often, the conversion of the Gentiles from superstition and idolatry, to the worship of the true God; they speak of four successive empires, the last of which was the Roman empire; and under this last empire, they say, that a new and everlasting kingdom should be established by one, to whom God should give absolute power and dominion.

"A great person was to come, who should be called Immanuel, or God with us; the son of God, and the son of man; of the seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of David; born of a virgin, poor and obscure, and yet one whom David calls his Lord; the Lord to whom the temple belonged, the mighty God ;—a great King, an everlasting Priest, though not of the tribe of Levi; born at Bethlehem; a prophet like unto Moses, but greater than Moses; a prophet who should preach to the poor and meek, and proclaim liberty to the captives, and comfort to the mourners, and heal the broken hearted; who should proclaim his gospel, first, principally in the land of Zebulon and Naphtali, in Galilee of the Gentiles; who should have a forerunner in the spirit of Elias, crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord;' who should instruct in a mild and peaceable manner; without wrath and contention; before the destruction of

the temple, in which temple he should be seen, and heard; who should enter Jerusalem meek and humble, and riding on an ass; who should work miracles more than all the prophets, and miracles of the merciful and beneficial kind; open the eyes of the blind, and the ears of the deaf, and make the dumb to praise God, and the lame to leap like a hart.

"Notwithstanding all his power and goodness, this great person should be rejected by the greater part of the nation, to whom he should be a stumbling block: He should be despised, and afflicted, a man of sorrows, and cut off from the land of the living; who should have enemies, numerous, powerful, crafty, and wicked; should be accused by false witnesses; betrayed by an intimate and particular friend; sold for thirty pieces of silver, and the money given for a potter's field, when it had been flung away by a traitor, who should not live long after his crime, and whose office should be filled by another.

"His enemies should use him contumeliously, buffet him, and spit upon him, whilst he should be led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth [against them]; uttering only intercession for the transgressors. His enemies should strip him of his raiment, divide it among themselves, and cast lots upon it; surround him, pierce Ff

VOL. II.

his hands and feet, mock him, and shake their heads at him; give him gall to eat, and vinegar to drink.

"His heart should melt within him, and his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth; he should be brought to the dust of death; he should be pierced, and not one of his bones broken; and he should be laid in the sepulchre of a rich and honourable man, none of his enemies hindering it. He should rise again before he had seen corruption; and subdue his enemies, and ascend into heaven, and sit at God's right hand; be crowned with glory and honour; and see his seed prosper, and justify many; and be adored by kings and princes. Jerusalem was to be made desolate, and the Jews dispersed in all lands; and the Gentiles should be converted and flow into the church."

These things were said concerning some person, and they are all applicable, in the fullest manner, to Jesus Christ, of which the following proofs may be adduced: Moses engaged the Jews to study and preserve their pedigrees, by making it the condition on which, only, they could claim the benefit of the law of Jubilee, which had the force of an entail, in respect of every family.

This had the effect of keeping up the distinetion of the tribes through so many ages, and was

designed to manifest the Messiah at his coming; to demonstrate the fulfilment of the prophecies, that he was to spring from the tribe of Judah, and from the house of David. With this view it is, the books of the Old Testament abound so much with genealogical tables; and that the New Testament, also, commences with them. Herein is a scheme worthy of Divine wisdom and prescience; for by this genealogical descent from Abraham to Christ, those events recorded in the Old Testament, in a series of more than ten ages, are closely linked together, and transmitted to us in the most unequivocal and unimpaired manner.

We may now say, that the Christian religion is founded on the proofs of facts; and by witnesses whose evidence cannot be questioned, without shaking all the certainty we can have of any thing in this world. That Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem, in the reign of Augustus, is a fact of which the Roman commissioners were witnesses; and they preserved the account in the Records of the Empire.

That the angels testified their joy at his birth, is a fact which was established by the shepherds of Bethlehem, long before Jesus Christ had any disciple. And it is confirmed by the testimony of Chaleydias the Platonist, in his commentary

on Timous. He wrote soon after the coming of Christ; and he mentions the new star which ap.. peared and conducted the wise men of Chaldea.

The birth of Jesus Christ, and the arrival of the wise men affrighted Herod. That it was publicly known and confirmed by the murder of the infants of Bethlehem, and reported to Augustus, together with the death of Antipater, is stated by Macrobius, who writes: "When Augustus heard that Herod's own son was killed, among the infants under two years of age, by his father's order, he said, "It is better to be Herod's hog than his son." Macrob. lib. ii. 4.

That Jesus was in Egypt, and that he returned thence, are facts with which the Jews reproach our Saviour, as if he had learned there the secret of working miracles.

That he confounded the doctors at twelve years of age, is a fact of which the whole nation of the Jews were informed, because it happened at one of those solemn feasts which brought up the whole nation to Jerusalem.

That he was baptized by John, and received a most glorious testimony from him, is a fact of which the Jews who had been drawn by the ministry of John to the river of Jordan, were witnesses.

That Jesus Christ chose for his apostles,