and conversation of good men ; but you have better company than that of good men; and you, you poor shepherd, you will behold the heavens, the work of the fingers of your God; you will consider the moon and the stars, and the Saviour and the heaven which he hath ordained, till you cry out, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? And upon these subjects the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak eloquently ! The christian religion enlarges and ennobles the mind, purifies and refines the heart, and adorns the life; and a christian labourer, exercising his own understanding, is a more beautiful sight than an unjust judge in all the pomp of his office,

THE JEWS.

FROM THE MORNING EXERCISES.

Afterward shall the children of Israel fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hosea, iii. 5.

ALWAYS when I see a Jew, I recollect a saying of the Lord by the prophet Isaiah, thou art the seed of Abraham, my friend; and I find a thousand thoughts in my mind, impelling me to my duty. I am going this morning just to give you a sketch of a subject, that would fill volumes, and a subject of which we ought not to be ignorant.

First, let us inform ourselves of the general history of this people. The father of the family was Abraham. He was born in the East, of an idolatrous family, and, at the command of God, he became the first dissenter in the world. He quitted his country, and went and set up the worship of one God in his own family, and taught them to practise it. From this man proceeded a family, which increased into . tribes, and formed a people as the stars in the heaven, or the sand on the seashore for multitude. Idolatry and immorality sometimes infected a few; but

the bulk preserved the belief of one God, and the imitation of his perfections, inviolably for ages. They were shepherds, and lived, imbosomed in forests and fastnesses, a plain, frugal, laborious life, unacquainted with the world, and unpractised in the arts and luxuries of polished nations. They assembled to worship God by prayer and sacrifice at every new moon, where the old heads of families taught morality, and inculcated the hope excited by the promise of God, that in one of their family, all the families of the earth should be blessed with the knowledge of their God and their morality. Thus read the book of Genesis, and other scripture histories of the same times, and without forming any romantic ideas of imitation, impossible except in their circumstances, admire the history, approve the prophecy, and copy the inoffensive purity of their lives.

When these people were in slavery in Egypt, they were at a school in which Providence taught them, by their own feelings, the nature and the worth of liberty, both civil and religious. What noble efforts they made to obtain it, and how God crowned their honest endeavours with success under the direction of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, you will read in the four books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. When they changed their government into an absolute monarchy, they enslaved themselves, and overwhelmed their country with idolatry, immorality, and calamities of every kind. Read the prophecies with

the light of history of times, persons, and places, which is contained in Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and you will easily discover what religion had to object against a tyrannical government, an idolatrous worship, and dissolute manners; and what it had to do in bearing affliction, reforming worship, and cherishing hope of better times under the direction of the expected Prince of the house of David.

When he came, and addressed himself to the blessing of all nations with an universal religion, some of his countrymen put him to death; but others espoused his cause, wrote his history, and reasoned to establish it, not in the form of a secular kingdom, but in the convictions and consciences of reasonable men. There it hath stood ever since; and, though the bulk of the Jews have been scattered and punished for crucifying Christ, yet by being kept a separate people, they serve to prove the truth of the Gospel ; and the text, with many others like it, promises that they shall reverence the Lord in the latter days. The Epistle to the Hebrews lies ready for their use at that day. I think nothing can be easier than to apply this historical knowledge to its proper use; and yet some christians have got such an unwise and wayward knack of reasoning, as to quote whatever was among the Jews in proof of what ought to be now; as if the economy that crucified Christ was to restore him his character and dignity!

Remark next the customs of this people. They serve, as their history does, to interpret Scripture. Our text is connected with one. A part of this prophecy is a drama. I will try to make you understand me. A drama, in our present view, is a subject both related and represented. Divines call it preaching by signs. These signs were proper to represent to the eye the subject spoken of to the ear. Thus Jeremiah explained slavery with a yoke upon his neck; and Jesus simplicity, by setting a little child before his disciples.

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Further, let us allow the merit of the Jews. They deserve all the reputation, which the inspired writers give them. They exhibit single characters of consummate virtue, as Abraham for faith, Moses for meeknes, Nehemiah for love of his country, and so on. As a nation they excelled in some periods in arms, in others in industry, commerce, splendour, and wealth; and in all in good writers; for what historians are equal to Moses and the evangelists, or what ancient poetry breathes such pure and sublime sentiments as that of the Jews? As a church they preserved the oracles of God, and at their fall their remnants became the riches of the world. The Apostle of us Gentiles was a Jew, and to say all in one word, the Saviour and the Judge of mankind was a Jew. Let us respect the ancient Jews in the persons of their children, and for their sakes let us be friends to universal toleration.