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Jewish nation are the procuring causes of their restoration, but the free unmerited mercy of God, acting from a respect to the glory of his great name; and if the sufferings of the Jews are not the procuring cause of their restoration, neither are they that which expiates their iniquity.

CHAP. VIII.

MISCELLANEOUS AND CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

I PROPOSE in this chapter to offer to the consideration of the Jews, a few concluding observations upon the important question at issue between them and the Christians.

According to the view which David Levi takes of the prophecy of Hosea, i. 8, 9, the Jews, during the second temple, were not the people of God, and were, therefore, by God himself, called Lo-ammi, not my people.' (Dissert. Vol. III. page 56.) Either, therefore, they still continue to bear the name Lo-ammi, and to be in a state of alienation from God, or there was some period of their history when

they did from that state emerge into the character, and dignity, and exalted purity of those who deserve the honourable appellation of the sons of the living God. (Hosea i. 10.) Now, if this happy change has already taken place, it is surely not of that insignificant nature that the period when it happened should not be known and ascertained. We therefore demand, that the Jews shall inform us when the change took place?

But if the Jews shall agree with David Levi, who seems to think that this change has not yet taken place, and will not happen till the era of their restoration, it then follows that they are still Lo-ammi, not the people of God; ' and, in this case, we can find no difficulty in accounting for the wickedness of the nation, which is acknowledged by David Levi, (Vol. II. page 23.) as being the procuring cause of the length of their dreadful captivity: nor is it difficult to account for their " present impious and "irreligious behaviour," as acknowledged by the same writer. (Vol. II. page 230.) For as the

nation still continues to bear the prophetical name of Lo-ammi, not my people,' they only

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act in consistency with the character included in this appellation, when they render themselves liable to the charges contained in the above passage of David Levi.

But though the present acknowledged impious behaviour of the Jewish nation, and their wickedness during their long captivity, be quite consistent with the language of God in the prophecy of Hosea, it is not so easy for Christians to reconcile with these things the merit which is claimed for his nation by David Levi, of their having endured the most dreadful persecutions and massacres from the nations for their adherence to the true unity of God (Levi's Dissert. Vol. I. page 223.)

Christians are taught to believe, that to be martyrs for the doctrine of the divine unity, or any other of the great truths of God, includes in it all the peculiar privileges, as well as the happiness and character, of those who are the children of the living God; and is quite opposed

to the state of those who are in a condition of separation from God.

There is one important fact, which cannot but have come under the consideration of reflecting Jews: it is, that of all those men among the Christian nations of Europe who have rejected the New Testament, there are none who have continued to receive the Old Testament as a revelation from God. Now, if the Jews be right in rejecting Jesus, how comes it that, in the opinion of all among the Christian nations who think the most freely on these subjects, the Old and New Testaments must stand or fall together? According to the Jewish hypothesis, the Old Testament only is from God, the New Testament is an imposture. Now, if it be so, is it not quite inexplicable, that, during the space of eighteen centuries, the Old Testament, excluding the New, has not made a single convert of name? Is it conceivable that God would permit this to be the case, if the New Testament were not from God? Many profound thinkers, and some of the most en

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