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 easier than to

at that day. I think nothing can be 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 tó 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 senti- . ments as that of the Jews? As a church they pre

served 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.

Let us recollect the sins and the calamities of these people. Their sins were many and enormous; but it was the killing of Jesus Christ, that completed their ruin. Let us examine what sins brought Jesus to the cross, and let us avoid the practice of them. Nor let us forget their calamities. They have been under all the punishments foretold four thousand years ago by Moses, and seem doomed to travel over the world to recommend a Gospel which they reject and despise. Their prophets, we find, did not slander them; they are the people described, and their punishments prove the divine mission of their prophets. Thus God is glorified, whether man be lost or saved. In some future time he will be glorified in us, either his mercy if we embrace it, or his justice if we reject it; for to reject the Gospel is to reject both the mercy and the justice of God.

Let us finish by observing the recall of the Jews. The prophets foretel it, and a course of events renders it probable. They are preserved a distinct people, though the nations that conquered them are lost. They are more numerous now than they were when a nation. The Gospel is truth and virtue struggling against error and vice; it is natural to hope that the stronger must in time subdue the weaker. Error and vice are supported by man; but truth and virtue by God. Let us not despair. The Jews came out of Egypt under the conduct of a shepherd with only a rod in his hand to point out the way.