ceeding Emperor, "ordered multitudes of the Jews to be inhumanly dragged into the churches, in order to be baptized by violence and compulsion."

The Crusades, for almost two hundred years together, were a source of terror and suffering to the miserable Jews. In one of these wild expeditions to the holy land, the infatuated soldiery burnt fifteen. hundred Jews in a single city, and thirteen hundred in another, and drowned or slaughtered five thousand more, only while they were marching through Germany.

When King John came to the throne of England, the Jews covenanted with him, for a large sum of money, to grant them protection, and a continuance of their privileges. But regardless of this, he shortly after committed them all, male and female, to prison, till they should agree to pay him the additional sum of sixty six thousand marks-equal to forty four thousand pounds sterling. Of a Jew in Bristol, he demanded ten thousand marks, and ordered that he should have a tooth torn out of his head daily, until he paid it. And not satisfied with these extortions, he soon confiscated all their property, and expelled them from the kingdom.

In the reign of Edward I. all the Jews in England were imprisoned in one day, and several hundreds executed. He afterwards confiscated their property, and banished them, to the number of sixteen thousand persons, from the realm. As the poor creatures were leaving the country, under these circumstances of poverty and disgrace, great numbers of them were thrown into the sea and drowned.

During the dark ages, the Jews were often accused of the foulest crimes, such as murdering children at their feasts, poisoning the wells and fountains, set

ting fire to houses, and bewitching their enemies, in order to furnish a pretext for plundering and destroying them. On a pretence like these, great multitudes of them were at a certain time imprisoned in Spain; and although the accusation was soon discovered to be false and malicious, still the Jews were not released. They were kept in prison, it was said, to convert them; and at length fifteen thousand were put to death, because they refused to be baptized. We shall the better know how to estimate this pretended zeal for their conversion, by being informed, that there was a law in force in France at the same time, that if any Jew presumed to turn Christian, he should forfeit all his property to the crown.

The Jews have been treated by Christians among whom they have dwelt, not only with all this cruelty and injustice, but with marked and abject contempt. They have usually been obliged to wear some disgraceful badge, to distinguish them from other people; have been called by odious names; and when they passed gates or bridges, have been subjected to the same toll with the basest animals.—Nor are we to suppose this mode of treating them was peculiar to the rude and dark ages. So lately as the year 1819, the Jews were terribly persecuted in different parts of Germany. From some cities they were expelled and driven by violence; while in others, their synagogues were demolished, their houses plundered, and their persons and even their lives put at hazard.

Such, my brethren, is the manner, in which the professed followers of the Messiah of Israel and the votaries of a religion which breathes nothing but peace and good will to men, have been accustomed, for a long course of ages and centuries, to treat the poor dispersed Jews. Is it wonderful then that this

injured, abused people have strong prejudices against the christian faith? And is it not devolving at present upon all christians, by a totally different mode of treatment, to endeavour to overcome these prejudices, and bring the remnant of Israel to the knowledge of the truth? They have a long and dreadful account against us-we owe them a debt which we shall be in no danger of discharging—is it not then high time for all who bear the christian name, to begin to seek and promote their good?

4. It is a strong reason why christians should attempt the conversion of the Jews, that they have the most satisfactory assurances of their future recovery and salvation.-We have an assurance of this in the text and context. "If thou (Gentiles) wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant untoTM them, when I shall take away their sins."-Promises similar to these, we find in almost every part of the Old Testament. "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which covenant they brake; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ;-I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them; for I will forgive their

iniquity, and remember their sin no more.""I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and will bring them again unto this place, and cause them to dwell safely; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."-The language of promises such as these (of which there are many in the Old Testament, having respect exclusively to God's ancient people) is certainly plain and explicit, and affords the strongest encouragement to those who labor for the conversion of the Jews, that they shall not be suffered to labor in vain.

5. We have assurances in the Scriptures, not only that the Jews shall be converted, but that their conversion will be effected through the instrumentality of Gentile believers. We have a promise to this effect in the same chapter with the text. "For as ye (Gentiles) in times past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these (Jews) also now not believed, that through your mercy, they also may obtain mercy.” This representation of the Apostle, as to the manner in which the rejected Jews are ultimately to be brought to the reception of mercy, is confirmed by many of similar import in the Old Testament. we hear the Jehovah of Israel, addressing his ancient people in the following terms; "Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nurs

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ing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers," and thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings."-" Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee."-" They (the Gentiles) shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord."-The import of these various, figurative representations is obviously this ;-the Jews are to be converted, and returned to their own land, through the instrumentality of the Gentiles. What encouragement therefore for Gentile Christians (and almost all Christians at the present time are Gentiles) to pray and labor for the conversion of the Jews?

6. It is evident from the Scriptures, that upon the conversion of the Jews are suspended rich and abundant blessings for the Gentile Churches. This is plainly intimated in the chapter with the text. "If the

fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? 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 ?"-It is represented also in the Old Testament, that when the Jews begin to be converted, they shall be sown among the nations," and "shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, and as showers upon the grass," promoting, of course, spiritual fertility and fruitfulness. Then "shall ten men, out of all languages of the nations, take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we