gion. But it has pleased God to keep one grand end in view, to unite the scattered rays of light in one bright and refulgent object, the person and kingdom of the Messiah.

When the apostle sums up in the text the prophetic records, he says, he had "made known the power and coming of Christ ;" and in a similar passage in his first epistle, he describes the prophets as "testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." The " testimony of" or concerning "Jesus," says St. John, in his Apocalypse, " is the spirit of prophecy"-the scope, end, consummation of it. "To him give all the prophets witness,' is the language of St. Paul. And our Lord himself said to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me." And, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto his disciples in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself."

The first coming of Christ is the centre of one great division; the second coming of Christ comprehends the other. Remote as were the times when the prophecies were delivered, and unconnected as the divine messengers frequently were with each other, they are all found to illustrate one design, and that design the most dignified, the most beneficent, the most important to man, the most glorious to God which could be propounded. From the primeval promise in paradise, to the last of the apocalyptic visions, one theme, one mighty subject prevails; not always prominent, but always to be collected by a careful examination of the several particulars, their dependence on each other, and their reference to one common end. The entire riches of the prophetical inspiration are poured at the feet of the Son of God. A spirit of prophecy pervadng all time, attaching itself to one person, and proclaiming the progress and accomplishment of one purpose of exuberant grace, gives an attestation to

the Christian religion so sublime, so irresistible, as at once to convince the judgment and captivate the heart.R

IV. The INFINITE WISDOM apparent in the contrivance and arrangement of its parts, in subservience to this one great end, is a further evidence of a divine hand in the prophecies of the Scriptures. St. Paul, accordingly, on the contemplation of one branch only of the great scheme, assures us that "unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places is made known by the church the manifold-multiform, variegated-wisdom of God." A similar sentiment is expressed by St. Peter, in the passage of his first epistle, to which I have already referred, and which is an appendage, as it were, of my text. After reci

ting the solicitude of the ancient prophets to "search what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow"-the apostle adds in terms, brief indeed, but sublime beyond expression, "which things the angels desire to look into."

In this respect the argument from prophecy differs widely from that from miracles. Miracles, though permanent in their effects, are in themselves brief suspensions of the general laws of nature, subject at once to the eyes and ears and other senses of all who witness them, and, therefore, exacting the instant assent of the beholder. The more clear and sudden and surprising miracles are, the better they accomplish their end, that of proving a direct divine interposition. Not so the word of prophecy. The argument here arises, as we have already intimated, from a patient

8 See Bishop Hurd, to whom, and Bishops Sherlock and Horsley, I need not say, I am much indebted in this department of the argument. Mr. Davison's imcomparable work has also greatly aided me throughout this lecture.

comparison of the prediction with the fulfilment, from a consideration of a variety of small and, apparently, trifling coincidences, from a careful examination of all the records of history, and from a study of the entire scheme by an analysis of its parts. The more therefore of wisdom there is developed in this scheme, the higher the proof of divine interference.

And what language can describe the infinite contrivance of the prophetical word? The difficulties to be overcome were many and insuperable, except to the divine mind. A direct and unveiled discovery of futurity would not have been prophecy, but the disclosure of the "secret things which belong unto the Lord our God." Such a discovery might have excited a perilous curiosity, might have opened a door to the charge of collusion on the part of some of those who now unconsciously have fulfilled the divine declarations; and would have been altogether inconsistent with the uniform order of God's moral government of his rational and accountable creatures. Man could not have comprehended the mighty plan, and much less have fitly executed it.

On the other hand, if too dark a gloom had shrouded the divine predictions; if the time and persons and age and place on which the fulfilments were to fall, had not been marked, and marked definitely and clearly, the whole argument would have lost its force.

Further, it pleased God to appoint that four thousand years should elapse between the fall of man and the advent of the Messiah; that the advance of light and grace from the first dawn to the meridian day should be gradual, through successive measures of communication, under different dispensations; that the temporal condition of the ancient church should be exposed to enemies and dangers, and be more than once brought to apparent destruction by oppression and captivity.

Now to meet all these various exigencies, was a task

which only God himself could accomplish in a prophetical revelation. And it is accomplished in a manner which it is impossible for the human mind sufficiently to admire. There is an intermixture of clear and obscure predictions; there are topics of consolation plentifully scattered throughout the prophetic revelations; there is a gradual development of the person and kingdom of the future Messiah; there is an adaptation of the different sets of prophecies to the several dispensations of God's will; and there are intermediate and partial accomplishments of them in temporal and civil deliverances granted to the Jewish people, which attested the truth of their prophecies to successive ages.

All this bears the very image and impress of a heavenly wisdom. "The prophecy came not of old time by the will of man ;" nor does it admit " of any private interpretation"-from the fancy of an indivi dual, or the opinions of the prophet himself, or the mere letter of the prediction apart from the system to which it belongs. Every prophecy has its own precise and determinate meaning, fixed by the wisdom of that presiding Spirit by whom it was dictated, and to be gathered from a comparison of all the parts of the great scheme with each other, and with the corresponding events of Providence. A few prophecies indeed are unveiled minutely, and at once direct us to the precise occurrences or persons in which they are accomplished. The duration of the captivity in Babylon, the name of Cyrus, the deliverer; the precise time of the advent of Messiah, and many particulars as to his birth and sufferings, are described with the minuteness of historical narrative. But the prophecies generally were tempered with less clear predictions; were composed partly of temporal and partly of spiritual blessings; looked forward, through intermediate accomplishments, to their ultimate and most complete design; stopped sometimes on their

march to console the church with instant assurances, and then directed their course' onward to distant and more spiritual blessings; communicated, in a word, near and urgent benefits as pledges of remote and eternal ones.

Thus the promise of Canaan made to Abraham, was a pledge of the prophetic seed" in whom all nations were to be blessed;" and when accomplished, lighted up the hopes of the faithful in expecting that seed. Thus Moses was a figure of that greater prophet, whose grace was to supersede his economy. The kingdom of David was thus a figure of the domi nion of the eternal son of David. The deliverances from Egypt and Babylon were types of spiritual redemption and the judicial destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish polity, a symbol of the final judg

ment.9

In this way the prophetic scheme, in its progress, illustrates itself, and its parts prepare for and sustain each other. The fulfilment of the civil and temporal predictions, were the pledges and credentials of the accomplishment of the spiritual, in the first coming of the Messiah; whilst, again, these last support the credit of those which relate to his second advent. In this manner the prophecies were so far veiled, as to disappoint a vain curiosity before their accomplishment; and so far clear as to be perfectly unambiguous afterwards; whilst the several particulars are so scattered over the sacred canon, as to reward the humble and diligent student, and him only, with the most satisfactory conviction of the divine intention pervading the whole.

And this is the explanation of what has been very properly termed the double sense of prophecy, that is, of predictions bearing a temporary and near, as well

9 Vetus Testamentum recté sentientibus, prophetia est Novi Testamenti. Austin, contr. Faust I. xv. in Hurd.