Agreeably to this view of the prophetical declarations relating to our Saviour's incarnation, the general prediction was 2000 years, before the promise made to Abraham. From that, to the pointing out the particular tribe from which he was to descend, was 280 years. From thence to the designation of the family in which he was to be born, was 600 years. It was above 300 years from thence to the prophecy of his miraculous nativity: and from thence to his public appearance as a preacher of righteousness, was 350 years.

This is a very concise view of the expectations of the Jews, relative to Messiah their King's coming in the flesh. They believed that he should be the Son of God, yet, emphatically speaking, the Son of Man -exalted and debased-master and servant-priest and victim-king and subject-clothed with mortality, yet the conqueror of death-rich and poor-glorious in holiness, yet a man acquainted with grief. He was the Father of the everlasting ages, yet involved in our infirmities, and reduced to a state of extreme humiliation. All these seeming contradictions were to be reconciled in the person of their expected Messiah; and they centered, as in a point, in the man Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.

The Jews as a people, then professed firmly to believe, that their king Messiah, though the Word and eternal Son of God, was to be born of a Virgin-of the tribe of Judah-of the family of David-in the village of Bethlehem: that he was to continue for ever and ever, and his name as long as the sun and moon should endure that he was to be both son and Lord of David: that he should die an ignominious

death and rise again: that he should have a fore runner in the power and spirit of Elias. That, as a proof of his mission, he should heal the broken hearted, preach deliverance to captives, raise the dead, and preach the Gospel to the poor. That he should perfect and fulfil the law---be a stone of stum bling and rock of offence to many; and that the Gentiles should submit to his government. In full proof of these facts, the whole book of Psalms, with the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi bear witness.

Yet, notwithstanding this explicit declaration of the person and character of this glorious personage, the Talmud of the Jews informs us, "That, when the Messiah shall appear, he shall be acknowledged only by a small number of the Jews (in comparison with the whole people), and shall be rejected by the bulk of the nation that the Messiah shall be a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, and an occasion of falling to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: that the Jews shall then be overwhelmed with evils."*

When Christ appeared and began his ministry, he did not go to the Gentiles, but confined himself exclusively "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," to the Jews alone, as the immediate object of his mission. From these he first chose twelve disciples, who remained with him, the constant witnesses of his life and doctrines, to the end. After some time, his followers greatly increasing, he chose seventy disciples more, and sent them to the various cities of Judea,

* Bab. Talm. Tract. Sanhedrim C. Halies in Galatin. lib. ix. ch. ii.History, Estab. Christianity, by Bullet. ix.

still confining his mission to the Jews. At one time he had attendant, on his personal ministry, four thousand, and at another five thousand followers, besides women and children; these were all Jews. His popularity became so very conspicuous among the Jews, and his friends and followers so greatly increased, that, in the Sanhedrim, the chief priest declared, that all men were running after him; and among his warm friends and disciples, we find Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; Joseph of Arimathea, a counsellor; and Matthew and Zacheus, noted Jewish publicans, or tax-gatherers, officers under the Roman government; these were all Jews; and to these, with the whole city of Jerusalem, and the country round about, did he publish the glad tidings of salvation, declaring himself to be the Son of God, and the appointed Messiah, and they believed on his name: and after his death, even the persecuting Saul, a pharisee of the strictest sect, was added to the number. But never, in any one instance during his life, did he address himself to the Gentiles.

His being the Son of God, was so remarkably and emphatically the burden of his doctrines while on earth, that his inveterate enemies confined their charge against him, when arraigned on the trial for his life, to this important fact; and, as they were employed and bribed to make this accusation, by the chief priest and pharisees, it is pretty conclusive evidence of their opinion of the true character of the expected Messiah.

The testimony given against him on his trial, before the Jewish Sanhedrim, was, that he should have said, "If they should destroy the temple, he would

rebuild it in three days," as a proof of his Almighty power, otherwise there could not have been any pretence of blasphemy in the charge; but even in this, the witnesses could not agree so as to make their testimony amount to legal proof; and the innocent Jesus remaining silent, nothing could be obtained from his confession-on which the chief priest, in order to aid the defective testimony, adjured him, by the living God, to answer, if it was true, "That he was the Christ or Messiah, or not?" This was putting the accused to his oath, after the manner of the Jews, or examining him on interrogatories. Silence was now no longer allowable. Without hesitation, therefore, he fully confessed it; and as a further acknowledg ment of his divine mission, added, "Hereafter you shall see the Heavens opened, and the son of man standing at the right hand of God." Hereupon the chief priest, considering this as an unequivocal declaration of his claim to the character of the Messiah, rent his cloaths, and passed sentence of condemnation against him, "not as guilty of falsehood, deceit, or imposition upon the people, but of blasphemy; and therefore pronounced him worthy of death; and afterwards, to put the idea they formed of the true character of their expected king Messiah out of question, he refused his assent to Jesus being released by Pilate, because he had made himself the Son of God; that is, by claiming the character of their Messiah.

The like consequence was drawn by the people at large from his preaching long before, when he charged them with attempting to stone him for his good works -they denied the fact, but said, that it was "for his being only a man, yet making himself equal with God."

After his resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the apostles began to preach in his name; and, at one of their first sermons, converted three thousand souls; and soon after, we are informed, that the number of the brethren were about five thousand; and, a little afterwards, that “a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." Here then were numerous converts, who must have been as well acquainted with the general statement of facts relative to the life and actions of the Saviour, as the apostles themselves; and, by their conversion, under the dangers to which they exposed themselves by their adherence to the cause of a persecuted and crucified master, they became as good and sufficient witnesses of the facts on which the Christian doctrines are founded, as if they had been of his family in his life-time. These were all Jews; and they were at Jerusalem, the seat of all the great occurrences of his life and death, where a church was immediately established, and from whence their doctrines spread throughout all Judea, so as to raise a persecution against the whole pro. fession. Hereby these followers of the despised Nazarene, were scattered throughout the country, and finally forced among the Gentiles, whom they were taught of God, by a revelation of his will, to admit also to fellowship; the Jews as a nation having rejected the Messiah their king; and not till then did they turn to the Gentiles.

Thus it is plain to demonstration, that, before the crucifixion of Christ, and for a considerable time after the resurrection, so far from the Jews "never crediting the story, and the Gentiles being the only peo