PROPHECY.

FULFILMENT.

him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph." John i. 45.

Again : "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me." John v. 46. See also Luke xxiv. 44.

Moses,

This prophecy was most certainly and generally allowed to be fulfilled only in the Messiah. who delivered it, though vastly inferior in every instance and particular, bore the greatest similarity to Christ. The prediction afforded the Jews the expectation of a prophet, who from the oldest times was pronounced to be the Messiah. And although their hopes and expectations were often disappointed, still they allowed, that the Messiah would be the only Prophet like unto Moses; and the followers of Jesus, when they saw his miracles, declared, "This is of a truth that Prophet, that should come into the world." Both St. Peter and St. Stephen declared, that the fulfilment of this prophecy was in Christ.

When God Himself likewise announced from heaven, that Christ was his beloved Son, whom all should hear and obey, He disclosed a superiority in Him possessed by no other on earth;-from which

the inference, that He was the long-promised Messiah, is clear. The prophecy could not have alluded to any other prophet, nor to all the prophets collectively, as some have averred, because none of the Levitical prophets were equal to Moses. This still further appears from the pre-eminence over them given to John the Baptist by Christ, from John's acknowledged inferiority to Christ, and from the confession of the populace not reprehended by our Saviour, therefore admitted, that He was the PROPHET, that should come into the world. Consequently, neither Joshua, Jeremiah, nor any other Prophet could have been intended by the Holy Spirit, that directed the oracle to Moses; and the appeal made to it by St. Peter and St. Stephen', and the allusion to it by Philip 2, become unimpeachable verifications of the received interpretation of the Christian Church. With respect to St. Peter, it is most worthy of close observation, that when he mentions Moses and the Prophets pre-announcing "these days," he makes their announcement acquire its accomplishment by Jesus being that Prophet. Besides, who but Christ resembled Moses in the leading feature of the Prophecy? each introduced a legislation into his particular economy, which no other did a sufficient argument, one would sup

1 Acts iii. 22, 23.—vii. 36.

2 John i. 46.

pose, that would silence every dispute. This prophecy had also a like interpretation among the Samaritans, who received not the Prophetic Books. The words of the Samaritan woman prove it', ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν Távτa, which exactly answer to Deut. xviii. 18, 19, connecting which with our Saviour's own declaration, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me 2," we are bound to consider the proof complete.

PSALMS.

FROM the Pentateuch we may pass on to the Psalms, called in Hebrew Tehillim, because the intervening books contain no very remarkable prophecy relating to the Messiah. The Psalms were written by different persons, but most of them by David. They contain many valuable prophecies, which were literally fulfilled by Christ. The Psalms have been called an epitome of the Bible, and very justly; for they treat of the effects of the great fall of man, and foretell and typify his redemption by Jesus Christ. By the Hebrews, and some of the Fathers, they are divided into five parts, answering to those of the Pentateuch. They contain also beautiful

1 John iv. 25.

2 John v. 46.

examples of repentance, patience, and piety. They afford the greatest consolation and peace to believers. They display the mighty works of the Creator, and shew to the creature all that happiness, after which his soul longeth in the midst of trouble and care, misery and sin. They are a fountain, from whose spring flow the inestimable riches of God's grace, imparting by its healing waters of life the greatest treasures, that man can requireeven the heavenly. "Let there be any grief or disease incident unto the soul of man, any wound or sickness named, for which there is not, in this prison-house, a present comfortable remedy at all times ready to be found," says the immortal Hooker. "The Psalms," says Bishop Horne, "present religion to us in the most engaging dress; communicating truths which philosophy could never investigate, in a style which poetry can never equal; while history is made the vehicle of prophecy, and creation lends all its charms to paint the glories of redemption. Calculated alike to profit and to please, they inform the understanding, elevate the affections, and entertain the imagination."

But the Psalms are valuable in another point of view they shew the increased advances of the knowledge of the Messiah, since the days of Abraham and the Patriarchs. We may reasonably sup

pose, that there was much in the declarations of the prophet Nathan to David, which tended to remove the veil of obscurity. Augustine has very well argued, that the Psalms give undeniable evidence of the double interpretation of prophecy; for the passages, which relate to Solomon and his earthly successors primarily, relate plenarily to Christ; and as in the blessings of Jacob, whose tribes and families are treated, as one individual, from the inspired character of the Scriptures we must suppose the existence of that very individual, in whom the fulfilment was designed to be completed. This is also frequently the case, where the text seems to have an individual reference; an example of which orthodox critics have given from the second Psalm, viz. "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son," with which Luke i. 32, 33, has been very appropriately collated; although the proof of the criticism is in Heb. i. 5.

The Psalms are a predictive history of Christ; under figures taken from the earthly theocracy, they depict the glory, the majesty, and the dominion of the Messiah; they shew his sufferings in the most minute particulars; they proclaim his resurrection and glorification, and in every part announce his Divine Nature, proving Him in the language of our Creed to be " very God of very God."

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