leave us wholly uncertain (even were every other point settled) by at least seven years, as to the time of the end. Observe in plate 2, Figure 7, while the cancelled week is expressed, this last week is omitted, owing to my uncertainty as to where it should stand with regard to the cycle in question. 2nd Ques tion answer Then there is another question which has been asked with regard to this period. Why, it has been said, should the fore- ed. going periods of Israel's servitude, (those, I mean, in the days of the Judges, and likewise that of the Babylonish captivity,) be treated as blanks, while the present age of Israel's blindness is reckoned as forming an integral part of the great circle of time? Why at those times were the years, as we have seen (see page 84), altogether suspended; while it is otherwise now, inasmuch as two thousand years, or four cycles, are here shown, as intervening not only so, but the grace of God being despised by his people, that the consequence was, that as to time, they found themselves just where they were at the outset, while as yet in the loins of their forefather Abraham. Certain it is, that the time of Israel's blessing was delayed for a season, it being decreed that two thousand years of alienation and blindness should pass over this people before they should learn that Jesus of Nazareth, after all, was their expected Messiah. This is, I believe, the secret of the current notion as to the age of the world at the period in question. The Jews, it is said, corrupted their scriptures; they themselves, in their folly, shortened the time, let us say, from six thousand to four thousand years. If this be the case, it is a delusion on their part-but, I ask, does not the Lord allow the delusion? Does he not leave their corrupt view of chronology to pass current awhile in the world, because, morally speaking, they have, by their rejection of Christ, thrown themselves back two thousand years short of the period of blessing? Supposing, then, this to be the truth, it most expressively marks the displeasure of God on the one hand, and on the other hand it allows of a sufficient period of time wherein the Lord can show mercy to the world at large, to bring in the Gentiles; and not only so, but by means of the present space between the first and second coming of Christ, He is enabled to supply the place of Israel's lost ages, and so to fill up his own pre-ordained period-THE GREAT WEEK OF TIME. And as to this period, let me observe in conclusion, that if we consider this subject in reference to ISRAEL, in one point of view, regarding the Jewish ages as cancelled; or in reference to ISRAEL AGAIN, in another aspect, and also to the CHURCH OF GOD, upon earth, treating the present time as no period at all, but as an interruption in time,-in both cases God's original thought of "THE WEEK" is preserved-the world's age altogether is just SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS. The annexed DIAGRAM is given in order to illustrate this subject, presenting the week in the three aspects above named-first, as seen in God's purpose (see figure 1); and then again as marred and interrupted through the failure of man (see figures 2 and 3). The above observations, the reader will see, are altogether confined to the moral view of the question. The Chronology of the earlier ages of the world I have not considered; but it seems allowed on all hands, that in our common version there are difficulties as to the dates which are not found in the Septuagint. R between Christ's first and last advent? This may be answered as follows:-The present age, though a blank, it is true, in the history of God's dealings with Israel, and of the earth, as the dwelling-place of that people in preeminence and honour, is not so in the history of God's dealings with the world at large; being on the contrary, the predetermined period of God's grace, which he meant to bring in after the weakness and evil of man, as shown in the rejection of Christ by the Jews, had been fully evinced; and it differs widely from all former captivities, inasmuch as it came in at the time when God's trial of Israel was completed-after the great offer of mercy which was to determine their fate for the present had been made in the person of Christ, and rejected, this being his purpose of long-suffering towards them. The seven periods of servitude, &c. on the other hand, took place before Israel had been fully tested, so as to be left without excuse, and consequently before the purposed time of grace to the Gentiles had come in; they, therefore, were not suffered to form a part of the former period of God's long-suffering towards Israel, because they were seasons of righteous judgment brought about by the sin of the nation, wholly unconnected with the ostensible purpose of God. In this we see how wonderfully God's grace triumphed over the wilfulness of blind infatuated Israel. Each of the periods was a gracious warning against their forthcoming rejection of Jesus and their consequent scattering abroad, but were not suffered to infringe upon or shorten the purposed time of Israel's probation. The Sabbat ical year. THE SABBATICAL YEAR AND THE JUBILEE. AND now before I proceed I must speak more at large on a subject often touched upon here, namely, the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee,-both types, it is needless to say, of the coming kingdom of Christ. As to the SABBATICAL YEAR, it is spoken of thus in the word: "When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord. Thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard; that which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed for it is a year of rest unto the land." (Lev. xxv. 2-5.) This is most beautiful. Here we have a type of the whole of man's history, whether in a national sense, as to Israel of old, between whom and the Lord the sabbath, we know, was a sign: or individually, with regard to all the Lord's people. Six years, we here see, they laboured, and then, at the close, in the Sabbatical year, or "year of release" as it is termed in Deuteronomy xv. 9, the land was to rest, and to bring forth fruit of itself; while all debtors in Israel were to be delivered from bondage. How blessed all this. How worthy of Him with whom mercy ever rejoices over judgment; and who made promise to Abraham, and sware by himself that he would bless him and his seed. of Jubilee. But in the JUBILEE we have a fuller type of man's history The year still-of man, I of course mean, brought into association with God. And now let us look, Leviticus xxv. 8-12, where the Jubilee is spoken of as follows: " And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty nine years : then thou shalt cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a JUBILEE unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A Jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed for it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy unto you ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field, &c." How full, how blessed is this! What a type of the Lord's way with his people! Seven times seven, or forty nine years rolled on, we here see; this period being marked in its course at regular intervals by seven sabbaths of rest to the land, each (like a foretaste of heaven to us) being a pledge of the sabbatic rest of the Jubilee, of the year of redemption, at which time all lands which had been alienated, returned to their rightful possessors, so that the whole was re-settled just as it was at the outset, when Canaan was divided by Joshua among the children of Israel. Such at least was the law; of the word Jubilee. but considering how selfish, how hard, how unbelieving, is man's heart by nature, it was morally impossible that Israel ever could, except in a very partial manner, have kept it. Etymology And now having considered the character of this blessed and beautiful ordinance, I next turn to consider the meaning of our English word Jubilee. The Hebrew word Yovel (from whence it is taken) is by many believed, (and rightly, I suppose, from the nature of the ordinance,) to be derived from The Threefold Supply Year. Yaval, in Hiphil, Hovil, which signifies to recal, to restore, to bring back. Such appears to have been the meaning of the word as understood by the septuagint translators, who render the word Jovel by aquas, a remission, and by Josephus, who says it signifies λevlepia, liberty. But here, before I go further, let us just look at a most in the Sixth interesting point in this chapter; in verses 20-22, we read as follows: "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase; then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit FOR THREE YEARS. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.” What an answer was this to the question here contemplated“What shall we eat the seventh year?" How suited to silence all distrust of the goodness of God. It was just what was needed; more would have been too much for the purpose, and nothing less would have done than a supply of the kind— a threefold supply. First, because the sixth year itself, like every other year, had to be provided for.-Then secondly, in the seventh or Sabbatical year, when no labour was done, the need of the people had to be supplied; and then lastly, owing to the full rest of the foregoing year, a famine must of necessity have followed, had not the provision reached down to the end of the third-namely, the eighth year. And here let me answer a question which has been asked on this subject:-Did they sow in the sixth year, if there was to be no harvest the next year? And if they did, what became of the crop? In answer to this I reply, that the word of God on this point is decisive," Six years thou shalt sow thy field" (verse 3): thus they did sow in this year, and though what was sown was not reaped, it is true, the crop was not on this account lost.--No, because it sprung |