hin, when he said, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, B6 nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and "till the gathering of the people be unto him." The word Shiloh means one who is sent, and this is abundantly declared as the characteristic of Christ, that he was sent by the Father, sent of God, &c. It was in his day, Judea was reduced by the Roman power to the state of a province; their government was in a great measure taken from them; Rome appointed governors over them; and at the crucifixion of our Lord, their civil auth ority was so far lost, that they did not possess the right of putting even a malefac- ́ tor to death. It was foretold by David, respecting Christ, that when he should come, he should abolish the Jewish sacrifices, as insufficient to make atonement for sin; that he himself should make a perfect and effectual sacrifice, and preach the doctrine of righteousness and holiness for the salvation of men. † "Sacrifices, "and offerings thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast thou "opened; then said I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is "written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; I have "preached righteousness in the great congregation; I have de"clared thy faithfulness and thy salvation." This is particularly applied to Christ in the epistle to the Hebrews. It was foretold that he should work many and beneficial miracles. "Behold "your God will come, saith Isaiah, and save you; then the eyes "of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be "unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing." This was perfectly fulfilled in the wonders performed by Christ. "The blind received their "sight, the lame walked, the deaf heard." &c.

The prophet Daniel, in a very pointed manner, predicted the very time when the Mesiah would make his appearance in the world. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and

*Gen. xlix. 11. † Ps. xl. 6, 8. ‡ Is. xxxv. 4. § Mat. xi. 5. Dan. ix. 24.

"upon thy holy city, to finish the trangression, and to make an "end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring "in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and pro"phecy, and to anoint the most holy. From the going forth of "the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the "Mesiah, the prince-which Mesiah, shall be cut off, but not "for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come, shall "destroy the city and the sanctuary." Seventy weeks, in prophetic language, is seventy times seven days: that is, four hundred and ninety years. This was precisely the time from the commission granted to Nehemiah, to restore Jerusalem and the temple, to the coming of Christ; and soon after he was cut off, the people of the prince, that is, the Romans, made an utter destruction of the holy city and the sanctuary.

Zechariah declares he should triumphantly enter into Jerusalem as the king of Zion, meek, and proclaiming salvation, riding upon an ass, the fole of an ass. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter "of Zion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy king "cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and "riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." This was exactly accomplished according to the testimony of St. Matthew; and upon this occasion, †" Very great multitudes spread "their garments in the way, others cut down branches from the " trees, and strewed them in the way, and the multitudes that "went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the "Lord; Hosanna in the highest."

The contempt with which he was treated in his life, his rejection by men, and his sufferings and death, are particularly described by the prophets, as they afterwards came to pass. He was "As a root out of dry ground, he hath no form or comelThere was no beauty that he should be desired.-

ness.

Zech. ix. 10. ↑ Mat: xxi. 8, 9.

D

Is. ki, throughout.

"He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and "acquainted with grief; we hid as it were our faces from him; "he was despised and we esteemed him not. He was stricken of "God and afflicted." "They pierced my hands and my feet. "They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my "vesture. They gave me also gall for my meat, in my thirst "they gave me vinegar to drink." "He was sold for thirty "pieces of silver, which were given to the potter. They shall "look on him whom they have pierced." "He made his grave "with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." There would be no end of retailing the prophecies concerning his reproaches, sufferings, and ignominious and painful death. All these predictions were fulfilled, when he was betrayed by Judas, sold for thirty pieces of silver, his raiment cast lots for by the soldiers; when his hands and feet were nailed to the cross, his side pierced by the spear, expired between two thieves; when they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall, and when Joseph, the rich man of Aremathea, laid his body in his own new tomb. Do not these things show to a demonstration, that the scriptures are the inspiration of God?

With equal and irresistible force the same appears from the prophecies respecting his resurrection from the grave, and his ascension to heaven. "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell," saith David, that is, in the state of the dead, "neither wilt thou "suffer thy holy one to see corruption," that is to continue in the grave, to be subject to putrefaction. This was evidently accomplished in Christ's resurrection from the dead, before he had continued in the tomb three compleat days. His glorious ascension to heaven, attended by angels, triumphing over the powers of darkness, receiving and distributing gifts to men, are also foretold by the inspired prophet. "The chariots of the Lord are

*Ps. xxii. 16, 18. † Zech. xi. 12. xvi. 10. Ps. lxxviii. 17, 18.

Is. liii. 9. Ps.

twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the Lord is among"them. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity cap❝tive; thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious "also, that the Lord might dwell among them." This is particularly applied to our Lord by St. Paul. "When he ascend

"ed up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto

men, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the minis"try, for the edifying of the body of Christ." "He spoiled "principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, tri"umphing over them in it."

Time would fail me to enter into the minuter prophecies, in regard to the Mesiah, that he should be of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of David; that he should be scourged, buffeted, and spit upon; that he should be mocked for his trusting in God to deliver him; all which circumstances were fulfilled with the greatest possible exactness in the person of Christ Jesus.-These things must undeniably prove to every fair and candid mind, the divine authority of the holy scriptures, that they were inspired by that all knowing God, to whom all futurity is present, and that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour of the world. Let sinners hear, and receive him as the only Mediator by whom they can obtain forgiveness of sin, and life everlasting.

I proceed now, to a

Second part of prophecy, which has been as a standing pillar of· Fight for more than four thousand years, and is now in the full view of the world, for their conviction of divine truth, and for their instruction in righteousness. If it can be made to appear there is now existing, a great, numerous and independent nation, which has maintained an uniformity of character; that they have been, and still are, wild, ferocious, and uncivilized in their manners; that they have continued an unmixed people, have led a savage

Eph. iv. 8. † Col. ii. 15..

and wandering life, been always in enmity with the rest of mankind, and all around them have been enemies to them; that great exertions have been made by the most powerful nations of the earth to subdue and destroy them, but that they have never been vanquished to this day; and that they have now existed for near four thousand years the same people, while multitudes of great nations have been utterly lost, and sunk into oblivion, except what history has preserved concerning them; If, I say, these things can be clearly established, and that such a people were exactly and perfectly delineated by prophecy before they had an exist tence, and before their great ancestor was born, surely this must afford a demonstrative evidence of divine revelation; nothing could foretel this but prescience itself; nothing could possibly inspire the persons who drew the picture, and delivered the prophecy, but that Almighty and Omnsicient Being, to whom all past and future are forever and unchangably present. The nation to which all this has a reference, is the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hager, the bond woman. And these predictions, were pronounced partly by an angel, and partly by Abraham himself, the father of the faithful, who had been favoured with various revelations from heaven, and partly by the eternal Jehovah, who beholds all things in one comprehensive view. God declared to Abraham how he would bless Ishmael. "Behold I have bless"ed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him ex"ceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him "a great nation."-Twelve princes shall he beget; this was punctually accomplished, and we have the names of the twelve princes recorded. "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these "are the names, by their towns, and by their castles, twelve "princes according to their nations." Thus they were divided into twelve tribes in the manner of the Israelites in after times, and each tribe had a ruler or a prince over it. God likewise said

* Gen. xvii. 20.-† Gen. xxv. 16.