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make of these passages, is to shew, that the prophet Isaiah, six hundred years before Christ's birth-St. John the baptist, upon the commencement of his ministry-St. Peter, his companion and apostle, after the transaction was over, speak of our Saviour's death under the figure of a lamb being sacrificed, that is, in having the effect of a sacrifice (the effect in kind, though infinitely higher in degree,) upon the pardon of sins, and the procurement of salvation.

From Isaiah I turn to the prophet Daniel, who fixes the particular period of Christ's coming, expressly affirming that the Messiah should appear in the world, and he cut off as a victim and expiation for the sins of the people, at the expiration of seventy prophetical weeks. These seventy weeks are weeks of years, as among the Jews there were sabbatical days, by which their days were divided into weeks of days; so there were sabbatical years, whereby their years were divided into weeks of years, and this last sort of weeks is that which is here mentioned, so that every one of the weeks of this prophecy contains seven years, and the whole

number of seventy weeks amounts to 490 years. The beginning of the seventy weeks, or 490 years, was in the month Nisan, (March April) of the Jewish year, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, and in the 4256th year of the Julian Period, when Ezra had his commission, to restore the law of Moses, and fully re-establish the observance of it, both in church and state, Daniel ix. 25. and the end of this time fell in the very same month of Nisan, in the 4746th year of the Julian Period, in which very year and month, our Saviour suffered, being just seventy weeks of years, or 490 years from the date of the prophecy.*

* Christ suffered at the Passover, which was always in the middle of the month Nisan.

A late eminent Philosopher and Mathematician, Ferguson, wrote a Dissertation upon this chapter, which he concludes in these words:-' "Thus we have an astronomical demonstration of the truth of this ancient prophecy, seeing that the prophetic year of the Messiah's being cut off, was the very same with the Astronomical. Astronomy, Page 373–377.

I now proceed to consider the nature of that death, which had the efficacy of redemption. First, it must be voluntary. As Christ was perfectly holy, no part of his sufferings could have been inflicted or undergone for his own sake; he was always beloved of his Father, and whatever he thought, spoke, or did, was well pleasing in his sight; when therefore we are told, that it pleased Jehovah to bruise him, it was not as a punishment, for he never merited punishment, nor a wanton, causeless infliction, for God cannot be the author of such an infliction. It was only as a substitute for mankind, that he was afflicted in any case, or in any degree. I understand all such general expressions as these "Ought not Christ to have suffered?

-It behoved Christ to suffer,-Christ must needs have suffered-Christ suffered for us,Who being rich became poor, that ye through him might become rich,-I lay down my life for the sheep, no man taketh it from me, I lay it down of myself," as directly indicating that all his sufferings were gratuitous, demanded by no law, and in no sense necessary, to the justification of himself.

The second requisite of a death, efficacious of redemption, is, that it must be offered up in consequence of preordained acceptance." Ye were redeemed," says St. Peter, "with the precious blood of Christ, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you," 1 Peter, i. 20. St. Peter, in these words, distinguishes between the advent of our Redeemer, and the efficacy of his death, teaching us that though his manifestation was late, yet the virtue of his foreordained redemption, (in order to make the ransome as extensive as the forfeiture,) preoperated from the most early times, a preoperation which St. John fully expresses, by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It would infinitely detract from the dignity of Christianity, to imagine that the plan of redemption was a temporary expedient contrived on a sudden, or produced upon an emergency, to remedy an unforeseen disaster, as if the Deity, upon a disappointment of his views, and an unfortunate disconcertment of his measures, had recourse to the best device that the exigence of affairs suggested.

He, whose understanding is infinite, cannot know that now, which he did not always know. In him there is nothing past, nothing to come, but all is present. Eternity itself can add no improvement to the knowledge of that all wise, all comprehending mind, to whom all futurity is open, and from whom no secrets are hid. Satan neither stole, nor forced his way into paradise. He neither escaped the notice, nor conquered the power of him, whose presence filled heaven and earth, -Omniscience cannot be deceived, Omnipresence cannot be eluded, Omnipotence cannot be overcome. Man, in his original state, had a freedom of will, and a liberty of action, to obey or disobey, for where there is no choice there can be no virtue; the foreknowledge of the Deity therefore did not produce natural and moral evil, for can we believe that God forbade the fall, which by an antecedent decree he had rendered inevitable? that he gave a commandment to Adam, which by his original formation, he was absolutely unable to obey, that he made the possession of Paradise, and the continuance of innocence and happiness, to depend upon a condition, which it was phy

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