6. Sixthly, Rejecting the gospel, contemning the gos])el, and slight- mg the free and gracious offers of Christ in the gospel, hrings the fiery dispensation upon a people, and causes the Lord to lay their cities desolate : Mat. xxii. 2-7, ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son. And he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding : and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : and sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.' In this parable the voca- tion of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews is set forth. i The Jews have the honour to be first called to the marriage-feast — they are invited by the prophets, and afterwards by the apostles to partake of Christ, and of all his royal benefits and favours which are dis- played in the gospel, Isa. xxv. 8, 9; Prov. ix. 1-6; Isa. Iv. 1-3. God the Father was very willing and desirous to make up a match between Christ and the Jews, and between Christ and the Gentiles ; and he is here called a King, to declare his divine majesty, and to set forth the stateliness and magnificence of the feast. Marriage-feasts that are usually made by kings are full of joy, and full of state, full of splendour and glory. Who can sum up the variety of dishes and
^ Calvin, Chrysostom. VOL. VI. F
82 London's lamentations on [Isa, XLII, 24, 25.
dainties tliat then the guests are feasted Avitli ? Tlic variety of the glorious excellencies, favours, and mercies of Christ that are discovered and tendered by God in gospel-offers, in gospel-ordinances, is the wed- ding-feast to Avhicli all sorts of sinners arc invited. But here you see they slight, and scorn, and contemn both the master of the feast and the matter of the feast, and all those servants that were sent to invite them to the feast ; and hereui)on tlie king was wroth, and sent forth his armies — tlie Eomans, as most interpreters do agree — and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city. About forty years after the death of Christ, the Lord, to revenge the blood of his Son, the blood of his servants, and the contempt of his gospel upon the Jews, brought his armies, the liomans, against Jerusalem, who by fire demolished their temple and city, and by sword and famine destroyed eleven mil- lions of men, women, and children ; and those that escaped fire, sword, and famine, were sold for slaves, and scattered among all the nations.^ Christ and the way of salvation by him is the subject-matter of the gospel. The word 'EvayyeXiop, that is rendered ' gospel,' signifies glad tidings, good news ; and certainly salvation by Christ is the best news, it is the greatest and the gladdest tidings that ever was brought to sin- ners' ears. AVhat tlie psalmist had long before said of the city of God, ' Glorious things are spoken of thee,' Ps. Ixxxvii. 3, that I may truly say of the blessed gospel, ' Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 thou gospel of God.' The gospel is called ' the glorious gospel of the blessed God,' 1 Tim. i. 11. The gospel is a glorious gospel in respect of the Author of it, and in respect of the penmen of it, and in resi^ect of the glorious discoveries that it makes of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, of heaven, and in respect of its glorious eficcts, in turning of poor sinners ' from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,' Acts xxvi. 18, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which arc sanctified. Certainly Solomon's natural history, in which he treated of all trees, ' from the cedar to the hyssop, of all beasts, fowls, and creeping things,' 1 Kings iv. 33, was a very rare and incomparable piece in its kind ; yet one leaf, yea, one line of the gospel is infinitely more Avorth, and of greater importance to us, than all that large volume would have been.2 For what is the knowledge of trees, and birds, and beasts, and Avorms, and fishes, to the knowledge of God in Christ, to the knowledge of the great things of eternity, to the knowledge of a man's sinful estate by nature, or to the knowledge of his happy estate by grace ? Doubtless to a soul that hath tasted that the Lord is gracious, there is no book to this of the Bible. Acts xix. 19 : When the Lord had made it the day of his glorious power to their conviction, conversion, and salvation, they burnt their costly books of curious arts. And no wonder ; for they had found the power and the sweet of a better book, even of God's book, upon their hearts. Luther, speaking of the gospel, saith, ' that the shortest line, and the least letter thereof, is more worth than all heaven and earth.' He tasted so much of the sweetness of the gospel, and saw so much of the
^ Josephus (Ic Bell Judaic, lib. vii.
^ Some .are of opinion that it was burnt Iiy the Chaldees, together with tlic temple; others think that it was abolished by Ilczckiah, because the people idolised it, as they did the brazen serpent.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 83