kingdom. Our prayer then for ourselves should be that of the sometimes wavering disciples, "Increase our faith." And as we regard the advancement of Christ's precious cause, and the fidelity and comfort of his followers; we shall offer the same prayer in respect to them, "Increase their faith." May the faith of all those who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus, be increased many fold. Thus will they increase in liberality, and in every grace, and the knowledge of their Divine Redeemer will be rapidly spread from sea to sea, and from shore to shore.

17*

DISCOURSE XVI.

OBLIGATIONS OF CHRISTIANS IN RELATION TO THE

JEWS.

Romans xi. 26.

"And so all Israel shall be saved.”

IN this verse, as well as in those preceding and following it, the Apostle is giving instruction to the Gentile converts, relative to the actual spiritual condition and prospects of the Jewish nation. And he informs them, that though the great mass of this once favored people were now broken off from their church privileges because of unbelief, yet there continued "a remnant according to the election of grace;" and although the part of them who had been rejected, with their posterity, might remain blinded and dispersed for a very long period, "until the fulness of the Gentiles were gathered in," still, "the Deliverer who had come out of Zion should ultimately turn away, ungodliness from Jacob, and so all Israel should be saved."-It is evident, not only from the promise in the text, but from other intimations and promises in this chapter, and numerous declarations in different parts of the inspired volume, that the Jews will, at some future period, become sincere converts to the faith, and members of the Church of Christ. It is my intention in this discourse to offer several special reasons, why it is devolving on Chris tians at the present time to attempt the conversion of the Jews.

I scarcely need premise, that there are the same general reasons why the gospel should be sent to them, as to any other nation. If others are fatally deluded without the gospel; so are they. Or if the command of Christ, or our concern for perishing immortal souls, induces us to send the gospel to others; the same reasons are equally applicable, and should be equally persuasive, in relation to the Jews. I design not however to insist on these general reasons, but to adduce several of a more special nature. And,

1. The veneration we are accustomed to feel towards the pious ancestors of the Jews, is a reason for attempting the conversion of their children.-Do we not in other cases look with peculiar affection, and feel constrained to bestow special attention and favors, upon the children of our deceased friends ? Here, we will suppose, is an orphan family in distress, whose father is remembered by us with the utmost veneration, and is even claimed as in some sense our relative and patron. Shall we not feel peculiarly inclined, and consider ourselves under strong obligations, to afford assistance and comfort to his needy and distressed offspring? Now this is precisely an illustration of the manner, in which it becomes Christians to regard and treat the Jews. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the original proprietor of the covenant, in whom all the Churches of the Gentiles are blessed, is literally their ancestor. From the ancient Patriarchs, who lived in such intimate communion with God, and whom we are accustomed so much to venerate, they are literally and lineally descended.-Ought not Christians, on this account, to regard the Jews, as peculiarly entitled to their sympathies, prayers, and alms? This people are said to be in some sense beloved even of God" for their fa

ther's sakes;" ought they not then for the same reason to be loved, and pitied, and aided by us?

2. Christians are under peculiar obligations to attempt the conversion of the Jews, on account of the favors which have been received from them. Have we received no favors, my brethren, from such men as Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon, and the prophets? None from Peter, and John, and Paul, and the Apostles? Yet all these men, it will be recollected, were Jews. And have we received no favors from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Yet our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the flesh, was a Jew. What had been our present condition, and the condition of all Christians, had they never received the holy Scriptures? Yet every word and letter of the New Testament Scriptures, and probably all the Old, was written by the Jews.-And we are indebted to them, not only for penning the oracles of God, but for preserving the original language of the Old Testament, and transmitting to us in its purity that large and invaluable portion of Divine truth. From the completion of the canon of the Old Testament Scriptures to the present hour, the Jews have ever been most vigilant and faithful guardians of the sacred text. And to this catalogue of favors received by us from the Jews, it may not be improper to add, that in their long dispersion, their cruel sufferings, their total separation from all other people, and their continued separate existence, they have been, as it were, a living miracle; and have furnished a fulfilment of Divine prophecy, and an argument to christians of the heavenly origin of their religion, which no enemy has been able to gainsay or resist. -For a people to whom christians owe so much, are they not under peculiar obligations to pray and labor,

that they may be brought, if possible, to a knowledge of the truth?

3. It is humiliating to reflect, that christians owe to the Jews a debt of a very different nature. The cruel and unwarrantable manner in which for fourteen hundred successive years they have been accustomed to treat the Jews, furnishes a powerful reason why they should now begin to seek their good.-It might have been supposed, that a sense of propriety and obligation would have induced Christian nations at least to pity the poor outcasts of Israel, and endeavour to bring them to a reception of the gospel. But the faithful voice of history proclaims, and will proclaim to the latest posterity, that this has not been the case. It is not pretended that all Christians have been equally culpable in respect to the Jews; or that this people themselves have not, at particular times, furnished just occasion for a resort to severities. But it is pretended and affirmed, that from the establishment of christianity under Constantine, down to the commencement of the present century, and even later, the Jews have generally been the subjects of persecution, and in different periods and places, of the most cruel and shameful persecution, from those who bore the name of christians.-It will not be expected, that in a single discourse, I should give a full recital of their sufferings. I can only bring forward a few instances, to serve as specimens of the manner in which they have been treated.

In the reign of Justinian, a professedly christian Emperor, the Jews were forbidden, among other things," to make wills, or bequeath legacies, or to educate their children in their own faith." Their synagogues too were violently taken from them, and converted into christian churches.-Heraclius, a suc