derable figure for the space of about four hundred years; and during a great part of it they were in subjection to some or other of the neighbouring nations, in consequence of their apostacy from their religion; so that in all this time there was far from being any appearance of their being what they were in the reigns of David and Solomon; and this state of prosperity did not continue quite a century.' After this they relapsed into their former inconsiderable state, and they were finally conquered, and carried into captivity, by the kings of Assyria and Babylon; when to all appearance there was an end of the nation of the Israelites, as there was to those of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, which never rose to any degree of power or independence.

Of all the kings of Israel, David, whose piety was most exemplary, though, from the strength of his passions, his failings were very great, was exercised with the greatest trials, both before he was king and afterwards, of which many of his psalms, composed in a mournful strain, are a sufficient evidence. He was anointed king of Israel when he was very young; but though he soon distinguihed himself as a warrior, he was immediately exposed to the jealousy and persecution of Saul; so that

during the remainder of his reign he was obliged to take refuge in the neighbouring countries; and after the death of Saul he was seven years at Hebron, acknowledged by the tribe of Judah only.

On the other hand, Solomon, who had, no doubt, every possible advantage of education, and arrived at the most splendid situation without any difficulty, was not only excessively luxurious, but swerved from his duty in an article with respect to which his firmness might have been least of all suspected; not only indulging his wives in the idolatrous worship of the countries from which he had taken them, but joining them in it.

After this seeming annihilation of the Israelites as a nation in the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar they were, according to express prophecies, restored to their own country, though they never rose to the height from which they had fallen; and in conse quence of their relapsing into vice, though not into idolatry, and rejecting the great prophet Jesus Christ, the vengeance predicted long before by Moses came upon them to the uttermost. They were conquered by the Romans, and soon after intirely driven from their country to every part of the habitable world; and in this state they remain to this

day

day, but they are not destroyed. They preserve their peculiar customs, and never lose sight of their relation to their great ancestors, or the promises of God to them, that they are to be once more, and fi. nally, settled in their own country, and to be the most respectable of all nations. Though they are treated with the greatest contempt by all other people, they are justly proud of their descent, and of their peculiar relation to God. Whatever be the vices with which they are chargeable, they are not deficient with respect to faith. Their most necessary virtue is fully exercised, and improved, by the severe discipline to which they have been subjected.

This is the more remarkable, as none of all their calculations, or conjectures, concerning the time of their deliverance and exaltation have been verified; so that they now desist from forming any opinion on the subject, but wait with patience for the accomplishment of the promises, notwithstanding the most discouraging aspect of things, and in perfect uncertainty will respect to the time.

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The Messiah, who was first promised to them with any distinctness in the time of Isaiah, they fully expected, from their interpretation of the prophecies of Danicl, about the commencement of the christian era, when they became subject to the

Romans;

Romans; a situation which they brooked very ill. Jesus was the predicted Messiah, but his first coming was not to be that glorious one with which they fondly flattered themselves. And with respect to his second coming christians themselves have their faith as much exercised as is that of the Jews. It was by many fully expected soon after the age of the apostles. After this disappointment, they fixed upon later dates; but, like the Jews, we have flattered and deceived ourselves again and again. Our faith, however, does not fail, especially as our Saviour has apprized us that the time of his second coming was not known even to himself, but to the father only; and that when it will come it will be as uncxpected as that of a thief in the night.

If the faith of the founders of the Jewish nation,

and that of the nation itself, has been so much exercised, that of Jesus Christ and his followers has been no less so. Christ himself was made perfect through suffering, Heb. II. 10. his followers cannot reasonably expect to be trained to virtue and happiness in any other way. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. During the whole course of his benevolent ministry, in which he continually went about doing good, he met with more opposition from the envy

and

and malice ofhis powerful enemies, than if he had been the pest of society. Though he gave the rulers of his nation no cause of offence besides that of reproving them for their vices, they never ceased to persecute him till they had put him to a painful and ignominious death; and he faithfully apprized all his disciples, that if they would follow him, they must take up their cross to do it; and that they would be hated of all men for his name's sake, but that they ought to rejoice in being so distinguished; since in consequence of being persecuted for righteousness' sake, great would be their reward in heaven. If they suffered, with him, they would, as the apostle /says, reign with him, and be glorified together.

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The apostles, and the primitive christians in neral, found this to be a faithful and true warning. In following the steps of their master they were persecuted as he had been; and christians received no countenance from the powers of the world for the space of three hundred years. And after this the professors of a purer christianity (for it was never more than a corrupt species of it that was patronized by princes and states) continued to be exposed to cruel persecution in various forms. Indeed they suffered much more from nominal christian powers

than