neither on earth nor in heaven is there one who can arrogate any glory to himself: it all belongs to that blessed Saviour, " who liveth in us :" and to all eternity our song must be, " Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise :" " To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and our Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Say now, brethren, whether, or not, ye are indebted to our ever adorable Emmanuel ; and whether, if you neglect to praise him, the very stones will not cry out against you ?
We hope by this time that the body of evidence which has been adduced has sufficiently established our obligations to the Jews, and has prepared us with some measure of sincerity to inquire into,
II. The returns we should make to them —
It is something more than mere acknowledgments that we are called to make : our duty towards them may be comprised under two particulars : first, We should endeavour to secure for ourselves that salvation which the Jezvs of former ages have handed down to us : and next, We should endeavour by all possible means to make the Jews of this and future ages partakers of the same.
1. We should endeavour to secure for ourselves that salvation which the Jews of former ages have handed down to us —
I would ask, Can it be conceived, that we are at liberty to neglect a salvation, which has been pur- chased for us at so great a price, and has been pro- claimed to us in such a variety of ways ? Have not all those who in successive ages have laboured for us, a right to expect from us some fruit of their labours ? Hear the appeal which God himself makes to us respecting this matter : " O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it ? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes*
o70 ROMANS, XV. 26, 27. [1924.
brought it forth wild grapes11 ?" Here is the very case in point. There is not any thing which we could possibly have desired, either for our conviction or encouragement, which God has not done ; yea, he has far exceeded any thing we could have desired, or even thought. And is all this kindness to be re- quited with neglect ? No : the Apostle justly says, " How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him1 ! " " If so many things had not been done for us, we had not, comparatively, had sin : but now we have no cloak for our sin :" and all who have sought our welfare, whether patriarchs, or prophets, or Apostles, yea and our Lord Jesus Christ himself, will be swift witnesses against us, if we suffer all their labour to be in vain. All that they have done for us, " if it be not unto us a savour of life unto life, will be a savour of death unto death." The first return then which we are bound to make to God, and to all who, as his instruments, have sought our welfare, is, to give up ourselves wholly and unfeignedly to the Lord : and it is remarkable that the Apostle Paul, expressly referring to the collection made at Co- rinth on the very occasion mentioned in our text, says, " To their power, (I bear record,) yea and beyond their power, they were willing of them- selves ; praying us with much entreaty, that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their ozmiselves to the Lord*." This then must have the precedence of all. Whatever returns we may make either to God or man for the benefits we have received from the Jews, they are all nothing without this : we must " first give our ozvnselves to the Lord" " I beseech you then, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye pre- sent your bodies and souls a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable