blooded calculations of a worldly policy, operating on the minds of those who have cast off all religion! And if the Jews are to be held up to reprobation for a persecuting spirit, I beseech you let the nations of Greece and Rome, of France and of England, partake of the condemnation.

But I should not do justice to this subject, were I to satisfy myself with showing that the Jews were not worse than the other nations of antiquity. The blessed effects of the Divine law and institutions of Israel were great, both over that consecrated people, and the most celebrated nations with whom, by the wise providence of God, they were connected.

If you judge of them not by partial periods, but by their general history, from their commencement to the coming of the Messiah, they will be found to have risen in character, and in morals, and every quality which contributes to the happiness of a people, far above the most improved of the other nations of the world. Among them alone do you see, for many ages, any approach to true piety and holiness of character. Among them alone do you see numbers separating themselves from surrounding corruptions and devoting themselves to the service of God. In this people only do you witness contrition for sin, holy resolutions, the prayer of the penitent, the warm thanksgivings of gratitude to the great Creator, the dedication of the heart and life to God. The general manners of the nation were marked by a moral purity superior to every other people. The enormities which disgraced the gentile world were contemplated by them with horror, and punished with exemplary severity. A spirit of humanity also pervaded their intercourse with one another, and examples of tenderness. and compassion will be seen, both among the laws and customs of the nation of Israel, which have never been surpassed. Among this nation there was no exposure of children, no massacres of slaves, no bloody shows of gladiators. And in the periods of greatest declensions, we still see amongst them traces of a moral character and sentiment superior to the

nations around them. Hated as they often were, from the peculiar nature of their laws, we yet find testimonies to their superiority in morals and religion, both among the gentile rulers, and some of the most celebrated authors of antiquity. If now we see them despised, persecuted, and dispersed throughout every quarter, let us not expect that poor human nature should not sometimes retaliate-that insults should not produce resentment-oppression should not lead to caution and artifice-that ill usage should not produce its effects on the mind of a Jew, that it does on every other human being; nor let us look for the openness of friendship from men whose feelings have been thrown back, swollen and recoiling, upon their hearts, by wrongs succeeding wrongs, throughout many generations.

By various events and arrangements, God, we further observe, made that favoured people the means of improving the other nations of the earth. Many were the converts made to the religion of Israel: and the truths and promises which the Scriptures contain were made known through every quarter. The knowledge of the character, will, and designs of God, and that sense of guilt and insufficiency which such knowledge is fitted to produce, made the law in various ways a schoolmaster unto Christ, and prepared the world for his coming. Accordingly, we are informed, at the first preaching of the Gospel, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, all were assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast and to worship the true God. The preachers of the Gospel, therefore, when they passed the boundaries of Judea and Samaria, found every where considerable numbers prepared by previous knowledge to hear the word of the Lord; and like him who, returning from Jerusalem on his journey, they read Esaias the prophet, and when Jesus was preached unto him, an

swered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Nay, some acquaintance with the promises made to the fathers extended to many who continued under pagan idolatry. And we are informed by two heathen historians, that in the East a general expectation prevailed, "of a king who should appear in Judea and obtain universal dominion."

Nor should the judgments of God against the Jewish nation, for their disobedience, deter us from employing every mean for promoting their conversion.

Were you to maintain that, because they are justly suffering the sentence pronounced against them, that therefore any endeavour for their conversion and amelioration is to oppose ourselves to God, and must fail of success-were we to maintain this, we would have you to consider that, for the same reason, we should not seek the conversion of any nation, or of any sinful and unbelieving individual. For, is not every sinner doomed to punishment: yet is not every sinner called to repentance?-Nay, is not the punishment designed to turn them from their iniquities, and are not the servants of God sent forth for the purpose of their conversion? Are the Jews excepted from this general rule? This was not the doctrine, nor the practice, nor the example of the apostles. On the contrary, as we have seen, immediately after the crucifixion of the Saviour, the apostles addressed the people of Israel; and called upon them to repent and be converted, and offered them forgiveness and salvation in the name of Christ. So far were they from being discouraged in seeking their conversion, that to them first the words of life, as we have seen, were appointed to be spoken. "Unto your first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from his iniquities." In like manner, we observed, you find the great apostle unto the gentiles, wherever he went, addressed himself first to the people of Israel. Though he was set apart for the instruction and conversion of the gentiles, he never ceased to address himself to the Jews wherever he found them-giving to each their portion in due sea

son-teaching the gentile converts to love and to respect them "making of twain one body in Christ, so making peace."

And what heart is so hard that the grace of God has not subdued? Or are they at present more obstinate in unbelief than in the time of the apostles? Are they worse than those who killed the Lord of life? Yet to them, as we have seen, was the Gospel preached. And from among them was not the question heard, Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? Nay, was it not from among them that many received the gift of the Holy Ghost by the hands of the apostles?

Without doubt the Jews have been under the just judgment of God. And, did we seek to bring them blessings on account of their innocence and righteousness, you might justly deny their claim. But the Gospel is a system of mercy and grace. The Saviour came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He died for the ungodly. And now in heaven, he still seeks to save that which was lost. Were such a measure as some men would apply to the Jews meted out to themselves, we might then cry out, with the first disciples, Who then could be saved?

So far is this from being the case, that there are circumstances connected with the Jewish people which render their conversion an object of special hope and expectation.

We argue this from the long period and severity of their sufferings.

If their punishment has been long and severe, should they not be in the same proportion the objects of our compassion: should we not expect that their season of suffering is approaching its termination, and the probability of success be augmented? Our duty obviously is, respecting every individual and every nation, to follow the command of our Lord and his apostles, and to do good as God gives the opportunity: to embrace with joy every mean which is afforded us for converting the nations which sit in darkness, whether they be of the gentiles or the lost sheep of

the house of Israel; and the greatness of the evils they have endured should quicken our compassion and endeavours.

But besides these general views, there are also some of a special and singular order which are peculiar to the Jewish people. As peculiar threatenings have been denounced against them, so also peculiar promises have been made to them; and as the passions of wicked nations have rendered them the fit instruments for executing Divine judgments, so the compassion and the zeal for promoting the cause of Christ, which distinguish Christians, render them fit instruments for accomplishing the designs of mercy. Attend then to some of these promises.

At the giving of the law by Moses, when those judgments were threatened which have been so awfully executed, the promises of mercy and returning favour were also given. Read for this purpose some passages from the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy-" And it shall come to pass when those things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee." Read also from the prophecies of Zechariah, xii. 10-" And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth for an only child." Observe also the promise made in the 36th chapter of the prophecies of Ezekiel: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave unto your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." "And it shall come to pass in that day," said the pro