darkness, Show your felves. They shall feed in the ways, and their paflures fhall be in all high places.

He purfues the fame notion, chap. lv. verf. 3, 4. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your foul shall live; and I will make an everlafting covenant with you, the jure mercies of David. Behold, I have given bim for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Than which, nothing can be more particular.

And to the fame purpofe he speaks, chap. Ixi. verf. 8, 9. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt-offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their feed fhall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; all that fee them fball acknowledge them, that they are the feed which the Lord hath blessed.

It is as clear as the day, that God in these oracles promiseth an irrevocable covenant, because he calls it an everlasting covenant in oppofition to the former. He takes notice alfo in the fame book, that the said covenant was to be propounded in the midst of the nations, and that then that bleffing of God fhould be known according to the ancient oracles, which was promised univerfally to all nations.

This is that which God more particularly explains afterwards, by the voice and pen of a Prophet who was of the order of Priests, thereby to prevent all forts of exceptions.

Jeremiah in effect fpeaks to the fame purpose, chap. xxxi. verf. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36. Behold, the day is come, faith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of lfrael, and with the house of Judah : not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (which my covenant they break, although I were a husband to them, faith the Lord); but this fhall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael: After thofe days, faith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they fball teach no more every man his neighbour, faying, Know the Lord; for they fhall all know me, from the leaft of them unto the greatest of them, faith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their fin no more. Thus faith the Lord, which giveth the fun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and ftars for a light by night, which divideth the fea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hofts is his name. If thofe ordinances depart from before me, faith the Lord, then the feed of Ifrael alfo fhall ceafe from being a nation before me for ever.

Nothing can be defired more particular than this oracle. 1. It tells us that God would make a new covenant with his people, which fuppofes an abolishing of the former; 2. That this covenant was not to be like the foregoing; 3. That the old covenant had been made vain, and had been broken by thofe with whom it was made; 4. That this covenant was to be made after those days, that is, in the time of the Meffiah; 5. That this new covenant was not to be engraven in tables of ftone, but in their hearts; 6. That in the fame covenant full remiffion of fin is promised.

The fame thing is alfo expreffed, chap. xxxii. verse 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from

to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me. And, chap. 1. v. 5. They shall afk the way to Zion, with their faces thither ward, faying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, that shall not be forgotten.

To this purpose alfo Ezekiel, who himself was a Priest, speaks of a religious worship extended to all nations, and of a new covenant which God was to make with them, chap. xvi. verfe 60, 61, 62. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will eftablifh unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy, ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy fifters, thy elder and thy younger : and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will eftablish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

Here is, firft, a covenant differing from the former; 2. a covenant wherein other nations were to be included, clearly intimated by the elder and younger fifters of the fynagogue; 3. a covenant whereby the Gentiles were to enjoy the fame privileges with the Jews, and be incorporated with them.

Malachi follows the steps of these Prophets, when he calls the Meffiah the Angel of the covenant, chap. iii. verfe 1. Behold, I will fend my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye feek fhall fuddenly come to his temple; even the messenger (Angel) of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, faith the Lord of Hefts. I know very well that the Jews apply those words to Elias, whofe ministry, as they pretend, was to confift in leading the Jews to repentance. But if we read the text with attention, we shall find two meffengers mentioned; the firft, to prepare the way of the Meffiah; and the other is the Meffiah himself, who is called the Angel of the covenant, as being fent of God to make a new covenant with men.

CHA P. XIX.

That the Jews, by a dreadful Effect of their Blindness, were to rejec

the MESSIAH.

HIS is a very peculiar mark, which will guide us furely to the

Tknowledge of the Mefiah. We find the Jews at this day very

ready to follow every one that ufurps that auguft title, and to take him for the only true Meffiah that was promifed them; which is no other than what was infallibly to come to pass.

Neither will this much furprise us, if we confider, 1. That this people, on divers occafions, have given very strange inftances of a prodigious blindness we see them reject Mofes, notwithstanding God had authorifed his call by great and avowed miracles; yea, we find them rejecting David alfo, whom God had fo fignally appointed to be their king, and the father of the Meffiah, of whom we hear thefe prophecies.

2. That

2. That God upbraids them with this blindness by his Prophets, as a fin to which they were peculiarly inclined; as appears from Pfalm lxix. verse 23, 24, 25, 26, and 28. Let their eyes be darkened, that they fee not; and make their loins continually to Shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be defolate, and none dwell in their tents. For they perfecute him whom thou haft fmitten, and they talk to the grief of those whom thou haft wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

One fees the fame thing in Ifaiah, chap. vi. verfe 9, 10, 11, and 12. where the Spirit of God foretels that the Jews fhould fhut their eyes against the most evident and convincing proofs imaginable. Go, faith the Lord to the Prophet, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but underftand not; and fee ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and hut their eyes; left they jee with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and convert, and be healed. Then faid I, Lord, how long? And be answered, Until the cities be wafted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly defolate: and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great for faking in the midst of the land.

Nothing can be imagined more particular than this oracle concerning the Jews refifting the Prophet, which God expreffes in terms very ufual amongit the Prophets; as if Ifaiah, who was only the foreteller of their being hardened, fhould himself be the cause of it.

The Prophet Hofea defcribes the very fame complaints of God against the Jews for the blindness and ignorance, for which he denounces their deftruction. Hof. iv. verfe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of lirael; for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By fwearing, and lying, and killing, and ftealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beafts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the fea also fhall be taken away. Yet let no man firive or reprove another; for thy people are as they that frive with the Prieft. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the Prophet alfo fhall fall with thee in the night, and I will deftroy thy mother. My people My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou haft rejected knowledge, I will alfo reject thee, that thou shalt be no Prieft to me; feeing thou haft forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

The Prophet Jeremy speaks to the fame purpose, chap. v. verse 21, 22, and 23 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and fee not; which have ears, and hear not. Fear ye not me, faith the Lord? Will ye not tremble at my prefence, who have placed the fand for the bound of the fea, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it, and though the waves thereof tols themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people had a revolting and a rebellious heart, they are revolted, and gone. And he reiterates the fame, chap. viii. verie 7. The ftork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the tile

and the crane, and the fwallow, obferve the time of their coming : but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.

Ezekiel profecutes the fame matter, chap. ii. verf. 5 and 8. calling the Jews a rebellious houfe. And chap. xii. verf. 1 and 2. he faith, The word of the Lord came unto me, faying, Son of man, thou dwelleft in the midft of a rebellious houfe, who have eyes to fee, and fee not, they have ears to hear, and hear not, for they are a rebellious house.

Neither do the Prophets only represent to us in general the blindness of the Jews upon feveral occafions; but they alfo very particularly inform us, that he who was the most confiderable perfon of their state, and the great minifter of God, should be notwithstanding rejected by them.

And here, firft, It is worth our noting, that Mofes threatens the worst of calamities to those who should refufe to hear the great Prophet, like unto him whom God was to raise to his people, Deut. xviii. verse 18.

Secondly, David, Pfalm cxviii. verse 22. expreffes this in these words, The ftone which the builders refused, is become the head of the corner. From which words it is evident, 1. That the Meffiah was to be rejected; 2. That he was to be rejected by those who were intrufted with the care of building the houfe; 3. That this was to be before he should be acknowledged the great Minifter of heaven.

God fpeaks the fame thing by Isaiah, chap. xxviii, verse 16. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a flone, a tried ftone, a precious corner-ftone, a fure foundation: be that believeth fhall not make hafte. Which place is to be understood of the Meffiah, by the confeffion of the Jews themselves.

Daniel follows the fame notion, chap. ii. verf. 34, 35. Thou faweft till a ftone was cut out without hands, which fmote the image upon his feet, and brake them to pieces: and the fione became a great mountain, and filled

the earth.

On all which prophecies we may make these remarks: 1. That Jesus Chrift quotes moft of them, as fuch, which by the Jews themselves were owned to refer to the Meffiah. Thus, Matt. xxi. verfe 42. he faith, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The ftone which the builders rejected, the fame is become the head of the corner. And St. Peter, Acts iv. verse 11. This is the ftone which was fet at nought by you builders, which is become the head of the corner. St. Paul makes the fame allufion, Ephef. ii. verse 20. And are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jefus Chrift bimfelf being the chief corner-ftone. And I. Cor. iii. verfe 11. For other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jefus Chrift. And when Jefus Chrift himself faith unto Peter, Matt. xvi. verfe 18. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, &c. he alludes to that of Daniel; Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the filver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the fummer threfbing floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the ftone which fmote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Our Saviour applies alfo to the Jews those prophecies which foretel their being offended at the Minifters of heaven; in particular that of

Ifaiah,

Ifaiab, chap. vi. verfe 9. Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but underftand not, and fee ye indeed, but perceive not.

2. We may obferve that the Jews of old applied thofe prophecies (as the Apoftles did) to the hardening of their own nation; as appears from that of St. Paul, Rom. x. verfe 21. But to Ifrael he faith, All the day long I have ftretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gainjaying people.

3. We must take notice, that the fame temper which was in the ancient Jews, who rejected the Prophets, was found in those who lived at the time of our Saviour; and for this, we need only to read the defcription which Jofephus, de Bello Judaico, lib. vii. cap. 3. gives of them, where he compares them with the Sodomites, which is the comparison Ifaiah makes, chap. i. verfe 10.

And laft of all, we may take notice, That Jofephus acknowledges that this blindness of the Jews was the caufe of the final deftruction of JeTujalem, which was to fucceed the death of the Meffiah, according to the exprefs oracle of Daniel, chap. ix. verfe 26.

С НА Р. XX.

That the MESSIAH was to die; and an Account of the feveral Circumstances of his Death.

O be convinced of this truth, we need only prove that what is

fet down in Pfalm xxii. Ifaiah liii. Daniel ix. and Zachariah xiii. and other prophetical paffages of holy Scripture, is to be understood of the Meffiah; and the reading of them alone is fufficient to fatisfy the meaneft capacity, that the perfon they point at was to lose his life by violence, with feveral very infamous circumftances.

Now it is certain that both ancient and modern Jews interpret these places of the Meffiah; and it is as evident that the Apoftles understood them fo; and therefore all along applied them to Jefus Chrift, following therein the known explications of the Rabbies of their own nation. It is plain alfo, that the death and fuffering of our Saviour would have proved a more efficacious argument to refute the Apoftles, than all the miracles of Jefus Chrift could have been to establish their doctrine, if the prophetical writings had not fo precifely determined his fufferings and death, with the feveral circumftances of them.

It is alfo to be noted, that the prophecies referring to the death of the Meffiah are generally interwoven with ideas which point to other prophetical paffages avowedly owned by the Jews to have relation to the Meffiah. Thus, if we compare Pfalm xxii. verfe 28. with Pfalm lxxii. verf. 8, 9. we shall find the fame idea fet forth in them both.

And because this character was to be the moft proper and distinguishing note of the Meffiah, forafmuch as none with pleasure do precipitate themselves into death, or are maflers of the manner and circumftances

of