him and flee at fuch a Juncture? But fo it was in the Event. The Brazen Serpent, which Mofes Set up in the Wilderness, is the Type he makes ufe of, to fignify by what Death he was to die; but who could think, be⚫fore it happened, that a foreign Governour fhould proceed to blood upon Questions about the Jewish Law; that, upon a wild Accufation, he fhould condemn a Perfon, in whom he found no Fault; and condemn him to the Crofs, which was a Roman Punishment, and only inflicted on the vileft Malefactors? But fo it was in the Event. Jonah's being three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly, before he was caft out upon Shore, is another Emblem of his, to denote the time between his Interrment and his Refurrection; but who, that had seen him crucified, dead and buried, would have ever thought of his rifing precifely according to the Space of time that was limitted? But fo it was in the Event. Once more; Hereafter fhall ye fee the Son of Man fitting on the Right-hand of Power, and coming in the Clouds of Heaven, is a Paffage, which he borrows from P Daniel, to declare to 9 the HighPriest Joh. iii. 14, 15. Ch. vii. 3, 14. xxvi. 64. 1 Matt. Priest his future Exaltation; but to fee him ftand a Prifoner at the JudgmentSeat in expectance of his Doom; to fee him led away to Execution, with the Clamours and Infults of the People about him; to fee him befmear'd with Blood, and panting, and fainting, and dying on the accurfed Tree, who would have thought, that this was the Perfon, * who was ordained of God to be the Judge of Quick and Dead, and to whom he hath given a Name, which is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every Knee fhould bow, of Things in Heaven, and Things in Earth, and Things under the Earth? But fo it was in the *Event. And therefore we may infer, that fince thefe Events,and *many more that might be mentioned, how improbable foever they might feem, and beyond the compass of Man's Conjecture, did always answer to their respective Prophefies, according to the Applications, which Chrift made of them; this is a Tefti *Such are the Rejection of the Jews, the Deftruction of their City and Temple, the long Duration of their Defolation, and the Conversion of the Gentiles to the Chriftian Religion, &c. All which our Saviour foretold, and they accordingly came to pass. A Recapi the three ons. a Testimony beyond Exception, that he could not poffibly be mistaken in their meaning, and confequently that all his other Interpretations of Scripture must be true, because he had always the fame infallible Spirit residing in him. And now to take a Review of the tulation of three foregoing Sections, which, in Point of Matter, are much the fame. If foregoing Secti- there are different kinds of Prophefies in the Old Teftament, fome that are applicable to Chrift, and the Events concerning him expressly, and others in a Sense not feemingly fo obvious to us, but what the Spirit of God might have primarily in view If our Saviour and his Apoftles us'd fometimes a typical, fometimes a parabolical, and fometimes an allufive way of difcourfing with the People, which however did not affect their literal Application of the Prophefies: If St. Matthew, by the Words, that it might be fulfilled, intends no more (according to the Hebrew Phrafiology) than hereby was verified, or this Event anfwer'd the Prediction, or the like: If, by out of Egypt have I called my Son, (which was a common Adage among the Jews) he means no more than a providential Des liverance liverance from fome eminent Danger: If John the Baptift, confidering the great Refemblance between him and Elias in their Temper and Difpofition, as well as many Articles of their Lives, might properly enough be called after his Name: If the Blindnefs and wilful Obftinacy of the Jews in our Saviour's time will justify his applying to them the Character, which Isaiah gives of the People, who liv'd in his Days: If, by Ifaiah's Virgin; who was to conceive and bear a Son, is properly to be understood (as both the Etymology of the Word, and the Solemnity of the Introduction fhew) a Conception without the Ufe or Knowledge of Man; which Conception was matter of Affurance to the Houfe of David, that the intended Invafion fhould not profper against them: If the Character of the Prophet like unto Mofes fuits neither with Joshua, nor with a Succeffion of Prophets in the Jewish Church, but, in its chief Lineaments, can agree with none but our Bleffed Saviour: If the Prophefy of Daniel's Weeks (when rightly computed) can belong to no other Event, than the Destruction of Jerufalem, and the Contents thereof can properly refer to our Lord's Tranfactions only: If.the Book of Daniel has all the genuine Marks, both both internal and external, concurring with the Teftimony of the Ancients, of its being a canonical Piece of Scripture; infomuch, that neither his calling fome Allyrian Princes by Names, different to what the Grecian Hiftorians give them, nor his occafionally ufing fome Terms of Art, which might poffibly be of Grecian Derivation; neither his being omitted (as is pretended) in the Verfion of the Septuagint, in the Characters of the Prophets given us by Ecclefiafticus, in the Caldee Paraphrafe of Jonathan, nor having fome fpurious Pieces, ftill extant, forg'd in his Name; neither the Plainness of his Predictions, nor the Symbolical Turn of his Stile (which was equally in ufe among other Prophets) can be any valid Objection againft it If the Commandment, mention'd in the Prophefy of Daniel, does properly denote a Royal Decree, and our Saviour (though not perfonally prefent) may be said to go against the Jews, and the Romans, who were the Inftruments of Providence, in deftroying the City, and profaning the Temple, may be faid to be his Army or People: If Christ by his coming into the World, and the other Tranfactions of his Life, may be faid to feal up the Prophefy; by his preaching the Gofpel, to confirm the Covenant |