original covenant, but only from the fact of the natural seed having by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God rejected their Messiah. If, then, the election hath obtained, and the rest were blinded, what shall we say? That the election of Jews and Gentiles have altogether superseded the ulterior purposes of God to the natural seed? (Rom. xi. 11, 12.) Have the Jews as a nation stumbled, that as a nation they should fall? God forbid! but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness! What, then, is to hinder the fulfilment of the whole scheme? Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God will raise the dead? "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" (Rom. xi. 15.) What is to hinder the Jew and Gentile appearing hereafter as originally intended in the original relation? The Jew the channel of blessing to the Gentile, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

Now bearing this distinction in mind, and following the sound direction given by the Rev. C. Bridges in the preface of his excellent work upon the Proverbs, "When no other than a literal meaning is plainly intended, the object must be, not to search a new and miscalled spiritual meaning, but to draw practical instruction from its obvious sense." Let any one read the latter verses of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah. And what will he make of the Jews and Gentiles there spoken of? What reason can he assign against the accomplishment of this wondrous prophecy?

Verse 17. "I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for

brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever: the branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation, and the Lord will hasten it in his time."

I leave the premillennialist to reconcile this plain grammatical description of a state of Israel hitherto unseen, with the limited and exclusive system which, because in Gal. iii. 26-29, the apostle argues that Gentile believers are admitted into the covenant of grace equally with Jews, is forced to assert that the Jews, as a nation, have nothing to expect as such, and that in blessed of the less, or in the branches bear the root."

point of fact the greater is apostle's own words, "the

LECTURE V.

THE KINGLY POWER OF OUR LORD JESUS

CHRIST IN DIFFERENT SEASONS.

BY THE REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH,

RECTOR OF WATTON, HERTS.

ACTS II. 36.

"Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

THE general doctrine of the kingly power of Christ, in its vital and practical character, runs through all the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the writings of the New Testament. But the order of its development, and the steps of its exercise, are various. A just view of these is not essential to a saving Christian faith, nor is it, perhaps, easy to discern. Yet it is always profit

able to enlarge our meditations on the glory of Christ; it is well to search into the deep wisdom of God's holy providence, provided this search be ever connected with reverence, humility, and prayer. As we know Christ we know God; he is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person, and in the kingly dominion of our great Redeemer, we learn more of the hidden, supreme, and everlasting royalty and kingdom of God. He becomes manifested in us, and this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. May the Holy Spirit graciously assist us at this time, guide us into all truth, and make his own truth sanctifying and profitable!

There is an essential and eternal dominion of our Lord, as the Son of God, from everlasting, one with the Father, and a sharer in his Divine glory. But it is through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the person of the Godman, that this essential dominion becomes visibly manifested to the whole universe. And here we may distinguish distinct stages in the kingly power of Christ, marked by his life on earth, his ascension to God's right hand, his millennial reign, and his everlasting kingdom.

In this view, let us dwell on four seasons of the kingly power of our Lord. Those of,

1. His veiled glory.

2. His exaltation and forbearance.

3. His kingly conquest and triumph. 4. His perpetual peace and glory.

1. THE SEASON OF VEILED GLORY. Such was the whole period of our Lord's life on

earth.

birth.

He was really the King, even from his "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" was the inquiry of the wise men of the east. "Thou sayest that I am King," was his own good confession before Pontius Pilate. Nathaniel's testimony, when he became his disciple, was, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." He had all the characteristics of the predicted monarch that was to come. His personal holiness, his descent from the royal line of promise, and, more than all, his true Divinity, as the only-begotten Son of the Most High God, proved him the rightful King. Hence, the wise men from the east, when they fell down and worshipped the infant babe at Bethlehem, and presented to him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, only gave him the homage which was due to him. Hence the angels only proclaimed his actual dignity when they declared, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour; which is Christ the Lord."

But his hour was not come. The Jews were.