actually see and know of the present state of both the Christian and Heathen world. The present state of this sinful and miserable world exhibits infallible evidence that all mankind will

not be for ever happy in the world to come. So Peter argued from the past and present state of the world. He says, " If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly-the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." This perfectly agrees with the declaration in the text: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

6. It appears from what has been said, that the heathen are in a deplorable and perishing condition. They have forgotten God; they are sitting in the region and shadow of death; God has denied them the means of grace and the offers of salvation; and declared that while they continued in the ignorance of heathenism, they shall be turned into hell and perish for ever. This is the awful condition of not only a few individuals of mankind, but of whole nations and kingdoms, yea, of more than two thirds of the whole human race, who are now probationers for eternity. Is there nothing to be done, or can too much be done, to enlighten these immortal souls that are ready to perish? On whom does this labor devolve? It certainly devolves upon the enlightened Christian world whom God has chosen to the means of salvation. It is in their power to be workers together with God, in fulfilling his gracious promises to Christ and to his church, that the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in. These heathen nations are to be found in Europe, Asia, Africa and America; and it particularly devolves upon Europeans to enlighten the European, Asiatic and African heathens, and upon American christians to enlighten American heathens. Wisdom and benevolence require us to exert ourselves to the utmost, to enlighten and gospelize the heathen nations on our borders; and to spare no pains nor expense to spread divine knowledge among them, both by the Bible, and the preachers of the gospel. Much is doing, and more must be done.

7. If the heathen are in a deplorable condition, how much more deplorable is the condition of the impenitent and unbelieving in this enlightened age and enlightened land! God has

chosen them to the most important external privileges and favors that he ever has chosen, or can choose to bestow on any nation in the world. The religious privileges which he granted to the Jews, were the greatest in kind that he ever bestowed upon them, by which he distinguished them from all the other nations of the earth. So the apostle expressly declares. He asks and answers this question: "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." The same oracles, with the addition of the whole New Testament, have been given to our nation, in distinction from the whole heathen world. Here God has been constantly pouring divine instructions into the minds of all who have been. willing to read, or hear the gospel. How then can any of us complain of the doctrine of national and personal election? He has actually chosen us to the great and infinitely important privileges of both. He has brought the kingdom of heaven as near to us as he can bring it, and invited, and commanded us to come in, and partake of all the spiritual and eternal blessings contained in it. How criminal and inexcusable must any of us be, if we neglect so great salvation! Must not any finally impenitent and unbelieving sinner in this land and in this place, be far more criminal and inexcusable than any heathen in Tyre, or Sidon, or Nineveh, or Sodom and Gomorrah, or in Asia, Europe, Africa, or America; and deserve a heavier doom?

SERMON XXIII.

THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS.

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? - ROMANS, xi. 15.

THE rejection of the Jews for their rejecting the gospel was a deplorable event. It deeply affected the heart of the apostle, who sincerely lamented their sad condition. But there were three things which afforded him some consolation in the view of it. The first was, that they were not all cast away. The second was, that their rejection was the occasion of spreading the gospel among the Gentiles. And the third was, that they should be, in some future period, called in, and made instrumental of enlarging the church of Christ. This last ground of consolation is mentioned in the text. "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?" This plainly intimates,

That the calling in of the Jews will be productive of great and happy effects. I shall,

I. Show that the Jews will be called in; and

II. Mention some of the great and happy effects which will flow from this event.

I. I am to show that the Jews will be called in. God has dispersed them all over the world, and therefore his calling them in must imply, not only the taking away of the veil from their hearts, and causing them to embrace the gospel, but also his restoring them to their own land. These two things are intimately connected together, and cannot be separated any more than means and ends, cause and effect. That they shall thus be prepared for, and finally be gathered into their native land, will clearly appear from the following considerations.

1. This event is plainly and repeatedly foretold in the scriptures of truth. The apostle, in the text and context, mentions the restoration of the Jews. He demands "What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" And he goes on to say, "And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest you should be wise in your own conceits,) that blindness, in part, is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy, they also may obtain mercy." The apostle here argues the restoration of the Jews, upon the ground of the promise to Abraham, and represents it to be as certain, that the Jews should, in some future period, embrace the gospel, as that the Gentiles already had embraced it; or in other words, that it is as certain the Jews shall be called in, as that they have been cut off. If we now look back into the Old Testament, we shall find that the prophets, who foretold the dispersion of the Jews, have as plainly predicted their future conversion and restoration. In the twenty-seventh chapter of Isaiah, we read, "It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come, which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem." We find a prediction similar to this in the eleventh chapter of Ezekiel. "Thus saith the Lord God; although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof, and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and

I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Another plain prediction of this event we find in the first chapter of Hosea. "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured, nor numbered: and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel," or seed of God. The restoration of the Jews is still more literally foretold by the prophet Amos. By him God says, "I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled out of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." The prophet Zechariah not only predicts the return of the Jews to their own land, but also describes the purity of their worship after their return. He says, "Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited — Yea, every pot in Jerusalem shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." These are very few of the many predictions of the prophets, concerning the future conversion and restoration of the Jews. I might cite many more passages, and even chapters, in favor of the Jews' being called in; but those I have read are sufficient to establish the point, so far as predictions unfulfilled can establish it.

2. The remarkable preservation of the Jews in their state of dispersion, confirms the predictions which have been cited, and affords a strong presumptive evidence of their future restoration. They have been scattered among all nations for almost two thousand years, and yet remain a distinct people, totally unconnected with all others in their modes of living, and rites of worship. This cannot be accounted for by the common principles of human nature, nor by the example of any other nation in the world. All other conquered nations have, in time, lost their laws, their customs, their manners and their religion, and become blended wtth their conquerors. Hence the preservation of the Jews for so many ages, and in so many parts of the