תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

gift

Tappan Presb, Ass

2-23-1932

P R E F ACСЕ.

THE following Remarks owe their origin to a letter which appeared in the Christian Observer for May last, under the signature 'PERSEVERANS,' wherein the writer exhorts those Christians who feel an interest in the spiritual welfare of the ancient people of God, to endeavour to contribute thereto by appeals addressed to them from the press. And he particularly calls the attention of those who have leisure and talents, to the necessity of answering DAVID LEVI'S DISSERTATIONS ON THE PROPHECIES RELATING TO THЕ 'MESSIAH.’

To these Dissertations the writer of the following pages was, till then, a stranger; as he still is to the other works of the

learned Jew. And what is now offered to the consideration of the Jews, is not under the name of a complete answer to every part of Levi's work, for which the author neither possesses sufficient erudition, nor can command enough of leisure ; — but, believing, with a conviction founded upon serious investigation, that JESUS is the promised Messiah, he has endeavoured, according to the precept of the apostle, to give a reason of the hope that is in him, against the chief objections of David Levi. The following remarks have been written in the midst of various and pressing avocations and interruptions, and are, upon this account, even more imperfect than they might have been otherwise.

From an attentive study of the Prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, the author has long since attained to a conviction, that the awful events of the times in

which we live, are rapidly paving the way for the restoration of Israel. He believes that their conversion and restoration are very near at hand; and that, with the blessing of God, no efforts made for directing their attention to JESUS, as the promised Messiah, shall be altogether fruitless.

It seems also probable, from the prophetical writings, that no great or general revival of religion will take place in the Christian Church, till the conversion of Israel; for it is implied in the expression made use of by St. Paul in Rom. xi. 15, that when Israel is received into the Church of Christ, by the conversion of the whole nation, the Church shall be in a dead and lifeless state, but this event shall be the occasion of its emerging from a state of death to a state of life. Upon every account, therefore, the conversion

[ocr errors]

of Israel is that great event, for which every Christian ought most devoutly to pray. The writer requests, therefore, the fervent prayers of those who are waiting for the consolation of Israel, that the following pages may not be without some fruit to the glory of the adorable Redeemer, who purchased his Church with his own most precious blood. *

November 19, 1809.

* The Society are requested by the author of these Remarks, (who resides 400 miles from London,) to state, that when they were written, he did not know that David Levi was no longer in life. This circumstance will account for the fact of some passages being obviously written under the contrary supposition.

1

« הקודםהמשך »