wonderful scene of Providence, as it ftood in the ancient prophecies; and with them the authority of the prophecies ftood mainly upon the exact completion which was before their eyes. From the authority of prophecy fo eftablished, they understood the paft workings of Providence, and the state of the world; and came to fee, that Chrift was not only the judge, but the redeemer of mankind. To the Jew, prophecy was the first proof; to the Gentile, it was the laft the Jew believed in Chrift, because foretold by the prophets; the Gentiles believed the prophets, because they had fo exactly foretold Jefus Chrift. Both became firm believers; having, each in his way, a full view of all the difpenfations of Providence towards mankind.

- If this account be true, as it appears to me to be, it will enable us to clear this argument from prophecy of the many mifreprefentations under which it has been induftriously clouded: it will fhew us, that there is no occafion for a Gentile to become a Jew, in order to his becoming a Chriftian upon the authority of the ancient prophets: it will fhew us, that the proof from prophecy is not argumentum ad hominem in the Jew's cafe, nor in the Gentile's; nor yet an argument of the fame kind in both cafes, though in both cafes proceeding upon real and folid principles of reason. But I must leave these applications to you, and proceed to obferve another use of prophecy with regard to the Jews, and for which the Gentile world feems not to have had the fame occafion.

The Jews lived under a divine law, eftablished in figns, and wonders, and mighty works; founded in

very great promises on one fide, in threatenings of mighty terror on the other, as far as the bleffings and terrors of this world can extend: they are warned over and over not to forfake their law, or to fuffer any ftrange cuftoms and ceremonies to grow up among them. These cautions, intended to preserve them from the corruptions of the heathen nations around them, might eafily, as in the event they have done, grow into prejudices against any future revelation, though made upon the authority of God himfelf. To guard against fuch prejudices, and to render them without excuse, it was but reasonable to give them early and frequent notice of the change intended; that they might not, under the colour of adhering fteadfaftly and faithfully to God's firft covenant, reject his fecond, when the time of publication came. There are of this fort many prophecies in the Old Teftament; of this kind are the many declarations on God's part, that he had no pleasure in facrifices and oblations, in new moons and in fab baths: ftrange declarations, confidering that all these were his own appointments! But not ftrange, confidering the many and frequent prophecies of a new and a better covenant to be established with his people. The prophet Isaiah is frequently styled the Evangelical Prophet, because of the many and exprefs prophecies to be found in him relating to Chrift and his church. Now this prophet, in the very entrance upon his work, fhews the little value of mere legal inftitutions; To what purpose, says he, fpeaking in God's name, is the multitude of your facrifices unto me?—I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beafts; and I delight not

in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.Your new moons and your appointed feafts my foul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to

bear them. Ifaiah i. 11, 14.

But the moft remarkable paffage of this kind, and which deferves our particular attention, is the prophecy of Mofes himself, recorded in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy; The Lord thy God will raife up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken, ver. 15. The fame is repeated again, ver. 18. with this addition; And it shall come to pass, (they are the words of God,) that whosoever will not hearken. unto my words which he (that Prophet) shall speak in my name, I will require it of him, ver. 19. Here now is a plain declaration on God's part, at the very time the law was established, of another Prophet, like unto Mofes, to be raised in time as a new Lawgiver, to whom all were to yield obedience. I know full well, that great authorities are produced for interpreting these words of a fucceffion of prophets in the Jewish church: but be the authorities never fo great, the appeal lies to the law and to the teftimony, and thither we must go.

In the first place then, the text fpeaks of one Prophet only, in the fingular number, and not of many. In this cafe therefore the letter of the text is with us; an argument which ought to be of great weight with thofe, who make fuch heavy complaints whenever we pretend to go beyond the literal fenfe of the Old Teftament. But,

Secondly, To expound this paffage of a fucceffion of prophets, and to say that they all were to be like

Mofes, contradicts God's own declaration concerning the manner in which he intended to deal with other prophets.

In the twelfth of Numbers we read, that Miriam and Aaron began to mutiny against the influence and authority of Moses. Hath the Lord Spoken only to Mofes ? fay they; hath he not spoken alfo by us? This controverfy was like to be attended with fuch ill confequences, that God thought proper to interpose himself. Hear then his determination; If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vifion, and will speak unto him in a dream. My fervant Mofes is not fo, who is faithful in all mine houfe: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the fimilitude of the Lord fhall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my fervant Mofes ?

Here now is a plain declaration of the great difference between Mofes and all other prophets, and as plain an account wherein that difference did lie: as to all other prophets, God declares he would speak to them in vifions and in dreams; but with Mofes he would converse mouth to mouth, or, as it is elsewhere expreffed, face to face. Herein then confifted one chief dignity and eminence of Moses; and in this refpect the prophets of Ifrael were not to be like him.

Thirdly, That the likeness to Mofes, spoken of in the paffage under confideration, had a special regard to this fingular privilege of feeing God face to face, is evident, partly from the text itself, and partly from the clofe of the book of Deuteronomy, compared

with the text. In the text itself a promife is given of a prophet like Mofes, which likeness in the 18th verfe is expounded by God's faying, I will put my words in his mouth; which imports fomething more than speaking to him in vifions and in dreams: and that the likeness to Mofes was understood to confift in this immediate communication with God, is moft evident from the last verses of the book, where it is faid; And there arofe not a prophet fince in Ifrael like unto Mofes, whom the Lord knew face to face. Who added these words to the book of Deuteronomy, it matters not at present to inquire; for they having been received in the Jewish church, are an authentic testimony, first, how the ancient Jews understood these words, like unto Mofes; and, fecondly, that the ancient church had seen no prophet like unto Moses: and yet they had a fucceffion of prophets immediately from the death of Mofes, of whom Joshua was the firft; and these last verses of Deuteronomy, added after, at least in the time of Joshua, exclude him from all pretenfions of being the Prophet, or one of the prophets like unto Mofes and if this character will not fit Joshua, much less will it fit those who fucceeded him, who were not greater, nor had greater employment under God, than he: an evident proof that the promise of a Prophet like unto Mofes was not understood by the ancient Jewish church to relate to a fucceffion of prophets among them; fince they declare to us, that, in the fucceffion of prophets, there had not been one like unto Mofes..

The later Jews have not departed from the opi

Hof. xii. 13. Ecclus. xlvi. 1.