meditate, and pray. Let us get our souls cast, as it were, into the mould of the Gospel, that, being altogether formed and fashioned by it, we may be "meet for the inheritance" reserved for us. Thus will this Prophet be glorified in us ; and we receive the full benefit of his instructions.]
Acts iii. 26. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
THE ground on which the Jews rejected our blessed Lord was, that, in their estimation, he op- posed Moses. The Apostle Peter therefore referred to Moses and the prophets, to shew that Jesus was the very person whose advent they had all predicted: and that Moses, in particular, had required them to believe in Him, as the only possible means of ever obtaining acceptance with God : " A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me : Him shall ye hear, in all that he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be de- stroyed from among the people." Then, in my text, he tells them, that " God, having raised up his Son Jesus, had sent him to them first, in order to bless them, in turning away every one of them from their iniquities." In opening these words, I will shew, I. Why Christ was preached first to the Jews —
This was done by a special appointment of Al- mighty God,
1. Because with them primarily was the covenant made —
[To Abraham and his seed were the promises given : and the covenant was renewed with Isaac and with Jacob, his lineal descendants. From these the whole Jewish nation sprang ; and consequently they were regarded as heirs of the blessings which had been so limited. To them this privilege had been confined for two thousand years. The law of Moses, which forbad all unnecessary intercourse with the Gentiles, tended