is to be substituted for THE LORD. But I ought, perhaps, to add, that I must leave the interpretation of the earlier clauses of Jeremiah's prophecy undetermined. Those who think that a figurative explanation can be made to embody all the fulness of their meaning, will be satisfied to refer the whole to the first advent of Christ. Others who would give their voice for a future and more literal fulfilment, make it the very centre of their peaceful expectation, that the King, the Branch of David, whose appearance they await, is the self-same LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, who has once already appeared to expiate their sins. Neither interpretation, therefore, will in the slightest degree affect the intimation of doctrine, for which alone the passage has been cited.

I shall notice but one more of the doctrines of the New Testament which have been made the subject of prophecy: -I mean the doctrine of the atonement. This connects itself with the intimations of the sufferings and death of Christ concerning which I have already offered some few partial remarks. They are taken up again here, to show how far the doctrine with which we associate them, was unfolded, before the actual exhibition of the true sacrifice for sin had finally cleared up every doubt. The fullest and plainest declaration on this vital doctrine will be found in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah;- —a declaration so express and clear that a right understanding of it could not have failed to open, to the contemporary of Jesus, at least, if not to the men of former generations, the whole scope of all that he did and suffered. That the promised seed was to suffer had been known, as we have seen from the beginning. Very much of the detail had been symbolized to Abraham, and to Moses; and foretold by David. But it was left for Isaiah to anticipate the apostles by unfolding the object of his sufferings; and telling men that he was to die for them; that he was to be a Redeemer and a Deliverer, not from earthly bondage, but from sin. The method, the extent, the enforcement, of this expiation was left for future ages to witness and understand. The statement of it was as distinct as language can be made to convey. But it is desirable that the words should speak for themselves: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised

for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge (or, by the knowledge of himself,) shall my righteous servant 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 soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Is. liii. 4-6; 10—12.)

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." (Acts xv. 18.) And on this principle alone can we account for the harmony which runs through all his communications to men. I could have wished to multiply the few clusters which we have gathered from a very fruitful vineyard; and to extract more of their richness from those selected; but to do so in a manner at all commensurate with their real luxuriance would demand the free range of a volume; and I can only spare them a single section. I' must leave it, therefore, to the reader, as I have been compelled to do under each of the subjects we have discussed, to prosecute the inquiry for himself, either by a diligent study of God's word, comparing scripture with scripture, or by a reference to those who have made prophecy the sole object of their elucidations. I would, however, suggest that should it happen, as possibly it may, that a first persual of the Old Testament fails to add so liberally to our meagre list as these remarks imply; or should a difficulty be found, as most probably it will, in following out the progressive development and the continuity of prophecy, so plainly as I have spoken of them here; this is no sufficient plea for deciding against their reality, or for throwing up the inquiry. For a deep but tranquil stream may thread its course among low fields and spreading shallows, which its redundancy overflows; and there may be little to define its banks,

or betray the fulness of the flood which rolls noiselessly within its bed. A spectator unaccustomed to such a scene, may easily fail, at a first glance, to trace the continuity of the main channel, or distinguish it from the wider expanse in which it is withdrawn from sight, and almost seems to spend and dissipate its waters. Yet a closer observation of the significant, though subdued and gentle agitation which breaks its surface, will at length familiarize the eye with the intricacies of a somewhat deviating course; and here and there some more decided current, bearing always in one direction, will mark infallibly a real connection between its more distant points; until a final proof of unity is displayed, where the narrowing waters converge upon a single outlet; and one deep channel receives the whole. A deficiency of the power of apprehension, therefore, on the part of the observer, does not destroy the real unity of the series: it rather indicates the necessity of renewed and closer application, in order to perceive that which has hitherto eluded his research.

But further, if, after all, this portion of our reasoning fail to make the strong impression which I think it ought to make, let me once again refer the student back from the harmony of the finished design, to the perfection of its detached and disconnected parts;-from the unity of doctrine, to the more obvious correspondence of overt acts. Confining our observation to this more simple view, we find Jesus freely applying to himself, or the apostles applying to him, a great variety of predictions, scattered here and there over almost every page of Scripture. We find him, moreover, studiously shaping his course in such a way as to bring the incidents of his life within their range: and that to such an extent that had they been written at random; and had they all been within his own control as man, their fulfilment would have exhibited an acuteness of perception, and a skill in management not easily brought within the compass of the intellect of man. But there were also events entirely beyond his own control as man. He might, for instance, as man, have chosen Nazareth for his abode; but was it competent for him to have chosen Bethlehem for his birth place; or the house of David for his lineage? And had he merely taken advantage of these coincidences, could he have despoiled Judah of its sceptre in his childhood; or compassed the desolation of the temple, forty years after his death?

He might, again, have provoked his own destruction, but could he have chosen the Jews, or Romans, or a combination of both, as his executioners, or dictated the manner of his death? To fulfil a prophecy, he cried, "I thirst;" but could he have influenced his persecutors derisively to offer him vinegar to drink? (Ps. lxix. 21. John xix. 28-30.) He might have suggested the parting of his garments by lot; but could he have insured the reception of the hint; or persuaded the rough soldiery to leave his bones unbroken? Could he have arranged the circumstances of his burial, for which the consent of Pilate was required; and above all could he have "loosed the pains of death;" (Acts ii. 24.) and escaped the guard that watched his grave? These and a crowd of other incidents are announced in the prediction in terms free from every shade of ambiguity: they descend to the minutest detail; so far from being such as might have been anticipated at any period anterior to their fulfilment, they hung in suspense to the very last moment; and they were most of them dependent on the will of enemies, or the caprice of wild and merciless ruffians. The most extravagant hypothesis cannot account for them on the supposition of chance, or of an artful accommodation of prophecy; and the conclusion is inevitable, both that the prescience, which foresaw them was superhuman: and, if Jesus controlled this complicated train of events by any power inherent in himself, that such power also must have been divine. The former conclusion involves the latter, because if the inspiration of prophecy is once made out, and it thus receives the stamp of infallible truth; its own assertions will bear us out in the statement that the prophecy was penned by the foresight of the same Omniscient Being whose omnipotence fulfilled them; and that in the widest and loftiest sense of the expression, all was of GOD.-(John. xii. 41. 1 Pet. i. 11.)

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SECT. III.

GENERAL PROPHECY.

Secondary prophecies relating to the Jewish people; and other nations connected with their history.-I. Prophecies relating to the destruction of Jerusalem.-II. The cessation of miracles partially supplied by prophecy still in course of fulfilment:-the dispersion of the Jews:-unfulfilled prophecy:-the state of Judæa.-III. Discrimating marks of prophecy:-Nineveh;-Babylon;-Egypt;— the Ishmaelites;-the posterity of Noah's sons.-Real value of the evidence of prophecy-its independence.

WE come now to the subsidiary predictions, relating to the Jewish nation; and to those which may, perhaps, be said, collectively, to fill up a tertiary position in the scheme of prophecy; for they converge upon the secondary rather than upon the main stream; and are chiefly connected with this latter, not immediately, but through its larger tributary. They occupy a very considerable proportion of the sacred volume; and the fulfilment of them is sometimes, also, to be gathered from subsequent historical notices in the Scriptures themselves. But far more frequently this is not the case; and we must have recourse to the pages of secular writers, whose description of the events alluded to, gives us a testimony clear of all suspicion. Arabia, Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, and almost every country between the Euphrates and the Nile, are prominent subjects of prophecy; and the predictions which have reference to them extend from the time immediately subsequent to their delivery, to the present day, and many of them, beyond, even to the end of the world. Those which have yet to be fulfilled cannot, in our time, be brought forward in proof of their inspiration: those whose fulfilment is a matter of history may be put in a form which must carry conviction to every