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In the first chapter he distinctly reprefents the character and function of the Prophets, whofe predictions concerning the future ftate of God's people, the Jews, he obferves are alone fufficient to eftablifh the divine authority of the Holy Writings; as the promises made to them are literally fulfilled, and the vengeance denounced against them is literally inflicted. The antient Jewish Prophet was a facred monitor to the Kings of Ifrael and Judah, whom he admonished, in the name of God, to adhere to his laws as delivered by Mofes. The invariable sense of the word prophecy, in the Old and New Scriptures, is either immediately, or by means of another, to relate what the Lord hath fpoken. The Lord is faid to put his words into the mouth of his Prophet * ; but when these words are recited by another, he alfo may be faid to prophecy. As in Nehemiah it is faid, Thou hast appointed Prophets to preach. + Every one, who inftructed others in the word of God, was a Prophet at Jerufalem; and a Preacher, who recited from the Scriptures fpiritual affairs, to the edification and comfort of others, was a Prophet in the fenfe of St. Paul. They who gave thanks and praifed the Lord with a harp, are faid to prophecy. When the company of Prophets met Saul, they had a pfaltery, a tabret, a pipe and harp before them, and they prophecied, and he prophecied among them. The Prophets in Naioth, near Ramah, prophecied with their mufical inftruments, under the conduct of Samuel, their chief, when Saul's meflengers joined them as himfelf had done. It hath been fuggested by the adversaries of revelation, that the fchools of Prophets were places in which Prophecy, as an immediate communication from God was taught; but this our Author rejects as an impious and abfurd fuppofition. The real truth is, in thefe fchools the fons or difciples of the Prophets were trained up for the fervice of the temple, and were taught to play on musical inftruments, and to accompany the voice with them; and becaufe they fung the hymns of infpired men, and fo delivered unto others the commands and words of God, they are also faid to prophecy.

Having remarked that the communication between God and Man is by prayer, by the word of God, and by his works, the Doctor proceeds to give his fentiments concerning the communication of the Divine Will by the breaft-plate

*Jerem. i. 9. iv. 7. 1 Cor. xiv. 14. § 1 Sam. x. 10—12. xix. 20-24.

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of judgment, called urim and thummim. He allows that it is not eafy to discover in what manner the answer was delivered, when the priest enquired of the Lord; but thinks it probable that the frequent enquiries or confultations of the Lord by David, were by the priest with his ephod, and that the anfwer was given in words by a voice; that the Lord made use of the voice of his priest, who appeared before him, cloathed with his proper habit, and enquired with the breaftplate of judgment.

Having mentioned Elifha as one of the Prophets, he enters into a thorough difcuffion and refutation of the charge of cruelty against him, on account of his conduct towards the little children, that is, young men, of Bethel. His character as good, merciful, and compaffionate, appears from a connected series of undoubted facts: the citizens of Bethel, he observes, were obftinate idolaters. One of Jeroboam's go!den calves was erected at Bethel, as fymbols of the Gods which brought Ifrael out of the land of Egypt; and the pricfts which ferved that idol were made of the loweft of the people. The men of Bethel looked upon the Prophet as their fpecial Adverfary, and perfued him with hatred and perfecution; and their obftinacy was incurable by the miracles which Elifha had wrought and it is likely that thofe young men who came out of Bethel to infult the Prophet and his God, would have added violence to their mocking, if the extraordinary. interpofition of Divine Providence had not prevented them. But the Prophet of Jehovah was preferved; idolatry, a crime utterly fubverfive of all true religion, feverely and juftly pu-. nished; and the honour of God's fervice properly afferted by the deftruction of his idolatrous enemies, who may have been the fons of the priests of the high places, or perhaps fome of the priests themselves, as Jeroboam made no diftinction of perfons.

In taking a view of the Jewish Prophets whofe Writings are ftill extant, he endeavours to place them in due chronological order. Jonah, he confiders, as the firft in order of time; and obferves, that the fending a Jewish Prophet to Nineveh, the capital of Affyria, was a remarkable instance of the goodness of God, as it prepared them for a more kind. reception of Ifrael, when removed into that country from Samaria, by Shalmanefer, the King of Affyria. Amos, though the Jews have placed him after Hofea, our Author fays, comesin the fecond place; then Hofea, Ifaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Joel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel,

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Obadiah,

Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: and obferves, that a good critical commentary upon the book of Zechariah would be the beft key to the opening all the reft; and fpeaks with approbation of the propofal made by Samuel Torfhill *, of difpofing the Bible into a method and harmony, by tranfpofing the order of books and chapters in fections. An additional authority, he justly hints, was reflected on the Prophefies; as by the law of Mofes, received from God, the Prophet who pretended to Divine infpiration, without being infpired, was to be put to death: for under fuch a sentence it is not easy to imagine, that any man in his fenfes would obtrude himself upon his fovereign, as a facred monitor commiffioned by the God of Ifrael, to foretel events, the fuccefs of which he must answer for with his life. And the liberty they took in reproving princes, and oppofing falfe Prophets, who flattered them, and approved of measures difapproved by God, ought to be received as another mark of the true Prophet, and of the credit and authority due to him and his oracles.

As to the great end and defign of all Prophecy, this, he obferves, is to make all men happy in the union of Jew and Gentile, and in the reftoration and eternal happiness of mankind by the coming of Chrift. This great event, he attempts to fhew, hath been foretold by the Prophets, in fuch manner. and at fuch periods, as to afford inconteftable evidence that Jefus is the Chrift; for the Argument from Prophecy he juftly recommends as an evidence not inferior to demonftra

tion.

In the fecond Chapter the Doctor treats of the Meffiah. As under the law, the prophet, the priest and the king, and confecrated perfons and things, were anointed to give them a luftre, and denote and publish the feparation of them from common men and common ufe; it follows that the expected King of the Jews, their greatest Prince, Prophet, Legiflator, Prieft, each of which offices alone would have entitled him to the name of Meffiah, or Anointed, fhould most eminently be called by the Jews, the Meffiah, that is, the Chrift. Some of his auguft characteristic titles, which diftinguifh him from all other beings, the Doctor delineates with great judgment

He had been a preceptor in the Royal Family; and this piece of his (which is to be found in a collection of tracts called the Phoenix) is addreffed to the Lords and Commons affembled in Par Hament.

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and propriety, and takes notice that as we often find the Prophets infpired by the Lord, often reprefenting, often speaking in the character of the Lord-hence it also is that the Lord, (when he became manifeft in the flesh) and his difciples, apply many things, as faid by the Jews in their days, which he had before faid to them, the fame circumftances occurring, by the declarations of the Prophets; for the spirit of Chrift was in them. They often reprefent him as the Captain, the Prince, the Leader of God's people. Though Zerubbabel brought back the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, though he was the vifible commander, it was THE WORD who influenced and directed. The fame must be faid of Judas Maccabeus, and other conquerors. Grotius, indeed, every where affects to reprefent the prophetical predictions, as accomplished in their primary fenfe when applied to Zerubbabel, Judas Maccabeus, or any other Prince, or leader of the people of Ifrael; and to be applicable to the Meffiah only, when interpreted in a fecondary and fubordinate fenfe: whereas, on the contrary, it is most evident that the Meffiah, as the Captain of the Lord's Hofts, the Angel of his Prefence, the Prince and invifible Leader of his People, is the perfon to whom, in a primary and moft eminent fenfe, thofe predictions certainly relate; for the great actions, apparently done by the vifible human leader, were directed by the counfel, and invigorated by the energy, of the invifible Divine Commander. He was the Prince of God's People in every age; the Redeemer, the Saviour of the World, and is appointed to be the Judge of it.

The third Chapter treats of the latter, or last times; which the Jews in general refer to the times of the Meffiah. But the expreffion in fome paffages of the Old Scriptures evidently denotes other periods. Some, the Doctor intimates, have interpreted the end of days and the laft times, both in the Old and New Scriptures, of the end of the world; but the Doctor hath clearly fhewn that thefe phrafes fignify the end of the Jewish ftate, the times of the Meffiah, the fulness of time, or the end of the difpenfations by revelation from heaven: or rather, the whole Chriftian period paffeth under the denomination of the latter, or laft times; which fentiment he confirms and illuftrates by various paffages of Scripture.

In the fourth Chapter we have fome judicious criticisms on the proper fignification of Shilo, and alfo remarks ferving to point out the period of time when the Meffiah was expected. In illuftrating the bleffings predicted by the aged

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patriarch, Jacob, as defigned for his defcendents in fucceeding times, according to which Prophecy the tribe of Judah was to be great, to bear the rod of juftice, to have a fceptre, and a law-giver, and a prince and ruler was not to fail in that tribe, under its banner, or from the loins of Judah, till SHILO, the peace-maker, or the Deliverer from death and deftruction, fhould come, to whom should be the gathering of the nations, and their homage paid. The entire diffolution of Judah, as a tribe, did not happen till Jefus came, and the Gentiles were called,

The fifth Chapter is employed in confidering the place where the Meffiah was to be born; and after fome proper obfervations on the Conceffions of the Rabbins, the Doctor makes feveral pertinent and judicious remarks upon the paffage in Micah's Prophecy, which determines the place of Chrift's birth; (viz. Chap. v. 2.) and in fhewing who the Ruler, Prince, or King is, who fhould come out of Bethlehem? He takes notice that this is determined by this defcription of his appropriate character, that his " goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." It is he who fo often went forth in the name of the Lord, who converfed with Abraham and Mofes, who was before the foundation of the earth was laid, and who at laft was made manifest in the Alefh, and came forth from Bethlehem, the King of the Jews. Of no perfon whatever can it be faid, that he appeared or came forth from the beginning, from days of eternity, as it is well rendered by the Seventy; he who was afterwards, in fome period of time fubfequent to this oracle by Micah, to come forth out of Bethlehem as a Prince or a Governor in Ifrael, UNTO ME, or before God. Thefe proceedings or goings forth as of old, he was not to give up or surrender, but to give or continue, or to accomplish, until he should be born of the Virgin, or until the which travaileth hath brought forth; for then, as it follows, he fhall STAND and feed in the ftrength of the Lord; he who, according to Isaiah *, is said to bear and carry them, (the people of Ifrael) all the days of old. The critical obfervations which Dr. Sharpe hath made upon the fifth and fixth verfes of the chapter already referred to, are worthy of the closest attention; as the Prophecy, if his interpretation be admitted, is fo unanswerable an argument in favour of Chriftianity. The feven Shepherds, the Doctor apprehends, are the feven Maccabees, namely, Mattathias and his five fons, with Hyrcanus, fon of Simon, and the eight

* lxiii. 9.

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