was the case with the Church at Rome, and, to rectify their mistakes, the apostle favoured us with that allprecious 11th chapter in the Romans, so full of encouragement to seek the salvation of Israel. Some of these objections I will notice hereafter.

2. It has frequently been objected that "the sins of the Jews are so aggravated, and their nature so depraved, that all efforts to promote their conversion are useless."

I was present, and there are others still living who remember, when a Doctor of Divinity, who had come 500 miles to preach at the Jews' chapel, Church-street, Spitalfields, a "demonstration" sermon, took for his text the institution of the cities of refuge for the protection of the manslayer, and the command of God to put to death the wilful murderer; and from these premises he argued, at a considerable length, the impossibility of the salvation of the Jews, because they had murdered the Lord of Glory. It will be in vain to attempt a description of my feelings while sitting beneath the pulpit. For, if the preacher's doctrine had been true, how wretched would have been my condition, as well as that of my dear Jewish brethren! But the Lord gave me patience till the speaker had finished. I then apologized for him, that doubtless the infirmities of age had so weakened his memory, that he had forgotten that, on the day of Pentecost, 3000 Jews, whom the apostle had charged with having crucified Christ, when they asked what they must do to be saved, Peter said, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for. the remission of sins." And, blessed be God, that the same grace which made Peter's preaching effectual to the conversion of 3000 is still the same;

and the same precious blood of Christ, which procured the pardon of their sins, never loses its pardoning and cleansing influences.

of pity or help.

"Can a Jew be in a more hopeless state than that in which we and all mankind were brought by sin? even to be dead in it; neither desiring nor knowing any need Why, then, if God hath quickened us in Christ,' why doubt him who declared, He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,' why doubt this for Jew or Gentile? The venerable Scott says, 'When I remember how hard and obstinate an unbeliever I myself once was, and that I was brought to call Jesus my Lord and my God! I cannot despair of any human being, nor doubt but the same agency is sufficient to make the most scornful Jew worship the crucified Nazarene.' None had ever greater proof of their enmity against Jesus than St. Paul; but did he despair? No! for he remembered his own former enmity, when he had wished himself accursed from Christ,' cut off from his name, cause, and people; can he doubt of others? No! In Romans xi. he shows that their fall is neither total nor final,* that God has an election among them still, (ver. 1-5,) that their conversion is practicable, (ver. 23,) probable, (ver. 24,) certain,* (ver. 26,) that means are to be used, (ver. 14,) that it will not only be a blessing to the world, (ver. 12, 15,) but will accomplish the great end of all things, the glory of the Lord, (ver. 33, 36,) when they shall be* called and saved in the latter day (ver. 26, 27, 32.) Hence Paul expected to save some, because he, as well as we, lived in the dispensation of the fulness of times (Eph. i. 10.) In ver. 17th, &c., speaking of our being graffed in as a * As say almost all the fathers.-See Whitby's Appendix to Notes on Romans xi.

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miracle, because the scion lost its native evil qualities, he considers it less extraordinary that the natural branches should bud again, they having an aptness to unite with the original stock, which there is not in the wild, to receive of the fatness of the true olive. Grace accomplishes both; it cuts us out of the olive, wild by nature, and graffed us into the true olive, and it is 'able to graff them in if they abide not in unbelief.' That they may not so abide, he declares to be our charge, who are put in trust of the glad tidings purposely for them. 'Salvation is come to us, in order to provoke them to jealousy.' They are enemies for our sakes! Blindness in part has happened to them, and we, through their unbelief, have obtained mercy. Our blessings are granted purposely, ' that, through our mercy, they may obtain mercy.'"-Letter to a friend.

§3. Others have objected that, "to attempt the conversion of the Jews is presumptuous. It is interfering with the work of God. Their conversion will be miraculous. A nation will be born in a day."

I freely grant that the national conversion of the Jews will, in a great measure, differ from the conversion of individual sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, and that such a conversion of the nation will not take place till after they be returned to their own land; yet may not thousands and tens of thousands be converted before that event takes place? Is not the salvation of one sinner more valuable than the conquest of a world? Hath not the Lord already graciously blessed the present efforts to many Jews? (as has been shown above.) Did not our blessed Saviour know that the conversion of the Jews was yet a great way off? and yet he commanded his Gospel to be preached first in Jerusalem; and the apostle Paul, who assured us that the fulness

of the Gentiles must first come in, before all Israel be saved? yet he went, in every city, first into the synagogue to preach to the Jews.

4. Another objection, frequently met with, is, that "It is premature; the time is not yet come; their blindness is not yet removed; and the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet come in."

I am aware that this objection is built upon the declaration of the apostle," that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ;" but surely the apostle never designed it as an objection to prevent Christian efforts to promote the conversion of the Jews, for none was more zealous then he himself was to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But let us for a moment inquire into the nature of that blindness, and the meaning of the word "fulness" the apostle speaks of, and I trust the reader will be convinced that that ought not to hinder our efforts in behalf of the poor Jews. It is acknowledged by all that the nature of that blindness was not the blindness which has come upon all men, as the effect of sin-a want of spiritual discernment; but a judicial blindness, not to be able to discern the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, saying, "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not; make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." (Isaiah vi. 8-10.) To this prediction our Lord himself referred, as well as the apostle, in this

passage, and elsewhere, as a reason why the Jews did not believe in Christ in their days. But, that this judicial blindness has ceased long ago, is evident from the answer given by Jehovah himself to the question proposed by the prophet at the time the awful commission was given to him, and which reads thus: "Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." Seeing, then, that this part of the prediction was literally fufilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the dispersion of my beloved people, it follows that the threatened judicial blindness had ceased. But, if it be asked, “If that judicial blindness has ceased, how comes it to pass that the Jews have continued so long in unbelief? Are they not blind still, and do not discern the truth of the Messiahship of Christ?" I answer, there may be two different causes why a person does not discern the true nature of an object--first, if there be a veil upon his eyes; and, secondly, if the light, by which the object is to be discerned, be removed from him. Now, the former was the case with the Jews in our Lord and the apostle's time, when they had the means of grace, and the evidences of the truth of the Messiahship set before them, but they could not discern them, although it was given to some; but, since their dispersion, no judicial blindness was necessary, because they have been destitute of the means of grace, &c., as will be shown more fully hereafter.

As it respects the other part of the objection, viz., "that the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet come in, and, therefore, the Jews cannot be converted," I would