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as by a voice from heaven, as St. Paul was, and the appearance of Christ to them, according to Zechariah, They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and that, as St. Paul was at the first like them in his zeal and hardness of unbelief, so his extraordinary conversion was a type of the calling of the Jews.

Secondly, The next instance we have of the Divine Providence concerning the Jews is, that although it is now above one thousand five hundred years since they were banished their country by Adrian, and although they have no particular place of abode belonging to them as a nation, but are scattered among all the nations of the world, and have suffered such a variety of changes and alterations: yet they are not intermixed with others, so as to be lost among them, but remain in several bodies, a distinct people. Their general profession is merchandizing, brokage, and usury. In Turkey they are employed in receipt of customs; but they are as slaves and vagabonds in all countries, wherever they abide, without the honour and liberty of a nation, and without any form of being a people, oppressed and crushed" in the several countries where they are permitted to live, as the miserable objects of the justice and vengeance of God; but withal, a most evident and standing proof of his providence and truth, in making good all that he had so often threatened in the holy Scriptures concerning them, and thence of the authority of the holy Scripture itself.

Thirdly, The chief cause of their former captivity and bondage, assigned by the prophets, was idolatry: but now, ever since their return from the Babylonian

* Zech. xii. 10.

xxviii. 33.

y Sandys' Trav. p. 146. z As Deut. a As Deut. iv. 27. and xxviii. 25, 37. Jer. xxx,

11. Ezek. vi. 8. and xi. 16. Amos ix. 8, 9.

captivity, they have been free from that: and therefore the observation of one of the ancients, made thirteen hundred years since, is the more considerable, after so many ages more past, that they are for so long time given up by God, not for their idolatry, as formerly, but for killing of the Messiah.

Thus much was threatened them even by Moses, that every soul that should not hear that prophet, should be destroyed, as St. Peter explains that passaged.

Fourthly, It hath been observed, that since our Saviour's death, all the plagues which were in part fulfilled before, have been more than seven times multiplied upon them; and that their continual bad usage prescribes the lawfulness of their abuse in all nations. On this occasion, the reader may peruse all those particular threatenings in Deuteronomy".

But after all the instances of God's judgments on the Jews, we are not to forget, that, as they were the first nation which were owned by God for his peculiar people, and therefore styled his first-born', so all nations of the world have ever since received the word of God, and the true religion from them. To them pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after the flesh, descended from them; he exercised his ministry only among them, and sent his Apostles to preach the Gospel first to them, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And accordingly, after Christ's ascension, the word was first spoken to them. And so the first Christian church consisted of Jewish converts', and all other particular

b Hieronym. in Hos. iii. ult.

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f Exod. iv. 22. * Acts

Hii. 23. e Deut. xxviii. 15, to the end.
Rom. ix. 4. h Matt. xv. 24. i Matt. x. 5, 6.
xiii. 6.

1 Acts ii.

churches are derived from that church, and those who were the members thereof. And however as yet they lie under the divine displeasure, yet they shall be in God's due time converted; for that blindness in part only is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved; which words are understood to be an interpretation of that ancient prophecy of Moses, "When they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly ;---but I will remember the covenant of their ancestors.

Let all devout Christians take compassion on them, as Christ did, who was grieved for the hardness of their hearts. And the Apostle, though sorely persecuted by them, had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart upon their account. And let us implore the mercy of God for them, in the words of that excellent prayer of our Church, "Take from them, O Lord, all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word, and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

m Rom. xi. 25, 26. " Lev. xxvi. 44, 45. P Rom. ix. 2.

• Mark iii. 5.

INDEX.

ABEL, his faith made his of-
fering acceptable, 146.
Abimelech, what is to be learnt
from his story, 280.
Abram, why changed to Abra-
ham, 158.

Abraham, the nature of the
covenant with him explain-
ed, 158. his trials and af-
flictions, 162. saying Sa-
rah was his sister no lie,
ibid. his submitting to offer
Isaac, a type of the love of
God to men, ibid. how all
the earth is blessed in his
seed, 158.

Abraman, the Persian and In-
dian devil, 119.

Ahaz, king of Judah, ín dís-

tress, 257.

Ahaziah, his history ought to-
forewarn us from going to
conjurors, 282.

Alexander the Great, 14. Da-

niel's prophecy of him, 315.
his treatment of the Jews,
333. his interview with the
high-priest, ibid. his death,
334. division of his empire,
ibid.

Altar, brazen, its dimensions
and use, 200.
Americans, notions of their
idol, 120. their customs prove
a descent from Adam, 150.
Ammonites' territory, 19.

Absalom, remark on him and Amorites' territory and descent,

his history, 281.
Ahithophel, reflections on his
history, ibid.

Action done, for action to be
done, 93.

Adam, revelation to him, 109.
meaning of his name, 130,
135.

Adrian, how he governed the
Jews, 370.

Adultery, figuratively used, 91.
Age of men before the flood,
104.

Ages of mankind how differ
ent, 104.
Agrippa, king, the last who
bore that title, 353.
Agur, words of, 326.
Ahasuerus, supposed to be Ar-
taxerxes Longimanus, 278.

18.

Amos the prophet, the scope of
his book, 309.

Angels, no mention of them
in Moses' history of the crea
tion, 126.

Antiochus Epiphanes oppresses
the Jews, 277.
Antiochus the Great, his his-
tory, 336.

Anthony overcome by Cæsar,

15.

Apis or Osiris worshipped un-
der the form of a bull, 182.
Apocrypha, what and whence
named, 78.

Apostles worthy of credit, and
why, 41. institute the Chris-
tian sabbath, 190.
Arabians, their conformity in

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