and afflicted,' ver. 7,' and cut off out of the land of the living,' ver. 8, and Dan. ix. 26.

How contrary to this, in all appearance, are the other predictions, which speak of him as a happy king, as a prosperous and triumphant conqueror! Behold,' saith Isa. xxxii. 1, speaking of Christ, a king shall reign in righteousness. Behold,' saith the Lord, Jer. xxiii. 5, 'the days come that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and judgment in the earth-and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.' Thus God speaks to his Son, in the second Psalm, and that by the name of Christ, Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' The forty-fifth Psalm is one entire hymn to Christ, wherein the psalmist says, My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made unto the King. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most Mighty, with thy glory and with thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, and the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.' The rest of the Psalm is laid out in describing the happiness and glory of Christ as a King.

This opposition in the predictions concerning our Saviour's success in the world descends even to those which characterize his person. Thou art fairer than the children of men,' saith David in the Psalm just now quoted. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him,' saith Isaiah in his fifty-third chapter.

Now, all this, so seemingly contradictory, was exactly verified in our Saviour. To the generality of the Jews, neither he, nor his doctrine, appeared to have any thing amiable in them. He was despised; he was afflicted; he was persecuted; he was scourged, spit upon, and crucified. On the other side,' the pleasure of the Lord,' as Isaiah said, 'prospered in his hands;' his doctrine spread; mankind

were brought under his laws; the kingdom of the world submitted to his. He is esteemed fairer than the children of men ;' and, as such, he is beloved, obeyed, adored. Nay, what the Jews, blinded by pride and ambition, could not see, we have now seen; namely, his humiliation and sufferings, according to the prophecies, made the means of his exaltation and success; for it hath happened exactly according to the prediction of Isa. liii. 11, 12, Because of the travail of his soul, he hath seen his desire, and hath been satisfied. Therefore hath God divided him a portion with the great, and he hath shared the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.' What human wisdom could have foreseen, that one of these seeming opposites should have been made the very means and reason of the other? The Jews, who could not foresee it, because they did not understand this prophecy, persecuted him, put him to death, and did all they could to destroy his kingdom in its infancy; but by these very means they proved him to be the Messiah, procured him success with the world, and both ways verified the seemingly contradictory predictions, in him and themselves.

I mention themselves; because this leads me to another seeming opposition between the prophecies that foretell the strength and happiness of Christ's people, and those that predict their misery and ruin. No terms can be stronger, nor plainer, than those in which both are foretold by the prophets, and both foretold as attendants on Christ's appearing in the world.

ye

You may see the miseries threatened by Almighty God to his people in the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. Ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain,' ver. 11; Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear,' ver. 12. Therefore thus saith the Lord God-Ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name," ver. 14, 15. The angel Gabriel acquaints Daniel with the precise time of this calamity, which having pointed out by

• The

the famous prophecy of seventy weeks, he says, people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate, Dan. ix. 26, 27. This dreadful destruction, according to the prophecy, is soon to follow the cutting off, or murder, of the Messiah. The prophet Malachi sets this alarming event in a yet stronger light, and affixes it to the time of the Messiah. Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea and all they that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch,' iv. 1. But lest his people should not be apprized of the time when these calamities were to befall them, God says, 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,' ver. 5.

Directly opposite to these judgments are the blessings promised by Almighty God to his people on the coming of Christ. In his days,' that is, in the days of the Messiah, saith God by Jer. xxiii. 6, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. They shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid,' Micah. iv. 4. 'I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen,' Hos. i. 7. The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgressión in Jacob,' Isa. lix. 20. He will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. He will place his tabernacle also with them: yea, he will be their God, and they shall be his people,' Ezek. xxxvii. 26, 27. In those days, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,' Isa. ii. 4. And it shall come to pass, that I will hear, saith the Lord; I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel,' Hos. ii. 21, 22. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the

ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine,' Amos ix. 13. For the happiness of the blessed state under the Messiah, the prophets proclaim a jubilee to the whole world. Sing, O heavens,' saith Isaiah, 'and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted his people,' Isa. xlix. 13. 'Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel,' xliv. 23.

Here now are misery and destruction threatened, happiness and salvation promised, to God's people, and both at the coming of the Messiah. Before he did come, who could have reconciled these things, or pointed out a possibility of completion to prophecies so directly contrary?

The Jews dwelt only on the promises, and understood them in no other than a gross and carnal sense. The generality of them were not to be disabused of this mistake. In them was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive; for these people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them;' Isaiah vi. 9, 10. This our Saviour quotes and applies, Matt. xiii. and St. Paul, Acts xxviii. On this account Christ 'beheld the city of Jerusalem, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!--but now are they hid from thine eyes: for the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation,' Luke xix. 42-44.

Accordingly, the Jews, not knowing the time of their visitation by Christ, though so clearly pointed out by the angel in Daniel, treated their heavenly visitor with con

tempt, persecuted him, crucified him, and praying that his blood might fall on their heads, and the heads of their children,' were soon after visited by the most dreadful calamities, and extirpated by the most exemplary destruction, that ever befel any nation under heaven. Thus were the prophetic threatenings verified, on the one side; while, on the other, the promises were no less signally made good to such Jews, and Gentiles also, as believed in Christ, and, by virtue of the new covenant, became the people of God. These, warned by their master, fled to Pella, a little city beyond the Jordan, and so escaped the calamity. Here they lived in peace and plenty, while the unbelievers were tearing and eating one another in the besieged city; and thus the prophecy by Isaiah was literally fulfilled: 'Thus saith the Lord, Behold, my servants shall eat; but ye shall be hungry behold, my servants shall drink; but ye shall be thirsty behold, my servants shall rejoice; but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart; but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit,' Isa. lxv. 13, 14. Never was there on earth so happy a people as the Christians. They were sometimes persecuted indeed; but in that they rejoiced, and gloried; because it was for the sake of him who had bought them with his blood. There were none poor or distressed among them; for they enjoyed all things in common, and, as occasion required, sent relief to one another from distant countries. They were all brothers and sisters in love, all saints in piety and integrity. Among them, 'mercy and truth had met together; righteousness and peace had kissed each other.' How happy must a people be, who, in all their intercourse, were governed by such principles! But they were still infinitely happier in their expectations, founded on the true spiritual construction of the prophecies and promises. They then saw where their beautiful Canaan, and glorious Jerusalem lay. They counted it a thing of little consequence to them, how they fared in this world; because they exulted in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life. Here lay their happy abiding place; and hither they hastened with all the speed an innocent and holy life could give them. The prophetic promises were more than fulfilled in the consolations of the Holy Spirit.