pear from them quite evident to the attentive reader, that the expectations formed by David Levi, with regard to the rapid and sudden establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, immediately after his appearance in this world, are not agreeable to the analogy of the divine procedure in the creation and government of the natural world.

I shall proceed next to inquire, Whether the scheme of Levi be consistent with the analogy of the procedure of God, in the government and economy of the Old Testament Church? and as all my illustrations will be derived from the Hebrew Scriptures, I hope that no Jew will object to the conclusiveness of any arguments which may be fairly deduced from that source. It is proper, however, to premise, that, in arguing from analogy with regard to the probable course of the divine procedure in the economy of the Messiah, we should not for a moment lose sight of one most important fact, which is, that the kingdom of the Messiah is in the Old Testament always represented as eternal in its

duration. To prove this point, which is, indeed, acknowledged by the Jews, it is not necessary to multiply quotations. I shall rest the fact on one passage; (Daniel vii. 14.)—Now it is quite evident that one or two thousand years bear no sort of proportion to eternity: so that, with God, ' a thousand years are said to be as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch of the night." (Psalm xc. 4).

It undeniably follows, therefore, that the eighteen centuries which have elapsed since the advent of Jesus, and during which, upon the hypothesis of his being the Messiah, God has delayed the establishment of his kingdom; bear not so great a proportion to the duration of his kingdom, as a grain of sand does to the matter of the globe.

I shall now endeavour to shew that it has been the manner of the divine procedure towards all his chosen servants, whose histories are recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, when promises were made to them either of a temporal, or a spiritual nature, to try their faith and patience by long

and discouraging delays in the performance of the promises; and I shall from this deduce a proposition, that even a priori, it was to be presumed that something of this kind would take place in the economy of the Messiah.

The first instance which I shall produce, is that of the patriarch Abraham. We find it recorded in Genesis xii., Now the Lord had said 'unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and 'from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 'unto a land that I will show thee. And I will 'make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou 'shalt be a blessing.' And in thee shall all • families of the earth be blessed. So Abram

departed, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of • Haran.'

Here we have the original promise given to Abraham, upon the faith of which he left his own country and family, and became a pilgrim in a strange country, in which he never pos

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sessed a foot of land, excepting the field of Machpelah, which he purchased of Ephron the Hittite for a burying place. But was this promise speedily fulfilled? It is evident that it was We find it indeed renewed after Abraham's arrival in the promised land. (Gen. xii. 7.) ' And the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and 'said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.' — Again, it was renewed in a more ample and detailed manner, after the separation of Abraham and Lot. (Gen. xiii. 14-17.) The next renewal of the promise is recorded in Gen. xv ; and we there discover, that, from the long delay in the fulfilment of it, the faith even of this holy man had begun to stagger. • And Abra'ham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?' Behold, to me thou

hast given no seed: and lo, one born in my 'house is mine heir. And behold, the word of

the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not 'be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said,

Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars; if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be- And he be'lieved in the Lord, and he counted it to him 'for righteousness.'

Still, however, the performance of the promise is deferred; and at length, Sarah, wearied out with the long delay of ten years, which had elapsed from the giving of the promise, without any apparent probability of its being fulfilled through herself, proposed to Abraham to marry her maid Hagar. The patriarch acquiesced in this suggestion, and the consequence was the birth of Ishmael, when Abraham was eightysix years of age, and exactly eleven years after his call to come out of Ur of the Chaldees.

From this time, until he was ninety-nine years of age, Abraham probably looked upon Ishmael as being the promised son. But the Lord then appeared to him again, (Gen. xvii.) and informed him that he was to have a son by Sarah, who should be the ancestor of the promised seed, i. e. the Messiah; and to signify