like Balaam, they spoke it conftrainedly; they uttered only the word which the Lord had put into their mouths. If they who spoke it were ignorant of its meaning, it is no great wonder that they who heard did not understand the full force of the prophecy of the Godhead of him who was to come; nor is their misapprehenfion a reason why we should doubt that the pro phets foretold it. The purpose of prophecy is " to tell before it come to pass, that when it come to pass we may believe," John xiv. 29. And the object of the prophecy of the Old Testament is the coming of a great deliverer, of whom such seeming contrarieties are declared, that it is not possible the Jews could ever have formed a definite idea of the expected Meffiah. It is foreshewn of our Saviour, (whom all allow to be the Chrift) that he was to be a King of the feed of David, and to fit upon his throne; that he was to be cut off, but not for himself; that he was to be exalted and extolled, and to be very high; oppressed, afflicted, bruised and put to grief, numbered with the tranfgreffors, taken from prifon, and from judgment, and cut off out of the land of the living; ruling the nations, &c. Ifaiah lii. and liii. With such irreconcileable declarations were the hopes of the Jews kept alive; but in all this there is nothing that could have suggested an expectation that God himself would come; for how should the idea of his infinite majesty unite itself with that of a man of forrows and acquainted with grief, having a cheek turned to the scorner? and how, indeed, could even such an idea as this agree with the expectation of a great King, to overcome all their enemies? It cannot, therefore, be admitted in argument against the divinity of Jesus Christ, that it was not understood by the Jews; for how should they understand it, when the prophets, who prophefied of the grace that should come unto us, have enquired and fearched searched diligently of this falvation, "searching what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was within them did fignify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that, not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minifter the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels defire to look into, I Pet, i, 10, 11, 12. and that many prophets have defired to see these things which our Saviour shewed forth, and have not seen them."

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To us then, who have come after the event, it belongs to explain the prophecy, as that which is foretold is come to pass; and therefore we must cease to look for fuch teftimony from the prophets as should have explained the fact, to such as had never seen it: of the fufferings of Chrift, and the glory that should follow, they could form no certain idea whatsoever, nor did the prophecy put things into that order, as to impart a notion that the glory was to be subsequent to the fufferings; and this I affert, notwithstanding that Ifaiah had said "he shall divide the spoil with the strong: because he hath poured out his foul unto death," Ifa. liii. 12. For even the expectation of a man to arife from the dead, never seems, by the history of the Jews, throughout the Old Testament, in the least degree to have suggested itself to them for if it had, Chrift crucified could not have been to the Jews a stumbling block; and it is even probable, that such a fact, clear-ly understood, might have withheld their hands from inflicting that death whereby "Christ was perfected."

Still nearer to the manifestation of Christ the Angel has declared, that the Prophet, who should be the

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preparer of the ways of the Lord, should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb; and Zacharias, upon the birth of John, breaks that filence which had been imposed upon him because of his unbelief, and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, cried out, "Blessed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of falvation for us, in the house of his fervant David; as he spake by the mouth of the holy prophets, which have been fince the world began," Luke i. 67, 68, 69; and then speaking of his own fon, who was the appointed harbinger of the Chrift, whom he has already called the Lord God of Ifrael, he says, " and thou child shall be called the Prophet of the Highest; + for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways," Luke i. 76. The angel faid also to the Virgin Mary, when he gave her afsurance of the birth of her fon to be called Jesus, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David;" and "that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God," Luke i. 32, 33, 35. The babe leapt in the womb of Elizabeth for joy upon the falutation of Mary, and Elizabeth afks this remarkable question, similar in expreffion to the prophecy of David already cited, " whence is this to

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- me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?? Luke i. 43. The shepherds are told by an angel, " unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," Luke ii. 11. At the presentation of the infant Redeemer in the temple, Simeon, to whom it was revealed by the Holy Ghost, that he should not fee death before he had feen the Lord's Christ, taking the babe in his arms " bleffed God, and expressed his contentment to depart then, his eyes having seen the promised source of salvation," Luke Luke i. 28, 29. And fubfequent to these mysterious predictions concerning the supposed child of a carpenter, came forth a prophet, cotemporary in birth with Jesus Chrift, appointed to be his immediate forerun ner, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make his paths ftraight, and he declared of him that " he that cometh from above, is above all;" and that "he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life," John iii, 31, 36.

Thus, from the first obfcure hint of salvation to our first parents, do the prophecies gradually approximate to an explanation of the great glory which should in the end be revealed; but by no means have they become so explicit yet, as to render a revelation unnecessary; nay, there is yet to proceed a new species of previous intimation to makind of "the salvation of God which all flesh shall see," Luke iii. 6; and accordingly now came forth the great subject of all that had been testified, but not yet to be declared, nor yet indeed the full subject of the prophecy, nor of the fubfequent testimony of the spirit, having before him that mighty work to do, toward which the hopes of the prophets looked as the fource of deliverance, in vain searching into what the manner of it was to be; a work by which we have received the atonement, and obtained reconciliation, the word and ministry of which was afterwards to be committed by God to thofe who were to be the appointed witnesses of our Lord: and this miniftry of reconciliation is that which alone can be, according to the scriptures, pronounced the manifeftation of Jesus Chrift; and therefore I confider himself, even the Lord of glory, who was crucified, who arose from the grave, and ascended into heaven, t as only bearing, by his miracles, a practical teftimony during his ftay on earth, to that which should be revealed

vealed of him when his work should be finished, This, indeed, I admit to be a much closer evidence of the Godhead than any given before; and that, perhaps, by which the minds of men should be led to look upon the expected King of the Jews in a much more exalted light than the former prophecies had instructed them to do. It is such an evidence as, when referred to, might well provide credit, when it should come to pass, for that which before it came to pass it had foreshewn. Our Saviour himself, for the most part, declines bearing witness to himself, but refers both to the scriptures which had now begun to be fulfilled, and which he de fires to have diligently fought into as about to receive their full completion, and to the testimony of the Holy Ghost hereafter to be given for the purpose of manifeft

ting him; and whenever he does bear record, it is ra

ther fuch as he would have second to that which should follow the finishing of his work here, thence to derive its explanation, than such as he would have principal in the line of evidence.

Had our blessed Lord and Saviour borne any ultimate teftimony to the Jews that he was God, they would have known this hidden mystery; and, " had they known it," says St. Paul, "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," I Cor. ii. 8; and so the very end of his coming in the flesh would have been defeated; mankind must still have remained due to the juftice of God, without the atonement which we have received by the death of Christ. The blood of our gracious Redeemer was to be the price of our salvation, and would it have been consistent with wisdom to take measures to prevent the shedding of it? It was enough that his miracles should testify of him to those who were afterwards to preach him, and offer them to mankind as marks of a life consistent with what they should relate