OLD TESTAMENT GOSPEL ; OR, TRACTS FOR THE JEWS. BY THE REV. A. S. THELWALL, M.A., OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, FORMERLY MISSIONARY TO THE JEWS IN AMSTERDAM, SERMONS, "THOUGHTS IN AFFLICTION," "THE IDOLATRY OF THE LONDON: LONDON SOCIETY'S HOUSE, 3, CHATHAM PLACE, B. WERTHEIM, ALDINE CHAMBERS, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND PREFACE. To the Christian mind, the Jews are peculiarly interesting, in various points of view. Their History, which occupies so large a portion of the Holy Scriptures, will naturally lead us to take an historical interest in the outcast and scattered remnant of that people, whom the LORD their God had chosen "to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." (Deut. vii. 6.) The Prophecies that have been, and still are, so manifestly fulfilled in them, will lead us to look upon them with peculiar feelings, as living witnesses to the Truth and Inspiration of the Sacred Volume. The Prophecies which yet remain to be fulfilled will induce every careful student of that portion of God's Word to take a prophetical interest in those, whose future glory and blessedness is so plainly predicted. But the writer of the following Tracts has ever felt, and feels more deeply with increasing years and longer consideration and experience, that the interest which we should feel in them as perishing sinners,-under peculiar circumstances of darkness and difficulty, guilt and condemnation,―ought to rise far above all other interest which we can possibly feel in them. This ought to constrain us to more earnest prayer, and more diligent exertions, for their spiritual welfare; and this should lie at the foundation of all our efforts on their behalf. To this Christian and spiritual interest in their spiritual condition, and in what concerns their souls' salvation, all our historical, and evidential, and prophetical interest in them should be secondary and subservient. Under this impression the following Tracts were written. The first will show, that the writer was not unmindful of the prophecies which relate to their future restoration and glory, or to the hope and encouragement which those prophecies supply. But the remaining Tracts, which form by far the larger portion, and demanded much more thought and labour, have reference to their spiritual state, and to the salvation of their souls. They consist of attempts to direct their attention to "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," as that which alone can bring them peace and salvation. As a missionary to the Jews, the writer considered, that his first endeavour, in studying the Scriptures, should be, to discover how far he could go in preaching the Gospel to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," out of the Old Testament only. The three latter Tracts may be considered as the immediate result of his studying the Bible with that view. He had first to trace the harmony between the Old Testament and the New, on the grand, fundamental, and indispensable points of practical Re ligion. Of this he has given a condensed and summary view, in the Tract entitled "The Essentials of Religion;" while, in the two following, "The Promised Covenant," and "The City of Refuge," he has more especially laboured to carry out the idea of preaching the Gospel to the Jews from those Scriptures which they themselves acknowledge as divinely inspired. "The Promised Covenant" is the more laboured effort to show how this may be done; and will, probably, be considered, by the student of the Bible, as more full of instruction: but " The City of Refuge" is more popular and experimental -more adapted for general use and extended circulation. The writer endeavoured to make use of all the information he had been able to obtain respecting the character of the Jews, and the feelings and impressions with which they are affected when the prospect of death is before them. And he has received, from various quarters, many striking assurances and pleasing testimonies of its peculiar adaptation to the Jewish mind; and this, more especially, from converted Israelites. In conclusion, he would only observe, that—while these Tracts were written expressly for the Jews -they may, nevertheless, he humbly hopes, be useful to others. They were written, indeed, under a very deep conviction, that, if they did not contain so much of Scriptural and saving truth as to be calculated to be useful to any one into whose hands they might fall, they could not be expected to be really useful to the Jew. For, with regard to the great truths on which our eternal all depends, "there |