that the child here spoken of could not be Christ, who did not appear till many hundred years after this; and yet the child here spoken of seems, as the prophecy now stands, the same child which the virgin was to bear. This is the difficulty; I will now give you the explanation. In the third verse you read that Isaiah, when he was sent upon this message, was commanded to take with him Shear-jashub his son, who was then a little child. This explanation is the key to the whole prophecy, and serves to explain it in this manner. Isaiah, in the presence and audience of the king and people of Judah, who were assembled to receive a message from God, announces this august prediction of the future birth and coming of the Saviour of the world; The Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel;' which means, as you are told by the prophet, God with us.' The prophet then adds, 'butter and honey shall he eat, till he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good;' that, although his birth be miraculous, yet shall he be supported by the ordinary means, till he comes to

man's estate.

Here ends, as we apprehend it, the prophecy concerning Christ, for the prophet then comes to a new subject, and turning himself to the king in particular, and pointing, we may suppose, at his little son who stood by, but before,' says he, this child shall know how to refuse the evil and choose the good,' that is, before the child standing by you shall attain to years of discretion, the country which thou abhorrest,' the two nations that have conspired thy ruin, shall be forsaken of both its kings;' which, we read, accordingly happened, and within the time limited by the prophecy. The whole passage therefore contains, if we explain it right, two distinct, independent prophecies; the one addressed to the whole nation at large, hear, O house of David,' and relating to the birth and coming of the Messiah, an event of the utmost importance to that whole nation; the other addressed to the king in particular, and relating to the overthrow of the two armies, which then threatened him, and which was to take place in a few years.

Isaiah was introduced to the king and the assembly of Jerusalem, waiting with great expectations for a message from God. This surely was a fit opportunity to announce to this nation the future coming of the promised Messiah, and he describes him by a circumstance in which he was distinguished from the whole race of mankind, his being born of a virgin.' This, therefore, was the first and great prophecy. But as the king Ahaz was

then under apprehension from his combined enemies, who threatened him with immediate destruction, the prophet proceeds, before he leaves off speaking, to satisfy him with respect to them; and that the king might take no concern, and set himself at ease with respect to the danger which he dreaded, he assures him that in a very few years, before the child that stood near him came to years of discretion, he should get rid of them both.

There are two circumstances which confirm this interpretation, and so strong, that I cannot forbear mentioning them. Isaiah, as I told you, was commanded to take with him upon this message his young son Shear-jashub. Now this must

have been for some purpose; yet unless he was the child meant as coming to man's estate, as we have explained it, it is impossible to say what business he had there, or for what purpose he was commanded to be taken. This is one most striking circumstance. Another is this. You read in the next chapter that Isaiah had a son born, and it was solemnly recorded, that before this son could speak, this same event, namely, the destruction of the two kingdoms, should take place. Now the second son coming to his speech, and the first to years of discretion, might very naturally be about the same time; and Isaiah is made to cry out, 'Behold, I and my children are for signs and for wonders in Israel; my children,' that is, not only the second child Maher-shalal-hash-baz, in the eighth chapter, but his former son Shear-jashub in the prophecy we have been explaining.

If you admit the explanation which thus goes upon so many circumstances of probability, the plain and simple fact is established, that six hundred years before the birth of Christ, it was foretold that a divine person, Immanuel, God with us, should be born, contrary to the course of nature, of a pure virgin. Is not this what we are told of Christ? Is it believed, is it even seriously professed indeed, of any other person in the whole world? Let no one say that he is not qualified to comprehend or judge of the proofs of this. Thanks be to God, who hath given us the sure word of prophecy, which seems to require only a little attention to apprehend it, who hath vouchsafed us such means of conviction, as only ignorance could miss, or, what is worse, obstinacy could withstand!

LXIII.

PROPHECIES.

PART II.

ACTS XXVIII. 23.

And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God; persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

MANY prophecies of the Old Testament which admit not of so clear, although of a probable, application to the coming of Christ, I take no notice of, notwithstanding it should be observed that these, from the number of them, and taken all together, constitute a very considerable proof of the truth of our religion. For throughout so large a volume as that of the Old Testament, there might occur here and there an expression which bore by accident an allusion to this great event, or was capable of some figurative application to it; yet that many of them should point the same way, that so great a number should admit of any application at all, can hardly be accounted for without design.

There are also other prophecies which, was I to read them to you, would not appear to you to have that relation. to Christ which there is reason to believe they have, and that for want of understanding the style and language of the ancient prophets, which is very singular; and this is a knowledge not to be expected from the generality of an audience, nor to be taught in the compass of a sermon. Confining myself, therefore, as I proposed, to those prophecies which more apparently respect the coming of Christ, the first which I would offer to your consideration is that noted one of the prophet Micah, to be found in the fifth chapter and second verse of this book; But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.' 'Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah;' the kingdom of Judah was divided into districts, which were called thousands, as certain districts are, nowadays with us called hundreds. Bethlehem was the capital town of one of these districts, though small and

inconsiderable, compared with many other capital towns. This is what the prophet means by the expression, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.' These districts were likewise sometimes called principalities; on which account St Matthew quotes it thus; Though thou be little among the princes,' or principalities, of Judah,' without any alteration in the verses from the words as they are read in the book of Micah itself.

But the main thing to be observed, is, the description that is given of this extraordinary person, and the place he was to come out of; it was he that was to be ruler in Israel. Our Saviour assumed to himself the title and character of king of the Jews; that is, he whom his Father had appointed to give new laws to that nation, and to whose authority many of the Jews did, and all ought to have submitted themselves. Whose goings forth have been of old, and from everlasting;' this is a most remarkable description. Who remembers not what is said of Christ, that he was in the beginning;' that 'before Abraham was, he is; that he came forth from the Father; that he was before all things, the first born of every creature?' If what is related of Christ be true, he existed with his Father before the foundations of the world; so that in the strictest sense, it might be said that his goings forth were of old, and from everlasting. Thus much is certainly true; that Christ laid claim to this character, asserted that he had his existence with God before the creation; nor is there any reason to suppose that he made this claim or assertion in order to bring himself within the scope and description of the prophecy, for this prophecy is never quoted by him or any of his disciples with that view, or for that purpose. There never appeared any other person, either in Bethlehem or any where else, of whom the same things can be said, even if you allow them every thing to which they pretend. No man ever pretended to have his existence with God previous to his being born into the world. Our Lord did; and to his character and pretensions the words of this prophecy clearly apply.

Nor is it inconsistent with Christ's character, what is said in the fifth verse, This man shall be our peace, when the oppressor shall come into our land,' supposing, what the style of prophecy and some similar examples will warrant us in supposing, that the prophet describes the future enemies of the Jews under the denomination of the Assyrians, who were their enemies in his time. 'Out of Bethlehem shall come forth he that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old,

from everlasting.' Out of Bethlehem never came any one that we have heard of, except Jesus Christ, to whom these words could belong in any sense, nor any persons of eminence at all. Bethlehem has for nearly seventeen hundred years been destroyed. It would be difficult, I suppose, to point out the place where it stood. It concerns the Jews therefore to show, if this prophecy did not receive its completion in Christ, how it was fulfilled, or is even possible to be fulfilled, at all. If you come to compute the power of chance, which some call in on every occasion, consider what the chance was, when one small town in a kingdom was pitched upon for the birth of an extraordinary person, that any extraordinary person at all should be born in it; much less one whose character and pretensions especially corresponded with so singular a description; whose goings forth have been of old, and from everlasting."

Nothing more remains of this prophecy, than just to observe by what curious and seemingly accidental means Divine Providence went about to fulfil its purpose. The parents of Jesus Christ were not inhabitants of Bethlehem; yet at Bethlehem, according to the prophets, was Christ to be born. It so fell out, or rather it was so ordered, that at that precise time a decree was published from the Roman emperor, that the inhabitants of Judea should be taxed. This was the only city to which his family belonged. Joseph and Mary, in pursuance of this decree, repaired to Bethlehem, the city of David, of whose lineage they were; and during the few days of their sojourning there, this illustrious event, the birth of Christ, took place.

I will next introduce to you a very celebrated passage of the prophet Haggai. The circumstances to be explained concerning it are these. Haggai lived after the return of the Jews from the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, just at the time of the building of the second temple of Jerusalem. The first temple, or the temple of Solomon, having been utterly destroyed by their enemies, the condition of the Jews did not allow them to erect a building equal by any means in magnificence to that of Solomon. The old men, who remembered the former temple in all its splendor, when they saw the very inferior plan and structure of the new edifice, were seized with that melancholy and concern which are always natural in such circumstances. This is described in the book of Ezra with much simplicity; 'But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice.' Now the prophet Haggai was