find in the humble and low condition in which Chrift appeared, they rejected their God and Saviour, they defpifed his doctrine, they contemned and blafphemed his Miracles, they treated his Sacred Perfon with the utmoft indignity, and even proceeded to fuch an unparalleled inftance of impiety, as to put him to death. This enormous crime, the greatest they had been or could be guilty of, drew the whole torrent of Divine wrath upon them. They had faid: His blood be upon us, and upon our children. (Matth. xxvii. 25.). And effectually their horrible imprecation fell upon their own heads and upon their children alfo. Within lefs than the space of forty years after, the Almighty fent upon them his fcourge, the Romans, who ravaged their country, deftroyed their City and Temple; and after that an innumerable multitude of them had perifhed by famine, plague, and the fword, the remainder were expelled Judæa, and fcattered over the whole face of the earth; conformably to the prediction of our Saviour: There fhall be great diftrefs in the land, and wrath upon this people (the Jews). And they fhall fall by the edge of the fword; and fhall be led away captives into all nations. (Luke xxi. 23, 24.). In this defolate condition, without any fixed abode or government, the contempt of mankind, they have remained for 1700 years; and thus they ftill continue a dreadful and lafting monument of the Divine indignation.

But it must be observed that, notwithstanding this moft terrible, moft fevere, and moft lafting of all the punishments the Almighty has inflicted upon the Jews, nevertheless he has not utterly exterminated them. Their race fubfifts, and is very numerous. The calamities and oppreffion, they have undergone,

would

would probably have extinguished any other people, but they are still preferved by a fpecial protection for a future great purpofe. The manifold benefits, the Saviour of mankind came to confer on the world, were firft offered to the Jews, but being rejected, they were transferred to the Gentiles, who took the place of that people in the favour of God. Therefore I fay to you, the Meffiah told them, that the kingdom of God fhall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. (Matth. xxi. 43.). In confequence of this divine determination, the light of faith and the happy tidings of Salvation were carried to other nations, that lay buried in grofs ignorance and in the darkness of idolatry; they were taught the true knowledge of God and of Chrift their Saviour, which they embraced, and became the people of God by becoming Chriftians. But when the merciful difpenfations of Heaven to the Gentiles fhall be completed, that is, when the Gospel of Chrift fhall have been fully preached to mankind, and the number of Converts to Chriftianity, defigned by the Almighty, fhall be filled up, and the end of the world approaching, then the laft pofterity of the Jewish people fhall experience that bounty, which the Almighty has hitherto fufpended for many ages, but in his mercy has kept in referve for them.

He will then take from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, he will make them fenfible of their paft blindnefs and obftinacy, will open their eyes to acknowledge Chrift their Meffiah and Saviour, and in fine by making them Chriftians will receive them anew into his favour. This doctrine we learn from St. Paul: Hath God caft away his people (the Jews)? fays he, God Forbid.

For I would not have you ignorant, Brethren, of this mystery (left you should be wife in your own conceits) that blindness in part hath happened in Ifrael, until the fulness of the Gentiles fhould come in, and fo all Ifrael fhould be faved, as it is written: there fall come cut of Sion, he that fall deliver, and fhall turn away ungodliness from Facob: and this is to them my covenant: when I fhall take away their fins. (Rom. xi. 25, 26, 27.). This paffage of St. Paul expreffes fo fully the future converfion of the Jews to Christianity, that on it, as chief bafis, is built the fentiment of the Fathers of the Church, who are fo unanimous on that head, that it is needlefs to quote any of them.

The difperfion therefore of the Jews and their long captivity are to have a period, but a period determined by that event, the Vocation of the Gentiles to the Faith, which when fulfilled, the Jews are to be re-affembled from all the corners of the Earth, will be converted to Christianity, and re-established in that fame Land they formerly inhabited, and which was given by the Almighty himfelf to their Ancestors. This fingular economy of God to wards that people is alfo in part made known to us by our Saviour in thofe his words: They (the Jews) fhall be led away captives into all nations, and Jerufalem fhall be trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Nations be fulfilled. Luke xxi. 24.). But the whole is beautifully defcribed by many of the Antient Prophets. A few of thofe inftances fhall here be put down. Thus prophefied Azarias in the reign of Afa, king of Juda: Many days fhall pass irz Ifrael without the true God, and without a Pricft a teacher, and without the Law.ud when in their

distress

drefs they shall return to the Lord the God of Ifrael, and fhall feek him, they shall find him. (2 Paralip. xv. 3, 4.) Thus fpoke the Prophet Ofee about 800 years before Chrift: The Children of Ifrael fhall fit many days without King, and without prince, and without facrifice, without altar, and without Ephod, and without thera phim: and after this the children of Ifrael fhall return, and fall feck the Lord their God, and David their King; and they shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in the lajt days. (C. 3. v. 4, 5.). Here the Prophet first defcribes the prefent forlorn ftate of the Jews, without either fixed fettlement or government, temple or facrifice: then he informs us, that in the last days they will return to God and feck David their king, that is, the true Meffiah, Jefus Chrift, who is of the race of David and his Succeffor in the Kingdom of Juda. And it shall come to pass in that day, fays the Prophet Ifaiah, that the Lord fall set bis kand the fecond time to pojefs the remnant of his people, which fall be left from the Affyrians, and from Egypt, and from Phetros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Sennoar, and from Emaib, and from the Iflands of the fea; and be fall fet up a fiandard unto the nations, and shall affemble the fugitives of Ifracl, and fall gather together the difperfed of Juda from the four quarters of the Earth. (xi, 11.) The Prophet Jeremiah prophefies on the fame fubject in the following frain: Bubold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the bead of the wicked. The Lord will not turn away the wrath of bis indignation, till he have executed and performed the thought of his beart. In the loft days you fall underAand thefe things. At that time, fays the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Ifrael, and they fall be my people. (xxx. 23, 24. and xxxi. 1.)

X 3

Here

Here the anger of God is announced to fall upon the bead of the wicked, that is, upon Antichrift and his fociety; which the Jews will underftand, or fee exccuted in the last days. And about that time, the Lord will become the God of all the families or tribes of Ifrael, and they will become his people. In like manner by the mouth of the Prophet Ezechiel we hear the Almighty fpeaking thus to the Jews: I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new Spirit within you: and I will take away the ftony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a beart of fefb.- And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your Fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (xxxvi. 24 &c.) We fhall close these Prophecies with a paffage from Micheas: It fhall come to pass in the left days, that the mountain of the houfe of the Lord fhall be prepared in the top of mountains, and high above the hills, and people fhall flow to it.In that day, faith the Lord, I will gather up her that halteth; and her that I had caft out I will gather up, and her whom I had afflicted. And I will make her that halted, a remnant; and her that had been afflicted a mighty nation: and the Lord will reign over them in mount Sion, from this time now and for ever. (iv. 1. 6. 7.).

It being then the gracious defign of the Almighty to receive again the Jews into his favour, by their converfion to Chriflianity, at the period we are fpeaking of when they are gathering together at Jerufalem; it is now to be examined by what means that great work is to be effected, who is to be the happy inftrument of it, All Antiquity and Tradition tell