against your nation for destroying their Messiah came upon them.
Now by this act, the crucifying of your Messiah, you did provoke God to jealousy to a greater degree than by any of your former crimes ; for God sent you his co-equal, co-eternal Son : he sent you that Divine Person, who was " David's Lord," as well as " David's Son." The learned men of his own day acknow- ledged that the names, Son of man, and Son of God, were of the same import ; and that, as assumed by Jesus, both the one and the other amounted to an assertion, that he was equal with God. You know also that his claiming these titles was the ground on which they accused him of blasphemy, and demanded sentence against him as a blasphemer. Thus ac- cording to your own acknowledgment, supposing him to have been the person foretold by the prophets as the Messiah, you have " crucified the Lord of Glory" Moreover, about the time that your fathers crucified him, they were ready to follow every im- postor that assumed to himself the title of Messiah. " Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrim, a doctor of law, a man who was in high repute among all the Jews," acknowledged this readiness of the people to run after impostors : he mentions a person by the name of Theudas, who, with four hundred adherents, was slain : and after him one Judas of Galilee, who drew away much people after him, and perished6. We are informed also that Simon Magus, by his en- chantments, seduced all the people of Samaria, from the least to the greatest, and persuaded them that " He was the great power of Godh." Your own his- torian1 bears ample testimony to these facts. Here then you can see how you have provoked God to jealousy, in that you have destroyed his own Son, who came down from heaven to instruct and save you : yea, though he brought with him the most un- questionable credentials, and supported his claim by the most satisfactory evidences, you rejected him
g Acts v. 34 — 37. h Acts viii. 9 — 11. ' Joscphus, lib. vi. cap. 5.