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raculous operations?—At this rate, miracles would cease to be miraculous, they would become common and familiar things, and no longer strike the mind with any conviction at all, any more than the ebbing and flowing of the fea, the rifing and setting of the fun; or any other fuch difplays of the divine power, in the common course of Providence.

Upon the whole, there is no evidence wanting, to leave the unbeliever inexcufable.-There is evidence every way fufficient to fatisfy the mind of an impartial inquirer after truth. And it is impoffible for any man in the world to imagine any means of confirmation in this important truth, fuperior to what is herein fet before you.-How unreasonable would it therefore be, to require more evidence in a cafe, wherein we have already as much as we are poffibly capable to receive?-That it may be effectual to establish you in the faith, is, and shall be the prayer of

SIR,

Yours, &c.

LETTER III. Wherein an Hiftorical Ac-. count of the Birth, Life, Paffion, Refurrection, Afcenfion, and future Kingdom of our Bleffed SAVIOUR, is collected from the Prophecies of the Old Testament.

SIR,

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of mine have contributed in the leaft towards your fatisfaction. I am thereby the more encouraged to hope, that your remaining difficulties may eafily be obviated; and particularly, that it will not

prove difficult to answer your prefent demand; to thew you" how you may certainly know that the "prophecies of the Old Teftament had a direct re. "ference unto Jefus Chrift."-You may know this by the exact accommodation of the prediction with the event. That this therefore may be fet before you in a proper light, I will endeavour to give you (in the form of an history) a brief reprefentation of our bleffed Saviour, gathered from the Old Testament ; and leave you to compare this with the narrative of him in the New. -If these agree, you thereby have a certain difcovery of the divine Original of thefe prophecies; fince none but an omniscient mind could poffibly foresee thefe events. And you have like wife the fame certainty, that Jefus Chrift is the predicted Meffiah, and that his miffion is divine, fince what was foretold of the Meffiah in the Prophets, is fulfilled in him.

The time of the manifeftation of this glorious Perfon, whom I am now to defcribe, was during the continuance of the kingdom of Judah, while a Sceptre was in the hand, and a Lawgiver came from between the feet of that tribe (a), while the fecond Temple was yet standing (b), juft 450 Chaldee years after the decree went forth to reflore and to build Ferufalem, which was in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, King of Perfia (c) *. King likewife came into the world, and the God of heaven fet up his everlasting kingdom, at that feason of the fourth or Roman Monarchy (d), when there was an end put to the dreadful shaking of the heavens and the earth, the fea and the dry land, and indeed of all nations,

D

(a) Gen. xlix. 10. (b) Mal. iii. 1. Hag. ii. 7.

-This

(c) Dan. ix, 25.

* Daniel's seven weeks and threescore and two weeks, or 483 years, were to terminate at the death of the Meffiah. We must therefore fubtract from that number, the 33 years of his life; and there remains 450 years to his birth.

(d) Dan. ii. 44.

nations, by the wars of Alexander the Great, the four kingdoms that arose out of his conquefts, and the Romans the conquerors of them all; and when peace was restored to the world (a), which happened when Auguftus Cafar was Emperor of Rome, and Herod the Great was King of Judea.

As to the pedigree or descent of our bleffed Saviour, it must be confidered with refpect to the two different natures that were united in this glorious Perfon. For how wonderful foever it may appear to us, the Man Chrift Jefus was alfo Immanuel, God with us (b); and that divine Child which was born, and that Son which was given to us, (at the time before described) is the mighty God, and the everlasting Father, as well as the Prince of Peace (c). He is that God, whofe throne is for ever and ever (d); and though a Man, yet fuch a Man, as is God's own Fellow (e). Now, if we confider his descent, with refpect to his divine Perfon, it must neceffarily be, that though he be God the Father's Son, and be. gotten by him (f), yet his going forth must have been from of old, from everlasting (g). And it is accordingly true, that the Lord poffeffed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old: He was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was (h).-Being thus neceffarily ftopt from looking any further than to eternity, and to him that inhabits eternity, in confidering the original of his divine Perfon, I proceed to take notice, that in his human nature, he defcended from the loins of Abraham (i), of Isaac (k), and of Jacob (1), from the tribe of Judah (m), and from the royal family of David (n), and that in a way furprisingly dif ferent from any ordinary human generation, a Vir

gin

(a) Hag. ii. 6, 7, 9. (b) Ifa. vii. 14. (c) Ifa. ix. 6. (d) Pfal. xlv. 6. (e) Zech. xiii. 7. (f) Pfal. ii. 7. (g) Micah v. 2. (h) Prov. viii. 22, 23. (i) Gen. xii. 3. (k) Gen. xxvi. 4. (1) Gen. xxviii, 14. (m) Gen. xlix. 10. (n) Pfal. lxxxix. 35,36.

gin conceived and brought forth this Son, whose name is Immanuel (a); and this new thing did God create in the earth, that a woman hath compassed a man (b). The place where our bleffed Saviour was born,

was Bethlehem-Ephratah. This town, though but little among the thousands of Judah, was honoured. with being the place out of which he came forth who is the fupreme Ruler in Ifrael (c). Here he was born: But this was not the place of his chief and principal refidence; that was Galilee of the nations. This people who had walked in darkness, faw this great Light among them; even upon them who had dwelt in the land of the Shadow of death, hath this light fhined (d).

The circumstances of his appearing in the world were low, mean and abafed; very different from the expectations men had entertained of the Meffiah; and therefore he was defpifed and rejected of men, they hid their faces from him, he was defpifed, and they esteemed him not (e). Nay, many were aftonifhed at him, his vifage was fo marred, more than any man; and his form more than the fons of men (f). So far was his appearance from that glory and majefty, that pomp and fplendor, which was expected in the Meffiah, that he was confidered as a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and defpifed of the people (g).-Even the priests and rulers themselves, who fhould have been the builders of the Jewish Church, refufed this Stone, which is become the Head of the Corner (h).—And the reason of this was, that they faw no form nor comeliness, no riches nor honour, no magnificence nor beauty in him, that they fhould defire him (i).

The characters, in which he appeared in the world, were those of a Prophet, Priest and King;

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to each of which it is proper to speak fomething particularly.

The Lord our God did, in the Perfon of our bleffed Saviour, raife up unto his people a PROPHet, like unto Mofes, the greatest and most eminent Prophet of the Jewish Church: He put his words into his mouth, that he might speak unto them whatsoever he commanded him; and held his people under the ftrongest injunction, upon their peril, to hearken to the words which this Prophet fhould fpeak in his name (a). And as our Lord Jefus Chrift was defined by God the Father unto the prophetical office, he cheerfully undertook it. Lo I come, (fays he) in the volume of thy book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: Yea, thy law is within my heart (b). And as he cheerfully undertook, fo he diligently and faithfully difcharged this facred and important truft. He, as a wonderful Counsellor (c), preached conftantly to the people, and made known the whole mind and will of God to them; and could make this appeal to his heavenly Father, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy falvation. I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation (d). He conftantly preached among the people the bleffed and joyful news of a glorious falvation from their fin, guilt, danger and mifery. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, because the Lord had anointed him to preach good tidings unto the meek; he sent him to bind up the broken hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to comfort

(a) Deut. xviii. 18. 19. (d) Pfal. xl. 9, 10.

(b) Pfal. xl. 7, 8.

(c) Ifa. ix. 6.

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