is not among you a prophet, nor any one who knoweth the time how long.

Wherefore hath Adonai done thus unto this land, and what meaneth the heat of his great anger? Hear ye the answer which the Lord says men shall give, and which, according to the prophecy, we do give to the question. Deut. xxix. 25, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.". Hear the account of Jeremiah, Lam. iv. 13-" For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, they have wandered like blind men in the streets." "" And hear the account also given in perfect accordance with all this, by an apostle of our Lord and Saviour. 1 Thes. ii. 15, "They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men."

We are sure that the Messiah is come-and we naturally ask, what may be the cause or causes, why, when he came to his own, his own received him not? This question has been answered already in a former lecture, and we do not recur to it further than is necessary to show the need of the outpouring of the Spirit to remove these causes. Putting aside the minor causes, we shall refer only to three which appear to be the most important. 1st. The natural blindness of the mind, and hardness of the heart, common to Jews with all other men. To this, as unremoved, Moses directed the attention of the people, Deut. xxix. 4: "The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear, unto this day." This cause evidently the outpouring of the Spirit would remove. 2d. Judicial blindness inflicted, because of their iniquities already spoken of. To this Isaiah testifies. But this being an effect of the Divine anger, will be turned away along with that anger, that this song may be sung in that day, "Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger

is turned away, and thou comfortest me.' There is another cause remaining, and, if we were to look only at second causes, it would appear to be the greatest of all, I mean the authority ascribed to the Talmud; but that gracious power of God which can burst through the depravity of man's nature, and find a way, notwithstanding of the fierceness of God's deserved anger, can surely make a speedy riddance of the cobwebs of man's inventions, the covering wherewith they cover, but not of Adonai's Spirit. It pains me, that I need to speak in such terms of what you reverence as part and parcel of the word of God; but before the Bible, and before your own minds, when enlightened by the Spirit of God, to understand the Bible, the puerilities, the fables, the silly stories of "Rabbi this, said so," and "another Rabbi said that another Rabbi still said so and so," the forced constructions of the plainest Scriptures, which your own. common sense would revolt at, were it not crushed under the weight of a revered traditional authority, and which as it is, you must feel ashamed to defend, before any man, who will not implicitly bend his mind to the same authority-the mass of histories, true or false, of the sayings and doings of the later Rabbies, all delivered of God by word of mouth to Moses, at mount Sinai-the astounding affirmation that the bp na declared, that the decisions of the house of Hillel, and of the house of Shammai, in direct opposition to one another as they are, were still the one and the other, the words of the living God-in addition to all this, the blasphemies of that book, over which grief, shame, and love, make me draw a veil: -before the light of God's word and Spirit, we say, these impious absurdities must be dispelled as the shades of night by the orb of day. That these things should be believed by sensible men having the oracles of God in their hands, shows the awful blindness and hardness of the human soul, the need there is for the outpouring of the Spirit, and how easily that Spirit would turn this great mountain into a plain. It requires but a glimmering of common sense, conjoined

with the least spark of downright honesty, to scatter the whole to the winds. But, alas! where is poor Israel to receive that glimmering of sense, and that spark of integrity? Creation cannot impart it; it must be brought by the Spirit of God.

Believe not me, dear Israelites, believe not any man on his own mere word. Sacredly reserve your faith for the word of the living God. Ye are Adonai's people, bound in solemn covenant, to fear, love, and serve him alone. Remember it is he who sanctifieth Israel. You say, "Every thing is in the hands (power) of heaven, except the fear of heaven." Horrible pride of man! to acknowledge his obligation to God for all that he has; saving always and excepted, the very best thing that any man can have, which if he arrogate to himself, he makes himself more his own debtor than God's. Not so runs the promise of God made unto you, and to your children, Jer. xxxii. 40—“I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."

We have proved to you from the doctrinal statements of Scripture, from the prayers of the saints, and from the promises of God's covenant, the need you have of the Holy Spirit, in order to your answering at all the purposes for which the Lord set you apart to be a holy people unto himself. However learned you may be without this, you must remain arrant fools in the things of God; and, however simple and foolish you may be, this will make you wiser than all your teachers, for to such does heavenly Wisdom proclaim, "Behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."

You say the Talmud is the word of God; we say it is not. We say the New Testament is the word of God; you deny it. We say that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God; your fathers crucified him as a blasphemer, and you say you see no reason to forsake the wisdom of your fathers. Well, one

thing is sure, and on all hands confessed-Adonai is the only God, and the Bible is his blessed word. In that word, he has promised his Holy Spirit. The holy men of old read the promise, and implored the gift, the promise is in your hands, and reading, you should repair to Adonai: he may be found he is near. He says, Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and wonderful things which thou knowest not. He never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. You should pour out your heart before him, importunately, perseveringly, unremittingly, till answered, in the cry "Take not, (or keep not,) thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me, (or bestow upon me) the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Thy Spirit is good, lead me unto the land of uprightness." Adopt all the prayers of the saints on this subject, turn all the promises into prayers. Take no denial; this is no vain thing, for it is thy life. Thus, praying, show the sincerity of your prayers, by cultivating the dispositions which befit your requests, candour, and downright sincerity, a sacred regard to truth and to the God of truth, a determination to adopt nothing as matter of your faith, but what you receive from the mouth of God; but to receive and entertain all that he makes known, however contrary it may be to your prejudices, your natural inclinations, most cherished desires, and fondest hopes; however contrary to all human authority, which you may have hitherto venerated the most; and be the consequences to your worldly interests, in believing, professing, and partaking, whatever they may. And when you feel any thing contrary to this disposition, confess it as sin, and redouble your prayer for the Spirit of God to remove it. With your eye thus directed in singleness of heart towards Adonai, for his good Spirit to instruct you, read, study, meditate by day and by night on the Bible, the acknowledged, the indubitable word of God. What the result will be I know full well. If Adonai grant your request,-and when did he put

away the prayer of his servants who desire to fear his name? then will the Lord reveal himself to you by the word of the Lord. You shall behold the

beauty of the Lord, and the majesty of your God. When your heart is turned to the Lord, the veil which is upon your heart shall be taken away, and you shall behold wonders out of his law with adoring astonishment joined to surprise at your own blindness, which hid them so long from your view.

Adonai, Adonai God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty, will draw near to you in and by his word, and ye shall behold his glory. The glory of the infinite and eternal excellences which he possesses in himself, you shall also see enstamped on every commandment of his holy, just, and good law. You will know and feel that the law is spiritual; that eternal righteousness is in all his testimonies. Conscience awakened will testify to the reasonableness and necessity of being holy as he is holy. And ah! then will come the appalling discovery that you are in very nature sinful, carnal, sold under sin-that in you, that is in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Then will the curses which are written in the book of the law dart on your trembling soul, lightnings more vivid than those of Sinai; and the intolerable misery of being sinful, that is, unlike and opposed to the holy Adonai and his holy law, will wring your heart with anguish unutterable. When striving to obey, (for if the Spirit of God be poured out upon you, nothing can discourage that effort so as to abolish it,) when, ever striving to obey, and ever failing, you shall be at last convinced that your carnal mind is enmity to God, since it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: Oh! your heart will die within you, and all your natural hope will expire. Neither the merits of ancestors, nor ,* nor

* Circumcision.