CHA P. V.

THE PROPHECIES.

I

F the legislator of nature, not satisfied with

employing that language of figns (b), which spoke chiefly to the fenfes, had also foretold, at fundry times and in divers manners, the miffion of his Delegate; this would furely be a new and striking proof of the truth of that miffion, and a proof which would greatly increase the affemblage of probabilities, already fo confiderable, which I have brought together in support of the doctrine of immortality.

This proof would strike me much more, if, by a particular difpenfation of fupreme wisdom, the oracles of which I am speaking had been committed to the care of the very adverfaries of the DELEGATE, and his

(b) The miracles, Chap. iv. Part xvi. Phil. Paleng. Chap. i. ii. Book i. of these Inquiries.

disciples;

difciples; and if these first and most obftinate adverfaries had conftantly profeffed to apply these oracles to that divine Messenger who was to come.

I therefore open this book (c), which to this day is held forth as authentic and divine, by the defcendants, in a direct line, of thofe very men who have crucified the MESSENGER OF HEAVEN, and perfecuted his minifters and firft difciples. I peruse this book, and I meet with a paffage in it (d) which excites in me the greatest astonishment; I think I am reading an anticipated and circumstantial history of Christ; I discover all the features of his character, and the principal particulars of his life; in a word, I think I am reading the very evidence of the witneffes themselves,

I cannot withdraw my attention from this

(c) The Old Testament.

(d) Isaiah, liii. This prophet was of the royal race, and the first of the great prophets; he prophefied about feven centuries before the Chriftian æra. It has been faid, and with reafon, of this prophet, that he was in fome fort a fifth evangelist.

furprising portrait: what features! what colouring! what agreement with facts! How juft, how natural are the emblems! Emblems, did I fay? It is not the emblematical portrait of a very distant futurity; it is a faithful representation of fomething present, and that which is not yet in being, is painted as though it were.

For he fhall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness: and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should defire him.

He is defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was defpifed, and we efteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our forrows.

But he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities: the chaftifement of our peace was upon him; and with bis ftripes we are healed,

He was oppreffed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb

to

to the flaughter; and as a sheep before her Shearers is dumb, fo he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison, and from judgment, and who fhall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the tranfgreffion of my people was he, Stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

When thou shalt make his foul an offering for fin, he fhall fee his feed, he shall prolong bis days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall profper in his hand.

He fhall fee of the travail of his foul, and fhall be fatisfied; by his knowledge fhall my righteous fervant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the Spoil with the strong: because he hath poured out his foul unto death: and he was numbered with the tranfgreffors; and he bare the fin of many, and made interceffion for the tranfgreffors.

He fhall be exalted, and ex

tolled, and be very high.

As many were aftonished at thee; (bis vifage was fo marred more than any man, and his form more than the fons of men) !

HE, who defcribed thus to future ages the Day-fpring from on high; could he alfo proclaim the time of its rifing? I can fcarcely give credit to my fenfes, when I read, in another part of the fame book, that admirable prediction, which almost seems a chronology compofed after the event.

(e) Seventy weeks are determined upon thy

people,

(e) Daniel, ix. He was the laft of the four great prophets, and was born 616 years before Chrift: he was led captive to Babylon towards 606, and instructed in all the sciences of the Chaldeans; he was raised to the firft dig. nities of the empire, and died towards the end of the reign of Cyrus, aged 9o.

It is well-known, that the prophecies of Daniel are those which have chiefly exercised the fagacity and learning of the ableft commentators; I might add too of the most skilful aftronomers. One of thefe, well known to me, and whofe premature death I fhall ever regret, had made aftronomical difcoveries from these admirable prophecies, which astonished two of the first aftronomers of

Our