Ipeaks; Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and fin as it were with a cart rope: that fay, Let him make speed, and haften his work, that we may fee it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Ifrael draw nigh and come, that we may know it! ch. v. 18, 19. Under the power of these irreligious mockers the righteous (and fuch has ever been their lot) were wearied and oppreffed, but the prophet speaks comfort to them; Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that caft you out for my name's fake, faid, Let the Lord be glorified: but he fhall appear to your joy, and they fhall be ashamed, lxvi. 5. As wicked as the people of Ifrael were, yet in all times were there fome who waited for the falvation of God; whose faith and hope are well expreffed by the fon of Sirach; The power of the earth is in the hand of the Lord, and in due time he will fet over it one that is profitable, Ecclus. x. 4.

That the prophecy, given at the time of the fall, was understood in the ancient Jewish church to relate to the times of the Meffias, may with great probability be inferred from many paffages, but especially from one in Isaiah, where, after a full description of the kingdom of Chrift, and the happiness of those who were the feed of the blessed of the Lord, the ftate and condition of the wicked, in the time of that kingdom, is thus defcribed in few words; And duft fhall be the ferpent's meat, If. lxv. 25. By what figure of speech, or for what reason, is the ferpent here made to fignify thofe, who are diftinguished from the feed of the bleed? And how comes the punishment of these reprobates to be set forth by the

ferpent's eating duft? Here is nothing in the prophet to explain this figure; but he seems to use it as a faying well known, and perfectly understood by his countrymen and from whence could they borrow it, but from the hiftory of man's fall? There you may find the feed of the bleffed, to whom victory over the serpent is promised; and there may you fee the Serpent doomed to eat duft: and the allufion to this ancient prophecy, in Isaiah's description of the kingdom of the Meffias, fhews in what fenfe it was understood of old, and for many ages before the birth of Chrift.

These prophecies, relating to the kingdom of the Meffias, have still a larger and more extensive use, not confined to any particular age, but reaching to every age of the Chriftian church: they were given. to the Jews of old for the fupport of their faith, and are a standing reproof to their children of this age for their unbelief: they taught those of old time to expect the kingdom of Chrift, and are a condemnation to thofe of this time for rejecting it: they are a support and an evidence to the Gospel, and furnish every true believer with an answer to give to him who afketh the reafon of the hope that is in him.

They who are educated in the belief of Christianity, and taught to receive the books of both Teftaments with equal reverence, are not apt to distinguish between the evidence for their faith, arifing from the one and the other. But if we look back to the earlieft times of preaching the Gospel, and confider how the cafe ftood as to the Jewish converts on one fide, who were convinced of the divine authority of the Old Teftament; and as to the Gentile converts on

the other, who had no such persuasion; the distinction will appear very manifeftly. The ancient prophecies, though they are evidence both to the Jew and to the Gentile, yet are they not fo to both in the fame way of reafoning and deduction, nor to the fame end and purpose. For confider; the Jew was poffeffed of the oracles of God, and firmly perfuaded of the truth of them: the very first thing therefore which he had to do upon the appearance of the Meffiah, was to examine his title by the character given of him in the prophets; he could not, confiftently with his belief in God, and faith in the ancient prophecies, attend to other arguments, till fully fatisfied and convinced in this all the prophecies of the Old Teftament, relating to the office and character of the Meffiah, were immovable bars to all pretenfions, till fulfilled and accomplished in the perfon pretending to be the promised and long expected Redeemer. For this reason the preachers of the Gofpel, in applying to the Jews, begin with the argument from prophecy. Thus St. Paul, in his discourse with the Jews at Antioch in Pifidia, begins with the call of Abraham; and, after a fhort hiftorical deduction of matters from thence to the times of David, he adds, Of this man's feed hath God, according to his promife, raised unto Ifrael a Saviour, Jefus, Acts xiii. 23. Where you fee plainly, that the whole argument refts upon the authority of prophecy; and all the parts of this apoftolical fermon are answerable to this beginning, proceeding from one end to the other upon the authority of the old prophets. But the very fame apostle St. Paul, preaching to the people of Athens, Acts xvii. argues from other topics; he fays nothing of the prophets,

to whofe miffion and authority the Athenians were perfect ftrangers, but begins with declaring to them, God that made the world, and all things therein: he goes on condemning all idolatrous practices, and affuring them, that God is not worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing. He accounts to them for the past times of ignorance, at which God winked, and tells them, that now he calls all men to repentance, having appointed Chrift Jefus to be the judge of all men: for the truth of which he appeals to the evidence of Chrift's refurrection ; Whereof, fays the Apostle, he hath given afsurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead, ver. 31. Whence comes this difference? How comes St. Paul's argument, upon one and the fame. fubject, in Acts xiii. and xvii. to be fo unlike to each other? Can this be accounted for any other way, than by confidering the different circumftances of the perfons to whom he delivered himself? In Acts xiii. he argues profeffedly with Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, and who, from thefe oracles, were well inftructed in the great marks and characters of the expected Meffiah. It had been highly abfurd therefore to reafon with them upon other arguments, till he had first convinced them by their prophets and, having fo convinced them, it would have been impertinent. To them therefore he urges and applies the authority of prophecy only but to the Athenians, who knew not the prophets, or, if they knew them, yet had no reverence or esteem for them, it had been quite ridiculous to offer proofs from prophecies; the appeal therefore before them is made to the found and

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clear principles of natural religion; and to the miracles of the Gofpel, the fame of which probably had long before reached to Athens, and the truth of which, they being mere matters of fact, was capable of undeniable evidence and demonftration.

It is very obfervable, that St. Paul, in his fermon at Athens, goes no further than calling them to repentance, and to faith in Chrift, as the perfon appointed by God to judge the world; in which doctrine he had natural religion with him in every point, excepting the appointment of Chrift to be judge, for which he appeals to the evidence given by God in raifing Jefus from the dead. But to the Jews he speaks of a Saviour, of remiffion of fins, of juftification of all believers from all things, from which the law of Mofes could not juftify. Whence comes this difference, unless from hence; that the Jews were from their Scriptures well acquainted with the loft condition of man, and knew that a redemption from fin, and the powers of it, was to be expected? But the Gentiles had loft this knowledge, and were firft to be taught the condition of the world, and the various adminiftrations of Providence with regard to mankind, before they could have any just notion of the redemption of the world.

With respect to the Gentiles then, the cafe ftood thus: they were called from idols to the acknowledgment of the true God; from iniquity to the practice of virtue; by setting before them Chrift Jefus, the preacher of righteousness, and the appointed judge of the world, under the confirmation of many figns and wonders wrought by God for this purpose. Being fo far established, they were led back to view this