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enjoined; for Eliashib the priest, manifested a partiality for Tobias who was an alien, because by marriage he became related to him. This was resented by Nehemiah at his return to Jerusalem, with great indignation. He corrected other abusés respecting the priesthood, and the observance of the sabbath. He reclaimed also some who had intermarried with the neighbouring nations.

Thus finally was a new æra introduced among this wonderful people. Their religion was restored to its primitive purity. Their former sufferings, and their encouragements to expect future peace and prosperity, by an observance of the divine laws, at length subdued their minds to obedience; and they made every sacrifice required of them by those pious leaders, Ezra and Nehemiah. As a people they did not return to a state of independence, nor was the royal dignity immediately restored. They were tributary to foreign powers, and they had various connexions with the neighbouring nations; but as a people they remained stedfast to their religious principles. The general propensity to the worship of Idols was totally subdued; and they became Monotheists in the strictest sense of the

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term. To this point all the Dispensations of God were directed; and it is precisely at this point that the sacred history terminated.

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The whole current of profane history bears witness to the permanency of this wonderful change! A people whose ancestors were ignominiously prone to idolatry, through a series of ages, in opposition to every principle of common sense, to the express prohibitions of Jehovah, and to every motive of gratitude or of interest, have continued firm in their abhorrence of idolatry, and in their adherence to pure Monotheism, under every persecution. They have. carried their principles with them wherever they were dispersed. They have submitted to every indignity which ignorance or bigotry could inflict, and resisted every temptation to adopt the customs of the nations among whom they dwelt; and they are, to this day, a monument of the final and permanent efficacy of those means which the Supreme Director employed, completely to separate them from an idolatrous world.*

* See Note L.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE SELECTION OF THE JEWISH NATION FROM THE PAGAN WORLD, AS INTRODUC- : TORY TO A DISPENSATION BY WHICH

ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH

ARE TO BE BLESSED.

SECT. I.

The moral character of the Jewish nation did not entitle them to this exclusive honour.

We have seen that the Jews, and the Jews alone, as a nation, finally became Monotheists, and that "unto them were committed the oracles of God." We shall now enquire for what purposes this people were chosen from the general mass, and rendered a deposit of divine truths; that we may be able to trace the immediate effects of the plan, as introductory to the Christian revelation. The enquiry will also enable us to appreciate the national character of the ancient Jews, in a proper manner; and discover to us the nature and extent of the advantages derived to other nations, from this highly favoured people.

The distinguished honours conferred upon the Hebrews; their being selected and separated from a world immersed in ignorance and idolatry; their possessing, for a series of ages, many exclusive privileges;-their being represented in the language of seripture, as the peculiar people of God, have induced many Christians to entertain sentiments concerning that nation, which are not supported by historical facts; neither are they consistent with our ideas of the divine impartiality. Misconceptions also, respecting this subject, have inspired the descen dants from the faithful Abraham, with extravagant conceptions of their own superiority. Such vain expectations have thus been fostered, as became an impediment to their receiving a Dispensation, for which that communicated to their ancestors was preparatory.

It is readily admitted that numerous passages in the Old Testament, and particularly in the prophecies, are expressive of an affectionate predilection. Jehovah is emphatically styled "the God of Israel; the God of Jacob." "The children of Jacob are his chosen ones." "I loved thee with an everlasting love." "How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel?" Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compas

sion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." These, and many other expressions of a similar import, seem to testify a peculiar attachment to this people, notwithstanding those enormities of con duct which are so frequently and so severely reprehended. Hence do these expressions appear to be inconsistent with that impartiality which our reason ascribes to the universal parent, by giving to this people an exclusive title to the divine favour, which they deserved not. The subject demands consideration,

When we were treating of the nature of Love, in a preceding volume, we considered it both as a principle and an affection. It was observed that the principle of love, respects an invariable predilection for good, seated in the mind of a percipient, who knows, or thinks that. he knows, in what good consists, and in what respects it relates to well-being. When the principle is directed towards any particular object it becomes an affection; that is, the mind is well disposed towards the object, or strongly affected by it. This affection, as it respects others, may again be distinguished into the love of Benevolence, and of Complacency. The bene

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