of Judah and Jerufalem be pleasant unto
the Lord, as in the days of old, and as
in former years.
Ver. 12, And all na-

tions fhall call ye bleffed, for ye fhall ⚫ be a delightfome land, faith the Lord of hofts.'

With what feelings muft pious Jews, in their prefent difperfed and opprefied ftate, meditate on fuch predictions as these that I have now read to you; and thefe, I may truly fay, are not perhaps an hundredth part of what their prophets have delivered to them on this fubject. For it is the great burden of all their writings. How muft they be impreffed with the idea of their nation being the chofen people of God, when they can trace their origin (which no other nation is able to do) from the first of the human race; when they can review all the wonderful difpenfations of providence refpecting them; when they now find themselves in the very fituation that Mofes predicted more than three thousand years ago, and therefore cannot entertain a doubt concerning the ftate of high preeminence over all other nations, which is

with no lefs clearness promised to them in future time? Can we wonder at the firmnefs of the faith of the Jews, and at their adherence to their religion, when they are continually reading fuch prophecies as I have read to you? Can we wonder even at their pride, and undue contempt of all other nations? Who would not be proud of fo illuftrious a defcent, and fo glorious a destination as they alone can boast of? How little is the impreffion that the contempt of the world must have on fuch a people as this? To them it must be confidered as the infolence of beggars to princes in difguife. To correct this pride, the most enlarged views, fuch as have not yet opened to them, are neceffary; viz. that their God is as much the God and the father of all the human race, as he is theirs, and that all pre-eminence, under his government, has for its real object, not the advantage of any part, though feemingly the most favoured, but of the whole of his family; and therefore, though the Ifraelitcs will be eminently diftinguished and happy, it is only as the means of bleffing

all

all the race of mankind, far more numerous, and therefore, in the eye of God, far more important than they.

We cannot wonder at the antient prophets, or rather the fpirit by which they were infpired, dwelling fo much on the fubject of the future restoration of the Jews, when we confider that it is the great catastrophe to which tend all the dispensations of Providence, not to the Jews only, but to the whole world; when we confider that, by means of this one chofen nation, all mankind are to be brought to the knowledge, worship, and obedience, of the one true God, and that thus virtue, peace, and happiness, will become universal and uninterrupted.

In attending to the prophecies that I have recited, you must have been particularly ftruck, as I have been (and not without serious apprehenfions for ourselves of this nation) with the plain intimations of the heavy judgments that are denounced against every nation that has 'oppreffed the Jews. For the English in former ages have not been the most favourably difpofed towards

5

towards this chofen people, but have, in the most barbarous manner, and without the least colour of reafon or justice, maffacred great numbers of them.

These intimations concerning the fate of the nations who fhould oppress the Ifraelites in their difperfion are as old as Mofes. Having forewarned his countrymen of the judgments that would befal them in cafe of difobedience, under the form of curfes, he fays, Deut. xxx. 7. The Lord thy God will put all these curfes upon thine enemies, and upon them that hate thee, which perfecuted thee.

We may fay that we, of this generation, have not perfecuted the Jews, and that they have no particular reafon to complain of us. But they were grievoufly perfecuted by the English nation in former times, and have much to complain of them; and it is agreeable to the plan of Divine Providence, to punish nations and families as fuch, though the guilt was contracted in a remote period, and confequently the punishment falls upon the innocent. Of this we have many inftances

in

1

in the fcripture hiftory. The judgments pronounced against Jeroboam, Baafha, and Ahab, did not fall upon themfelves, but upon their pofterity in the fourth generation. Joah, the great grandson of Ahab, was flain in the field of Naboth, as Ahab's own blood was licked by dogs in the fame place. The fufferings of the Jews at this day were occafioned by their fins and apoftafy in very remote ages.

There are no judgments more diftinctly announced than thofe that are to fall upon the power that is denominated Babylon, the man of fin, and antichrift, which all Protestants interpret, and I doubt not very justly, of the popes and the church of Rome. But whenever thofe judgments take place, (and the time is perhaps near) it is almost certain that the actual pope, and the court of Rome in general, will be much lefs deferving of punishment than many preceding popes, and former courts of Rome.

We must be content to wait till the plan of Divine Providence be more clearly unfolded, before we can form any proper judgment concerning it. In time we shall,

I doubt