god's gracious designs towards his chosen people.
Jer. xxx. 10, 11. Fear thou not, 0 my servant Jacob, saith the Lord ; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity ; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, I yet will not make a full end of thee ; but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
THE peculiar importance of these words may be judged of from hence, that the prophet, without any apparent necessity, or indeed any visible connexion, introduces them again, towards the close of his pro- phecies3. But the subject of them is so consolatory, and the view which they open to us of God's future dispensations is so glorious, that they may well be proposed to our most attentive consideration. Re- specting their primary import we can have no doubt. They look forward to a period far beyond the return of the Jews from Babylon, even to that blessed period, when the whole nation shall be converted to the faith of Christ, and be restored to the possession of the land of Canaan1'. That such a period shall arrive, we have the strongest and most unequivocal declarations of Holy Writc: and it becomes us all to look forward to it with confidence and joy.
But we must not so contemplate the future good of others, as to overlook our own personal and im- mediate welfare. The words before us convey most comfortable tidings to ourselves ; which therefore we shall advert to in connexion with the event to which they more especially refer : and in order to this we shall deduce from them some general observations. Observe then,
I. That God has glorious things in reserve for his chosen people —
1. For the Jewish people —
a Jer. xlvi. 27, 28. b ver. 8, 9. c Compare Hos. iii. 5.