miracles which Christ had performed before their eyes, came to him, and required a sign; some token from heaven, such as other prophets had exhibited, and such as the promised Messiah was expected to perform: a sign so manifest, and so decisively supernatural, as at once to remove every doubt. But the wisdom of God, which furnishes proof enough to satisfy the unprejudiced enquiry of the humble mind, will in no wise deviate from the course which seems good to Him, in order to remove the obstinacy of unbelief. Of all the wiles of infidelity, not one is more deceitful, than that which continually demands some newer and fuller proof, after sufficient evidence has been given. They, who refused to give credence to the merciful words and mighty works of Christ, would readily have found some subterfuge to elude conviction, had the very sign which they demanded been immediately afforded. But although the ways of heaven were not, and could not be, the ways of man, God would not leave himself without witness. Christ promised them a sign: not, indeed, the sign from heaven which their presumption re b Luke xi. 16. • Exod. ix. 22. Josh. x. 12. 1 Sam. vii. 9, 10. 2 Kings i. 10. d Dan. vii. 9-14. quired: but a sign greater than any which had before been shewn; in which heaven and earth should bear testimony to the divine character of Him who predicted and accomplished it. Jesus "answered, and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." It is scarcely possible for any prophecy to be expressed in terms more clear than these. The facts alluded to were well known to the Jews: they were contained in the volume of their canonical Scripture, which the Pharisees, and Scribes, and Sadducees all received with implicit deference. In that sacred book they read, that Jonah was commanded to "go to Nineveh, and cry against it:" but that he disobeyed the divine command; and rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa, and entered into a ship. to go to Tarshish. "But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken." The mariners then • Jonah i. took counsel in their fear, and cast lots that they might know for whose cause the evil had come upon them: and the lot fell upon Jonah. The prophet acknowledged his guilt to be the cause of the great tempest which was upon them; and offered himself as a voluntary expiation. The mariners reluctantly yielded to necessity. "The men rowed hard to bring" the ship "to the land, but they could not:" and, having prayed to the Lord not to lay upon them innocent blood, they "took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her raging." But "the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights;" again, "the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." All this was well known to the Jews, whom our Lord addressed. Whatever, therefore, was the precise nature of the sign which Jesus promised, its general features were marked with sufficient accuracy. The similarity could not be complete, unless the Son of man gave himself a voluntary and satisfactory offering for sin; were kept in the heart of the earth, three days and three nights, and at the end of that time restored, as Jonah was, to life. The evil Jonah ii. 10. f Jonah i. 17. and adulterous generation of the Jews might not understand the full import of this and other prophecies of Christ, predicting his resurrection after three days' imprisonment in the tomb: but, when he had been crucified and slain, they well remembered that such had been the tenor of his words: for "the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again;"" and they endeavoured, with impotent precaution, to prevent the completion of the sign. The fulfilment of the prophecy was as accurate as the prediction was circumstantial. One sign of the prophet Jonah had been already actually shewn by Christ, and by no other person. For he too had slept amidst all the terrors of a storm; had been awakened by his alarmed companions in their anxiety for their safety; and had convinced them, that he was indeed a prophet, by causing the wind to cease, and allaying the raging of the waves.* But a greater sign was still to come. As Jonah was judged by the very persons for whose deliverance he offered his life a ransom; so was Christ brought before his own, who received him not. As the mariners delayed to h Matt. xxvii. 62, 63.. i Matt. viii. 23-27. rẻ execute sentence upon Jonah; so the governor himself, who condemned Christ, made fruitless efforts to save him; and endeavoured to exculpate himself from the guilt of innocent blood. As the effects of God's temporal judgment ceased, when the prophet Jonah was cast into the sea; so his wrath was turned away from a guilty world by the death of Christ. As Jonah was given up to destruction; so Christ suffered, was dead, and buried. But the holy One of God saw not corruption. At the predicted time, he broke the bands of death, under which it was not possible he should be retained, and shewed himself alive by many infallible proofs. It would be superfluous, on the present, occasion, to dwell at any length upon the evidence, by which this fundamental part of, our holy faith is established. Friends and enemies, the keepers who did shake and become as dead men, the angels from heaven who de-.. clared that Christ was risen, testified to the world the reality of this great event. He held converse with those who had known him personally before his death; being seen of them forty days.' He was seen of Peter, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of abovefive hundred brethren at once;" of whom the * Matt. xxvii. 24. 1 Acts i. 3. m 1 Cor. xv. 5, 6. |