refer to prophecies fulfilled before our eyes, or to those whose accomplishment is recorded in the New Testament, depends upon the unambiguity of the prediction, and the exactness of its accomplishment. When, therefore, the Jew comes with objections founded on unfulfilled prophecy, we must not resign the sword with which we have hitherto conquered, and grasp at a shadow, but with full confidence in the heavenly temper of our weapons, and in all good faith towards even an opponent, we must allow the force of his objection, and the legitimacy of his hopes founded on the word of God, and see whether a closer examination will not turn this objection into an argument for the truth. Such was the method pursued by an early apologist of the Christian faith. When Tryphon the Jew argued that Jesus could not be the Messiah, because the promises of glory and the mission of Elijah had not been accomplished, Justin Martyr did not meet him by a spiritual interpretation, or an hypocritical reproof for the carnality of his expectations, but by distinguishing between times and seasons; and such is the course pointed out in the text by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. When the Jew objects, we must say in reply, The prophecies which you cite are equally sacred in our eyes with those which we have ourselves adduced in proof of our faith. The hopes built on them are equally well founded the blessings promised equally secure of accomplishment. We have no desire to shake your faith in these unfulfilled predictions. We blame you, not for believing too much, but too little. We think that your mistake is that of Christ's disciples, when he said to them, 'O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.' Those holy men of old who foretold Messiah's glory have also announced his humiliation. The God of your fathers has made known a twofold advent of Messiah, one to suffer, the other, after a long interval, to reign. The absence, therefore, of the glory is not only not an objection to, it is a negative proof in favour of Christianity. Time does not, however, permit us to enter into the further discussion of this argument at present-it must be reserved for another occasion. LECTURE V. LUKE XXIV. 25, 26. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? IN N the last lecture, it was stated that the nonfulfilment of certain prophecies relating to the times of Messiah is the chief objection which the Jews urge against the truth of Christianity. It was shown that the usual answers to this objection are insufficient, or even prejudicial to the Christian cause-and it was suggested that the argument used by our Lord to remove the doubts of his disciples, furnishes the true reply. Partial faith and partial consideration of the prophetic Scriptures appear as the cause of their common malady. Both fixed their eyes upon the promises of glory, and totally overlooked the predicted humiliation which was to precede. Our Lord endeavoured to remove the unbelief of his followers by directing their attention to all that the prophets have spoken, and by teaching them to distinguish between the suffering and the glory. The same distinction, if valid, will solve the difficulties propounded by the Jew. To prove its validity is the object of the present lecture. reign of universal Appealing to the The Jew, appealing to the prophets, says, The tribes of Israel have not been gathered the kingdom of David not restored-the peace and holiness not begun. same prophecies, we reply, You are mistaken in the time. The prophets announce two advents: one to suffer the other to reign in the manner you expect; and we thus make good our assertion. If it can be shown that the predictions concerning Messiah's advent differ with regard to place, time, and circumstance, and of each give a twofold description, it will necessarily follow that there must be two distinct advents. But that this is the fact cannot be denied, even by the adversaries of Christianity. The prophet Daniel (vii. 13, 14) declares. that Messiah is to come from heaven. 'I saw,' says he, 'in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.' The prophet Micah, on the contrary, declares that he should come forth from Bethlehem, of Judah; and the numerous promises that he should be born of the family of David, as necessarily determine that this earth must be the scene of his entrance into his office. If the Son of David is to come from heaven, as in that holy place none are born of women, he must previously have been born upon earth, and thence ascended up thither; that is, before the advent here described by Daniel, he must have come once already in order to be born, and therefore his advent to receive the kingdom promised him must be the second. The Jews, therefore, must either admit two advents, or believe that Messiah is a merely celestial being; and then deny that he is that which Daniel declares him to be, 'The Son of man,' and that which the prophets announced he should be, 'The son of David.' The very same doctrine follows inevitably from Jewish tradition. The Jerusalem Talmud says expressly, that Messiah was born long since in Bethlehem of Judah, and gives the name of a Jew who went and saw him.* The Babylonian Talmud† and the book of Zohar also imply that in the times in which they were written, Messiah had been born and already grown up to man's estate, and was then in Paradise interceding for Israel. The former book says that he was seen by a celebrated rabbi, and asked concerning the time of his advent. The popular faith, therefore, of the Jewish people, founded upon the prophetic writings, proves that those writings contain intimations of two distinct advents, one for the purpose of being born in Bethlehem of Judah, the other a return from Paradise, where for centuries he has tarried. A consideration of the times marked out by the prophets will lead to the same conclusion. Jacob, by declaring that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet * Berachoth, fol. 5, col. i. Old Paths, No. 50. H |