III. I. Of prophecies uttered by our Lord, and their completion. 139

uncalled: as if he meant most affectionately to show, by the same action, a like readiness to lay down his life for the truth.

CHAPTER III.

CONCERNING THE PROOFS WHICH OUR LORD GAVE
OF HIS DIVINE MISSION.

SECT. I. Of the prophecies uttered by our Lord, and
their completion.

EUSEBIUS, having quoted the prophecy, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," adds these words: "And having collected in a separate treatise numberless other particulars said and foretold by our Saviour, and subjoined the events of things agreeable to his inspired foreknowledge, we demonstrate the undoubted truth of what we are persuaded concerning him." This book is lost; and though some" have enumerated the most eminent of our Lord's prophecies, yet I have not seen any writer who has professedly made a complete collection of them. I shall lay before the reader such as at present occur to me on a diligent attention to the subject. Those already accomplished shall be ranged with a general view to the time of their completion: and those shall be placed last which are now accomplishing, or are to be accomplished hereafter.

s See Doddridge's excellent paraphrase and note on John xxi.20.

t Præp. Evang. l. i. c. 3. referred to in Jortin's Discourses on the Christian Religion, p. 194. u Kidder's Boyle's Lectures,

fol. i. 96, &c.; Whitby's general preface to his Commentary, §. xii; Bishop Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. ii. p. 222, &c.; Tillotson, vol. ii. Serm. clxxxiii. &c. fol.

Jo. v. 21.

Ver. 25. Comp. Jo. xvi. 32.

66

66

While the second passover in the course of our Lord's ministry was celebrating at Jerusalem, he restored on the sabbath one who had been infirm in his limbs for the space of thirty-eight years: and declared to the Jews that his Father would direct him to do still greater works than such as he had already doney. For as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them," whenever it pleaseth him to exercise his almighty power, "even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live." This is plainly distinguished from the general resurrection as an event just at hand, and indeed is directly opposed Jo.v. 28,29. to it: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation." Our Lord refers therefore to those illustrious acts of power which he was about to display in raising the dead during the course of his ministry; instances of which we have in Luk. vii. 11, his restoring to life the widow's son at Nain, the daughter of Jairus at Capernaum, and Lazarus at Bethany which last miracle was again particularly foretold a few days before it was wrought: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep"."

&c.

Luk.viii. 51,

&c.
Jo. xi.

As Jesus was proceeding to Jerusalem, and was Mat. xxi. about to enter that city in a kind of triumph, “he sent

I, &c. and p.p.

y John v. 20. I thus understand the former part of this My works resemble my Fathers ver. 19, for the Father loveth the Son, and show

verse.

eth him all things which he [the Son] doeth.

z John xi. II. See also ver. 4, 14, 15.

two of his disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and immediately when ye enter therein ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her, on which no man ever sat. And they that were sent departed, and found as he had said unto them."

17, &c. and

There is another prediction which bears a resemblance to this. On the day before his crucifixion, our Lord, on being asked where the passover should be Mat. xxvi. prepared for him, said to Peter and John; "Behold, the p. p. when ye enter into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water a: follow him into the house whither he goeth. And ye shall say to the master of the house, The master saith, My time is at hand: where is the guest-chamber, where I may eat the passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready for us. And they went, and found as he had said unto them.” Dr. Benson quotes these two instances in the fifth chapter of his Life of Christ; and refers to some events of a similar kind foretold to Saul by the prophet Sa- 1 Sam. x. 3. muel: adding a just observation, that we read the history of these minute predictions with great coldness and indifference, compared with the impressions which their accomplishment must have originally made.

When Nathanael expressed his wonder that Jesus knew his secret actions, our Lord said unto him, "Here- Jo. i. 51. after ye," my disciples, "shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man:" meaning that, agreeably to the sense of Jacob's vision, which by action beautifully represented God's care of Jacob and his posterity, there should be an in

a Probably for the purpose of washing before meat: as John ii. 6.

b "ETOμov in Mark xiv. 15, is a gloss on έστρωμένον.

c P. 188.

tercourse between the Son of man and heavend, and that sometimes angels should minister to him.

At Capernaum our Lord foretold the treachery of Judas about a year before the event; saying in the Jo. vi. 64. presence of the twelve, "There are some of you who believe not:" for he knew, says the evangelist, who should betray him. And when Peter acknowledged his Messiahship, he replied, "Have I not chosen you See 1 Tim. twelve, and one of you is a false accuser?" And again, the same night on which he was betrayed, he alluded to the traitor's dark purpose by declaring, when he had Jo. xiii. 10. washed the feet of his apostles, "Ye are clean, but not Ver. 17-19. all:” an allusion which he went on to explain: "If ye

iii. II. Rev.

xii. 9, 10.

know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen : but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come to pass; that, when it Ver. 21, &c. is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." "When

and p.p.

Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you, who eateth with me, shall betray me." The apostles looking on each other full of doubt, inquiring among each other, and each asking with extreme sorrow whether he was the person pointed out; Jesus answered, One of the twelve, who now at this table dippeth his hand with me in the dish and joineth in our common act of eating, even one of my associates and familiar companions shall betray me f. The apostle John, reclining at table near Jesus, and Peter beckoning to him that he should inquire particularly, our xxiv. 4. Acts i. 10.

d John v. 19, 20. viii. 29. xiv. 10, 11. xvi. 32. Matt. iii. 16, 17. xvii. 5. John xii. 28.

e Mark i. 13. Luke xxii. 43.

f This was a circumstance of very particular aggravation, according to the eastern customs.

Lord privately satisfied John, and consequently Peter, by answering that he would give a sop to the person meant, and accordingly he delivered one to Judas, and thus addressed him, "What thou doest, do quickly:" words not immediately understood by the other apostles. Upon this Judas himself said, "Lord, is it I?" confounded by guilt, or not yet convinced of Christ's divine knowledge: and receiving a public assurance that he was the man, he immediately went out, and executed that night the perfidious and sordid agree- Mat. xxvi. ment which he had shortly before made with the Jewish 47.and p.p.

rulers.

Ver. 14. and

p.p.

At the same time, Jesus said to the eleven apostles, "All ye shall be offended because of me THIS NIGHT: Ver. 31. for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." And again: "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, Jo. xvi. 32. that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own place, and shall leave me alone." Accordingly, when the Roman soldiers, and the servants of the Jewish rulers, seized and bound Jesus ON THAT VERY NIGHT, "all the Mat. xxvi. 56. disciples forsook him and fied."

Immediately after this, Peter having made earnest professions of his fortitude, our Lord foretold with wonderful precision that even he, the boldest and most forward of his disciples, and seemingly the most unlikely to be guilty of such timidity, ON THAT NIGHT, See Mar. before the cock crew TWICE, should THRICE deny that p.p. he knew him. And all the evangelists have recorded Mat. xxvi. the history of Peter's three denials; together with the 69, &c. and circumstance, that after the third denial it was the second cock-crowing, or about our three in the morning.

It was early in his ministry that our Lord obscurely prophesied of his death. At the first passover, three Mark xiv. 30; for oτi σnμepov read ori où onμepov. See Wetstein.

xiv. 30. and

p.p.