Stephen now addressed, deeply lamented or severely condemned. Yet they had proved and were still proving themselves legitimate and undoubted children of such parents, in shutting their eyes upon greater and more numerous miracles than had been wrought by Moses. Their fathers would not obey this messenger though invested with such wonderful powers. The sons were so far from any thought of obedience to the Messiah, that in very despite of his astonishing works they denied him to be sent from God; and when unable to disprove the facts, ascribed them to Beelzebub. In the former we perceive a sudden forgetfulness, if not a strange insensibility; a want of steadiness in virtue, and a quick return to evil habits; in the latter, an obstinate, determined, malicious opposition to all goodness, want of faith in the clearest evidence, and the grossest perversion of right and wrong. When Moses had been detained some time from them by the command of God, the Jews of that day fell into murmuring, discontent, and despair; "As for this Moses, (say they) who brought us out of the Wilderness, we wot not what has become of him." Their descendants however, carried this insolent and refractory spirit much higher; for while Christ was in the midst of them, daily receiving the witness of his Heavenly Father to his divine origin before their eyes, and surrounded with the glory which shone through his life and ministry, they say

of him, "As for this fellow we know not whence he is." And although an extreme impiety, as well as brutish stupidity, must be acknowledged in the conduct of those ancient Jews, who turned from the Lord that brought them out with a mighty hand, to vain idols, Remphan and Moloch, and other Syrian and Egyptian idols; insomuch, that God disclaims their sacrifices offered to himself, during forty years in the Desert yet it was much more attrocious in their posterity, to set up equally odious and bloody idols in their hearts, pride and malice, and hatred and revenge; and to sacrifice to these the pure and spotless Lamb of God, who came to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to take away the sins of the world.

Had the high priest and rest of the assembly been candid enough to apply the observations of Stephen, upon the character of Moses, and conduct of their forefathers, to their own behaviour toward Christ, and his superlative dignity and excellence, it was scarcely possible that they should not feel a striking conviction of guilt. Very hardened and incorrigible must they have been, if they did not make such application; especially as in the course of his speech he drew their attention particularly that way, by citing the famous prediction of Moses, which I considered in a former Lecture; "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me, Him shall ye hear." And if

they did make the application without the proper effect, their condition must have been still worse. For however inexcusable their forefathers had been, however ungrateful both to God and his prophet, they had shewn infinitely greater malice, injustice and impiety, by resisting the brightest evidence. from heaven, and murdering the beloved Son of God.

The next subject treated in the speech, relates to the worship of God; which the Jews imagined could no where be performed in an acceptable manner but at the Temple, and according to the law of Moses. The origin of this was derived from the Tabernacle of witness in the Wilderness," that is, the Tabernacle set up in the Wilderness, in testimony of God's protection of his chosen people, when they had escaped thither. Which tabernacle was brought into the land of Canaan by Jesus or Joshua; and continued till the time of Solomon, when it yielded to the temple built by him. And here we may observe, that although the Tabernacle was made according to divine command, and even the fashion thereof prescribed by God, yet it gave place to a more magnificent. and suitable house of prayer, the design and work of man. Whence the Jews might understand, even without looking farther, that their modes of worship were not in their nature perpetual and unchangeable. As their Taber

nacle had been enlarged into a magnificent Temple; so they might have learnt, that their national religion would grow into a better and more universal faith, adapted to the condition of all mankind.

There is another observation of St. Stephen, on the building of the Temple itself, which might have led them to the same conclusion; Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool, what house will ye build me? saith the Lord." How might these noble sentiments have guarded them against a vain admiration of the external rites and forms of their religion, when its grandest and central object, to which all others were referred, is here spoken of by God, with apparent slight and contempt. So by the mouth of his prophets, through the whole first dispensation, he speaks of the ceremonies of religion as hateful, unless made subservient to judgment, mercy, and truth: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts: bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me, &c." From which, and a great number of like expressions, a truly sincere and honest mind must have been induced to give less weight and importance to those forms, which were but the husk or shell of religion, than to consider them of eternal obligation. But

far different was the assembly now addressed by St. Stephen who finding them deaf to all argument, thought it necessary to awaken them to a sense of their crimes and danger; "Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." They had persecuted the prophets who spoke of the Just One and ye are his betrayers and murderers.

The history then records what followed, his mar tyrdom under the pretence of blasphemous words spoken by him, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." As to the manner of his death, notwithstanding some appearances of legal proceeding, it seems upon the whole to be rather an irregular and tumultuary act. Nor is it material as to the degree of guilt, which is just the same upon either supposition; for had it been, like our Saviour's, decided by the voices of the by-standers, there cannot be the smallest doubt of his fate. We are more concerned to observe his dying words, which are important in different respects: For first, his prayer, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit,"-clearly marks his sense of our Saviour's divine nature as a fit subject of adoration; and so far as the authority of this first martyr goes, confirms that great point of faith, that Christ is God. I can see no possible way of evading this argument, except by supposing