Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Jonathan Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption in Works, Vol. 1, p. 487:
Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews is in the 11th chapter of Romans.
One theme that is prevalent throughout the sayings and writings of Samuel Rutherford is the ardent desire and certain but prayerful expectation that the Jews will one day be converted en masse.
"The Spouse's Longing for Christ" (Song of Sol. 5.3-6) in Quaint Sermons, p. 86:
O! for to see that great stumbling-block that stands into the way of Christian religion tane [taken] out of the way, and then to see the people of the Jews brought in again to Christ, their old Husband, and married upon Him, and the fulness of the Gentiles! O! to see our Redeemer Christ have one fair day of it in the world; to see Jew and Gentile married on Christ, and to see His dominions going from the East to the West and from sea to sea, and to see the whole earth in one sheepfold, obeying the voice of one Shepherd! That is the blessedest day that ever we saw if it were come, and we should pray to the Lord to hasten it that so that may be fulfilled which the Lord promises.
Letters, XII, p. 49:
I have been, this time by-passed, thinking much of the incoming of the Kirk of the Jews. Pray for them. When they were in their Lord's house, at their Father's elbow, they were longing for the coming of their Little Sister, the Kirk of the Gentiles. They said to their Lord, (Cant. viii. ver. 8,) "We have a little Sister, and she hath no breasts; what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?" Let us give them a mettering. What shall we do for our elder Sister, the Jews? Lord Jesus give them breasts! That were a glad day, to see us and them both set down at one table, and Christ at the head of the table. Then would our Lord come shortly with his fair guard, to hold his great court.
Letters, XXVI, p. 72:
I am confident, madam, that our Lord will yet build a new house to himself of our rejected and scattered stones; for our Bridegroom cannot want a wife. Can he live a widower? Nay he will embrace both us, the Little young Sister, and the Elder Sister, the Church of the Jews; and there will yet be a day of it: and, therefore, we have cause to rejoice, yea, to sing and shout for joy.
Letters, XXXIX, p. 89:
Oh, to see the sight next to Christ's coming in the clouds, the most joyful! our elder brethren, the Jews, and Christ fall upon one another's necks, and kiss each other! They have been long asunder, they will be kind to one another when they meet: O day! O longed for, and lovely day, dawn! O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight that will be as life from the dead, thee and thy ancient people in mutual embraces!
Letters, CXCIV, p. 303:
Oh, what could my soul desire more, next to my Lord Jesus, while I am in this flesh, but that Christ and his kingdom might be great among Jews and Gentiles; and that the isles, (and amongst them overclouded and darkened Britain,) might have the glory of a noon-day's sun!
Letters, CCLXXXVIII, p. 460:
We do welcome Ireland and England to our Well-beloved. We invite you, O Daughters of Jerusalem, to come down to our Lord's garden, and seek our Well-beloved with us; for his love will suffice both you and us. We do send you love-letters over the sea, to request you to come and to marry our King, and to take part of our bed; and we trust our Lord is fetching a blow upon the Beast, and the scarlet-colored Whore, to the end that he may bring in his ancient Widow-wife, our dear sister, the Church of the Jews. Oh, what a heavenly heaven were it to see them come in by this mean, and suck the breasts of their little sister, and renew their old love with their first Husband, Christ our Lord! They are booked in God's word, as a bride contracted upon Jesus! Oh, for a sight, in this flesh of mine, of the prophesied marriage between Christ and them! The kings of Tarshish, and of the Isles must bring presents to our Lord Jesus, (Psal. lxxii. 10.) And Britain is one of the chiefest isles; why then but we may believe, that our kings of this Island shall comin, and bring their glory to the New Jerusalem, wherein Christ shall dwell in the latter days? It is our part to pray, "That the kingdoms of the earth may become Christ's."
Letters, CCXCIV, p. 479:
Oh, what joy and what glory would I judge it, if my heaven should be suspended, till I might have leave to run on foot to be a witness of that marriage-glory, and see Christ put on the glory of his last married bride, and his last marriage-love on earth; when he shall enlarge his love-bed, and set it upon the top of the mountains, and take in the Elder Sister, the Jews, and the fulness of the Gentiles!
Letters, CCXCV, p. 482:
I shall be glad to be a witness to behold the kingdoms of the world become Christ's. I could stay out of Heaven many years, to see that victorious, triumphing Lord act that prophesied part of his soul-conquering love, in taking into his kingdom the Greater Sister, that Kirk of the Jews, who sometimes, courted our Well-beloved for her Little Sister, (Cant. viii. 8;) to behold him set up as an ensign and banner of love, to the ends of the world.
Testimony to the Covenanted Work of Reformation from 1638 to 1649 in Britain and Ireland:
The royal prerogative of Christ is pulled from his head, and after all the days of sorrow we have seen, we have just cause to fear we shall be made to read and eat that book, wherein is written Mouring, and Lamentation, and Woe. Yet we are to believe, Christ will not so depart from the land, but a remnant shall be saved; and he shall reign a victorious conquering King, to the ends of the earth. O that there were nations, kindreds, tongues, and all the people of Christ's habitable world, encompassing his throne with cries and tears from the spirit of supplication, to be poured down upon the inhabitants of Judah for that effect.
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