Israel. So that the patronymic Israel, which, in its generic application, comprehended all the descendants of Jacob, was made use of as the specific appellation of the ten associated tribes.

As the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were descended from Jacob, the patronymic Israel, in its generic application, belonged to them, as well as to the ten other tribes to whom that name was applied as a specific distinction. Thus the patronymic Israel, if employed in a generic sense, belongs equally to all the descendants of the patriarch Israel; while, in its specific sense, it denotes, exclusively, the ten tribes which separated themselves from Judah and Benjamin.

The capital of the kingdom of Israel was Samaria'; while Jerusalems was the capital of the kingdom of Judah.

The tribe of Ephraim was the chief among the ten tribes which constituted the kingdom of Israel; and in the division of country occupied by this tribe, was situated the capital Samaria. Hence it is, that Ephraim, and Samariak, are each employed to denote the kingdom of Israel.

e 1 Kings, xv. 17. 2 Kings, xvii. 6, 13, 23.

f 1 Kings, xvi. 29.

8 1 Kings, xiv. 21.

i Isaiah, vii. 2. Jere. vii. 15. Ezek. xxxvii. 16. Hosea, vii. 1.

* Isaiah, vii. 9; ix. 9.

h 1 Chron. v. 1, 2. Gen. Ezek. xvi. 46. Hosea, vii. 1.

The people of the kingdom of Judah were called Jews1.

The kingdom of Judah comprehended not only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but also the Levites, who were not reckoned as one of the twelve tribes; and it also comprehended a great many Israelites who belonged to the ten other tribes". So that, as the appellation Jews denoted all the people of the kingdom of Judah, some persons of every tribe were comprehended under that appellation°.

The kingdom of Israel was dissolved, and its people were carried captive into Assyria, whence they never returned; and nothing is known respecting their descendants. The kingdom of Judah has long ceased to exist; but the people of Judah, the Jews, still exist, scattered over the globe.

After the dissolution of the kingdom of Israel, then, there was no longer an Israelitish people distinct from the Jews (or the people of the kingdom of Judah); so that, after that event, the patronymic Israel was frequently employed to denote the latter people. The Jews being the only Israelitish people then remaining, the name Israel was no longer applicable, in a

1 2 Kings, xvi. 6.

m 2 Chron. xiii. Ezra, i. 5. " 1 Kings, xii. 17. 2 Chron. xv. 9.

• See Acts, xxvi. 7. James,

i. 1.

P 2 Kings, xviì. 6, 18, 23.
Jere. v. 15. Ezek. vii. 2.

specific sense, to any of the seed of Jacob it was therefore employed, in its generic sense, to denote the only Israelites then existing as a people, namely the Jews; to whom the name Israel had, in this latter sense, always been applicable.

The name Israel is employed in its generic sense, figuratively, to denote the members of Christ's Church, who are styled by the Apostle, "the Israel of GOD." "They which are of faith, the same are the seed of Abrahams."

Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Judah, is employed, figuratively, throughout the prophetic writings, as Mount Zion also is, to denote the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born". The church of Christ is also called "new Jerusa lem"," and "Jerusalem which is above, in op position to "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Thus spiritual Jerusalem is opposed to temporal Jerusalem.

Gal. vi. 16. See Rev.

vii. 4.

• Gal. iii. 7.

t Isaiah, xxiv. 23; xxxiii. 20; lii. 1, 2. Jere. xxxi. 4. Joel, ii. 32; iii. 16, 17. Zech.

99

The "new Jerusalem" is "heavenly Jerusalem." So that, wherever the name Jerusalem occurs, as denoting the Church or spiritual kingdom of Christ, it is employed in a figurative and spiritual signification.

The name Judah is also used in a figurative sense (as Jerusalem and Zion also are), to denote the kingdom of Christ: "Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.-The Lord dwelleth in Zion"."

1

The Jews, the remnant of the temporal kingdom of Judah, are opposed to that spiritual kingdom, of which their former temporal kingdom and capital were figures. They are not members of the spiritual Judah and Jerusalem. Christ crucified, is to them a stumbling-block". "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly-but he is a Jew which is one inwardly";" the former is the temporal Jew, the latter the spiritual Jew, the dweller in the heavenly Judah and Jerusalem, a member of "the Israel of GOD." But the name Israel is used, in its generic signification, to denote the temporal Jews; while, in the same signification, used figuratively, it denotes the people of Christ's spiritual kingdom. Israel, then, used in its generic temporal signifi

• Hosea, i. 10. Gal. vi. 16.

cation, stands opposed to Israel employed in a generic spiritual sense. Thus, St. Paul says,

They are not all Israel which are of Israel;" in which passage, the first Israel denotes "the Israel of GOD," and is, consequently, used in a generic figurative sense; whereas the second Israel is employed in its generic temporal sense, to denote the seed of Jacob. "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel;" or, in other words, they are not all Christ's people who are of the seed of Jacob; for the true Israel is "the Israel of GOD;" the true Jew is the spiritual Jew; the true "children of Abraham" are they who have faith in Christ.

Thus Israel, in its generic temporal application, corresponds with temporal Judah; while Israel, in its generic figurative sense, corresponds with spiritual Judah; and the two latter are opposed to the two former.

As Israel (used specifically) and Judah, the two houses of the Israelites, comprehended all the seed of Jacob; so Israel (used specifically) coupled with Judah, comprehend, in a figurative sense, the whole " Israel of GOD."

Thus we find, that the patronymic Israel, as denoting a people, is employed in the following different and opposite significations:

f Rom. ix. 6.

• Rom. ii. 28, 29. Gal. iii. 7, 29.

h Isaiah, viii. 14.