appears, at present, as if the obstacles to the accomplishment of all these promises were absolutely insurmountable : but " if God will work, who shall let it?" He says, " I will plant them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with my whole soul." Shall it then fail of its accomplishment in due season? " Is there any thing too hard for the Lord ? " Has he scat- tered them according to his word, and preserved them a sepa- rate people, notwithstanding their dispersion ; and shall he not gather them again, and " bring upon them all the good that he has promised them ? " If all the obstacles that men or devils can ever raise against it were united in one common mass, I would say to them, " Who art thou, O great moun- tain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain p."]
Learn, then, from hence,
1. What we, if we are the Lord's people, may ex- pect for ourselves —
[It is not to the Jews, as Jews, that the spiritual promises are made ; but with them as believing in the Messiah, and as submitting to the government of David their prince. If this, then, be our character, they are made to us ; and we, substi- tuting the heavenly for the earthly Canaan, may take to our- selves all these great and precious promises, expecting assuredly that God will thus exert himself for us, till he has put us into the full possession of all the blessedness of heaven. If we have been brought from our wanderings " to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem*1," then are we interested in this covenant, and God will confer upon us its choicest blessings ; regarding us as " his peculiar treasure," and exerting for us his Almighty power, " to keep us from falling, that in due season we may be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy r." Learn, my beloved Brethren, to realize these glorious expectations, and to enjoy in your own persons what you anticipate in behalf of your Jewish brethren.
Fix your eyes steadily on that good land in which God has assuredly determined to plant you ; and contemplate him as engaging, " with his whole heart, and with his whole soul," to effect his gracious purpose. I say, view this whole work of grace in its commencement, its progress, its consummation ; and, if your conscience bears witness that he has " given you a heart and a way to fear him," then rely on him to preserve you from ever departing from him, and to complete for you in heaven what he has begun on earth : for " faithful is He that hath called you, who also will do it8."]
p Zech. iv. 7. i Heb. xii. 22.
r 1 Pet. i. 5. Jude, er. 24. s 1 Thess. v. 24.