Everywhere they preach first in the synagogues; and it is not till rejected there, and generally driven out, that they turn to the Gentiles. The extension of the apostle's ministry to the Gentiles, is the last stumbling-block to their national pride and prejudice, and this they cannot brook. "And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto this word, and then they lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live." Acts xxii, 21, 22. "The Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us: and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for (which) the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." 1 Thess. ii, 14-16.

Wrath has come upon them to the uttermost! First, for their idolatry. Secondly, for their rejection of the Lord Jesus, whether here in humiliation, or proclaimed to them as ascended, by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. Thirdly, for their hatred to the mercy now extended to the Gentiles. But grace is yet to triumph in their full restoration, and in their becoming the seed of universal blessing to the nations of the millennial earth.

But the consideration of this we must reserve for another number.

LONDON PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, 34, PATERNOSTER ROW. ROBERTSON, GRAFTON-STREET.

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No. 8.] Plain Papers on Prophetic [Aug., 1853.

and other Subjects.

ISRAEL'S FUTURE RESTORATION.

Our inquiry into Israel's past history and present state, conducted us to some of the closing statements of the New Testament on this subject. Their "house left to them desolate❞—their city and temple doomed to utter destruction-" the kingdom of God taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," while "wrath comes upon them to the uttermost"-judicial "blindness" resting upon them as a nation :-such are the main features of the state in which, for the present, the New Testament takes its leave of this favoured nation of God's choice. It may be well for us just at this point to inquire, whether the New Testament teaches that this overthrow-that these calamities that this judicial blindness, are all to be perpetual and irreversible? or whether it does not rather intimate, that in the purpose of God a limit is placed to their continuance ?

At the close of that long strain of awful denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees which we find in Matt. xxiii, our Lord declares that upon Jerusalem should come all the righteous blood which had been shed upon the earth; and then, he utters the well known words quoted in our last, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth"-does he say "for ever?" No-"Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Do not these words imply, that the time will yet arrive when Israel shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," and that then, when they do say

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this, they shall again behold their till then rejected and absent Lord? These words, it must be admitted, do not absolutely declare that Israel will say "Blessed is he that cometh;" but surely if there were not another passage on the subject in the whole of God's word, the one before us holds out sufficient encouragement to keep alive in the heart the hope of Israel's final restoration. But we shall find passages in abundance, which do absolutely predict that which is here conditionally expressed.

If we turn to Ps. cxviii, from which our Lord quotes these words, we shall find that Israel is there represented as using them after the Messiah has been rejected. They are connected in the Psalm with the well known passage, "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner." The most superficial reader of scripture can scarcely be ignorant, that this passage is interpreted both by our Lord himself (Matt. xxi, 42,) and by the Apostle (1 Pet. ii, 7,) of Israel's present rejection of their Messiah, and of God's exaltation of him while thus rejected. The Psalm before us represents Israel as now acknowledging this rejected Stone. "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it." Then, after a prayer for prosperity, we have the words quoted by Christ in Matt. xxiii, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord."

Can any one resist the conclusion from these scriptures, when thus collated, that Israel is yet to be restored? Ages before Christ was on earth, the psalmist had been inspired to prophesy, that Israel would own the Messiah whom they had at first refused, and that then they should say, "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord." In effect then, our Lord says, "You are now refusing the Stone, which, when so refused, is to be made the head of the corner. Your house is therefore left to you desolate. But you are yet to acknowledge the Stone which you now refuse, and to own that its exaltation is Jehovah's doing, and marvellous in your eyes. Till then, ye shall see me Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

no more.

In one of the other gospels our Lord limits the period of Israel's calamities in another way. He predicts the destruction of the temple, so that one stone should not be left upon another; he speaks of Jerusalem being com

passed with armies, and of this being a sign that its desolation is nigh; he declares that these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled ;-then he adds, "For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke xxi, 23, 24. Thus it appears that there is a defined period termed "the times of the Gentiles," during which Jerusalem is to be "trodden down, and at the close of which it is to cease to be so.

In 2 Cor. iii, 15, we have a brief and passing, but very distinct intimation that the judgment under which Israel lies, is not final and perpetual. The apostle has been referring to the act of Moses, in putting a vail on his face, and treating it as symbolical of Israel's blinded state. "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." Such is their condition, "to this day." "Nevertheless," adds the Apostle, "when it (Israel's heart) shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." He does not pursue the subject in this passage; it is not the point on which he is expatiating. But these passing allusions to Israel's restoration, as a settled, established truth, with which the reader's mind is supposed to be already familiar, are only the more convincing, for their being introduced in this incidental way.

In the eleventh of Romans we have the subject more fully and formally considered. The Apostle has been de-claring, with the most unflinching faithfulness, the results of Israel's rejection of Christ. He has been quoting to them the words of Moses, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." He has added to these the words of Isaiah. "But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." These quotations from the Old Testament suggest the inquiry, whether this rejection of Israel is universal and permanent ?—whether all Israel be rejected? and whether those who are rejected are rejected for ever? "I say then, Hath God cast away his people ?" This is the question considered in the chapter before us. "God forbid!" is the earnest and almost indignant reply.