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I.

The Words are Philip's, who no fooner SER M obeyed our Saviour's Call, and was convinced of his being the Meffiah, but he generously and piously sought for his Friend Nathaniel, (the fame very probably who is elsewhere called Bartholomew) to discover the impor tant News to him. And having found him, he immediately reveals the happy Tidings, never stays to introduce it with any formal Harangue, but, as if full and overflowing with the joyful Difcovery, at once breaks out into a Relation of the Matter; We have found him, of whom Mofes in the Law, and the Prophets did write, Jefus of Nazareth the Son of Jofeph. WE, i. e. bimself and Andrew and Peter and another Disciple of St. John the Baptift, who had found and been with him the Day before; we have found (faith he) the Meffias, or that Prophet which Mofes and the Prophets did fay fhould come, who is no other than Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of Jofeph. He calls him Jefus of Nazareth, either because he as yet knew nothing of Bethlehem's being the Place of his Birth, or if he did know it, because he also knew that Nazareth was the Place of his Abode, and that he was for that Reason (as the Scriptures alfo give us to understand) called a Nazarite or Nazarene. As to his calling

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SER M. calling him the Son of Jofeph, that might I. probably be owing to the vulgar Opinion, according to which Jofeph, we know, was his reputed Father, infomuch that St. Luke, c. iii. 21. when he reckons his Genealogy,

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fays, he was supposed to be the Son of Jofeph. So that upon the very firft View of the Words, the full Meaning of them appears to be this, viz.

That Jefus of Nazareth the Son of Jofeph, was the Meffiah foretold by Mofes and the Prophets. This Propofition therefore I fhall undertake to establish; and to make it as clear and as plain to you as poffible, I shall obferve the easy and natural Method, viz.

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I. I fhall first enquire what those Things are, which Mofes in the Law, and the Prophets did write concerning the Meffiah; and

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II. Secondly, I fhall fhew how all those Things were punctually fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph

By the firft will be discovered the feveral Marks by which the Meffiah when he came was to be known:addi

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By the fecond it will appear that all these Marks concurred in Jefus, from whence it

I.

will follow beyond all Contradiction, that SER M. the Words of Philip in my Text are true, viz. That Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of JoSeph, was the Meffiah foretold by Mofes and the Prophets,

I. First then I am to enquire what those Things are which Mofes in the Law and the Prophets did write concerning the Meffiah, i. e. what is written in the Old Teftament concerning him; for under Mofes and the Prophets all the Books of the Old Testament are comprehended. By Mofes (which the Jews always name feparately, as being the first and greatest of the Prophets) are to be understood the five Books which he wrote; by the Prophets are included all the rest. Except fometimes the Pfalms be added, which then comprehend not only the Pfalms, but the Books alfo of Job and of Solomon, and fome others: But thefe at other Times, when only Mofes and the Prophets are mentioned, are comprehended under the latter.

In the Prosecution of my Discourse, I shall begin with Mofes, and firft enquire what Predictons the Law or Pentateuch gives us of the Meffiah, and then fhall proceed to see what is foretold of him in the reft of the Books of the Old Testament; though I shall

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SERM,

I.

not pretend to give you all the Prophecies we meet with concerning him, which would be an endless Tafk; but only to collect some of the plainest and moft ufeful to direct us in finding out the Meffiah. And all the Way I fhall take Occafion to obferve to you how gradually the Notices and Characters of him were given. Infomuch that almost every Time the Promife of him was renewed, or his coming foretold, fome new Revelation relating to him was made, which still gave fome fresh Light, by which he might be difcovered from any falfe Pretenders to the Character.

The firft Revelation of him is as ancient as the Offence of Adam in Paradife, who had no fooner broken the first Covenant by eating the forbidden Fruit, and fo fubjected his whole Pofterity to the Power and Dominion of the Devil; but God cuts off the Hopes the Devil might entertain that his Conqueft was compleat, and his Dominion lafting, by affuring him that in Time even the Seed of the Woman, which he had now deceived, fhould repair the Lofs by deftroying his Kingdom, Gen. iii. 15. I will put Enmity (faith God) between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed, he fall bruife

thy

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thy Head, and thou shalt bruife his Heel. This SER M. imported that one, in Time, should be born of a Woman, who fhould trample under Foot the Power of Sin now

Satan who introduced it.

introduced, and of
And fo the anci-

appears from the

ent Jews understood it, as
Paraphrafe of Jonathan on the Place, which
concludes thus: They, the Sons or Seed of
the Woman, shall have a Remedy, but thou
fhalt have none: For they fhall apply a Medi-
cine to their Heel, in the Days of Meffiah their
King. But a Promife of a Redeemer in ge-
neral being here fufficient to allay the Fears
of a general Ruin; God does not see fit to
be any further particular, than to promise
that Man fhall in Time recover his Fall, and
that by the Affiftance of one born of a Woman,
who fhall put an end to the Dominion the Ser-
pent had now gain'd by the Deceit and Guile
with which he had impofed upon that Sex.

And upon this general Promise the
World relied, without knowing who, or from
whence the Deliverer thould be, for above
2000 Years; till upon the Call of Abraham
the Father of the Faithful, God was pleafed
to reveal to him, that it
bis Seed, that he defigned

was in him and all Nations of the Earth fhould be blefed, Gen. xii. 3.

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