If.xi. 1.2.

Jer.

xxxiii. 15.

xvii. 22.

throne. There fhall come forth a rod out of the flem of Jeffe; and a branch fhall go out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord fhall rest upon him; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might; the Spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; and fhall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Jer. Behold the day is come, faith the Lord, that I will xxiii. 5. raife unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and profper, and fhall execute judgment and juftice on the earth. In his days Judah fhall be faved; and Ifrael fhall dwell fafely and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness. In those days will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall Ezek. execute judgment and righteoufnefs in the land. Thus faith the Lord God, I will take the highest branch of the highest cedar; and I will plant it on a high mountain; and it fhall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar, and under it fall dwell all the fowls of every wing = in the fhadow of the branches thereof fhall they dwell. Hear now, O Joshua, the high-prieft, thou, and thy fellows, that fit before thee: Behold I will bring forth my fervant the Branch-Thus faith the Lord of Hofts, Behold the man whofe name is the Branch; he fhall grow up out of his place: and he fhall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory: and he shall fit and Mic. iv. 1. rule upon his throne. In the last days it fhall come to pafs, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it fhall be exalted above the hills; and the people fhall flow into Mic. iv. 7. it. The Lord fhall reign over them in mount Sion,

Zech. iii. 8.

Zech.

vi. 12.

Jer. xxiii. 5. Here again the fame fucceffor is promifed to David five hundred years after the death of that prince; which promife had been made before to the patriarchs, and to that prince himfelf.

Dan.

ii. 35.

from henceforth, even for ever. And it shall come to pass If. ii. 2. in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord fhall be established, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations fhall flow into it. And the ftone, which was cut out of the mountain without hands, fhall become a great mountain, and fill the earth. And he will deftroy in this If. xxv.7. mountain, the face of the covering caft over all people, and the veil that is fspread over all nations. And many shall Is. ii. 3. fay, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: he will teach us his ways; and we will walk in his paths: for out of Sion fhall go forth the law; and the word of the Lord from Jerufalem: and he fball judge among the nations, and fhall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their fwords into plough-shares, and their fpears into pruning-hooks: nation fhall not rise against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.————— The wolf If. xi. 6. alfo fhall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear fhall feed, and their young ones lie down together; and the lion fhall eat ftraw like the ox. The fucking child fhall play on the hole of the afp; and the weaned child fhall put his hand on the cockatrice den. And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth fhall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the fea. And in that day, there fhall be a root of Jeffe, which fhall ftand for an enfign to the people. To it shall the Gentiles feek: and his reft fhall be glorious. fhall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between xlix. 10.

The fcepter

his

Gen.

If. xxv. 7. There is fomething extremely grand in thus reprefenting the gofpel as removing the darkness spread over all nations by drawing up a vaft curtain to let in the light.

Gen. xlix. 10. Some have objected that this prophecy was fulfilled in Mofes. But what fcepter had Judah before Mofes? The word Shiloh fignifies fent; and was always interpreted by the ancient VOL. I.

d

Jews

Num.

Dan. vii. 13.

his feet, until Shiloh come: and unto him fhall the gathering of the people be. There fhall come a Star out of Jacob, xxiv.17 and a fcepter shall arise out of Ifrael. I will also give If. xlix. 6. thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayeft be my falvation unto the ends of the earth. I faw in the night vifions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven; and came to the Ancient of days. And there was given unto him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, fhould ferve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his Dan. kingdom, that which shall not be deftroyed. The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which fhall never be deftroyed, but shall stand for ever Behold, I will give to Jerufalem one that bringeth good tidings-O Sion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerufalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with ftrength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O xlix. 13. earth; and break forth into finging, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people; and will have mercy on his Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.

ii. 44.

If. xli. 27.

If. xl. 9.

Mal. iv. 2. afflicted.

Jews of the Meffiah. It is fuppofed, indeed, by many interpreters,
that Mofes himself alluded to this prophecy when he expreffes his
backwardness to God in going to Pharaoh. Send, I pray thee, by
the band of him whom thou wilt fend that is, by the Shiloh, whom
thou haft promised. How very exactly this prophecy was fulfilled,
is very apparent. The difperfion of the Jews, independent of pro-
phecy, is one of the most fingular events in the hiftory of mankind :
but when we confider it as the completion of prophecy
when we
confider this people difperfed and wandering among all the nations
upon earth
without temples without laws, without government
-connected with none, but diftinct from all-as if preferved to com-
plete future prophecies the whole together, I think, forms an ar-
gument of fufficient force to weigh against all the cavils of in-
fidelity.

SEC.

SECTION II.

Containing those prophecies which relate to the birth
of the Meffiah.

THE voice of him that crieth in the wildernefs, Prepare ye If. xl. 3. the way of the Lord; make straight in the defert a highway for our God. Every valley fhall be exalted, and every mountain and bill fhall be made low; and the crooked fhall be made Straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord fhall be revealed, and all flefb fhall fee it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Behold, I will send you Mal. iv. 5.

Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. I will fend my meffenger, and he Mal.iii.1. shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye feek, fhall fuddenly come to his temple - even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he fhall come, faith the Lord of hofts. I have fet my king upon my holy hill of Pf. ii. 6. Sion. Thou art my fon; this day have I begotten thee. I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance; and the utmost parts of the earth for thy poffeffion. fhall give you a fign; Behold, a Virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon, and fhall call his name Emmanuel. Bethlem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands

The Lord himself If. vii. 14.

And thou, Mic. v. 2.

If. xl. 3. By mountains and rough ways, the prophet indicates the moral difficulties which the gospel tended to remove.

Pf. ii. 6. This prophecy of the heathen, and the utmost parts of the earth as a poffeffion, is, in other language, the old patriarchal promife, in thee fhall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

If. vii. 14. There is fome difficulty in this prophecy. The two children feem to be confounded; and likewife the two figns-that to Ahaz, and that to the house of Ifrael: and many commentators have endeavoured, though none perhaps fatisfactorily, to remove the obfcurity. I think it probable that the text may be faulty. After all, however, the prophecy felf, that a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, and that his name fhould be Emmanuel, or God with man, ftands clear of all difficulty, however the context or temporary prophecy which is connected with it may be involved in obfcurity.

of Judah, yet out of thee fhall he come forth, who is to be the ruler in Ifrael; whose goings forth have been from of old : If.ix. 2. from everlasting. The people that walked in darkness have feen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light fbined. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government fhall be upon his fhoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there fhall be no end.

Deut.

xviii. 18.

SECTION III.

Containing thofe prophecies which relate to the life of the
Meffiah his preaching, and his miracles.

I WILL raise them a prophet from among their brethren (said God to Moses) like unto thee; and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command. If. liii. 2. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall fee him, there is no beauty that we should defire him. He is defpifed and rejected of men -a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He

If. xlii. 2. was despised, and we esteemed him not.

nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.

He fhall not cry,

A bruised reed

shall he not break; and smoaking flax fhall he not quench. How beautiful

If. lii. 7. He fhall bring forth judgment with truth.

Deut. xviii. 18. That no prophet ever did arise in Ifrael like unto Mofes, is taken notice of by Samuel, or whoever added the concluding part to the pentateuch. See Deut. xx. 10. The great leading characters in Mofes, is his delivering Ifrael, and introducing a new law. These characters agree only in the Meffiah. The great difference was, that his deliverance and his law were universal and perpetual ; thofe of Mofes, local and tranfitory.

If. xlii. 2. This prophecy fets the mildness and quietness of the Meffiah in oppofition to the fevere and fpirited character of the prophets,

upon