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thing, from the fact, which I have introduced to prove the contrary; viz. that he gathered disciples, and placed himself at the head of them, in distinction from the body of unbelieving Jews. The question is, What were these disciples anterior to their being thus collected? Did they belong to the heathen world? Were they not all native Jews? Were they not of the visible people of God, the Israel whom he loved, and redeemed? Is there not demonstration that some of them at least, and much reason to conclude, that nearly all of them, were subjects of real religion? Was not this the case with John and his disciples? Was it not the case with Joseph, and Mary, and Simeon, and Anna, Zacharias, and Elizabeth? And why should it not be supposed to have been the case with many others? Some we are told believed in Christ, who did not confess him; i. e. did not publicly follow him. Now to what society did these persons belong? Why the evasion is, that they belonged to the nation of the Jews; a nation, in the civil acceptation of that term. But we have proved that Israel was not a nation, in this sense; that it was a religious society, of which Christ was the immediate head. When he came to his own, he did not come to subjects of a civil government; but to those who stood in visible relation to him by the bonds of the Abrahamic covenant. It is true, as Dr. Baldwin says, that a large proportion of the Jews hated Christ, and rejected him; that he did not consult their pleasure, or act in concert with them. What then? Still they were his own, just as hypocrites in the Church are now. "He came unto his own; and his own received him not." They were his subjects; but they proved themselves to be rebellious subjects, just as a multitude of their fathers had been; and were cut off accordingly. If they had not been his, he could not have cut them off. All that the Savior did, therefore, in thus separating the holy from the vile, proves, that a kingdom was not now originally formed. Let my brother, and let the reader remember, that the Messiah was to order, and establish forever, a kingdom, already existing. To

purge, and purify, and exonerate, in this manner, was to order and establish. But to set up an entirely new kingdom, would be quite a different thing. The principle here contended for, as a matter of fact will be much confirmed as we proceed. I will therefore detain the reader no longer in this place.

CHAPTER IX.

Respecting the rejection of the unbelieving part of Israel, and the translation of the Messiah's kingdom into the Gentile world, in which the union of believing Jews and Gentiles, under his immediate reign, is illustrated.

UNDER the ministration of Christ, we have seen a part of the Jewish people, following him as their king, and acknowledged by him as the sheep of his fold. In them we have seen his kingdom perpetuated, ordered, and established. We have seen another part, and this the largest, hardened in impenitence and unbelief, rising up in rebellion against their own Messiah, refusing his claims, and fatally casting him out of the vineyard. We are now to see how these two por. tions of the Jewish people are disposed of. We will begin with the unbelieving part. Upon them, Christ, during his ministry, fixed uncommon, and as it would seem, with respect to the most of them, unpardonable guilt." If I had not spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." Mat. xxiii. 31. "Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers; Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Upon them especially, must have rested the awful denunciations of their lawgiver Moses, Deut. xxviii. 6, and on. " And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you nought, and to pluck you off from the good land, whither ye go to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unte

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the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou, nor thy fathers have heard, even wood, and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there, trembling of heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, &c." The anterior captivities were but preludes to this awful extirpation. At the close of the prophecy of Isaiah, in connexion with the promise, "For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain, before me, so shall your seed, and your name remain," (which, by the way, absolutely secures the perpetuity of Israel beyond the effects of this extirpation) it is declared, And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men, that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, nor shall their fire be quenched. And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." See also Mal. last chapter, 1st verse. The solemn warning of John the baptist, though it has been already introduced, deserves in this connexion to be noticed. Mat. ii. 7. "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vi. pers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, &c. And now also the ax is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." Jesus follows up and confirms these denunciations, as applicable to, and about to be executed upon, those who denied him. He predicts the utter demolition of their temple; the treading down of Jerusalem, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; that there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon the people; that these wicked enemies of his, who would not that he should reign over them, after having cast him out of the vineyard, and slain him, shall continue to persecute him in his loyal subjects, till a final period is put to their visible state,

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as the people of God, and they are driven, by unpar ralleled judgments, from off the good land which God had given to them; an event which is most evidently intended by the end, which was to come before that generation entirely passed away. After the passage from Mat. xxiii, which I have just quoted, as expressive of their great guilt, he subjoins this solemn testimony. "Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill, and crucify; and some of them ye shall Scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood, shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple, and the altar. Verily I sáy unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." This is the prophetic destiny of the unbelieving Jews, under which they were to remain, as cut off branches, till the second coming of Christ. Events have exactly coincided with these denunciations. The converts, which were afterwards made by the preaching of the Apostles, excepted, they were in fact extirpated, in one form or another, from the land of their inheritance, Hundreds of thousands of them fell, a sacrifice to their public enemies. Multitudes became victims to each other's cruelty. Their temple was burnt to the ground, their city rased, their country desolated, and the miserable fugitives were scattered into the four winds. The blessing no longer attached itself to them, nor was it transmitted to their descendents. They were no longer of the visible seed. According to the declaration of the Apos-. le," wrath came upon them to the uttermost." The

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