saic. The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable. The spiritual mercy vouchsafed in the person of Christ, does not annul or destroy the temporal, national, and local provisions of the covenant made with Abraham. The Scriptures nowhere warrant such a statement. Is the seed of Jacob cast off? Has it ceased to be a nation? In one word, has the Abrahamic covenant no farther scope as a perpetual promise than the person of Christ, and the remnant according to the election of grace?

Let us refer to a few expressions contained in it :

Gen. xii. 7. "Unto thy seed will I give this land."

xiii. 15-17. "To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever; and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth.”

xv. 18. "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

This promise following a prophecy which can admit of no other than a literal and historical interpretation.

xvii. 7, 8. "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee

the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."

The renewal of this was made to Isaac, (Gen. xxvi. 3,4,) "Unto thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father."

Finally, the grant was confirmed to Jacob,"I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." (Gen. xxxv. 11, 12.)

" I

Here, then, are plain and direct promises to a particular family. The extent, duration, and locality of the possession are marked out; and the title of the grant not dependant upon any condition whatsoever, implied or expressed. am God Almighty," is the superscription of the indenture. The grant is entirely of grace, and stands upon the eternal and unchangeable attributes of Jehovah. That the promise points to Christ, is most evident from the use which St. Paul makes of one expression, "He saith not, Unto seeds, as of many:" but this reference, so far from interrupting our argument, is the strongest evidence in its favour; for it proves that

if there is any perpetuity in the blessing through Christ to all the families of the earth, there is perpetuity in the promise to the family of Abraham. If the claim of a Gentile believer rests upon the promises of spiritual mercy in Christ, why is the claim of a true lineal descendant of Abraham to be excluded from the promises of temporal privilege through the same Messiah? I am not here arguing the salvability of a Jew who denies that Messiah has appeared, or his spiritual right to call himself a Jew, so long as he remains in unbelief, under the dispensation of the Spirit; but I am urging the claim which the family of Abraham have upon the faithfulness of God to fulfil the covenant made with their fathers, and that the simple meaning of the words of the oath. Let us imagine a court of appeal establishedas it will be one day-and this great question brought up for decision. The Jewish nation produces its ancient records and unaltered titledeeds. They claim possession of their land: and what can the kings of the earth put in as a bar against them? Let us see how they who are accustomed to investigate the validity of testaments and deeds of gift, would reason upon these plain, unequivocal terms. What advocate in any court of equity would venture to assert that the grant of an everlasting possession was conditional

upon

and temporary, or that the seed of Abraham ceased to exist as a nation when the promised seed was born? He might, indeed, attempt to commingle and confound the event of after times, and say, that all is explained away by the conditions of the Mosaic covenant; but we have already shown that this is impossible. This cannot make the promise of none effect; and therefore the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, confirmed by Jesus Christ, stands unaltered and unrepealed-a perpetual covenant. "For thus saith the Lord; If those ordinances (of the day and night) depart from before me, then the seed of Israel also shall cease' from being a nation before me for ever. If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done." (Jer. xxxi. 35-37.) And again; "If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: For I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them."*

II. I come now to prove that this perpetual * See Appendix A.

covenant is not made with a typical nation, which, like Melchizedek, arose and disappeared mysteriously, having neither beginning of days nor end of life; but that it is a covenant made with a nation, distinguished from all other nations by its peculiar genealogy, and universally known as the nation of the twelve tribes.

Under this tribal constitution, we have a nation possessing such varied and detailed marks of identity, that whatever typical adaptation may be made to it in its aggregate condition, it is quite impossible to apply to it in its separate and component state. The privileges, destiny, and local position of the tribes vary. Judah, Joseph, Levi, Dan, Simeon, have peculiarities which cannot be explained typically. And their names occur again and again in connexion with promises of future glory to the whole nation, and as forming part and parcel of the family entail. Nor is any exception made against them. Until the time of the revolt of the ten tribes, whenever the covenant is mentioned, it is spoken of as with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;-with the house of Jacob, the seed of Jacob, the children of Israel. The terms are universally, Jacob and Israel; never Judah and Ephraim, or Jacob and Ephraim. Except as the tribe from which the King should arise, Judah has no preference, and is not used