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DISCOURSE VIII.

THE CASE OF THE JEWS.

T

JOHN I. II.

His own received him not.

HAT the eternal Son of God DISC. should condefcend, in human form, VIII.

to visit his people, as their Saviour and Redeemer, is an event, which may well be allowed to excite our admiration. But how does our astonishment rise, when we are informed, that his people refused to receive so gracious a vifitant !

The unbeliever, who is continually prying into every corner of ancient and modern history, for arguments to countenance him in his unbelief, seizes, we may be fure,

1

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DISC. fure, with avidity, on this prominent and marvellous circumstance, and labours to make his advantage of it; affecting to conclude, that the incredulity of the Jew can only be accounted for, by supposing a deficiency in the evidence laid before him. And the believer, though fatisfied that the miffion of Jesus stands incontestably proved, will yet often find himself perplexed, when he reflecteth, how strange an occurrence it is, that a people, selected from all others, to be the peculium of the Most High; by his mighty hand and stretched-out arm refcued from bondage; conducted through all kinds of difficulties and dangers; at length fettled in a country destined for their habitation; and there conftituted the depofitaries and guardians of the divine oracles and institutions; that this people should reject and crucify the person all along foretold, as we say, by those oracles, and pointed out by those institutions.

The truth is, that in all the annals of

mankind, and in the whole compass of specu

VIII.

speculation, we meet not with a subject of DISC. so very fingular and extraordinary a nature, as that now before us, namely, the cafe of the Jews. It may be added, that there is none, on every account, more deferving the deep and attentive confideration of Chriftians. Let us, therefore, enquire into the cause of the phænomenon, with which they present us. Let us hear their plea, and examine the grounds and reasons, on which it is founded.

They did not, because they could not, deny, that the Son of Mary wrought miracles; miracles, though differing in kind, yet equal, in number and magnitude, to those performed by their own great lawgiver. Why, then, believing Mofes, did they not believe him? What was it, that could occafion their infidelity? which occafions it at all times, and in all places, when proper evidence is offered, and rejected-The adoption of certain prejudices and prepoffeffions, as first principles, in oppofition to which no evidence

That

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DISC. is to be admitted. Four points were by them taken for granted, from which flowed all their reasonings, and all their proceedings.

The points were these :

First, That, as the chosen seed of Abraham, they had an exclusive indefeasible right to the favours of

Heaven.

Secondly, That the law of Mofes, on account of it's own intrinfic efficacy, and without a view to any thing farther, was ordained for perpetual obfervance.

Thirdly, That the poffeffion of their city, temple, and country, in peace, wealth, and profperity, was the end of the promises.

Fourthly, That the prophecies warranted them in the expectation of a Meffiah, who, as a temporal prince, should fecure them in fuch poffef

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fion, by fubduing their civil ene- DISC.
mies, and reigning over them, in
Judea.

If these things were so, they had much, indeed, to say for themselves. But let us fee, whether there be not, in their own Scriptures, evidence sufficient to set these positions afide, and to condemn those men, who, upon the strength of them, rejected and crucified Jesus of Nazareth.

Their first position was, that, as the chofen feed of Abraham, they had an exclusive and indefeasible right to the favours of Heaven.

For thus, in reading the gospel history, we find them continually priding themselves in their descent from Abraham; as if, in order to their acceptance with God, nothing were required, but a proof of their relation to that patriarch; and as if, while that relation subsisted, no misconduct of their own could occafion them, as a nation, to forfeit such acceptance. When our Lord spake to them concerning that liberty wherewith

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