iS74] NEWMAN S THEORY OF PROPHECY 267 



should one time be restored ; and that, though its glories 

 were then setting, a morrow would come in due course, 

 and that a morrow without an evening. Has this promise 

 yet been fulfilled or no ? and if fulfilled, in what sense 

 fulfilled ? Many persons think it has not yet been 

 fulfilled at all, and is to be fulfilled in some future dispensa 

 tion or millennium ; and many think that it has indeed 

 been fulfilled, yet not literally, but spiritually and figura 

 tively ; or, in other words, that the promised reign of 

 Christ upon earth has been nothing more than the influence 

 of the Gospel over the souls of men, the triumphs of 

 Divine Grace, the privileges enjoyed by faith, and the 

 conversion of the elect. 



&quot; On the contrary, I would say that the prophecies in 

 question have in their substance been fulfilled literally, 

 and in the present Dispensation ; and, if so, we need no 

 figurative and no future fulfilment. Not that there may 

 not be both a figurative and a future accomplishment 

 besides ; but these will be over and above, if they take 

 place, and do not interfere with the direct meaning of the 

 sacred text and its literal fulfilment.&quot; 1 



Such is Mr. Newman s general position a literal 

 fulfilment in the present dispensation of the Old Testa 

 ment hopes of theocratic glory. In the promises thus to 

 be fulfilled are to be enumerated, not only such spiritual 

 promises as the giving of a new Covenant and a law 

 written on the heart, but such as the following : &quot; David 

 shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house 

 of Israel, neither shall the priests the Levites want a man 

 before Me to offer burnt offerings . . . continually &quot; or, 

 &quot; Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth and the 

 mountain of the Lord of Hosts the holy mountain,&quot; and 

 so on. Particularly among the things literally fulfilled 

 fall &quot; a conquest, a kingdom, a body politic, a ritual, a 

 law.&quot; It is urged that, according to the words of James 

 at the Council of Jerusalem, the restoration of the fallen 

 tabernacle of David was in course of fulfilment in the 

 apostolic times in the conversion of the Gentiles. And 

 the fulfilment thus spoken of as present will also be 



1 J. H. Newman, Sermons bearing on Subjects of the Day, pp. 180- 

 181, ed. 1869. 



