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LECTURE IX.

THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.

PART I.

ISAIAH XLI. 21-24.

Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that

we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of

nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

HAVING presented a general view of scriptural prophecy, we proceed to give a specimen of the actual fulfilment of it in events

which have undeniably occurred, or which are now taking place in the world; and the effects of which remain before our eyes, for the confirmation of our faith.

And here two main topics demand our attention.

The first, the accomplishment of the PROPHECIES OF THE MESSIAH, in the person of our Lord.

The second, the fulfilment of those coN

NECTED WITH HIS DISPENSATIONS TOWARD THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

We begin with the fulfilment of the PREDICTIONS OF THE MESSIAH in the person of our Lord. Every child before me knows enough of the sacred scriptures, to be able to point out the exact accomplishment of many of these predictions. But such is the dignity and importance of the subject, so entirely does the whole scheme of prophecy centre in it, and so momentous is it to all the ends of Christianity, that I must enter somewhat at large into its details. I shall consider therefore, on the present occasion, the prophecies of Christ; reserving for a second part of this lecture those connected with the church.

And here we must direct your notice,

1. TO SOME DISTINCT PREDICTIONS, broadly

and palpably marking out the Messiah, and most clearly fulfilled in our Lord.

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i. For the time, place, family, name, and forerunner of the Messiah were expressly foretold. The birth of Messiah was to take place when the sceptre was departing from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet;1 it was to be while the city of Jerusalem and the second temple remained standing; it was to be when a general expectation of him should prevail; whilst the royal house of David continued distinct from others, though exceedingly depressed; it was to be at the distance of seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years from the edict to rebuild Jerusalem, after the captivity in Babylon."

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The place of the Messiah's birth was expressly fixed to be Bethlehem Ephratah, so called to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in the tribe of Zabulon."

The family from which he was to spring, was that of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, to Judah; and from his tribe, to the royal line of David, the son of Jesse."

1 Gen. xlix. 10. 2 Isai. xl. 9; xli. 27; Haggai ii. 6—9. 3 Haggai ii. 7; Mal. iii. 1.

Isai. xi. 1; liii. 2; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24.

5 Daniel ix. 24, 25.

6 Micah v. 2.

7 Gen. xii. 3; xviii. 18; xxvi. 4; xlix. 10; Isai. xi. 1;

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His name was predicted to be Emmanuel, or, as the angel expounds it, Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins.8

Lastly, a messenger was to be sent before his face to prepare and make ready his way."

Distinct notices these; yet every one of them accomplished in our Lord, and designating him, by their particularity, to be the true Messiah.

ii. But, further, various details were given, in the prophetical records, of the life, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, whose name and descent were thus distinctly fixed.

These prophecies include his birth of the seed of the woman, and of a virgin in an extraordinary manner;1o his flight into Egypt;" his education at Nazareth; his entry into Jerusalem, riding upon the foal of an ass; 13 the cry of the children who surrounded him; the gentleness and compassion of his manner of teaching; 15 the zeal he expressed for the worship of his Father; 16 the price at which he was betrayed, and the use to which the money was

8 Isai. vii. 14; Matt. i. 21-23. 9 Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5; Isai. xl. 3. 10 Gen. iii. 15; Isai. vii. 14. 12 Judges xiii. 5; 1 Sam. i. 11.

14 Ps. cxviii. 25, 26. 15 Isai. xlii. 2, 3.

u Hosea xi. 1.

18 Zech. ix. 9.

16 Ps. Ixix. 9.

applied;" the treachery and awful end of one of his disciples; 18 the sufferings he should endure; his back given to the smiters, and his cheek to them that plucked off the hair; his face dishonoured with shame and spitting; his wounds, bruises, and stripes; his being cut off from the land of the living, the mode of death by which he suffered, the sad companions of that death, the gall offered him in his agonies, the spear that transfixed his side;" the taunting language of the multitude, the parting of his garments, and the lots cast on his woven vest; his bones not broken; the very words which he uttered in inconceivable agony on the cross; his manner of commending his departing spirit to his Father; " his grave made with the wicked, and with the rich man his tomb; 23 his not being left to see corruption, his being shown the path of life," his resurrection the third day," his prolonging his days, and seeing his seed, and there being no end of his kingdom.26

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I need not tell you that these and many other particulars were accomplished in the

17 Zech. xi. 12, 13.
19 Isai. liii. passim.

Zech. xii. 10.

23 Isai, liii. 9.

25 Jonah i. 17.

18 Ps. lxix. 25.

20 Ps. lxix. 21.

22 Ps. xxii; xxxi. 5.

24 Ps. xvi. 10, 11.

26 Isai. liii. 10, 11; ix. 7.

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