the providence of God, in opposition to Pagan superstition and idolatry; and numbers of them declaring their firm belief in a future state of retribution; while all maintained a constant connexion with Jerusalem, attended there at the three great festivals, whenever it was practicable, sent thither their pious and charitable contributions, and universally gloried in the expectation of that Messiah, "who was to be a light to lighten the Gen"tiles," as well as "the glory of his people Israel."

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The influence of such a preparation for the reception and diffusion of the Gospel must have been great and salutary. Every where its preachers found synagogues, where the Law and the Prophets were expounded each sabbath. Every where they found not only Jews, but proselytes of righteousness; who, without binding themselves under the heavy yoke of the Mosaic ritual, acknowledged the great truths of natural religion, and complied with the sacred precepts of the moral Law. Every where some, like the officer of Candace, queen of Ethiopia,* studied the Scriptures. Others there were, like the devout Cornelius,† “who "feared God, with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." Hence the preachers of Christianity almost every where instantly found hearers, who could understand and feel their addresses. Thus at Antioch in Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas were not only invited to preach by the rulers of the synagogue; but after the Jews went out of it, "the Gentiles and religious proselytes besought that these words "might be preached to them the next sabbath; and on that day "came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Thus also at Iconium, when these Apostles went to the synagogue, they found an audience not only of Jews but of Gentiles (who were undoubtedly such proselytes); and "when they had "preached, a multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed."§ Thus again at Thessalonica, "of the Jews some believed, and "of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief "women not a few." And finally, we see that "at Jerusalem "were dwelling Jews, devout men, out of every nation under "heaven," who were attracted by the very first sound of the Gospel of Christ. For when the Apostles "were filled with the

Acts, viii. 27, &c. § Ibid. xiv. 1.

+ Ibid. x.

|| Ibid. xvii. 1—4.

Ibid. xiii. 15, 42 and 44.

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"Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, the multitude came together, and "were confounded, because that every man heard them speak "in his own language-Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, "and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappa"docia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers "of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, ex"claimed, We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful "works of God."*

Of this assembly, which may be considered as a collective representation of all the nations of the earth, three thousand souls converted on this memorable day, and at least five thousandt on a second illustrious miracle within a few days after, formed a body of missionaries, to bear to their respective countries the tidings of the appearance of that promised Messiah, "in whom all the kindreds of the earth were to be blessed;" a promise which in these signal instances began to be so conspicuously verified.

The rejection of Christianity by the great bulk of the Jewish nation, assuredly forms no valid objection to the connexion and consistency of the Law and the Gospel. This rejection was not obscurely intimated by the Prophets,§ was expressly predicted by our Lord, and was the natural consequence of that national ambition, that carnal and worldly temper, which induced the great bulk of the Jewish people to misunderstand and misinterpret the prophecies, by directing their attention exclusively to those predictions which speak of the supremacy and extent of the Messiah's kingdom, and which they understood of a temporal instead of a spiritual reign, by which the Jewish nation, as they vainly imagined, was to be rescued from the Ro*Acts, ii. 4-11. + Ibid. iv. 4

I refer for a full refutation of the objection against the truth of the Gospel history, derived from the rejection of Christianity by the Jews, to two sermons lately preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, by Dr Elrington, and to be immediately published, at the desire of the Provost and Senior Fellows. I have only taken such a brief view of it as my subject indispensably required.-Vide also Lardner's Collection of Jewish Testimonies, ch. ii. and vii.

Vide Doddridge's Lectures, Lect. cxxx. Prop. 112; Isaiah, xlix. 16, 21. lii, the entire, liii. 1 to 9; and the passages quoted in the first section of this Lecture. Matt. xvi. 21. xxvi. 2. and the parallel passages.

man yoke, and exalted to the dominion of the world; while they wilfully overlooked the equally clear predictions of the same Messiah's humiliation and sufferings, and the express declarations, that the new † dispensation should not be confined to one chosen people, like the old, but should embrace without distinction all nations, who, according to the original promise of God to the great Patriarch Abraham, were to "be blessed in his seed." But the true interpretation and application of the prophecies is not obscured, or the proof of divine foreknowledge and co-operation in the establishment of the Gospel arising from them, subverted, by the errors or the obstinacy of the Jews. The prophecies are open to our inspection as well as theirs; and when by combining the temporal humiliation with the spiritual dominion of the Messiah, both which the Gospel attests, we perceive all the predictions respecting him accomplished, however appa rently opposite; the proof thence resulting is the more decisive, as it was more difficult for mere human sagacity to anticipate, or mere human agency to produce, so extraordinary a coincidence.

The rejection of the Gospel by the Jews is indeed so far from weakening, that it greatly confirms the proof from prophecy, by establishing the authenticity and uncorruptedness of these great records of divine truth, of which the Jews are unsuspected, because hostile vouchers. Had their nation universally or generally embraced the Gospel at its first publication, the sceptic might with some plausibility, allege, that the prophecies might have been fabricated or altered, to fit them to the events; the CONTRARY IS NOW CERTAIN. And so great is the importance of this circumstance (as appears to me) to establish the truth of Christianity, that I firmly believe it to be one of the great causes, why the national conversion of the Jews is delayed "until the "fulness of the Gentiles shall come in." They are to continue the guardians of the prophetic records till these shall have had their contents examined, and their application ascertained, by every other nation in the world.

A little reflection will also evince, that the rejection of Christianity by the Jewish nation, does not subvert, but on the con

* Vide particularly Psalm xxii. and Isaiah liii.

+ Vide the preceding Section of this Lecture.

Rom. xi. 25.

trary confirms tne certainty of the miracles recorded in the Gospel history. It not only appears from that history,* but from the admission of the Jews themselves,† that the cotemporaries of these miracles did not deny their performance, but on the contrary admitted it: though they would not upon their evidence embrace the Gospel (because they conceived this contrary to the Mosaic Law,) whose obligation their carnal and ambitious views led them to believe was eternal, and which they conceived no miracles could prove to be abrogated. They therefore contented themselves with asserting, that the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles must be ascribed to Magical influence, diabolical agency, or the mysterious potency of the ineffable name of God, which they conceived our Lord had learned to pronounce. But these opinions of the Jews affect not the reality or greatness of the Gospel miracles. We can judge as clearly as they could possibly do, whether the Scriptures describe the Mosaic Law as of strictly eternal obligation, or on the contrary represent it as designed to introduce a more perfect and universal religion. And our improved reason and philosophic knowledge, reject without hesitation the wild and absurd causes to which they imputed works, which the fair and candid reasoners amongst themselves confessed, no man could do, except God was with him."

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In truth the hostility of the Jewish nation to Christianity from the first, confirms the truth of the Gospel miracles. Had the Jews been universally or even generally converted by them, the sceptic might argue, with some appearance of probability, that the facts had been invented or exaggerated to gratify the national propensity, credited without examination or proof, and all inquiry into them checked, at the only period when inquiry could have detected imposition. On the contrary we are now certain that the Gospel miracles were wrought in the presence of enemies, § and thus subjected to the severest scrutiny, and

* Matt. ix. 34. xii. 24. Mark, iii. 22. Luke, xi. 15. and the corresponding passages.

+ Vide Wagenseil's Tela Ignea Satana; and Lardner's Jewish Testimonies, ch. v. and vii.

+ Vide Limborchi Collatio cum Orobio, 3 Script. Judæi, Num. iii. p. 131.

The author begs leave to refer to a work published by him in the year 1798, "to "prove the Apostles and Evangelists were not Enthusiasts," for a detail of particular circumstances attending the Gospe. miracles, chap. i. particularly sect. iv. and chap. ii. sect. 1.

that they carried with them conviction to multitudes, notwithstanding the fiercest opposition which national prejudice, bigotry and vice could excite, and the strictest research which could be formed by the most vigilant hostility.

Undoubtedly the most powerful cause of the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews, was the deplorably vicious and depraved character of the nation at large, so strongly attested by their own historian, and incontrovertibly established by the facts which he relates.* And this depravity, it may be said, disproves every thing I have adduced, to show that Judaism was designed or adapted to prepare for the reception of the Gospel. But let it be remembered, that notwithstanding this allowed depravity of the Jews in general, it has been proved † that amongst them were preserved the principles of true theology and pure morals, which the Gospel adopts, and which were banished from all mankind beside. Let it be remembered, that amongst them and the various descriptions of persons connected with and enlightened by their religion, the Gospel found its first teachers and hearers, its first converts and missionaries; and that the noblest and purest principles of piety adorned these great instruments, employed by God for dispensing his mercies to mankind—instruments which, through every other region of the world, would have been sought in vain. Finally, let us recollect the great probability that the gospel attracted, and as it were detached from the Jewish nation, every thing pure and pious, candid and virtuous; and left behind the dregs and dross alone,-the hypocritical Pharisees, the Epicurean Sadducees, the worldly-minded Herodians, the fierce zealots, the depraved and seditious rabble: thus, according to the intimation of its divine Founder, sifting the chaff from the wheat, separating the tares from the good seed, "gathering the one into his barn, and consuming the other "with fire unquenchable."+

In truth, after the Jewish nation had obstinately rejected the Messiah, rebelled against his authority, and in opposition to his religion maintained, that the perpetual observance of the Mosaic.

Vide Josephus's History of the Jewish War, particularly Books iv. v. and vi.; or Lardner's judicious view of his testimonies to the fulfilment of our Lord's predictions, in his Jewish Testimonies, ch. iii.

Vide supra, Part II.

Matt. iii. 12. xiii. 30.