a view to illustrate from them the conversion of our souls to God.
Let me, then, point out,
I. The effect which the restoration of the Jews will
hereafter produce on them —
They shall assuredly be restored to God, and to their own land, in due season —
[" From all the countries, whither they have been driven, shall they be gathered : " and they shall, in their own land, be
restored to the worship, and the favour, of their God
The terms in which their services are foretold, correspond with the ordinances which are prescribed by the Mosaic Law
; — But they are intended to express only that spiritual
worship, which, under the Christian dispensation, we render unto God. These they will render from their inmost souls ; and from God will they receive, as formerly, the most favour- able tokens of his acceptance ]
The effects produced on them by their restoration will be truly blessed —
[They have been the most stiff-necked of any people ; and even at this day are remarkable for the hardness of their hearts: but at that day they will be broken-hearted, and con- trite in a very extraordinary degree. The recollection of their having "crucified the Lord of Glory" will pre-eminently lead to thisa : and their vieivs of their own extreme baseness will be
exceeding deeph
Their knowledge of God, too, ivill be proportionably enlarged. Their opportunities of knowing God have been hitherto most unprofitably employed : but in that day, when they shall see all the predictions concerning them so wonderfully fulfilled, they will be made to acknowledge, with more genuine feeling than ever, that God's grace has been magnified towards them ; and that they themselves are, above all people upon earth, the most wonderful monuments of his grace ]
In all this are shadowed forth,
II. The effects which the conversion of our souls will
infallibly produce on us —
There is a considerable resemblance between the restoration of the Jews, and the conversion of a soul to God—
a Zech. xii. 10.
b Compare Ezck. xvi. 63. and xxxvi. 31. with ver. 43.
1109.1 jews' restoration, and man's conversion. 405
[From a dark and wicked world is every soul brought in its conversion to Godc And from that moment it en- joys sweet communion with God, in all the exercises of prayer
and praise d Then does " God manifest himself unto
the soul as he does not unto the world e," and communicates unto it all the blessings both of grace and glory f ]
And in the effects produced on them is there also a very strict resemblance —
[From conversion flows such a deep humiliation of soul as was never experienced before. The need of a broken and contrite spirit may have been long acknowledged ; but the reality of it is never felt, till the soul is brought to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Then the wonders of redeeming love are seen ; and all the evils of the heart and life are felt as heightened and aggravated by the consideration of them : so that the soul actually lothes and abhors itself as a very mass of iniquity s
From it also is derived such a knowledge of God as the soul never before had any conception of. The perfections of God may have all been acknowledged before, in a speculative way ; but now the soul realizes them, and feels itself a living
witness and monument of them all Especially does it
then see the sovereignty of God, as exercised in the commu- nications of his grace to men. Once, perhaps, the idea of God's sovereignty was painful to the mind : but now it comes with a power and sweetness that cannot be described. The believer needs not now be told that he has not been dealt with according to his deserts : he knows full well where he should have been, if God had not been exceeding abundant in mercy towards him : and from his inmost soul he gives all the