pended on receiving it, and that the first offers of it were every where to be made to the despised Jews." To the Jews first. To the Jews, the apostles first preached the Gospel of Christ: and they were the first who experienced its power.

Although they and their rulers had rejected and crucified the Son of God; yet, to the men of Judea, and all that dwelt in Jerusalem, Peter and the eleven first preached the resurrection, and salvation in the name of Jesus. "Unto you first," he concludes in one of his discourses, "God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." On the same day were added unto them about three thousand souls; and the first church of believers in Christ, that was formed on earth, was formed of Jews at Jerusalem. The same course was followed by the Apostle to the gentiles. In every part of the world to which he travelled, he first addressed himself to the Jews. And even after all the persecutions which he met with from his countrymen; when he was a prisoner at Rome, he sent for them to his lodging, and expounded, and testified the kingdom of God. And some, we are informed, believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. But though numbers embraced the Gospel, the great mass of the nation rejected the Saviour: and a thick veil remained on their hearts. Even, however, in this state, and notwithstanding his personal wrongs, the apostle never ceased his labours and prayers for their conversion. He viewed them with pity and grief; he had great heaviness and continual sorrow, and his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was, that they might be saved. He was also anxious to secure for them kindness and compassion, among the gentile converts whom he addressed; and when, as the Apostle of the gentiles, he magnified his office, it was that he might provoke to emulation them which were his flesh, and might save some of them. He reminds the

gentile converts what Israel had been, and guards them against boasting,, and treating the fallen with contempt. He points out the cause why Israel had forfeited their blessings; and assures the Romans, "that if they also should fall into unbelief, they likewise should be cut off." Finally he extends their views to happier times; shows to them a period approaching in the plans of the Most High, when not only numbers of individuals, as in the first ages, but the great body of the Jewish nation should embrace the Saviour, and experience the power of the Gospel.

How melancholy, my brethren, is the thought, that Christians have so generally departed from the plan of God, and the example of the apostles, in making known to men the doctrine of salvation! They have not only, till lately, employed no means to bring the nation of Israel to the faith of Christ; but they have driven them away with scorn from every mean of knowledge; and rivetted them in their prejudices by persecution and oppression; and when, after a long slumber, we of the present day have awakened to some concern for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, it was to the gentile world that we first and almost exclusively directed our attention. The people whom our Lord and his apostles first addressed, received scarcely any portion of our compassionate regard. Nay, though in late years a better spirit appears to be manifested, yet even now every attempt for the conversion of Israel meets with many discouragements, and men of various and even opposite characters combine to oppose it. The case of the Jews is considered by many as hopeless. Their character is represented to be of so depraved and debased a nature, as to render vain every attempt to recover them. Every mean used for their conversion and improvement, it is alleged, has utterly failed. Through the long period of their history, it is said, they have been beyond others a wicked and rebellious people: in modern times, they have become still more debased; and to treat them with favour, is only to give them the opportunity of deceiving you with greater

success.

Others there are, who consider the Jews to be a people doomed by God to destruction. To attempt their conversion is to oppose the Divine judgment and designs, and to set ourselves against the Almighty. Some, therefore, not only consider the attempt as vain, but presumptuous. "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?"

Another class there are, such as Voltaire and Gibbon, who, to serve the purposes of infidelity, seek, by exaggerated pictures of the sins of the nation of Israel, to lessen the importance of Revelation. For here they allege, is a proof of its uselessness and inefficacy; and for the same unhallowed purpose, they exalt the character and conduct of the pagan nations; and while they represent the Israelites as intolerant, narrowminded, and cruel, they represent the Romans and the Greeks as the pattern of all that is liberal, just, and generous.

Let us consider these objections to the conversion of Israel, and especially, the gross misrepresentation of these unbelievers.

In the history of the most distinguished nations and individuals, there will be found particular seasons of an unfavourable order, by which it is not fair to estimate their general character. Among the nation of Israel also, there were seasons of declension and disobedience and criminality, for which they were destined to feel the displeasure of God. Now, from these particular times, we ought not to estimate their general character.

But independently of this remark, let us direct our attention to their times of greatest criminality, and compare even these with the most celebrated nations, either in ancient or modern times. The sins of which they were guilty, were generally departure from the service of God, to the worship of idols, corruptions of their law, the rejection of the Saviour, depravity of manners, and intolerance and superstition.

Now greatly as their sins are to be lamented: yet, were the Jewish people in these respects more obstinate and stupid, as they have been called, than the

nations whom we have been accustomed to admire? Turn for a little to those nations, and let the rule which we apply to. Israel be applied to ourselves. What nation, either of ancient or modern times, have not been addicted to idolatry and the most degrading superstitions? nay, how many have even wholly apostatized from the truth; and with all the advantages of Christianity, are now sitting in the darkness of paganism? And have the Jews alone been so perversely wicked, as to reject Christ and his Gospel?

Let us turn to the admired and polished nations of Europe; and do we not find among them gods many, and lords many-and do they not join, like the people of Israel in some periods of their history, the worship of inferior deities with that of the Supreme? Where is the difference betwixt the worship of their saints, and the tutelary gods of the heathen?

If the inhabitants of Italy, and Germany, and the Netherlands, notwithstanding their superstitions and debasing practices, receive the praise of superior talents and improvement; let not the nation of Israel be thought more degenerate than other nations for occasional idolatries-idolatries followed by repentance, and a return to the service of God.

But the Jews, it is said, have been always of a narrow-minded, intolerant, and persecuting spirit.

The constitution given to Israel did not allow the practice of idolatry in the land of Israel on many accounts, and among others, because this would have been to tolerate treason against their state, and the subversion of the whole system of their government. This was not intolerance, but the appointment of their law to protect their constitution against rebellion, and the subversion of their state.

Far be it from us, to defend in any degree intolerance and persecution. But if it be meant to assert, that the people of Israel were more intolerant and persecuting than other nations, we must deny the charge.

The gods of the heathen being limited and local, belonging to particular nations, countries, cities, and

families, the gods of one place did not interfere with those of another, so that there could be no question on their tolerance or intolerance. But when there arose any doctrine inconsistent with the belief and worship of any of their gods, even the Greeks and Romans were the most intolerant of nations. Here again, I ask you to compare the persecutions of these nations, with those brought forward against the nation of Israel.

Have these writers forgotten the fate of their most celebrated men? Have they forgotten the persecutions to which the first Christians were doomed by these highly extolled Romans? Or have they forgotten the torches made of the bodies of living Christians, which for several nights illuminated imperial Rome? Or have they forgotten the bloody edicts issued by even the best of their sovereigns-the massacres and the tortures commanded, and savagely executed, even by those whom in early life we have admired for their philosophy and their eloquence? But let us turn from these to more modern times. And let me ask, if there have not, in the enlightened nations of Europe, been seen persecutions of the darkest and deepest dye-long continued, and extending to every rank and sex and age? We call your attention to the persecutions of Protestants by the polished and civilized nation of France. Or let us turn to our own distinguished country; and can we fail to remember, how our religion was proscribed, our fathers hunted on the mountains, their cottages and lands laid waste," and the blood of parents and children made to flow in one common stream, by the butcheries of a brutal and infuriated soldiery?

Nor were these the effects only of mistaken religious opinions. Turn again to France, and say if persecutions were ever seen more atrocious than those inflicted by that irreligious and infidel nation? The human mind sickens at the thought of them, and seeks in vain for a parallel. If mistaken views of religion have produced evils, how infinitely greater have been those which have arisen from the cold