pagan people around Judea, boast themselves against the God of Israel. But even renewed plagues shall fall upon them till they repent. Then the fifth part of this prophecy shall be accomplished. Then the day shall come, when the nations shall rejoice with the restored and converted Jew. Then God will be merciful to the Universal Church. And as in the Babylonish captivity the heathen emperors and their heathen subjects united with the Jews to build their temple; and as in the days of the Roman emperors from Tiberius to Titus, the Gentile and the Jew formed one Apostolic Church, so also shall the prophecy of Moses be yet more extensively fulfilled in the future, when the kings of the earth and the nations of the earth shall rejoice to build up the holy Temple; and so form one spiritual communion, mindful of the Rock on which alone the Church Universal in all ages is built."-This is the right way to study and to receive the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures. The past fulfilment and the present fulfilment, are the pledge and the earnest of the future fulfilment. We can only pray that God would graciously hasten the advent of His kingdom; that Christ would take upon Him His predicted glory. BEFORE CHRIST 1451. Isai. 44. 2. b 1 Sam. 2. 29. DEUTERONOMY XXXII. 15-43. 15 ¶ But a Jeshurun of his sons, and of his waxed fat, and kicked: daughters. с b D BEFORE CHRIST 1451. ch. 33.5, 26. thou art waxen fat, thou 20 And he said, "I will ch. 31. 17. art grown thick, thou art hide my face from them, I covered with fatness; then will see what their end he forsook God which shall be: for they are a Jer. 2. 7. & 5. made him, and lightly very froward generation, esteemed the Rock of his ech. 31. 20 Neh. 9. 25. Ps. 17. 10. 7. 28. Hos. 13. 6. ch. 31. 16. salvation. Isai. 1. 4. ⚫ ver. 6. Isai. 51. 13. f 2 Sam. 22. 47. Ps. 89. 26. & 95 1. 1 Kings 14. 22. anger. children in whom is no Isai. 30. 9. faith. : Matt. 17. 17. Ps. 78. 58. 21. 16 They provoked him 21 P They have moved ver. 16. to jealousy with strange me to jealousy with that gods, with abominations which is not God; they provoked they him to have provoked me to anger 9 with their vanities and 1 Sam. 12. 17 h They sacrificed I will move them to jea- 1 unto devils, not to God; lousy with those which are to gods whom they knew not a people; I will proOr, which not, to new gods that came voke them to anger with newly up, whom your foolish nation. 1 Cor. 10. 22. h Lev. 17. 7. Ps. 106. 37. 1 Cor. 10. 20. Rev. 9. 20. were not God, ver. 21. i Isai. 17. 10. fathers feared not. a Kings 16. Ps. 31. 6. 10. 8. & 14. 13. 26. Jer. 8. 19. & 22 For a fire is kindled 18 Of the Rock that in mine anger, and || shall begat thee thou art un- burn unto the lowest hell, *Jer. 2. 32. mindful, and hast for- and || shall consume the bath gotten God that formed earth with her increase, Or, hath thee. and set on fire the foun Judg. 2. 14. || Or, de spised, Lam. 2. 6. a Isai. 1. 2. 191 And when the LORD dations of the moun saw it, he || abhorred them, tains. 1451. : CHRIST upon them; "I will spend of the vine of Sodom, and mine arrows upon them. of the fields of Gomorrah 24 They shall be burnt their grapes are grapes of Ezek. 5. 16. with hunger, and devoured gall, their clusters are with burning heat, and bitter: "Ps 7. 12, 13. + Heb. burn ing coals: Hab. 3. 5. * Lev. 26. 22. BEFORE CHRIST 1451. Ps. 140. 3. Rom. 3. 13. with bitter destruction: I 33 Their wine is the 1 Ps. 58. 4. dust. 25 The sword without, pence; Jer. 2. 22. belongeth Ps. 94. 1. Rem. 12. 19. and recom- Hebr. 10. 30. their foot shall I Ps. 135. 14. Judg. 2.18. Ps. 106. 45. slide in due time: for P the P2 Pet. 2. 3. 26 I said, I would day of their calamity is at scatter them into corners, hand, and the things that I would make the remem- shall come upon them make brance of them to cease haste. from among men : 36 For the LORD shall 27 Were it not that I judge his people, and refeared the wrath of the pent himself for his ser- Jer. 31. 20. enemy, lest their adver- vants, when he seeth that saries should behave them- their † power is gone, and selves strangely, and lest there is none shut up, or they should b say, Our left. hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. Isai. 27. 11. void of counsel, neither trusted, d ch. 5. 29. Ps. 81 13. & 107.43 Luke 19. 42. e Isai. 47. 7. Lam. 1. 9. d 38 Which did eat the 29 O`that they were + Heb. an you. Isai. 45.5, 18, 22. Y 1 Sam. 2.6. 39 See now that " I, even 48.12. chase a thousand, and two I, am he, and there is noch. 4. 35. put ten thousand to flight, god with me: 'I kill, and except their Rock had I make alive; I wound, 2 Kings 5. 7. sold them, and the LORD and I heal: neither is there Job 5. 18. had shut them up? any that can deliver out of Hos. 6. 1. my hand. 31 For their rock is 1 Sam. 4. 8. not as our Rock, i even our enemies themselves being judges. CHRIST 1451. Isai. 1. 24. Nahum 1. 2. e BEFORE CHRIST 1451. d Job 13. 24. Jer. 30. 14. Oye Lam. 2. 5. his people, ye BEFORE tering sword, and mine the captives, from the behand take hold on judg-ginning of d revenges upon ment; I will render ven- the enemy. geance to mine enemies, 43 | Rejoice, and will reward them that nations, with his people: Or, Praise hate me. for he will avenge the nations: or, 42 I will make mine blood of his servants, and Jer. 46. 10. arrows drunk with blood, will render vengeance to and my sword shall devour his adversaries, and flesh; and that with the be merciful unto his land, blood of the slain and of and to his people. C DEUTERONOMY XXXII. 44-47. h will 44 And Moses came day, which ye shall comand spake all the words of this song in the ears of the Or, Joshua. people, he, and || Hoshea the son of Nun. 45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel: mand your children to ob- e h Rom. 15. Sing ye. 10. f Rev. 6. 10. & 19. 2. Ps. 85. 1. g ver. 41. Lev. 18. 5. 47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because itch. 30. 19. is your life: and through Prov. 3. 2, 22. this thing ye shall prolong Rom. 10. 5. 46 And he said unto your days in the land, ich. 6. 6. & them, iSet your hearts whither ye go over Jordan 11. 18. Ezek. 40. 4. unto all the words which to I testify among you this it. possess & 4. 22. PRAYER. LET US PRAY, that we repent of sins past, remove the sins that so easily beset us at present, and avoid all temptations to sin for the future. That we thank God for the sorrows and punishments of sin in the past; that we be resigned to the sorrows and punishments of sins that are present, and that we submit to the sorrows and punishments of sin in the future. That we be no less grateful for the mercies that are past, the mercies of the present, and the promise of mercies for the future. That we rejoice in the fulfilment of the prophecies of the past, in the fulfilment of the prophecies of the present, and in the future establishment of the kingdom of God. We ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep; we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. Like Thy servants the children of Abraham in the olden times of Thy Church, we have forsaken the God which made us; we have lightly esteemed the Rock of our salvation; we have forgotten the God that formed us. have provoked Thee to jealousy with that which is no god, and which ought not to have been the object of our affections. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burthen of them is intolerable. We pray Thee so to give us true repentance and Thy Holy Spirit, that we may unfeignedly lament the sins that are past, and that we may give to ourselves and to Thee that proof of our deep and sincere repentance which consists in removing from us every present hindrance to our more holy walk and conversation. May the sin which doth so easily beset us in our place and station be laid aside, and conquered and perish under the power of Thy grace. Forgive the past. Guide us for the present. Protect us in the future. May the influence of temptation be subdued, and our hearts be devoted to our God. Give us grace, we pray Thee, to look with a stedfast eye upon the sorrows and the joys of the past, the present, and the future years of our pilgrimage in this wilderness of life. Whether we have experienced adversity or prosperity, grief or joy, enable us to contemplate Thy mercy, to acknowledge Thy mercy, and to be thankful for Thy mercy in all things. If in the course of our past lives we have experienced the bitterness of loss of friends, may we mourn over them as not lost to us for ever, but as the forerunners only of our own footsteps towards the world to come. If at this moment we experience the sorrows of sickness in our bodies, may every pain we suffer remind us of the sin which is the cause of all sorrow, and may we be brought by our sufferings to more stedfast faith and firmer confidence in God. If the anticipation of calamities and sorrows cloud the future, still may we put our whole trust and confidence in Thy mercy alone, remembering the troubles from which we have escaped, the calamities from which we have been delivered, and the still greater troubles and calamities which we have deserved. If the retrospect of our past lives remind us of the bounties of Thy Providence, and that we have received more and greater temporal blessings from Thy hand than others have received, give us grateful hearts and charitable hands. If the present hour be blessed with Thy bountiful Providence, may the cause of Thy Church, the extension of Sion, the distribution of Thy Holy Word, and the spiritual as well as the temporal wants of the poor and the ignorant, be the objects of our thoughts, and care, and beneficence. And because the future is unknown to us, may the experience of the past, and of the present, so increase our faith in the continuance of Thy good Providence, that we never be depressed with useless fear and burdensome anxiety, but that with faith, and hope, and cheerful trust in Thee we go on to the end. So do we pray Thee to continue to us the blessings of the present life, if it be Thy will. But above all, and more than all, we pray Thee for the better and more abundant blessings which relate to the world to come. We praise and bless Thy holy name for the Volume of Thy Word, for the discoveries of the past, for the spiritual gifts of the present, and for the hope of immortality in the future. We praise and bless Thy holy name for the Revelation of the past creation, of the beginning of sin, the record of Thy Providence in the government of the world and of the Church, the system of redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ, the institutions of all the means of present grace, and all the promises of the hope of future glory. May the records of the past be our comfort and our consolation, our foundation of present faith, and our source of trust, and peace, and joy. May the present hour of our lives be rejoiced and gladdened with the conviction of the continued fulfilment of Thy prophecies, and with the expectation and the prospect of the glorious day, when all the prophecies shall have been fulfilled; when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and Thy people of Israel shall be restored from their dispersion, to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and to possess once more the hills and the valleys of the land of their fathers. Establish the kingdom of Christ. Let not the blood of the Atonement and Sacrifice of the Son of Thy love have been shed in vain. Give to the nations of the world, that they rejoice with Thy people as one holy family, one united Church of the Prince of Peace, one holy nation under Thee, God of the Universe, King of kings and Lord of lords. Save Thy people, bless Thine heritage. Scatter the darkness of idolatry, vice, and error. Pour out Thy Spirit upon Thy people Israel. Pour out Thy Spirit upon the heathen, the pagan, and the infidel, that they may all be changed, and converted, and turned to Thee. Fulfil Thy prophecies to the world and to the Church,-that all the children of men become the children of God; and so fulfil Thy promises of strength and grace, and peace and holiness, to our hearts, who pray to Thee, that we may become more and more Thine accepted servants, and Thy beloved sons, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name and words we sum up all our petitions, calling upon Thee as Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. SECTION CLXX. DEUTERONOMY XXXII. 48, TO THE END. XXXIII. TITLE.-Revelation and prophecy anticipated history, philosophy, and experience. The influence of the Divine power acts upon the human mind according to the laws of mind, as explained by ancient and modern metaphysicians ; and it still continues, that prophecy may be fulfilled. The blessing of Moses on the twelve tribes must be primarily interpreted of their temporal, not of their spiritual condition. Moses predicts the continuance of REUBEN, and probably the powerlessness of SIMEON; the prosperity of JUDAH; the religious influence of LEVI; the power of BENJAMIN ; the wealth of JOSEPH; the commerce of ZEBULON; the agriculture of ISSACHAR; the military zeal of GAD; the violence of DAN; the fertility of NAPHTALI; the quietness of ASHER; the separation of Israel from other nations; and their safe establishment in Canaan. INTRODUCTION. The whole controversy between Infidelity and Christianity may be said to depend upon the answer to this one question: If God performed the great miracle of creating man, in what manner did He provide at the beginning for his mental happiness? He had no instinct, like the inferior animals around him. He had no experience to direct him by the results of previous deliberation. He had no exercise of reason; for the exercise of reason arises from circumstances which had not then existed. The Infidel theory makes the human being slowly emerge from the helpless misery of such a state, to civilization, society, and the combinations which constitute political happiness. The facts recorded in Revelation-for Christians have no theories in this matterrelate the creation of man, and the immediate substitution of Divine Communion with his mind, in place of the animal instinct which satisfied the beasts around him. That divine power of the Creator was exercised to preserve his body and impress his mind. He had the Revelation which was at first the impartation of a law, and which was accompanied with a prophecy of the consequences of its non-observance. With this impression in his mind, reason began to exist, |