Is. 54, 7.  “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer.  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me.  For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, go have I sworn, that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.  For the mountains shall [or “may”] depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.—­All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.  In righteousness shalt thou be established.  Thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come nigh thee.  No weapon formed against thee, shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

Here, as also in Moses, and other Prophets, an establishment in righteousness is promised to the Israelites, such as shall secure their future prosperity; and this promise has not yet been fulfilled.  The promise of future virtue as connected with their future happiness, is also clearly expressed in Jer. ch. iii. 18.

Had the Jewish nation become extinct, or likely to become so, it might, with some plausibility, have been said by Christians, that the purposes of God concerning them were actually fulfilled, and, therefore, that the words of the promise must have had some other signification than that which was most obvious.  But the Jews are as much a distinct people as they ever were, and therefore seem reserved for some future strange destination.

On the whole, it must be allowed, that the settlement of Israel in the land of Canaan, foretold with such emphasis by the Prophets, is a settlement which has not yet taken place, but may take place in that period so frequently, and so emphatically, distinguished by the title of “the latter days;” and therefore that whatever is said of Jewish customs, or modes of worship in “the latter days?” is a proof of the meant restoration of their ancient religious rites.

That the institutions of the Mosaic Law are to be continued on the restoration of the Jews to their own land after their utter dispersion, is asserted by Moses himself in one of the passages already quoted; but is more clearly expressed by the subsequent Prophets.  In some of their prophecies, particular mention is made of the observance of Jewish festivals, and of sacrifices; and in Ezechiel we find a description of a magnificent Temple, which being closely connected with his prophecy of the future happy state of the Israelites in their own land, cannot be understood of any other than a Temple which is then, according to the Hebrew Prophets, to be reared with greater magnificence than ever.  Mention is also made of “the Glory of the Lord,” or that effulgent Shechinah which was the symbol of the divine presence, filling this Temple, as it did that of Solomon.