from the lips of uninspired man,-by being the single individual, that ever appeared in the form of man, of whom it could be said, that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,-by rising victorious from the grave,-by visibly ascending to that heaven whence he declared he came,-by the miraculous fulfilment of that promise, which he gave to his apostles, of extraordinary assistance from above, and of his other predictions, particularly those regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, the persecution of his followers, and the triumphant march of his religion. What stronger proof, upon this subject, could have been demanded from our Lord, than what all these circumstances, taken together, afford?—or would the Most High have vouchsafed so strong an attestation in favour of one, who had presumptuously usurped his own honour? -II. With regard to the FAMILY, of which Messiah was to be born, it is pleasing to observe the manner, in which the light of prophecy, dim and feeble at first, breaks forth more and more unto the perfect day. The first promise was that made in reference to the mother of mankind, in which it was declared in general terms, that it was HERSEED, which should bruise the serpent's head.When ABRAHAM, the father of the chosen people, was providentially called to leave his own country, and his kindred, for a land that God would show him, he received the express promise, that in him, or, as was afterwards more distinctly explained to him, in his seed, all families of the earth were to be blessed. This patriarch had more than one son, and, in answer to his prayer, O that Ishmael might live before thee, as well as on other occasions, he was expressly told, that the covenant was to be made, not with Ishmael, his first begotten, but with the son of Sarah, who was not yet born. Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: behold I have blessed him, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I make with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee.-Isaac, in like manner, had two sons, Esau and Jacob; and here, again, the promise was limited to JACOB, to the exclusion of

his elder brother. The Lord said unto Jacob, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Jacob had twelve sons, and, in the prophetic blessing, which he pronounces over them on his deathbed, he distinctly marks out the chosen tribe. After warning Reuben, that though he was his first born, his might, and the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, yet, unstable as water, he should not excel,—and declaring of Simeon and Levi, that he would divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel,-he, in rapturous and glowing language, hails the future glory of the more highly favoured JUDAH. Judah, thou art he, whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies ; thy father's children shall bow down before thee; the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come: and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. It was lastly revealed, that the promised Deliverer should be of the stock of JESSE, and the house of DAVID. There shall come forth, saith Isaiah, a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, &c. So, also, Jeremiah declares, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, &c.

-All this was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the seed of the woman; the seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; of the tribe of Judah; of the stock of Jesse; and of the house and lineage of David. -III. With regard to the TIME of Messiah's birth, it was announced by the patriarch Jacob, in a passage already quoted, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, UNTIL SHILOH SHOULD COME; which implied, that this tribe should continue a distinct people, possessing its own laws, and its own sovereign, until the coming of the Deliverer. Every other tribe finally lost this distinction, long before the appearance of Christ. The ten revolting tribes never returned from Assyria. Benjamin became an appendage of the tribe of Judah. But Judah, at this memorable epoch, was still permitted by the Romans, the rulers of the world, to retain, not

her own laws only, but her own king. No sooner, however, was the prophecy fulfilled, than the promised distinction ceased. There was a king of Judea when Shiloh came; there was no such king when Shiloh departed. At the time of Messiah's birth, the declining sceptre was wielded by Herod the Great. On the death of Herod, which took place during the infancy of Jesus, his son Archelaus succeeded to the govern ment; but, on account of the opposition made to him, both by his own kindred and by the people whom he was to govern, the Romans allowed him only to assume the inferior title of Ethnarch, making his obtaining that of king to depend upon the satisfaction which should be given by his government. The latter title he was never allowed to assume, being, on the complaint of his subjects, soon entirely deprived of his power, and banished to Gaul. Now, at length, the sceptre took its departure. No other temporal king was permitted to ascend the throne of Judah, which became a part of a Roman province, and was thenceforth governed by procurators sent from Rome. At our Saviour's trial, the chief priests admitted that they had now no king but Cæsar. The Jews still, indeed, to a certain extent, retained their own laws and customs, as appears from Pilate, the Roman governor, telling the chief priests to take Christ and judge him, according to their lan. From their answer it would seem, on the other hand, that their former rights, in this respect, had begun to be curtailed, and that they had lost, in their own persons, the power of life and death, though they still asserted their right to call upon the foreign judge to administer their law. We have a law, said they, and by this law he ought to die. The day, however, was fast approaching when their national existence was entirely to cease. In less than forty years, the Jews, as every one knows, not only ceased to be a nation, but were scattered abroad over the face of the earth. Had Messiah's appearance, accordingly, taken place at a period not much later than it actually did, the prophetic declaration of the Patriarch could not have been accomplished.-With regard to the time of this appearance, also, a remarkable Revelation was made to Daniel. SEVENTY WEEKS

are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that, from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. Now, it has been shown by Sir Isaac Newton, as well as many other learned men, that, by computing each day for a year, the seventy weeks were precisely accomplished at the time when Christ was cut off. On this subject, it seems proper to remark, that the division of years, as well as of days, into weeks or portions of seven, was quite familiar to the Jews, with whom every seventh year was a Sabbath for the land, as every seventh day was for the people. It is also remarkable, that this comparison of years to days seems not to have been uncommon in their prophetic language. It was thus the Lord, by Moses, foretold to the children of Israel their forty years' detention in the wilderness: After the number of the days, in which ye searched the land, even forty days, EACH DAY for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years. Thus also we read in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel, that the Lord enjoined this prophet to perform a certain observance for forty days, as typical of a period of forty years; saying, I have appointed thee EACH DAY FOR A YEAR.— There yet remains one striking circumstance, by which the Prophets still further limited the period of Messiah's advent, namely, their declaration that it should take place during the subsistence of the second temple. I will shake all nations, saith the Lord by Haggai, and the Desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill THIS HOUSE with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. So also Malachi announces, The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly COME TO HIS TEMPLE, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. At a time, accordingly, when men were eagerly looking out for the Desire of all nations, Christ came to that temple, of which, within a

few years, not one stone was to be left upon another; and there received the welcome greetings of those who waited for the consolation of Israel. Original.

ON PROPHECY (CONTINUED).

IV. THE precise PLACE of Messiah's birth is distinctly pointed out in ancient prophecy. Thou BETHLEHEM EPHRATAH, saith Micah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel. Had an uninspired penman ventured to predict, from probability alone, the birthplace of the promised king of Judah, he would hardly have fixed it at Bethlehem ; which, though truly the city of David, was only the residence of his early years, under the lowly roof of his father Jesse. Such a writer would, on the contrary, have rather led his countrymen to look for this event at Sion, the royal residence. Relying, however, on the Prophecy of Micah, the Jews appear to have had a universal expectation that their King was to be born at Bethlehem. So the Priests and Scribes expressly told Herod, when he, with jealous fear, made inquiry upon this subject. So also, on one occasion, some of the Jews, under the erroneous notion that Christ was a native of Nazareth, where he had been brought up, rejected him, saying, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said, that Christ cometh out of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? It adds, moreover, much weight to the evidence of Scripture prophecy, that the ordinary residence of Christ's mother was at Nazareth; and that the Providence of God had so ordered, for the fulfilment of the prediction, that she should, notwithstanding, be at Bethlehem at the time of her son's birth. This, too, was brought about, not by means of agents, who had in view the accomplishment of prophecy, but in obedience to the decree of a Heathen Emperor.-V. Besides the family of which Messiah was to be born, and the time and place of his birth, there were OTHER REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES connected with his nativity, which were the subjects of Prophecy. Thus Isaiah, in a passage already referred to, declares, Behold ▲ VIRGIN