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NOTE (24), page 221.

"This is always objected, as the most capital sin of the nation; and, upon reflection, we shall find really some correspondence between their crime and their punishment. They put Jesus to death, when the nation was assembled to celebrate the Passover: and, when the nation was assembled, to celebrate the Passover, also, Titus shut them up, within the walls of Jerusalem. The rejection of the true Messiah was their crime: and the following of false Messiahs, to their destruction, was their punishment. They sold and bought Jesus as a slave and they themselves were afterwards sold and bought as slaves, at the lowest prices. They preferred a murderer and a robber to Jesus, whom they crucified between two thieves: and they themselves were infested with bands of thieves and robbers. They put Jesus to death, lest the Romans should come, and take away their place and nation: and the Romans did come, and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus, before the walls of Jerusalem: and before the walls of Jerusalem, they themselves were crucified in such numbers, that it is said, room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies. I should think it hardly possible, for any man to lay these things together, and not conclude, the Jews' own imprecation to be remarkably fulfilled upon them: His blood be on us, and on our children." Bp. Newton. Dissert. xxi. on the Prophecies.

The correspondence between the guilt and the punishment of the Jews is noted, also, by S. Isidore, lib. iii. epist. 128. It is to be observed, that the facts have been recorded and detailed, not by a heathen, but by the

Jew, Josephus. I regret, that want of space prevents my being able to transcribe the powerful exhortation, with which Bishop Newton concludes the treatise, from whence the preceding extract has been taken.

NOTE (25), page 221.

Grotius (in loc.) shows, that it was the opinion, not only of the Jews, but of almost all other nations, that children, and children's children, would be affected by the crimes of their ancestors. Among other places, he refers to 2 Sam. xxi.; but this, he remarks, will appear to us less unjust, when we add, that these descendants might escape the penalty, by a serious and solemn protestation against the wickedness of their forefathers.

"The Jews," says Erasmus, "wished destruction to them, and their successors. But Christ, more gentle towards them, than they were to themselves, hath repelled none from pardon and forgiveness, so that they do repent. For many, afterwards did worship the cross of Christ, which then cried in the multitude, By with him, by with him, crucify him."" - Paraphrase.

NOTE (26), page 223.

The following passage, from St. Augustine, reminds us of the style of our own admirable Bishop Taylor:

:

What is said of their spitting in his face, signifies those, who do despite unto the presence of his grace. They who prefer their own honour to his, are the persons who wound him with their blows; and those smite

him on the cheek, who, with an evil heart of unbelief, affirm that he has not come; thus spurning, as it were, and rejecting, his presence." St. Augustin, Quæst. Evang., lib. i. Quæst. 44.

The meek and pious Bishop Ken, one of those holy confessors of modern times, who, for conscience sake, renounced all that this world holds dear, adopts a similar strain, in his Ode on Good Friday:

"When Jesus' suff'rings I review,
And know myself to be the Jew,
Whose sins created all the woe
God flesh assumed to undergo;
I dread my guilt, and in my eyes,
Of tears I feel two fountains rise.

NOTE (27), page 225.

"I have power to let thee go, and I have power to crucify thee. He thus condemns himself: for if the power rests entirely with thee, why dost thou not let him go, since thou hast found no fault in him?"- St. Chrysostom. Hom. in Joan. lxxxiv.

NOTE (28), page 227.

Bishop Warburton considers the sceptre of Judah, in the celebrated prophecy of Israel, to refer to that theocratic government, which God, by the vicegerency of judges, kings, and rulers, had exercised over the Jewish nation: "This theocracy," he says, "which was instituted by the ministry of Moses, continued over that

people till the coming of Shiloh, or Christ; that Prophet like unto Moses, whom God had promised to raise up. And to support what hath been urged from reason to illustrate this important truth, we have here a prophetic declaration enouncing the same thing, -the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till Shiloh come: Shiloh is Christ. Now, Christ is not the successor of those vicegerents of the Jewish state, but of God himself, the King of the Jews. The sceptre, therefore, which descends to him, through the hands of those vicegerents, is not merely a civil, but a theocratic sceptre. This, at the same time, explains the evangelical doctrine of Christ's kingdom, arising out of the theocracy, or kingdom, of God. Hence the distinction, in that famous declaration of Christ, so much abused to factious and party purposes, that his kingdom was not of this world. The theocracy which was administered over the Jews, was a kingdom of this world; but, when transferred to Shiloh, and extended over all mankind, and administered in a spiritual manner, it became a kingdom not of this world. And the making the sceptre of Judah neither tribal nor MERELY civil, but properly theocratic, clears the prophecy from those insuperable difficulties, which render all the other interpretations hurtful or dishonourable to the prophetic system in general."-Divine Legation, book v. sect. 3.

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LECTURE VI.

JOHN, I. 9.

Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World.

BEHOLD the day is come, for the solemn, devout, and grateful commemoration of which, I have been endeavouring, my brethren, to prepare your minds, and my own.

With what various emotions, with what mingled feelings, with what conflicting sentiments, does the true Christian contemplate the great, the awful, the tremendous fact of his religion! On the one hand, our tenderest sympathies are excited, for sufferings without a parallel; on the other, our most lively gratitude is awakened, for mercies ineffable, inconceivable, and undeserved. We laud, and magnify, and praise for evermore, the glorious name of the Lord God of Hosts, when we reflect, that the serpent's head has been crushed: we afflict our souls, and bow down our hearts, when we reflect how severely the heel of

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