DISCOURSE VIII. THE CASE OF THE JEWS. TH JOHN I. 11. His own received him not. HAT the eternal Son of God DIS C. fhould 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 aftonishment rife, when we are informed, that his people refufed to receive fo gracious a vifitant! The unbeliever, who is continually prying into every corner of ancient and modern hiftory, for arguments to countenance him in his unbelief, feizes, we may be fure, VIII. DISC. fure, with avidity, on this prominent and marvellous circumftance, and labours to make his advantage of it; affecting to conclude, that the incredulity of the Jew can only be accounted for, by fuppofing a deficiency in the evidence laid before him. And the believer, though fatisfied that the miffion of Jefus ftands inconteftably proved, will yet often find himself perplexed, when he reflecteth, how ftrange an occurrence it is, that a people, felected from all others, to be the peculium of the Moft High; by his mighty hand and ftretched-out arm refcued from bondage; conducted through all kinds of difficulties and dangers; at length fettled in a country deftined 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 fay, by thofe oracles, and pointed out by those inftitutions. The truth is, that in all the annals of mankind, and in the whole compass of fpecu VIII. fpeculation, we meet not with a subject of DISC. fo very fingular and extraordinary a nature, as that now before us, namely, the case 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 prefent us. Let us hear their plea, and examine the grounds and reafons, 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 thofe 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 DISC. is to be admitted. Four points were by VIII. them taken for granted, from which flowed all their reasonings, and all their proceedings. The points were these : First, That, as the chofen feed of 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, fhould fecure them in fuch poffef VIII. fion, by fubduing their civil ene- DISC. If these things were fo, they had much, indeed, to fay for themselves. But let us fee, whether there be not, in their own Scriptures, evidence fufficient to set these pofitions afide, and to condemn those men, who, upon the ftrength of them, rejected and crucified Jesus of Nazareth. Their firft pofition was, that, as the chofen feed of Abraham, they had an exclufive and indefeasible right to the favours of Heaven. For thus, in reading the gofpel history, we find them continually priding themfelves in their defcent 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 fubfifted, no misconduct of their own could occafion them, as a nation, to forfeit fuch acceptance. When our Lord fpake to them concerning that liberty wherewith |