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 JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE CHRIST OF GOD. 
 
 EIGHT DISCOURSES 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 THE LECTURE 
 
 FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN HULSE, :*I.A. 
 
 Rev. henry HOWARTH, B. D. 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLI.EGE, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE PITT PRESS, BY JOHN W. PARKER, 
 PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY: 
 
 FOR J. & J. J. DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE; 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN \r. PARKER, AVEST STRAND. 
 
 M.DCCC.XXXVII. 
 

TO 
 
 The Rev. GEORGE ARCHDALL, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, 
 AND LATE VICE-CHANCELLOR, 
 
 The Rev. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 
 The Very Rev. JAMES WOOD, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF ST JOHN's COLLEGE, 
 
 THESE DISCOURSES 
 
 PREACHED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT 
 
 ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The design of these Lectures is to treat 
 of an important branch of the Evidence of 
 Prophecy ; that which proves our Lord to 
 be the true Messiah, ''of whom Moses in 
 the Law, and the Prophets, did write." 
 The same argument affords a very con- 
 vincing proof of the divine authority of the 
 Holy Scriptures, inasmuch as it brings into 
 view such an extraordinary connection, and 
 coherence of parts, between the Old Testa- 
 ment and the New, as, considering the 
 circumstances under which those writings 
 were produced, can be accounted for no 
 otherwise, than by supposing the same divine 
 Spirit to be the Author of the whole. 
 
 The limits of a work like this made it 
 necessary of course to select a portion out 
 
 b 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the great body of the prophetic Scrip- 
 tures. In doing this, it has been endea- 
 voured to observe a rule, which has always 
 been held to be of fundamental importance 
 in the discussion of this evidence ; namely, 
 to begin with those predictions which seem 
 the clearest, and about the meaning of 
 which the best and ablest interpreters are 
 generally agreed. It is hoped that the force 
 of those, which are here considered, may 
 have been placed in a sufficiently striking 
 point of view to serve the great cause of 
 revealed Truth, by inducing some who have 
 hitherto paid but little attention to this 
 branch of its Evidences, to seek for ampler 
 and better information on the subject. 
 
 The Author has now to renew his ac- 
 knowledgements to the Trustees of this 
 Lectureship, whose kind approval of his 
 exertions induced them to continue him in 
 the office a second year. 
 
Vll 
 
 Substance of certain Clauses in the Will of 
 The Rev. J. Hulse, M.A. 
 
 (Dated July 21, 1777.) 
 
 He founds a Lectureship in the University of 
 Cambridge. 
 
 The Lecturer to be a '* Clergyman in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, of the degree of Master of 
 Arts, and under the age of forty years." He is to 
 be elected annually^ '' on Christmas-Day, or within 
 seven days after, by the Vice-Chancellor for the time 
 being, and by the Master of Trinity College, and the 
 Master of St John's College, or any two of them." 
 In case the Master of Trinity or the Master of St 
 John's be the Vice-Chancellor, the Greek Professor 
 is to be the third Trustee. 
 
 The duty of the said Lecturer is, by the Will, 
 " to preach twenty Sermons in the whole year," at 
 "St Mary Great Church in Cambridge;" but the 
 number having been found inconvenient, application 
 was made to the Court of Chancery for leave to 
 reduce it, and eight Sermons only are now required. 
 These are to be printed at the Preacher's expense, 
 within twelve months after the delivery of the last 
 Sermon. 
 
VIU 
 
 The subject of tlie Lectures is to be " tlie Evi- 
 dence for Revealed Religion ; the Truth and Ex- 
 cellence of Christianity ; Prophecies and Miracles ; 
 direct or collateral proofs of the Christian Religion, 
 especially the collateral arguments ; the more difficult 
 texts, or obscure parts of the Holy Scriptures ; " or 
 any one or more of these topics, at the discretion 
 of the Preacher. 
 
:-! 
 
 '•X - ■ -' 4 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 REVELATION XIX. 10. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy 1 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 JOHN V. 39. 
 
 Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
 life ; and they are they which testify of me 29 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS I. 22, 23. 
 
 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wis- 
 dom ; but we preach Christ crucified 55 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 ISAIAH LIII. 10. 
 
 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall 
 see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of 
 the Lord, shall prosper in his hand , 79 
 
 LECTURE v. 
 
 JOHN V. 46. 
 
 Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he 
 wrote of me , -. 103 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 MATTHEW XXIV. 14. 
 
 PAfll 
 
 A7id this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
 world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the 
 end come 1 24 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 JOHN V. 36. 
 
 The works which the Father hath giveii me to finish, the same 
 tvorks that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath 
 sent me 1 46 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 REVELATION XIX. 10. 
 
 The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy ICG 
 
^^^Ol 
 
 
 ^^^GM 
 
 feSY 
 
 HULSEAN LECTURES 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 REVELATION XIX. 10. 
 
 For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of 
 Prophecy. 
 
 The circumstances under which these words 
 were spoken, will direct us towards a just ap- 
 prehension of their meaning, and open the way 
 for that discussion, which is here proposed, of 
 this great branch of Christian evidence. The 
 heavenly messenger with whom the beloved dis- 
 ciple of our Lord was holding converse " in the 
 Spirit," had just confirmed to him the truth 
 of his wondrous revelations, by declaring that 
 they were " the true sayings of God." Whether 
 upon receiving this assurance St John was im- 
 pressed with the awful thought, that he was 
 
 A 
 
2 LECTURE I. 
 
 commiuiiiig with no less than the Divinity itself, 
 or whether he ignorantly deemed, that the re- 
 presentative of the Sovereign Majesty was the 
 fitting object of religious adoration, he fell at 
 his feet with intent to worship him. But with 
 sudden severity the angel checks his rash pur- 
 pose, and disclaims the proffered homage ; " See 
 thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of 
 thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus : 
 worship God." And then it is added, "for the 
 testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." 
 That Spirit of prophecy, therefore, to which the 
 angel refers, is the same which he was engaged 
 in imparting to St John; even that by which 
 the latter was enabled to foretell the future 
 fortunes of the church of God in Christ. But 
 the same Spirit had been manifested for the 
 like purpose long before the days of the Evan- 
 gelist, for "the prophecy came of old time" by 
 a long succession of "holy men of God, which 
 spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'* 
 Of all these, therefore, the angel must be un- 
 derstood as affirming, that they had " the testi- 
 mony of Jesus;" that this was the sole end and 
 purpose, for which they received the prophetic 
 
LECTURE I. 3 
 
 gift that was in them; that "not unto them- 
 selves, but unto us of the latter days, they did 
 minister the things" of that hidden salvation, 
 " which is now reported unto us by them that 
 have preached the Gospel unto us, with the 
 Holy Ghost sent down from heaven*." 
 
 From hence we may discover the important 
 and exclusive function, which is reserved for the 
 Spirit of prophecy in the great scheme of 
 Christian evidence. We may discern its use 
 and value as compared with other branches of 
 that evidence, that of miracles more especially. 
 It is the grand link which connects and recon- 
 ciles two distinct and apparently conflicting reve- 
 lations of God. In order to see this point more 
 clearly, let the testimony of prophecy be placed 
 for a moment out of sight, and let us examine 
 how the case would stand, as between the former 
 and the latter dispensation. They are two pro- 
 fessed communications from God, sustained by 
 undoubted and almost equally convincing testi- 
 mony of miracles. Each of them is promulgated 
 in the light of a covenant, between the God of 
 heaven and His creatures here on earth ; the 
 
 * 1 Peter i. 12, 
 A 2 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 one, moreover, claiming to supersede the other, 
 as the more recent and authoritative discovery 
 of the divine will. What a mystery is here ! 
 What a source of confusion and perplexity even 
 to the best disposed among men ! Where are 
 they to make choice? The weight of evidence 
 is great and unanswerable on either side. The 
 Prophet who assumes the right of repealing the 
 former covenant, brings the full credentials of " a 
 teacher sent from God;" whereas he who w^as 
 the Mediator of that covenant, as well as other 
 " men of God," through whose hands it was 
 transmitted for ages, had used expressions which, 
 in their obvious sense, forbade the expectation, 
 that it was ever to be annulled. It was de- 
 clared to be an everlasting covenant, emanating 
 from Him, "in whom is no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning*." Its commandments were 
 to be unto the people of God as " ordinances 
 for ever in their generationsf." Yet on the 
 other hand, it was a partial covenant, made with 
 only one nation, and they, "the fewest of all 
 people;" while the latter "called the world, 
 from the rising of the sun unto the going down 
 
 * James i. 17. t Numb. xv. 15. 
 
LECTURE I, 5 
 
 thereof," to a full and equal participation of its 
 blessings. 
 
 It may be said indeed, that a sound judg- 
 ment would feel no difficulty in deciding in such 
 a case; for that the whole decision would turn 
 upon one point, the reality of the miracles set 
 forth by the later Prophet. These would give 
 validity to his testimony of himself, let that be 
 what it might. For it cannot be presumed, 
 without shaking to its foundations our trust in 
 the divine perfections, that God would authenti- 
 cate by miracles a lying testimony, and be a 
 party to the deceiving of His creatures. But 
 notwithstanding this, the case we have supposed, 
 would present many and serious difficulties. 
 An ancient revelation of acknowledged authority 
 would not so easily be dislodged from its hold 
 upon the hearts and consciences of those, who 
 had embraced it from conviction ; while the con- 
 flicting claims of two wholly unconnected and 
 contradictory revelations would have furnished to 
 men of ungodly minds an obvious pretext for 
 despising both. 
 
 To obviate these difficulties belongs exclu- 
 sively to the testimony of the Spirit of prophecy. 
 
6 LECTURE T. 
 
 It is this which establishes the relation subsist- 
 ing among the several manifestations of divine 
 grace ; exhibiting them to view, as component 
 parts of the same stupendous whole. By means 
 of this, the former covenant is made a witness 
 Jhr the Gospel and against itself Through this 
 the Law becomes " our schoolmaster to bring us 
 unto Christ." If the Prophet of the new cove- 
 nant announces Himself as a greater than Moses, 
 He is enabled to appeal to Moses himself for 
 the truth of His pretensions. "Had ye be- 
 lieved Moses, ye would have believed me ; for 
 he wrote of me*." If again, He proclaimed that 
 He was come " to fulfil Moses' law. He could 
 challenge the law itself to testify that it w^as 
 an imperfect dispensation, requiring something 
 further for its completion. These are advantages 
 of evidence on the side of the Gospel, which no 
 miracles could have supplied. These were suf- 
 ficient indeed, to establish the divine authority 
 of the Mediator of the new Covenant, and to 
 confirm whatever power He chose to assume over 
 that which had preceded. But they could not 
 have directed us to any relation, or connection 
 
 ^ John V. 46. 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 subsisting between them ; neither could they 
 have provided against the distractions and per- 
 plexities, arising out of ignorance of that rela- 
 tion. Hence it is easy to see, how important a 
 testimony of Jesus the Spirit of prophecy is. It 
 is a light that shineth in a place which would 
 be dark indeed without it. To them, " who 
 from among the Gentiles are turned unto God," 
 it gives assurance that they have not mistaken 
 the Rock of their trust; that He is the Alpha 
 and Omega, the beginning and the end, the 
 first and the last*," of the revelations of God 
 to man. But most signally, no doubt, will its 
 value and its power be manifested, in the day 
 when "upon the house of David, and upon the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem," shall be poured the 
 spirit of grace and of supplications ; when at 
 length, " they shall look upon Him, whom they 
 have pierced, and mourn for Him, as one mourn- 
 eth for his only son ; and shall be in bitterness 
 for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his 
 firstborn f." For Reason and Experience unite 
 in attesting, that the chief, if not the sole, in- 
 strument of this mighty conversion will be the 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 13. t Zech. xii. 10, 
 
8 LECTUKE I. 
 
 testimony of the Spirit of prophecy. In the 
 strength of that testimony the Apostles of the 
 Lord went forth to the combat with their unbe- 
 lieving brethren ; and in almost every known 
 example of a converted wanderer of Israel, by 
 that testimony has the triumph been achieved. 
 And there can be little doubt, that when " the 
 vail shall be finally and universally taken from 
 their heart, the light which guides their repent- 
 ant steps to Sion and their lawful King, will 
 be that which is borne in the hand of Pro- 
 phecy." 
 
 In regard to the peculiar force of prophetic 
 evidence, the Spirit of prophecy must be con- 
 sidered under two different aspects; either as 
 having received, or as being in the course of 
 fulfilment. A prophecy fulfilled has the evidence 
 of a miracle, and proves the special interposition 
 of God. Foreknowledge, according to our ap- 
 prehension, is not the inherent property of any 
 created Being, There is but One of whom we 
 can believe, that in His sight one day is as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day ; to whose eye that duration, which to 
 human conceptions is in the nature of a succes- 
 
LECTURE 1. 9 
 
 sion, stands fully revealed, from its beginning 
 to its end, as one fixed and ever-present whole. 
 To Him alone then belongs the power of sum- 
 moning events from the womb of Time, and 
 " amid the sundry and manifold changes of the 
 world," of shewing before how each shall come 
 to pass. By this prerogative accordingly, in His 
 revelation of Himself, He claims to stand alone. 
 " I am God, and there is none else. I am God, 
 and there is none like me. Declaring the end 
 from the beginning, and from ancient times the 
 things that are not yet done; saying, My 
 counsel shall stand, and I will do all my 
 pleasure*." So far, therefore, as prophecy par- 
 takes in its accomplishment of the evidence of 
 a miraculous work, the Spirit of prophecy may 
 be ranked, with miracles in general, among 
 the primary testimonies of the Christian reve- 
 lation. 
 
 But in its devjelopment^ the testimony of 
 prophecy assumes a character exclusively its own. 
 It is susceptible of being made a continuous 
 evidence, which miracles are not. To cause 
 the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and to 
 
 * Ibiiiah XLvi. 9, 10. 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 summon back the dead to life, are acts indeed 
 of an Almighty power, but in their perform- 
 ance, brief and transitory. The evidence of the 
 work itself is confined to the few, who are 
 permitted to behold it. Thenceforward it be- 
 comes the evidence of testimony only, and in 
 that form alone can be perpetuated. But the 
 word of prophecy, while yet in course of ful- 
 filment, is of the nature of a standing miracle. 
 It is a testimony which comes in contact with 
 every age, and each successive generation of 
 mankind. It is a sensible demonstration, that 
 the Providence of God is actually at work in 
 bringing to pass the counsels of His revealed 
 will. In this point of view the word of pro- 
 phecy presents us with a most striking and 
 singular species of evidence ; and its position 
 in the revealed dispensations of divine grace 
 corresponds very accurately with this view. For, 
 in point of extent, it appears to reach from the 
 beginning to the end of time. It is the chain, 
 upon which we can behold suspended the secu- 
 lar annals of mankind ; its first link being 
 fastened to the gates of that Paradise from 
 whence in guilt and sorrow man was driven ; 
 
LECTURE 1. 11 
 
 while the last connects it with that future 
 Eden of God, of which a far prospect was 
 even then vouchsafed. Midway between these 
 extreme points stands the Advent of the great 
 Deliverer, rays innumerable of prophetic light 
 converging from remote antiquity towards Him, 
 as their central point ; and from Him again 
 diverging towards those periods of duration to 
 come, unknown how near or distant, which lie 
 about the confines where Time expires, and 
 Eternity rolls on its endless course. Thus 
 this " testimony of Jesus " has ministered to 
 the faith of every former age, as it probably 
 will continue to minister to that of every age 
 to come. As the world advances, the course 
 of events will reflect an increasing light upon 
 those prophecies, which refer to the consumma- 
 tion of the Gospel times. The ingathering of 
 the nations to the fold of Christ will become 
 daily more and more apparent. The way will 
 be made smoother for removing the veil, which 
 is upon the hearts of the captives of Zion. 
 The powers of Antichrist will be more plainly 
 seen declining towards their destruction ; and 
 perhaps " the man of Sin " stand fully revealed^ 
 
12 I.ECTURE I. 
 
 to tlie abhorrence of all, ere 'he sinks to rise 
 no more.' 
 
 Here let us pause for a moment, to medi- 
 tate upon the exceeding mercy of our heavenly 
 Father, who has added to us this testimony of 
 His truth ; thus leaving us in doubt, whether 
 that mercy is more apparent in the great 
 scheme of Redemption itself, or in the care 
 which He has evinced to approve it worthy of 
 our utmost acceptation. As if His design were 
 to render it all but impossible for us to make 
 shipwreck of our faith in Him, He has accumu- 
 lated testimony upon testimony, adapting it to the 
 wants and condition of men in every age, and 
 in variety, which leaves no avenue untried, by 
 which conviction can enter the understanding 
 or affect the heart. In the Spirit of prophecy 
 more especially, He asks of us no more than 
 to confide in the testimony of our own un- 
 prejudiced observation ; to look around us at 
 the course of daily events, and to mark their 
 tendency towards those issues, which are pre- 
 dicted in His unerring word. I know that 
 there is difficulty and mischief too arising out 
 of an injudicious application of this evidence; 
 
LECTURE I. 18 
 
 that experience lias often proved, bow danger- 
 ous a thing it is, to launch into the sea of 
 prophecy unfulfilled ; and how lamentably men 
 "professing themselves to be wise, have become 
 fools," by striving to explore its unfathomable 
 depths. But it is not the less true on that 
 account, that it may be both safely and profit- 
 ably studied. For although the final issues are 
 beyond human ken, we may judge of its past 
 and present development, and gather from thence 
 the most real accession of strength to our faith, 
 and the most effectual warning or encourage- 
 ment in the conduct of our lives. They were 
 a blinded race, who in the days of Noah, im- 
 mersed in the pursuits of gain or luxury, "knew 
 not, until the flood came and took them all 
 away*." No less so were they who, at the 
 close of the Jewish age, discerned not the signs 
 of those times, although, as our Saviour inti- 
 mates, they were as plain to all who would 
 understand, as " the face of the sky and of the 
 earth f." And equally blind are they, and 
 equally the enemies of their own everlasting 
 peace, who regarded with contempt, or overlook 
 
 * Matth. xxiv. 39. + Luke xii. 56. 
 
14 LECTURE 1. 
 
 with indifference, the signs of these our times. 
 For it is past a doubt that living we are in 
 the days of prophecy unfulfilled, and that there 
 is enough in the broad and general aspect of 
 events, to mark with sufficient strength and 
 clearness the progress of the prophetic age. And 
 while they who rightly discern it, will derive 
 from thence a most convincing confirmation of 
 every other " testimony of Jesus," it must serve 
 to aggravate and deepen the guilt of those, 
 who " seeing, see not." When in the day of 
 decision the eyes of unbelief are opened, when 
 that contemporary evidence, from which the 
 unbeliever turned away his face, is set before 
 him in the clearness which it now exhibits, he 
 will surely be the first to feel, that he ought 
 to have understood, and that the sentence of 
 his damnation is just. 
 
 Such would appear to be the peculiar force 
 and use of the testimony of prophecy in general. 
 It is time that we turn now to that portion of 
 it which will engage our more immediate atten- 
 tion. The revelations of prophecy will be found, 
 upon examination, to bear a twofold testimony 
 to Jesus; one portion of them being devoted 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 to a minute and copious description of the 
 Person and Office of the Messiah ; while another 
 foreshews the great and striking changes, which 
 were to ensue upon His coming into the world. 
 In the former, we possess a body of evidence 
 for identifying the Person of the Redeemer, 
 than which, it is impossible for us to conceive 
 that any could be more complete. Every prin- 
 ciple of strength and every element of convic- 
 tion, which can be imagined, as appertaining 
 to such evidence, is combined in this with a 
 solidity of power, which it is marvellous that 
 human prejudices can surmount. The number, 
 the variety, the contrariety of prophetic cha- 
 racters, which met together and were reconciled 
 in Jesus, render it all but impossible for a 
 sincere and candid enquirer to be mistaken in 
 his conclusion. But these are points, which 
 demand and deserve a more detailed consider- 
 ation. 
 
 1. In all pretences of prophecy a most 
 important character of truth is the interval 
 which elapses between the prediction and its 
 professed accomplishment; more especially where 
 the event is not far removed from the ordinary 
 
16 LECTUKE I. 
 
 probabilities of tbings. Hinnaii experience, we 
 know, taking direction from tbe past, may 
 often under like circumstances, judge wisely 
 of the future. Thus we may sometimes have 
 known events predicted with a precision cal- 
 culated to excite the utmost admiration of that 
 sagacity which could so truly foresee them. 
 But such foresight has its bounds. It can 
 never adventure to embrace a very lengthened 
 period of time ; neither can it apply itself with 
 any prospect of success, save only to such things 
 as are rendered probable from the course of 
 past experience. But if, after a long lapse of 
 years, or even centuries, that which was pre- 
 dicted, appears to receive a signal and mani- 
 fest fulfilment, then is this so far an evidence 
 of its truth, as it excludes the suspicion of hu- 
 man foresight. Where human foresight ends, 
 divine prescience begins, and we pass imme- 
 diately from the one to the other. Moses an- 
 nounced that a Prophet should be raised up 
 from the seed of Abraham, who might be 
 known from many points of striking resem- 
 blance to himself. The changes and chances 
 of fifteen hundred years intervene, before his 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 words are brought to pass. If at the end of 
 such a period, the Prophet appears, and his 
 resemblance to Moses is such, as cannot with- 
 out great violence to truth and candour be 
 denied, then is Moses a man of God, in whom 
 dwelt the true Spirit of prophecy. It is almost 
 superfluous to remind you how this criterion of 
 truth distinguishes the testimony of Jesus. Not 
 years only, but ages roll between Him and 
 the latest of those revelations, which shewed 
 before of His coming. Unbelievers have labour- 
 ed with all their might to overthrow this bul- 
 wark of His truth ; for the undeniable strength 
 and clearness of some of those revelations is 
 such, as to encourage them to gather their fair- 
 est hope of success from this very circumstance. 
 But they have laboured in vain. For no prox- 
 imity in point of time can ever be proved be- 
 tween any prophecy concerning Jesus and its 
 fulfilment, until the authentic and undoubted 
 annals of intervening ages shall be swept into 
 oblivion. 
 
 2. A second important particular in judg- 
 ing of the truth of a prophecy fulfilled, arises 
 from the plain and ci7^cumstanfial fernhs\ in 
 
 B 
 
18 T.ECTURE I. 
 
 which it was delivered. No mark of the pro- 
 phetic spirit is more conclusive and satisfactory 
 than this. The same event may come to pass 
 at different periods under a great variety of 
 circumstances; and although mere human fore- 
 sight might be able to predict its recurrence, 
 yet liow and with what particular circumstances 
 it would recur, human foresight could not ad- 
 venture to define. This element of conviction 
 also enters into the testimony of Jesus with 
 overwhelming and resistless power. The num- 
 ber, the variety, the minuteness of predicted 
 circumstances, which were fulfilled both in and 
 hy Him, regarded as mere co-incidences, are 
 utterly incredible. It may be objected indeed, 
 that there were some things, which it was 
 equally within the power of false Christs to 
 have accomplished. If, for example, it was 
 foretold to the daughter of Sion, that her King- 
 should come unto her, "lowly and sitting upon 
 an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass ; " 
 it was at the pleasure of any pretender to 
 attempt the fulfilment of this prediction, with 
 the like circumstances in which our Lord Him- 
 self fulfilled it. If, that He should converse 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 much in a particular country, tliat His instruc- 
 tions should be delivered in a singular and 
 unaccustomed method, that He should be a 
 man possessing certain peculiar qualities of mind 
 and temper, distinguished for a mild, a patient, 
 an humble, a forgiving and most upright spirit, 
 it is not impossible that these, and similar 
 marks of the Messiah might be plausibly as- 
 sumed to some extent. But the testimony of 
 Jesus, we know, is very far from being ground- 
 ed wholly upon marks of this description. 
 They might even be omitted altogether in the 
 account of prophetic evidence ; and there would 
 still be such a remainder, as no human fore- 
 sight could have known, and no human in- 
 genuity have met. I pass by examples in this 
 place, because they will present themselves in 
 the course of future discussion. All that I 
 desire to impress upon you at present is, that 
 when they m^e considered, you would remem- 
 ber, how irrefragable a basis they help to 
 form of that conviction which is the result of 
 prophecy fulfilled. 
 
 3. To the like purpose we may add an 
 observation upon the improhability of many of 
 
 B 2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 the events foretold. Something of this nature 
 we have already alleged, in, speaking of the 
 extent of human foresight. We observed that 
 this, as being solely the offspring of observation 
 of the past, must needs on that very account 
 be limited to things likely to arise out of the 
 ordinary current of events. But if that which 
 is foretold be contrary to all appearing proba- 
 bility, at the time, when it was spoken ; if it 
 must be brought about by a conjuncture of cir- 
 cumstances apparently the most accidental and 
 unexpected, then nothing can work in us a 
 more powerful conviction, that the prophecy was 
 not of man, but of God. 
 
 4. The last observation which I shall feel 
 it necessary to make upon this portion of the 
 subject, relates to the manner in which this 
 testimony of Jesus was developed ; at distant 
 periods, under a great variety of circumstances, 
 and by a numerous company of prophets, for 
 the most part unconnected, and independent of 
 each other. The picture, in itself the most 
 extraordinary that ever was attempted to be 
 delineated, was wrought out by a succession of 
 hands. To tlie first vague and indistinct out- 
 
LECTUllE I. 21 
 
 line, sketched before the age of David, each 
 contributor threw in some feature of his own ; 
 sometimes indeed, retouching and reviving those 
 which had been left in it by his predecessors, 
 but not unfrequently adding others which seem- 
 ed absolutely to confound the whole. Exclude 
 the Gospel light, and even to its latest features 
 it is impossible to judge in what way the pro- 
 phetic type will be accomplished. Had the 
 prophecy come of old by the will of man, had 
 each pretended prophet been desirous of adding 
 a feature, which should agree with his own con- 
 ceptions of the picture already drawn by those 
 who preceded him, they must, in many instances, 
 have spoken differently from what they did. 
 There are so many points of seeming incon- 
 gruity, so much that is utterly irreconcileable 
 by any efforts of human wit, as, unless it had 
 been fulfilled, in the way in which it was ful- 
 filled, would have been reasonably held to be im- 
 possible. But complete the picture, as it stands 
 in the records of prophecy, take it from first to 
 last, with all its conflicting and contradictory 
 features, and apply it to the life and person 
 of Jesus, and it immediately arranges itself into 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 an harmonious and consistent, although un- 
 looked for and extraordinary whole. Thus the 
 very numher of that "goodly fellowship of 
 Prophets," the variety of their conditions, and 
 the singularity of their several predictions, pre- 
 sent the clearest manifestation of " that one 
 and the same Spirit, dividing unto every man, 
 severally as He would." They covdd not other- 
 wise, while the pencil of one oft seemed to mar 
 what another had drawn, have produced to- 
 gether such a work, as in the minuteness of 
 its features, at once harmonious and discord- 
 ant, transcends by infinite degrees the utmost 
 conceivable limit of success, which can be al- 
 lowed to human genius or invention. 
 
 Before we conclude these remarks upon the 
 general force and character of the testimony of 
 Prophecy, we must not omit to notice that pecu- 
 liarity of its construction, which divines have 
 termed the donhle sense. This is the more 
 necessary, because although, when properly con- 
 sidered, it is a crowning evidence of the divine 
 original of the prophetic oracles, it has neverthe- 
 less been distorted by the adversaries of Reve- 
 lation into an argument of their falsehood and 
 
LECTUIIK I. S3 
 
 futility. It seems abundantly clear, that several 
 of those prophecies, which are applied to the 
 Messiah, bore another reference to some nearer 
 events, and in them received a just accomplish- 
 ment. If this be allowed, they are still true 
 prophecies, although of a subordinate character ; 
 and supposing them to be lost in the account 
 of the direct and personal " testimony of Jesus," 
 they must still contribute to that general evi- 
 dence^ which the Spirit of prophecy bears to the 
 truth of the Christian dispensation. But this, 
 although the just conclusion, differs widely from 
 that which its enemies would insinuate as true. 
 Their aim is to represent the prophets of God, 
 as no better than the diviners among the hea- 
 thei^; to insinuate, that like ignorant pretenders 
 to foreknowledge, they sought to frame their 
 predictions in terms of such convenient ambi- 
 guity, as might insure for them some plausible 
 fulfilment, albeit from different, or even contrary 
 events. But assume the truth to be, that two 
 distinct fulfilments were contemplated^ and no 
 more ; the one subordinate, and the other, the 
 principal ; the one of a temporal, the other of a 
 spiritual character ; and the former emblematical 
 
24 LECTURE E 
 
 of tlie hitter. Here must be ambiguity indeed ; 
 but is it the ambiguity of ignorance and im- 
 posture? Is this a case to be paralleled with 
 the vague and unmeaning effusions of sooth- 
 sayers and diviners? Or is it not rather an 
 example of infinite Power and infinite Wisdom 
 combined? Of Power which could so shape the 
 analogy of the events, that the same prediction 
 might be verified in both ; and of Wisdom which 
 so dictated the terms of a prophecy, as to ex- 
 press with equal propriety its twofold accom- 
 plishment? Far therefore from being disturbed 
 by the cavils of the adversary at the double 
 sense of Scripture prophecies, great reason have 
 we to bless and adore that goodness, which fur- 
 nished us with this additional " pillar and ground 
 of the truth." Such double sense is as a double 
 security for the fact of their divine original. 
 The first fulfilment is a pledge and earnest of 
 that which is to succeed. And when both are 
 past, they combine into one irrefragable witness 
 of God, annihilating all insidious pretences of 
 coincidence or chance, and leaving room for one 
 only possible conclusion, that " this is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 To establish the conviction that Jesus is the 
 Christ, is the contemplated end of these our la- 
 bours. But why do I adventure to bring forward 
 such an argument within the precincts of this 
 holy temple? Is it because any of you who 
 hear me, cherish doubts upon this vital truth ? 
 Is it that you require to be informed upon the 
 details of that evidence, by which it is esta- 
 blished? God forbid that I should come before 
 you with thoughts so vain as these ; that I 
 should be so forgetful of that atmosphere of 
 light and truth, in which it is your privilege 
 to breathe and live ; that I should be so defi- 
 cient in the first and most essential of all know- 
 ledge, that which makes man "little in his 
 own sight." But if I should presume to ask 
 you, how the conviction that Jesus is the Christ 
 has wrought within your heart; if I should en- 
 quire, whether it has lain there like a dormant 
 seed, dead indeed, but never quickened ; if I 
 should ask the aged, whether it has been able 
 to keep them, through all the perils and vicis- 
 situdes of a lengthened life, in that " way of 
 righteousness," which alone can exalt " the hoary 
 head" into "a crown of glory;" if I should ask 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 the young, "whether it lias moved them with 
 steady constancy to "flee youthful lusts/' and to 
 " cleanse their way " by ruling themselves after 
 the word of Christ's commandments ; if I should 
 require it of the wise and gifted, whether the 
 same conviction has taught them to count all 
 their well-earned fame "hut loss," for the ex- 
 cellency of that knowledge, which excelleth all, 
 " the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord ;" 
 upon this ground the humblest of Christ's mi- 
 nisters can scarce exceed the just limits of his 
 station and his duty. In these things youth 
 may be the monitor of age, and simpleness of 
 wisdom ; and age and wisdom will not despise 
 the admonition, because the voice w^hich utters 
 it, is raised from far beneath the platform of 
 their eminence. 
 
 Let such self-enquiries, therefore, be looked 
 to as the most valuable result of these our 
 meditations. Let every argument which adds 
 its portion to the great sum of testimony that 
 Jesus is the Christ, be held as an inducement 
 of the most prevailing order to Christian holi- 
 ness and watchfvdness and zeal. We all remem- 
 ber a discoiu'se, the very first that was delivered 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 ill defence of this momentovis truth, and how 
 the preacher with inspired energy summing up 
 his holy doctrine, broke off with this conclu- 
 sion ; " therefore, let all the house of Israel 
 know assuredly, that God hath made that same 
 Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
 Christ*." But what had he told his hearers in 
 this, that they, "pricked in their heart," should 
 gather around him, and the rest of his fellow- 
 ministers, saying, " Men and brethren, what 
 shall we do?" Was it that they had shared 
 the guilt of that cruel and tyrannous act ; that 
 their hands had actually been imbrued in the 
 shedding of that "innocent blood?" Oh! no, 
 not more than ours. There were many, no 
 doubt, in that assembly, who, in the matter of 
 fact, were as guiltless, as we are. But in the 
 spiritual crime, the " crucifying Him afresh," 
 they had cause to tremble, and so have we. 
 For to such, to prove that Jesus is the Christ, 
 is to raise a note of awful warning. It told 
 them, and let it tell us, that He is now seated 
 at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the 
 Judge of all men, to pardon or condemn, to save 
 
 * Acts ii. 36. 
 
28 I.ECTUKE I. 
 
 or to destrov. Who saith to His redeemed, 
 " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you;" but unto His ene- 
 mies He saitli, " Depart from me, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire." "And these shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment; but the righteous 
 into life eternal." 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 JOHN V. 39- 
 
 Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life ; and they are they, which testify 
 of me. 
 
 These are the words of "a man approved of 
 God, by miracles, and wonders, and signs." They 
 are therefore words of truth ; because to a false 
 testimony God cannot set the seal of His approval. 
 We are hence assured beforehand, that the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old Testament contain matters suffi- 
 cient to explain and justify the appeal which is 
 thus made to them ; in other words, they con- 
 tain predictions sufficiently numerous and plain, 
 of the character and office of our Lord, to render 
 it imperative upon all, who bow to their authority, 
 to own Him for the Christ, the Son of God. 
 So far then, we are in possession of a clue to 
 the labyrinth of ancient prophecy generally; 
 but when we come to prosecute our enquiries 
 in detail^ many difficulties spring up in our path. 
 
30 LECTURE II. 
 
 We find ourselves introduced into a field of vast 
 extent, and in parts, of great obscurity ; and we 
 have need of a guide, lest v^e should miss our 
 way in threading its ample mazes. Some pro- 
 phecies indeed there are, which apply to our 
 Lord with great clearness and precision ; others in 
 which He is iwohably discerned, but not with 
 incontrovertible evidence. Many more seem to 
 relate to Him, only as they relate to that divine 
 economy of which He is the Head ; while some 
 which are referred to Him, appear primarily at 
 least to look to other events, and in many 
 instances have already received a complete and 
 signal fulfilment. 
 
 To meet these various difficulties and uncer- 
 tainties, we have, happily, many helps beyond 
 such general intimations, as that contained in 
 the text. Our Saviour Himself has cited some 
 of the prophecies of old, as having received their 
 fulfilment in Him. His Apostles likewise made 
 this their grand argument in preaching the 
 Gospel to their obdurate brethren; and from 
 hence accordingly we have a selection of pro- 
 phetic oracles, which upon their authority, are 
 applied to Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
LECTURE II. 31 
 
 By the aid of these examples, we are guided 
 in our interpretation of many others, which in- 
 clude a reference to Him ; and in general, we 
 may acquire such an insight into the genius 
 and structure of prophetic language, as will 
 enable us to recognise with tolerable confidence 
 those peculiar forms of expression, which denote 
 the Messiah to be the subject of discourse. 
 Nor, finally, must we refuse its just value 
 and importance to the light, which is thrown 
 upon this portion of '* the oracles of God," by 
 the wisdom and learning of those to whose 
 guardianship they were especially committed. For 
 although the Masters of Israel are not to be 
 regarded by us in the light of infallible inter- 
 preters, yet it is but reasonable to ascribe to 
 them that insight of which we have spoken, 
 into the hidden meaning of the prophetical 
 Scriptures, in a degree which gives to the re- 
 ceived interpretations of their church the utmost 
 weight of uninspired authority. 
 
 All these therefore, are so many lights and 
 assistances to direct us in our examination of 
 " the testimony of Jesus." And it would greatly 
 diminish the chances of an unsatisfactory result. 
 
32 LECTURE II. 
 
 if we would only be contented with enough for 
 conviction ; if, when we have found sufficient to 
 give us ample assurance, that Jesus is the Christ, 
 we would not suffer our faith to fail, because 
 some prophecies go unexplained, and most pro- 
 bably, in the present stage of our spiritual dis- 
 cernment, are not susceptible of explanation. 
 
 In alluding to those prophecies, which are 
 applied to our Lord, upon His own authority, 
 and that of His Apostles, we have assumed that 
 some at least are cited expressly as His testi- 
 mony, and that such is their true and legitimate 
 application. It will be as well, in this place, 
 to justify this assumption against the adversaries 
 of His name ; for they have not scrupled to 
 affirm that such application is both erroneous, 
 and irrelevant to the purpose. One of that 
 infidel band, whose awful warfare against the 
 Son of God was among the horrors which dark- 
 ened the close of the last century, has bestowed 
 considerable pains upon this argument. And 
 his tract was composed with sufficient ability to 
 confer upon it a certain degree of permanence. 
 His principal assertion is, that "the prophecies 
 cited from the Old Testament by the authors 
 
LECTURE II. 33 
 
 of the New, do plainly relate, in their ohvious 
 and primary sense, to other matters than those 
 which they are produced to prove." And from 
 thence he concludes, that they are " to be ap- 
 plied only in a secondary, or typical, or mystical, 
 or allegorical, or enigmatical sense;" that is, as 
 he would have it understood, in a sense, which 
 robs them . of all force to be " the testimony of 
 Jesus." The obvious consequence of such an ar- 
 gument, if successful, would be, to shake the 
 evidence of Prophecy to its foundations. For if 
 those prophecies are to be rejected, which Jesus 
 Himself and His Apostles advanced in vindica- 
 tion of their appeal to the Scriptures, what autho- 
 rity can any other advocate of Christianity pretend, 
 in adducing evidence from the same source ? 
 
 Now it is admitted, by this objector, that 
 such prophecies were designed to be alleged in 
 the character of proofs ; that is, as revelations 
 concerning Jesus and His times, and in Him 
 receiving their legitimate fulfilment. And who, 
 let us ask, could be more competent judges of 
 this, than the men who thus adduced and ap- 
 plied them ? Who knew the mind of the Spirit 
 better than He unto whom that Spirit was 
 
 c 
 
34 LECTURE 11. 
 
 given *' not by measure" ? Where shall we find 
 surer interpreters of the word of Prophecy, than 
 they who had the gift of Prophecy themselves? 
 Call the sense in which they applied these sacred 
 oracles secondary or typical, or what you will, it 
 must be the true and legitimate sense ; the sense 
 which alone could constitute them that proof 
 which they were designed and declared to be. 
 Before the objector demurred to their application 
 of the testimony of Prophecy, he ought to have 
 invalidated the evidence of their inspiration. He 
 should have shewn them to be merely human 
 and fallible interpreters, who might advance con- 
 jectures in the place of proofs. Until this is 
 done, it is no prejudice to their interpretation, 
 that these prophecies seem to bear another sense, 
 or to indicate a different event. We have shewn, 
 on the contrary, that this very fact, when rightly 
 viewed, is a crowning evidence of their divine 
 original.* Under such circumstances, the only 
 point of which we are left to judge, is the 
 correspondence between the prophecy and the 
 event to which it is applied. With any other 
 event to which it may have applied, we have 
 
 * See Lect. I. p. 22. 
 
LECTURE II. 35 
 
 nothing whatever to do. When we have ascer» 
 tained that the Spirit contemplated a particular 
 event, in which the prediction received a just 
 accomplishment, we have then ascertained the 
 testimony of prophecy clear of every douht or 
 objection. 
 
 The very first particular to which the order 
 of these discourses requires us to allude, is an 
 instance in point ; I mean that eminent prophecy 
 of the birth of the Emmanuel, which was given 
 to the house of David, in the person of Ahaz. 
 That prophecy is cited by St Matthew, as having 
 received its accomplishment in the miracle of 
 our Lord's nativity. The correspondence be- 
 tween the prediction and the event to which 
 it is thus referred, is evidently laid upon the 
 miraculous mode in which Jesus was conceived 
 and born of a pure virgin : by which it is im- 
 plied, that this was to be a distinguishing mark 
 of the Messiah, and that, as such, it is revealed 
 by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah in this 
 place. If we look to a literal fulfilment, that is, 
 a fulfilment agreeable to the direct and obvious 
 meaning of the terms employed, I ask, if it be 
 possible to imagine any sense in which supJ} 
 
 c2 
 
36 I.ECTUllE II. 
 
 fulfilment could be more complete. In this 
 case, it would certainly appear, that the first 
 or nearer accomplishment ought to be regarded 
 as the subordinate and typical; for in respect 
 of this, the text in question occupies a position 
 in the general prophecy altogether dispropor- 
 tioned to the mysterious sublimity of its expres- 
 sions. A brief review of the prophecy and its 
 primary interpretation, will set this in the clearest 
 light. 
 
 The allied monarchs of Syria and Israel had 
 taken evil counsel against Ahaz and against Je- 
 rusalem, saying, " Let us go up against Judah, 
 and vex it, and let us make a breach therein 
 for us, and set a king in the midst of it*." To 
 calm the fears of Judah in this season of peril, 
 the Lord sends this message of encouragement 
 unto Ahaz: "Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, 
 neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these 
 smoking firebrands." For thus saith the Lord 
 God ; their counsel " shall not stand, neither 
 shall it come to pass." But the besetting sin 
 of Ahaz and his people at this time, was " the 
 evil heart of unbelief." Their fears overcame 
 
 * Isaiah vii. 6. 
 
LECTURE II. 37 
 
 their faith. And therefore God, whose mercy, 
 happily for his ungrateful creatures, is more 
 unwearied than all their provocations, vouchsafed 
 to offer them a confirmation of His promise, 
 hy the pledge of "a sign from the Lord." And 
 this is the sign, which the Lord Himself pro- 
 posed, when Ahaz had refused to ask ; that 
 within such hrief period of time as a virgin 
 might become a wife, and conceive, and bear 
 a son, and her infant attain unto the age, when 
 reason's first faint dawn begins to distinguish 
 between the good and the evil, — within such brief 
 period the power of both these kings should be 
 broken, and their thrones levelled with the dust. 
 Such is the primary interpretation of a pre- 
 diction which opens thus : " Behold, a virgin 
 shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call 
 his name Emmanuel." But how poor a pur- 
 pose appears to be served by these magnificent 
 expressions. They amount to nothing more 
 than a circuitous mode of representing the brevity 
 of the period, within which the 7nain incident of 
 the prediction shall be fulfilled. As an announce- 
 ment of events to happen, they constitute only 
 an inferior part of the prediction, the grand and 
 
S8 LECTURE II. 
 
 important feature of which is, that the powerful 
 enemies of Judah shall be rendered incapable of 
 prosecuting their evil designs against her. And 
 the awful name, " God with us," is introduced, 
 not as literally belonging to one that is born of 
 woman ; but only as intimating the divine inter- 
 position on this occasion, after the same manner 
 in which Abraham calls the place of Isaac's 
 sacrifice by a name signifying, "God shall see, 
 or provide." 
 
 These very expressions, then, bearing so sub- 
 ordinate a sense in the first and immediate 
 intention of this prophecy, are adduced by an 
 inspired teacher, as applicable to events of the 
 most astonishing kind, by which they are verified 
 in their sublimest sense, and that the most 
 literal and unforced. This may be called ap- 
 plying the prophetic oracles by way of accom- 
 modation only ; but if, by accommodation, it is 
 designed to intimate such a loose and indefinite 
 mode of application, as renders theui of no force 
 in "the testimony of Jesus," the term surely 
 cannot obtain in this instance. For if the grand 
 evidence of a prophecy fulfilled, lies in the exact 
 accordance of the event with the terms of the 
 
LECTURE II. 39 
 
 prediction, and that in matters which are singu- 
 larly removed from the ordinary course of things, 
 then is this a prophecy of Jesus of Nazareth in 
 the strictest and most perfect sense. It bears 
 upon the face of it the announcement of such 
 wonders as none but the God of heaven could 
 fulfil ; and it corresponds with actual facts, which 
 upon other and certain evidence we know that 
 the God of heaven did fulfil. We may conclude 
 therefore, that this text is an unquestionable 
 prediction of the Nativity of the Messiah, and 
 a most important link in that chain of prophetic 
 evidence which confirms the pretensions of Jesus 
 to that character. 
 
 In the same light, as it seems to me, that 
 is, as essential parts of the " prophetic testimony 
 of Jesus," are to be received two other pre- 
 dictions, which are cited by St Matthew ; the 
 one declaring the place of His birth ; and the 
 other, the countries which should be chiefly 
 blessed by His ministry. Of both these, it is 
 to be observed, that they received their accom- 
 plishment by methods the most natural and 
 unsuspected. Who could have foreseen that the 
 parents of our Lord, dwelling in a remote town 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 upon the outskirts of the land, should have been 
 found in Bethlehem at the precise moment when 
 the fulness of the prophetic time was come ? 
 AVhat could have brought them thither, but 
 that particular decree whose behests could be 
 obeyed by them in no other place ? And what 
 wisdom so ordered the events of the Roman em- 
 pire, as to give scope and opportunity just then 
 for executing a decree, which had been issued 
 years before, but interrupted, and postponed to 
 a period of universal peace. What wisdom, but 
 His, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, after 
 the counsels of His own will, and who saith of 
 every earthly potentate, in the person of one 
 of the most distinguished, "he is my shepherd, 
 and shall perform all my pleasure*." 
 
 Again, His almost uninterrupted sojourning 
 in the parts about Galilee, " the land of Zabulon, 
 and the land of Naphtali," presents, at all events, 
 a very remarkable circumstance in the life and 
 ministry of our Saviour. There He was con- 
 ceived, and, according to every probability, there 
 should have been the land of His Nativity. But 
 how then must the Scriptures be fulfilled? Yet 
 
 * Isaiah xliv. 28. 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 the same Spirit, which brought Him to the city 
 of David to be horn, pointed to Galilee as the 
 land of His habitation. And there He spent 
 the years of His private life, " until the day of 
 His shewing unto Israel." There He opened 
 His gracious and glorious ministry with " the 
 demonstration of the Spirit and of power." In 
 their synagogues He first stood up to teach and 
 preach the Gospel of the kingdom ; and while 
 all eyes were fastened on Him, and all hearts 
 subdued by '* the gracious words which pro- 
 ceeded out of His mouth," to them that be- 
 lieved the prophets. He stood revealed, through 
 the " Spirit of the Lord that was upon Him ; 
 the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of 
 counsel and might;" and they knew that this 
 was He which should " preach good tidings to 
 the meek, and bind up the broken-hearted, and 
 comfort all that mourn ;" and the ears of cap- 
 tives drank in the blessed sounds of deliverance, 
 and "the opening of the prison to them that 
 were bound," and found by glad experience, when 
 the Son of Mary made them free, that then 
 " they were free indeed." The land of darkness, 
 which was thus illumined by the light of His 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 wisdom, is the same which was most blessed by 
 the miracles of his mercy. It was "about all 
 Galilee" that he went "healing all manner of 
 sickness, and all manner of disease among the 
 people ;" and from thence that His fame extended 
 far and wide to the utmost borders of the mighty 
 Syrian land. There likewise He chose His hum- 
 ble followers, the pillars of His future kingdom ; 
 and the first glorious flood of Evangelical light 
 descended upon the heads of " fishermen of Ga- 
 lilee." The awful scenes of His Passion and 
 Resurrection alone interrupted, for a season, the 
 completion of this word of Prophecy. The grand 
 acts of Atonement and Justification demanded 
 a wider theatre for their display. But even 
 before he entered " the valley of the shadow of 
 death," His spirit looked back to the land of 
 His earthly pilgrimage ; and he forewarned His 
 "little flock," that, scattered as they soon must 
 be, He would yet again "go before them into 
 Galilee*." And in Galilee He closed His hea- 
 venly mission, as he began it, in a scene of 
 august sublimity, which waits to be surpassed 
 only by that in which " He shall appear the 
 
 * Matth. xxvi. 32. 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 second time, without sin unto salvation." I consi- 
 der this singular and conspicuous fact in the life 
 and ministry of Jesus; I reflect, how little of choice 
 there was in it, for by far the greater portion 
 of His days; how in childhood, the home of His 
 parents made it His ; how even in maturer years, 
 the natural affection of a son would detain Him, 
 until the time when He " must be about His 
 Father's business." I consider also, how, after 
 His glorious mission was begun, the force of cir- 
 cumstances kept him there ; how often the ob- 
 scurity of Galilee was His compelled retreat from 
 persecution and premature destruction. And I 
 cannot doubt, that in this thing also, the Spirit 
 of Prophecy bore testimony of Him ; that He 
 was that "great light," which, in a distant age, 
 was to shine upon " the people that sat in dark- 
 ness," even "the land of Zebulun, and the land 
 of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond Jordan, 
 Galilee of the nations*." 
 
 Let us now turn to another of the pro- 
 phetic characters of the Messiah, and let us give 
 it our earnest and deliberate attention. For 
 there is none in regard to which the Spirit of 
 
 * Isaiah ix. 1, 2. 
 
44 LECTUKE 11. 
 
 Prophecy is more conclusively " the testimony 
 of Jesus." Long ages had rolled away, since 
 " the arm of the Lord was revealed" by any 
 in '* the form of man." Those mighty and 
 terrible judgments, by the force of which the 
 former covenant was established and upheld, sur- 
 vived only in the records of a remote antiquity. 
 They remained indeed in all the unfading vivid- 
 ness which only an inspired pen could impart ; 
 and the crowded page exhibited, with vigorous 
 reality, the rapid and almost unbroken manifest- 
 ations of the Almighty arm. And after them, 
 came the rarer instances of later times, with 
 wider and wider intervals between, until although 
 man was still the depository of divine wisdom, 
 he could no longer wield the thunders of Omni- 
 potence. But although children, and children's 
 children for numerous generations, knew of mira- 
 cles only by history and the tradition of their 
 fathers, yet the revelation of Prophecy announced 
 that " the arm of the Lord" was not yet finally 
 withdrawn. It spoke plainly of a day in which 
 the Omnipotent would again go forth in the 
 o-reatness of His strength, to build up for His 
 people a better and a surer covenant, upon the 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 foundation of the same grand testimony. Every 
 son and daughter of Sion, whether of high or 
 low degree, watched and waited for this coming 
 of their Lord. The Messiah was He in whom 
 the God of Abraham was to descend again upon 
 the earth, and by miracles of love and mercy 
 to His chosen, to transcend immeasurably all 
 former demonstrations of His might. Let us 
 endeavour to share the feelings, and place our- 
 selves in the situation of a witness of those times. 
 Let our heart be glowing with that flame of 
 universal expectation, which burned more intensely 
 from day to day. Let the thrilling impression 
 of the approach of the Mighty awaken every 
 sense and agitate every nerve, as when one 
 hears the hum of advancing multitudes, and 
 each moment may reveal the glorious spectacle. 
 Let this be our state of mind and feeling, as 
 it was that of thousands in the days of which 
 we speak. And on a sudden the tiaimp of 
 fame shall convey to our ears "the Voice'^ 
 that is in the wilderness. The Prophet is come ; 
 the ^* Wonderful" hath appeared; and we shall 
 make haste into the wilderness " for to see." And 
 we shall find one of a diviner spirit indeed, and 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 exceeding blanielessiiess of life ; and we shall hear 
 from his lips a godlike doctrine of a coming 
 kingdom, in which none must love or live in 
 sin ; and we shall see him administer a rite 
 most simple and beautiful, the emblem of spiritual 
 cleansing and purity. Is this then the Christ? 
 Have we at length " found Him of whom Moses 
 and the prophets did write?" We are lost in 
 wonder and in doubt. For clothed, as he is, 
 in the attributes of a man of God, we see not 
 our sign of signs. "John did no miracle*." The 
 Spirit of a divine understanding is with him ; 
 but "the arm of the Lord" is not revealed. 
 We are in doubt therefore ; but in doubt 
 which shall soon be dispelled by his own self- 
 denying testimony. "I am not the Christ;" 
 " one mightier than I cometh ;" " He it is who 
 coming after me is preferred before me." Turn 
 away your thoughts from me, and go seek 
 Him ; for He is " the Lord whom ye seek," 
 " the Messenger of the Covenant," " the Saviour 
 and the Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." 
 Thus directed, we depart in search of Him, of 
 whom we are now assured that He is come; 
 
 * John X. 41. 
 
LECTURE II. 47- 
 
 and presently the swell of another and a louder cry 
 announces that Emmanuel is near. Admiring 
 crowds shall throng the way, as we pursue the 
 deepening sound ; and one shall say, " I beheld 
 Him, walking upon the waves, and the waves 
 were as the solid rock beneath His feet;" and 
 another shall say, *' I sat down with Him in 
 the lone and sterile wilderness; five thousand 
 were we of men, besides women and children ; 
 and I saw him bless the scanty meal, and the 
 food of one was the portion of many, and all — 
 all did eat and were filled." And she who 
 communed with Him at the well shall lift up 
 her voice and say, " Come, see a man which 
 told me all things that ever I did;" come, see 
 if this be not the Christ. 
 
 Thus while every heart is filled with won- 
 der, and every tongue employed in bearing 
 testimony to some deed of might, the oft-re- 
 peated exclamation shall greet our ears at every 
 step, " When Christ cometh will He do more 
 miracles than those which this man hath done*?" 
 Amid such recountings of His mighty acts we 
 are arrived at length before Him ; and it shall 
 
 * John vii. 31. 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 be at a favourable moment for conviction. The 
 (leaf and the dumb, the halt and blind, are 
 gathered before and around him ; and the two 
 disciples of the imprisoned Baptist are standing 
 by. They have just announced their errand ; 
 " Art thou He that should come, or do we look 
 for another*?" And as yet He has made them 
 no reply. But His looks of profound compassion 
 are fixed upon the sad spectacle of the ravages 
 of sin, and He seems to meditate witliin Him- 
 self fresh deeds of beneficence and might. Lo ; 
 now He turns to that maimed and crippled 
 form, which kind hands have laid at His feet, 
 and in accents of exceeding majesty and ten- 
 derness combined, He saith, " I say unto thee, 
 Arise and walk." Near to him stands one, who in 
 life hath carried about " the dull cold ear of 
 death," and the tongue which never found arti- 
 culate utterance for the thoughts of his teeming 
 breast. Him next the Prophet " taketh aside 
 from the multitude f," that every eye may see. 
 His acts are simple as His might is vast ; a 
 touch, a sigh, and — " Ephphatha, be opened." 
 But another is there, a bystander indeed, but 
 
 * Matth. xi. 3. t Mark vii. 33. 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 no spectator of this amazing scene ; for alas ! in 
 the evil portion of a fallen race, his heritage 
 was the curse of darkness. Again, the great 
 Physician vindicates the source of His tran- 
 scendent power by the disproportioned meanness 
 of His acts. He stoops to take of the dust of 
 the ground : He tempers it with the moisture 
 of His lips : He anoints with it the eyes of 
 the blind, and saith, "Go, wash," and "receive 
 thy sight." It is finished : and where are the 
 tongue and pen that may do justice to the 
 altered scene? Even where alone they can 
 be, in the oracles of God, the testimony of " the 
 Spirit of Prophecy." For thus it is WTitten, 
 " Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and 
 the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then 
 shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the 
 tongue of the dumb sing*." But He motions 
 to peace ; and for a moment the voice even of 
 struggling gratitude must be hushed. He pre- 
 pares to speak ; the enquiring disciples are await- 
 ing His reply ; and oh ! that we might feel it in 
 our heart of hearts ; — " Go, and shew John again 
 those things which ye do hear and see." 
 
 * Isaiah xxxv. 5,6. 
 D 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 " Jesus is the Christ," if prophetic signs ful- 
 filled, and prophetic deeds of power and wonder 
 can prove Him such ; and we might further 
 shew, did the limits of our appointed task per- 
 mit, if prophetic qualities of mind and heart can 
 add conviction. We should have deemed it no 
 mean accession to this portion of the prophetic 
 evidence, to compare the mental and moral per- 
 fections of our Lord with those of the Messiah. 
 And we should have argued, that if the Spirit 
 of Prophecy drew, and the Spirit of Jesus real- 
 ized a character, which suhsists without a paral- 
 lel, then we had confirmed by the amplest testi- 
 mony the grand fact of their identity. The 
 more prominent lines of the transcendent por- 
 trait would suggest themselves at once. "The 
 spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit 
 of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 
 and the fear of the Lord," was it not manifested 
 in that day, when the wisdom of hoar hairs was 
 shamed by "the understanding and answers" of 
 a child ? And if of Messiah it was foretold that 
 " righteousness should be the girdle of His loins, 
 and faithfulness the girdle of His reins," we 
 need not fear to claim the noble testimony for 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 Him, "who knew no sin." We remember also 
 His indifference, yea, His earnest aversion to the 
 breath of popular applause ; and have thought of 
 Him seeking shelter in obscurity from the fame, 
 which gathered around Him, wherever He was 
 known. And in this also we recognise that 
 servant of God, that *' elect one, in whom His 
 soul delighteth," who " shall not cry, nor lift up, 
 nor cause His voice to be heard in the street*." 
 Again, if Messiah is one that "judgeth not after 
 the sight of His eyes, neither reproveth after 
 the hearing of His ears," so also is He, who 
 silenced the voice of unpitying accusation with, 
 "He that is without sin among you, let him 
 first cast a stone at her." And when He gave 
 His sentence, " Neither do I condemn thee ; go, 
 and sin no more;" let us own that this is He 
 who would not "break the bruised reed, nor 
 quench the smoking flax." 
 
 But all this we must rather commend to 
 your own careful study, and call forth your own 
 diligent observation upon it. We must exhort 
 you, whether ye " search the Scriptures" of Pro- 
 phecy, or muse upon the records of the life of 
 
 * Isaiah XLii. 1, 2. 
 D 2 
 
52 I.ECTUKE II. 
 
 Jesus, to bear in memory this identity of mind 
 and character, in the great subject of the one 
 and the other. And we are persuaded that not 
 only in those broad and conspicuous lines, at 
 which we have thus rapidly glanced, but in a 
 thousand minor shades of thought and temper 
 and affection, the resemblance will strike with a 
 mighty conviction. You will feel the force of 
 analogies, whose very minuteness is the best 
 argument of their truth, and you will rise up 
 with tenfold assurance, that this is " He that 
 should come," and that besides Him other Mes- 
 siah there is none. We conclude therefore with 
 a brief application of the theme, which has last 
 engaged our thoughts. If we have alluded to 
 a character composed of all perfections, unim- 
 paired by aught that can be called defect, — if we 
 have turned your thoughts to One in whom was 
 centered "whatsoever is just, pure, lovely, and 
 of good report," each virtue in itself of unli- 
 mited perfection, and in their conjunction, of in- 
 conceivable lustre, — we are able to assure you, 
 that this example was for us, that we might 
 "follow His steps." Yea, we can place the por- 
 trait of unsinning purity in fearless contrast with 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 that of guilt unspeakable, and proclaim that the 
 elements of likeness are not annihilated, that 
 the one is a fitting copy for the other. We 
 durst not have said this, except the Word of 
 unerring truth had said it for us. But we know 
 that the Word of truth would not mock our 
 misery by vainly animating us to deeds impos- 
 sible. When it saith that the Christ is our 
 example, it darts a ray of hope into the deepest 
 recesses of pollution, and admonishes " the chief 
 of sinners" that he may yet, if he will, attain 
 unto " the same mind which was in Christ 
 Jesus." We say then, first, that the imitation 
 of Christ is possible in the nature of things; 
 that His perfections were the attributes of a 
 human soul, and may one day be the glory of 
 yours. We say further, that this is not only 
 possible in thought, but practicable in point of 
 fact. We rest not this upon the superiority, 
 vast as we admit it to be, of the rules and 
 motives of Evangelical holiness. We rest it not 
 even upon the more spirit-stirring agency of a liv- 
 ing pattern of all perfection. These are mighty 
 instruments; yet alone they would strive in vain 
 to awake such palsied energies as ours. But we 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 rest a work of inconceivable greatness upon an 
 Agent of inconceivable might. We tell you that 
 your bodies are the temple of that Spirit, "which 
 spake by the prophets," and dwelt in Jesus; and 
 ye need not our assurance, that in His Al- 
 mighty strength ye may accomplish "greater 
 things than these." Will you yet recur to the 
 thought how vain the pursuit, how hopeless the 
 attainment? We admit the difficulty in all its 
 strength. And we return you for answer ofjcict, 
 that Eternity is the space allotted you for the 
 work ; and for answer of argument, that your 
 objection infers nothing more, than that the 
 work is fitted for Eternity. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS I. 22, 23. 
 
 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek 
 after wisdom ; hut we preach Christ crucified. 
 
 The great doctrine which the Apostle thus 
 propounds in terms of such emphatic brevity, he 
 evidently considers to be a sufficient reply to the 
 demands of both the classes of objectors alluded 
 to. To the one he saith, You require a sign — an 
 evidence of " the power of God." I propose 
 one, which, if you would view it rightly, ought 
 to satisfy your utmost scruples. The sign which 
 I set before you is that of a crucified Saviour, 
 of which your blindness has made a stumbling- 
 block. You feel it impossible to admit such 
 contrarieties of character in the Redeemer to 
 whom ye look. You cannot combine the splen- 
 dours of an everlasting dominion with the mi- 
 series of a depressed and suffering condition. 
 You are vuiable to discern how the majesty of 
 
56 LECTUllE III. 
 
 a Prince can consist with the meanness of a 
 peasant and the doom of a malefactor. But if 
 this was foretold and has been exactly verified, 
 what surer sign, let me ask, can you require? 
 What more conspicuous evidence of divine power 
 can you imagine, than such an union of incon- 
 sistent and improbable conditions in one and 
 the same Messiah ? Again, therefore, I repeat, 
 if a sign from Heaven could convince, you have 
 one which leaves you nothing to desire. There 
 can be no plainer manifestation of " the power 
 of God," than the sign of ^'Christ crucified." 
 To the same effect we interpret the Apostle's 
 reply to the cavils of the sceptical and self-suf- 
 ficient Greek. To him he saith, " You seek 
 after wisdom ;" I submit to your contemplation 
 a scheme of wisdom the most profound. But 
 you cannot receive it, because it accords not with 
 the rules of your so-called philosophy. You 
 spurn remission of sins through the blood of a 
 crucified man. You reject with contempt the 
 idea of a Saviour, who could not save Himself. 
 But wise in your own eyes, the foundations of 
 your wisdom are laid deep in ignorance and 
 error. You would adjust the counsels of the 
 
LECTUKE III. 57 
 
 Allwise to the standard of human systems. You 
 would attempt to fathom the Infinite Mind with 
 the line and plummet of a pigmy Intellect* 
 But " the wisdom of this world is foolishness 
 with God;" and that is reason sufficient why 
 the wisdom of God appears as foolishness unto 
 you. But to them who are the called, who view 
 things not in the dimness of a depraved intel- 
 lect, but by the light of a divine intelligence, 
 to such, I say, the highest wisdom, "the wisdom 
 of God," is " Christ crucified." 
 
 Upon the foundation of these two momentous 
 conclusions we build the order of our present dis- 
 course, endeavouring to set before you in "Christ 
 crucified," the power of God and also the wis- 
 dom of God. The former, we doubt not, will 
 be fully evinced in the sign of a suffering Mes- 
 siah; and the latter, in the development of that 
 stupendous work, for which a suffering Messiah 
 was ordained. We therefore bespeak your pa- 
 tience while we raise yet further the veil from 
 "the Spirit of prophecy," and again bring the 
 light of Gospel truth to bear upon the dimness 
 of its mysterious oracles. And if, in the far 
 bosom of the prophetic past, we can shew you 
 
58 LECTURE III. 
 
 Calvary, like another Sinai, towering amid the 
 wide waste of a spiritual wilderness, and if we 
 can trace the faint outline of the hallowed sym- 
 bol of Salvation, and the form that languishes 
 to death upon it, we shall then trust to have 
 shewn you " a sign from the Lord," a mani- 
 festation of "the power of God," even the sign 
 of the crucified Jesus, " an everlasting sign, that 
 shall not be cut off*." 
 
 We shall not need to insist much upon the 
 general fact of the death of the Messiah, for 
 that is a point to which the voice of many pro- 
 phets bore an express and concurrent testimony. 
 
 Thus the spirit of David was overruled, 
 when he spake of his great affliction, that his 
 "strength was dried up like a potsherd, his 
 tongue clave to his gums, and he was brought 
 into the dust of death;" and the figurative be- 
 came the literal suffering of Him, who filled up 
 the woes of the prophetic David. Thus Isaiah, 
 emphatically the prophet of Messiah, foresaw 
 Him, "cut off out of the land of the livingf ;" 
 and a voice from the land of captives echoed 
 back the mournful truth, "Messiah shall be cut 
 
 * Isaiah lv. 13. t Isaiah Liii. 8. 
 
LECTURE 111. 59 
 
 off*." By these testimonies we know that a dying 
 Redeemer could alone be the Redeemer of pro- 
 phecy. It was not merely " the arm of the Lord 
 revealed," not "the Spirit of wisdom and coun- 
 sel and might,'' but it was the hand of death 
 that must set the seal to His testimony, and 
 give us assurance that this is He. 
 
 But then wherein must His death be dis- 
 tinguished from that of any of the sons of men ? 
 By which of its thousand gates was He to enter 
 the valley of the shadow, that by this token 
 especially He might be known ? Some there be 
 upon whom the relentless destroyer lays his hand 
 with gentleness and long forbearance — who breathe 
 their last in peace amid the soothing cares of 
 loving and lamenting friends. Others suddenly, 
 in an instant, are snatched away in the spring- 
 time of health and strength, like the prophet, 
 before their " eye was dim, or their natural force 
 abated." Or if, peradventure the death of the 
 great Prophet could be conjectured from that of 
 others in the same ministry, we might expect 
 to see Him perish, without sentence or trial, by 
 the hands of lawless and infuriated enemies. 
 
 * Daniel ix. 26, 
 
60 LECTURE III. 
 
 For thus had been shed the blood of many of 
 God's prophets since the foundation of the world, 
 "from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the 
 blood of him who was slain between the temple 
 and the altar." 
 
 Nevertheless, of Christ the Spirit speaketh 
 expressly, that He should die by the sentence 
 of a Judge ; that in the manner of His " cut- 
 ting off" there should be the semblance at 
 least of judicial sanction and solemnity. This 
 truth is embodied in the single expression used 
 by Daniel ; it is set forth by Isaiah in unam- 
 biguous terms, " He was taken from prison 
 and from judgment." The very scene of trial 
 is depicted in the complainings of David, again 
 overruled by the Spirit of prophecy : the false 
 witnesses are there; they "rise up; and lay 
 to His charge things that he knew not." He 
 is condemned therefore, and condemned, as it 
 might naturally be concluded, by a tribunal of 
 His country ; and His punishment will be 
 among those which the laws of His people 
 assign for such as have " sinned unto death." 
 But in what terms do we find that punishment 
 described? Is He to perish by that awful 
 
LECTURE III. 61 
 
 jutlgment ordained of God among His people, 
 '*Thou shalt stone liim with stones that He 
 die ? " Or is the blazing pile to consume Him 
 in its fury, or the cord of strangling to cut 
 short the breath of His existence, or, finally, is 
 it left to the avenging sword to drink the 
 blood of His forfeit life? He dies not thus. 
 Yet from the armoury of Justice every weapon 
 is now withdrawn ; and we pause in doubt to 
 await the revelation of His strange and unac- 
 customed doom. Hear the marvellous descrip- 
 tion : " They pierced my hands and my feet ; 
 I may tell all my bones." Compare these ex- 
 pressions with the awful spectacle of the suffer- 
 ings of the cross. Think whether, in the wide 
 range of human punishments, another can be 
 found to meet their purport. Reflect how 
 many ages had risen and departed before this 
 one found its way into any human code. Run 
 over in your minds the series of strange and 
 inscrutable providences, which brought the holy 
 Jesus under the sentence of that code, and so 
 ordained that He should die by its sentence, 
 while at the same time it pronounced His ac- 
 quittal. And then say, if this be not the Spirit 
 
62 LECTURE III. 
 
 of prophecy — if the hand of the Lord he not 
 visible in this; and confess at length, that they 
 who sought a sign of "the power of God" 
 might have found it in " Christ crucified." 
 
 But we have not shewn you all " the tes- 
 timony of Jesus" in the wonders and the 
 mysteries of His Passion. The Spirit of Pro- 
 phecy is of a " quick and piercing " sight, and 
 scans the minute, as well as the striking and 
 the grand. If it drew with a vigorous hand 
 the mighty terrors of the Cross itself, it could 
 also stoop to delineate the most trivial incidents, 
 which should attend the Messiah on His way. 
 It could tell how " He gave His back to the 
 smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked 
 off the hair; and how He hid not His face 
 from shame and spitting*." It could paint 
 Him, " the despised and rejected of men," the 
 scoff of His enemies, the betrayed of His 
 friends; it knew of the gall, which they 
 should give Him for meat, and of the vinegar 
 which, when He thirsted, they would offer Him 
 for drink; it knew of the debate which should 
 arise upon His garments, and saw them parted, 
 
 * Isaiah l. 6. 
 
LECTURE III. 63 
 
 all but one; yea, it could recite the very words 
 and gestures of mockery of those who should 
 be there to look and stare upon Him. 
 
 But for the more forcible elucidation of this 
 portion of the argument, the exceeding minute- 
 ness with which prophetic tokens were accom- 
 plished in the sufferings and death of the 
 Messiah, we desire your attention to one or 
 two examples in detail. Take, first, the price 
 of the innocent blood. The treason is consum- 
 mated and the guerdon paid. Who could have 
 foreseen its use? What imagination could have 
 conjured up the potter's field in the days of 
 Zechariah, or have dictated the awful train of 
 events, through which it came to be purchased 
 with "the price of blood?" I take leave to 
 cite the prediction in full, because of the as- 
 tonishing exactness with which it was accom- 
 plished : " So they weighed for my price thirty 
 pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me. 
 Cast it unto the potter, a goodly price that I 
 was prized at of them. And I took the thirty 
 pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in 
 the house of the Lord*." It is not simply to 
 
 *Zech.xi. 12, 13. 
 
64 LECTURE III. 
 
 the broad and general features of this prophetic 
 transaction, remarkable as they are, that I 
 would more particularly direct attention ; the 
 number of the pieces of money, and the metal 
 of which they were composed, the returning of 
 the price and the use to which it was applied ; 
 but it is to the singularity of the manner in 
 which it was returned, and the surprising fact, 
 that even this was included in the fulfilment. 
 The money was cast to the potter, and the 
 very expression was verified. The instigators of 
 the traitorous act will not take back the price 
 out of the hands of the conscience-stricken tool 
 of their malice. They repel with abhorrence 
 him and his polluted treasure: "What is that 
 to us? see thou to that." Stung at once 
 by their contempt and the bitter anguish of 
 remorse, he flings the pieces of silver upon the 
 ground. But where ? The prophet saith, " I 
 cast them to the potter in the house of the 
 Lord."" The historian saith, " He cast down 
 the pieces of silver iri the Templet These are 
 particulars of a minuteness which could scarcely 
 have been anticipated to appear in the fulfil- 
 ment of the prediction. Had the price been 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 65 
 
 proffered and received without any thing ob- 
 servable in the manner in which this was done ; 
 had the incident occurred in the palace of the 
 High Priest, or before the judgment-seat of 
 Pilate; we can scarcely feel that the general 
 force of the prediction would have been thereby 
 in the least impaired. At the same time we 
 are assured that they are not related by the 
 Evangelist with any view of adding weight to 
 its fulfilment; for he cites the prediction in a 
 way which rests the accomplishment entirely 
 upon its more general features. We count it 
 impossible then for any one to read St Mat- 
 thew's relation, and not feel profoundly con- 
 vinced that Judas did exactly as he is reported 
 to have done ; and no less impossible do we 
 count it, to compare the events with the pro- 
 phecy, without being struck with the extraor- 
 dinary minuteness of its fulfilment. 
 
 We will next call your attention to the 
 circumstances attending Christ's removal from 
 the cross. And we will ask of you, first, to 
 reflect, what power forbade the completion of 
 the work of death, when the bones of His 
 fellow-sufferers were broken. Who foresaw that, 
 
 E 
 
66 LECTURE III. 
 
 when the ministers of vengeance came to Him, 
 He would be "dead already;" and that this — 
 accident must we call it ? — should cause Him 
 to be made a striking exception to the almost 
 universal fate of those in His condition? Was 
 it chance? Or was it because the Scripture 
 had said, "A bone of Him shall not be broken*?" 
 Again, who could have anticipated the honours 
 of His entombing, so strangely contrasted with 
 the ignominy of his fate? The power by which 
 He was condemned had ordained it, as a portion 
 of the shame of the cross, that the naked and 
 disfigured corse should be cast forth to public 
 view, a spectacle of loathing to every passer-by, 
 and a prey to every creature whose instinct 
 impelled it to feed upon corruption. We may 
 be told, that although He died the death of a 
 slave, yet it was not for the crimes of a slave; 
 that many of the great and wealthy of His own 
 nation deplored His untimely fate ; yea, that 
 the breast of His heathen judge was filled with 
 compassion for Him, because he had found "no 
 fault in Him." Of these sentiments and dispo- 
 sitions, the circumstance of His honourable in- 
 
 * John xix. 36. 
 
LECTURE III. 67 
 
 terment was the natural, and almost necessary 
 result. It was but for those to ask, what the 
 feelings of the other would most powerfully in- 
 cline him to concede. But is not this the word 
 of prophecy? That though His grave was with 
 the wicked, yet He should be with the rick in 
 His death ; — and why ? " because He had done 
 no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth." 
 Here is a prediction, whose fulfilment was made 
 to depend upon the feelings of two distinct 
 and most differently situated parties. And who 
 is sufficient for these things? Who, but He, 
 of whom we are taught, that the hearts of all 
 "are in His rule and governance, and that He 
 doth dispose and turn them as it seemeth best 
 to his godly wisdom ?" Again, therefore, we de- 
 sire you to consider the things which ye have 
 heard, and to say, if the hand of the Lord be 
 not in them, and whether they, who seek a 
 sign of the Providence and the " power of God," 
 could ask a greater than "Christ crucified." 
 
 Hitherto we have been engaged in illus- 
 trating the Apostle's assertion of " Christ cruci- 
 fied," as " the power of God," in answer to those 
 unbelievers who required "a sign." And we 
 
 e2 
 
68 LECTURE III. 
 
 would gladly trust, that the considerations which 
 might be effectual in their conversion will not 
 have been without their use in strengthening 
 the faith of us who believe. It remains for 
 us to advert, in the next place, to his second 
 assertion of " Christ crucified" as " the wisdom 
 of God ;" in reply to those whose infidelity was 
 occasioned by their " seeking after wisdom." For 
 notwithstanding that this doctrine seemed as 
 "foolishness" unto them, because it accorded 
 not with their rule of wisdom, yet the Apostle 
 declares it to be wisdom of the highest order, 
 even " the wisdom of God." Upon this, we 
 must beg leave to ground a brief preliminary 
 argument, before we proceed to the illustration 
 of his position; by reminding you, that it is no 
 objection to the wisdom of any scheme which 
 emanates from God, that such wisdom is not 
 appreciated by men of the most powerful and 
 highly -cultivated understanding. Those minds 
 which are impressed with true notions of the 
 attributes and perfections of a Deity, will be 
 the first to acknowledge, that no "foolishness" 
 can exceed that which would estimate His 
 counsels by the rules and measures of "the 
 
LECTURE III. 69 
 
 wisdom of this world." We scarcely need the 
 voice of Revelation to assure us, that His 
 thoughts must he higher than our thoughts, 
 even when ours are at the highest; and that 
 the distance between the counsels of an Infinite 
 Mind, and the conceptions of such intellects as 
 our own, can hardly be affected by the minute 
 varieties of capacity and power which subsist 
 among the latter. Such notions are of a piece 
 with that ignorant philosophy, which would infer 
 this entire earth to be a level, because so much 
 of it as the eye can grasp at any one view 
 appears to be so; and which would therefore 
 reject as "foolishness" the report of an observer, 
 throned beyond the planetary sphere, and en- 
 abled, by the advantages of such a position, to 
 judge and represent the truth. For, trite as 
 this illustration may seem, wherein does it differ 
 from the case of those who scorn " Christ cruci- 
 fied" through seeking after wisdom? Or why 
 should they be blind to "the wisdom of God," 
 but because they will persist in applying to it 
 an insufficient standard of their own. The 
 Apostle was justified, therefore, in rebuking the 
 foolish "heart of unbelief" by the simple asser-. 
 
70 LECTURE III. 
 
 tion of "Christ the wisdom of God." He did 
 right to affirm that "Christ crucified" is the 
 wisdom, because He is the ordinance of God. 
 And those, who repudiate the ordinance of God, 
 because it is not the scheme which they would 
 have fashioned for themselves, what do they but 
 evince that "the foolishness of God is wiser 
 than men, and the weakness of God stronger 
 than men*?" 
 
 We advance to the illustration of the Apo- 
 stle's assertion, as far as we are able. But here 
 also we must put in our plea for the feebleness 
 of human capacities, and the imperfection of 
 human knowledge. For who can truly apprehend 
 Christ, as " the wisdom of God," but they who 
 are able to view Redemption as it is? We 
 must be content with partial and defective 
 glimpses, from the puny eminence on which we 
 stand; yet even thus we are not without hopes 
 of discovering and representing to you some 
 indications of the glorious truth. And for this 
 .purpose we commence by observing, that the 
 expression of " Christ, the wisdom of God," in- 
 cludes a reference to some end. We apprehend 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 25. 
 
LECTURE III. 71 
 
 the elements of this wisdom to be, the designing 
 of fit and effectual means for the attainment 
 of some great and excellent end in view. Now 
 all the great ends which God designed in 
 "Christ crucified," may, we conceive, be summed 
 up in this one thing, the extirpation of sin 
 from God's universe. "For this purpose, as 
 saith St John, the Son of God was manifested, 
 that He might destroy the works of the Devil*." 
 It is only, therefore, by a strict reference to 
 this great purpose, that we shall be able to 
 form a just estimate of Christ as "the wisdom 
 of God." We must call to mind what are 
 those " works of the Devil," for destroying 
 which a crucified Messiah was ordained ; and 
 we would sum them up in these two particulars; 
 the curse of sin upon us, and the dominion of 
 sin within us. Thus the point for illustration 
 will be the aptitude and efficacy of "Christ 
 crucified" for removing this curse, and extir- 
 pating this dominion. 
 
 For the first we have no other argument 
 to offer you, than the assurance, which we 
 have received from God, that Christ hath re- 
 
 * 1 John iii. 8. 
 
72 LECTURE III. 
 
 deemed us from the curse of the law, being 
 made a curse for us*." We can pretend to no 
 further information upon these awful topics, than 
 what the revelations of divine truth have af- 
 forded. In this therefore the wisdom of Christ 
 crucified must repose wholly upon the fact of 
 its being the ordinance of an Allwise Being. He 
 discerned the perilous exigency of our condition, 
 which we could not perceive ourselves, and He 
 provided for it by a method, which, if we will 
 confide in His assurance, " is able to save us 
 to the uttermost." If now we can be made 
 sensible of any truth in the world, it must 
 surely be our hopeless inability to contest the 
 point with sin. The great bulk of mankind we 
 see following its bidding, as passively and im- 
 potently as a victim led bound for sacrifice. 
 The most successful are the first to cry out, 
 O wretched that we are, " who shall deliver us 
 from the body of this death?" Sin reigns in 
 our hearts, poisoning each affection at its very 
 source. Sin reigns in our carnal members, pro- 
 stituting them continually, as instruments of un- 
 righteousness, to its own base purposes. Sin reigns 
 
 * Galat. iii. 13 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 in our understandings, polluting the fountain of 
 thought, warping the faculty of judgment, dis- 
 abling us from drawing just conclusions, in cases 
 where the most vital interests are at stake ; 
 instead of reasoners, converting us into sophists, 
 to invent pleas and apologies for itself, in de- 
 fiance of the dictates of unbiassed reason, and the 
 remonstrances and restraints of conscience. Let 
 us imagine then for a moment, that it had pleased 
 the great "God and Father of us all" to inter- 
 fere for our deliverance, by a method whose 
 success should depend wholly, or in large mea- 
 sure, upon our own unaided powers of resistance ; 
 that he had proposed to us, for example, a 
 perfect law of holiness, but left us to follow it 
 or not, as we were able ; that He had pointed 
 out to us the path of victory, but sent us 
 forth againt the giant, cased only in the armour 
 of Saul. The contemplation of such a method 
 as this will put you in possession of our first 
 argument for "the wisdom of God" in Christ; 
 namely, that it rests our deliverance from the 
 curse and tyranny of sin, upon so simple and 
 practicable an instrument as faith. That it calls 
 upon us to trust wholly in the assurances of 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 God, that He is our salvation and our strength; 
 for that "what the law could not do in that it 
 was weak through the flesh, God, sending His 
 own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 
 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh*." And if 
 we desired to furnish you with a practical evi- 
 dence of the surpassing " wisdom" of this appoint- 
 ment, we would ask of you to enter with us 
 the chamher of death, and withdraw the cur- 
 tain by the side of the expiring sinner. You 
 should be made to see the terrors and trem- 
 blings of the failing heart revealing itself in 
 unremitting and agonized petitions for mercy. 
 And we beseech you to remember that it is not 
 our purpose here to paint the horrors of the dying 
 impenitent, but those natural fears of which we 
 doubt whether the most upright spirit can wholly 
 divest itself in sight of Eternity. And you 
 should be instructed to try what effect would be 
 produced in soothing those alarms, by a barren 
 reference to the better and holier moments of 
 the past, and its least sinful and condemning 
 recollections. And however favourable a picture 
 this might present, you would soon be con- 
 
 * Rom. viii. 3. 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 vinced of its utter vanity for consolation, until 
 you brought it into immediate contact and connec- 
 tion with " Christ crucified." But appeal to the 
 principle of faith, speak of the fulness of Re- 
 demption through His blood, and then, of the 
 best deeds of a well-spent life, as the fruits 
 of the grace of His Holy Spirit, and you shall 
 see the tempest abate, and the troubled waves 
 of fear subside, and there shall be " a great 
 calm." If, then, "Christ crucified" can thus soothe 
 the terrors and reassure the confidence of the 
 departing spirit ; and further, if it alone is of 
 power to effect this when all other means, 
 which might be expected to avail, are tried in 
 vain, we take this to be a most evident proof 
 that here is the very remedy which our state 
 requires, and that " Christ crucified" is " the wis- 
 dom of God." 
 
 Another mode of illustrating the position 
 in question is, by considering the moral force of 
 this doctrine upon the heart and understanding. 
 For we thus discover, that as far as our oimi 
 sentiments and affections can assist in the great 
 warfare of sin, the knowledge of " Christ cruci- 
 fied" eugagcs all their energies on the side of 
 
7() LECTURE III. 
 
 God, and in resistance to Satan. When I con- 
 template a crucified Messiah in the light of a 
 victim, slain because of sin, I cannot but be 
 impressed with a strong and startling conviction, 
 how the nature of God must abhor sin. And 
 knowing, as I do, how Omnipotent He is to 
 judge and punish me for sin, my fears engage 
 me to flee sin, with every impulse of my soul. 
 And this, supposing that I possess only a very 
 defective knowledge of the greatness and precious- 
 ness of the ransom in His sight. But if I go 
 on to contemplate this ransom in its full dimen- 
 sions, if I permit myself to dwell upon the 
 amazing thought, " God was in this Christ," then 
 my fear rises into a sentiment, which I can find 
 no language to express, and I tremble almost to 
 "the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," at the 
 thought of what must be the j^ersonal penalty 
 of sin to each individual impenitent. 
 
 But if " Christ crucified" thus repels from 
 sin, through fear, with no less strength does it 
 attract towards God through love. It is an affect- 
 ing contemplation — when we make it indeed a, 
 subject of contemplation — to view Christ as the 
 gift of God to a guilty and perishing world ; to 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 consider Him, whose kingdom ruleth over all, 
 upon whom wait myriads of pure and lofty In- 
 telligences, dispersed through regions of illimit- 
 ahle space, that He may open wide His hand, 
 and dispense to them all their several needs and 
 hlessings out of His plenteousness ; — to consider 
 Him, I say, caring and labouring for the pre- 
 servation of one obscure, but hapless race, as if 
 He were indeed the shepherd forsaking all the 
 residue of his flock, to go after that one which 
 was lost. But this is not the contemplation, 
 which exhibits, in its utmost strength, the efficacy 
 of Christ crucified to wiri us from the love of 
 sin. It is not the view of divine compassion 
 weakened, if I may so speak, by diffusion over a 
 whole race ; but it is the sense of that compas- 
 sion bestowed and concentrated upon the indivi- 
 dual self; it is the thought of that great Being 
 lavishing His tenderness upon me, as if my 
 salvation were His only care ; it is the image 
 of the friend, who, in the wreck, relinquishes 
 his hope of safety to me, while he sinks to rise 
 no more ; or, in the hot and murderous fight, 
 detects the fatal aim, and interposes his breast 
 to be the shield of mine. It is thus that I am 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 made to feel, how great a love it is " that a 
 man lay down his life for his friends;" that I am 
 attracted hy the power of an irresistible affection 
 to the side of Him to whom I owe so much, 
 and swayed to love what He loves, and hate 
 what He hates. It were easy to multiply this 
 kind of illustration to almost any extent ; but 
 we have offered enough to bear us out in our 
 conclusion. We repeat, therefore, that if it be 
 any proof of wisdom, to design for us such a 
 method of deliverance from sin, as should engage 
 the most powerful sentiments and affections of 
 our natiu'e to its success, then is the wisdom of 
 "Christ crucified" eminently "the wisdom of 
 God." 
 
 Finally, as those who, in this place more 
 especially, are engaged to seek after wisdom, we 
 beseech you earnestly to suffer no pursuit of 
 human wisdom to betray you into neglecting this. 
 We would remind you, that, "whether there be 
 tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be 
 knowledge, it shall vanish away." But there is 
 one wisdom which endureth ; it is the wisdom 
 that is from above — the wisdom of " Christ 
 crucified." 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 ISAIAH LIU. 10. 
 
 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for 
 sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong 
 his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall 
 prosper in his hand. 
 
 Guided by the light of prophetic truth, we 
 have traced the iMessiah though his sufferings to 
 His cross, and from thence to His costly and 
 honoured tomb, so strangely at variance with the 
 circumstances of His fate. Comparing these pre- 
 dicted facts with the Passion, and Death, and 
 Burial of our Lord, we have seen them accord 
 with a minuteness, which upon principles of mere 
 coincidence is quite inexplicable. We pointed 
 out the course of the events, in appearance indeed 
 casual, and rising out of each other in the most 
 natural succession imaginable, yet conducting to 
 results, which plainly manifested them to have 
 been overruled by the power and providence of 
 God. The awful spectacle which next presents 
 itself for our contemplation, is Death dethroned, 
 
80 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and driven awhile from his dominion, hy that 
 stronger Potentate, who had power to take from 
 him his armour wherein he trusts, and to make 
 of him a captive and a spoil. The Spirit which 
 foretold so much of what seemed minute and un- 
 important in the history of the Messiah, would 
 hardly pass over in silence the astonishing theme 
 of Death and the Grave subdued. It would 
 have been a marvel, nay more, it might have 
 been a stumblingblock to faith, had the same 
 Spirit, which spake so largely of His suffer- 
 ings, said nothing of " the glory that should 
 follow;" by the obvious inconsistency of an omis- 
 sion so remarkable with its minuteness in lesser 
 things. We are sure, however, that He who 
 hath hitherto received so convincing a testimony 
 of Prophecy, is not left without it for the re- 
 mainder of His sublime and unparalleled career. 
 His own appeals to Scripture upon this important 
 portion of His history, were not made in igno- 
 rance. He could ask with confidence whether 
 Christ ought not to have suffered the things which 
 He had suffered, and then " to enter into His 
 glory." Neither would His apostles have been 
 found labouring so earnestly by the help of this 
 
LECTURE IV. 81 
 
 argument to corroborate the grand and vital 
 truth ; — " opening and alleging out of the Scrip- 
 tures that Christ must needs have suffered, 
 and risen again from the dead*." And indeed 
 it is not difficult to cite abundance of texts, 
 which assign to the Messiah a heing subsequent 
 to death, as well as many others which speak 
 of Him in language unintelligible except upon 
 the like supposition. Our text itself, an un- 
 questionable prediction of Christ, might be ad- 
 vanced as conclusive on this head. And it is 
 moreover remarkable for continuing onward the 
 amazing narrative without break or interruption, 
 as if it spake of the same existence, of which 
 death was to prove, in Him, no more than a 
 brief suspension. For no sooner has His soul 
 made "an offering for sin,'' which is a fresh 
 allusion to His death, already mentioned, than, 
 without any apparent interval deserving of re- 
 mark. He is presented to us again, a living 
 witness of a progeny of His own, and continuing 
 to be, for an indefinite and lengthened period, 
 an active and prosperous instrument in further., 
 ing the pleasure of the Lord. 
 
 * Acts xvii. 3. 
 F 
 
82 LECTURE IV, 
 
 Upon passages not more explicit than this, 
 St Paul has grounded a prophetic testimony of 
 the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Thus 
 he cites the second Psalm : " Thou art my 
 Son ; this day have I begotten Thee." And 
 a text from Isaiah, which, separately considered, 
 bears much more obscurely upon the amazing 
 fact of a corporeal resurrection. It is where 
 God renews the promise of an everlasting cove- 
 nant with His people, in these words: "I will 
 give you the sure mercies of David." He spake 
 this, argues the apostle, with reference to His 
 future purpose of raising up Jesus from the 
 dead, "now no more to return to corruption*." 
 Now, although we might, upon St Paul's au- 
 thority, advance these Scriptures as a sufficient 
 proof of " the testimony of Jesus" upon this head, 
 yet we are prepared to admit, that when viewed 
 merely in their terms, the interpretation would 
 seem forced and difficult. But then we ought 
 to remember, that the clearness of any given 
 prophecy is not to be judged solely by the terms 
 in which it is conceived, but by a reference to 
 the great aggregate of prophetic light which 
 
 * Acts xiii. 34. 
 
LECTURE IV. 83 
 
 the same truth has at any time received. Al- 
 lusions in themselves obscure become abundantly 
 intelligible, when the subject to which they 
 refer is grown familiar to the hearer's appre- 
 hension, through the medium of former and 
 more distinct annunciations. So that it is a 
 thing impossible, unless this observation be kept 
 constantly in view, to arrive at any just conclu- 
 sions as to the general clearness which pervades 
 these ancient "oracles of God." To illustrate 
 this in the example under review, the resurrec- 
 tion of the Messiah from the dead, there is 
 extant at least one prophetic declaration, whose 
 meaning can with difficulty be misconceived. 
 And it is worthy to be observed, in reference 
 to what we have just stated concerning the 
 genei^al clearness of prophetic light, that St 
 Paul concludes the argument, which he had 
 begun upon the seemingly obscure, with the 
 convincing and satisfactory distinctness of this ; 
 thus concentrating them all in one flood of 
 mutually assisting light upon the great truth 
 which he designed to corroborate. The pro- 
 phecy alluded to is that of David in Psalm 
 xvi. in part indeed, but only in part, applicable 
 
 F 2 
 
84 LECTURE IV. 
 
 to himself : " Thou shalt not leave my soul 
 in hell ; neither shalt thou suffer thine Holy 
 One to see corruption." The meaning of these 
 expressions, as we have just observed, can scarce- 
 ly be disputed. The allusion is obviously to 
 the respective conditions of the soul and body 
 after death : the one departing to the appointed 
 place of its secret and undiscerned abode ; the 
 other returning to the dust, as it was, and, in 
 the ordinary course of nature, to corruption. Of 
 whomsoever, therefore, the prophet spake this, 
 the singularity of His fate is unquestionable. 
 And when we remember, that it was incompa- 
 tible with the objects of the prophetic spirit, to 
 foretell events with a clearness which could not 
 be misconceived, we shall rather marvel at the 
 precision, than question the certainty, of these 
 predictions of the resurrection of Christ. We 
 stay not to repeat St Peter's triumphant refu- 
 tation of the futile conceit of the unbelievers 
 of his day, that the royal prophet spake this 
 of himself, and not of the Messiah. The notion 
 was too absurd, advanced, as it was, in sight of 
 the precincts of his tomb, where, if proof were 
 wanting, it might easily be had, that his flesh 
 
LECTURE IV. 85 
 
 did see corruption. David spake therefore of 
 Him of whom in after times Isaiah spake, in 
 language then grown to be fully intelligible, 
 that He should " see His seed," that He 
 should "prolong His days," that He should 
 "swallow up death in victory*;" — the same 
 also, who is introduced by a contemporary of the 
 Evangelical prophet with these triumphant ex- 
 pressions in His mouth: "O Death, I will be thy 
 plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction f." 
 The next particular which demands obser- 
 vation, respects the time when the Messiah 
 was to rise from the dead ; and we desire to 
 introduce our appeal to Scripture upon this 
 point with a further illustration of the spirit 
 and the genius of prophecy. The first rule of 
 all for the interpretation of the prophetic oracles 
 is, the testimony of the Messiah. To Him, 
 and the covenant of God with man through 
 Him, their revelations continually point. From 
 the midst of temporary and earthly themes 
 ofttimes the Spirit springs to Him, overpassing 
 with instant bound the carnal and the perish- 
 able, to dwell upon the spiritual and the eternal, 
 
 * Isai. XXV. 8. t Hosea xiii, 14. 
 
86 LECTURE IV. 
 
 For detecting these difficult, but important tran- 
 sitions, the study of prophecy has suggested one 
 most valuable direction. We all know how 
 frequently the errand of God's messenger was 
 an errand of wrath and judgment, and we can 
 scarce have failed to remark how constantly 
 the threatenings of woe were accompanied and 
 lightened by the allurements of promised mercy. 
 And further, when the season of tribulation is 
 arrived, and the land of God's heritage is sore 
 distressed, we must have observed, how it is 
 then that the visions of prophecy glow with 
 anticipations of future joy ; and it may be, that 
 we, like the two disciples, have felt our hearts 
 burn within us, while we knew not Him who is 
 present with us in the opening of these Scriptures. 
 Yet it has been found to be certainly true, that 
 in this method, and on such occasions, the Spirit 
 of prophecy is continually revealing the foun- 
 tain of all blessing and comfort. And although 
 the consolation may appear, upon the surface, 
 to be as temporary as the present calamity, yet 
 we are sure that it was more, yea, and by the 
 faithful among God's people, apiwehended to be 
 more than this. For alive, as they ever were. 
 
LECTURE IV. 87 
 
 to the one glorious hope, the least allusion to 
 heavenly comfortings kindled it afresh in all its 
 ardour, and they felt that the blessing and the 
 promise was of Him, who was emphatically " the 
 consolation of Israel." The passage we are about 
 to cite is an example of this description, in 
 which Vengeance does, as it were, lead in Mercy 
 by the hand, that she may plead with the sin- 
 ful for his dismissal, and engage them to re- 
 pentance by awakening bright hopes of recon- 
 ciliation and blessing : " Come, and let us 
 return unto the Lord : for He hath torn, and 
 He will heal us ; He hath smitten, and He 
 will bind us up." And then the greatness, and 
 the certainty of the near deliverance, are combined 
 in these most singular expressions: "After two 
 days He will revive us ; in the third day He 
 will raise us up, and we shall live in His 
 sight*." Let it be conceded, that this may 
 be interpreted in a looser sense, agreeably to 
 the primary intent of the prediction ; that these 
 expressions may be construed merely as a 
 general intimation of the briefness of the period 
 when wrath shall end and love return ; yet, 
 
 * Hosea vi. 1, 2. 
 
88 Lecture iv. 
 
 when we reflect upon tlieni further, we cannot 
 choose but feel that this is not the whole of 
 their interpretation. For consider, we repeat, 
 the extreme preciseness of the terms, " qftei^ 
 two days,'' and, " iw the third day\'' bear in 
 mind the general, the almost unfailing test, 
 which would connect this Scripture with Him 
 who was to come; compare it, finally, with that 
 one fact in the annals of mankind, which so 
 fully answers to its most literal sense ; and we 
 think it will hardly remain a subject of doubt, 
 for what intent, and of whom the prophet spake 
 this. Still less will it be so, if, mindful of our 
 former course, we blend the light of this with 
 all the rest which the same Holy Spirit had 
 poured upon this one truth. For we shall then 
 call to mind how often, under His direction, 
 the third day had been marked as a day of 
 glory and great blessing. We shall think of 
 Isaac, received from death " in a figure," on the 
 third day of his separation for sacrifice*; of the 
 sign of Jonah, redeemed from the belly of his 
 hell at the end of three daysf; and this will 
 prepare us for discovering, in the language of 
 
 * Gen. xxii. 4. t Jonah ii. 2. 
 
I.ECTUIIE IV. 89 
 
 Hosea's prophecy a literal fact respecting the 
 date of Messiah's resurrection. We shall discern 
 under the figure of temporal healing and de- 
 liverance the great masterpiece of Love divine, 
 when He who was literally dead should be re- 
 vived and raised up on the third day, thence- 
 forth no more to see corruption, but to live for 
 ever in the sight of God the Father. 
 
 But what then is to be the end of that 
 earthly existence, which hath thus survived the 
 stroke of death ? And where the place of His 
 final rest, who slept not in the chambers of the 
 grave? Upon this mystery likewise many rays 
 of prophecy have poured their various light; 
 but we turn to one, which, like the distant 
 suns of heaven, shines brightly with unborrowed 
 lustre: "The Lord said unto my Lord;" or, 
 to divest the expression of its needless obscurity, 
 " Thus saith Jehovah to my Lord." Here then 
 are three : first, the prophet, who reveals ; and 
 next, Jehovah ; and last, the prophet's Lord. 
 Who is this but He to whom "give all the 
 prophets witness," even " He that liveth and 
 was dead?" And what is it which I hear con- 
 cerning Him ? " Hit thou on my right hand 
 
90 LECTUKE IV. 
 
 until I make thine enemies thy footstool." His 
 rest indeed is glorious ; the right hand of Om- 
 nipotence — the throne of universal dominion. He 
 that "by wicked hands was crucified and slain," 
 is become the " King of kings and Lord of lords." 
 We can now trace the prophetic steps of His 
 exaltation where before we discerned them not. 
 For this, no doubt, is He who "is gone up 
 with a shout ;" even " the Lord with the sound 
 of a trumpet*." For Him the glorious strain, 
 " Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye 
 lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of 
 glory shall come in." It is the hymn of His 
 angel-ministers, an innumerable company, who 
 precede Him to the realms of light. At the 
 voice of His approach all the city of the new 
 Jerusalem is moved, and ask, " Who is this 
 King of glory?" Ten thousand tongues reply, 
 *'The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of gloryf." 
 And now the gates lift up their heads, and 
 lift up are the everlasting doors, and the King 
 of glory hath gone in. And the Ancient of 
 days doth sit, whose garment is white as snow, 
 and the hair of His head like the pure wool. 
 
 * Psalm XLvii. 5. + Psalm xxiv. 7 — 10. 
 
LECTURE IV. 91 
 
 And the Son of man cometli near to the Ancient 
 of days, and they bring Him near before Him. 
 And there is given Him dominion, and glory, 
 and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and 
 languages should serve Him: "His dominion is 
 an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass 
 away, and His kingdom that which shall not 
 be destroyed*." Therefore also the Spirit testi- 
 fied, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of 
 Him? and the Son of man, that Thou visitest 
 Him ? For thou hast made Him a little lower 
 than the angels, and hast crowned Him with 
 glory and honour f." 
 
 Are these then the prophetic visions of 
 Messiah's greatness? And are they not equalled, 
 yea, exceeded in Jesus Christ? Make answer, 
 ye chosen, who beheld when " He was taken 
 up, and the cloud received Him out of your 
 sight." Make answer, heavenly pair, who lin- 
 gered awhile behind that white-robed host, to 
 reveal the parting message of hope, and the 
 promise of a more glorious return if. Make answer, 
 thou blessed martyr of His truth, who, from the 
 depth of tribulation and mortal anguish, didst 
 
 * Dan. vii. 9, 13, 14. t Psalm viii. 4, 5. t Acts i. JO. 
 
92 LECTUKE IV. 
 
 see " the heavens opened, and the Son of man 
 standing on the right hand of God." Be ye 
 our witnesses, that we may "see Jesus, who 
 was made a little lower than the angels;" and 
 believe that this is He, who, " for the suffering 
 of death, was crowned with glory and ho- 
 nour*." 
 
 Thus terminates the prophetic picture of the 
 life and death, the resurrection and ascension of 
 Messiah. Thus in Jesus were reconciled the 
 strange and contrary features, so inexplicably 
 combined together in one. Here stands revealed 
 " the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 
 flesh;" the mystery of Grandeur and Humiliation, 
 the mystery of Glory and Shame, the mystery 
 of Poverty and everlasting Dominion. But we 
 would add yet a word, before we finally take 
 leave of this portion of " the testimony of Jesus ;" 
 we would remind you, that the light of pro- 
 phecy testifieth of the doctrines, as well as the 
 deeds, of the light, as well as the life of the 
 Redeemer. And firm as we trust the argument 
 already is, we cannot look upon it as an alto- 
 gether worthless accession to its strength, if we 
 
 * Hebr. ii. 0. 
 
1.ECTX.TRE IV. 93 
 
 briefly shew tlie identity of the Gospel of Jesus 
 with the prophetic Gospel of the Messiah. 
 
 It is known unto us, first, that through this 
 man, even Jesus, "is preached unto us remission 
 of sins ;" and that it is He, " who of God is 
 made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 sanctification, and redemption*." And so, we are 
 sure, was the Messiah ordained " to finish the 
 transgression, and to make an end of sins, and 
 to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring 
 in everlasting righteousnessf." And if the Mes- 
 siah was to effect this^ by bearing in our stead 
 the iniquities of us all ; if His soul was to be 
 made an offering for sin ; if He was to justify 
 by the knowledge of His righteousness ; if He 
 was to make intercession for the transgressors ; — 
 no jot or tittle of these several acts of mediation 
 is overlooked in the mediation of Jesus ; — His 
 death declared to be the ransom of sinners; FTis 
 Resurrection, their justification ; and His Ascen- 
 sion, the proffered pledge that "He ever liveth 
 to make intercession for them*." 
 
 Again, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and 
 the life; he that believeth in me, though he 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. .U). t Dan. ix. 24. % Hebr. vii. 2r). 
 
94 I.ECTUKE TV. 
 
 were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." 
 And we are sure, that in this also He pro- 
 pounded no new thing, but a doctrine insepa- 
 rable from the faith of the Messiah. This was 
 the hope of the afflicted patriarch, to know 
 that His " Redeemer liveth, and should stand 
 at the latter day upon the earth ;" and to gather 
 from thence a sure and certain persuasion that 
 "in his flesh he should see God*." It was ^ 
 the hope of David, when he thought of that 
 bright morning in which the wicked shall re- 
 ceive according to their wicked deeds; and the 
 upright, long oppressed by them in the mys- 
 terious providences of this world, shall at length 
 have dominion over them. Exulting in the view 
 his fervid faith overleaps the bounds of time, 
 and seems to grasp the glad reality, as he ex- 
 claims, " God will redeem my soul from the 
 power of the grave." The Spirit of Prophecy 
 in the ages subsequent to David has left ample 
 testimonies of the knowledge of the same great 
 truth. What, for example, can be plainer than 
 those expressions of Isaiah in his triumphant 
 
 * Job xix. 26. 
 
LECTURE IV. 9.'5 
 
 song of Judah : " O Lord our God, other lords 
 
 besides Thee have had dominion over us; they 
 
 are dead, they shall not live ; they are deceased, 
 
 they shall not rise." But " thy dead men shall 
 
 live ; together with my dead body shall they 
 
 arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; 
 
 for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the 
 
 earth shall cast out the dead*." What, again, 
 
 can be more express than Ezekiel's vision, in 
 
 which the resuscitation of the dry and fleshless 
 
 bones was the adopted emblem of God's power 
 
 and promise to revive the dying hopes of His 
 
 captive people ? Such images as these imply 
 
 something more than a vague idea ; they denote 
 
 both an exact and familiar apprehension of the 
 
 great truth upon which they are based. And 
 
 thus we see that this doctrine of a corporeal 
 
 resurrection was a conspicuous feature in the 
 
 prophetic Gospel of the Messiah, yea, and in 
 
 that more ancient Gospel, which animated the 
 
 faith and hopes of the patriarchal church of 
 
 God. 
 
 Of another leading truth of Revelation, inti- 
 mately combined with this, we may perhaps have 
 
 * Isaiah xxvi. 13, 14, 19. 
 
96 LECTURE IV. 
 
 discovered some trace in the Scriptures already 
 cited — I mean the awful truth of a judgment to 
 come, as founded upon the resurrection of the 
 dead. And it is worthy of particular remark, 
 that these two great doctrines appear, not merely 
 as constituent elements of the true faith in everv 
 age, hut as existing in that intimate connection, 
 at which we have pointed, so that the one is 
 ever consequent upon the other. It may be suf- 
 ficient to observe this feature, as it is exhibited 
 in the revelations of Jesus, and in those of the 
 prophet Daniel. If, according to the first, " God 
 hath appointed a day, in the which He will 
 judge the workl in righteousness by that man 
 whom He hath ordained," then this is the 
 pledge and assurance of that His purpose, " that 
 He hath raised Him from the dead*." In like 
 manner, if to Daniel it was foreshown that 
 " many of them that sleep in the dust of the 
 earth shall awake, it should be, for some, in 
 order to everlasting life, and for others, a rising 
 to shame and everlasting contempt f." Thus let 
 us compare, as minutely as we please, the re- 
 ligious systems of the Messiah and of Jesus, 
 
 * Col. ii. 12. t Daniel xii. 2. 
 
LECTURE IV. 97 
 
 and we shall find, even to the exactest point of 
 agreement, that they are one and the same. 
 One text more, however, we would not omit, 
 as presenting an additional feature in the Evan- 
 gelical scheme, and at the same time expressing * 
 its great elementary characters in the most dis- 
 tinct, yet comprehensive form. It is that of 
 David ; " Thou hast ascended on high : thou 
 hast led captivity captive : thou hast received 
 gifts for men ; yea, for the rehellious also, that 
 the Lord God might dwell among them*." Ap- 
 ply these expressions to Jesus of Nazareth, and 
 the concluding events of His ministry on earth ; 
 and where does each particular find a more just 
 or suitable fulfilment? Let Sin be the capti- 
 vity; and what image more fitting to describe 
 its awful tyranny ? Let Redemption be " to lead 
 captivity captive ; " and where in the annals of 
 the human race can be found a conquest so 
 great and glorious? What gifts were ever so 
 worthy of the name as those which descended, 
 according to His promise, upon the Apostles and 
 early followers of Jesus? And what truer de- 
 scription could be given of their nature and de- 
 
 * Psalm Lxviii. 18. 
 (i 
 
98 LECTURE IV. 
 
 sign, tlian that the " Lord God might dwell 
 among them?" 
 
 We hold it, therefore, to be a great confirm- 
 ation of the truth and mission of our Lord, 
 that He was no setter-forth of strange doctrines ; 
 that He unfolded a system, coinciding in every 
 leading truth with all that had hitherto been, 
 received in the world as the undoubted revela- 
 tion of God ; that the grand elements of the 
 religion which* He taught were the same which 
 the church of God had ever held fast, virtually 
 embodied in the comprehensiveness of that Go- 
 spel, which was preached before unto Abraham, 
 and subsequently developed with increasing light, 
 as " the fulness of the time" drew on. Thus, 
 to adopt the illustration of St Paul, we have 
 received in the Gospel of Jesus the one true 
 faith, with its unchanging and unchangeable ele- 
 ments ; even one body, and one spirit, and one 
 hope of the believer's calling ; one Lord also, 
 one faith, and one baptism ; and all these ema- 
 nating from the alone immutable Fountain of 
 truth, the " One God and Father of all, who is 
 above all, and through all, and in us all*." 
 
 * Ephes. iv. 
 
LECTURE IV. 99 
 
 And for this reason it is matter of surprise that 
 a text, whose true interpretation is wholly hased 
 upon the principle in question, should have been 
 so far misapprehended, as to be thought to pre- 
 sent an inconsistency between the successive re- 
 velations of the Spirit of God. When Jesus 
 "brought life and immortality to light,"' He did 
 no more, (as we have shewn,) than advance the 
 true and primitive faith of God to a further, or 
 perhaps we ought rather to say, its furthest 
 point of perfection. And surely it cannot be 
 held to be any disparagement of His Gospel, 
 if it doth no more than this; neither is there 
 the least necessity for depreciating the light of 
 former revelations, in order to enhance the price 
 and vindicate the honour ^f the last. We re- 
 peat, on the contrary, that no surer or more 
 satisfactory evidence can be afforded of the 
 truth of the religion of Jesus. When we ob- 
 serve the first grey dawn of morning, we are 
 aware that the faint brightness on which we 
 gaze is but the emanation of some source of 
 distant light. And when, in the order of its 
 gradual approach, we at length behold the glo- 
 rious orb go forth from his chamber of the 
 
 G 2 
 
100 LECTURE 1\^ 
 
 East, we recognize the same, but only more 
 brilliant splendour, with that which we beheld 
 before. And in like manner it behoves us to 
 consider the successive stages and degrees of spi- 
 ritual light in the revelations of God. When 
 we compare the broad and perfect day with the 
 faint dawn of the patriarchal and prophetic ages, 
 we ought to perceive that both are emanations 
 from the same fount, now seen, but then un- 
 seen ; that it is the same Sun that shone with 
 dim, but rising lustre upon Abraham, and 
 Moses, and the prophets ; and at length hath 
 mounted to its noon-day splendour in Jesus of 
 Nazareth, the Son of God. And the effect of 
 our perception of this guiding truth will be to 
 strengthen and confirm our faith in Him, as 
 the alone " true spiritual light, which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world." 
 
 Here, then, for the present, we conclude our 
 enquiry into "the testimony of Jesus;" and all 
 that remains is to leave with you our final 
 word of exhortation, before we part. So much 
 of the effort of reason and demonstration must 
 generally enter into the religious discourses of 
 this place, the appeal is so constant to the un- 
 
LECTURE IV. 101 
 
 derstandiiig, so comparatively rare and casual to 
 the heart, that there cannot but be danger of 
 our resting in the point to be proved, and if 
 that is done, to count it all. We reflect not 
 that the preacher stands in the place of one 
 charged to " beseech us in Christ's stead," to 
 try to prevail with us in matters of the last 
 concern to be wise, and zealous, and active for 
 ourselves. We forget that the most successful 
 illustration of divine truth is a poor and idle 
 effort, when it serves no higher purpose than to 
 win conviction, or procure applause for the in- 
 genuity of its author. But it is not for this 
 that Christ's ministers come before you, as 
 ambassadors for Him. Their hopes can never 
 rest upon the perishable meed of applause for a 
 triumphant argument. When they stand before 
 the throne, and the spirit, and the aim, and the 
 fruit of each ministerial effort are reviewed, 
 one heart withdrawn from sin, and strengthened 
 unto obedience, will be of more price to them 
 in that dread hour than a thousand understand- 
 ings submitting themselves to the sentiment of 
 a barren conviction. Earnestly therefore would 
 we entreat of vou to suffer every endeavour of 
 
102 LECTURE IV. 
 
 ours to share in this best, this inestimable re- 
 compence. Whatever you may deem of the 
 success with which the subject of these labours 
 has been brought before you, that is according 
 to our feebleness, and what we could. But the 
 willing heart, the penitent thought, the godly 
 resolution, are yours ; and of these only we de- 
 sire that a portion should be witness for us both, 
 when we meet together in the judgment. But 
 if, in every instance, this may not be; if some 
 will hear, and some, alas! forbear, then must he 
 who now addresses you be permitted to pray 
 for this judgment in his own behalf — the wicked, 
 whom thou warnedst, "must die in his iniquity; 
 but thou hast delivered thy soul." 
 
LECTURE V 
 
 JOHN V. 46. 
 
 Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me : 
 for he wrote of me. 
 
 We have seen how the prophets whom God 
 raised up in long succession, during the later 
 ages of the Jewish church, bore a wonderful 
 and consistent testimony to the Prophet, Jesus 
 of Nazareth. They were instructed to foretell 
 His birth and life. His deeds, and, above all. 
 His sufferings, with an exactness which dis- 
 covers, in the plainest manner, the fulness of 
 divine foreknowledge. We are now to go back 
 to an earlier sera, and a more distinguished wit- 
 ness; and to try our Lord's pretensions by the 
 appeal which He made to him and his testi- 
 mony. We might indeed sustain that appeal 
 by shewing how the doctrine of a Redeemer to 
 come pervades the writings of Moses ; and how 
 fully the life and ministry of Jesus corresponds 
 
104 LECTURE V. 
 
 with every feature of His description, so far as 
 it can be discerned in that comparative dimness 
 of prophetic light. I propose, however, for the 
 purposes of this lecture, to adopt a different 
 course, and to confine the question of evidence 
 to one particular prophecy, which, in its clear- 
 ness, seems to tower like a beacon-light above 
 the obscurity of the rest. 
 
 It is that in which Moses announces the ad- 
 vent of a Prophet like unto himself. This text, 
 we know, was adduced as a " testimony of Jesus," 
 by the inspired apostles of Christianity ; a proof, 
 at least, that the application of it to the Mes- 
 siah was no strange opinion in the Jewish 
 church. It is competent, therefore, for any ad- 
 vocate of "the truth as it is in Jesus," to 
 follow their example, and to justify his appeal 
 by establishing the striking and singular resem- 
 blance which the greatest prophet of the Old 
 covenant bore to the Mediator of the New\ 
 The subject has been discussed by Christian 
 writers both of recent and of ancient date ; 
 and more especially by one of the most acute 
 and learned of our own divines, the parallel has 
 been run out into a great variety of very minute 
 
LECTUKE V. 105 
 
 particulars. The coincidence in every point is 
 doubtless extraordinary and difficult to be ac- 
 counted for upon the principles of mere cliance ; 
 yet it may be admitted, at the same time, that 
 all of those coincidences are not equally avail- 
 able, nor equally needful for the purposes of 
 evidence. There ^ have been differing opinions 
 respecting the application of this prophecy to 
 other prophets besides our Lord ; and in one 
 instance more especially, by a Jewish commen- 
 tator how^ever, the analogy has been carried to 
 no less than fourteen points, between Moses and 
 the prophet Jeremiah. But it is obvious that 
 the strength of our Lord's appeal lies, not in 
 points of general likeness between himself and 
 Moses, but in the circumstance, that both of 
 them stand distinguished by characters which 
 belong to no other prophet. We have to con- 
 sider therefore, first, in what respects Moses stood 
 alone among the prophets of old ; and then to 
 enquire, whether in these respects he was an 
 exact and remarkable type of that future Pro- 
 phet, of whom he spake. 
 
 One of the chief and most prominent features 
 in the history of the Hebrew prophet is his pri- 
 
106 LECTUKE V. 
 
 vilcgcd intercourse with God. In an age when 
 the prophetic dignity was not sparingly dis- 
 pensed, the ordinary methods of divine revela- 
 tion were in his case exchanged for communion 
 the most open and free. The High and Ploly 
 One Himself condescended to vindicate his pre- 
 eminence in this particular. "If there be a 
 prophet among you, I the Lord will make my- 
 self known unto him in a v?,sion^ and will speak 
 imto him in a dream. My servant Moses is 
 not ,yo;...with him will I speak mouth to mouth; 
 even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and 
 the similitude of the Lord shall he behold*." 
 By this solemn attestation of the Giver of the 
 prophetic gift was Moses confirmed in his supe- 
 riority. And to whom? To the common mass 
 of the people, who, undistinguished by that gift 
 themselves, were born to reverence it in others ? 
 Nay ; but over those, who could say, and with 
 truth, " Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by 
 Moses? hath He not spoken also hy usf Yea, 
 even over Aaron, the next to him in point of 
 dignity in that great mission upon which they 
 were sent. How then was it possible to put a 
 
 * Numb. xii. 6—8. 
 
LECTURE V. 107 
 
 greater mark of difference between i\Ioses and 
 tlie prophets bis fellows? Tbere is a doubt 
 wben, or by whom that observation is made, 
 which closes the volume of his life and writings. 
 But had it been written after the last of the 
 prophetic band was gone, it would have ap- 
 peared with undiminished force and truth. For 
 assuredly " there arose not a prophet since in 
 Israel like unto Moses;" even any "whom the 
 Lord knew face to face," and with whom He 
 spake, "as a man speaketh unto his friend*." 
 
 We cannot help expecting, therefore, that an 
 equal or a higher privilege must distinguish 
 any prophet who should be like unto Moses. 
 Without this it would be vain to attempt a 
 parallel, sufficient to bear the import of the 
 prediction which we are considering. For who 
 could be esteemed a prophet like unto Moses, 
 failing in that which was his prime distinction ? 
 Or what faith could we repose upon points of 
 inferior resemblance, where this, the chief of 
 all, is wanting? But if one hath appeared 
 who in this sublime distinction as far excelled 
 Moses as the latter excelled all other messen- 
 
 * Deul-. xxxiv. 10. Exod. xxxiii. 1 1. 
 
108 LECTURE V. 
 
 gers of Heaven, how invincible a testimony is 
 it, that this is He who was like, yet superior 
 to Moses? Consider then the impressions of 
 the character of Jesus, which the inspired his- 
 tories of His life and actions are calculated to 
 excite. Remember that those histories are 
 written without the smallest apparent idea of 
 ,suggesting a comparison with Moses; that, al- 
 though both Jesus and His apostles appeal to 
 Moses, and to this particular prophecy by name, 
 yet there is not in all the New Testament any 
 attempt towards a specification of any likeness, 
 even in this, its most remarkable feature. We 
 read in the Old Testament that God spake 
 with Moses, "mouth to mouth;" that he saw 
 the "' similitude of the Lord ; ' and that his 
 countenance, reflecting a portion of the radiance 
 of Divinity, was seen to glisten with intolerable 
 lustre. And in the New, we find a correspond- 
 ing incident to this last in the transfiguration 
 of the Son of Mary ; and we moreover hear 
 Him described as " dwelling in the bosom of 
 the Father;" as having "seen the Father;" as 
 "being one with the Father." Nor can we for- 
 get His own declarations on the subject of His 
 
LECTURE V. 109 
 
 intercourse witli God, nor bow singularly in 
 accordance they are with the language of the 
 prophecy before us: "I have not spoken of 
 myself; but the Father which sent me, He 
 gave me a commandment, what I should say, 
 and what I should speak. Whatsoever I speak 
 therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so 
 I speak *." " I will put my words in His mouth,'' 
 saith God by His servant Moses, "and He shall 
 speak unto them all that I shall command 
 Himf." Here we perceive that the language 
 is the same, and the impression identical in 
 either case. Now it is doubtless true in some 
 sense of every prophet of God, that God put- 
 teth His words in his mouth. But we are 
 sensible that this does not come up to the case 
 which we are here considering. It was never 
 so specified of any other prophet in particular, 
 that his intercourse with the Almighty should 
 be of so marked a character ; and we have seen 
 that in this respect no other prophet could or 
 did rank by the side of Moses. It is evident 
 therefore that the two descriptions, ivitJiout any 
 apparent reference to each other, do in effect 
 
 * John xii. 49, 50. t Deut. xviii. 18. 
 
110 LECTURE V. 
 
 separate both Moses and Jesus from all the 
 sons of men ; placing them, (hs jyrophets, by 
 themselves, although the distance between them 
 is that between Deity and Humanity. Moses 
 was no more than man ; yet, r/.v a jjropJiet, he, 
 more than any, resembled the prophet Jesus. 
 Jesus was God and man ; yet, as a prophet of 
 God, He alone can be called " like unto Moses." 
 Less sublime perhaps, but equally remark- 
 able, is the resemblance in regard to their 
 office, and the functions which each was called 
 upon to fulfil. The first character in which 
 the prophet of the Hebrews appears before us, 
 is that of the divinely-appointed instrument of 
 a great redemption for God's people. I use the 
 term advisedly, for Moses himself saith in allu- 
 sion to it, the Lord ''^redeemed you out of the 
 house of bondmen*." I admit that the com- 
 parison is only between a temporal and a spi- 
 ritual deliverance ; a redemption from the bond- 
 age of an earthly oppressor on the one hand, 
 and on the other, from the thraldom of sin. 
 But then such an analogy is entirely conform- 
 able to the genius of Holy writ, which is con- 
 
 * Deiit. vii. 8. 
 
LECTURE V. Ill 
 
 tiiuially making human events and occurrences 
 the types and shadows of things spiritual. And 
 it cannot be denied that, as Redeemers of God's 
 elect, it brings the two subjects of our com- 
 parison into a very striking and exclusive re- 
 semblance. It may be said, indeed, that others 
 of the prophets besides I\Ioses were styled deli- 
 verers of Israel; that God delivered them by 
 their judges, and afterwards by their kings, 
 and others who in later times were His instru- 
 ments for redeeming them from the hand of 
 their enemies. But the grand distinction in 
 this case is, that the redemption from Egypt 
 was the most signal of any which tliey ever 
 experienced. Many and great as were their 
 subsequent deliverances, this threw them all in- 
 to the shade. Not one ever approached to it, 
 either in the importance of its character, or the 
 greatness of its fame. For in truth it was an 
 aera in the greatest of human concerns, the con- 
 cern of true religion. It was a mighty restor- 
 ation of one chosen race from the abominations 
 of a dark and almost universal idolatry. Moses 
 therefore is to be considered not as the instru- 
 ment of a mere ])olitical revolution, but as the 
 
112 LECTURE V. 
 
 Author of a religiou,s reformation, which forms 
 an epocli in the annals of mankind. In this 
 view it is undeniahle that he affords a parallel, 
 to which no subsequent prophet ever came up. 
 The deliverance which Jesus wrought alone 
 surpasses, while it resembles. The very expect- 
 ations which the Jews had formed of Him, as 
 a Redeeme?\ would have reduced Him to the 
 level of Moses, and thus have verified, in a 
 lower sense, this identical feature of resemblance. 
 And shall we say that it was less than verified, 
 because the redemption was of a higher order ; 
 because the tyranny overthrown is that of a Spi- 
 rit invisible, and not of any mortal oppressor ; 
 and because the host redeemed, instead of one 
 race, few in number compared with all the 
 families of the earth, is composed of a mul- 
 titude, which no man could number, of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues*. 
 We have only to view the two events, as simple 
 acts of redemption, abstracted from their essen- 
 tial and inevitable points of difference, and to 
 combine them with the position which their 
 respective authors occupy in consequence, as the 
 
 * Rev. vii. 9. 
 
LECTURE V. 113 
 
 two greatest restorers of true religion that ever 
 appeared in the world, to perceive at once the 
 likeness that is between them, and also that it 
 is between them alone. Nor need we hesitate 
 to produce this character of resemblance, as a 
 prominent and cogent part of our illustration, 
 when we are endeavouring to substantiate the 
 pretensions of Jesus to be the Prophet like 
 unto Moses. 
 
 Again, Moses was a " mediator between God 
 and man," for the founding of a new polity, to 
 be established upon laws of divine authority, 
 and under God, as its immediate Head. The 
 Jewish state, in its first institution, as com- 
 pared with the other kingdoms of the earth, 
 was strictly "the kingdom of God." I would not 
 build a mere verbal analogy upon two different 
 meanings of the same expression, nor am I now 
 speaking of the mere temporal sovereignty which 
 God exercised over the nation of the Jews. 
 But I am aiming at a real analogy deducible 
 from the fact, that " we know that the law was 
 spiritual." Moses was thus the Mediator of a 
 sinritual covenant, however wrought up in a 
 system of carnal ordinances ; a covenant which 
 
 H 
 
114 LECTURE V. 
 
 contemplated spiritual ends, and was based upon 
 spiritual blessings. In this view he alone, of 
 all the prophets before Jesus, sustained the dig- 
 nity of a divine Lawgiver. The rest were no 
 more than interpreters of his law, and enforcers 
 of its provisions. Their functions extended not 
 to altering, or adding, or diminishing aught 
 from its code, but only to a more detailed ex- 
 position of its ordinances of blessing and of 
 cursing, under varying circumstances and in 
 particular cases. In this therefore we discover 
 a further point of exclusive resemblance between 
 the founders of the Jewish and Christian code. 
 For no prophet could be considered in any just 
 sense like unto Moses, who had not borne this 
 character ; the character, let it be remembered, 
 not of a mere human legislator for the welfare 
 of a temporal state, but of a lawgiver, raised 
 up, and ordained of God, for the advancement 
 of a spiritual kingdom. This distinction, as it 
 places Moses at an immeasurable distance from 
 the most celebrated of human legislators, brings 
 him proportion ably nearer than any other pro- 
 phet to the "one Mediator between God and 
 man." The difference between them in this, as 
 
LECTURE V. 115 
 
 in every other particular, lies in the unapproach- 
 able superiority of Jesus. His kingdom, doubt- 
 less, is a purely spiritual kingdom, and His laws 
 such as befit a dominion of that description. 
 But yet, as the most exalted view of Moses 
 in his office of legislator rests, as we have seen, 
 upon the spiritual objects and tendency of that 
 law, which he was commissioned to give, so it 
 is in this view that our Lord has verified the 
 prediction of being like unto him by a nobler 
 resemblance ; a mode of verification, which must 
 be confessed to be, not only real and just in 
 itself, but also that which best agrees with the 
 sublimity of prophetic truth, and the wisdom of 
 that Spirit from whom it emanates. 
 
 But let us look a little further into this 
 function of Mediator, and try if we cannot dis- 
 cover a still more striking analogy between those 
 who bore that eminent dignity. And for this 
 purpose let us call to mind that remarkable 
 prayer of the Israelites, that Moses would speak 
 to them instead of God. It was of itself, no 
 more than the outpouring of an amazed and 
 terrified spirit. They were constrained to utter 
 it "for the fear of the Lord, and the glory of 
 
 H 2 
 
116 LECTURE V. 
 
 His majesty." They saw " the thunders, and 
 the lightnings, and the thick cloud upon the 
 mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding 
 loud;" and they durst not abide the terrors of 
 the Lord; "they removed, and stood afar off." 
 And in the greatness of their fear " they said 
 unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will 
 hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we 
 die." The prayer, in itself, exhibits, as we 
 have observed, nothing more than the feelings 
 natural to so awful a scene. There is no ap- 
 pearance of any further meaning couched be- 
 neath its words ; no intimation of its having 
 entered into the ears of Him, " whose presence 
 then shook the earth." Yet it had entered into 
 His ears, and was remembered by Him, on 
 a subsequent and very remarkable occasion. 
 " They have well spoken, (it was thus that He 
 expressed His approval of this very prayer,) 
 that which they have spoken." I have heard 
 their desire, and thus it is answered ; " I will 
 raise them up a prophet like unto thee." When 
 I give them my laws in time to come, it shall 
 be by One to whom they may draw nigh with- 
 out fear ; who shall speak my words in accents 
 
LECTURE V. 117 
 
 of meekness, and gentleness, and mild per- 
 suasion ; whose presence shall engage them to 
 approach with confidence, and to hearken with 
 joy and gladness. We perceive at a glance 
 how remarkably the prayer and the promise are 
 combined. And where are we to look for the 
 explanation ? To the ordinary fact that the 
 promise was completely realized in the person 
 of every succeeding prophet? Surely this seems 
 but a naked and meagre fulfilment of a pledge 
 so emphatically given. Shall we then behold 
 it more worthily and gloriously fulfilled in Him, 
 who was "God manifested in the flesh;" who, 
 " being in the form of God, took upon Him 
 the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men*;" who did thus repeat the 
 action of His illustrious type in putting the 
 vail upon the face of His glory, even the vail 
 of " the earthly house of this tabernacle," be- 
 hind which the Godhead lay concealed? In 
 Him there w'as " the brightness of the Father's 
 glory, and the express image of His Person ; " 
 yet such a brightness, and such an image as 
 mortal eyes might endure, a glory "full of 
 
 * Ephes. ii 6, 7, 
 
118 I>ECTUJiE V. 
 
 grace and truth.'' Consider then this pledge, 
 that God would speak to His people in His 
 holiness without His awfulness. Rememher how 
 He did speak by the mouth, and ministry, of 
 His only-begotten Son; and then judge whether 
 this is entitled to be received as the true 
 intention of the mind of the Spirit, when He 
 spake of one who in this thing also should be 
 distinguished for "a Prophet like unto Moses." 
 The last point of this comparison to which 
 I invite attention, is that spirit of meekness^ 
 which dwelt in Moses. For in this also we are 
 told that he stood alone, " above all the men that 
 were upon the face of the earth *." And it is 
 too rare and singular a quality in the heart of 
 fallen man, for us not to anticipate a more than 
 ordinary share of its excellence in the prophet 
 who should be like unto Moses. The occasion 
 on which we meet with this celebrated eulogy 
 of the Hebrew prophet, that of the rebellion of 
 Aaron and Miriam already noticed, sufficiently 
 explains wherein that character consists, for 
 which he stands so highly commended. It is 
 that frame and temper of mind, which hushes 
 
 * Numbers xii. 3. 
 
LECTURE V. 119 
 
 the revengeful passions of the heart, and per- 
 suades submission to affront and injury, unmerit- 
 ed and unprovoked. A rare and extraordinary 
 spirit, which guards us against the sin of self- 
 avenging, and enables us to rest satisfied with 
 leaving vengeance to Him, who hath said, " I 
 will repay." We can judge its value in His 
 sight, by the promptitude of His interference for 
 the vindication of His unoffending servant. The 
 whole complexion of the incident is too plain 
 to be misunderstood, and too striking not to 
 arrest our observation. Moses, it is evident, 
 cast the recompense of a most wicked contempt 
 of his just authority upon the faithfulness of 
 that God whom he served, and in accepting 
 the appeal God declared of how great price in 
 His sight that spirit of meekness is. And 
 when we think of this, can we forget that 
 spirit, as it appeared in the prophet Jesus? 
 Can we forget, that as far as it was possible, 
 among the perfections of His heart and mind, 
 for one to exceed the rest, that one was the 
 spirit, which forbade Him to revile, when reviled, 
 or to threaten, when He suffered unjustly; and 
 enabled Him to commit Himself to Him that 
 
120 LECTURE V. 
 
 judgeth righteously, even as Moses committed 
 his cause, and was avenged? Must we not 
 rememher also the place and figure which He 
 assigns to that spirit in the precepts of His 
 holy law ; how He ranks it as the chief in 
 that glorious pattern which He set for the 
 imitation of His followers; how He calls upon 
 us to learn of Him, especially as He ivas 
 meek and lowly in heart; how, in fine. He did 
 more " to prescribe, and transmit, and secure 
 this grace, than any other*?" Can we dwell 
 upon these points, and yet refuse their testimony 
 to Him who was like unto Moses ? Can we 
 discover the same resemblance in so rare a 
 feature between Moses and any other prophet 
 of God ? No : for " this man, Moses, was very 
 meek above all the men that were upon the 
 face of the earth ; '' until the same heavenly 
 grace shone with brighter perfection in " the 
 mind that was in Christ Jesus." 
 
 Here then I would rest the evidence of the 
 fulfilment of this illustrious prophecy in the 
 person of our Lord ; and ask, with Jortin, 
 
 * This expression is from Bishop Jeremy Tcaylor. 
 
LECTURE V. 121 
 
 whether a similitude and correspondence so re- 
 markable can be the effect of mere chance ? 
 Whether, if we search all the records of uni- 
 versal history, we shall find a man who was so 
 like to Moses as Jesus was, or one so like to 
 Jesus as Moses was? If we cannot find such 
 an one, then certainly must we have "found 
 Him, of whom Moses, in the law, as well as the 
 prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son 
 of God." 
 
 Finally, let it be remembered that there is 
 a warning added to this prophecy, not less 
 remarkable than the prophecy itself "And it 
 shall come to pass, that whosoever will not 
 hearken unto my words, which He shall speak 
 in my name, I will require it of him." " Who 
 hath ears to hear, let him hear" the word 
 which God spake concerning the Prophet like unto 
 Moses. Let him reflect that if Jesus of Naza- 
 reth were He, that warning itself hath proved 
 prophetic. For " He came unto His own, and 
 His own received Him not;" and surely it hath 
 been required of them. For when hath the 
 world presented such another spectacle, of na- 
 tional judgments, or of individual woes? When 
 
122 LECTURE V. 
 
 were ever known such *' days of vengeance," as 
 those which have alighted upon Israel ? When 
 was ever beheld such distress upon any land, 
 such wrath upon any people? The heart of 
 unbelief, however hardened, can scarce refuse to 
 admit this fact. Nor can the mind, which is 
 not utterly lost to reflection, forbear to ask, 
 " What meaneth the heat of this great anger? " 
 And when did it arise, but in the instant of 
 that awful cry, "His blood be on us and on our 
 children ? " And whence did it begin, but from 
 that fearful desolation, of which Jesus Himself 
 so vainly forewarned them ? It is vain to deny 
 the truth of events which are still before our 
 eyes; nor less vain is it to dispute their con- 
 nection with the sufferings and death of the 
 prophet Jesus. The awful truth therefore con- 
 fronts us with a distinctness which it would be 
 insanity to overlook. They rejected the Pro- 
 phet like unto Moses, and God required it of 
 them, as He had said. And shall any remain 
 insensible to a warning so proclaimed, and 
 already so faithfully verified? Shall not the 
 same avenger of unbelief require it of others, 
 if others fall after the like example ? Well 
 
LECTURE V. 123 
 
 then ; let the infidel and the believer both re- 
 ceive from hence their several warning. Let 
 the one consider, if yet he can consider, that 
 "because of unbelief, they fell;" and let the 
 other, who thinketh, perhaps rightly thinketh, 
 he standeth, " take heed lest he fall." 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 MATTHEW XXIV. 14. 
 
 Aiid this Gospel of the kingdom shall he preached 
 in all the world, for a witness unto all nations ; 
 and then shall the end come. 
 
 If the history of a life such as never had 
 its parallel in the annals of mankind, a life 
 derived from a virgin mother, and the spirit of 
 the Eternal Father ; ushered in by signs in 
 heaven and in earth, by the brightness of an 
 unknown star, and the voices of an unseen 
 world ; distinguished in its course by works of 
 wonder, and of power no less than divine ; which, 
 passing through the portals of death unharmed, 
 held on its imperishable way, until it ended, 
 as it began, in miracles, and glory, and a vi- 
 sible departure to the realms of light; — again, 
 if a character composed of such excellences as 
 pass the attainment of mortal man, comprehend- 
 
LECTURE VI. 125 
 
 iiig in one every separate perfection of all the 
 noblest examples in the world, and surpassing 
 each in degree, as the sun buries in his flood 
 of brightness the lesser lights of heaven ; a 
 character, albeit not exempt from passing weak- 
 ness, yet untarnished by the stain of sin, 
 representing in itself all things that "are true, 
 honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report;"-— 
 finally, if a doctrine revealing truths concern- 
 ing God, more sublime than human intellect 
 could reach ; concerning man, more excellent 
 than were ever taught in any age or school of 
 wisdom in the world ; a doctrine perfective of 
 human nature and human happiness both for 
 time, and for eternity to come; — 
 
 If, I say, a life made up of such incidents, 
 a character composed of such elements, a doctrine 
 consisting of such truths as these, can be ga- 
 thered and culled from the scattered predictions 
 of ages, and if all these are described with 
 simplicity and without effort, in the history of 
 One who stands alo7ie among the children of 
 men, may we not reasonably conclude that to 
 be a true interpretation of prophecy, which refers 
 all these predictions to Him, even Jesus of 
 
126 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Nazareth, the Son of Mary and of God, in 
 whom the whole was combined and realized ? 
 
 This is the sum of what we have attempted 
 to prove in that portion of our task which is 
 accomplished. We shall now turn to another 
 chain of evidence, no less extraordinary, and 
 even more conclusive than this ; for it is the 
 result oi facts, of which our own observation 
 will enable us to judge the truth. We affirm 
 therefore, in the next place, that Jesus is de- 
 monstrated to be the Christ, not more certainly 
 by these tokens of His personal identity, than 
 by the wonderful events, which agreeably to the 
 word of prophecy signalized His coming into 
 the world. If nature laboured when He sank 
 into the tomb, and physical convulsions attended 
 His reappearance and triumph over Death, so was 
 His life the harbinger of more astonishing re- 
 volutions, religious, political and moral. He 
 was "set for the rise and falling of many," not 
 in Israel only, but in all the world. Thrones 
 the most powerful were to own His sway; 
 sceptres the most ancient were to be overthrown 
 when they opposed Him. The gods of the 
 heathen were destined to stoop and totter from 
 
LECTURE VI. 127 
 
 their shrines, while their worshippers, afraid any 
 longer to how down hefore the work of their 
 own hands, made haste to forsake their altars 
 for His. 
 
 Of this nature are the facts, which will 
 furnish the substance of what I have yet to lay 
 before you. They embrace a period commencing 
 from the Ascension of Jesus and continued to 
 the passing hour ; and we are able also to try 
 them pf'ospectively with reference to their final 
 and predicted consummation. The spirit of pro- 
 phecy foreshewed them all, as the signs of the 
 Messiah's kingdom ; the coming of Jesus ful- 
 filled them all, and therefore they are His 
 testimony for ever ; a testimony which shall re- 
 main to confound the despiser of every future 
 age, until that day when the light of truth 
 shall break even upon his dark soul, and he 
 shall "behold, and wonder, and perish." 
 
 Let us consider then, first, that this Jesus 
 is He which planted and established the reli- 
 gion of the Gospel. And in affirming this, do 
 we not affirm the most astonishing change 
 which was ever borne upon the wings of Time? 
 In every point of view it stands alone. No 
 
128 LECTURE YI. 
 
 revolution can be produced in the history of the 
 world which may compare with it, either for 
 extent or permanence. It was not political 
 merely, nor moral, nor religious, but it was all 
 of these together. It changed the face of so- 
 ciety, and regenerated the spirits of men. It was 
 a revolution of governments, and of thoughts ; 
 of kingdoms, and of hearts; of institutions and 
 of manners. Its pure and holy light penetrated 
 the cabinets of princes, and the shrines of hea- 
 then worship ; banishing cruelty and impurity 
 both from the sanctions of law, and the so- 
 lemnities of religion. It saved the lives of in- 
 fants, and lightened the misery of slaves. It 
 humanised the sufferings of the captive and the 
 criminal. It curbed the barbarous thirst for 
 war, and fightings, and bloodshed, and disposed 
 both rulers and ruled to cultivate the arts of 
 peace and mutual kindness and good will. These 
 changes, which are every where now so visible, 
 the preaching of Jesus brought to pass. We 
 are living witnesses of their grandeur, and their 
 permanence. We behold the same teaching fol- 
 lowed by the same effects, wheresoever its opera- 
 tion enjoys free scope : constantly and visibly 
 
l.ECTURE VI. 129 
 
 mhancmg them among the nations, which are 
 already blessed with its light ; and as surely 
 producing them in those regions which lie buried 
 in pagan darkness. 
 
 When we contemplate the magnitude and 
 extent of this new Power, we feel that it is 
 scarcely a figure, to call it "a kingdom set up," 
 over all the kingdoms of the world*. Let Jesus 
 of Nazareth be who or what He may, let Him 
 be God, or Angel, or Prophet, or mere man. 
 He may well be styled "the Prince of the 
 kings of the earth," in a sense at once singular 
 and true. For if he is a true sovereign, to 
 whose laws and institutions both kings and their 
 subjects yield obedience, who has power to 
 model the constitution of states, and to regulate 
 the jurisprudence of empires ; if he is a true 
 sovereign, the emblem of whose sovereignty is 
 borne upon banners and crowns imperial ; then 
 hath Jesus obtained the dignity of King of kings, 
 and Ruler of earthly princes. 
 
 If the Spirit of prophecy did ever testify of 
 the revolutions of this our world, it will hardly 
 be contested, that a change like this was a sub- 
 
 * Daniel ii. 44. 
 I 
 
130 LECTURE VI. 
 
 ject worthy of such testimony. And such a 
 change we find described in many of those pre- 
 dictions of the Messiah, which are the clearest, 
 and least liable to cavil. Every striking fea- 
 ture which the facts have developed, may be 
 traced in the visions of prophecy. Out of Sion 
 it was declared that His law should go forth, 
 and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ; the 
 law of Him, who was to be set as' a king upon 
 the holy hill of Zion* ; a law superior alike in 
 character and efficacy to the laws of earthly 
 princes, in that its enactments should reach to 
 the " inward parts," and be written upon " the 
 fleshly tables of the heart." Moreover His reign 
 was to be a reign of peace, and his title, "the 
 Prince of peace f;" because in His days the 
 sword should be turned into the ploughshare, and 
 the spear into the pruning hook, and nation 
 should cease to lift up sword against nation, 
 and war should not be learned any morej:. It 
 was a reign too, under which barbarity should 
 disappear, and the feelings of humanity gain 
 strength ; and savage natures be tamed, and the 
 heart of cruelty melt beneath the tear of mercy. 
 
 * Ps. ii. 6. t Isa. ix. 6. % Isa. ii. 4. Mic. iv. 3. 
 
I. EC TIT HE VI. 131 
 
 All this is come to pass, even as it was pic- 
 tured before in the splendid images of prophetic 
 truth ; the wolf dwelling with the lamb, and 
 the leopard lying down with the kid ; and the 
 calf, and the young lion, and the fatling to- 
 gether, with a little child to lead them ; the 
 cow and the bear feeding, their young lying- 
 down together, and the lion eating straw like 
 the ox; the sucking child also playing on the 
 hole of the asp, and the weaned child putting 
 his hand on the cockatrice' den*. How perfect 
 the peace and the security which mankind should 
 enjoy under the benign sway of the Messiah ! 
 How like unto it that peace and security which 
 we owe to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus ! 
 
 It would be tedious to advert to the testi- 
 m.ony of prophecy upon every point of this inte- 
 resting comparison, or I might remind you, how 
 to Him, albeit " a servant of rulers, kings should 
 see and arise, and princes also should worship ;" 
 again, how " kings were to be His nursing 
 fathers, and their queens His nursing mothers f ;" 
 how He was to cleanse His people from all 
 their idols, and to cut off the name of idols 
 
 '^ Isaiah xi. 6—8. t Isaiah xlix. 7, 23, 
 
 I2 
 
132 LECTURE VI. , 
 
 out of the land*. Ye know with how profuse 
 a hand these and such like intimations are scat- 
 tered over the page of ancient prophecy; and it 
 is only to change the future into the present 
 or the past, to convert them into faithful his- 
 tories of that which our eyes have seen. 
 
 But it may be said, and it is true, that the 
 present condition of the world is far from real- 
 izing the full import of prophetic language. It 
 may be said, and it is true, that nations many 
 and mighty know nothing of the preaching of 
 Jesus; that the universal dominion of peace and 
 holiness is as yet scarce more than a prophetic 
 dream ; that wars, and persecutions, and crimes 
 and wickedness, still triumph where the Gospel 
 is professed ; and where it is not. Idolatry rears 
 her throne with all and more than her old 
 abominations. We have only to look beyond 
 the comparatively narrow bounds of Christendom 
 to the mighty empires of the East, or the track- 
 less deserts of the West, to the thickly-peopled 
 regions of the African land, or the countless 
 islands of the Southern seas, to behold at this day 
 the most revolting of spectacles in the religious 
 
 * Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Zech. xiii. 2. 
 
LECTURE VI. 133 
 
 rites and practices of man. But to this we make 
 answer, not by denying its truth, but by point- 
 ing to what the preaching of Jesus has effected. 
 For from that alone ought we to judge what 
 it is adapted to effect, and what it will con- 
 tinue to effect in time to come. We pretend 
 not that the word of prophecy is verified in its 
 fulness by what we yet see of the reign of 
 Gospel truth ; but we affirm that in all its pro- 
 gress hitherto, it has gone on to realize the 
 predictions of the Messiah's kingdom. And we 
 appeal without alarm to any test of fair and 
 candid observation, whether every year is not 
 bringing them to a nearer approximation, and 
 more visible identity of character. Great there- 
 fore we hold must be the reverses which threaten 
 its fall, and mighty the change in its effects, 
 before we yield to the painful discovery that the 
 religion of Jesus is not the reign of God's 
 Anointed. 
 
 It is time however that we turn to the next 
 of those astonishing events which signalized the 
 aera of His coming. And if the planting of the 
 Gospel be a sign and a marvel in the annals 
 of the human race, no less so is tlie extinction 
 
134 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of that divinely-instituted polity which had ga- 
 thered around it the reverence of more than 
 fifteen hundred years. Emanating from Him, 
 who in this work, if in any, might be expected 
 to manifest Himself as the Immutable, it seemed 
 destined to wear out, according to the strictest 
 tenor of its promulgation, the term of an ever- 
 lasting covenant. Popular belief, we are sure, 
 assigned to it an existence coeval with the works 
 of creation. It did not indeed refuse to con- 
 template its extinction : but it could identify 
 this with nothing less than the dissolution of 
 the material universe. And in truth, until with- 
 in a brief period of " the end," few could have 
 conjectured how nigh it was. The mighty 
 temple stood, the wonder of all who gazed upon 
 its strength. Its ordinances flourished in all the 
 strictness of unimpaired observance. Its altars 
 teemed with their appointed victims, as in the 
 days of their earliest sanctity. No oblation was 
 withheld, no hour of prayer forgotten, no symp- 
 tom of declining zeal appeared. Yet a few brief 
 years and the whole became as though it had 
 never been. One great, one overwhelming flood 
 of vengeance buried all in a common ruin, and 
 
LECTURE VI. 135 
 
 temple, and victim, and priest, and worshipper, 
 were " even as a dream when one awaketh." 
 Whether we regard the fact itself, or the ex- 
 traordinary mode in which it was brought to 
 pass, the testimony of prophecy is equally won- 
 derful and convincing. The ruin of the city, 
 and the desolation of the land, and the abiding 
 dispersion of her children, are pourtrayed with 
 an exactness, and fidelity of colouring, which 
 no scepticism can gainsay. Moses himself, while 
 laying the foundations of that polity, foresaw 
 the sad spectacle of its extinction, and even in 
 sight of the fair but polluted land, upon which 
 his people gazed with all the avidity of promised 
 possession, he beheld their children plucked from 
 off it, amid flames, and blood, and famine, and 
 pestilence, and mutual hate. There rose up be- 
 fore him the destroying nation from afar, of the 
 eagle symbol, and strange tongue, and fierce 
 countenance ; and the straitness wherewith they 
 distressed his people in all their gates, is pour- 
 trayed to the minutest shade of horror. For 
 then man's eye was evil toward his brother, and 
 toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the 
 remnant of his children, which famine suffered 
 
IS6 LECTURE VI. 
 
 him to leave ; the tender and delicate woman 
 also, which would not adventure to set the sole 
 of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and 
 tenderness, even her eye was evil toward the 
 husband of her bosom, and toward her children 
 which she had borne ; while she did eat them 
 secretly for want of all things, in the siege and 
 in the straitness, wherewith the enemy distressed 
 them. And when, at length, from being as the 
 stars of heaven for multitude, they were left 
 few in number among their enemies, and their 
 high and fenced walls, wherein they trusted, came 
 down throughout all their land, then the rem- 
 nant that was left, less happy than the myriads 
 who lay beneath their ruins, departed to receive 
 their portion of the unresting foot, and tremb- 
 ling heart, and life hanging in doubt before them. 
 Surely all these curses liav)e " come upon them, 
 and pursued them, and overtaken them, and are 
 yet upon them for a sign, and for a wonder, 
 and upon their seed, as it is this day*." 
 
 Thus far have I described these awful scenes, 
 in the words of Moses, the man of God. But ye 
 know how " all the prophets, as many as have 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 45, 46. 
 
LECTUllE VI. 137 
 
 spoken, have likewise foretold of these days*." 
 Ye know too, how unsuspiciously the testimony 
 of historic truth has borne out every fact, and 
 every woe ; and how writers of that, and every 
 subsequent age, travellers of various periods, and 
 divers countries, of all creeds, and of no creed, 
 Christians, Jews, and Pagans, friends and adver- 
 saries of the Gospel, have alike been witnesses 
 of the truth, and steadfastness, and minuteness 
 of the word of prophecy. Nay, ye yourselves can 
 discern, in a thousand instances, where the stream 
 of prophecy still flows on, and gather from that 
 which your own eyes behold, a confirmation of 
 the annals of the past. 
 
 Thus fell the city of God, and with it the 
 institutions which had their birth amid the 
 awful glories of Sinai. And thus it was to 
 perish, according to the sure w^ord of prophecy, 
 and about that very time. For a time was ap- 
 pointed, and a period determined, in the counsel 
 of the Most High, " to seal up the vision and 
 prophecy, and to anoint the most Holyf." It 
 is not necessary in this place to engage in a 
 disquisition of the weeks of the prophet Daniel, 
 
 * Acts iii. 24. t Daniel ix. 24. 
 
138 l.ECTUllE VI. 
 
 It is sufficient for our purpose, tliat every pro- 
 bable computation brings their close to the days 
 of Jesus. The truth of this is apparent in the 
 signs of the time, and the sentiments of the 
 age, in which He lived. Every Jewish bosom 
 beat with a glowing hope, which it was expected 
 that each passing hour might realise ; and to the 
 latest moment of irremediable desolation, that 
 hope forsook them not. Yea, even unto strange 
 and distant cities the fame of His coming was 
 gone forth ; and " the Desire of nations" absorbed 
 the thoughts of nations, and " the isles" were 
 seen "waiting for His law." Fraud and cunning, 
 which till then found no scope for successful 
 enterprise, took advantage of the all-pervading 
 hope. False Christs innumerable thronged with- 
 in all possible limits of the prophetic compu- 
 tation ; and when these could no further be 
 extended, they disappeared with the cause that 
 gave them birth. In that singular interval, un- 
 paralleled before or since, Jesus of Nazareth came 
 into the world ; the only man, " approved of 
 God by miracles, and wonders, and signs," who 
 proclaimed aloud His fearless appeal to the tes- 
 timony of " the Spirit of prophecy." And truly 
 
I.ECTUUE VI. 139 
 
 and faithfully, at His coming, was fulfilled every 
 sign of the days of the Messiah ; the sign of 
 Jacob, for then " the sceptre departed from Ju- 
 dah, and no lawgiver sprang since from between 
 his feet* ;" the sign of Haggai, for with no 
 other "glory" bnt His, can that latter house be 
 ever filledf. Israel was now, as Hosea had 
 been commissioned to foreshew, " without king 
 or prince, without sacrifice or image, without 
 ephod or teraphim:]:." The "new covenant ||," 
 of which Jeremiah spake, had appeared, that the 
 decayed and old might vanish away; and the 
 sacrifice and the oblation were made to cease, 
 according to the sad forebodings of Daniel^. It 
 followed, therefore, that He must needs be come, 
 in whom these various signs should be combined. 
 But who was there then or since to bear the 
 part of the Messiah, if not the prophet Jesus of 
 Nazareth? Or what law to succeed into the 
 place of that which was gone, if not the re- 
 ligion which He taught? How truly did it 
 answer to every prophetic token of its character, 
 as opposed to that which it appeared to super- 
 
 * Genes, xlix. 10. t Haggai ii. 7. % Hosea iii. 4. 
 
 It Jerem. xxxi. 31. ^ Daniel ix. 27. 
 
140 LECTURE VI. 
 
 sede ! If into the place of those sacrifices, by 
 which tlie remembrance of sins was made con- 
 tinually, there was to succeed a covenant, bear- 
 ing the glorious inscription, " sins and iniquities 
 remembered no more," is not this the religion 
 of the Gospel ? If for that service, " which 
 stood in meats, and drinks, and washings, and 
 carnal ordinances," was to be substituted an of- 
 fering more befitting the nature of God, " a 
 broken spirit, and a contrite heart," is not this 
 the religion of the Gospel? If in contrast to 
 that law, whose truest description, was a " wall 
 of partition" between mankind, the better cove- 
 nant was to unite the human race in one, so 
 that under it " all the families of the earth might 
 be blessed, is not this also the religion of the 
 Gospel ? Again, therefore, and by a new de- 
 duction of prophetic signs, we have reached the 
 same unvarying truth, and have found, although 
 the rulers of Israel knew it not, that this Jesus 
 is indeed the very Christ. 
 
 Thus variously, thus powerfully, thus con- 
 stantly hath the God of Heaven borne witness 
 of His Son ; and evinced His desire, that none, 
 to whom the record is vouchsafed, should perish 
 
LECTURE VI. 141 
 
 for lack of the faith which saves. And can it 
 he true that when God hath done so mucli, man 
 can want that faith, and be guiltless? Can it 
 be true, as infidels affirm, that we are in no 
 degree responsible for the religious convictions 
 of our minds ; that if we can believe, well ; if 
 not, we are helpless, and sin lieth not at the 
 door? Or did he speak more truly, who said, 
 " If I had not done among them the works 
 which none other man did, they had not had 
 sin ; but 7iow they have no cloak for their sin*." 
 It is easy to speak of conviction, as a simple 
 act of the understanding over which w^e possess 
 no control; and by such sophistry to free our- 
 selves from the fear of being punished for that 
 which is no subject of moral retribution. But 
 religious conviction, let lis remember, is inti- 
 mately dependent on the moral dispositions of 
 the heart ; and therefore the spirit itself beareth 
 witness "that with the heart man believeth 
 unto righteousness." This alone can explain 
 why faith cometh not always by the hearing of 
 the word of God ; and why, even from the life- 
 giving " wells of salvation," so many have drawn 
 
 ^ John XV. 22, 24. 
 
142 LECTURE VI. 
 
 poison to their souls. From hence alone can 
 we understand, how the devout centurion should 
 be so forward to embrace the truths propounded 
 by Christ's minister ; and the noble Ethiop so 
 readily exclaim, " I believe that Jesus Christ is 
 the Son of God ;" while the same truths are 
 dismissed by a Gallio with contempt, and by a 
 Felix with an evasive pretext, and scorned by 
 the self-sufficient wisdom of the Greek, and blas- 
 phemed by the ignorant fanaticism of the Jew. 
 Yes ; the word of God may be heard in vain be- 
 cause *' the honest and good heart" is wanting. 
 If the seed be the same, the harvest must de- 
 pend upon the nature and culture of the soil. 
 Befo7'e faith can take root, there must be In- 
 tegrity, Candour, Sincerity of mind ; there must 
 be a perception and love of goodness; there 
 must be a reverent sense of God's perfections and 
 a willingness to know and to do His will. 
 These are qualities of a moral nature, the ac- 
 quirement of which depends in some sort on 
 ourselves. They are immediately connected with 
 that liberty to good or evil, of which we feel 
 ourselves possessed, and apart from which we can 
 form no apprehension of responsibility, whether 
 
LECTURE VI. 143 
 
 for behaviour or belief. JBefof^e faith is formed 
 ill the heart, these qualities conduct to a course 
 of action strictly moral. They impel him, who 
 is not yet convinced of the truth, to give it a 
 full and unprejudiced examination. They engage 
 him to prosecute his task with a serious solici- 
 tude proportioned to its importance. They forbid 
 him to desist, until he has faithfully bestowed 
 upon it all the leisure and abilities he is master 
 of, and has called in every means within his 
 reach to assist him to a right decision. He 
 will not be weary in *' searching the Scriptures," 
 that he may rightly apprehend the objects of 
 his faith. No portion of its evidence will be 
 suffered to remain, without undergoing his earn- 
 est scrutiny. The aid of books, the judgment 
 of wise and faithful men, will be summoned to 
 the all-engrossing work. And, above all, he 
 will have recourse to the fountain of light, the 
 God in whom he does believe, crying out in 
 the passionate sincerity of an honest heart, 
 "Lord, help thou mine unbelief." 
 
 But if, on the contrary, the qualities of his 
 heart be the reverse of those which are here 
 supposed, if for Candour and Integrity and the 
 
144 LECTUIIE VI. 
 
 love of God, tliere be found Pride or Prejudice, 
 or Iiulolence, or Lust ; if he be a libertine in 
 thought or action ; if he be a seeker of noto- 
 riety, who would rather be pointed at, as a free- 
 thinker, among his fellows, than pass in obscurity 
 on his path through life ; if these, or any like 
 these, be the elements of his moral character, 
 why then he will conduct himself towards " the 
 testimony of Jesus," as such a character per- 
 suades. He will remain an unbeliever be the 
 evidences of religion what they may ; and unless 
 Mercy should step out of her wonted course for 
 the conversion of his heart, his eyes can never 
 be opened until the day of " the revelation of 
 the righteous judgment of God." 
 
 Oh ! fear then to repose upon the perilous 
 decision that you can be innocent in unbelief. 
 Fear to trust that you may go unconvinced by 
 "the testimony of Jesus," and yet "flee from 
 the wrath to come." At least remember how, 
 in all reason and godly wisdom this should be 
 your last, your most reluctant conclusion. Re- 
 flect yet once, how very sure you ought to be, 
 that every help to faith has been sought and 
 tried ; that you have read, thought, prayed, con- 
 
LECTURE VI. 145 
 
 versed with saints on earth, and communed with 
 God in Heaven ; and above all, that you have 
 looked again and again into the most secret re- 
 cesses of your heart, and have found there no 
 trace of moral canker, eating away the root and 
 life of faith. It seems as if, in such a case, 
 supposing it possible, a righteous God must par- 
 don ; but it may be doubted, whether before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ one such infidel will be 
 found. 
 
 K 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 JOHN V. 36. 
 
 The works which the Father hath given me to finish, 
 the same works that I do, hear witness of me, 
 that the Father hath sent me. 
 
 If in place of those miracles of His al- 
 mighty power, to which our Lord here appeals, 
 we substitute the scarcely less miraculous changes 
 which have ensued in the world through His 
 coming, we seem to adduce an argument as 
 strong to prove Him to be the promised Christ, 
 as that which this text, in its original appli- 
 cation, supplies for His being "a teacher sent 
 from God." For those changes, in all their 
 lengthened and various consequences, may most 
 properly be styled His " works ; " and as the 
 works of one, who claimed to be the Prophet 
 "that should come," they correspond most ex- 
 actly with those, which, from the beginning, 
 "the Father had given Him to finish." Pro- 
 
LECTUllE VII. 147 
 
 pliecy and History have already been compared 
 by us, in the two grandest of human revolutions, 
 and have been found to assimilate and accord 
 with each other, like the corresponding edges 
 of an indenture. Were the argument left here, 
 it would seem difficult to withstand the force 
 of its testimony to Jesus ; still more difficult 
 to believe that it will not abundantly suffice to 
 leave infidelity without excuse. It is capable 
 however of being strongly corroborated by much 
 that has since befallen in the world. The stream 
 of prophetic history rolls on its course through 
 long ages yet to come, looking stedfastly to the 
 end, both " of that which is abolished," and 
 of that which has been established in its room; 
 embracing facts and circumstances relating to 
 each, most wonderful and inconceivable of their 
 kind, many of which the world has already seen 
 fulfilled, and more are yet awaiting their ful- 
 filment. And although we may not be able to 
 speak with certainty, or perhaps without pre- 
 sumption, of those " times and seasons" of pro- 
 phecy unfulfill.ed, " which the Father hath put 
 in His own power*," yet we may judge whether 
 
 * Acts i. 7. 
 K 2 
 
148 LECTURE VII. 
 
 the aspect of past and passing events bears a 
 probable course and tendency towards its com- 
 pletion. And if from thence we can discover, 
 that all things are ordered in a way entirely 
 favourable for the predicted issues, this cannot 
 but beget in us a very strong conviction, that 
 the event will justify their truth ; that, although 
 "the vision must be for its appointed time," 
 yet "at the end it shall speak, and not lie;" 
 though it tarry, we may wait for it in full as- 
 surance of faith, because "it will surely come, 
 it will not tarry*." 
 
 Let us turn then, in the first instance, to 
 the predicted fortunes of the chosen race in the 
 days of the Messiah, and try what further evi- 
 dence we can thence collect in confirmation of 
 "the testimony of Jesus." Foremost in every page 
 stands the threatened judgment of their entire 
 and unexampled dispersion. Among all the vi- 
 cissitudes of calamity and prosperity, to which 
 for many ages they were subjected, this was 
 the last and universal woe, from which none of 
 their tribes was to escape. The kingdom was 
 rent in twain, and ten of her twelve great 
 
 * Habakkuk ii. 3. 
 
LECTURE VII. 149 
 
 families withdrew from the bosom of the daugh- 
 ter of Sion. But they coukl not decline their 
 prophetic destiny, as easily as they renounced 
 their fealty. They differed only in this, that the 
 judgment overtook them some ages earlier than 
 the residue of their brethren. It was long ere 
 Judah's hour arrived, that she also must be re- 
 moved, but it came at length, and the doom 
 of prophecy was complete, when her house was 
 "left unto her desolate." A destiny so singular 
 had never yet befallen either that or any other 
 people. Perhaps no nation on earth had ex- 
 perienced so bitterly as they the miseries of 
 slavery in the lands of their enemies; but then 
 it was always a captive riation, under the rod 
 of a single oppressor. It was so in the house 
 of their Egyptian bondage, when, as a nation, 
 they were enslaved, and experienced a national 
 deliverance. It was so likewise when they sat 
 "by the waters of Babylon," and swelled their 
 current with unavailing tears. The great body 
 of the people was there, saving only the few, 
 whom compassion or indifference permitted to 
 linger among the scenes of their then departed 
 greatness. But widely different to these is the 
 
150 LECTURE VII. 
 
 predicted character of their last and direst deso- 
 lation; for this was to be nothing less than an 
 entire disruption of the body politic into its 
 individual elements, like the scattered fragments 
 of a wreck upon the waters. The strength of 
 the literal descriptions of this awful woe can 
 scarcely be exceeded. Scattered they were to 
 be "among all people, from the one end of the 
 earth even unto the other*;" to be "removed 
 into all the kingdoms of the earth f ; " and to 
 be "wanderers among the nations:]:." Yet, if 
 possible, these descriptions are exceeded by the 
 livelier images of the prophetic pencil ; when 
 the doomed race is pictured forth, as being 
 *^ sifted among the nations, like as corn is sifted 
 in a sieve^;" and the whole remnant of them, 
 grain by grain, as it were, " scattered into all- 
 the winds 1 1." 
 
 These very conditions, however, of their cap- 
 tivity might naturally lead us to suppose that 
 although alike sharers in the common misery 
 of being exiles from their land, yet the burden 
 of individual suffering would vary with the 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 64. j- Jerem. xv. 4. % Hosea ix. 17, 
 
 ^; Amos ix. 9. II Ezek. v. 10. 
 
LECTURE VII. 151 
 
 varying circumstances of their exile ; that if 
 haply the wanderer's lot was cast in a land of 
 civilization and humanity, his exile would at 
 least be the sum of what he had to bear ; he 
 would at least enjoy his portion in the privi- 
 leges of its inhabitants, and the charities of its 
 social state, and find his life and substance 
 secure under the protecting shadow of mild and 
 equal laws. But no ; the Spirit of Prophecy 
 discloses a scene almost inconceivably the re- 
 verse. It mattered not to what spot of earth 
 he might be driven. In enlightened or bar- 
 barian climes his prospect was the same. To 
 the high and the low, the rich and the poor, 
 the wise and the ignorant, yea even to the 
 gentle and compassionate of heart, who had a 
 tear for every other sufferer, and every other 
 woe, the outcast of Israel was to be a "by-word, 
 and a taunt, and a curse and a hissing, and 
 a reproach*." No spot on earth could proffer 
 rest to his weary foot, or peace to his trembling 
 heart, or safety to his persecuted life. The 
 transcript of his crushed and despairing spirit 
 could alone add a deeper shade to the melancholy 
 
 ^ Deut. xxviii. 37. Jeiem. xxiv. 1): xxix. 18, 
 
152 LECTURE VII. 
 
 picture ; in the morning this his prayer, " Would 
 God it were even ; " and at even, " Would God 
 it were morning." But, wonderful to relate, 
 though " all these curses were to come upon 
 them, and pursue them, and overtake them," 
 yet for all that, God said, "when they he in 
 the land of their enemies, I will not cast them 
 away, neither will I ahhor them, to destroy 
 them utterly*." And though "their plagues 
 were to be wonderful, and the plagues of their 
 seed, even great plagues, and of long conti- 
 nuance," yet He that scattered, would gather 
 and keep them, so that "not the least grain of 
 the sifted corn should fall and perish upon the 
 earth." For " these he the days of vengeance," 
 and many though they he, days of glory are 
 yet behind. Their night of grief is recompensed 
 by a coming morn " of everlasting joy upon their 
 heads," when the spirit of heaviness shall put on 
 the garments of praise, "and sorrow and mourn- 
 ing flee away." Bright prospects, in the land 
 which God sware unto their fathers, rise up 
 among the visions of future time, when God 
 ^'will bring again the captivity of his people^" 
 
 * Levit. xxvi. 44. 
 
LECTURE VII. 15S 
 
 and "plant them upon their land, and they shall 
 no more be pulled up out of their land which 
 He hath given them*." All shall then be as- 
 sembled, the children both of the former and 
 the latter dispersion, " the outcasts of Israel, 
 and the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners 
 of the earth f." "And they shall be one nation 
 in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and 
 one king shall be king to them all ; and they 
 shall dwell therein, even they, and their chil- 
 dren, and their children's children, for ever J." 
 The very spectacle of their return is presented 
 in colours that give to it almost the force of 
 a present reality. A voice hath whispered to 
 the daughter of Sion, that "her warfare is ac- 
 complished, and her iniquity is pardoned §." And 
 her children are heard exhorting every one his 
 neighbour, and every one his brother, saying, 
 " Come, and let us return unto the Lord ; for 
 He hath torn, and He will heal us ; He hath 
 smitten, and He will bind us up||." And loud 
 and wide is the note of preparation for the 
 assembling of that mighty host, when "the 
 
 * Amos ix. 11, 15. -'r Isaiah xi. 12. % Ezek. xxxvii. 22, 25, 
 
 § Isaiah XL, 2, || Hosea vi. 1. 
 
154 LECTURE VII. 
 
 ships of Tarshisli wait to bring their sons from 
 far, their silver and their gold with them ; " 
 and "the sons of strangers" are employed in 
 "building up their walls*," and in preparing the 
 way of the people, so that the land shall be 
 too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, "and 
 place shall not be found for themf." For then 
 "Zion shall no more be termed. Forsaken, nei- 
 ther her land any more be termed. Desolate ; 
 but her name shall be, The redeemed of the 
 Lord ; and she shall be called, Sought out ; 
 A city not forsaken:]:." 
 
 Such are the visions of " the latter days," 
 as they regard the chosen people of God ; visions 
 surely too remarkable not to be understood, if 
 ever they were realized beneath the sun. Look 
 round then upon the people to whom they re- 
 fer, and judge between prophecy and fact. Their 
 past history is not unknown ; their present con- 
 dition is before our eyes. Extinct in one sense, 
 they yet live to be the wonder, and the aenigma 
 of the world. Blotted out as a nation, they 
 survive as a people. AVithout a country of 
 their own, they share with the inhabitants of 
 
 * Isai. Lx. 9, 10. t Zerh. x. 10. % l&ai. Lxii. 4, 12. 
 
LECTUKE VII. 155 
 
 almost every country of the globe. Born in 
 the several lands of their dispersion, they are 
 natives, and yet no natives. They belong not 
 to the race. They blend not with the children 
 of the soil. Crumbled, as it were, into atoms, 
 and in that condition sprinMed among all the 
 nations of the earth, they remain as distinct 
 from all the world, as when their fathers, few 
 in number, assembled in the land of Goshen. 
 The more attentively we contemplate this sin- 
 gular state of theirs, the more marvellous it 
 must appear in our eyes. What, to ordinary 
 experience, could seem more improbable, than 
 the preservation of a single race under such 
 circumstances? How is it that the massacres 
 and persecutions of centuries have thinned their 
 ranks in vain ; and that the hapless race, whom 
 all the world conspired to hunt down, has not 
 long since been exterminated? How is it that 
 they themselves, the victims of universal hate, 
 have not striven to cast off the terrible dis- 
 tinction, and to lose themselves among the 
 nations, even as the drops of rain are lost in 
 the ocean with which they mingle? Yet under 
 circumstances like these, they not only have 
 
156 LECTURE VII. 
 
 existed, but increased ; not only have increased, 
 but prospered. The world's wealth is theirs; 
 and how oft have they been compelled to place 
 the weapon in the hand of their oppressors? 
 The wheels of the mightiest governments of 
 modern days have been moved by their assist- 
 ance. Wars are proclaimed, and treaties gua- 
 ranteed, not without their potent intervention. 
 And although still an humbled and unobtrusive 
 race, none are ignorant of their real sway, nor 
 of the almost omnipotent controul which they 
 can exert over the destinies of states and em- 
 pires. 
 
 Again, contrast their wonderful preservation^ 
 in all ages, with the fate of their numerous and 
 powerful oppressors ; who, following the ordinary 
 mutations of human things, have risen and dis- 
 appeared before them. Of all the people upon 
 earth, they alone date their existence from the 
 earliest records of the human race. They alone 
 have been coeval with the mighty empires of 
 old, which filled the world with their greatness, 
 and their fame. By all they were hated, and 
 by all oppressed ; and " where is now the fury 
 of the oppressor?" The Egyptian, the Assyrian, 
 
LECTURE VII. 157 
 
 the Babylonian, the Roman ; where has either 
 a representative upon earth ? But for the hap- 
 less, homeless son of Abraham, where is the 
 land that knows him not? Nor is it impro- 
 bable, that this singular contrast, between their 
 stability and the ephemeral sway of their op- 
 pressors, may ere long again be verified. It is 
 now nearly half a century since the sagacity of 
 enquirers into the probable fulfilment of pro- 
 phetic events, began to note the symptoms of 
 decay in that barbarian power by which, in 
 these later ages, the sanctuary has been trodden 
 down. And what has been its subsequent his- 
 tory, but a gradual decline to the feeblest of 
 human despotisms? Have we not ourselves be- 
 held it almost within the grasp that could have 
 crushed it out of being, and rescued, if res- 
 cued indeed it is, by far other strength, than 
 its own ? Yes, the crescent wanes, and its fading 
 lustre seems hastening to become extinct. But 
 the star of Judah's destiny, like that round 
 which all others rise and set, shines fixed as 
 " the sure word of Prophecy." 
 
 The external aspect and condition however 
 of the chosen race forms but half of the pro- 
 
158 LECTURE VTI. 
 
 phetic picture. A portion of greater interest, 
 their spiritual and moral state, remains yet to 
 be considered. For this also is among the 
 things concerning them, which are noted in 
 the Scriptures of truth, and combines with the 
 other to the same conclusion, that they are 
 fulfilling their prophetic destiny. Persecution 
 and exile are a bitter lot ; but a heavier 
 burden than this was laid upon them. " Go, 
 and tell this people. Hear ye indeed, but un- 
 derstand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive 
 not. Make the heart of this people fat, and 
 make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes*;" 
 — "for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, 
 and the understanding of their prudent men 
 shall be hidf." He who desires a commentary 
 on this awful doom need not be far to seek. 
 He will find it abundantly in the written dis- 
 courses and traditions of those, who have been 
 accounted "their wise and prudent men;" and 
 in the religious system of modern Judaism, 
 mainly built upon that foundation. Such a 
 tissue of profaneness, puerility, and ignorance 
 upon all the great points of religion and duty, 
 
 * Isaiah vi. 9, 10. t Isaiah xxix. 14. 
 
LECTURE VII. 159 
 
 could liardly be conceived to have been framed 
 by men in possession of " the oracles of God." 
 Blasphemies the most revolting against the 
 majesty of the Most High ; speculations of the 
 wildest order upon the great subjects connected 
 with the future world, the nature of spirits and 
 of the human soul, and the several states of 
 reward and punishment ; modes of expiation and 
 atonement for sins, upon the virtue of which 
 it passes belief that a rational man could build 
 a serious reliance ; the estimate of moral cha- 
 racter, founded upon a numerical computation 
 and comparison of virtues and vices ; and many 
 of these monstrous fancies based upon applica- 
 tions of Scripture which would provoke a smile 
 at their absurdity, if every feeling of levity were 
 not merged in awe at the> profundity of that 
 spiritual darkness. These, and many more such, 
 are the features which will meet his eye, who 
 seeks to know of their religious and moral state; 
 and he will be driven to the words of prophecy, 
 that he may give adequate expression to his 
 feelings at the discovery. For verily, he will 
 say, "the Lord hath poured out upon them 
 the spirit of deep sleep; — and the vision of all 
 
160 LECTURE VII. 
 
 is become mito them, as the words of a book, 
 that is sealed*." They do indeed "grope at 
 noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness f ." 
 
 But as the state of their dispersion meets 
 the promised restoration to the land of their 
 forefathers, so likewise does this spiritual bondage 
 lend all possible confirmation to the glorious 
 predictions of a far nobler redemption. We are 
 assured from the revelations of elder time, that 
 after " abiding many days without king or 
 prince, without sacrifice or image, without ephod 
 or teraphim," they shall "return, and seek the 
 Lord their God and David their King, and 
 shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the 
 latter days." And we are told besides of a 
 day of mourning, the like of which was never 
 seen in Israel ; a day which shall present the 
 awful spectacle of a nation's grief, equalling in 
 every individual bosom the grief of " one that 
 mourneth for his only son." And "every family 
 shall mourn apart in bitterness, as though each 
 were in bitterness for its first-born ; and the 
 greatness of that grief shall be, (it is so de- 
 clared) for looking upon Him, whom they have 
 
 * Isai. xxix 1 0, 1 1 . t Deut. xxviii. 29. 
 
I>ECTTJUE VTT. l6l 
 
 pierced *." But its fruit shall be blessed ; for 
 it is the melting of hearts of stone from the 
 induration of ages of unbelief; and out of it 
 shall grow a new and holy spirit, even "the 
 spirit of grace, and of supplications." And 
 " they shall say no more, The ark of the cove- 
 nant of the Lord :" neither shall it come to 
 mind : neither shall they remember it ; neither 
 shall they visit it ; neither shall that be done 
 any moref." In the light of these predictions, 
 (it is til us that the Spirit of prophecy under 
 the New Covenant hath discoursed upon this 
 " mystery,") we ought not to be ignorant, " that 
 blindness in part is happened to Israel, until 
 the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." The 
 like limitation had already been applied by our 
 Lord to the other portion of their prophetic 
 doom. "Jerusalem," He said, "should be trodden 
 down of the Gentiles," but only " until the 
 times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Then shall 
 that be brought to pass which God spake by 
 Moses ; that He would " provoke His people 
 to jealousy by them that are no people, and 
 by a foolish nation He would anger them." 
 
 * Zech. xii. 10. tJerem.iii. 16, 
 
 I. 
 
162 LECTURE VII. 
 
 The world has ah-eady seen, how "through 
 their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles;" 
 it is yet to see how, through this dispensation 
 in return, the chosen seed shall be " provoked 
 to jealousy." And so it shall be known, that 
 as we "in times past have not believed God, yet 
 have now obtained mercy through their un- 
 belief; even so have these also now not be- 
 lieved, that through our mercy they also may 
 obtain mercy*." Here at least is a scheme of 
 prophecy consistent with itself, and harmonising 
 perfectly with the course of past events. It 
 cannot be gainsaid that the people of God are 
 actually existing in a state which prepares them 
 for all their prophetic prospects. They are 
 kept (might we not say, miraculously kept?) 
 in a state of readiness for the manifestation of 
 God's purposes concerning them ; those purposes 
 being evidently a triumphant return to that 
 land, which is theirs by an inalienable right ; 
 and together with this, the final and signal 
 renunciation of the religion of their forefathers. 
 Here then, as it regards them, we may 
 bring our comparison between History and Pro- 
 
 * Rom. X. 19, to the end; and chap. xi. 
 
LECTURE VII. 168 
 
 phecy to a close. If the conclusions, which we 
 have derived from thence be true, then are ours 
 the days of the Messiah's kingdom ; days which 
 began to be numbered from the life and min- 
 istry, the deeds and sufferings of Jesus, and 
 which will expire not until He " comes again 
 in His glorious majesty to judge both the 
 quick and dead." "But who may abide the 
 day of His coming ? And who shall stand 
 when He appeareth?" Unbelief in all its various 
 aspects must then endure His scrutiny. What- 
 ever were its cause, and nature and degree, 
 whether it sprang from a weak or a wicked 
 heart, from an erring or a perverted under- 
 standing, every circumstance that comes in ag- 
 gravation of its guilt, every plea that can ex- 
 tenuate its sinfulness, will then be weighed in 
 the balances of truth. And if haply there be 
 one, whose want of faith was more the fruit of 
 ignorance than of sin, he will know, for his 
 consolation at that awful hour, that he has 
 not a judge "who cannot be touched with the 
 feeling of his infirmity." But who shall plead 
 for him that hath striven to diffuse the poison 
 of infidelity in hearts which else had never felt 
 
 l2 
 
164 LECTURE VII. 
 
 its deadly workings? that took delight in 
 spreading the net of sophistry to catch the 
 feet of the inexperienced and unwary ? or in 
 launching the shaft of ridicule against the truth 
 of God, until the reverence for sacred things 
 was gone ? Oh ! what shall be his portion in 
 that judgment, which he has so braved, and 
 what shall he answer when he is reproved? 
 If it were possible that he could be guiltless 
 in the unbelief of his own heart, guiltless he 
 cannot be of that which he has caused. Deeply 
 answerable must he be for the souls whose ruin 
 his fiendish endeavours have wrought. He dares 
 not plead his zeal for sacred truth, when he 
 stands before the Searcher of hearts. Such 
 hypocrisy could scarce deceive the feeble worms, 
 whose understanding is on a level with his own. 
 The honest infidel, if such there be, must feel 
 his unbelief as a calamity ; and no desire of 
 serving the cause of truth would lead him to 
 inflict that, which he himself feels as a calamity, 
 upon others. No ; he who earnestly strives 
 against his own infidelity, may be a godly and 
 an innocent man ; but he who labours in the 
 work of making others infidels, must he ruled 
 
LECTURE VII. 165 
 
 by the great enemy of man. The Scripture 
 hath said, " There is a sin unto death ; " and 
 no prayer need be made for that. It cannot, 
 shall not be forgiven, "neither in this world, 
 neither in that which is to come." That sin 
 may exist in more forms than one; more, per- 
 haps, than we are able to discern. But I 
 should fear, it must be his who hath writ and 
 wrought against the faith of the Son of God ; 
 and laboured to drag the souls, which He died 
 to save, into the gulf of everlasting perdition. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 REVELATION XIX. 10. 
 The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. 
 
 The portion of this testimony, which we 
 last considered, is that which refers to the condi- 
 tion of the ancient people of God in " the latter 
 days." By comparing the prophetic description 
 with the past and actnal circumstances of that 
 extraordinary race, we find abundant reason to 
 be convinced that these are " the latter days," 
 and that Jesus of Nazareth is " the Christ 
 of God." The same Spirit of prophecy which 
 drew this portion of the pictvire with such 
 astonishing exactness of truth, completed its 
 testimony by equally clear and copious views 
 of the character and progress of the Messiah's 
 kingdom. We have formerly found occasion to 
 pursue this topic to some extent, when we came 
 
LECTURE VIII. 167 
 
 to notice the first planting and promulgation of 
 the religion which Jesus taught*. It was neces- 
 sary, at that point of the argument, to shew its 
 perfect accordance with the New Covenant of 
 the prophetic Messiah ; to prove that the genius 
 and character of both were the same ; that the 
 Gospel of Jesus had wrought the predicted 
 changes both in the religious and political 
 aspect of the world ; and finally, that every 
 passing year is identifying the two more per- 
 fectly. In this concluding Lecture, therefore, we 
 have to carry on the comparison to those leading- 
 features in the prophecies concerning the kingdom 
 of Christ, which have as yet passed without our 
 notice. These refer chiefly to two points : its 
 perpetual duration ; and its universal extent 
 throughout the world. Unlike those earthly 
 powers, in the midst of which, as Daniel saith, 
 the God of Heaven should "set it upf," — it was 
 to survive, after they had experienced the common 
 fate of the kingdoms of this world. It was to 
 bear a paramount sway, so that in comparison 
 it might be said, that "the kingdom was 
 not left to other people ; " but it was " to 
 
 * Lecture VI. t Daniel ii. 44. 
 
168 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 break in pieces and consume all these king- 
 doms, and itself to stand for ever." This was 
 but the echo of the voice of prophecy in 
 every former age. " The heavens might vanish 
 away like smoke, and the earth wax old like a 
 garment, and they that dwell therein might die 
 in like manner ; but that salvation was to be 
 for ever, and that righteousness should not be 
 abolished*." While of the great Prophet Him- 
 self it was proclaimed, that " of the increase of 
 His government and peace there should be no 
 endf ;" that "His seed also should be made to 
 endure for ever, and His throne as the days of 
 heaven:]:." Thus every disciple of Moses had 
 "heard out of the law, that Christ abideth for 
 ever^;" and though blinded in all else that re- 
 lates to the kingdom of his Messiah, God gave 
 him a right understanding in this, that it was to 
 be a dominion unimpaired by time, and exempt 
 from the vicissitudes of human things. 
 
 We may observe that this very character of 
 perpetuity was emphatically claimed for the 
 Gospel of Jesus at the period of its earliest 
 
 * Isaiah Li. 6. t Isaiah ix. 7. 
 
 X Psalm Lxxxix. 29. ^ John xii. 34. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 169 
 
 announcement. The herald from above, who 
 bore the first tidings of " that holy thing, which 
 should be born," predicted at the same time 
 His imperishable rule in the very language of 
 the prophets of old : " He shall reign over the 
 house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom 
 there shall be no end*." This persuasion grew 
 with the growth of the Gospel, and strength- 
 ened with its strength ; so that every convert 
 knew, and believed in his heart, that he had 
 *' received a kingdom which cannot be movedf." 
 And finally, ere the vision and the prophecy 
 were sealed, a voice from Heaven proclaimed 
 anew the glorious truth *' that the kingdoms of 
 this world shall become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign 
 for ever and ever:]:." 
 
 Equally forcible are those prophecies, which 
 refer to the other point, which we have men- 
 tioned, the miivei'sality of this new dominion. 
 In striking contrast to the usual progression of 
 prophetic light, from dark to clear, from dimness 
 unto day, this leading truth was almost from 
 the first discovered in the plainest terms. For 
 
 * Luke i. 33. •♦• Heb. xii. 28. % Rev. xi. 15. 
 
170 LECTURE Vlll. 
 
 ill Him, who was to come, it was promised that 
 all nations, all the families of the earth, should 
 be blessed. And that no exception might be 
 taken from the temporary preference, which was 
 extended to the chosen seed, God is heard ad- 
 dressing the "Anointed;" "It is a light thing 
 that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up 
 the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved 
 of Israel : I will also give thee for a light to 
 the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation 
 unto the end of the earth*." 
 
 Throughout the writings of almost every 
 successive prophet may be traced the same con- 
 spicuous truth. We find it represented under a 
 variety of forms and almost endless modes of 
 expression. At one time it is the Lord " de- 
 stroying the face of the covering cast over all 
 people ; and the vail that is spread over all 
 nationsf ." At another it is He Himself crying, 
 "Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that 
 was not called by His name:]:." Again, it is 
 an appeal to her that was barren to " break 
 forth into singing and cry aloud ;'' because 
 " more are the children of the desolate than 
 
 * Isaiah xlIx. (>. •♦• Ibitl. xxv. 7. % I^ul. lx^/. ]. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 171 
 
 the children of the married wife*." Or it is 
 "the wilderness and the solitary place made 
 glad, and the desert rejoicing and blossoming 
 as the rosef." The sum of all being, without 
 a metaphor, that " all the ends of the world 
 shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and 
 all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
 before Him if." 
 
 Such is the testimony of prophecy respecting 
 the duration and extent of the kingdom of the 
 Messiah. The question then recurs. How has the 
 Gospel of Jesus met the purport of these sub- 
 lime predictions? That it exists, and widely, at 
 the present hour, is a sufficient vindication of one 
 part of the prophetic testimony. But we con- 
 fess that the safer mode of trying its stability, 
 is not merely by counting the years during 
 which it has already existed ; although every 
 hour that it survives, it continues to realise the 
 voice of prophecy on this head. But we per- 
 ceive surer tokens of its character in those evi- 
 dences of permanence^ which are derivable from 
 the circumstances under which it has existed. 
 Glance over its history during the first ages of 
 
 * Isai. Liv. 1. f- lb. XXXV. 1. % Psalm xxii. 27. 
 
172 LECTURE Vlll. 
 
 its perilous and persecuted state ; when " the 
 kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
 took counsel together, against the Lord, and 
 against His anointed*;" when the name of Chris- 
 tian was nothing less than a death -w^arrant ; and 
 when the worship of Jesus was driven into the 
 depths of caverns, and the darkness of the night. 
 Or again, consider the far more formidable perils 
 with which it had to struggle, after having as- 
 cended the throne of temporal dominion, and 
 when " kings were become its nursing fathers, and 
 their queens its nursing mothers;" the distrac- 
 tions which arose within the bosom of its **own 
 household of faith ;" the errors and heresies 
 which threatened on all sides to overwhelm that 
 faith with ruin ; the bitter animosities which 
 every where sprang up in consequence of these 
 dissensions, so that many times the natural fate 
 of a kingdom divided against itself seemed, to 
 all human calculation, inevitable. Consider it 
 moreover in its later fortunes, when the tide of 
 barbarism rushed downward from the vast regions 
 of the North, burying beneath its mighty flood 
 all else that was excellent and precious in the 
 
 * Psalm ii. 2. 
 
LECTURE Vlir. 17f 
 
 world ; banishing learning and arts, civilization 
 and refinement, from every seat which they had 
 lately occupied ; so that the only treasure which 
 escaped, and which eventually became the re- 
 storer of all the rest, was this inextinguishable 
 principle of faith in a crucified Redeemer, with 
 its concomitant blessings of peace and love on 
 earth, and its treasure of holy hopes above. 
 
 Nor ought we to overlook another most strik- 
 ing evidence, which it exhibited, at least in the 
 earliest stages of its being, of its power " to with- 
 stand in the evil day." For in proportion to the 
 fury and violence of the storms which swept 
 over it, is the acknowledged feebleness of those 
 outwatxl means and instruments by which its 
 existence was supported and preserved. Never 
 was a more apparently unequal combat presented 
 to the admiration of mankind. All the oppo- 
 site elements of strength and weakness were ar- 
 rayed against each other. Rank and wealth 
 against poverty and obscurity of station ; the 
 strong arm of public law against the defenceless 
 condition of individual weakness ; learning was 
 opposed by ignorance ; swords and edicts by 
 prayers and preaching ; prisons and massacres bv 
 
174 T.ECTURE VIII. 
 
 patience and by tears. In the triumph which 
 was gained by the weaker side, the believer 
 gladly owns the might and agency of a stronger 
 arm. He is sure that none but God could thus 
 have " chosen the foolish things of the world 
 to confound the wise ; and the weak things of 
 the world to confound the things which are 
 mighty ; and base things of the world, and things 
 which are despised, and things which are not, 
 to bring to nought things that are*." He 
 discerns the sole cause of the victory in those 
 powers of the Divine Spirit, which these feeblest 
 of instruments were permitted to wield ; and un- 
 derstands how the strength of an Almighty arm 
 was made perfect in combination with their weak- 
 ness. While the infidel, on the contrary, would 
 find sufficient reasons for this success in the ope- 
 ration of ordinary human causes, he bears his 
 testimony to the point which we are endeavour- 
 ing to illustrate. He owns, while he would ac- 
 count for, that extraordinary power, which the 
 Gospel has evinced, of withstanding the most 
 destructive assaults upon its existence, and 
 which goes far to vindicate its character for all 
 
 =^ 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 175 
 
 time to come, as a kingdom that shall not be 
 destroyed. 
 
 Nor are the fluctuations, which it has ex- 
 perienced in its progress hitherto, any obstacle 
 to the force of these conclusions. It is no ar- 
 gument against its stability, that of all the 
 countries which were favoured with its early light, 
 scarce a spot can be found where it survives. 
 Many are sunk again in pristine darkness; more 
 are overspread with the abominations of a deadly 
 imposture ; the candlestick has been removed from 
 place to place, leaving some in dimness only, and 
 some in night. But yet, if its light has been 
 extinguished in one quarter, it has been kindled 
 afresh in others ; and to this day there have never 
 been wanting spots where it has shone with 
 something like its pure and primitive lustre. 
 And even if its sacred sphere should yet be nar- 
 rowed, more than the world has ever seen, still, 
 while one such spot remains, its prophetic cha- 
 racter of permanence can never be defeated. For 
 that single spot may be the centre from which 
 its light shall overspread the world again, and 
 vindicate to the faith of the Prophet of Naza- 
 reth, its claim to an imperishable duration. 
 
176 LECTURE VTTT. 
 
 Let US next consider the extent in which that 
 faith has hitherto prevailed among the nations 
 of the earth. In this case the comparison be- 
 tween prophecy and fact may seem, at first sight, 
 not so favourable. The unbounded anticipations 
 of the Messiah's universal reign have received 
 hitherto no adequate accomplishment. The Go- 
 spel kingdom, extended perhaps at this moment 
 more widely than at any former period, can even 
 now claim for its professed subjects not much 
 beyond a fourth proportion of the human race. 
 But if any should from hence conclude that the 
 testimony of prophecy is here against the reli- 
 gion of Jesus, he would " err, not knowing the 
 Scriptures." He would err in making an un- 
 just comparison between the Gospel in an initial 
 stage of its progress, and those predictions which 
 describe the Messiah's kingdom in the height of 
 its final exaltation. The true comparison should 
 be between these magnificent visions of prophecy, 
 and the capahiUty and tendency of the Gospel 
 to fulfil them. And in this view we can affirm 
 that the comparison holds in all the extent 
 which it was reasonable to expect. The spread 
 of the Gospel may seem limited, when estimated 
 
LECTURE VIII. 17? 
 
 by the noble standard of its final consumma- 
 tion ; but in connexion with the circumstances, 
 under which it has progressed, and the obstacles 
 which have ever been springing up in its path, 
 the advances which it has made in leavening 
 the great human mass, are little less than mi- 
 raculous. Nor is there any reason for believing 
 that its extent is less considerable in proportion 
 to the lapse of time. Eighteen centuries, abso- 
 lutely considered, may seem a lengthened period 
 for the consummation of a single work ; but in 
 comparison with the whole term of its allotted 
 duration, this may be but an inconsiderable por- 
 tion. More years than the religion of Jesus has 
 yet beheld, may be wanting to its final develop- 
 ment ; in the course of which its increase may 
 be such as abundantly to justify the splendid 
 anticipations which the Spirit of prophecy reveals. 
 It cannot be denied that the present aspect of 
 the Gospel tends powerfully to awaken this im- 
 pression. The means of its diffusion are great 
 at this moment beyond all former precedent. 
 The relations of commerce have already united 
 the whole civilized portion of the globe in bonds 
 of mutual intercourse and good-will. And there 
 
 M 
 
178 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 are but few of its barbarian tracts which the 
 spirit of enterprise from thence arising has not 
 at one period or another explored. The zeal 
 for imparting the faith of the Gospel seems more 
 alive than ever, in order to keep pace with 
 these openings for its diffusion. The cost and 
 labour which have been expended in translations 
 of the holy Scriptures seem almost to revive the 
 gifts of the first Pentecost. One hundred and 
 fifty written and spoken languages repeat "the 
 glad tidings of salvation." Individual devoted- 
 ness, and the combined energies of Christian 
 societies, promise success as far as human means 
 can go. Thus while the springs of human in- 
 dustry, in every quarter of the globe, are at work 
 in multiplying wealth, it may plead somewhat in 
 extenuation of the universal thirst for gain, that 
 the sail which wafts the perishable mammon to 
 and from the uttermost corners of the earth, bears 
 along with it the unfading riches of that word of 
 life which God hath given to mankind in His Son. 
 With these circumstances in view, slight indeed 
 appears the objection, that all which was pre- 
 dicted is not yet fulfilled ; " that the leaven has 
 not yet leavened the whole of the three mea- 
 
LECTURE VIII. 179 
 
 sures of meal ; that the mustard-tree, though 
 advancing in strength and stature, cannot yet 
 bear the birds of heaven to rest upon it*." 
 
 But there is, if I mistake not, a further 
 vision of prophecy, respecting the extension of 
 the kingdom of Christ, which may serve to 
 throw some additional light upon the point which 
 we are now considering. At least it is in sin- 
 gular accordance with that limited diffusion of 
 Gospel truth which the world has hitherto be- 
 held. I allude to a great and simultaneous con- 
 version of a large portion of the Gentile world, 
 as the first-fruits of the previous conversion and 
 restoration of the ancient people of God. For 
 else what meaneth the Spirit of prophecy thus 
 unfolding the mysteries of a future age by him 
 who was consecrated the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles ? "I say then, Have they," that is, Israel, 
 " stumbled that they should fall ? God forbid : 
 but rather through their fall salvation is come 
 unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jea- 
 lousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches 
 of the world, and the diminishing of them the 
 
 * This is cited from " Christianity always Progressive," by 
 
 Hugh J. Rose. p. 69. 
 
 m2 
 
180 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 riches of the Gentiles ; how much more their Jiil- 
 7iess?... For if the casting away of them be the 
 reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving 
 of them be, but life from the dead*?" Two great 
 religious dispensations are thus brought under 
 view ; the one past, the other yet to come. 
 The former was made the instrument of the 
 most extensive diffusion of spiritual light which 
 the world had hitherto experienced. From the 
 latter the inspired Apostle predicts an analogous, 
 but far more illustrious result. The meaning of 
 his prediction appears perfectly clear and free 
 from ambiguity. He speaks of the fall, or di- 
 minishing of the chosen seed, and of " the riches 
 of the Gentiles," which that fall and diminishing 
 proved to be. And when he adverts to their 
 fulness, that is, '' the receiving of them" again, 
 and intimates how this shall be, in like manner, 
 the riches of the world, but in a thousandfold 
 more eminent degree, the analogy both of thought 
 and expression sufficiently explains the nature of 
 that spiritual blessing which he has in view. 
 He predicts, in fact, such an incoming of the 
 Gentile world to the faith and profession of the 
 
 * Rom. xi. 11, 12, 15. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 181 
 
 Gospel, as shall amply refute every cavil which 
 may be raised upon the ground of its contracted 
 sway. The reason of the case plainly and strik- 
 ingly seconds the probability of such an event. 
 The universal, or all but universal conversion of 
 God's people, will be a phenomenon for the whole 
 world to gaze upon. The knowledge of their 
 restoration must needs be co-extensive with the 
 wideness of their dispersion. Every country must 
 discern the wondrous truth, and be smitten with 
 astonishment at the sight of this predicted work 
 of God. And what more fitted to effect such 
 a result as that which the Apostle plainly con- 
 templates? What engine more perfect can be 
 imagined for the swift and sudden conversion 
 of a world ? I repeat, that the reason of the 
 case does most powerfully second the view which 
 this prediction unfolds, and lends the utmost 
 credibility to such a dispensation of religious 
 events as is there disclosed. 
 
 Now it is obvious, that this prospective in- 
 crease of the kingdom of Christ harmoni%es fully 
 with that state of the Gospel which at present 
 we behold. It would be inconsistent with such 
 an advanced stage of the progress of Christian- 
 
1821 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ity as should leave only an inconsiderable por- 
 tion of the world unconverted. Even upon this 
 view therefore of its present limited extent, the 
 religion of Jesus, so far from falling short of 
 the predictions of the Messiah's universal reign, 
 may be preparing the way for a more signal 
 and convincing manifestation of the truth of 
 prophecy. And thus in the inscrutable counsels 
 of God, the very fact, which affords the infidel 
 a theme of triumph, and may at times perhaps 
 have even cast a shade of anxiety over the mind 
 of the believer, shall eventually be made sub- 
 servient to the great ends of conviction, and de- 
 monstrate with tenfold certainty the everlasting 
 truth, that " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit 
 of prophecy." 
 
 Upon reviewing that chain of evidence through 
 which we have been led in the investigation of 
 this important subject, we can scarcely fail to 
 be seriously impressed both with the strength 
 and variety of that witness which God hath 
 given us of His Son. If the predictions of the 
 Messiah were not verified in Jesus, it seems im- 
 possible for mankind to judge when, or under 
 what circumstances, they ever can be verified. 
 
LECTUllE VIII. 183 
 
 If He be not "the Prophet that should come 
 into the world," the coincidence of prophecy and 
 history in His case is inexplicable. If we would 
 assign it to chance, it is a chance about as pro- 
 bable as that to which Atheism would ascribe 
 the order and design of creation. They whose 
 minds can repose in such a conclusion as this, 
 are beyond the reach of testimony. They may 
 justly rank with those who "would not be per- 
 suaded, though one rose from the dead." But 
 for one such, it may be trusted that Faith will 
 count her thousands of sincere and stedfast vo- 
 taries, upon whose heart the study of "the tes- 
 timony of Jesus" has wrought conviction unto 
 life eternal. Beholding that amazing series of 
 prophetic signs, which have been fulfilled both 
 in Him, and through Him, they will trace in 
 them that all -disposing hand which guides 
 alike the works of nature and of grace: while 
 upon this will be grafted the great practical de- 
 termination, without which conviction will serve 
 only to condemn, that " this God is our God for 
 ever and ever ; He shall be our guide unto death." 
 For this, as has been often observed, is the 
 peculiar strength of " the testimony of Jesus," 
 
184 LECTURE Vin. 
 
 that it is receiving continual accessions of fresh 
 evidence. Every hour which advances the great 
 drama of Prophecy, every change which opens 
 the scene, and lets in more light upon the 
 method of its final development, is a new de- 
 monstration of the finger of God, and of the 
 truth of His written Word. If then, as that 
 Word does unequivocally declare, "the ruler of 
 the darkness of this world," the dark spirit of 
 infidelity, shall in days to come succeed in 
 gathering around him a mighty and a powerful 
 host, the very same lapse of years which shall 
 be permitted to him for that end, will also be 
 preparing a weapon of corresponding strength to 
 overwhelm him with defeat and ruin. The 
 Spirit of prophecy will then step forth in her 
 accumulated might to confront every adversary 
 of the truth ; and believe they must, and behold 
 they shall, albeit but to " wonder and perish." It 
 is thus that prophecy stands, like a beacon light, 
 to guard mankind in every age against the peril 
 of unbelief. For these reasons, and in conformity 
 with the duty of my office, this portion of it 
 has been brought before you. For the most 
 part indeed, the minister presumes upon the 
 
LECTURE VIII. 185 
 
 faith of his hearers. He discourses from the 
 Scriptures, as "the oracles of God," and relies 
 upon their being so received. Whether his 
 theme be the " terrors of the Lord" as displayed 
 in the fate of him who "in hell lift up his 
 eyes, being in torments;" or whether he bids you 
 gaze upon the lovelier picture of divine com- 
 passion in the wanderings and welcome of the 
 returning prodigal ; he does this in the con- 
 fidence that your faith receives these lessons as 
 "the true sayings of God." But if to any, 
 they sound only as " cunningly devised fables ;" 
 if beautiful and fearful as they are, they are 
 viewed only as the creations of man, and not 
 as "the oracles of God," oh! then his preaching 
 is indeed in vain ; " the word preached hath 
 profited nothing, not being mixed with faith in 
 them that heard it." 
 
 Let us remember therefore at parting that 
 all does not depend upon the messengers of the 
 Word of life. Let us be diligent to do our 
 part in securing the profit of that Word, by 
 maintaining a stedfast faith in its authority. 
 Let us " search the Scriptures," and we shall 
 find in every page abundant evidence of their 
 
186 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 divine original. Let us study them, and we* 
 shall be provided with an answer to every 
 sceptic who asks a reason of the faith that is 
 in us. And above all, we shall experience in 
 our own breasts, the "joy and peace" that is 
 "in believing;" that freedom from suspense, and 
 that relief which it affords from distracting 
 doubts and anxieties about the future. For 
 this is the believer's privilege, a privilege un- 
 known and unattainable to the sceptic, to be 
 able to say, " The Lord is my light and my 
 salvation: whom then shall I fear? The Lord 
 is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be 
 afraid*? Yea, though I walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
 evil: for Thou, my God, art with me; thy rod 
 and thy staff they comfort mef ." 
 
 * Ps. xxvii. 1. t Ps. xxiii. 4. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Page 2, line 22. Of all these, therefore, the 
 angel must he understood, c^c. 
 
 It may not be pretended, that no more was meant by 
 the. text, (Rev. xix. 10.) than that the particular prophecy, 
 here delivered, was in attestation of Jesus ; for then it would 
 have been expressed with that limitation. The terms, on 
 the other hand, are absolute and indefinite — the spirit of 
 prophecy — whence we cannot but conclude that prophecy in 
 general is the subject of the proposition. Hurd, Introd. to 
 Prophecy. Serm. ii. p. 31. 
 
 Page 6, line 23. But they could not have 
 directed us, c^c. 
 
 One of the characters which our Saviour constantly as- 
 sumes and claims in the Gospel, is this ; that He is the person 
 spoken of by Moses and the prophets. Whether He is this 
 person or no, must be tried by the words of prophecy; 
 and this makes the argument from prophecy so far ne- 
 cessary to establish the claim of the Gospel; and it has 
 been very justly, as well as acutely, observed, that the 
 proof of this point must rely entirely on the evidence of 
 prophecy. Miracles in this case can afford no help ; if the 
 
190 AITKNDIX. 
 
 prophets have not spoken of Christ, all the miracles in 
 the world will not prove that they have spoken of him. 
 These considerations shew how far the Gospel is necessarily 
 concerned in prophetic evidence. Sherlock on the Use and 
 Intent of Prophecy. Disc. ii. p. 31. Oxford. 8vo. 1812, 
 
 Page 7, line 22. For Reason and Expe^ 
 rience unite in attesting, &f. 
 
 "In fact, such learned Jews as have in modern times 
 embraced Christianity, (and, compared with those among 
 them who have made any progress in letters, the number is 
 not small,) have usually been convinced by this argument; 
 and several of them have written treatises to prove from 
 the prophecies that Jesus is the Messiah." Powell's Dis- 
 courses. Edited 1776. Disc. ix. p. 147. A reference is given 
 to Chapman's Eusebius, vol. 1. at the end, where the reader 
 may see a list of instances of Jews, eminent for their learning 
 and abilities, who have been converted to the Christian faith 
 in the manner here stated. 
 
 Page 8, line 17. A prophecy fulfilled has the 
 evidence of a miracle, 8^c. 
 
 " All prophecies are real miracles, and as such only, can 
 be admitted as proofs of any revelation. If it did not exceed 
 the capacity of human nature to foretel future events, it 
 would be absurd to employ any prophecy as an argument for 
 a divine mission or authority from heaven." Hume's Essays, 
 vol. ii. sec. x. On miracles ; near the end. 
 
 Page 9, line 22. It is susceptible of being 
 made, S^c. 
 
 Prophecy, observes Bp. Van Mildert, possesses this pe- 
 culiar advantage above all others, that it is a growing 
 
APPENDIX. 191 
 
 evidence, gathering strength by length of time, and affording 
 from age to age fresh proofs of its divine origin. As a 
 majestic river expands itself more and more, the farther 
 it removes from its source, so Prophecy, issuing from the 
 first promise in Paradise, as its fountain head, acquired ad- 
 ditional strength and fulness, as it rolled down through suc- 
 cessive ages, was enlarged in its course by a number of 
 tributary streams, and will still go on increasing in extent 
 and grandeur, until it shall finally lose itself in the ocean 
 of Eternity. Boyle Lectures. Serm. xxii. at the end. 
 
 Page 11, line 23. The powers of Antichrist, 
 
 Sir I. Newton has observed upon the subject of Antichrist, 
 that "it is a part of this prophecy, that it should not be 
 understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it 
 makes for the credit of the prophecy, that it is not yet under- 
 stood." Sir I. Newton, p. 251. 
 
 " The fall of Antichrist, observes Bp. Hurd, is not a 
 single event, to happen all at once ; but a state of things, to 
 continue through a long tract of time, and to be gradually 
 accomplished." Introd. to Proph. Serm. viii. 
 
 Page 15, line 13. The iimnher, the variety, 
 
 The following most important remark of Bp. Butler 
 upon the force of the whole body of Christian evidences 
 taken together, is so strikingly applicable to that of pro- 
 phecy in particular, that I hope to be excused for quoting 
 it in this place. "Unless the whole sei^ies of things which 
 may be alleged in this argument, and every particular 
 thing in it, can reasonably be supposed to have been by 
 accident, (for here the stress of the argument for Christianity 
 
192 APPENDIX. 
 
 lies;) then is the truth of it proved. In like manner as 
 if in any common case, numerous events acknowledged 
 were to be alleged in proof of any other event disputed, 
 the truth of the disputed event would be proved, not only 
 if any one of the acknowledged ones did of itself clearly 
 imply it; but, though no one of them singly did so, if 
 the whole of the acknowledged events taken together, could 
 not in reason be supposed to have happened, unless the 
 disputed one were true." Anal. Part ii. Chap. vii. near 
 the end. 
 
 Page 23, line 1. It seems almndantly clem\ 
 
 Jortin observes that "there are prophecies of double 
 senses, which admit ?io more than two senses, which are 
 nearly of the same kind with typical prophecies, and many 
 of which might perhaps be cleared up by observing that 
 the prophet meant one thing, and the Spirit of God, who 
 spake by him, meant another thing." And he adduces as 
 an instance of "^ somewhat of this kind," the prophecy of 
 Caiaphas, that it is expedient for us that one man should 
 die for the people, and that the whole nation pierish not; 
 remarking that Caiaphas "prophesied then and knew it 
 not; for he had himself another intent and meaning." Re- 
 marks on Eccles. Hist. Edit. 1751. pp. 188, 189- 
 
 While the civil affairs of the Jewish people furnished 
 the occasion and substance of their prophecies, the divine 
 wisdom that inspired the prophets, so contrived, as that 
 their religious concerns should also be expressed or implied 
 in them. The general theme of the pro;;/«e/ was some 
 temporal success or calamity of the Jewish state; the 
 secret purpose of the inspirer was, occasionally at least, 
 and when He saw fit, to predict the spiritual kingdom of 
 the Messiah. Hurd on Proph. Serm. v. p. 127- 
 
APPKNDIX. 193 
 
 Page 24, line L Here must he ambiguity 
 
 indeed^ ^c. 
 
 Warburton thus points out "the essential difference (so 
 much to the honour of Revelation) between the Pagan 
 oracles or prophecies, and the Jewish. The obscurity of 
 the Pagan arose from the ambiguity, equivocation or jargon 
 qf expression : the obscurity of the Jewish from the Jigura- 
 tive representation of things. The first, independent of any 
 other religion, proceeded from ignorance of futurity ; the 
 latter, dependent on the Christian, proceeded from the 
 necessity that those to whom the prophecies were delivered, 
 should not have too full a knowledge of them." Div. 
 Legat. Book vi. Sect. vi. 8vo. Edit. 1758. p. 46l. The 
 whole of this Section, which is in a large measure em- 
 ployed in confuting the cavils which have been raised 
 upon this subject, is deserving of a very careful perusal. 
 
 Page 24, line 19. T/fe JrvHt fulfilment is a 
 pledge^ ^c. , • 
 
 '* Since no prophecy of Scripture is of any private in- 
 terpretation, that is, the meaning of prophecies is not what 
 perhaps the prophet himself might imagine in his private 
 judgment of the state of things then present, but holy men 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; there may 
 therefore very possibly, and very reasonably, be supposed 
 to be many prophecies, which, though they may have a 
 prior and immediate reference to some nearer event, yet 
 by the Spirit of God, (whom those prophecies which are 
 express, shew to have had a further view) may have been 
 directed to be uttered in such words, as may even more 
 properly and more justly be applied to the great event 
 which Providence had in view, than to the intermediate 
 event which God designed only as a pledge or earnest of 
 the other." Clarke's Evid. of Nat. and Rev. Rel. p. 409. 
 
 N 
 
194- APPENDIX. 
 
 Bp. Hurcl sums up this argument in these striking terms; 
 ''the civil prophecies are at once the vehicle, and the 
 credentials, of the spiritual, concerning the ^rst coming of 
 Jesus; and these last, in their turn, support the credit of 
 others, which point still further at His second coming; a 
 subject, more than intimated by the legal prophets, but 
 resumed and amply displayed by tlie evafigelical. Whence 
 we see, that the prophetic system is so constructed, as, in 
 the progress and various evolutions of it, to illustrate itself, 
 and to afford an internal evidence of its divinity." Introd, 
 to Proph. Serra. v. p. 134. 
 
 LECTURE II 
 
 Page 31, line 9. Nor, finally, must we /•£?- 
 fuse, <§c. 
 
 Bp. Van Mildert observes that ''the Jews, from the pe- 
 culiar character of the Mosaic Ritual, were habituated to 
 mystical researches, and deemed them necessary to a right 
 exposition of the Law and the Prophets. And although 
 it be true, that this species of interpretation was, on their 
 part, often carried to a culpable excess, and in after times 
 degenerated into absurdities worse than frivolous and con- 
 temptible; yet it can hardly be denied, that much of the 
 elucidation of the prophecies in the Old Testament re- 
 specting the Messiah, and of their accomplishment in the 
 New, depends upon the judicious application of this kind 
 of evidence." Bampton Lect. Serm. vii. p. 229- 
 
 And again, after having shewn "that all the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament, relating to the kingdom of Christ, 
 
APPENDIX. 195 
 
 were of necessity to be understood, not in a literal, but in 
 a spiritual sense ;" he says, " there is also evidence to prove, 
 that they were explained according to this latter sense, by 
 the most ancient and approved Interpreters in the Jewish 
 Church." Boyle Lect. Serm. iii. p. 9.5. 
 
 Page 32, line 17. One of that infidel hand, 
 
 Collins, in his ''Grounds and Reasons of the Christian 
 Religion," and " the Scheme of Literal Prophecy con- 
 sidered." 
 
 Page 34, line 9- Sefore the ohjector de- 
 murred, S^c. 
 
 The whole of chap. vi. of Bp. Chandler's Defence of 
 Christianity against Collin's Tract of ''the Grounds and 
 Reasons of the Christian Religion," is devoted to shewing 
 that " the sense given by Christ and His Apostles, to the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament, is certainly to be preferred 
 to any other possible sense of the prophecies." 
 
 Page 39, line 9- ^^^e may conclude therefore, 
 
 Calvin has vindicated the true interpretation of this pro- 
 phecy upon another ground : — " Ecquid enim mirum dixisset 
 Propheta, si de puella loquutus esset, quae ex congressu viri 
 conciperet } Certe ridiculum fuisset id signi aut miraculi 
 loco proponere." — " Satis igitur constat ipsum loqui de virgine, 
 qua2 non erat ordinario naturae ordine, sed ex gratia Spiritus 
 sancti conceptura." Comment, ad loc. 
 
 n2 
 
196 APPENDIX, 
 
 Page 40, line 9. ^ decree, which had been 
 issued years before^ 8^c. 
 
 The reader will find the authorities for this remarkable 
 fact adduced by Hammond in his Annotations on Luke. 
 Chap. ii. V. 1. 
 
 Page 43, line 18. Even the land of Zehulun, 
 
 Upon the true connection and interpretation of this 
 passage of Isaiah, sefe Lowth's Commentary and Bishop 
 Lowth's New Translation. 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 
 Page 60, line 10. This truth is emhodied^ S^c. 
 
 The original word is the one commonly used in the law 
 of Moses to signify the punishment of death, judiciallij in- 
 flicted. "^ It indicates generally the punishment of death, 
 without pointing out the manner of it." Vid. Gesen. Heb. 
 Lex. Translated by Leo. voc. TT)^. 
 
 - T 
 
 Page 61, line 8. Yet from the armoury, 8^c. 
 
 Kidder has observed that the capital punishments among 
 the Jews were these four ; stoning, burning, strangling, and 
 killing with the sword. See Demonst. of the Messias. Part i. 
 p. 73, Edit. fol. 1726. 
 
APPENDIX. 197 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Page 89, line 25. '^ Sit thou on my right handy 
 
 That Messiah should after His sufferings be thus exalted 
 was determined in the divine counsel and covenant, before 
 the world began. Whether we suppose the Psalmist to be 
 speaking of that determination, or of its actual accomplish- 
 ment at the time of Christ's ascension into heaven, it maketh 
 no great difference. The substance of the decree is the same. 
 It was addressed by the Father to the Son; by Jehovah to 
 Messiah, whom David in spirit styleth " My Lord" ; one 
 that should come after him, as his offspring according to the 
 flesh ; but one, in dignity of person, and greatness of power, 
 far superior to him, and to every earthly potentate ; " King of 
 Kings, and Lord of Lords ;" God and man united in one 
 person. To this person it was said by the Father, " Sit thou 
 at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." 
 In other words, Seeing, O my Son, Messiah, thou hast 
 glorified me on the earth, and finished the work which I gave 
 thee to do, the great work of man's redemption ; take now 
 the throne prepared for thee from the foundation of the 
 world; behold, all power is given unto thee ; enter upon thy 
 mediatorial kingdom; and reign till every opposer shall have 
 submitted himself to thee, and Sin and Death shall have felt 
 thy all-conquering arm. Bp. Home on Ps. ex. 1. 
 
 Page 94, line 5. " This was the hojje of the 
 afflicted patriarchy c^c." 
 
 The following paraphrase of this text of Job is given by 
 Dr Tottie "from the authority," as he observes, "of very able 
 
198 AIPENDIX. 
 
 and judicious critics." "I know for certainty that my Re- 
 deemer liveth, and that he shall at last, or in the last day, 
 arise with power over the dust, that dust out of which man 
 was made. Then shall this dilacerated body put on a new 
 clothing. JlXp:i2r33 ''"liy "^nj^l? -^^^^ ^^'^^ cutis mea haec 
 laceratio." So the words are read and translated by Michaelis. 
 "And from my own body shall I see God; whom I shall see 
 for myself; with mine own eyes shall I behold him; nor shall 
 I then be a man different from myself." Vid. Tottie's Sermon 
 on Matth. xxii. 31, 32. 
 
 Page 94, line 19- " God will redeem mif soid. 
 
 The prophet here expresseth a full and firm faith in the 
 resurrection, and may be conceived as speaking in the person 
 of Him, who was first redeemed from the grave, and accepted 
 by the Father. Home on Ps. xlix. 15. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Page 103, line 14. Doctrine of a Redeemer 
 to come 2^ervade,s the ivritings' of Moses. 
 
 This subject has been treated in a very able and interest- 
 ing manner by the Rev. J. J. Blunt in his second course 
 of Hulsean Lectures, entitled ' Principles for the proper un- 
 derstanding of the IMosaic writings stated and applied.' 
 
 Page 104, line 23. A7id more especially, S^c, 
 Jortin's Remarks on Eccles. Hist, vol 1. 
 
APPENDIX. 199 
 
 Page 105, line 10. By a Jewish Commen- 
 tutor, ^c, 
 
 Abarbanel. Preface to Comment, on Jeremiah. 
 
 Page 114, line 5. The rest were no more 
 than interpreters, c^c. 
 
 See Calvin's Pref. to his Comment, on Isaiah, in which 
 this view of the relative Character of the Law and the 
 Prophets is illustrated with great force and clearness. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Page 128, line 3, It was not political merely. 
 
 For the benefits, which Christianity has conferred upon 
 mankind in this view, the reader will find a comprehensive 
 account in Jortin's ^ Discourses concerning the Truth of the 
 Christian Rehgion,' p. 134, &c. 2 Edit. 8vo. 1747. Also in 
 Euseb. Prsep. Evang. i. 4. to which Jortin refers. 
 
 Page 137, line 4. How writers of that, S;^c. 
 
 A great variety of very striking testimonies to the truth 
 of prophecy may be seen in Dr Keith's recent publication 
 on this subject. 
 
 Page 138, line 16. False Christs innu- 
 
 merahle, 8^c. 
 
 For an enumeration of the various impostors, who as- 
 sumed the name of Christ both about the time of our 
 
200 APPENDIX. 
 
 Saviour and at subsequent periods^ see Kidder's Demonst. 
 of the Messias, Part i. Chap. ii. and Part iii. Chap. 10. 
 
 Page 141, line 8. Can it be true, (|c. 
 
 Rousseau has thus expressed this delusive plea for in- 
 fidelity. '' Est-on maitre de croire on de ne pas croire? 
 
 Page 142, line 15. Before faith can tahe 
 
 " But faith, if I mistake not, hath, besides, another 
 merit more properly its own, not acquired from its con- 
 sequences, but conveyed to it from the principles in which 
 it takes its rise. These indeed are what gives to every 
 action, much more than its consequences, its proper cha- 
 racter and denomination ; and the principles in which faith 
 is founded appear to be that integrity, that candour, that 
 sincerity of mind, that love of goodness, that reverent 
 sense of God's JDcrfections, which are, in themselves, the 
 highest of moral endowments, and the sources of all other 
 virtues, if indeed there be any virtue, which is not con- 
 tained in these." See Horsley's 2nd Serm. on John xx. 29' 
 near the end. 
 
 In the same place he characterizes unbelief, as arising 
 "from a dishonest resistance of conviction; from a distaste 
 for moral truth; from an alienation of the mind from God 
 and goodness." Of this he says, " It must be iiigh unto 
 cursifig, inasmuch as in the very essence and formality of 
 its nature, it is an accursed thing." 
 
APPENDIX. 201 
 
 LECTURE VIE 
 
 Page 156, line 10. None are ignoranf of their 
 real sway, c^c*. 
 
 The following passages are extracted from a memoir of 
 the celebrated N. M. Rothschild, published soon after his 
 decease in a work, called '^the Agriculturist," and copied 
 into the Metropolitan Magazine for October 1836. 
 
 '* The changes in the dynasties of the princely houses 
 of Germany, which may be traced to the influence of the 
 French revolution of 1792, soon reduced the inferior princes 
 of Germany literally to a state of painful obligation to the 
 leading members of the Hebrew persuasion, who so long 
 had been treated with scorn and contumely in the cities of 
 the European continent. — The progress of civil and foreign 
 warfare on the continent gave an amazing power to the de- 
 spised race ; who, however, on several occasions, by their 
 actions evinced to their oppressors a great degree of the 
 milk of human kindness ; and in many instances, by their 
 probity, obtained the confidence of the chief houses of 
 Germany." 
 
 Concerning the five brothers (Rothschild) the '' Journal 
 du Commerce" has the following; 
 
 " The five brothers have taken part in most of the great 
 financial affairs of France, of England, and almost every 
 country. They have formed among themselves an invincible 
 phalanx. By themselves, or by their agents, they have exer- 
 cised a great control over the principal places in Europe; 
 and, faithful to their habit, never to undertake any thing 
 separately, and to concert all their operations, they have 
 
202 APPENDIX. 
 
 followed one unvaried and identical system. Their power 
 was siich_, that at one time, they were free to make either peace 
 or war." 
 
 Page 157, line 7. It was now nearly half a 
 century, 8^c. 
 
 That the downfall of the Turkish empire forms a part 
 of the visions of prophecy unfulfilled is the opinion of 
 of many of the most eminent writers upon this subject; thus 
 Mede and Vitringa, with many more, interpret the pouring 
 out of the sixth vial. Revel, xvi. 12. 
 
 In a discourse delivered in 1791 by Priestly, there is 
 the following observation. " One great event, which I begin 
 to flatter myself we may be looking forward to, is the fall 
 of the Turkish empire ; when an end will be put to a system 
 of government, the most unfriendly to human happiness, 
 and to improvements of all kinds, that the world has 
 ever groaned under." 
 
 Another writer, adopting the general opinion, that *' the 
 great river Euphrates" in the above-cited text from Revel, 
 is to be understood of the Turkish empire, observes; ''We 
 do, at this very time, see this great emblematical river drying 
 up. We see this empire fading away, and growing exceeding 
 weak. It has already been in great danger from Russia, and 
 has yielded up much." King's Morsels of Criticism, p. 447* 
 
 Page 158, line 22. Such a tissue of jwofane- 
 
 ness, i^c. 
 
 For an account of these matters, see Allen's 'Modern 
 Judaism,' Chap. vii. to Chap. xi. more particularly. 
 
 Page 159, line 14. Based upon applications 
 of Scripture, &f. 
 
 As a specimen, take the following from Maimon. de 
 
APPENDIX. 203 
 
 Poenit. by Clavering, quoted in Allen, p. 126. " When a 
 man's virtues and vices are compared, the first and second 
 sins are not reckoned, but only the third, and those which 
 follow. If, on computing from the third, his vices be found 
 to exceed his virtues, then the first two sins are added to 
 the number, and judgment is passed upon him for the whole. 
 But if, on numbering from the third, his virtues and vices 
 be equal, then no account is taken of the first two, because 
 the third is considered as the first; for two are now par- 
 doned; and the fourth becomes the first because the third 
 is forgiven; and so onwards even to the end. How is it 
 to be understood? Only of an individual, as it is said; 
 " Lo, all these things will God do with a man twice and 
 thrice." Job xxxiii. 29- For to the congregation, neither 
 the first, second, nor third sin is imputed ; according as it 
 is said; "for three transgressions of Israel, )'ea, even for 
 four, I will not turn away." Amos ii. 6. And when an 
 account is thus taken of their sins, the computation com- 
 mences with the fourth, which is reckoned as the first. 
 
 Page 161, line 15. The fulness of the Gen- 
 tiles, (§6*. 
 
 Faber has argued very forcibly that this '^ fulness' refers 
 to time, in opposition to the common opinion which would 
 interpret it of the nimibers of the Gentiles who shall be 
 brought within the pale of the Christian church ; in other 
 words, of a great and general conversion of the Gentile 
 world to the faith of Christianity. Sac Cal. of Proph. 
 Book ii. Chap. 2. The whole of this chapter, which is 
 devoted to an exposition of this famous prophecy of St Paul, 
 deserves a careful perusal. 
 
204; APPENDIX. 
 
 LECTURE VIIL 
 
 Page 176, lino 10. Not much heyond afoui^th 
 proportion, ^c. 
 
 For some interesting information upon the religions dis- 
 tribution of the whole population of the earth, see Note 1 
 to Chap. iv. in the Christian Advocate's publication (the 
 Rev. Hugh James Rose) for the year 1829^ entitled * Christ- 
 ianity always Progressive.' 
 
 Page 176, line 19. The true comjiarison 
 should he, ^c. 
 
 "I am far from imagining that Christianity is yet come 
 to its mature state ; that it is understood in the whole extent, 
 or held in its utmost purity and perfection by any one 
 church. But, as when it was first preached, men were fit 
 to hear, and profit by it, in a competent degree, as that 
 was a proper time to divulge it, in order to improve the 
 world, which it did very considerably, excelling all former 
 dispensations, refining the conceptions, even of those who 
 did not formally receive it, and yet was itself, for some time, 
 but partially communicated and imperfectly understood ; so 
 now it is of much greater advantage to the world in general, 
 and yet still capable of increase ; it waits for its own fulness; 
 nor shall mankind receive the proper influence of it, till 
 their minds be much farther opened and enlarged, their 
 reason more freely exercised, in this great mystery of Divine 
 love." Law's Theory of Religion, p. 208, 9- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 205 
 
 Pago 179, line 11. A great a fid aimtdtcmeous 
 
 conversion, 8^c, 
 
 With this prophecy of St Paul, compare Zech. xiv. 8., 
 Ezek. xlvii. 1—12, and Joel lii. 18. ''Under the image of 
 a river flowing out from the temple of Jerusalem, the waters 
 of which gradually rise, until they become a mighty stream 
 which cannot be passed over, and which itself communicates 
 health and life, whithersoever it cometh, is clearly and aptly 
 shadowed out the beneficent progress of the Gospel from 
 the metropolis of the converted and restored Israelites, through 
 every province and kingdom of the Gentile world." Faber, 
 Sac. Cal. Book ii. Ch. 2. with his references to Newcome 
 on Ezek. xlvii. 5, and Micah v. 7- 
 
 " Such being the remarkable office of the house of Israel 
 in all ages (viz. to spread the knowledge of the true God 
 among mankind;) we shall not wonder to find the chosen 
 race styled by the prophet Hosea, ch. i. 11. and ii. 22. the 
 Jezrael or the seed of God. Why is this singular title, 
 the title of the seed of God, bestowed upon the Lord's 
 ancient people? Great and happy shall be the day, says 
 Bp. Horsley, when the holy seed of both branches of the 
 natural Israel shall be publicly acknowledged of their God; 
 united under one Head, their king Messiah; and restored 
 to the possession of the promised land, and to a situation 
 of high pre-eminence among the kingdoms of the earth. 
 The myriads of the natural Israel, converted by the preaching 
 of the Apostles, were the first seed of the universal Church ; 
 and there is reason to believe, that the restoration of the 
 converted Jews will be the occasion and means of a prodigious 
 influx of new converts from the Gentiles in the latter ages. 
 Thus the Jezrael of the natural Israel from the first have 
 been, and to the last will prove, a seed sown of God for 
 himself in the earth." Faber, ibid. 
 
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