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IV.

Instructing them at the fame Time plainly SER M. and clearly, and not as thofe before him under Shadows and Types, and commiffioning his Apostles, as foon as they should be endued with Power from on high, to disperse themselves unto the uttermoft Parts of the Earth, Acts i. 8. to call Gentiles as well as Jews to the Knowledge of the Truth; that fo the Faith might no longer be confined to one People; but that all Nations of the Earth might become one Church, and be all gathered into one Fold under one Shepherd.

Nor were the Miracles which the Chrift was to work less clearly foretold than his Inftructions and Doctrine. The Times of the Meffiah are certainly understood in that Prophecy of Ifaiah Then the Eyes of the Blind fhall be opened, and the Ears of the Deaf Shall be unftopped; Then fhall the lame Man leap as the Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb fball fing, Ifai. xxxv. 5, 6. From which Predictions the Jews themselves in their Talmud and publick Commentaries infer, "That all "the Miracles of Mofes and the Prophets "fhall be nothing to the Miracles of the Meffiab when he cometh*." Upon which Notion undoubtedly was founded that Quef Midrash Copheleth, c. 1.

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SER M. tion among the People recorded by St. John;

IV.

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When Chrift cometh will be do MORE MIRACLES than thefe which this Man has done? John vii. 31. From which Words it appears that they expected the Chrift fhould do many Miracles, and yet that he could not do more than had been done by Jefus. And these Miracles were fo unexceptionable, so plain and obvious, that our Saviour himself puts the Teft of his Miffion upon the Evidence of the Truth. For when the Baptist sent to him two of his Difciples, and faid unto him, Art thou be that should come, or do we look for another? Matt. ii. 3. Jefus in his Answer supposes that his Works would be a fufficient Refolution of the Queftion proposed; and therefore he faid unto them, Go and fhew John thofe Things which ye do hear and fee: The Blind receive their Sight, the Lame walk, the Lepers are cleanfed, the Deaf hear, and the Dead are raised up; and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.

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Having thus fhewn that the many and great Miracles wrote by Jefus, prove him to be the Meffiab foretold by the Prophets; I shall shew next that the Manner in which he was received and treated by the Jews was another Mark by which feveral Predictions were

ful

IV.

fulfilled. And hitherto must be reduced all SER M. the Sufferings of our Lord, with the Indignities that were fhewn him from his Entrance upon his Ministry, to his Death upon the Crofs. And here will not improperly come in that Description of him in Isaiah, which begins with his Perfon. He hath no Form, nor Comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no Beauty that we should defire him, Ifa. liii, 2. The Prophet feems to defcribe a Perfonage no Way beautiful, but rather uncomely: And fo the most ancient Writers of the Church have interpreted Ifaias, and have confeffed the fulfilling of it in the Body of our Saviour*. In later Ages indeed they give a contrary Description, and begin to magnify the Beauty of his Perfon; every feveral Nation reprefenting his Picture in the nearest Similitude to the handsomeft of their Country +. But what was the real Afpect of his outward Appearance, fince the Scriptures are filent, we cannot now know. It is enough that we are affured that the Condition of his Life was in the Eyes of the Jews without Honour and inglorious; and this thofe Taunts of theirs fufficiently prove-Is not this the Carpenter's Son? Is not his Mother called Mary? and his Brethren,

Pearfon on the Creed, p. 87, + Pearson, ibid.

2

James

SERM. James and Fofes, and Simon, and Judas? IV. and his Sifters, are they not all with us?

Whence then hath this Man all these Things? Matt. xiii. 55, 56. A Man fo meanly born and related, they could not think deferving of any Regard; and therefore the Text tells us they were offended in him, ver. 57. And this is fufficient to verify what Isaiah immediately fubjoins to the Meannefs of his Perfon, viz. That he is defpifed and rejected of Men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Griefs: And we hid, as it were, our Face from him; he was defpifed, and we efteemed him

not.

As to the laft Paffion and Death of our Lord, and those Indignities and Sufferings, which immediately preceded it; the Prophecies in Scripture are fo copious and exprefs, as to reach every material Circumstance relating to them. But thefe and the proper Inferences from the whole I fhall referve for another Opportunity.

SER

SERMON V.

Jefus foretold by Mofes and the
Prophets.

Luke xxiv. 27.

And beginning at Mofes and all the Prophets, be expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the Things concerning himself.

IN

N examining the Prophecies in the Olds ER M
Teftament concerning the Christ, in order.

to fhew, how they were all of them most
exactly fulfilled in our Jefus; having at first
confined myself to those which related to his
first Appearance in the World; viz. fuch as
his Family and Lineage, the Place of his Na-
tivity, his miraculous Birth, and the Time of
his coming; I was then willing to proceed
to fhew further that every important Action,
Event, or Circumftance, in the Life, and
Death, in the Refurrection, and Afcenfion of
the fame Holy Jefus, all came to pafs, as
being particularly foretold in the Old Tefta-

ment.

And

V.

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