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be sustained, "Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

They rejected him-though he performed before their eyes the most astonishing miracles that ever excited the attention of the visible or invisible worlds; he healed the most inveterate and incurable diseases, he controuled the malignity of demons, he stilled the tempest of the winds, calmed the roaring of the sea, burst the barriers of the grave, and aroused the bodies of the dead. And these miracles he accomplished too by his own unaided authority and power. He commanded, and it stood fast; he spake, and it was done.

They rejected him-though his morality and his doctrines were so pure, so heavenly, so far above all that tradition had recorded, or that philosophy had discovered, that it was most evident that he possessed "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord."

They rejected him-though he displayed in his personal character perfect immaculacy, every virtue which was qualified either to attract the most exalted admiration, or allure the most fervent love-the most noble disinterestedness, the most expansive benevolence, the most amiable meekness, the most affectionate compassion, the most unreserved self-denial, the most undaunted courage, the purest holiness, the most exalted devotion.

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They rejected him-though some of his most inveterate adversaries were compelled to acknowledge his superiority, his innocence, his glory, his divinity. The stern messengers of justice could not touch him, for never man spake like this man;" the veteran soldier who gazed upon his sufferings, and who without emotion had trampled upon many a horrible field of blood, declared "Truly this was the Son of God;" the venal, perfidious, and cruel Pilate, while he washed his hands from the guilt of his condemnation, pronounced the memorable sentence, "I find no fault in him ;" and the fearful inhabitants of the dark world of everlasting woe, confessed, "We know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”

Proceed with this illustration.

The dignity of his person, the justice of his claims, the object of his mission, every feature of his character, and every action of his life, were so many awful aggravations of their guilt, and all combined to deepen the horrors of their doom.

They rejected him-though after his murder and sepulture, he ascended from the confinement of his grave, sealed the truth of his religion by his triumphant resurrection, and ascended, before numerous witnesses in every way worthy of credit, and competent to testify to the wonderful fact, to his Father and their Father, to his God and to their God.

They rejected him-though the supernatural effects which after his death resulted from the preaching of his gospel, by which, in spite of all the prejudices, and all the influence, and all the literature, and all the philosophy of the known world, the idols of paganism were soon hurled from their polluted pedestals, and trampled beneath the feet of their emancipated devotees was enough to convince the most inveterate unbelievers, that his were the credentials of heaven, that his was the cause of truth and the cause of God.

And their rejection of the Saviour was attended with all that was obstinate in unbelief, with all that was despicable in meanness, with all that was base in perfidy, with all that was barbarous in cruelty, with all that was diabolical in malignity. They preferred the most detestable malefactor to the immaculate Son of God; the judgment-hall resounded with their acclamation, "Not this man, but Barabbas ;" and, in the furious phrenzy of their brutal rage, they brought upon themselves and their posterity the merited vengeance of an insulted God, by the maddened imprecation, "His blood be on us, and on our chil

dren."

Sum up the preceding illustration?

The guilt of this rejection was plainly the deepest, the darkest, the direst which either nationally or individually could possibly have been contracted; and when compared with which all other criminality, of

whatever character or die, sinks into absolute and invisible insignificance. It was resistance against all the power, it was the defamation of all the purposes, it was giving the lie to all the promises, it was blasphemy against all the attributes of God. It was hurling back against his very throne, with contemptuous scorn and dreadful malevolence, the best and brightest and dearest gift, which infinite mercy could possibly bestow upon a miserable world.

"He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the son of God.

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

And thus it was, that even at the crucifixion of Christ, the attendant circumstances of that awful scene were not only declarative of the mysterious moral import of his death, and of the dignity and majesty of the sufferer who there bowed his head and died, but they were also indicative of the guilt, and premonitory of the doom, of the unbelieving inhabitants of Jerusalem. The earth heaved-and the foundations of their civil and religious polity were subverted. The veil of the temple was rent-and the mysteries which had hitherto been confined to them were exposed to the knowledge and revealed to the investigation of the whole world. The sun was hid in darkness-and the glory of their national institutions and the splendour of their national prosperity, were eclipsed for ever. The bodies of the dead arose and it was evident that their hearts were more insensible than the very corpses of the sepulchre, they had Moses and the prophets and they did not believe, neither were they persuaded though many arose from the dead.

Miserable, infatuated race! All the manifestations of mercy had been made in vain: the cup of unsearchable grace they had dashed away untasted from their lips; their career of crime was finished; they were abandoned to their own wickedness and left to experience the consequences of their crimes; and the scroll of their destiny from that hour was replete with mourning, lamentation, and woe!

SECTION III.

THE SAME CONTINUED.

THERE are some particular topics immediately connected with the history of the Jews, illustrated by the ministry of Christ, which in this brief detail can be merely specified, and left to the reader's own thought and investigation.

HOW did the ministry of Christ testify to the design of God in the original separation of the Jews from all other nations.

The references which our Lord made to the Hebrew Scriptures in substantiation of his own claims, and the language which he used relative to the connexion of his mediatorial advent and work, with the hopes and expectations of the most eminent patriarchs and prophets who lived during the Levitical dispensation, such as Abraham, Moses, and David, fully establishes the statement more than once made in the preceding pages, that the great object of the original separation of the Israelites from the nations of the world, and their wonderful preservation through all the eventful changes of so many hundreds of years, was to prepare the way for the full manifestation of his glory, in counteracting the ravages of sin, and in extending the blessings of his Redeeming love to all the countries, all the tribes, and all the families of man.

What testimony did the ministry of Christ bear to the moral condition of the Jews?

The testimony which the Son of God so frequently bore against the sins of the times and against the wickedness and prejudices of the different religious sects into which the Jews were divided in his time, shows how very far they had degenerated from the understanding and from the precepts of the law; and demonstrate, that although they had maintained from the restoration an extreme abhorrence of every form of idolatry, they had become the slaves of prejudice,

of bigotry, of ignorance, of vain, ostentatious, and useless forms, and had completely lost the spirit of their religion, distorted its doctrines, perverted its precepts, and forgotten its end.

What other fact did the ministry of Christ illustrate?

The ministry of Christ illustrates the striking fact, that in his day, according to one of the most ancient and impressive predictions of antiquity, the Jews had lost their independence, were entirely subject to a foreign power, and were indulged in the practice of the ceremonies of their ritual, only by the permission of their invincible, though tyrannical, oppressors.

Did the ministry of Christ illustrate the temper and spirit of the Jews?

The instructions, the reproofs, and the exhortations of the Saviour, illustrate the prevailing disposition and spirit of the Jews at the time of his ministry in the most lucid and intelligible manner-the animosity which prevailed among their sects and parties-their ostentatious parade of superior sanctity and wisdomtheir ambitious desire of national preeminenee and power, displayed in the ideas they formed and the expectations they cherished relative to the character, the work, and the achievements of the anticipated Messiah their proud and bigotted hatred of other nations their tendency to sedition and revolt arising from all the preceding dispositions-a tendency which was soon fearfully developed in their rebellion against the Romans, and the unparalleled calamities which attended their final destruction.

How does the ministry of Christ illustrate the polity of the Jews?

The ministry of Christ illustrates much of the internal polity and manners of the Jews at that periodthe power of the Sanhedrim-the great influence of the Pharisees-the extraordinary debasement and prostitution of the pontifical office from the design of its original institution-and the venality and corruption pervading the whole system of the administration of justice. Nor is it possible to peruse the evangelical

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