by Jefus Chrift to John; and this is the work which is affigned to him there. In refufing religious worship from John, and telling him to worship God, he declares, that angels ought not to be worshipped, that God only is the object of religious worfhip, and that however grateful we are to angels or men for the bleffings which are conveyed to us by their means, we must give thofe praises for them which are of the devotional kind to that God only whofe inftruments they were.

The angel next explains upon what principle he ftiles himself the fellow-fervant of those who had the teftimony of Jefus, when he is employed only in communicating prophecies to John, "for,

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(fays he), the teftimony of Jefus is the spirit of 'prophecy." The very spirit and end of prophecy is to bear teftimony to Jefus. Hence, by communicating prophecies to you, I am bearing teftimony to Jefus, and employed in the fame fervice with you and all others who bear teftimony to Jefus. In these words, the angel gives the general key to prophecy. By it he removes the great objection, which infidel and ignorant men throw out against prophecy because of its obfcurity. Say they, If the defign of prophecy is to reveal future events to mankind, why are the predictions not expreffed in fuch clear terms that all men may eafily and certainly understand their meaning? But, it is not the principal defign of prophecy to

· reveal

reveal future events to all men; and therefore it does not follow that the predictions should be expreffed in fuch clear terms, that all men might clearly understand their meaning. The fpirit of prophecy is to bear teftimony to Jefus. This is its principal end and defign; and this end it may accomplish much better, when its predictions are expreffed juft as we find them in facred fcripture, than it could have done, had they been expreffed in fuch clear terms, that all men could have understood their meaning before the event. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought to do, when we imagine that God fends his prophets merely to gratify our curiofity, by telling us beforehand the fate of empires and the fortunes of men. We know not ourselves, when we imagine that it would be advantageous for us to know, beforehand, the events which fhall befal us through the whole of life. That God, who knows our frame, hath concealed thefe from us in mercy.

But to bear teftimony to Jefus the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, is an object of fufficient dignity and importance for prophecy, and one the most beneficial to man. From the day, when it was faid, "the feed of the woman fhall "bruise the serpent's head," to the laft prophecy contained in this book, the great defign and end of prophecy hath been to bear teftimony either

to

to the birth, the life, the character, the natures, the offices, the sufferings, the death, the refur. rection, the afcenfion, the religion of Jefus; or the various fituations and conditions of his church. And, as the refult of the whole, to afford proper evidence, in every age of the world, that Jesus is the Chrift and the Son of God, and that his religion is the kingdom of God; and, at last, to demonftrate thefe great truths in the most ample manner.

Such being the fpirit of prophecy, it is reafonable to conclude, that the fame candour and diligence are requifite to perceive the meaning and to feel the force of the teftimony given by prophecy, which are neceffary in order to understand and feel the forte of the other teftimonies in favours of Chrift and of his religion. It ought, therefore, not to be surprising that the language of prophecy is unintelligible to the wicked, the prejudifed, or the carelefs. It would be juft matter of furprife, were the cafe otherwife. Not the nature of the evidence, but the ftate of fuch perfons minds renders them incapable of perceiving the true meaning, or of feeling the full force of this or of the other evidences of Chriftianity. Hence proceed their fcepticifm, their ignorance, their profanity, and their guilt.

Though the candid, the intelligent, and the inqufitiive may, before the events, perceive the general meaning of prophecies, fo far as is neceffary

to

to fupport their faith and patience, yet it is to be expected from the whole analogy of Christianity, that their views of many of the more minute circumftances will be fo dark as to exercise that faith and patience. But prophecy gives the fulleft tef-. timony to Jefus when it is accomplished. The events fully explain what is dark in the fymbolical terms of the prediction; and, by that explication, prove the infpiration of the prophet, and confequently that his teftimony in favours of Jefus is the teftimony of God himself. It was thus, that the various events relative to the birth, the life, the fufferings, the death, and the refurrection of Jefus, removed that degree of obfcurity which had long hung over the Jewish prophecies, and clearly proved Jefus to be the Meffiah of whom Mofes and all the prophets had fpoken. In like manner, the various events which have already taken place relative to the church of Chrift, explain the dark parts of the prophecies of Daniel, of Paul, and of John, fo far as the times for their accomplishment are yet come; and thus bear teftimony to the religion and church of Chrift. And when Papal Rome fhall be finally overthrown, when the scattered Jews, and the fullness of the Gentiles, fhall be brought into the church of Christ, and the millennium fhall commence, fhall not these events fully remove any obfcurity, which at present hangs over the predictions in

this

this chapter, and give fuch an irresistible teftimony in favours of Jefus, and of his religion, as must put the fceptic and infidel to filence?

It is thus that prophecy, gradually fulfilling in a regular chain, becomes a kind of perpetual miracle, to give teftimony to Jefus in every age of the world, until the confummation of all things. On this fubject I must refer my reader to Dr Hurd's fermon on these words: "The teftimony of Je"fus is the spirit of prophecy;" being the second in the ft volume of fermons preached by that great man at Warburton's lectures.

Here too I muft tranfcribe a fhort paffage on this fubject from page 319 of the very excellent fermons preached by Mr Jofeph White, Profeffor of Arabic in Oxford, before that Univerfity.

Through all their predictions, fomething pointing "to the Meffiah, either by direct application, or by fecondary and diftant reference, is fo interσε woven with the general contexture, the univerfal fcheme of prophecy, that by keeping it in our eye we fhall be furnished with a clue to "trace out their ultimate defign, and contemplate "their mutual connection with and dependence " on each other: "for the teftimony of Jefus is the fpirit of prophecy," This is its ruling and its

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"its vital principle. Divefted of this, it lofes its

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'fpirit and its power. The impreffion of its dig

nity is weakened, its object is debafed, its end

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