of readers, and with that view have appended occasional foot-notes explanatory of expressions, or passages, etc. The First Part of the work may be regarded as a harmony of the two Testaments in all that relates to the Messiah; and I believe that only those who have made the prophecies of Christ their especial study will be prepared to find them so extensive. Though the number included in this work might have been augmented, had I not abstained from citing several, the reference of which to Messiah was secondary or dubious; as I thought it better to omit such, though perhaps entitled to admission, than to quote any susceptible of being cavilled at, particularly as there was such an abundance without them. Indeed so completely is the Old Testament the foreshadowing of the plan of redemption; in addition to direct promises and predictions of Messiah, so numberless are the prefigurations, references, and allusions to that great truth, that the difficulty in such a work as this is to avoid too indiscriminate a citation of passages; and many will probably consider I have erred in omitting some that might properly have been included. For instance the whole of Psalms xxii, xlv, and lxxii are prophetic of Messiah, but to have quoted them entire, with all the other passages that might have been adduced also at length, would have much increased the bulk of the work, without adding to the strength of the argument; as the force of the demonstration depends not so much upon the extent and multiplicity of the prophecies cited, as their evident application to Messiah, and their unquestionable fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth. I have therefore endeavoured as far as practicable to limit the passages adduced to those indisputable prophecies of Messiah admitted by ancient Jews, as well as by Christian commentators. The Second Part of the work, embracing our Lord's own pro phecies and their fulfilment, seemed to me a necessary supplement to the First, as affording an additional class of testimonies of His truth. For not only were His predictions so extraordinary and improbable as could not have been foreseen or surmised by human prescience, but the authority and decision with which He pronounced them, evidenced that they were not the mere utterances of one inspired to declare things he understood not the full signification of, but revealed by virtue of His own divine omniscience. They were not prefaced by "Thus saith the Lord"-but, "Verily I say unto you." While their unfailing fulfilment was declared by words of such authority as, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my The Concluding Part of passages of Scripture attesting our Lord's Divinity, completes the "testimony of Jesus" as set forth in this work; and it is hoped that the passages here adduced will in their extent and arrangement, as well as their individual character, prove the value and sufficiency of the Scripture testimonies to that vital doctrine of our belief; and demonstrate how abundant and complete is the evidence of every kind, divine and human, to that great truth; and how imperative it is therefore on all who profess to receive the Scripture as divinely inspired, to admit the truth of this doctrine, however originally opposed to their own necessarily limited conceptions, and debasing views of the nature of the "Son of God." As I have, agreeably to the plan of the work, abstained from any comment throughout the body of it, I have appended some Notes, which I trust may be found useful and interesting, particularly those on the appointed time of Messiah's advent, and the typical prefigurations of Him. I trust the work will be found not only to furnish one of the most direct and forcible demonstrations of our Lord's truth, but also prove useful for reference on the prophecies relating to Him, and the Scripture testimonies to His divinity; and that the arrangement of it may render it an assistance to students of divinity, as well as for training and other schools, and for Sunday-school teachers, Scripture readers, and Missionaries.1 Most especially desirous am I to direct the attention of the scattered children of Israel, to these Scripture testimonies of the Messiahship of Jesus. Most earnestly would I entreat them diligently and unbiassedly to search their Scriptures, and see what manner of being their prophets declare Messiah should be-What they say concerning His Lineage-Birth-place-Fore-runnerDate of His manifestation-His condition in life-His being “ stumbled” at, rejected and “despised," by "both the houses of Israel" (Is. viii. 14, 15, and liii. 1, 3,) to whom He should prove an abhorrence (Is. xlix. 7.)-His being smitten for the sins of His people (Is. liii. 5, 6.)-The particulars of His death, burial, and resurrection, etc., etc.; and say whether all these numberless, extraordinary, and contradictory predictions have or have not been indisputably and exactly fulfilled in Him whose unequalled perfections extorted from even professed infidels the confession of His divine nature.2 I would ask them to read the words of their great prophet Isaiah, xxix. 10-14, and vi. 9, 10; also to examine Is. xxviii. 16 with Is. viii. 13-15. And, comparing the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem in Deut. xxviii., and by our Lord in Matt. xxiv. and Luke xxi. with the accurate unbiassed account of that 1 A Missionary Friend who saw the work while passing through the press, has expressed to me his opinion of its utility in aiding the training and instruction of native converts. 2 See Note XV. awful consummation of God's threatenings by their own historian Josephus, ask themselves if they have not "stumbled at that stumbling-stone," the "precious corner-stone and sure foundation," the "stone cut out without hands" of Dan. ii; and incurred by their rejection of Him, who was to prove "a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel—a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem," the fate so plainly predicted in Levit. xxvi. 27-45, and Deut. xxviii. 49-68. The searching of Scripture and examination of the testimonies of Jesus which the compilation of this work entailed, during the years that I have occupied the leisure moments of an actively employed life upon it, has proved to me "its own exceeding great reward," both in the deep and growing interest I felt in it, as the invincible array of evidences of our Lord's truth developed themselves before me, as well as in the strengthening of my own faith. I have therefore the more confidence in commending to others the evidence which I have found so encouraging to myself. May it prove under God's grace the means of setting forth the great Redeemer's truth, and "give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; " and demonstrate that there is nothing more unreasonable than the rejection of Scripture as the word of Godno credulity so gross as that necessitated by unbelief of the glorious truth of Christianity-no ignorance so lamentable as ignorance of this Divine Philosophy-no cant so pitiable as the cant of infidelity. |