redemption " in Jerusalem, and ready to welcome his arrival ; and there were some actually converted to the faith of Christ by the ministry of John the Bap- tist. And is there not a general expectation amongst the Jews at this time, that the Messiah is near at hand ? Yes ; and in a degree that has not existed before. Nor will I say this on mere report : for a prophet of their own, writing expressly against the Society, to correct their too sanguine expectations, has undertaken to fix the time ; and, after giving it as the opinion of one great and eminent Rabbi, that there were only twenty-nine years more to the com- ing of the Messiah, he gives a calculation of his own, and says, " There are yet thirty-six years to the end of the jubilee of Israel ; and before the end of these thirty- six years, Israel will be restored, and the Messiah will take possession of his empire*." So that, according to these two Rabbins, the period now remaining at this time, (for that calculation was made eight years ago,) it is not more than twenty-one, or, at the utmost, twenty-eight years q. As for the opinions, I lay no stress on the one or the other ; but I adduce them, to shew that the Jews themselves, even those who are averse to the idea of his speedy advent, expect assuredly that their Messiah is, at no distant period, to appear.
That there are many, especially among the Chris- tian world, ready to welcome the Messiah's arrival and to advance his kingdom, is sufficiently evident, both in Europe and America : and that some of the Jewish nation have been truly converted to God, is a fact to which we can appeal with perfect confidence. Some are at this time employed as missionaries to their brethren ; some, of whose piety we can no more doubt than we doubt the piety of multitudes amongst ourselves : and the New Testament, distributed amongst the Jews, is doing its work silently, but effectually; being "mighty through God to the
p Rabbi Crooll on the Restoration of Israel, pp. 48, 66. i This Discourse was delivered before the University of Cam- bridge, 1820.