directed against the company of the Apostles and their followers. If we consider the inhabitants even of this land, where Christianity is established, and where it has an influence so extensive, I know not whether we should find that the number of converts in Jerusalem fell very far short of the number of those who, among ourselves, give evidence of their Christian faith, by regularly attending on the worship and sacraments of the Christian Church, and by a life which adorns the doctrine of God their Saviour. Surely, then, there is no view, which can rightly be taken of the infidelity of the Jews, which can at all impair our conviction of the reality of the Christian miracles, of the justness of the Christian interpretation of the prophecies, and of the cogency of the various other arguments, which persuade us, with "the full assurance of understanding, with the full assurance of faith, and in the full assurance of hope," to think that, "both in the Old and New Testament, we have eternal life offered to us by Jesus Christ, as the only Mediator between God and man," and that" to him we must be willing to come that we may have life."

But we may, and ought to proceed still further in considering the infidelity of the Jews; we must fix our attention more exclusively on those who remained and persevered in unbelief. We must investigate the causes, and motives, and

operations of this unbelief. This will in two respects be useful to us. It will shew that the Gospel was rejected from no just, defensible, or sufficient motive, and, therefore, that their infidelity need not hinder us from seeking the blessedness of those," who have not seen, and yet have believed." It will also give to us an impressive and salutary caution, lest we fall after the same example of unbelief.

It must suffice merely to remind you of those erroneous interpretations, or rather of that partial selection of Scripture, which led them to reject a spiritual and suffering Messiah; to believe in the perpetuity and sufficiency of the Mosaic ritual; and to claim an interest in the promises made to Abraham in virtue of their lineal and natural descent from him, and also an unconditional and indefeisible right to the land of Canaan. It was not, however, until the scheme of the Gospel was fully unfolded, and found to be directly opposed to these favourite notions, which they had embraced so firmly, and which so many refused to abandon, that the Jews became "exceedingly jealous of the traditions of the Fathers," and mad against the Christians. Those principles had then their full operation; and the topics just mentioned became the subjects of open controversy between those who embraced, and those who rejected the Gospel of Christ. Those topics had been slightly touched

upon even by the Baptist. They were also occasionally adverted to by our Lord; and in one or two instances became the subjects of his discourses, parables, and reasonings with the Jews. But, in general, as in the words of our text, we find our Lord unfolding the moral causes of infidelity; causes which, of themselves, if unchecked and predominant, are sufficient to choke the good seed of Evangelical truth, and to render it unfruitful. And when to these moral impediments prejudices and errors were added, such as those just noticed, we may cease to wonder that the Jew remained incapable of conviction, and proof against every argument which might persuade him to embrace the Christian faith.

These moral obstacles, which are the substratum in which all other accidental ones inhere, and whence the latter derive their strength and permanency, are not, alas! confined to the Jew. They result from that "fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby he is of his own nature inclined to evil," and " is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." For so long as "the flesh thus lusteth against the spirit," it will produce, amongst its other deadly fruits, "heresies";" some, it may be, only slightly

a Gal: v. 20.

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deviating from "the truth as it is in Jesus," but others also those " damnable and destructive ones, by which men even deny the Lord that bought them, and draw back unto perdition"." But let us remember the judgments which came upon that generation among whom our Lord preached; and let us also reflect that these things, as well as those that befel their fathers in the wilderness, happened unto them for ensamples, and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Let the judgments, then, with which the Lord visited his once favoured and peculiar people, excite us to "remember how we have received and heard, and to hold fast, and to repent, if peradventure our works have not been found perfect before God, lest our candlestick be removed out of its place." Hereby also let us be individually warned to prepare for the terrors and justice of that day, when" the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels;" when "all the nations shall be gathered before him;" when he will take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." We have been "grafted" into the body of his Church, and partake of the root and fatness of the olive :

b 2 Pet. ii. 1.

d Rev. ii. 5; iii. 2, 3.

c 1 Cor. x. 11.

e Rom. xi. 17, &c.

the natural branches being broken off, that we might be grafted in." "Well;" says the Apostle to each one of us, "because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity; but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again."-Here is, indeed, a salutary and awakening caution. And its concluding words forcibly remind us of that glorious season, which is rapidly advancing on the wheels of time, when, "the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled," the "blindness which hath in part happened unto Israel" shall cease.

Let us now more particularly direct our attention to the remaining words of our text, with which our Lord concluded his discourse before the Sanhedrim. In them he upbraided the Jews for their unbelief and hardness of heart; and in such a manner as will also upbraid us, if we are not "holding fast the form of sounds which we have heard, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

Did Jesus, as he passed on from laying before the Jews the evidences of his divine mission,