Page images
PDF
EPUB

grief of those whom thou haft wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteoufnefs. Ler them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. But I am poor and forrowful; let thy falvation, O God, fet me up on high. I will praife the name of God with a fong, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This alfo fhall praife the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble fhall fee this, and be glad; and your heart fhall live that feek God. For the Lord heareth the poor, and defpifeth not his prisoners. Let the heavens and earth praise him; the feas, and every thing that moveth therein. For God will fave Zion, and will build the cities of Judah; that they may dwell there, and have it in poffeffion. The feed alfo of his fervants fhall inherit it; and they that love his name fhall dwell therein.

Mofes. The nature of man is truly pitiable, unstable, and, like a reed, droop under the flightest breeze. I was convinced, and as I painted to myself with an unchangeable conviction, not to be deaf or ftiffnecked, a charge against Ifrael throughout the fcripture, against the call of Almighty God; and this from my youth, with this refolve: that should I at any time be enlightened by my God, to find our long expected Meffiah, manifefted according to our fcriptures; that I would quit all other confiderations, and from the happy inftant facrifice myfelf to his will. The Almighty, as I believe, has appointed and made ufe of you a child, to Y 4

over

[ocr errors]

over-rule and fupercede prefumption and vain arrogance, that I fear are too deep rooted in my breaft. You have inftructed me a teacher in Ifrael, and opened with inconteftible conviction, the fcriptures relating to time, place, and minute circumstances touching the Meffiah, the hope of Ifrael, and expectation of the Gentiles. But fomething more is requifite; for Ifrael, though oppreffed, and, as it were, abandoned by her God, now near two thousand years, a proverb in the mouth of every nation, ftill perfeveres in looking and confidering herself the favorite people of God. Two thoufand years fervitude has foftened and made oppreffion easy in fome degree, and what we have been accustomed to from our infancy becomes natnral, and we are anxious for no other. So on the other hand to perfuade the Jews that Jefus is the Meffiah, who from their infancy they had been taught to abominate, would be a task equally as difguftful as those fet their forefathers by the Egyptians, in the time of their bondage. The promises of the fcripture prophecies greatly allay and alleviate the unparalelled hardships of fo tedious and opprobrious a captivity; fcorned and hated as a pest offensive to the rest of our species. O that my eyes were fountains that I might pour forth floods of tears without ceafing, before my God, for the miseries of my people. O Jerufalem, Jerufalem, how are once the delight of the Almighty levelled with the duft, and your children fifted and ftigmatized; fcattered, and marked with every infamy throughout all nations of the earth; left without the leaft glimmer

of

T

or faint appearance of returning bleffings from our God! Ifrael has finned, a grievous fin, O Lord our God, which has brought this confufion on our guilty heads, but which is hidden from our eyes. Yet, my God, Ifrael will not for fake the covenant you made with our fathers, neither will the forget the promife you have given her, nor give your glory to another. [Zachariah, chap. 8. before Chrift 518.] Thus faith the Lord of Hofts: " It fhall yet come to pafs, that there fhall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city fhall go to another, faying, "Let us go fpeedily to pray before the Lord, and to feek the Lord of Hofts; I will go alfo. Yea, many people and strong nations, fhall come to feek the Lord of Hofts in Jerufalem, and to pray before the Lord." Thus faith the Lord of Hofts. "In thofe days it fhall come to pafs, that ten men. fhall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even fhall take hold of the fkirt of him that is a Jew, faying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." This with many other prophecies confirm Ifrael not to fuffer any innovator to feduce her, but to persevere in the law of your forefathers until Meffiah our Prince be manifefted to the glory of his people and confusion of our foes.

Boy, Zachariah 9th chapter. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; fhout, O daughter of Jerufalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is juft, and having falvation, lowly, and riding upon an afs, and upon a colt, the foal of an afs. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,

Ephraim, and the horfe from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow fhall be cut off; and he shall fpeak peace unto the heathen; and his dominion fhall be from fea even to fea, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth.

Mofes. O my God, Jefus, who is called Chrift, a few days before his death, rid upon the foal of an afs, attended by an innumerable concourse of people that had gathered from many countries to the great feftival with great acclamations. Hofanna to the fon of David, bleffed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hofanna in the highest. This multitude was egged by a ftrange miracle he performed a few days before, in the prefence of many perfons; raifing one Lazarus, after being in the grave fome days. Thefe matters are enrolled by the evangelifts, with a thousand other extraordinary events, which Ifrael has ever attributed to collufion and art magic. Ifrael is too clofely and powerfully linked and attached to her Meffiah, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, the High and glorious Prince, tranfcending all who have been feated on the throne, or wore the diadem of Majefty, to confent, even by thought, to favour one the condemned by an impartial procefs, for affuming that facred character, to retract, or be cajoled, from the upright fentence paffed; this by no means will, or can, Ifrael be induced to do.

Meffiah Great and Glorious, whofe fphere is Majefty, kings and princes compofe his train, and nations lick up the duft before him. Jefus, poor and abject, placed in lurking holes, accompanied

companied by fishers, publicans, and other vagrants of the peftiferous fcum. Can the glory of the one be transferred to the other? Light and darkness are oppofites, which the two characters before us bear the most faithful refemblance.

Boy. You have declared the caufe, or quality, that has entailed unremitted mifery, for near two thousand years, on the people of the Jews, not leaving a veftige or leaft appearance of alleviation; which caufe, or quality, is infufed or animated by pride and vain-glory, clouds and darkens the foul, and prevents the display of reafon; the fruits are purely terreftrial, neither can we be at a lofs to account for this trange infatuation, when we oblerve the fcourge continually exercised upon that people for their obduracy, even from that memorable. epoch of their unrelenting villainy to their brother Jofeph, in refolving his death, through envy and hatred. The fcriptures are one continued chain of threatenings and chaftifements, and which has come down to us, your own fpeech gives evidence. Which of the prophets have you not calumniated, harraffed, and put to death, laft of all your Meffiah? and, altho' near two thoufand years, your rancour and thirst of blood fpeaks the malignity of your imbittered heart, against whom, your Father, your Lord, and your God. The caufe, his manifefting himfelf in a meek and humble ftate, and degrading himself even to the most difgraceful death of the Crofs, as a common malefactor, betwixt two thieves. Why this humiliation?

to

« PreviousContinue »