But is this all? And are we to stand on tiptoe, gazing, like the men of Galilee, for the opening of the cloud to reveal the Son of Man? And are we to be so engrossed on this watch-tower as to neglect or despise all the surrounding duties of the present time? This leads to the next clause in our Lord's application of his discourse, and also to the next parable by which that clause is enforced: "Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and [mark the connection between this state of heart and the life consequent thereupon] shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For as a man, travelling into a far country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods, and said, Occupy till I come; and when he came, reckoned with them according to their diligence or negligence: so, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, shall he do with all the nations (there is no mention of the resurrection of the dead), separating them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats *. Occupy till I come, is therefore the Lord's answer to the inquiry now before us; and it loudly calls to an honest, conscientious, self-denying, and persevering faithfulness in the use of all the opportunities which God has given us of improving ourselves or benefiting others. What shall we do, then? That must depend upon who and what we are, and what talents we have received to trade withal. This opens a wide field of social, relative, and professional details, concerning many of which the Scripture is express and clear. Let diligent search be made, therefore, among God's precepts, for those which are peculiarly applicable to our case; and let no compromising, casuistry warp The 14th verse of this xxv th chapter, is an unfinished form of sentence, beginning with the relative ωσπερ. Ωσπερ γαρ ανθωπος αποδήμων εκάλεσε τους ίδιους δουλους, και παρεδωκεν, &c. There is no correlative to ωσπερ to be found in the whole context of the parable; the sentence, therefore, is still an unfinished one at the 30th verse; and I understand the parallel statement, from verse 31 to the end, as supplying the correlative to the parable of the talents. This latter statement is usually called the parable of the sheep and the goats: but it is not a parable at all. The language describes the literal facts of the case-the coming of the Lord in person; the righteous and the wicked standing before him--and the mention of the sheep and goats is merely a simile illustrative of the separation which he will then effect between the righteous and the wicked. the verdict of our conscience. There must, indeed, remain many particulars concerning which we shall find no express commandment, and in the management of which we are consequently left to the exercise of a discretion, which is the best possible trial of our love. Love is fruitful in devising expedients to please: and it is worthy of remark-nay, it should never be lost sight of-that the slothful servant and the goats are described as perishing, not for any disobedience to a positive command, but for such OMISSIONS as betrayed a want of active, ingenious love: Inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me. In conclusion, I request the reader to advert to the opening observations of this paper, and to mark well that the question at issue is too vital in itself, and too comprehensive in its inevitable connection, for any Christian man to turn away from with impunity. With the unfeigned affection of a brother, and the lawful authority of a minister of Christ's church, I charge him to guard against allowing his convictions concerning these great things of God to remain adrift, like a vessel without a helm: and as a beacon of warning, I here record a small but fruitful incident; fruitful, because characteristic. After discussing the subject of this paper, and other similar topics, with an Evangelical Clergyman who denied and opposed my views, I ceased to occupy the defensive position, and asked him his view of several of those passages of Scripture which are the turning points of the whole debate. The substance of his reply on each of these occasions was, The passage is very important; very important indeed: but I have not made up my mind as to the meaning of it! When such ignorance is felt, and the consequent necessity for inquiry is admitted, all is well-(this is the condition of the most advanced, at some point or other)-but when it is accompanied by ill-dissembled self-complacency on the score of spirituality of mind, as though spirituality were an excuse for ignorance (and in a teacher too!), and not only so, but as though advancing intelligence were necessarily an enemy to spirituality; and when, together with all this, the interpretation of those very passages offered by a brother is peremptorily and confidently denied as carnal and worldly; then, certainly, there is ground for severe animadversion, more severe than I choose to write in this place. 55 INTERPRETATION OF ALL THE OLD-TESTAMENT PROPHECIES QUOTED IN THE NEW. (By the Rev. E. IRVING-Continued from vol. i. p. 618.) INTERPRETATION V. From Isai. xi. 10 to Isai. xii.; Immanuel's Action. His restoration of the Tribes of Israel. THE note of time, "in that day," with which this portion of our subject openeth, is repeated in the following verse, and twice in the following chapter (vers. 1, 4), and hath been used more than once in the former part of the prophecy (ch. x. 20, 27). To perceive that it is not a succession of epochs one after another that is signified by this repeated use of the word, but a variety of events, or rather various aspects and descriptions of the same event, to come into existence at the same time or in the same day, it is but necessary to observe the things which are prophesied of under this same note of time, "in that day." The first (x. 20) is, as we have seen, the conversion of the remnant of Israel to the Lord, the Mighty God, Immanuel, in the day of their restoration, after the consumption decreed against them hath been accomplished; the second (x. 27) is the removal of all burdens and oppressions from the shoulder of Israel, through the anointing over them of their King Immanuel; the third, that now before us, is the uplifting of the Root of Jesse to such a lofty exaltation as to become the world's ensign; the fourth (ver. 1Ï) is the recovery of his people from all their cantonments over the wide world; the fifth, is their song of joy and salvation; the sixth, is the promulgation of the same to all the nations of the world. Now let any one follow the same method of observation with respect to another series of prophecies, where this expression, "in that day," several times occurs (Isai. xxiv. 21; xxv. 9; xxvi. 1; xxvii. 1, 2, 12); and he will find the same conclusion forced upon him, that it is one and the same day which is spoken of, wherein the promises of God to his church, so long postponed, shall be fully accomplished,—the time of refreshing, the day of the restitution of all things, the day of the Lord, the day of the setting-up of the kingdom of heaven; in one word, the day in which all things written concerning the redemption and regeneration of the world shall be fulfilled. After making these two observations upon a limited scale, let the student of prophecy take the Holy Scriptures, and examine the passages noted below*, wherein the expressions, "that * Psal. cx. 3, 5; cxxxvii. 7: Isai. ii. 11, 12, 17; x. 3, 32; xiii. 6, 9, 13; xvii. 4, 7, 9, 11; xix. 21; xxiv. 21; xxvi. 1; xxix. 18; xxx. 25, 26; xxxiv. 8; lii. 6: Jer. xxx. 7; xlvi. 10: Ezek. xiii. 5; xxix. 21; xxx. 3; xxxviii. 19; xxxix. 22; xlviii. 35: Hos. i. 11; ii. 18: Joel i. 15; ii. 1,11, 31; iii. 18: day,' ," "the day," "the great day," and "the day of the Lord," occur; and he will be satisfied, far beyond the arguments of men, that the time referred to is the coming of the Lord, and the things described are the excellent and admirable things of his kingdom. And, forasmuch as the events described as about to come to pass" in that day," or " in the day of the Lord," are precisely those greatest and most numerous events for which God hath pledged his veracity, and on which he hath called his distressed people to rely, and with which he hath implicated and involved the work of Messiah for the seed of Abraham, for the chosen of the Gentiles, and for all nations, yea, for the earth itself, to deny their literal fulfilment, is to disbelieve the very chiefest portions of God's word; to make light of their fulfilment, as a thing little concerning us to know or give heed to, is to undervalue God's judgment and measurement of things, and set up our own in its stead. To be silent concerning them, is to be ashamed of the word and testimony of our God; to explain them away into allegories which have no literal intention, is to make void the word of God with our traditions; to say that they will be fulfilled to another people than they were written for, and in some other region of creation, called heaven or by any other name significant of a different place from this earth, is utterly to defeat the glory of God's faithfulness, goodness, mercy, and truth. And when I see such issues before my eyes, it is nothing to me that" Luther disbelieved the restoration of the Jews," or that "Calvin was too wise a man to write upon the Apocalypse," or that the lights of the religious world count our inquiries foolishness, and worse than foolishness: the glory of my God surpasseth their fame, and the service of my God is better than their approbation for His Name's sake I will gird myself once more to the undertaking of searching and setting forth the import and authority of every jot and tittle of his word. : Ver. 10: "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious." The passage, being literally translated, and arranged exactly after the order of the original, standeth thus: And in that day shall be a Root of Jesse, which standeth for a sign of the peoples: to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glory:' which both Vitringa and Lowth prefer to construe, thus; And in that day it shall be, that the Root of Jesse, which standeth for a sign of the Amos ii. 16; v. 18; viii. 3: Obad. viii.: Zeph. i. 7, 8, 14, 15, 18; ii. 2, 3 : Zech. ii. 11; ix. 16; xi. 11; xii. 8, 11; xiii. 1; xiv. 1, 4, 9: Mal. iii. 17; iv. 3, 5: Matt. vii. 22 ; xxiv. 36 ; xxvi. 29: Luke vi. 23; x. 12; xvii. 30 ; xxi. 34 ; xxiii. 54: John xiv. 20; xvi. 23, 26: Acts ii. 20: 1 Cor. i. 8; v. 5: 2 Cor. i. 14: Phil. xi. 16: 1 Thess. v. 2, 4: 2 Thess. i. 10; ii. 3: 2 Tim. 1, 12, 18; iv. 8: 1 Pet. ii. 12: 2 Pet. iii. 10: Jude 6: Rev. vi. 17; xvi. 14. peoples, the Gentiles shall seek unto; and his rest shall be glory.' And from the construction of the context, and the general bearing of the prophecy, I have no doubt that this is the true connection of the verb shall be:' and indeed it is adopted by our Translators in the very next verse, where the words are exactly the same: Ver. 10, " In that day it shall come to pass that," &c. : ver. 11, "In that day it shall come to pass that," &c. What, then, is the first of those things that shall come to pass "in that day?" The thing predicted is, that the Gentiles [D, the heathen nations, in contradistinction to the Jews, who are never but in sore threatening called by that name] shall seek unto the root of Jesse, which standeth for a sign to the people' [py, the Jewish people]. The thing to be observed here is, that the Root of Jesse first standeth for a sign to the Jewish people; not as a sign to the other nations, which is a different event, set forth in verse 12. In verse 10 he is the sign of the people; in verse 12 he is the sign of the Gentiles. And we may rest assured that there is not a little contained in this opposition. Now, it is while the Root of Jesse is standing as an ensign to the Jewish people, that the Gentiles seek to him. Let us endeavour to understand what mystery of Divine Providence this points out to us. And as our object is to bring our helps as much as possible from the New Testament, and to exhibit Scripture as its own interpreter, we refer to the Epistle to the Romans, chap. xv. 12; where the Apostle Paul, treating of the vocation of the Gentiles by the preaching of the Gospel, doth quote this very passage, using the version of the LXX. which, though in one point it has taken a liberty with the Hebrew, is close enough for his purpose: "And again Esaias saith, There shall be a Root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust." The clause "he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles" is a gloss, rather than a translation of the original, which, being literally rendered, is," which standeth for a sign of the people:" and, besides, it is against all laws of interpretation to translate the two Hebrew words written above, which commonly are in direct opposition to one another, as if they were the same word, though they occur in adjoining clauses. The Apostle doth not sanction or sanctify the LXX, version by quoting it, any more than we do by quoting our English version; but, finding that it expresseth with sufficient accuracy the thing in hand, which is that the Gentiles should trust in him,' he merely quotes it and passeth on. So also would I have done, but that this expression, he shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,' is used to sanction the erroneous idea of what they call a spiritual reign,' by which they represent Gospel preaching as the manifestation, whereas it is VOL. IL-NO. I. I |