and with no other plea, than that Jesus hath died for my sins, and is risen again for my justification.

"Yet Thou hast graciously encouraged and commanded me to draw near to the throne of grace with humble boldness, that I may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Thou hast permitted me to enter into covenant with Thee by the endearing name of Father. I thank Thee, O LORD, for Thy rich grace; and bless Thy name for Thine unspeakable condescension. I desire to renew again my baptismal covenant with Thee, which I have so often renewed in private, and at the holy table. I humbly pray that Thou wouldst seal me for Thine own, and give me to rejoice in the well-founded hope that I am Thy child, ransomed by the blood of my Redeemer, and renewed by the gracious influences of Thy Holy Spirit. "Suffer me not to deceive myself; but show me if there be any allowed wickedness in me, and deliver me from the power of every evil.

"I look back with astonishment and gratitude at the abundant mercies which Thou hast shown towards me. Thou didst call me in my youth to the knowledge of Thyself, and hast delivered me from numberless snares into which I might have fallen. Thou hast given me a help meet for me, and hast favoured me with a numerous offspring. Blessings, more than I can reckon up, have crowded upon me in quick succession. I desire to praise Thee for them all.

"But, at this time, I would offer my most hearty and solemn thanksgiving for the mercies shown to my dear children. Four of them Thou wast pleased to call out of this dangerous and sinful world during the state of infancy. I surrendered them unto Thee in Thy holy ordinance of baptism, and committed them to Thy disposal. Thou didst remove them ere the pollutions of this world had led their corrupt hearts astray; and, I humbly hope, Thou didst receive them to Thy glory.

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Concerning other four, whom Thou hast called hence in adult age, Thou hast graciously given me the most solid hopes. Though by nature children of wrath, even as others,' Thou wast pleased to awaken them to a sense of the odious nature of sin, and to grant them true repentance. They were early taught by Thy grace to flee for refuge to the Friend of sinners; and Thou didst prolong their lives till they had given clear proofs of a sound conversion. Though prepared, as I hoped, to glorify Thee on earth, Thou didst dispense with their services, and didst remove them hence in the beginning of their usefulness. But Thy grace was with them. In their sickness, and at the approach of death, they were enabled to rejoice in Thy salvation. The last of them I am this day about to commit to the silent grave, but in sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection to eternal life. What shall I render to Thee for all Thy mercies? O that my future life might more abundantly show forth Thy praise!

"I commit those of my family who yet remain to Thy fatherly care. O Lord, watch over them, and preserve them from the evil that is in the world. Enable them to glorify Thee in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And, whenever they shall be called hence, may they join their deceased brothers and sisters in the world of holiness and bliss, there to magnify the wonders of redeeming love for ever!

"O Lord, accept graciously the renewed offering of myself to Thee! Protect me in all the trials and temptations that are yet before me! Increase my love to Thee and all mankind. Quicken my zeal; and enable me to look forward with holy and earnest expectation of that bliss which Thou hast prepared for Thine elect. And, whenever I am called to pass

through the valley of the shadow of death, look then with pity on Thy languishing and dying child; support me with the consolations of Thy Holy Spirit; and receive me to Thine eternal glory, through the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ my Redeemer! Amen.

"WILLIAM HEY."

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.*

THE history of the Jews presents to us a series of wonders. What people can trace their descent from so illustrious an ancestry, or point to more glorious events than those which occurred in their palmy days? "What nation is there so great, who hath had God so nigh unto them?" And how remarkable their degradation and their fall! Scattered for centuries through every region of the earth,-retaining their own clearly-defined identity, while the communities among whom they have mingled have been in constant flux and change,-despised, persecuted, and oppressed, yet never exterminated, they have been, and yet remain, "an astonishment among the nations." The record of their dispersion and sufferings is full of thrilling details and monitory lessons.

And what thoughtful mind can turn from the contemplation of their past history, without making the inquiry, What is to become of this singular people? After their banishment from the "delightsome land," their wanderings, and their unparalleled calamities, what destiny awaits them? A deepening interest in this time-honoured race is now felt among the churches of Christ; and this question is frequently and earnestly proposed. To part of the answer, often returned, we cannot but demur. We thankfully expect that higher glories will be shed upon the once-favoured people, and richer blessings vouchsafed to them, than they have ever yet enjoyed. But these glories are of the "kingdom" which is "not from hence ;" and these blessings are not so much those of time and earth, as the peace which Jesus gives, and the hope and joy which the Comforter kindles in the contrite and believing heart.

Many entertain the opinion, that in the latter day the Jews will be gathered out of the lands where they are now scattered abroad, return to Palestine, behold their city again, rising on "Mount Zion, the sides of the north," and be re-instated in their fatherland with peculiar tokens of the Divine favour. Again will Jerusalem be "the joy of the whole earth :" again will the descendants of Abraham be honoured above all Gentiles on the face of the earth. Now to such views we cannot subscribe. Perhaps it is too much to deny that the dispersed Jews could be collected as a body,

* Objections to the Doctrine of Israel's future Restoration to Palestine, National Pre-eminence, &c.: with an Appendix on the Ten Tribes and the future Destinies of the World and the Church. By Edward Swaine. Second Edition. Jackson and Walford.

The National Restoration of the Jews to Palestine repugnant to the Word of God; a Speech delivered in the Lecture Hall of the Collegiate Institution in Liverpool, at the Anniversary Meeting of the Auxiliary Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, October 21st, 1849. By William Withers Ewbank, M.A., Minister of St. George's Church, in Everton. Rivingtons.

+ Some expect, in addition, the personal reign of Christ at Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, &c. But as other restorationists deny (inconsistently, as we think) the probability of these events, we have purposely omitted them in stating the view which we oppose.

and settled in Canaan, under the guidance of the most wealthy members of their community, and with the favouring aid of other nations; though the intrinsic difficulties of the case, and many prophecies of God's word, (hereafter mentioned,) render such an event extremely improbable. But our objection lies against the opinion, that (on their re-establishment in their land) they will be invested with dignity above the Gentile nations, who, with them, have been brought into the fold of Christ; and that all this is the subject of distinct prediction and covenant on the part of God. We do not believe that "the church of the natural Israel, being re-united, by her conversion, to her Husband," (the Lord Christ,) will be then " advanced to the high prerogative of the mother-church of Christendom ;" or that "the restoration of the Hebrew church to the rights of a wife and to the situation of queen-consort in Messiah's kingdom upon earth," connected with the return of the Jews to Palestine, is "the constant strain of Prophecy."*

Nor let it be thought that this, though interesting as a matter of curiosity, is a question of no urgent or practical importance. Can anything be unimportant which refers to the interpretation of considerable portions of God's holy word, and involves the principles on which such interpretation must proceed? The inimitable John Howe rightly speaks of it as a mark of a Christian spirit, to have a religious, prudent fear of misapplying prophecies, because they are sacred things, and because of the great hurt and danger that may attend such misapplications. A decision on the question before us must, in a greater or less degree, affect our conduct. If this restoration of the Jews be embraced by us as one of the tenets of our belief, it will be sure to influence us in our endeavours to promote the spiritual and temporal interest of this outcast people. Such is the fact. Its strenuous advocates ever and anon introduce it in their pleadings both with Jews and Gentiles; with the one to excite their enthusiasm on behalf of the oppressed exiles, and to induce efforts to promote their return to the land of their fathers; and with the other, to conciliate them, and, by awakening such hopes, to lead them to Christ. Instead of this result, we fear that an opposite one is produced. Jewish bigotry and exclusiveness are confirmed; and that intense worldliness which occasioned the rejection of the lowly Jesus of Nazareth, is fostered. Many, with Mr. Ewbank, consider such preaching to the Jews a serious impediment to their conversion to the pure Christian faith. We therefore ask attention to the following remarks, from all students of holy writ, and all who are concerned about the present and future welfare of the Hebrew people. They are proposed with unaffected diffidence. The number of those who take an opposite view, (among whom are some names of eminence,) and the degree of obscurity in which the subject is shrouded by the necessary style of prophecy, are circumstances which are felt imperatively to demand modesty. But they are also proposed with the earnestness that is inspired by conviction. "We also believe, and therefore speak."

Mr. Swaine's book, already mentioned, has been out of print for some years. It has been re-published, with the author's name, because of the favourable opinion expressed by the venerable William Jay. "The work is well written," says he, "and the point well argued." Mr. Ewbank's speech is Christian in its spirit, clearly-expressed, and forcibly reasoned. It is directed to the two points,-that the Christian Missionary ought not, from the New Testament, to sanction the Jewish expectation; and that

Horsley's Sermons.

the Jew has no warrant for it in the Old Testament. We may avail ourselves of some of the arguments furnished in these publications, though the substance of the following observations was committed to paper before meeting with either of them.

Let us examine the reasons which induce many to look for a restoration of the Jews to Palestine amid circumstances of national distinction.

I. It is alleged, as a strong presumption in favour of this issue, that they have been so wondrously preserved hitherto ;-that, amid all their wanderings, they have retained their affection for their own country, though desolate and ruined ;-that they have never been able to settle elsewhere as owners and lords of the soil;-and that no nation has been able long to retain possession of Jerusalem. "What," asks an eloquent advocate of their return, "What is the final cause, the Divine reason for these singular facts? Why, when all other scattered nations mix and mingle, why is it that, like naphtha in a fountain, or amber floating on the sea, this people, shaken hither and thither, are found, after all their tossings and jumblings, separate and immiscible? And why, again,—when every other forsaken city after an age or two is forgotten by its people,-why has Jerusalem such strong affinity for its outcast population, that the city refuses any other permanent inhabitants, and the old inhabitants refuse any other settled home? Why these anomalous and mutually adapting facts, unless God has some purpose with the place and with the people, and unless the place and the people have yet something to do with one another?" Another avows his conviction that "this preservation of national individuality is a guarantee, as well as a means, of national restoration."

Now it may be inquired whether their being kept as a people distinct from all others is not the result of the peculiar religious tenets to which, in the blindness of their hearts, they have clung, rather than of any miraculous interposition of Divine Providence. They have persisted in their adhesion to the imperfect dispensation which is done away and consummated in Christ. Hence their isolation from the rest of mankind, on whom they still look as "sinners of the Gentiles." Hence their indomitable attachment to the land of their fathers, as, according to their own law, it alone can be the proper theatre for the exercise of their religion. Judaism was, in one respect, a local religion. Its civil and religious polity could be adapted to no other sphere than Judea. Its home could be nowhere save on the mountain which the LORD originally chose. In their unbelief, strangely maintaining that this is the only religion acceptable to God, what wonder that they should refuse to settle elsewhere, and should still turn with fond veneration to the spots, still sacred in their eyes, from which an unseen Power has exiled them? It is vain to ask for anything resembling this among any other people. No other case is at all parallel. No nation mourns over Nineveh or Babylon,-none weeps among "the broken shafts of Palmyra and empty rock-nests of Petra,"-because the nations that once inhabited these cities, held together by no free-masonry or religious exclusiveness, have long ago perished. The case of the Hebrews is altogether unique: it may not be "reckoned among the nations."

In whatever degree their preservation is to be attributed to the overruling providence of God, it is not difficult to perceive that it may be intended to subserve other ends, rather than their restoration as a distinctively honoured race. May not the final cause be the manifestation of the Divine character, as the inflexibly righteous Governor of the world? They are a standing monument, before the eyes of a godless world, that none ever

hardened himself against God, and prospered. We cannot look on a Jew, but there is read to us the solemn warning,-" Be not high-minded, but fear." Or is it not that the proofs of revelation might be increased by the striking fulfilment of prophecy which their dispersion furnishes, and by their scrupulous guardianship of the Books of the Old Testament? In a note on Rom. xi. 15, Macknight justly observes that "the testimony of the Jews to the antiquity and genuineness of the prophecies which have been fulfilled in Christ, is of such strength in the proof of the Divine original of the Gospel, that, from what the Apostle has written in this chapter, we understand that for the very purpose of bearing testimony, in every age and country, to the antiquity and genuineness of their own Scriptures, and of strengthening the evidence of the Gospel, God hath decreed that this people, contrary to the fate of all other conquered and dispersed nations, shall subsist distinct from the rest of mankind, till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Or, once more, may it not be for the more illustrious display of Divine grace which their conversion will exhibit? We learn from the Scriptures that, by their conversion as a people to the faith of Christ, the greatest blessings will accrue to His church, a powerful and saving influence will be exerted on the world, and the highest glory will redound to God. Surely there is moral grandeur enough, in these results, to suggest the wisdom of their being preserved as a distinct people.

II. Considerable stress is laid, by those who expect the restoration of the Jews, on the covenant which God made with Abraham. (Gen. xv. 18—21 ; xvii. 8.) It is maintained that this has not, like that made with the Jews at Sinai, (Exod. xxiv. 7, 8,) been superseded by the Gospel dispensation; and that, as it guarantees the possession of the land of Canaan as an everlasting inheritance to the descendants of Abraham, it must be intended that they should inhabit the land for some lengthened period in the future. If we waive for a moment the question whether this covenant be now in force or not, it is obvious to remark that too much stress must not be laid on the word "everlasting as occurring in this connexion. The very nature of the case obliges us to receive the word in an accommodated sense, and not in that which is etymological and primary. If the world is to have an end, we are shut up to this conclusion. And past events prove that it could not have been promised to the seed of Abraham as an "everlasting" possession, in the full sense of the epithet. They have been banished from it for many hundreds of years. It is styled an "everlasting" inheritance, just as the same word is applied to circumcision, (Gen. xvii. 13,) to Aaron's priesthood, (Exod. xl. 15,) to the passover, (Exod. xii. 14,) and to the day of atonement. (Lev. xvi. 34.) "Here appears to be used in its accommodated meaning, and signifies the completion of the Divine counsel in reference to a particular period or dispensation. And it is literally true that the Israelites possessed the land of Canaan till the Mosaic dispensation was terminated in the complete introduction of that of the Gospel." (Dr. A. Clarke, in loco.)

So far as the covenant granted the possession of Canaan to Abraham's posterity, it has been fulfilled. Nehemiah, when referring to it, declares that God has "performed His words." (See Neh. ix. 7-15; and also Psalm cv. 6, 8—11, 42-45.) This has sometimes been denied on the ground that the Jews never possessed the whole of the land promised to Abraham, according to the boundaries fixed by God. (Gen. xv. 18-21.) It is true that God did not drive out all the nations from before His people; because, as is most expressly stated, they had been faithless, and had not on their