ISAIAH Ixii. 1, 7. "For Zion's Sake will I not hold my LONDON: Printed for J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, St. Paul's Church-Yard M.DCC.LXXXIII. Nov. 22, 16. M.A.J A CALL, &c. DEAR BRETHREN, A S fellow creatures, and many of you as fellow Britons, the benevolent defign of this address to you is to perfuade you to become fellow christians. In my humble opinion, I cannot evince more, to your and my own fatisfaction, my love and friendship for you, than by endeavouring to convince you, from the teftimony of your own prophecies, delivered by God to your forefathers, that the suffering Jesus of the Chriftians was your Meffiab, of the feed of David, and that your difperfion throughout all lands, as strangers and sojourners, will continue, so as that you will not be able to obtain a settlement, or the rights of citizenship, in any part of the earth, till you believe in, and B 299303 : and acknowledge the first past advent of your Meffiah. On the contrary, when, in the language of the great apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, who was a Jew, and a persecutor of the Christians, before his signal converfion, "the veil which is now on your hearts, when you read Mofes and the prophets, shall be taken away," so as that you shall clearly difcern, difcerning acknowledge, and acknowledging obey, this Jesus as your promised Meffiah; not only those of you, who may choose to dwell in the various Christian countries where they now fojourn, will be admitted to the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship in these countries, but as many of you as shall prefer a return to your own land, will receive the divine blessing on your undertaking, till, at length, after a series of years, God will bring you all back, with joy and triumph, from all the countries whither he has driven you; and the several nations of the earth will be fo far from obstructing your return, that they will aid and affift you in it, as I hope to fully prove from your divine prophecies, in the sequel of this address. At present I beseech you, by the mercies of God, which Pagans, Mohammedans, Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians, undeservedly experience from Jehovah, the God of Ifrael, and the God of all the inhabitants of the earth, to seriously reflect that the hand of God has been, is, and will still be, against you, and, in the emphatic language of your own Scriptures, "his face turned away from you," so long as you remain in your unbelief. Out of numerous instances which might be cited, from the page of history, to evince the truth of this assertion, I shall produce two. The first, which occurred in this country during my state of childhood, is very remarkable, and was as follows. - When a liberal minded minister in the last reign, Mr. Pelham, attempted to introduce a bill for the naturalization of your people, the clamours of the nation were so vehement against it, that he was compelled to drop it, to the best of my recollection, after it had made its way through the two Houses of Parliament, even in its last stage, when it waited only for the royal affent to pass it into an act, which you know, agreeably to the political constitution of this country, is necessary before it can obtain the force of a law. The B2. |