bringing it to pass, will all serve to confirm the truth of prophesy, and the inspiration of the whole canon of scripture. This event will unite the testimony of all nations and all events for two thousand years together, in favour of divine revelation. It will strike learned and unlearned infidels dumb, in every part of the world, where the Jews had resided, and from which they shall be taken and carried to the holy land, where Christ was crucified, and where the gospel of his grace was first published. Nor will this event give less evidence of the truth of christianity to Mahometans than to infidels. It must carry conviction to all men, that the bible is the word of God, and christianity the only true and divine religion. In this view, the restoration of the Jews is a most desirable event; and it may become still more important before it takes place, by reason of the great spread of infidelity among the nations called christian. It is not improbable, that the Jews will be converted and restored at the very time that infidelity shall rise to its height and threaten the entire extinction of christianity. How happy for the world will it be, if the restoration of the Jews should silence atheists, deists, and all descriptions of infidels, and establish the truth of divine revelation in the minds of all unbelievers.

2. The restoration of the Jews will not only confirm the truth of divine revelation, but awaken all nations from their long infatuation and stupidity, and fix their attention on the great realities of the future and eternal world. This is more than intimated by the apostle, who says, "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the gentiles; how much more their fulness?

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" According to this lively representation, the restoration of the Jews shall have a greater tendency to convert mankind to christianity, than their dispersion had. And we know that their dispersion broke down the middle wall of partition between them and the gentile world, and opened the way for spreading the gospel far and wide among other nations. The same effect, but in a greater degree, shall be produced, the apostle tells us, by their restoration. As their dispersion was a means of reconciling the world to God, so their restoration shall be a greater means of enlightening and converting sinners among all nations. Their conversion and restoration shall be like life from the dead to those sitting in the regions of the shadow of death. And this may be greatly owing to the methods God may employ to bring about their restoration. It is supposed by many, that he will convert them to the belief and love of the gospel, in the places where they are dispersed, before he collects them together and conducts them to Jerusalem, where they formerly celebrated divine ordinances. And should this be the case, their views, and feelings, and character, and faith in the promises, must have a powerful tendency to awaken the attention of all nations to the being, perfections, laws and government of God, and to the gospel of Christ. Should they return to their own country mourning and rejoicing, they will solemnly reprove the infidelity, stupidity and criminality of the gospelized world. The prophet Zechariah represents them as returning in this manner and producing this great and happy effect. "Thus saith the

Lord, I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country, and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you." Besides, it is thought God will not only pour out his Spirit upon his people, and bring them to embrace the gospel, before he carries them to Judea; but that he will conduct them thither, by a series of great and signal dispensations of providence. And should he do this, it will have a powerful tendency to alarm the world, and convince them of the reality and importance of true religion, and serve to raise multitudes from spiritual death to spiritual life. This leads me to observe,

3. That the conversion and restoration of the Jews will have a direct and happy tendency to bring on the latter day glory. There is abundant evidence in scripture, that the time is coming, when the gospel shall spread, and the kingdom of Christ shall extend through all the earth. God has promised to give unto Christ "the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." God says by Isaiah, "It shall come pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." Daniel, in

explaining Nebuchadnezzar's dream, says, "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but shall brake in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." St. John tells us, that when the seventh angel sounded, "there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever." And again he says, "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.”--Upon those predictions, and such as these, there is good ground to believe, that satan shall be bound, and Christ shall reign a thousand years, and the world, during that long period, shall become not only nominal, but real christians. And since this glorious day will be brought on by the instrumentality of men and means, there is reason to think, the conversion and restoration of the Jews will prepare the way for it. It is highly probable, that their conversion and restoration will be one of the last steps God will take, to promote universal peace and prosperity in the christian church. is easy to see how the conversion and return of the Jews will many ways facilitate the universal spread of the gospel. And there is no doubt they will be as much engaged to spread the gospel, as they ever had been to oppose it. They may be the means of throw

It

ing much light upon both the Old and New Testament, not only in respect to divine predictions, but in respect to many difficulties which have puzzled not on.. ly the enemies, but the friends of divine revelation.--The same changes and revolutions, which will prepare the way for their return, will equally prepare the way for carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth. Their return, therefore, the apostle represents as the fulness of the gentiles, who will then be united with them; and so all Israel shall be saved; that is, the whole number of God's eleet, who are his spiritual Israel. These are some of the great and happy effects of the conversion and restoration of the Jews. And if these should be produced by the calling in of that long lost people, their conversion to the gospel will be more beneficial to the cause of Christ, than their opposition to it, has been detrimental. Their return will be emphatically like life from the dead to the stupid, unbelieving, perishing world.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. It appears from what has been said concerning the restoration of the Jews, that there is a growing evidence in favor of the divine inspiration of the scriptures. Many of us can remember the time, when the bible was almost universally allowed to be the word of God, and given by divine inspiration; but of late years, not a few have risen up, who profess to disbelieve the divinity of the scriptures, and freely call them a cunningly devised fable. But it seems to be too late in the day to disbelieve and dispute the divine authority of the bible, which has stood the test of both the learned