the precepts of their religion, abandoned themselves to the grossest sensuality, and to the practice of crimes which cannot even be named in the present day, the Jewish law denounced the most dreadful judgments against all such abominations, and records the destruction of whole nations which had defiled themselves thereby: whilst the Gentile worshiper, the victim of a rapacious priesthood, confused with the multifarious ceremonies and forms of a senseless superstition, sacrificed to gods many and to lords many; and departed from the fane, fearing lest he should have ineffectually performed his vows,-the Jew, exempt from this perplexity, was addressed by the mouth of the prophet What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?'-Whilst the penitent heathen, sorrowing for his transgressions, seeking rest and finding none, spent his substance in vain oblations, and doubted the forgiveness of heaven,-the Jew sought consolation in his cherished scriptures, and reposed in the promises of the Eternal: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' ·

This astonishing difference between the moral and religious condition of the Jew and Gentile, seems to be utterly inexplicable, upon any other principle than that of divine interference in behalf of the former. If the light of revelation did not shine into the minds of individuals, selected to be the instructors of their brethren, as the scriptures assert, how did it happen that, amongst all the wise and learned men of antiquity, none openly pro

mulgated a pure system of morals and theology, in the manner of Moses and the prophets :-that until Socrates taught, in whose day the canon of scripture was closed,-every thing that appeared in the heathen world upon these all-important subjects, was mingled with the grossest errors, and was utterly unequal to the effecting of a reformation in the opinions and manners of the times: that while the gentile world had no effectual restraint from the practice of idolatry and its attendant evils, in any generally received written code of morals, the people, whose are the covenants and the law, and the promises, and the fathers,' had been, for ages, in possession, and under the influence, of the purest system of morals and theology. -And these facts do, as I conceive, tend to establish the truth of what the scriptures allege, that God did, at sundry times and in divers manners, furnish men with extraordinary wisdom from above, and speak in times past to the fathers by the prophets.

Lastly: the Jews themselves are a perpetual testimony to all nations, of the truth of their ancient scriptures. The faith, customs, prejudices, and condition, of this remarkable people, are utterly unaccountable if the scriptures be a tissue of fables. Let it be granted that they are a record of facts, and then we shall have a sufficient cause of the extraordinary phenomena which this nation has presented, and which it still presents, to all the world. Where can a parallel be found to the case of the Jews, in the annals of mankind? Scattered throughout every region of the globe,

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they are yet a distinct and separate people. Both to heathen and to Christian, they do, now, as heretofore, allege, that Jehovah is One and his name One; and during all the various corruptions of religion, and amid the mysteries of its multiform creeds, they adhere to their ancient faith, and worship the Universal Father, and pray to him alone.

The case of this people is the more extraordi nary, inasmuch as the powerful nations, by which they were oppressed or enslaved, did, many ages since, pass into oblivion. Babylon, in the height of her power, carried them away captive; but she herself soon afterwards crouched beneath the yoke of the conqueror, and fell a prey to the spoiler; her glory, and her children, and her deities are no more, while Judea's sons remain, a monument of the power and providence of God, Rome destroyed their city and temple, and put an end to their state and polity, and was the means of their being scattered throughout every nation under heaven; but Rome yielded to the attack of the barbarian, and priests now rule in the City of the Caesars, while the Jews remain, a distinct, though a scattered people, and they still revere the law, and worship the God of their fathers. Is there any other nation or people with which they can be compared? Yes, says the unbeliever, there is China, with her immoveable institutions: look at the castes of Hindustan, and the Bedouins of Arabia: wherein, therefore is the wonder with respect to the Jews? I reply, that the Jews have been exposed to circumstances essentially diffe

rent from those of any other nation with which they may be compared. The Chinese have been shut up, as it were, within the boundary of primi tive laws and institutions, undisturbed, in this respect, by any foreign interference. They have drawn an imaginary line around their country, more difficult to pass than their far-famed wall. They have decreed the sacredness and inviolability of their empire; and their own peculiar situation, together with the circumstances of the world, have favoured the decree. Their dynasties have changed, but the people and their institutions remain unaltered. If we consider the peculiar situation of the Hindus, their adherence to their ancient laws and customs will be explained. Their institutions, which have suffered no change, seem framed expressly to fetter the mind, and to parályze every faculty of man. The superstition of the Hindu extends its influence even over the most minute action of his life, and rules him with a rod of iron, in all his domestic, civil, and social relations. He is the victim of a system which is the very perfection of despotism, and which reduces man to a mere machine. Over these barriers it has been impossible for him to pass, and it must remain an impossibility, until the providence of God shall see fit to break the chains by which he is held. If we turn, on the other hand, to the lawless descendants of Ishmael, we find that they are seated in the midst of almost impassable de serts, into which the customs of civilized life have never yet, been able to penetrate. They live without any regular government, or certain law.

'Ishmael shall be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; yet shall he dwell in the presence of his brethren,' is a prophecy, to the truth of which, nearly four thousand years have borne their testimony. This nation, like the others which we have mentioned, has been preserved entire, by the peculiarities of its situation and the force of cir

cumstances.

But, with respect to the Jews, the case is widely different. Not only have their power been broken, and their political existence extinguished, but their tribes have been scattered throughout the world; and they themselves have endured the persecutions, and oppressions, and wrongs, of every tyrant and bigot, in every nation, for the space of eighteen hundred years: and, that they remain a people, distinct from all others, must, I think, be attributed to that extraordinary dispensation of Providence, which originally separated them from all people and tongues, that they might be a witness, in all subsequent ages, to the existence and attributes of One living and true God.

I would observe, moreover, that whether the unbeliever arrive at this conclusion or not, he cannot, surely, deny, that the Jewish nation has, throughout the whole course of its history, presented to the world a most extraordinary spectacle. It behoves him seriously to reflect, whether the past and present circumstances of this people, could have been the result of any imaginable combination of natural causes and occurrences uncontrolled by the especial providence and ap