PSALM CX. 4.

HEB. V. 6.

In recapitulation of the fulfilment of these prophecies, it may be observed, in the strictest sense of the term was Jesus Christ a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but of Melchizedek, for "our Lord sprang out of Judah." As the Son of God was He a priest, and as such was anointed. "Every high priest," says the Apostle, "is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices wherefore it is of necessity that this man Jesus, if He be a high priest, have somewhat also to offer." Jesus offered Himself up for the sins of the whole world, before which He exercised all the duties of the priesthood, and transmitted to others the same authority. He was also a prophet and a king. When Pilate said unto Him, "Art thou a king then?" Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear

ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth verses of this Psalm; and the following show, that He will not proceed like an earthly conqueror, by might of weapons, but by meekness, charity, and love, and that the subjection to him will be of the free will. The same say Zech. ix. 10. Is. lx. 6, also chap. xi. All of which things prove, that this Psalm can only be explained as a prediction of Christ.

For the situation, &c. of Tarshish, see the first article of the third number of the Church of England Quarterly Review.

'Heb. viii. 3.

Jesus was "King of

witness unto the truth 1." kings and Lord of lords." But by the Mosaic Law the two offices of king and priest were incompatible. Jesus, however, introduced a new dispensation-the substance for the shadow; and in virtue of his own right was Prophet, Priest, and King.

In Him alone could the prophecy be fulfilled, as no other person, before or after, could exercise in his own authority the three offices.

PSALM CXviii. 22, 23.

MATT. xvi. 9.

When Jesus Christ first made his appearance upon the earth, He was despised and rejected by men. The Jews being disappointed in their expectations refused to have Him to reign over them. They cast out "the stone" from the building, but that stone or rock was Christ, which has now become "the head of the corner." The very foundations of the temple of Christianity have been built upon it. Marvellous as it is in our eyes, it is the Lord's doing, or as the margin of the Bible renders it perhaps more distinctly, "This is from the Lord." Christ alone came from God in heaven, and the prophecy could only be accomplished in Him. The

1 John xviii. 37.

prophecy is quoted in several places of the New Testament1.

PSALM CXviii. 26.

MATT. xxi. 9.

Thus when He made his entrance into Jerusalem, "the multitude 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!" Hosanna is derived from the two words, signifying "save now," and was part of the service of the Temple. Well, was it used by them, when Jesus entered the Holy City in the name of the Lord, to bring peace and salvation to its inhabitants; but they refused to hear the voice of the Son of God, and Jerusalem became an heap of ruins. Our Lord evidently referred to this prophecy, when He said to the priests and rulers, "Ye shall not see me henceforth; till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord 2."

THE PROPHETS.-ISAIAH.

ISAIAH, of the tribe of Judah, flourished between the

1 See Matt. xxi. 42. Mark xii. 10. Luke xx. 17. Acts iv. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 4.

2 Matt. xxiii. 37.

years 810 and 698 B. C., and entered upon his prophetic office about 758 years B. C., in the last year of Uzziah's reign. According to other chronologers he exercised his prophetic office forty-seven years: viz. one under Uzziah, sixteen under Jotham, sixteen under Ahaz, and fourteen under Hezekiah; which definition of time has been merely hazarded from Isaiah being alive at the beginning of the fifteenth year of the latter, when the ambassadors arrived from Babylon. Others again, from 2 Chron. xxxii. 32. have maintained, that the prophet survived Hezekiah, wrote his life, and was sawn asunder, at the commencement of the reign of Manasseh, to which Heb. xi. 37. has been referred. A great number of traditions respecting him have reached our times, some of which describe him to have been related to the royal house of David; and some of the Fathers, misled by the Greek orthography, to have been the son of Amos the Prophet; but this fact is subverted by the fact of Isaiah's father having been Amotz-not Amos, as in our version.

Isaiah was contemporary with Hosea and Micah. Of his private life little or nothing is known, though there are reasons for supposing him to have been the Historiographer to Hezekiah; yet after his death not one of the prophets was held in equal esteem. The writers of the historical books not only mention,

but quote him; Jeremiah imitated him, and the other prophets have left traces of the diligence, with which they studied his writings. Those prophecies respecting the Syrians and Assyrians, which were fulfilled in his life, the cure of Hezekiah, &c. must have advanced him in the public consideration; but his clear predictions concerning the Messiah, the Babylonian captivity, Cyrus, and the return from exile easily give to him a pre-eminence over the Prophets of the Old Testament. Josephus assures us, that Cyrus commanded the restoration of the Jews from having seen the prophecy, which designated him by name. The New Testament abounds with quotations from his prophecies, or allusions to them, from all which circumstances he has been appropriately styled the Evangelical Prophet 2.

PROPHECY.

"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion

1

FULFILMENT.

"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Luke xxiv. 47. See also Acts i. 8.-xiii. 46–48. Rom. x. 18.

1 Ant. Jud. xi. 1. § 1, 2. 2 Jerome says, "Sic exponam Esaiam, ut illum non solum prophetam, sed Evangelistam et Apostolum doceam," and elsewhere, non prophetiam mihi videtur texere Esaias sed Evangelium." The words of Augustin, de Civ. Dei. 1. xviii. c. 19. are to the same effect.

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