before us. It is repeatedly applied to Christ in the New Testament, as marking out with precision the very place where he should be born. In explaining it therefore as referring to his spiritual kingdom, we cannot err. The enemies of God's people of old were typical of those spiritual enemies with which his people have to contend in every age. And it is certain that the ene mies of our souls may prevail for a season in a very alarming degree. But when sin and Satan make their fiercest assaults, even then will Christ maintain our peace, 1. By the merit of his blood [This it is which enables us to behold all our guilt without terror or despondency: this it is which enables us to answer the accuser of the brethren, "Who is he that shall condemn, since Christ has died1?" In this view especially is Christ called our peace," since" he made peace for us by the blood of his cross; and every one of us by believing in Him shall have peace with Godm.] 66 99 2. By the prevalence of his intercession— [The prayers of Hezekiah and Isaiah were effectual for the peace of Jerusalem, even while the besiegers encompassed it": and in answer to them, one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army were slain by an angel in one night. What then may not be expected from the prayers of our adorable Redeemer? Shall not he prevail, seeing that "He ever liveth on purpose to make intercession for us?" To this, as to an inexhaustible source of consolation, we are taught to look, under the conflicts which we are called to sustain; " If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation for our sins." 3. By the sufficiency of his grace 99 [We may be reduced to a more perilous condition than even Jerusalem itself, and yet find peace in the consideration, that Christ is all-sufficient, and that "through him we shall be more than conquerors. We can scarcely conceive a more distressing experience than that of Paul under the buffetings of Satan: yet this word, "My grace is sufficient for thee," was able to turn his desponding sorrows into joy and triumph'. In k ver. 2. with Matt. ii. 6. and John vii. 42. m Rom. v. 1. P Heb. vii. 25. 1 Rom. viii. 34. • Isai. xxxvii. 36. r 2 Cor. xii. 9. like manner we also may go forth with confidence against all our enemies, saying with him, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me"."] 4. By the inviolableness of his promise [To all his people is that word addressed, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake theet?" And can we find one instance wherein he has ever violated that blessed promise? May we not then adopt that inspired inference, and say, "I will not fear what flesh can do unto me"?" If the Apostles, when almost overwhelmed in a storm, were blameworthy for entertaining fears while Christ was with them in the vessel, much more must we be faulty, if we give way to discouraging apprehensions of ruin, when the word of Christ is pledged for our security. Relying on his word, we have an anchor which will keep us steadfast in the midst of all the storms and tempests that can assault our souls.] APPLICATION [Let every one then seek to know this "Prince of Peace." To "acquaint ourselves with him is the way to be at peace." If we know him not, we cannot flee to him for refuge: but if we "trust in him, he will keep us in perfect peace."] THE JEWS A BLESSING TO THE WORLD. Micah v. 7. The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men. IN this chapter we have as explicit a prophecy respecting Christ, as any that is to be found in all the sacred volume. His person is described in terms that can belong to none but Jehovah himself: "His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." The place of his nativity is expressly foretold, and so plainly mentioned, that all the Scribes and Pharisees at the time of our Saviour's birth considered it as an indisputable point, that their Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem; and not in the Bethlehem that was a ver. 2. in the land of Zabulon, but in Bethlehem Ephratah, which was in the land of Judah. The establishment of his kingdom over the face of the whole earth was farther predicted"; and not only is the final restoration of the Jews to a participation of it declared, but their agency in the conversion of the Gentile world is distinctly asserted'. Whatever accomplishment the words of our text received in the apostolic age by the preaching of the Apostles and their immediate converts, they have respect to a period far remote from that age, a period yet future: they refer to a time, when Jehovah will gather his people from the four winds, and reign over them in their own land"; a time, when they shall vanquish all their enemies, as easily as a young lion prevails over a flock of sheep"; but shall be as rich blessings to others, as the dew or rain is to the thirsty earth. To place this subject in a proper point of view, it will be necessary to shew, I. The original design of God in their dispersion Once they were numerous as the stars of heaven : but now they are reduced to a small "remnant;" and are scattered over the face of the whole earth. This judgment is designed of God, 1. To punish their iniquities [Great and manifold were their transgressions, which caused them to be carried captive to Assyria and Babylon: but greater far has been their guilt in rejecting their Messiah, and "crucifying the Lord of glory:" and for that they have now been carried captive amongst all nations, and been reduced to the lowest state of degradation for the space of more than seventeen hundred years. The punishment inflicted for this crime is such as was foretold by Moses himself1, and such as our blessed Lord also warned them to expect. The Jews themselves see and acknowledge, that the hand of God is upon them on account of their sins: and it is God's intention that his dispensations towards them should be viewed in this light by every nation under heaven'.] 2. To bring them to repentance 66 [In this present world the judgments which God inflicts are all intended for good. It was for their good" that God sent his people into captivity in Babylon": and for their good he has now scattered them over the face of the earth. The punishment inflicted on Levi for his cruelty to the Shechemites, was, that he and his family should have no lot among the tribes of Israel, but be scattered amongst them all": yet was that overruled for their greater honour; they being appointed to minister in the sanctuary before the Lord; and pre-eminently honoured, as having the Lord himself for their portion. In like manner, though the present dispersion of the Jews is a heavy judgment, God inflicts it, not as the sentence of an inexorable Judge, but as the correction of a loving Parent: and the very circumstance of his transferring his regards from them to the Gentile world, is a yet farther expression of his parental love, it being designed to provoke his deserted people to jealousy, and thus to bring them to a renewed enjoyment of their forfeited inheritance. "They are cast off only for a season;" and, "if they abide not in unbelief, they shall yet again be grafted on their own stem," from which they have been broken off.] But in the prophecy before us, our attention is particularly called to, II. The ulterior purposes which they are destined to accomplish The dew and rain are sent by God to fertilize the earth: and in like manner are the Jews dispersed throughout the world, 1. As witnesses for him [Whoever beholds a Jew, beholds a witness of the proper Deity of Jehovah. The whole of his history attests, that the Lord Jehovah is Lord of lords, and God of gods. Who amongst the gods of the heathen could ever have done for their votaries what Jehovah has done for his chosen people? Who amongst them could have predicted every thing that should befall them during the space of many thousand years? Who could have preserved their worshippers, as Jehovah has preserved his, unmixed with the people amongst whom they are scattered, and as distinct from all other people m Jer. xxiv. 5. and Mic. iv. 10. • Numb. xviii. 2-24. Rom. xi. 23, 24. n Gen. xlix. 5—7. P Rom. xi. 11. 9 Rom. xi. 25, 26. s Isai. lv. 10. as they were when embodied in the land of Canaan? Other nations, that have been subdued and carried captive, have been blended at last with the inhabitants of the countries where they sojourned; but the Jews still, as formerly, "dwell alone" in the midst of the earth, as it was foretold they should do. Hence they, above all people, are witnesses of his godhead. And in this view God himself appeals to them, yea, and appeals to the whole universe on the authority of their testimony". We may say then of the Jews in every place throughout the world, that they are living epistles from God to man, yea, are epistles known and read of all men;" so that, whatever be the language of the country where they live, they do unwittingly, yet most intelligibly and unquestionably, proclaim, "The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God." 66 They are witnesses also of all his glorious perfections. Who that sees a Jew can help seeing in him the power and love, which God manifested to his fathers in all the wonders of his grace; in their very origin from parents, who, according to the course of nature, could have had no children; in bringing them forth also out of the land of Egypt, and carrying them in safety to the promised land, and, in short, in all his other dealings with them to the present moment? Who can but see also the purity and holiness of Jehovah, as marked in the judgments inflicted on them? Is it not evident, that they are monuments of God's wrath; and that, though God may spare long, he will at last visit the offences of his rebellious people? Above all, Who that sees a Jew, does not see in him the truth and faithfulness of Jehovah? God promised, that for Abraham's sake he would not utterly cast them off: and, notwithstanding all their provocations, he still preserves them, in order to their future restoration to their own land, and their renewed enjoyment of his special favour. David, expatiating on all the glorious perfections of God, interrupts, as it were, his song by what appears, at first sight, to be an unsuitable and irrelevant observation; "He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel"." But this one observation speaks more than the whole psalm besides; for it embodies all that is more particularly expressed, and gives, what we may call, a graphical exhibition, or picture, of the Divine character; and in the fewest possible words shews us, what will be God's conduct towards his people to the end of time. Precisely thus the sight of a Jew gives us a compendious view of all the Divine perfections, and sets God himself, as it were, almost visibly before our eyes.] Numb. xxiii. 9. u Isai. xliii. 9—12. and xliv. 6-9. y Ps. ciii. 7. |