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the nations of the earth-Proofs from Scripture-Mr. Faber quoted-The nature of the blessing bestowed upon the nations, by means of the restored Jews-A converted, or Christian state, not an Adamic state-Proofs from Scripture-Objections answered-The duration of the blessing communicated to the nations-Considered to be for a limited period, from Rev. xx. 4—7—Universalism, shown to be unscriptural-Conclusion of the whole subject-Practical application, addressed to Christians-And to Jews

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INTRODUCTION.

WHO, and what are the Jews, and what shall they be? These are questions of lively interest to the Christian. The past history and present condition of the Jewish people, bear witness to the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and to the immediate personal agency of Almighty God in the management of the affairs of this world, with a power and plainness which no gainsayer can refute. And the Holy Scriptures bear witness to the future pre-eminence of that degraded people, with a reiteration of prediction which no believer can resist. History is the providence of God. The Bible is the word of God. They mutually attest each other, on the subject of the Jewish nation, unto this day. Collusion is manifestly impossible; the inference, therefore, against the sceptic, is irresistible.

Who are the Jews?-In answering such an inquiry concerning any people or nation, the practice

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of historians is to trace their origin, their national pedigree, so to speak; which, when they have done, they consider that the question, Who are these people, is fully answered. Thus did Tacitus concerning the ancient Germans; and thus Gibbon concerning the Suevi, the Allemanni, and other barbarian tribes, who contributed to the downfall of imperial Rome.

In adopting the same method respecting the Jews, we, in the first place, trace them back to a certain province of the Roman empire, which provoked the hostility of the Emperors Vespasian and Titus, and the capital city of which was destroyed by the latter emperor with a dreadful slaughter of the inhabitants. The survivors were scattered abroad among the various nations of the earth, and the Jews in England and other countries of Europe at this moment are the descendants of those refugees. For a series of years previous to this dispersion from Judea, they were tributary to the Romans. The eastern campaigns of Pompey, and the still earlier conquests of Scipio, supply us with abundance of the most authentic information upon this point. The history of the Macedonian conqueror enables us to trace the origin of the Jews still farther back, and we find that in the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, they were brought from Babylon into Judea, where they settled and built the city of Jerusalem.

Thus far there is no room for denial or doubt,

by any inquirer who possesses even a superficial acquaintance with the history of the world. But beyond this, the scriptural account of them has been denied; and one of the daring falsehoods which infidelity has put forward with unblushing effrontery, is, that we know nothing of the Jewish nation, antecedent to what is insidiously called, their emigration from Babylon. In tracing their origin still farther, therefore, let us fortify our statement with legitimate proof.

Our assertion is, that the scriptural history of the Hebrews, from the call of Abraham, till the captivity of Zedekiah, king of Judah, including a variety of miraculous interpositions by the God of the whole earth, is true-true in the obvious meaning of the language, without any evasion. Our proof of this rests its first firm step upon a matter of fact, undeniably before our eyes.

The Jews of the present day possess and revere a very remarkable collection of books, which they say were given to their forefathers by the immediate inspiration of Almighty God. These books record a variety of stupendous miracles; and the Jews, as a nation, at this moment, believe that a generation of their ancestors beheld the performance of those miracles, and therefore handed down these books to their posterity as genuine and authentic.

That this is the present opinion of the nation, may be learned from any intelligent Jew in London,

or elsewhere. We know, say they, that God spake to Moses and the prophets. Now a most important question is, when did they first begin to believe these things concerning these books? And a manifest absurdity rests upon the supposition, that any generation of Jews except that one which saw the miracles, could have been the first to acknowledge the divine authority of the books. For observe how the case stands. Suppose any impostor to have forged those books in later times; and suppose them coming for the first time into the hands of a Jew. He reads in them that his forefathers were miraculously delivered out of the land of Egypt and led through the Red Sea, and that an ordinance of religious worship, called the Passover, had been instituted in remembrance of that deliverance, and continued from father to son, down to his own days. He pauses, and stares at the strange statement. What! he says; my father never taught me any thing about this Passover; I was never present at it myself; I have never even heard of it till now; and yet, this book says it was instituted many years ago, and has been celebrated annually by all the Jews ever since. I know to a certainty this is not the case; therefore, this book is not true. -How could such a man have been persuaded to embrace the truth, and contend for the divine inspiation of such a book?

This argument holds good, at whatever period of the history of the nation it is pretended that the

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