TO THE JUNIOR STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, THIS SERMON IS INSCRIBED BY THEIR FAITHFUL FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. 2 SAMUEL vii. 23. What one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods ? THIS grateful appeal of the holy David to his Almighty Benefactor, who by the mouth of his prophet had just promised stability to his throne and permanence to his family, strongly marks the preeminent distinction of the Israelites among the nations of the earth, as the chosen people of God; rescued by stupendous miracles not only from Egyptian bondage, but from the arms and the abominations of their heathen neighbours, and securely established in their land, as the sole depositories of the true religion, the sole witnesses of God's name, in the midst of an idolatry otherwise hopeless and universal. To the Christian they present an object of still higher interest, as the favoured race, to whom " were committed the oracles of God";"" of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came ";" whose Prophets foretold his glorious advent; whose Law foreshadowed by its types the substantial blessings of the Gospel dispensation; whose Scriptures are the inspired records of revealed truth;-who moreover, though exiled for apostasy and unbelief, they have for ages been "scattered among the nations," still subsist, for purposes yet unfulfilled in the scheme of Providence, in a state scarcely less marvellous than their sojourn in the Arabian wilderness; and still depend with undiminished and well-founded confidence on the prophetic assurances of a restoration to the land of their fathers. What then, let me ask, are the feelings, what the views and motives, what the leading care, which should possess the mind of that man, who undertakes to illustrate the history of such a people, and to unfold for that purpose the volume of acknowledged inspiration? A settled reverence for his inspired authority; a sincere desire to promote the glory of God, and the interests of religion; and an a Rom. iii. 2. b Rom. ix. 5. |