eth in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.".

St. Matthew also expresses the sympathetic commiseration of our gracious Redeemer on beholding the obduracy of the Jewish nation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And Jesus said unto them, see ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Nothing in the world can more forcibly demonstrate the impartiality of Jehovah, than the above prophecy, and its accomplishment. It shews, that the favourite people of God had a day, and a very long day of probation ; that although the spirit of God strove with them long, it did not always so strive; that the divine justice, though

slow was sure that the heathens participated the blessings which the Jews by their obduracy forfeited; finally, that God will not continue to be imposed upon by Jew or gentile. If he has done this in the green tree, what will he not do to the dry? Hence, when God bears and forbears with the ingratitude and rebellion of nations and individuals, for a number of years, if he sees no signs of repentance, he gives them up to hardness of heart, by taking the light of his holy spirit entirely from them; than which a greater punishment cannot possibly be. Reader, permit me here to observe, that your eyes which now read these strictures, (which are intended for your happiness and God's glory) and which in a short time will be set in death, and this labour of my hand, which must soon be inactive in the grave, will all be in vain, if you do not apply them to your own case! You have seen how God gave the Jews a day of visitation, and that they abused, instead of improving that gracious day: the dreadful result of which may be

seen in the first department of this work. How then can you expect to escape, if you neglect so great salvation, and if you prove so ungrateful to so good a God, you cannot surely be so unreasonable as to expect, or hope that God would be so partial, as to punish the Jews, his favourite people, with such signal severity, and yet let Christians pass on in their ingratitude and rebellion, with impunity. The seed of grace (or the light of the spirit, or the little leaven, or the gospel, or, as it is sometimes called, the Word) is planted in every heart, pagan and Christian, for the purpose of bringing forth the fruit of righteousness, and that without respect of persons; so that every man, in every country, has an opportunity offered him, to escape the bitter pains of eternal death, by the munificence and impartiality of Jehovah; and if he dies, his hardness makes him die.

Thus, the sun-beams harden clay, while they soften wax; the same as the spirit of God softens one sinner, while

it hardens another. To those who listen to, and obey its still small voice in their hearts, it proves a melting and mollifying power; but contrariwise with those who refuse to listen thereunto. "Hence this is the condemnation of the world, that light has come, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” A man may have a perfect knowledge of the history, and yet be a stranger to the mystery of the death of Christ. He may preach ten thousand sermons, and write an hundred commentaries. He may cry, "lo here is Christ, and lo there he is ;" and "we are the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we;" and yet be an enemy to the cross of Christ, and a crucifier of Christ in his heart; the light of his spirit, and his still small voice, being equally despised. The fact is, let them learn what they will, and profess what they may, unless the holy spirit of Christ is in them, after all their theological performances, they are most certainly reprobates, as sayeth the apostle

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Paul-Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves: know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

Every one who harbours this divine spirit, however ignorant of literature, has a knowledge of himself and of the truth, than which a better knowledge cannot be; and every one who rejects this spirit, is in spiritual darkness, although he could repeat the whole Bible verbatim in Greek, or write it in Latin. Nothing is more plain from the whole tenor of Scripture, than that the grace of God has appeared to every man that has been, or is in the world: whether Christian, Jew, Greek, or barbarian. St. Paul in the most plain and pointed manner declares this truth, in his epistle to Titus."For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,righteously,and godly in this present world." This grace or spirit must

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