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SERM.

V.

And here, the Appearance of the Star to the Wife-Men in the Eaft, the Royal and Divine Honours which they came to pay him: The Slaughter of the Infants, which that Homage occafioned: The Flight of Jefus into Egypt, the Falling of the Idols before him there, and his Return from thence: His fudden Coming to the Temple: His folemn Entrance upon his prophetick Office, and his Manner of Teaching: The Multitude of his Miracles, and the Greatness of them: And the Manner of his Reception and Treatment among the Jews All these have been feve-rally confidered, and all found most exactly to agree with the Predictions which the Prophets had delivered concerning him. I shall now go on to his laft Paffion and Death, and those Indignities and Sufferings which imme diately preceded it: As to which the Prophecies in Scripture are fo copious and express, as to reach every material Circumstance relating to them. The firft Step he made to it, by his triumphal Entrance into Jerufalem, is exactly described by the Prophet Zechariah, Zech. ix. 9. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Sion, fhout, O Daughter of Jerusalem: Bebold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having Salvation, lowly, and riding upon an

Afs,

V.

Afs, and upon a Colt the Fole of an Afs. SERM. And that this which was spoken by the Prophet might be fulfilled, three of the Evangelifts minutely record, Mat. xxi. 1, &c. Mark xi. 1, &c. Luke xix. 29, &c. that when Jefus drew nigh unto Jerusalem-be sent two of his Difciples to a neighbouring Village-where he told them they fhould find an Afs tied, and a Colt with her, whereon Man had never fat, and these he bids them to loose, and to bring them thither to him. The Disciples did as Jefus commanded them. They brought the Afs, and the Colt, and they caft their Garments upon the Colt, and they fet Jefus thereon. And a very great Multitude spread their Garments in the Way: Others cut down Branches from the Trees, and ftrewed them in the Way. And the Multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, faying, HoJanna to the Son of David; bleffed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hofanna in the highest.

That the Meffiab fhould be betrayed by one of his own Difciples, the Holy Pfalmift clearly foretels, P. xli. 9. Mine own familiar Friend, whom I trusted, who did eat of my Bread, bath lift up his Heel against me. And that this Scripture alfo might be ful

filled,

SERM. filled, Jefus, who from the Beginning, knew V. who should betray him, John xiii. 18. when he

chofe his twelve Apoftles, admitted Judas to be one of them, c. vi. 64, 70. whom he knew to be a Devil, and who did actually fell him.

The Price at which the Jews were to value the Meffiah, Zechariah tells us was the Price of the very meanest of Slaves, viz. thirty Pieces of Silver, Zech. xi. 12. And St. Matthew affures us, that was the exact Price for which Judas fold Jefus; Mat. xxvi. 5. that thirty Pieces of Silver was the Sum for which the Chief Priests agreed with him. And if Zachary goes on to tell us what Ufe

and that they

Zech xi. 13.

those Pieces were to be put to,
were to be caft unto the Potter;
St. Matthew alfo will proceed, and relate
how, when Judas returned the Silver Pieces,
the Chief Priests, not holding it lawful to put
them into the Treafury, because they were the
Priee of Blood, took Counsel, and bought with
them the Potter's Field, wherein to bury Stran-
gers, Mat. xxvii.

7.

The Confufion and Fright which this Difafter of our Lord brought upon his Difciples, our Lord himself tells us, was also foretold by the fame Prophet in these Words following. Compare Zech. xiii. 7. with Mat.

V.

xxvi. 31. Awake, O Sword, against my Shep-S ER M. berd, and against the Man that is my Fellow, faith the Lord of Hofts; fmite the Shepherd, and the Sheep fhall be scattered, and I will turn mine Hand upon the little ones.-After this his reproachful Treatment by the Jews, is exactly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah,— Ifai. 1. 6. I gave my Back to the Smiters, and my Cheeks to them that plucked off my Hair: I bid not my Face from Shame and Spitting: This we all know was literally fulfilled, when the Jews Spit in his Face, and buffeted him, and others of them fmote him with the Palms of their Hands, Mat. xxvi. 67. and when Pilate fcourged him, Ch. xxvii. 26

That the Manner of his Death could be no other than Crucifixion, the brazen Serpent erected upon a Pole in the Defert typically forefhewed: For as Mofes lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even fo was the Son of Man to be lifted up, John iii. 14. And what more beautiful Type could have been formed? Mankind had received a mortal Wound from the old Serpent, the Devil, of which God had fore-determined they never should be healed, but by lifting up their Hearts and Faith to a Redeemer, who should Spoil that wicked Spirit and the Powers under

SER M. him, of the Victory they had gained, and

V.

make a Shew of them openly, and triumph over them, Col, ii. 15. by his own Suffering on a Crofs. And now fee how well adapted the Type was to prefigure this. Upon an unreasonable Murmuring of the Ifraelites against God, Numb. xxi. 6-9. the Lord fent fiery Serpents among the People, and they bit the People, and much People of Ifrael died. Therefore the People came to Mofes, and faid, We have finned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and againft thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the Serpents from us: And Mofes prayed for the People. And the Lord faid unto Mofes, Make thee a fiery Serpent, and fet it upon a Pole; and it fhall come to pass, that every one, that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, fhall live. And Mofes made a Serpent of Brass, and put it upon a Pole; and it came to pass, that if a Serpent had bitten any Man, when he bebeld the Serpent of Brass, he lived. But to proceed to fome other Prophecies and Types.

The Appointment of the Paffover in which a Bone was not to be broken, Exod. xii, 46. may be easily understood to intimate that the Antitype of the Paffover was to undergo a Death to which the breaking of the Bones did ordinarily belong, (and that, according to ufual Custom,

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