tion was not accomplished, or the Shilob, the Sent, to ART. whom the Gentiles were to be gathered, came before they loft their fceptre and laws. VII. Mofes told the people of Ifrael, that God was to raise Deut. xviii, up among them a Prophet like unto him, to whom they ought 15. to bearken, otherwife God would require it of them. The character of Mofes was, that he was a lawgiver, and the author of an entire body of inftituted religion, fo they were to look for fuch a one. Balaam prophefied darkly of one whom he faw as at a great diftance from his own time; and he spoke of a Star that should come out of Jacob, and a Num. xxiv. Sceptre out of Ifrael: fome memorial of which was proba- 17. bly preferved among the Arabians. In the book of Psalms there are many things faid of David, which feem capable of a much augufter fenfe than can be pretended to be anfwered by any thing that befel himfelf. What is faid in the 2d, the 16th, the 22d, the 45th, the 102d, and the 110th Pfalms, affords us copious inftances of these. Paffages in thefe Pfalms must be ftretched by figures that go very high, to think they were all fulfilled in David or Solomon but in their literal and largeft fense they were accomplished in Chrift, to whom God faid, Thou art my Son, this day bave I begotten thee. In him that was verified, Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thy Holy One to fee corruption. His bands and bis feet were pierced, and lots were cast upon bis veflure. Of him it may be strictly faid, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. To him that belonged, The Lord faid unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right band, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. And, The Lord fware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchifedeck. The Prophets gave yet more exprefs predictions concerning the Meffias. Ifaiah did quiet the fears of Ahaz, and of the house of David, by faying, The Lord himself Ifa. viii. 14. fball give you a fign, Bebold, a Virgin fball conceive and bear a fon. It was certainly no fign for one that was a Virgin, to conceive afterwards and bear a fon; therefore the fign or extraordinary thing here promised as a fignal pledge of God's care of the house of David, muft lie in this, that one ftill remaining a Virgin fhould conceive and bear a fon; not to infift upon the ftrict fignification of the word in the original. The fame Prophet did alfo foretel, that as this Meffias, or the Branch, fhould fpring Ifa. xi. 1, 2. from the ftem of Jeffe, so also he was to be full of the Spirit of the Lord; and that the Gentiles bould feek to him. Ver. 10. In another place he enumerates many of the miracles that should be done by him: he was to give fight to the blind, Ifa. xxxv. make 5, 6. VII. Ifa. xlii. I, 2, 3, 4. Ifa. liii. Ifa. Ixi, ART. make the deaf to hear, the lame to walk. He does further fet forth his character; not that of a warrior or conqueror; on the contrary, He was not to cry nor ftrive, nor break the bruifed reed, or quench the smoking flax; he was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and the ifles were to wait for his law. There is a whole chapter in the fame Prophet, fetting forth the mean appearance that the Mesfias was to make, the contempt he was to fall under, and the fufferings he was to bear; and that for the fins of others, which were to be laid on him; fo that his foul or life was to be made an offering for fin, in reward of which he was to be highly exalted. In another place his miffion is fet forth, not in the ftrains of war, or of conqueft, but of preaching to the poor, fetting the prifoners free as in a year of jubilee, and comforting the afflicted and fuch as mourned. In the two laft chapters of that Prophet mention is made more particularly of the Gentiles that were to be called by him, and the ifles that were afar off, out of whom God was to take fome for Priefts and Levites: which fhewed plainly, that a new difpenfation was to be opened by him, in which the Gentiles were to be Priefts and Levites, which could not be done while the Mofaical Law ftood, that had tied thefe functions to the tribe of Levi, and to the houfe of Aaron. Jeremy renewed the Jer. xxiii. 5. promife to the houfe of David, of a King that bould reign and profper; in whofe days Judah and Ifrael were to dwell fafely, whose name was to be, The Lord our Righteousnefs. It is certain this promife was never literally accomplished; and therefore recourse must be had to a myftical Jer. xxxi. fenfe. The fame Prophet gives a large account of a new covenant that God was to make with the boufe of Ifrael, not according to the covenant that he made with their Fathers, when be brought them out of Egypt. We have also two characters given of that covenant: one is, that God would put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their bearts; that he would be their God, and that they should all be taught of him: the other is, that he would forgive their iniquities, and remember their fin no more. One of thefe is in oppofition to their Law, that confifted chiefly in rituals, and had no promifes of inward affiftances; and the other is in oppofition to the limited pardon that was offered in that difpenfation, on the condition of the many facrifices that they were required to offer. There is a prediction to the fame purpofe in Ezekiel. Joel prophexxxvi. 25. fied of an extraordinary effufion of the Spirit of God on great numbers of perfons, old and young, that was to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord, 31. Ezek. Joel ii. 28. that 7, 8, 9. that is, before the final deftruction of Jerufalem. Micah, ART. after he had foretold feveral things of the difpenfation of VII. the Meffiah, fays that he was to come out of Bethlehem Ephratah. Haggai encouraged thofe who were troubled Micah v. 2. at the meannefs of the Temple, which they had raifed af- Hag. ii. 6. ter their return out of the captivity. It had neither the outward glory in its fabric that Solomon's Temple had, nor the more real glory of the Ark, with the Tables of the Law; of fire from heaven on the altar; of a fucceffion of prophets; of the Urim and Thummim, and the cloud between the cherubims; which laft, ftrictly speaking, was the glory; all which had been in Solomon's Temple, but were wanting in that. In oppofition to this, the Prophet in the name of God promifed, that he would in a little while fhake the heavens and the earth, and shake all nations; words that import fome furprifing and great change; upon which the defire of all nations should come, and God would fill the boufe with his glory; and the glory of this latter boufe fhould exceed the glory of the former, for in that place God would give peace. Here is a plain prophecy, that this Temple was to have a glory, not only equal but fuperior to the glory of Solomon's Temple: thefe words are too auguft to be believed to have been accomplished, when Herod rebuilt the Temple with much magnificence; for that was nothing in comparison of the real glory, of the fymbols of the prefence of God, that were wanting in it. This cannot anfwer the words, that the defire of all nations was to come, and that God would give peace in that place. So that either this prophecy was never fulfilled, or somewhat must be affigned during the fecond Temple, that will anfwer thofe folemn expreffions, which are plainly applicable to our Saviour, who was the expectation of the Gentiles, by whom peace was made, and in whom the eternal Word dwelt in a manner infinitely more auguft than in the cloud of glory. Zechary Zech. ix. 9. prophefied, that their King, by which they understood the Meffias, was to be meek and lowly, and that he was to make his entrance in a very mean appearance, riding on an afs; but yet under that, he was to bring falvation to them, and they were to rejoice greatly in him. Malachi told Mal. iii. . them, that the Lord whom they fought, even the mesenger of the covenant in whom they delighted, fhould fuddenly come into bis Temple; and that the day of his coming was to be dreadful; that he was to refine and purify, in particular, the Sons of Levi; and a terrible deftruction is denounced after that. One character of his coming was, that Elijab the prophet was to come before that great and dread- Mal, iv. 1. ful ART. ful day, who fhould convert many, old and young. Now VII. it is certain that no other perfon came, during the second Temple, to whom these words can be applied; so that they were not accomplished, unlefs it was in the person of our Saviour, to whom all these characters do well agree. Dan. ix. 24, But to conclude with that prophecy which of all others is the most particular: when Daniel at the end of seventy 25, 26, 27. years captivity was interceding for that nation, an angel was fent to him to tell him, that they were to have a new period of feventy weeks, that is, feven times seventy years, 490 years; and that after fixty-two weeks, Meffiab the Prince was to come, and to be cut off; and that then the people of a prince fhould deftroy the city and the fanctuary; and the end of thefe was to be as with a flood or inundation, and defolations were determined to the end of the war. They were to be deftroyed by abominable armies, that is, by idolatrous armies: they were to be made defolate, till an utter end or confummation fhould be made of them. The pomp, with which this deftruction is fet forth, plainly fhews, that the final ruin of the Jews by the Roman armies is meant by it. From which it is juftly inferred, not only that if that vifion was really fent from God by an angel to Daniel, and in confequence to that was fulfilled, then the Meffiah did come, and was cut off during the continuance of Jerufalem and the Temple; but that it happened within a period of time defigned in that vifion. Time was then computed more certainly than it had been for many ages before. Two great measures were fixed; one at Babylon by Nabonaffer, and another in Greece in the Olympiads. Here a prediction is given almost five hundred years before the accomplishment, with many very nice reckonings in it. I will not now enter upon the chronology of this matter, on which fome great men have beftowed their labours very happily. Archbishop Ufher has ftated this matter fo, that the interval of time is clearly four hundred eighty-fix years. The covenant was to be confirmed with many for one week, in the midft of which God was to cause the facrifice and oblation for fin to cease; which feems to be a mystical way of defcribing the death of Chrift, that was to put an end to the virtue of the Judaical facrifices; fo fixty-nine weeks and a half make juft four hundred eighty-fix years and a half. But without going further into this calculation, it is evident, that during the fecond Temple, the Meffias was to come, and to be cut off, and that foon after that a prince was to fend an army to deftroy both city and fanctuary. The Jews do not fo much as pretend that VII. during that Temple the Meffias thus fet forth did come, AR T. or was cut off; fo either the prediction failed in the event, or the Meffias did come within that period. : And thus a thread of the prophecies of the Meffias being carried down through the whole Old Testament, it feems to be fully made out, that he was to be of the feed of Abraham, and of the pofterity of David: that the tribe of Judah was to be a diftinct policy, till he should come: that he fhould work many miracles: that he was to be meek and lowly: that his function was to confift in preaching to the afflicted, and in comforting them that he was to call the Gentiles, and even the remote islands, to the knowledge of God: that he was to be born of a virgin, and at Bethlehem: that he was to be a new lawgiver, as Mofes had been: that he was to fettle his followers upon a new covenant, different from that made by Mofes that he was to come during the fecond Temple: that he was to make a mean, but a joyful entrance to Jerufalem: that he was to be cut off that the iniquities of us all were to be laid on him; and that his life was to be made an offering for fin; but that God was to give him a glorious reward for thefe his fufferings; and that his doctrine was to be internal, accompanied with a free offer of pardon, and of inward affiftances; and that after his death the Jews were to fall under a terrible curfe, and an utter extirpation. When this is all fummed up together; when it appears, that there was never any other perfon to whom thofe characters did agree, but that they did all meet in our Saviour, we fee what light the Old Teftament has given us in this matter. Here a nation that hates us and our religion, who are scattered up and down the world, who have been for many ages without their temple, and without their facrifices, without priefts, and without their genealogies, who yet hold these books among them in a due veneration, which furnish us with fo full a proof, that the Meffiah whom they still look for, is the Lord Jefus whom we worship. We do now proceed to other matters. The Jews pretend, that it is a great argument against the authority of the New Teftament, because it acknowledges the Old to be from God, and yet repeals the far greater part of the laws enacted in it; though those laws are often faid to be laws for ever, and throughout all generations. Now they feem to argue with fome advantage, who fay, that what God does declare to be a law that shall be perpetual by any one Prophet, cannot be abrogated or reverfed by another, fince that other can have no more authority |