omised land, with which the people were threatened, had not been
completely fulfilled? It is true that, during the times of the Old
Covenant, there existed a certain connection betwixt the lower and the
higher kinds of possession. As soon as the people ceased to be the
people of the Lord, they lost with the former, after being often
previously warned by the decrease of it, the latter also. As soon as
they obtained again the lower kind of possession, which could happen
only in the case of a [Pg 228] return to the Lord, they recovered, to a
certain degree, in proportion to the earnestness and sincerity of their
conversion, the higher kind of possession also. A commencement of the
fulfilment must, therefore, be at all events assumed in the return from
the Babylonish captivity; but a very feeble commencement only. Just as
the conversion was very superficial, so was the degree of the higher
kind of possession but a very small one. The manifestations of mercy
were very sparing; the condition of the new colony was, upon the whole,
very poor; they did not possess the land as a free property, but only
under the dominion of a foreigner. That which was, in one respect,
the termination of the captivity, was, in another, much rather a
continuation of it. It was certainly not the true Canaan which they
possessed, any more than one still possesses the beloved object while
he embraces only his corpse. Where the Lord is not present with His
gifts and blessings, there Canaan cannot be. It was just as the land of
the presence of the Lord, that it was so dear and valuable to all
believers.--From what has now been said, it appears that, as regards
the historical reference, we need not limit ourselves to the times of
the Old Covenant, nor dream of a return of Israel to Canaan to take
place at some future time. Luther's explanation, "They will go up from
this place of pilgrimage to the heavenly father-land," is quite
correct,--not indeed according to the letter, but according to the
spirit. It is not the form, but the essence of the divine inheritance,
which the prophet has in view. The form is a different one under the
New Covenant, where the whole earth has become a Canaan; but the
essence remains. To cling here to the form, would be just as absurd as
if one, who, for Christ's sake, has forsaken all, were to upbraid Him
because he had not received again, according to the letter of His
promise, precisely an hundred-fold, lands, brothers, siste