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DISC. "ever, therefore made he thee king, to XII. "do judgment and justice.”

The miffion of the prophet Jonah to preach repentance to the inhabitants of the great city Neneveh, the capital of the Affyrian empire, is an event which deferves a place in your confiderations on the subject before us.

When the Babylonian power was at it's height under Nebuchadnezzar, the people of God, for their tranfgreffions, were carried into captivity by him. Reflect upon the very remarkable incidents to which that captivity gave birth; the interpretation

b" In Solomon's time there were 153600 profelytes in "the land of Ifrael. 2 Chron. ii. 17." See FLEURY'S Hiftory of the Ifraelites, Part II. chap. 1x. p. 84. This little book contains a concife, pleafing, and just account of the manners, customs, laws, polity, and religion of the Ifraelites. It is an excellent introduction to the reading of the Old Teftament, and should be put into the hands of every young perfon. An elegant English verfion of it, by Mr. FARNEWORTH, dedicated to the prefent Archbishop of CANTERBURY, was printed in 1756, for WHISTON, WHITE, and BALDWIN.

of

XII.

of the monarch's dreams; the accom- DISC.
plishment of one of them, by his degra-
dation, and subsequent reftoration; the pre-
fervation of the three children in the fur-
nace, and of Daniel in the den of lions;
with the decrees, in favour of true reli-
gion, promulgated through the whole ex-
tent of that enormous empire, to which
most of the kingdoms of the known world
were at that time subject.

Upon the ruins of the Babylonian empire arose that of the Medes and Perfians; the celebrated founder of which began his reign with the publication of a decree, for the return of God's chofen people to their own land, with leave to rebuild their city and temple.

The profperity and felicity of Ifrael after their return from Babylon; the interview between the High Prieft and Alexander, when upon his march to the conquest of Perfia, as it ftands recorded by Jofephus; the well known exploits of the Maccabees

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XII.

DISC. against Antiochus; the connection formed, about that period, between the Jews and the Romans; the translation of the Scriptures into Greek, and the universal expectation produced thereby among the nations, of a ruler that should come out of Judea -all thefe confiderations, though perhaps they are suffered, in the course of our reading, to glide by us unobserved, as they occur separately, and unconnected with each other, yet when they are thrown together, and duly weighed, may ferve greatly to affift us in forming our judgment concerning the ftate of the Gentiles, and the teftimony from time to time borne to the true religion, by the then church of God, in the heathen world". Notwithstanding the light heaven has been pleased to manifeft, whether in former or in latter times, many, both individuals and

The reader will find many curious and valuable observations upon this important and interefting fubject, in the Bishop of CARLISLE's Theery of Religion, Part the IId; as alfo, in a differtation of Dr. WATERLAND, fubjoined to Scripture vindicated. See alfo LELAND's Advantage and Neceffity of the Chriftian Revelation, Part I. ch. xxix.

nations,

XII.

nations, have ftill continued to fit in DISC. darkness and the fhadow of death. The fate of fuch it is not our bufinefs to determine. One thing we know, and more we cannot, more we need not know; that in the last great day, when that point and all others shall be finally fettled, He is to fettle them, who, before men and angels, "will be juftified in his saying, and clear "when he is judged." What mercy can do, mercy will do. All iniquity shall then stop her mouth, and no person that shall be condemned, will have power or reason to complain. To the curiofity, which, negligent of it's own intereft in Christ, is ever anxiously enquiring into the future deftination of thofe who never heard of him, the proper answer, furely, is"What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”

That the Jew, with the Scriptures in his hands, fhould be blind to the counfels of God refpecting the Gentiles and their return to the church, is indeed truly marvellous. It was foretold, that the pofterity

DISC. of Japheth fhould one day " dwell in

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"the tents of Shem;" that in the promifed feed of Abraham " all the nations of "the earth fhould be bleffed";" that to Shiloh should "the gathering of the na"tions be." Ifaiah is very exprefs, and faith, "There fhall be a root of Jeffe, "which fhall ftand for an enfign of the

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people; to it fhall the Gentiles feek, and "his reft fhall be glorious. -It is a light

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thing that thou shouldest be my servant, "to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to "reftore the preserved of Ifrael; I will "also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, "that thou mayest be my falvation to the "ends of the earth".-Arife, fhine, for

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thy light is come, and the glory of the "Lord is rifen upon thee. For behold, "darkness fhall cover the earth, and grofs "darkness the people; but the Lord fhall "arise upon thee, and his glory shall be "feen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall "come to thy light, and king's to the

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