DISC. make an end of the nations their oppreffors, VIII. but he would not make an end of them ".

currence

You will not fay, this prediction was written fince the event; and certainly, an ocmore fingular, or improbable, could not have been predicted. In the course of human affairs, who hath heard fuch a thing? who hath feen fuch a thing? Yet, fo it is. The mighty monarchies of Affyria, Perfia, Greece, and Rome, are vanished, like the fhadows of the evening, or the phantoms of the night. Their places know them no more. Nothing remains of them, but their names: while this little contemptible people, as you are wont to ftyle the Jews, ftrangely fecure, without a friend or protector, amidst the wreck of empires; oppreffed, perfecuted, haraffed always, by edicts and executioners, by murders and maffacres, hath outlived the very ruins of them all. Except you fee figns and wonders, you will not believe. Behold then a fign and a wonder, the accomplishment of prophecy in a standing

d Jer. xxx. 11.

miracle;

VIII.

miracle; the bush of Mofes furrounded by DISC. flames, ever burning, and never confumed! Contemplate the fight as it deferves; and be not faithlefs, but believing; for this is the Lord's doing, and therefore so marvellous in our eyes.

That the Gospel, when flighted by the Jews, might not be without it's fruit, and that God might have a church and people to supply their place, the Apostles turned to the Gentiles; fo that their fall became the riches of the world, and good was brought out of evil. Let the warning, given us by our own Apoftle, be ever founding in our ears, though, when we confider the state of religion among us, it may perhaps make them tingle. "Because of "unbelief they were broken off, and thou "standeft by faith. Be not high minded, "but fear; for if God fpared not the na"tural branches, take heed left he alfo spare not thee."

• Rom. xi. 20, 213

The

DISC.

VIII.

The cause of Jewish infidelity was an hatred of the power of godliness, concealed under the cloke of zeal for it's form, and occafioned by a love of wealth, power, and parade, a notion of privilege, pre-eminence, and indefectibility. And is it not aftonishing, that, with fuch an example before her eyes, the church of Rome fhould be purfuing the fame courfe, and splitting upon the fame rock? Let us be thankful, that we are come out of her; and let us guard against the shadow of her crime, by conftantly bearing in mind, that the promises are spiritual, and that they are conditional that if the light of the Gofpel, which is vouchfafed us, be abused, God can remove it; that, like the bright ruler of the day, it may proceed weftward, and leave us in darkness; that he who converted Britons and Saxons, can call the tribes of America to the faith, and "of those stones raise up "children unto Abraham.”

To conclude-When we fee the Jews, for fo great a length of time, preferved un

der

VIII.

der calamities, which would have been long DISC. fince the ruin of any other people, our regard and attention ought to be strongly excited towards them. Extraordinary was their beginning, and their progress: more extraordinary, perhaps, will be their end; for if they abide not ftill in unbelief, they, as the natural branches, may furely be grafted in again: and there can be little doubt, but that fuch an event will take place. It is faid, they are dispersed, “till "the times of the Gentiles fhall be ful"filled ';" and that "blindness in part "is happened to Ifrael, until the fulness "of the Gentiles be come in." It seems evidently to be implied, that at the period mentioned, whenever it fhall come, their difperfion will ceafe, and their blindness be removed. Glorious things are spoken of them by their own prophets, which do not feem, as yet, to have received their full and proper accomplishment. When the Gentiles had revolted from the true religion, revealed after the fall, the church fubfifted

f Luke xxi. 24.

VOL. i.

Rom. xi. 25.

R

for

VIII,

DISC. for two thousand years, in the family of Abraham. Since the apoftacy of the Jews, it hath fubfifted nearly the fame space of time among the Gentiles. And what faith St. Paul? "As ye in times past have "not believed God, yet have now obtain"ed mercy through their unbelief; even "fo have thefe alfo now not believed, that

66

through your mercy they also may obtain

mercy." The very mercy fhewn to the Gentiles is to be a means of bringing the Jews to the faith: and perhaps we can no where meet with an inftance of a more popular and affectionate turn, than that, by which St. Paul feems to find a reason for his zeal to convert the Gentiles, in his love to his own countrymen the Jews, that he may thereby provoke them to emulation. Let us fecond his endeavours to effect this, by our love and our good works: let us, in our lives and converfations, fhew them a religion, whofe attractive excellence may invite and compel them to embrace it. Nor let us omit to obferve, that, as

h Rom. xi. 30, 31.

Gentiles,