refurrection, ascension, and fitting at the right hand of God, in incomparable glory and majesty; concerning his benefits, that all nations should be blefted in him, blessed with everlasting life, righteoufnefs, and peace, and with the gracious prefence of God, vouchfafing to dwell among them, notwithstanding their former rebellion, Pf. Ixviii.; concerning the religious honours due to him, that men should be blessed by trusting in him, Pf. ii.; that he should be daily praised, Pf. lxxii.; that his name should be remembered for ever in God's church; and the ordinances of God's worship should be performed with a special regard to his mediation. SECT. III. General remarks on prophecies after David. I. In confidering the prophecies delivered in the ages after David, it is useful to reduce them to three different claffes, according to the following three different periods of time in which they were delivered, viz. 1. The times at a confiderable diItance before the captivity; 2. the times of the captivity itself, or very near it; 3. the times after the return from it. In the first period, we have four prophets, who, by the inscriptions of their prophetic books, appear to have been cotemporary for fome part of their life, viz. Ifaiah, Hofea, Micah, and Amos. The first two are said expressly to have prophefied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; Amos is faid to have prophefied in the days of the first of these kings, and Micah in the days of the three last of them. Though the time of Jonah and Nahum's prophecy is not expressly mentioned, it appears to have been before the captivity, because it was before the destruction of Nineveh. In the fecond period, we have the prophecies of Jeremiah, Rr remiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah; and in the third, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachy. II. Because sometimes people fuffer themselves to be dazzled with general confused objections againft the gofpel-interpretation of the prophecies, as if the contexts where they are found, treated of fubjects with which predictions of the Meffiah could have no manner of connection; it is useful, for obviating fuch objections, and for other good purpofes, to make fome general remarks on the manner in which predictions of the Messiah are introduced, and on the various principal subjects with which they are fometimes mixed. 1. Sometimes fuch predictions stand by themselves, detached 'from all other subjects; as, for instance, in If. ii. 1. 2. 3. &c. where the prediction of the converfion of the Gentiles is placed at the very beginning of a new prophecy, without any other introduction, but a general affertion, that what the prophet is about to deliver is by divine inspiration: "The word that Ifaiah the fon of Amos faw, con ८८ ८८ cerning Judah and Jerufalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the "Lord's house shall be established in the top of the "mountains; - and all nations shall flow unto it." 2. The other fubjects with which predictions of the Mefliah are fometimes mixed, are in themfelves of fuch a nature, and treated of in such a way, as, instead of founding juft objections against the gofpel-interpretation, affords confiderable confirmations of it. (1) Befides practical instructions relating to the feveral branches of true religion, the principal events with which the predictions of the Meffiah are mixed, are the revolutions which providence was to bring about by the most powerful ancient monarchies; and particularly the use that was to be made of those powers, in panishing the wickedness of of Ifrael and Judah, and other neighbouring nations; but the threatenings against God's visible church are mixed with gracious promises of fafety, amidst the greatest dangers, and deliverance from calamities that feeined to threaten her total ruin, particularly the Babylonish captivity. As these events were the most remarkable revolutions in those ancient ages of the world, divine providence appeared, in an eminent manner, in the events themselves, and divine forefight in the prediction of them; and it was subservient to various valuable purposes, that, on fome occafions, the more distant events relating to the Meffiah should be mixed with them. Those other events being nearer hand, the accomplishment of them, one after another, ferved to give repeated new demonftrations, from time to time, of the divine inspiration of the prophets who had foretold them, and fo to strengthen the belief of the more important, but more diftant things, which the fame prophets had foretold concerning the Meffiah. (2) Befides this, feeing the righteous judgements which these revolutions were to bring on God's church, might appear to be objections against the most ancient prophetic promises, particularly those relating to the subsistence of the Jewish polity until the Meffiah's coming, and the establishment of the everlafting kingdom in the house of David, it was needful the church should be armed against such temptations to unbelief, by finding the promise of the Meffiah renewed and enlarged on, amidft predictions of events that seemed to threaten the total deftruction of the church, and extirpation of true religion out of the world. (3) Whereas the prophecies concerning the above-mentioned revolutions contain three different forts of threatenings, viz. 1. threatenings againft the incorrigible adverfaries of God's kingdom in general; 2. threatenings against particular Heathen nations; Rr2 nations; and, 3. threatenings against Israel and Judah; all these forts of threatenings are mixed with predictions concerning the Meffiah, and the converfion of the nations. It deferves particular confideration, that the more general threatenings fometimes expressly declare, that the events they foretell should be fubfervient to the more important revolution that was to be brought about by the Meffiah; of which we have a remarkable instance in If. xxiv. & xxv. compared together; to which the 34th and 35th chapters have a confiderable resemblance. We have clear instances of predictions of the times of the Meffiah, mixed with threatenings againft particular Heathen nations, in If. xviii. xix. xi. and xxiii, which foretell the converfion of Ethiopia, Affyria, Egypt, and Tyre. (4) Corcerning this conjunction of fo distant events in the fame complex prediction, it is proper to observe, that it is fuitable to the rules of just compofition, in hiftorical fummaries, or the most compendious narratives, fuch as these predictions are, to mix together, in one context, events which happen indeed in very diftant ages, but which happen in the fame place, or to the fame fociety or nation. This remark is useful for anfwering objections against fome predictions relating to the Meffiah, where we find, together with events that have happened already, fuch as the converfion of many nations, other events that are not yet accomplished, and perhaps will not be accomplished till the time which Daniel calls the time of the end, or the time of the univerfal converfion of Jews and Gen tiles. Though we abstract from the predictions which relate more directly to the Messiah, it can be proved from other prophecies, that as it is in itself fuitable to the rules of just compofition in fuch fummaries; fo, in fact, the prophets do join together, in one context, events happening to the fame こ city or nation in very distant ages. Thus the pro- The fame observations are applicable to the predictions concerning Tyre, feeing it was not till long after Chrift that it was so utterly destroyed, as to become a place only fit for fishermen to dry their nets on; as is foretold Ezek. xxvi. 14. "I will make "thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a " place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no " more *." (5) The prophetic threatenings against Judah are not only mixed with predictions of the Meffiah, but alfo with promises of fuch temporal safety and deliverances, as were neceffary for the prefervation of their civil polity from utter ruin, according to * Sce, in Prideaux's Connections, a particular account of the gradual accomplishment of the predictions concerning Babylon and Tyre. the τ. |