VIII. temple he fhould be feen and heard; who DISC. fhould enter into Jerufalem meek and humble, and riding on an afs; who should work miracles more than Mofes and all the prophets, and miracles of the merciful and beneficent 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 as an hart; who, notwithstanding all his power and goodness, should be rejected by the greater part of the nation, to whom he fhould be a stumbling-block; who should be defpifed and afflicted, a man of sorrow, and cut off from the land of the living; who should have enemies numerous, powerful, crafty, and wicked; who should be accused by false witnesses, betrayed by an intimate and particular friend, fold for thirty pieces of filver, and the money given for a potter's field, when it had been flung away by the traitor, who fhould not live long after his crime, and whofe office should be filled up by another that the enemies of this blessed person should use him contumeliously, buffet him, and fpit upon him, DISC. while he fhould be led like a lamb to the VIII. flaughter, not opening his mouth, but to intercede for the tranfgreffors; that his enemies should strip him of his raiment, divide it among themfelves, and caft lots upon it, furround him, pierce his hands and his feet, mock him, and fhake their heads at him, give him gall to eat, and vinegar to drink; that he fhould be reduced to fo weak and languishing a condition, that his bones might all be counted, his heart fhould melt within him, and his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth; that he should be brought to the duft of death; that he should be pierced, and yet not one of his bones be broken; that he fhould be laid in the fepulchre of a rich and honourable man, none of his enemies hindering it; that he should rife again, before he had feen corruption, and fubdue his enemies, and ascend into heaven, and fit at God's right hand, and be crowned with honour and glory, and fee his feed, and prosper, and justify many, and be adored by kings and princes; that then Jerufalem fhould .VIII. fhould be made defolate, and the Jews dif- DISC. In the application of a fingle prophecy, especially if it be a figurative one, interest and ingenuity may raise many doubts and difficulties; but against the accumulated weight of evidence, καθ' υπερβολην εις υπερβολην, afforded by so many plain literal predictions, all pointing to one perfon, all punctually and exactly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and in him alone, no tolerably plausible objection can ever be made. Let candour and integrity, reafon and common fenfe be judges in the caufe, and they must determine-they have already determined by the virtuous Nathanael-" Rabbi, thou art the "Son of God, thou art the king of Ifrael." Such, then, is the cafe of the Jews, fuch the eyidence they rejected, and fuch the cause of their rejecting it. Having fixed and their hopes upon the fhadow, their eyes Dr. JORTIN'S Remarks on Ecclef. Hift. vol. i. p. 112. they 1 VIII. DISC. they fet at nought the substance, though appearing at the time and in the manner defcribed by their own prophets. Having rejected their God, they have been rejected by him; and the fatal errors, which occafioned their infidelity, have received a final and tremendous refutation, by the divine judgments inflicted upon them. To demonftrate, that, as the feed of Abraham, they had no exclufive and indefeasible right to the favours of heaven, those favours have been withdrawn from them, and conferred on the Gentiles. To fhew, that the law of Mofes was not in itself efficacious, or defigned to be perpetual, they are put under an absolute incapacity of observing it any more. They have no altar, no priest, no temple. To reprove the fond notion, that Canaan was the end of the promises, they have been driven out of it, and forbidden to approach it. In a state of utter desolation, it has VIII. has paffed fucceffively into the hands of DISC. their enemies of every denomination, and never reverted to them. To eradicate the ideas of a temporal Meffiah, and dominion over the nations, after beholding the fceptre departed from Judah, after having been deceived by a multitude of impoftors, they continue to this hour, at the end of 1700 years, fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth. And now, let us be permitted, in our turn, to address an argument to the deift, upon this topic. You demand ocular proof of prophecy accomplished. It is before you, in an inftance without a parallel. It was repeatedly foretold, both in the Old and New Teftament, that, for the rejection and murder of their Meffiah, the Jews fhould be dispersed into all countries; yet that they should not be fwallowed up and loft among their conquerors, but should ftill fubfift, to latest times, a distinct people. By Jeremiah, God declared he would make |