to confirm them in the idea that the blessings belonged ex- clusively to them. Our Lord's own declaration, that he was " sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ;" and his directions to his Disciples, " not to go into the way of the Gentiles, or into any city of the Samaritans, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," yet further established this sentiment in their minds ; and that so strongly, that they could not divest themselves of the idea, that they were to confine their ministrations to the Jews. Hence we find, six years after the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter needed repeated visions, and an express revelation from Heaven, to remove his prejudices, and to prevail on him to preach the Gospel to Cornelius. And so strong was the same prejudice on the minds of all the Apostles, that in full conclave, as it were, they called him to account for going to a Gentile ; and were with difficulty persuaded that, in so doing, he had not sinned against Goda. Even St. Paul, till the Jews were incurably obstinate in their rejection of his message, always addressed himself in the first instance to the Jews b : and in this he conformed to that express command, to " preach the Gospel unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem0." The reason for this preference being shewn them, is assigned by the Apostle in the verse before my text: " Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers ; and therefore unto you, first, has God sent his Son to bless you.
2. Because the offer of the Gospel to them, in the first instance, would shew that Christianity could stand the test of the severest examination —
[Had it been made to the Gentiles first, the hearers would naturally have said, " These preachers are vile impostors and deceivers. Their Head and Leader has been put to death by the laws of his own country ; and they come and persuade us that he was a divine person, dying for the sins of men. If they could bring any proof" of what they say, why do they not per- suade their own people first, and establish their religion in the place where these transactions came to pass ? The reason is obvious : they know that their assertions will not stand the test of inquiry : and therefore they come to palm their false- hoods upon us, who cannot so easily detect them." This would be a reasonable ground for rejecting all they said. But, when they first of all addressed themselves to the Jews, who knew all that had taken place, and therefore were good judges of the question before them, it seems at least that the preachers of this strange doctrine defied detection as impostors, and were
a Acts x. 15, 16. and xi. 17, 18. b Acts xiii. 46.
c Luke xxiv. 47.