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a long interval of prophetic silence, is de clared by Isaiah and Malachi; by the former in the language of metaphor, which, however, was literally verified in the person and condition of the Baptist; "the voice of him that "crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way "of the Lord, make straight in the desert a "highway for our God., Every valley shall "be exalted, and every mountain and hill "shall be made low; and the crooked shall "be made straight, and the rough places "plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be "revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (ch. xl. 3, 5). The last of the prophets is still more particular with respect to the Messiah and his forerunner; "Behold, I will send

my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come with the Lord of Hosts" (Mal. vii. 1). Much might be forcibly urged on the subject of the time when the Messiah was to make his appearance, but the simple prophecy of Jacob before considered is most expressive and determinate. It is there said that Judah should not be without "a sceptre or a dominion" till the coming of Shiloh, and this was exactly the case, for the birth of Christ was distinguished by the striking circumstance of registering

the people for the purpose of a general taxation by command of the Roman Emperor.

The appearance of the star in the east, and the visit of the wise-men to Judea in quest of the new-born king, are represented with wonderful accuracy in this passage of the evangelical prophet; "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." (Is. lx. 1. 3).

The office of Christ, his preaching, and miracles, are graphically described in numerous places, but in none so minutely as in these passages; "Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine eleet, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoaking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the

acceptable year of the Lord." Then the eyes of the blind shall 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." (Is. xlii. 1, 3. lxi. 1, 2. xxxv. 5, 6). See also ch. xi. 2, 3, 4, compared with Luke iv. 18.

If these prophecies had a literal as well as a spiritual accomplishment in the person and works of Jesus Christ, it is impossible for any to deny the divinity of his character, without impeaching all the rules of evidence, and the certainty of moral demonstration.

But there are particular predictions which relate to some precise facts in the history of the Messiah, and the concurrence of which could never have been the result of design. Thus when Zechariah predicted that the king of Zion should come to Jerusalem lowly, and riding upon an ass, even the foal of an ass,' (ix. 9), the circumstance is contrary to the spirit of ambition and the nature of atriumphant entry. The prophetical declaration therefore could be no encouragement to an impostor aspiring to royalty, because such a parade was inconsistent with his pretensions. Yet our Lord actually rode to Jerusalem in this manner, and the fame of his miracles procured him a number of followers who proclaimed him aloud as the king of Israel." (Lu. xix. 38. John xii. 13).

The passion of our Lord, and the circum

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stances which preceded and distinguished it, are described with such accuracy in several prophecies as to have wrought full conviction in many persons who were long prejudiced against Christianity. That he should be rejected and persecuted by his own nation was expressly asserted in Psalms ii. lxix. and by Isaiah in his twenty-ninth chapter, from verse 10 to the end; again in chapter xlix. verse 7; thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his holy one, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, &c." Also in the following chapter, where the Messiah pathetically complains of being contemned by those whom he came to save; but in the fifty-third chapter this is still more explicitly declared, "he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

That he should be betrayed by a familiar friend, and one of his own companions, is particularly mentioned in Psalm xli. "Yea mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."

The scourging, and other marks of abuse inflicted upon Christ, were also foretold, and as his enemies were far from intending any such fulfilment of the prophecies in his person, as might prove him to be the Messiah, the coincidence altogether is a convincing

proof that he alone was the promised Redeemer. Thus he speaks in the prophecy of Isaiah, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting," (1.6). And that he should be treated as a criminal, suffer every indignity, and finally be put to a cruel death, is plainly shewn in the fifty-third chapter of the same prophecy. The royal psalmist speaks of the blasphemous language with which the holy sufferer was actually treated while he hung upon the cross; "all they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him." (Ps. xxii. 7, 8). So exact is the prophetic description of this awful history, that there is not a single feature of it, but what has a pointed prediction. Thus, in the last mentioned psalm, the action of the soldiers in "parting the garments and casting lots for the vesture of Christ" is directly asserted: in the sixty-ninth psalm another remarkable incident in the history of the passion is directly alluded to; "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

To the preservation of his bones, contrary to the custom observed towards crucified malefactors, the psalmist thus evidently

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