pofition of fuch a deliverer highly defirable. There were even a few among the heathens, fuch as Socrates and his immediate disciples, who seem to have felt the neceffity of a divine teacher; and to be fenfible that man, in a ftate of nature, was too depraved, and too ignorant, to be either able or disposed to worship God acceptably, without one. There is reason to believe, that the Revelation which we enjoy, though despised by too many who affect to be called philofophers in modern times, would have been highly prized by the wifest and best of the philofophers of antiquity. Socrates thought men were not capable of knowing and expreffing their own wants, nor of asking what was good for themfelves, unless it fhould pleafe God to fend them an inftructor from heaven, to teach them how to pray. And therefore,

2. The need that all nations had of fuch a Saviour, is fufficient to establish his right to this title, admitting they had no knowledge or expectation of him. If we could fuppofe a nation involved for ages in the darkness of night, though they had no previous notion of light, yet light might be faid to be their defire, because the light, whenever

The hea

They had

they should enjoy it, would put an end to their calamity, would answer their wants, and in that sense accomplish their wishes; for if they could not directly wish for light, they would naturally wifh for relief. thens were miferably bewildered. a thirst for happiness, which could not be fatisfied by any or all the expedients and perfuits within their reach. They had fears and forebodings of confcience for which they knew no remedy. They were fo fenfible, both of their guilt and their weakness, that being ignorant of the character of the true God, and of that forgiveness which is with him, in times of extremity they frequently offered the most expenfive facrifices to the objects of their idolatrous fuperftition, even the blood and lives of their children *. When MESSIAH appeared, as he was the glory of Ifrael, fo he was a light to the Gentiles, as we shall have opportunity of obferving more at large hereafter. He therefore who came purposely to blefs the nations by turning them from darkness to light, and from the worship of dumb idols to ferve the living and true God, may justly be called their defire,

* Micah vi. 6.

though,

though, in the time of their ignorance, they could form no fuitable conception of him.

II. I will shake the heavens and the earth. This part of the prophecy has been, in a meafure, literally fulfilled. At his birth a new ftar appeared. At his death the fun withdrew his fhining, the earth quaked, the rocks rent, and the dead arofe. During his life he often fufpended and overruled the stated laws of nature, and exercised fupreme power over the visible and invifible worlds. He fhook the kingdom of darkness, spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them by his crofs. He fhook the kingdoms of the earth; the idols trembled and disappeared before his gofpel, till at length the Roman empire renounced heathenifm, and embraced the chriftian name.

But the language of prophecy is highly figurative. Mountains and trees, land and water, fun and moon, heaven and earth, often fignify nations, people and governments. And particularly heaven and earth are used to denote the religious and political establishment of Ifrael; or, as we fay, their conftitution in church and ftate. This without doubt is the primary fenfe here.

E 3

The ap

The

pearance

pearance of MESSIAH shall be connected with the total diffolution of the Jewish œconomy. The whole of their Levitical inftitution was fulfilled, fuperfeded and abrogated by MESSIAH, which was folemnly fignified, by the rending of the vail of the temple from the top to the bottom at his death. And, a few years afterwards, the temple itself was deftroyed. By which event, the worship of God, according to the law, of which the temple service was an effential part, was rendered utterly impracticable. Their civil state likewife was diffolved, they were extirpated from the promised land, and dispersed far and wide among the nations of the earth. Though in one fense they are preserved by the wonderful providence of God, as a distinct people, unaffected by the changes and customs around them in another fenfe they are not a people, having neither fettlement nor government, but living as ftrangers and foreigners in every country where their lot has been caft *. Nothing like this can be found in the history of mankind. It is an obvious, ftriking, and perpetual proof of the truth of the fcriptures. What was foretold concern* Hofea iii. 4.

ing them by Mofes and the fucceeding prophets, is accomplished to a demonstration before our eyes. How unlikely was it once that it should be thus! yet thus it must be, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. And all that he has fpoken is equally fure. He will yet again fhake the heavens and the earth, diffolve the frame of nature, and execute his threatened judgments upon all those who do not receive and obey his gospel.

III. He shall fill this house with glory. He did fo when he condefcended to vifit it in perfon. The blind and the lame came thither to him and he healed them*. Children felt his power, and fung hofanna to the Son of David, a title appropriate to MESSIAH; and when the Pharifees rebuked them, he faid, If thefe fhould hold their peace the ones would cry out. As the Lord in his own houfe, he purged the temple, and drove out those who profaned it, and not one of his enemies durft offer the least resistance to his will. And when he left it the last time, with sovereign authority, he denounced that awful fentence, which was foon afterwards executed, by the Romans, both upon the temple and the * Matt. xxi. 15, 16. + Luke xix. 40.