and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant." This establishment of God's covenant with Abraham and his seed in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, in its literal meaning implied, that Abraham's natural seed were to remain a distinct people in their successive generations, without ever being destroyed; because, if they were to be destroyed by ceasing to exist as a distinct and separate people, God's covenant with them would not be everlasting. To this interpretation we are led by Moses, who declared that if God destroyed Abrabam's natural seed, it would be a breaking of the covenant with them: "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; Lev. xxvi., 44. Agreeable to this promise, God declared by Jeremiah, that he would utterly destroy the nations who had oppressed the natural seed of Abraham, but would never make a full end to his posterity: "Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, saith the Lord, for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee;" xlvi, 28. It is in allusion to this covenant obligation, that St. Paul, personating a Jew, proposes this question: "I ask then, have they stumbled so as to fall forever?" to which the apostle answers, " By no means." The apostle was aware that if God should cast off the natural seed of Abraham for ever, he would break his covenant promise to Abraham, and to his seed in their generations after him. He, therefore, maintains that this rejection of the literal seed of Abraham, was merely a temporary rejection, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; at which time “a deliverer would come out of Sion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

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In this promise, according to its literal meaning, an event is foretold of a most extraordinary and singular nature, viz: that Abraham's natural seed are always to continue a distinct race, and are never to be lost by mixing with other nations. Nothing has ever happened like this. For where are the people who, being scattered over the face of the whole earth, have preserved themselves distinct from the rest of mankind, so that after continuing in a state of dispersion for thousands of years, the individuals, in their successive generations, are known to be of that people? The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Grecians, and the Romans, have all in their turns conquered, but have not kept themselves distinct from their conquerors, although they were not carried captive from their own country, far less were they scattered over the face of the earth, as the Israelites have been. All these nations are now so mixed with their conquerors, that the individuals of them cannot be distinguished. The continuance of Abraham's natural seed distinct from all the rest of the world, foretold in this promise, must, to the reason and experience of mankind before it happened, have appeared an event utterly improbable. Yet this improbable

event has actually taken place, through a long succession of ages. For from the time of their going down into Egypt to the present day, the Israelites, notwithstanding the many calamities which befel them, have still been preserved a distinct and numerous people, and they will be continued a distinct and numerous people, till the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and their existence as a separate race is no longer needed to strengthen the evidence of the gospel. When the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, at that period, they also shall be converted to the faith of Christ; and, entering into the Christian church, they will, with the other disciples of Christ, assist in preserving the knowledge and worship of the true God among mankind to the end of the world.

The second article of this premises is contained in these words: "I will be thy God." This implies that Abraham's natural seed were in general to know and acknowledge the true God as their God, that he would reside among them, and that he would be their constant protector, and bestow on them all the blessings which men expect from the objects of their worship. And I would here remark, that God frequently declared himself to be the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of Abraham's seed in their generations after him. And again he says: "I will be their God." This promise God has fulfilled in the preservation of Abraham's seed, as a distinct people, for three thousand years. He preserved his seed in Egypt, and delivered them from their Egyptian oppressors; he sustained them miraculously in the wilderness during forty years, and introduced them into the possession of the land of Caanan; he preserved them in their captivity in Babylon, and brought them back again to their own land, and they have remained a distinct and seperate people during their long dispersion, since they were driven out of Caanan by the Romans. Since their long dispersion, they have suffered many evils for their faith, not only from Mahometans and heathens, but from Christians also; but they have continued to know and to worship the God of their fathers agreeable to the rites of Moses, so far as their circumstances would permit, and God has continued to preserve them, agreeable to his covenant promise, a separate and distinct people to the present time. They are still beloved for their father Abraham's sake, and they will be preserv ed a numerous and distinct people, till the whole purposes of their separation from the rest of mankind are accomplished.

'We admit that this promise has, also, a secondary sense, a mystical meaning, and refers to Abraham's spiritual seed, which God has fulfilled to them in their successive generations, and which he will continue to fulfill till time shall end. But as this branch of the covenant does not come under our immediate observation, in the discussion of this subject, we shall not here enlarge upon it.

The Jews were the first nation which were owned by God as his people, and, therefore, styled his first born. "And thou shalt

say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first born. And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him go, behold I will slay thy son, even thy first born;" Exo. iv., 22, 23. Israel is also styled his elect: "For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name, I have sirnamed thee, though thou hast not known me;" Isa. xlv., 4. They are, furthermore, called the children of Jacob, his chosen ones: "O ye seed of Israel, his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones;" Chron. xvi., 13. God having chosen them to be a peculiar treasure to himself, above all the people of the earth; Exo. xix, 5. Deut. vii., 6. So all nations of the earth have ever since received the word of God, and the true religion from the Jewish nation, and Jerusalem has been styled the mother of all churches. Before the first advent of Jesus Christ, to them alone, says St. Paul," Belonged the adoption, the glory, and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;" Rom. ix., 3; and none then could be joined to the Lord; Isa. Ivi., 3; and worship him aright, unless he joined himself to the Jews, and became a worshipper of the God of Israel, or a member of that church.

When Christ came in the flesh, the gospel was first preached to them, as being the children of the kingdom; Matt. viii., 12. Our Lord also exercised his ministry exclusively among them, whence he is styled, "The ministry of circumcision;" Rom., xv., 8; and he himself declared that he was not sent to any but only "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" Mat. xv., 24. And when he sent out his apostles, he instructed them, while he was here on the earth, to preach the gospel to none but to the Jews. "These twelve sent Jesus forth and commanded them, saying, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand;" Mat. 5-7. And after his ascension, they were charged to commence preaching at Jerusalem. "And he said unto them, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" Luke xxiv., 47. And they, accordingly, at first preached the word to none but to Jews only. "Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but to the Jews only;" Acts xi., 19. And St. Paul, who is styled the apostle to the Gentiles, first offers his ministry to the Jews, "preaching Christ in their synagogues, as his manner was;" Acts ix. 20; xiii., 5; xiv. 1; xvii., 12, 17; xviii., 4. He declared it was necessary that the gospel of God should be first spoken to the Jews. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been preached unto you;" Acts xiii., 46. St. Paul also declared, "That the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to

every one that believeth, to the Jew first;" Rom. ii., 10. He furthermore asserts, that "through the fall of the Jews, salvation is come unto the Gentiles;" xi., 11. Our Lord also himself teaches the same doctrine in the parable of the great supper; in consequence of the refusal of those who were first bidden to come, the invitation was afterwards sent out to the lame, the halt, and the blind, by which we are to understand the Gentiles; Luke xiv. 21. Notwithstanding the infidelity of the great body of the Jewish nation, the first Christian church which was ever planted, and received the doctrine of the gospel, and the institutions of Christianity, was wholly composed of Jewish converts. "And they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved;" Acts ii., 42-47. All the churches of the Gentiles received the gospel from the Jews, they being made partakers of their spiritual things; Rom. xv., 27. And the word of God coming out from them to other churches, the Gentile converts are represented as all "grafted into their good olive-tree;" Rom. xi., 17. Hence, in the primitive times, the church of Jerusalem had the pre-eminence of all other churches; to her they went for the decision of their controversies; Acts xv.; and the bishop of Jerusalem is, therefore, styled by the ancients, "The first bishop, the guide of priests, the top of the heads, the bishop and chief of the apostles" Cotel, note, p. 138. And the church of Jerusalem is said to be the church "Which all favored as the mother of Christians." And St. Paul declares, alluding to this very church, "But Jerusalem which above is free, which is the mother of us all;" Gal. iv., 26.

At the fall of anti-christ, and before the second coming of our Lord to judgment, the Jews shall be converted to the faith of the gospel, and become again a most famous church. This mystery St. Paul clearly revealed in the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. The reader is requested to turn to that chapter and read it through with care and attention. St. Paul there says: "For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of the mystery, that blindness in part is happened to 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;" Rom. xi., 25—27. Again, "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?" Rom. xi., 15. "And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again;" Rom. xi., 23. The prophets had foretold the infidelity and rejection of the nation of the Jews at the introduction of the gospel, and had especially declared that "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim ;” Hosea iii., 4. "For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sive, yet shall there not the least grain fall upon the earth;" Amos ix., 9. We have seen the accomplishment of all these prophecies which speak of the rejection and dispersion of the Jews among all nations, and of their remaining a distinct and separate people from all the nations of the earth, and also their wonderful preservation as a numerous people, and why should we doubt the fulfilment of those prophecies which declare their conversion to the Christian faith, and restoration to the divine favor, especially when it has been so plainly and so fully declared by St. Paul himself? What St. Paul asserts respecting this subject in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, will serve as a key to the great things spoken by the prophets, relating to the Jewish nation, and teach us to interpret them of their glorious conversion to the faith of the gospel. In connexion with this rejection and dispersion of the Jewish nation, it is declared: "I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall be no more pulled up out of their land, which I have given unto them, saith the Lord God;" Amos ix., 14, 15. "Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days;" Hosea iii., 5. "It shall come to pass, in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shina, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim;" Isa. xi., 11-13. The second time of God's setting his hand cannot refer to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, for though that event might be so denominated in respect of their being brought out of Egypt, yet the period of the whole prophecy does not answer to it. That which is here referred to, is something which should be wrought for Israel under the