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7. The divine authority of the Old Testament also is most strongly confirmed by the "sure word of prophecy." A great part of that sacred book avowedly foretells future events. Predictions are made in various manners, and with different degrees of clearness: by intimation, by plain assertions, by significant actions and typical prefigurations; or by a narration of facts set forth almost with historical precision. These predictions are of astonishing extent. They sometimes foretell the fate of distant and extensive empires. They often embrace the lives and fortunes of individuals. But most commonly they bear reference to one person, who should be characterized by the most extraordinary, and in many respects contradictory endowments. Many of these prophecies indeed, now explained by infallible authority, were of a nature not to be understood before their fulfilment; but others were sufficiently clear to excite the expectation of the world. The person so predicted was to be the "first-born" of God, "higher than the kings of the earth," and yet "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He was to be the Son of David, and yet his Lord. His name was to be "called Wonderful, Counseller, the mighty God, the

с

c2 Pet. i. 19.

e Isaiah liii. 3.

d Psalm lxxxix. 27.

Matth. xxii. 42. Psalm cx. 1.

"g

k

everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. Yet he was to be esteemed "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." His soul was to be made an offering for sin; and yet he was to see his seed and prolong his days. Because he had poured out his soul unto death, there should be divided to him a portion with the great, and he should divide the spoil with the strong.k His grave was to be appointed with the wicked, yet with the rich man should be his tomb.1 He was to be the Messiah, the prince, yet should be cut off, but not for himself.m Against the Lord and against his Anointed should the kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel." He was to be born in a manner surpassing the ordinary course of nature; he was to be "the seed of the woman." For the Lord was to create a new thing upon the earth: a woman should compass a man. He was to be descended by a specified line, from Abraham,q from Isaac,r from Jacob, from Jesse,t from David."

Isaiah ix. 6.

i Isaiah liii. 10.

1 Isaiah liii. 9.

n Psalm ii. 2.

P Jer. xxxi. 22.

Gen. xxvi. 4.

t Isaiah xi. 1.

He was to be

h Isaiah liii. 4.

* Isaiah liii. 12.

m Dan. ix. 25, 26.

• Gen. iii. 15.

a Gen. xii. 3. xviii. 18.

u Psalm lxxxix. 4, 27. cxxxii. 11.

ix. 7. Jer. xxiii. 5. xxxiii. 20, 21.

s Gen. xxviii. 14.

Isaiah vi. 13, 14.

a

X

born in Bethlehem, and yet brought out of Egypt. As his life was to be a life of suffering, his death was to be brought on by treachery his own familiar friend was to lift up his heel against him: he was to be sold for thirty pieces of silver: that very money was to be afterwards expended for a peculiar purpose. He was to give his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; and not to hide his face from shame and spitting. His death was to be of a most cruel kind. His hands and feet were to be pierced. The heathen were to compass him about, and to stand staring and looking on him. They were to look on him whom they pierced. They were to use these very words, "He trusted in God that he would deliver him, let him deliver him if he delight in him."f They were to part his garments among them, but for his vesture they were to cast lots.g They were to give him gall for his meat, and in his thirst to give him vinegar to drink.h His soul was to be made an offering for sin/ yet

* Micah v. 2.

2 Psalm xli. 9.

b Isaiah 1. 6.

d Psalm xxii. 16, 17.

Psalm xxii. 8.

h Psalm lxix. 21.

y Hosea xi. 1. as applied Matt. ii. 15.

a Zech. xi. 12, 13.

e Psalm xxii. 16.

e Zech. xii. 10.

8 Psalm xxii. 18.

i Isaiah liii. 10.

was not to be left in hell, neither was the Holy One of God to see corruption.k

That these and numerous other predicted particulars were fulfilled in the person of Christ, it requires no laboured study of the sacred writings to know. The history of the New Testament displays such a correspondence between the events of the life of Christ, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, as proves incontestibly the divine authority of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and the reality of the revelation made by Christ. No one, except he be endued with more than human wisdom, can foresee future events. Therefore one clear prophecy, much more a succession of independent prophecies, is an undoubted evidence that he who delivers it, is illuminated from above.

It has been said, indeed, that a fortunate conjecture may anticipate a future occurrence; and that ambiguous expressions may be so ingeniously contrived, that any course of events may appear to be a fulfilment of a prediction. But the main prophecies of the Old Testament are subject to neither of these objections. What happy conjecture could devise the various particulars in the life and character of Christ? How should a series of independent

k Psalm xvi. 10.

writers, living in different ages, all conspire to imagine a person so unlike all that the world ever produced, in all the years before or since the coming of Christ? And how could their predictions have been fulfilled, unless the providence of God, who inspired his prophets, had regulated the course of events, so as to bring to pass his designs. There is a limit beyond which conjectural prediction cannot extend. There is no limit to the fore-knowledge and power of God.

There is also a limit to those expressions, ambiguous either from their generality, or from their designed obscurity, with which those, who have advanced unfounded pretensions to prophetic powers, have endeavoured to delude the world.

A zeal even without knowledge might have led a worshipper of Jehovah to cry against Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; and might have caused him to proclaim the destruction of his idolatrous rites. But no pretended prophet could have withered the hand which was stretched out against him, or have declared the name and the family of that prince, who should fulfil the prophecy, after a lapse of more than three centuries.1

When the Jews of old mourned in their

11 Kings xiii. 2. 2 Kings xxiii. 16.

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