SECT. refcue them from the yoke of the RoI. mans. They had not fufficient purity of

heart, to pray humbly to God, that he would be pleased to liberate them from the heavy bondage of fin, and the corrupt appetites of their nature; that he would teach them, instead of being fubject to a round of ceremonies, fignificant indeed but highly burdenfome, to offer up to him the lively facrifice of thanksgiving, and to bear the badge of circumcifion in their hearts.

Far different thoughts from these were they accustomed to cherish; thoughts equally abhorrent from the wisdom and the goodnefs of God. They vainly hoped, that the temporal glory of the fecond temple would be greater than that of the first; and that the fplendid pageant of feftivals and ceremonies would be once more presented to their longing eyes, with a luftre, fuperior even to the pomp and majefty of the reign of Solomon. They grofsly and impiously fancied, that the King of Glory, the Seed, in whom all nations should be bleffed, was to defcend from heaven, for no other purpose, than to gratify the pride and evil inclinations of the stock of Abraham. Under his banners they were to go forth conquering

II.

quering and to conquer; the blood of the CHAP. flain was to mark the progrefs, and the groans of the dying were to celebrate the triumphs of the Prince of Peace. The vanquifhed Romans were in their turn to bow the neck before the lordly Jews; and the earthly Zion, enriched with the spoils of the whole world, was to be the feat of univerfal empire. The defire of all nations was to be the perfecutor and enflaver of mankind; and Ifrael alone was to be exalted in that day, at the expence of suffering humanity.

As this difpofition of the Jews is clearly shewn, on the one hand, by their rejection of the true Meffiah, who would not flatter their ambitious views, and who constantly afferted, that his kingdom was not of this world; fo is it no less fhewn on the other, by the readiness with which they listened to false Christs, who never failed to promise them fovereign sway, as the only method of gaining their affections. Once indeed, during the life of Jefus, the people, aftonished at his miracles, but still under the influence of this mistaken notion, would have made him king by force: but this he could not fuffer, either confiftently with

I.

SECT. the nature of his real kingdom, or without encouraging and promoting their error. The strange perplexity, into which the Jews were thrown at the fight of his miracles, while they were unable to reconcile the humble appearance of of our Lord with the pompous expectations which they had formed of the Meffiah, is ftrikingly described in feveral parts of the Gofpel. They were unwilling to give up their preconceived opinions, though they knew not how to account for fuch an exertion of fupernatural power, by any person inferior in point of dignity to the Meffiah. As the Jews, in the time of our Saviour, could not bear to imagine, that the Law of Mofes was ever to have an end; fo is their pofterity equally blind to the connection, which fubfifts between the two difpenfations.

2.

who em

braced Christianity during the

2. The fentiments of thofe Jews, who The Jews, embraced Chriftianity during the ministry of our Lord, are nearly allied to the preministry of vailing notion of a fecular deliverer. The our Lord. national error refpecting the character of the Meffiah infected even the Apostles,

c. See John vii. and xii.

when

when first converted, in common with CHAP. their unbelieving brethren. They, too, fond

ly hoped one day to fee the lowly Jefus, a mighty temporal prince; and expected, that they, who had shared his humility, should be partakers of his power and glory. This is fufficiently evident from a variety of paffages contained in holy Scripture.

"Then he took unto him the twelve, "and faid unto them, Behold, we go up "to Jerufalem, and all things that are "written by the Prophets concerning the "Son of man fhall be accomplished. For "he fhall be delivered unto the Gentiles, "and fhall be mocked, and fpitefully in"treated, and spitted on: and they fhall fcourge him, and put him to death and "the third day he shall rise again d."

Such is the defcription, which the Meffiah gives of his humiliation and fufferings; circumftances, which had never once occurred to the afpiring and worldly-minded Jews; accordingly, we find that his Difciples were totally at a lofs to comprehend his meaning. "And they understood none "of these things, and this faying was hid

VOL. II.

Luke xviii. 31.

D

" from

11.

SECT.

I.

" from them, neither knew they the things "which were spoken."

The fame obfervation may be made on the defponding language of the two dif ciples, who were paffing from Jerufalem to Emmaus. "We trufted that it had "been he, which should have redeemed "Ifrael." The death of Christ had put an end to all their hopes, and they concluded themselves to have been mistaken in suppofing him the promised Saviour. For a feason, they were as blind as the other Jews to the real design of his miffion; and imagined, that fuch an ignominious punishment as crucifixion was utterly incompatible with the character of him, who came to restore the legal obfervances with additional fplendor and majefty. They remained in this ignorance and perplexity, till Chrift himself was pleased to remove their doubts; first by explaining the intent of the ceremonies and prophecies, and afterwards by fending the Holy Ghost to enlighten their understandings, and to enable them to comprehend the true connection of the Law and the Gospel.

e Luke xxiv.