[This is indisputably promised to them in the words of my text. And it is surprising how universally this view of the passage has been overlooked by the Christian world. There are few passages of Holy Scripture that are more frequently cited by the preachers of the everlasting Gospel than this: but, as though we were determined to rob the Jews of their interest in them, we have always omitted the first and last verses of the text, and applied the remainder altogether to ourselves : thus cutting off, as it were, the head and the feet, which marked the promise as belonging to the Jews, that we might seize upon the body as our own exclusive property. It is surprising that benevolence, which certainly is characteristic of the Christian world, should never have led us to contem- plate and delight in the prospects here set forth for the com- fort of God's ancient people. But we have been as unmindful of their spiritual interests as if no such promise had been ever made to them, yea, and as if no such people existed in the world. And this is the more remarkable, because the same connexion between their conversion to God and their resto- ration to their own land is generally marked in the prophetic writings, and especially in places where these peculiar pro- mises are made to themc. But it is certain that God will bestow upon them all the blessings which are here specified ; sanctifying them wholly to himself, and making them, as in the days of old, his own peculiar people. The gift of God's Holy Spirit was declared, upon the day of Pentecost, to be reserved, not for the Jews of that day only, but " for them, and for their children, and for all that were afar off, even as many as the Lord their God should calld."
In the promise which is made to them in my text, there is an especial reference to the consecration of the Levites under the Mosaic Law. They were separated from all the other tribes, to wait upon God in the more immediate services of his sanctuary : and for this purpose they were consecrated to the Lord with peculiar solemnity: " Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shall thou do unto them, to cleanse them: sprinkle water of purifying
upon them Then let them take a young bullock with
his meat-offering and another young bullock shalt
thou take for a sin-offering and the Levites shall lay
their hands upon the heads of the bullocks : and thou shalt offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt- offering, unto the Lord, to make an atonement for the Levites e." Thus will God take that whole people for priests and for Levitesf" in the latter day, and sanctify them wholly
c See Ezek. xi. 17—20. and Jer. xxxii. 37—39. d Acts ii. 39. e Numb. viii. 6—8, 12. f Isai.lxvi. 21.
ff2