cularly evident
from the words: "They will not miss it, neither shall it be made
again." To this argument we may still add that, by this exposition, not
even the object is gained for the sake of which it was advanced. The
nature and substance of the Ark of the Covenant is destroyed, as soon
as it is put on a level with anything else. It is then no more _the_
throne of the Lord; and for this reason, the previous form can no
longer continue to exist, and, along with it, the temple and priesthood
too must fall. If every place in Jerusalem, if every inhabitant of it,
be equally holy, how then can institutions still continue, which are
based on the difference between holy and unholy?--Here a question still
arises. There was no Ark of the Covenant in the second temple. In what
relation to the prophecy under consideration stands this absence of the
Ark of the Covenant, the restoration of which the Jews expect at the
end of the days? There cannot be any doubt that it was really wanting.
Every proof of its existence is wanting. _Josephus_, in enumerating the
catalogue of the _spolia Judaica_, borne before in the triumph, does
not mention it. He says expressly (de Bell. Jud. v. 5, Sec. 5), that the
holy of holies had been altogether empty. Some of the Jewish writers
assert that it had been carried away to Babylon; while most of them,
following the account given in 2 Maccabees, tell us that Josiah or
Jeremiah had concealed it; compare the Treatise by _Calmet_, Th. 6, S.
224-258, _Mosh._ In asking _why_ such was the case, other analogous
phenomena, the absence of the _Urim and Thummim_, the cessation of
prophetism soon after the return from the captivity, must not be lost
sight of. Every thing was intended to impress upon the people the
conviction that their condition was provisional only. It was necessary
that the Theocracy should sink beneath its former glory, in order that
the future glory, which was far to outshine it, should so much the more
be longed for. After having thus determined _why_ it was that the Ark
of the Covenant was wanting, at the second temple, it is easy to [Pg
393] determine the relation of this absence to the prophecy under
consideration. It was the beginning of its fulfilment. In the Kingdom
of God, nothing perishes, without something new arising out of this
decay. The extinction of the old was the guarantee, that something new
was approaching. On the other hand, the absence of the Ark of the
Covenant was, i