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P284.05 (I 4 *' * » • * • ' • • » » • » • The substance of the following Discourse was preached in Zion Church, on the 27th July last. It is now written out and printed at the request of a number of friends who think its circulation may be useful. May their anticipation be realized through God's blessing. Db Bleuey Street, December, 185K 63335 JESUS, THE DIVINE MESSIAH. TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. "For thou art nn holy people unto the Lord thy God ; the Lord thy God bath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all peo.jle that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set hia love upon you nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, (for ye were the fewest of all people.) But because the Lord loved you; and because ho would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, Irom the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hateth him to their face, to destroy them ; he wil not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to hia taco. Ihou Shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgnients, which I command thee this day, to do them,"— Deuteionomu Vila D""!!, This beautiful passage, so expressive of Divine love, so illus- irative of Divine sovereignty, and so aw^c-inspiring as a declara- tion of God's faithfulness both in threatening^ • and promises, was addressed to the children of Jacob by their great Lawgiver Moses. Other records of blessing and of cursing are contained in this book, which have been remarkably fulfilled in the history of this wonderful people. Indeed its fearful comminations are now in process of accomplishment, as il.ey have been for the last eighteen centuries. Their long dispersion among all the nations of the Gentiles, and the sore calamities to which they have been ex- posed are in exact accordance wnth the predictions of their own Scriptures read in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day. And this grievous state of matters will continue in some form or other until the children of Abraham receive the Messiah, of whom <' the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets," so abundantly testify. It is our fervent prayer that the Lord, the Spirit, would remove the veil which is upon their heart, as they read Moses and the ( ! prophets. May Jchovoh rcmeml)cr His covenant, and have mercy upon Israel, that they may be saved. I olTer no apology for addressing a discourse to Jews and to Christians in relation to Jews, for they are objects of deepest in- terest to every right-minded disciple of Christ. '< They are be- loved for the fathers sakcs,"'— -< their debtors we are"f— « who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God (Supreme God) blessed for ever."t We long for their salvation. We believe that the hopes of the church and of the world are linked with that salvation. There can be no gathering to Zion of the fulness of the Gentiles until the Jews are brought in ; and " God is able to graft them in again." There has always been a remnant according to the election of grace, who have exhibited true faith in Jesus of Nazareth; of which remnant it is the plain duty of the Churches to seek the increase— a duty that may be hopefully performed, inasmuch as God's promises are full and abundant. It is not my purpose at this time to construct an elaborate or critical argument, nor to deal much in controversy ; but rather in a style unafTected and simple— in the first place to inquire from the Jewish Scriptures— an acknowledged standard of appeal— What Messiah was to be ? Secondly, to ^mv that Jesus of Nazareth was actually all that Moses and the Prophets thus described and, finally, to urge sundry considerations as an in- citement to the reception of this glorious Messiah. It may be proper simply to note at the outset, that in the matters of con- troversy between Jews and Christians, the former have availed themselves largely in these latter times of the plausibilities of German Rationalistic Conjmentators, so that many texts which the more ancicit Jewish writers attributed to the Messiah are now dei.ied a place in that category. The interpretations of the Ra- tionalist school have been subjected \o a rigid analysis by other German commentators equally learned, and vastly more logical and more devout, and with all their plausibility they have beeq dfcffionstrated to be utterly unsound. This infidel school rej^pt* * Komans xi. 28. f Romans xv. 21 t Rtwaans ix 4, 6. as not Messianic^ a large portion of all the Psalms and Prophecies, in which that distinguished personage is predicted, — despiritualizes inspired songs and predictions, — and contemptuously laughs at the Old Testament Miracles. But it heing obvious that such principles of interpretation would reduce the ever blessed Jeho- vah Himself to a poetical myth, and render the Sacred Scrip- tures without value as a standard of faith and morals ; they have been successfully unmasked, and denounced as alike false and mischievous. It would be to stray from my purpose now to enter into these investigations; besides, the work has Deen successfully done by others, and the substantial accuracy of the holy oracles, as we possess them, has been established. In this discourse we «hall use prophetical unfoldings and descriptions which are recog- nized as having reference to the Messiah by the most learned Christian writers of modern as well as ancient days, and which were in the main so recognized by the writers of the ancient Jewish Targums, without troubling ourselves with the perversion* of a misnamed Rationalism. I. WJiat do the Old Testament Scriptures teach us to expect concer?iing the Messiah ? It is not needful to enter upon preliminary evidence, that the grand subject of ancient propiiecy was ever the coming of a Saviour, for of that fact the intelligent Hebrew has a perfect con- viction. Observe then — 1. TJie Jeivi^i Sc.ipturcs induce the expectation that the pre- dieted Saviour sJiall be called Messiah. This word signifies " anointed," or the being instituted to an ofRce by anointing, — and it is derived as a name from the Divine command, to anoint persons and things, when set apart to the service of God. The patriarch Jacob, after having slept in the neighbourhood of Luz» under heaven's canopy, reared a stone as a pillar, and pouring oil upon it, consecrated it as a memorial to God, calling the place henceforth Bethel, or the house of God. See Genesis xxviii. 18 — 22. According to the Divine injunction, the Lawgiver Moses^ anointed with holy oil, the tabernacle and its furt>iture, the altar and its appurtenances, and then Aaron and his Sons to be Priesli of the Lonl— Exodus xl. 9—15. The kings of Israel were de- nominated '« The Lord's Anointed," inasnuich as they were con- Bocraled to omce by a special anointing. See 1 Samuel x. 1 ;— xvi. 13, in which the setting apart of Saul rnd of David is des- cribed. Thus also were the prophets of the Lord consecrated, 88 we read Jeliovah's command to Elijah, saying : " (Jo, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus ; and when thou comest, anoint Ilaxael to be King over Syria ; and Jehu, the son 01 Nim^hi, Shalt thou anoint to be King over Israel; and EHsha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint to be pro- phet in thy room."— 1 Kings xix. 15-16. Thus, places and instruments of worship were anointed as thereby consecrated to God's service, and officers, especially tiie Monarch, the Priest, and the Prophet, were inaugurated into oflice by similar anoint- ing. Agreeably to this institution, the sacred writers celebrate the expected Saviour under the name Messiah, as ordained to be a Ktng, a Fricst, a ProphcL, and these in a manner distinct and isolated from all others. In the second Psalm, the first of these offices is assigned to him. The Chaldce Targum* and the most ancient Jewish interpreters apply this Psalm to Messiah ; though some of the moderns have sought to divert the reference. An attentive and candid reader can hardly fail to agree in opinion on this point with the Targum and the Ancients. In the second verse of the Psalm, the Kings of the earth are described as setting themselves ''against Jehovah, and against his Anointed," or Mes- siah ; and in the sixth and seventh verses that personage is enthroned, and recognized as the Son. '« Yet have I set (An- nointed) my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree : Jehovah hath said unto me. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." In Psalm ex. 1, this King is pronounced to be a Priest. « Jehovah hath said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy fooistool. Jehovah shall stnd the rod of thy strength (the sceptre of thy power) oul * The Targums are paraphrastic versions of some parts of the Old Testa- ment made in the Chaldec language, after tlie Hebrew liad ceased to bever- nacuhar among the Jews. The most ancient of these is that of Onkelos. vZr-!f T r^ ^^"t^t <=°»t'^"P«'-ary of St. Paul. It is on the Pentateuch. ? '^f* 7 Jt-nathan Ben Uzziel, contemporary with Onkelos, is on the Prophets, including most of the historical books. ^ ' I 9 of Zion ; rule thou n ('^c miJat of ihino enemioH Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Mclcliizedck." The ronlateudi fo.itaina a distinguished prophecy of Messiah in Ills character of Prophet. « The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Iloreb I will raise them up a Prophet from anu)ng their brethren like unto thee, and vvi" put my words in his mouth ; and ho shall speak unto them all that T siiall com- mand him."— Z)^?/«. xviii. 15—19. Thi« passage rcciuiros t' "M Messiah .should not only be a prophet, but a Legislator as was Moses, the founder of a new law, and the head of a new eco- nomy. No Jewish prophet, other th.>n Messiah, sustained the relations which Moses did, especially that of lawgiver. The Trophet Isaiah, in a passage concerning vhich the Targum is ex- plicit, and the ancient interpreters are unanimous, in the reference to Messiah, thus discourses: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse-, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, (which is his an- nointing by the Spirit,) the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of Jehovah, and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears ; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with ecpiity for the meek of the earth ; and he shall smite the earth with the rod ofhis mouth, and with the breaih of his lips shall he :slay the wicked, and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."- -/sa««/i xi. 1—5.* Another passage in the book of Isaiah, which the Chaldco paraphrast de- clares to belong to the Messiah, and concerning which Abarbanel scruples not to assert that all those who do not interpret the pro- phecy oX Messiah have been struck with blindness, presents to view an explicit testimony : " Behold my servant, whom I up- » The Targum of Jonathan expounds the first verse thus: "From the chil , .!„. .,.,....»^.v. ijijr Dvrii, luinc tjiiiy uiii; itoiii ME — ine 13 Angel of Jehovah calls to Abraham a second [time from hea- ven, and said By Myself I have sworn, saith Jehovah that since thou hast not doubted this thing ia blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying will multiply thy seed as the stars of the hea- ven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore See Genesis xxii: 11—18. There are many similar passages, which, with these, represent the Angel of Jehovah as possessing uncontrolled dominion and the attributes of omniscience and omnipresence :— He swears by 7/msc//as Deity, and He describes himself as the Almighty Protector and Redeemer— the author of the most desi- rable blessings. He is the object of religious invocation— He is in the most express manner and repeatedly declared to be Jehovah, God, the ineffable I am that I am, and yet this Mysterious Being is represented as distinet from God, and acting (as the term Angel imports) under a Divine Mission. There can be no doubt whatever that this remarkable personage was and is the Messiah. 3. TJie time and place of Messiah's appea.ing are paints dis^- tincttj predicted. Their father Jacob thus prophecied to the twelve patriae chal ancestors of the Jews " The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his kei, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."— Gmms xlix : 10. This prophecy was understood by the Ancient 3eyf& to refer to Messiah, as appears from the Targum of Onkelos. « There shall not be taken away one having the principality from the house of Judah, nor a scribe from his childrens's children even for ever, till Messiah come, whose is ths Kingdom and him the people' shall obey." As a further proof that the Ancient Targumist believed Jacob to be favoured with a view of Messiah's coming, he paraphrases the 18th verse of this chapter as follow: "'I wait for thy salvation, Lord'— Our father Jacob said not I wait for the salvation of Gideon, the Son of Joash, which is a temporal salvation ; nor the salvation of Samson, the Son of Manoah, which is a transitory salvation : but I wait for the redemption of Messiah, the Son of David, who shall come to lead the children of Israel io himself; even for his redemption my soul waiteth." We i nder- Btand this prophecy of Jacob to assure the Jewish people that I < ; !M 14 they should be an organized nation until Messiah came. There should continue among them the regal and judicial authority until this great Saviour should make his appearance and assume the dominion. Another passage of marked character as to the time of Mes- siah's advent is found, Ilaggai ii : 6, 9, compared wllh Malachi in : 1 . « For thus saith Jehovah of hosts. Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land : and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house (the second tern- pie) with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. The glory of thi? latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith Jehovah of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts.'" And the Lord says by Malaehi, " Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the v^ay before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the convenant, whom ye delight in : behold he shall come, saith Jehovah of hosts." This remarkable prophecy is interpreted by ancient Jewish writers as referrin-^ to the Messiah. Indeed that reference seems beyond dispute. Yet he is identified with Jehcvah, for the fore- runner « shall prepare the way before me"— saith Jehovah. He is also represented as the Proprietor of the Temple. He is characterized as The Sovereign a title no where given in this form to any except Jehovah. And it is His coming which imparts Its superior glory to the Matter house," for in all material glory that Temple was greatly inferior to the Temple built by Sol on. Besides neither tabernacle nor temple were said to be filled with glory except by the visible symbol of the Divine presence: accordingly the only way in which this latter house could excel the former must be by the entrance within its sacred precincts of the Divine Majesty in the person of Messiah. He was the Desire of all nations, because he was to be their light and the author of their most needed blessings, and he was to come into that house, consequently while that building stood on Mount Moriah. That same house did stand until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, for Herod's work upon it was repairing and beautifying, not rebuilding. The structure which was erected after the captivity e. There lority until ssume the ! of Mes- Malachi t is a little i the sea, Desire of Jond tem- this latter of hosts • .'" And lessenger, whom ye gerof the ne, saith It Jewish ce seems the fore- Jehovah. . He is this form imparts material pie built le were ol of the eh this entrance 5 person luse he needed iquently 3 house ms, for ng, not aptivily 15 of Babylon remained until destroyed by the Roman Emperor, since which no temple has stood in Zion : and yet Messiah was to come and to crown with excelling glory that Temple. Daniel had been favoured with remarkable visions, especially of Messiah's Kingdom as contrasted with the rise and fall of cer- tain secular empires;— and as a distinguished token of the Divine regard, he receives precise information respecting the time when this Kingdom should be set up.— « Seventy weeks are deter mined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconcilea- tion for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and projjhccy and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the com mandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the J\Jessiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous tmies. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desola- t.ons are determined.''— i)«w«W ix : 24—26. Now it is to be observed that seventy weeks or sevens is a mode of prophetic reckonmg to be calculated by the expression in the second verse of the chapter, namely seventy years. It is a determinate num- ber. Hence seventy times seven or four hundred and ninety years even according to Jewish writers themselves, is the period of time assigned in the prophecy for a particular purpose. And what was that purpose. The text distinctly answers the question Certainly it was not the purging away of the people's sins by their own sufferings, for not only is this directly contrary to the whole teaching of the Bible, but also such a view would have afforded no encouragement to Daniel, whom God would comfort for he had just said in his prayer - We do not present our suppli- cations before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies O Lord hearken and do, defer not, for thine own sake, my God, for thy City and thy people are called by thy name." The purpose to be accomplished when the above mentioned rih. M r^'u'' ™ '^' "'^""^^"^ ^^°"^"^«"^ ^- «-"^ade Dy the Messiah, which was tn mmpH'- 4i,„4 ,„\,,-x. .u_ . . . -J ._ |..^.iv iiiui vrnivifi iiic lypicai 16 sacrifices had only prefigured. Then was to be performed the redemption work prophetically announced in the fi)rtieth Psalm, where Messiah himself is the speaker— « Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire : mine cars hast thou opened ; burnt-offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come : in the volume of tli^ book it is written of me, T delight to do thy will, O my God ; Yea, thy law is within my heart, Pscdm xl : 6—8.' When sin should be thus removed, and everlasting righteous- ness brought in, another part of the Divine purpose would be answered, namely, '< to seal the vision and prophecy," that is, to confirm all the prophecies concerning the Messiah, by the accom- phshment of ihem in Himself. The last part of the Divine pur- pose which was to be carried into effect at this period, was « to anoint Ihe most holy," or " holy of holies," an expression which usually denotes the inner sanctuary. This cannot refer to the actual temple at Jerusalem at any time after the captivity, for it was destitute of the anointing oil, nor can it refer to any future anointing, for the 490 years, at the end of which it was to be done, have passed eighteen centuries ago, accordingly we must look for the fulfilment in a spiritual anointing of a spiritual holy of hohes, which, as the place and medium of access to God. doubt- less means the Messiah. Thus explicit in regard to the time of Messiah's advent, the Old Testament is not less clear in its announcement of the place. The prophecy already quoted from Micah, specifies Bethlehem of Judah, the City of David. 4. The line of Messiah's descent according tothejlesfi, is dis- tinctly marked in the Jewisli Scriptures. We have here a point upon which enlargement is not needful for upon It there is no controversy. It is admitted by all that Messiah was to be of the seed of Abraham, and of the family of David. And one would suppose it must follow that he should appear before the Jewish genealogical registers were lost, and whde It was possible to identify the family of David, and the Messiah as springing therefrom. How could that be done now^ Supposmg for the sake of illustration the Jew to be right in his anticipation of the Messiah to come, and supposing some one now to appear under this professed character, how would it be rformed the tieth Psalm, and offering iirnt-oflering , I come: in do thy will, ^xl: 6—8. ; righteous- 5 would be ' that is, to the.accom- 3ivine pur- 1, was « to ision which efer to the ivity, for it any future was to be y we must ual holy of rod. doubt- dvent, the the 'place. Bethlehem s/i, is.dis- )t needful, y all that family of le should lost, and and the )ne now? ;ht in his iome one uld it be 17 possible to prove him of the family of David, or how could his claim be disproved ? The registers are irretrievably lost. There is, however, in the prophecy, an interesting item, as to the state of David's family, when Messiah should spring out of it. The branch of it from which he was to come, should be greatly reduced in position, so as to be lowly and despised by the world. The figure used by the Prophet Isaiah to denote this lowly condi- tion of that distinguished house, is that of a noble tree, worn down to the stump by age, or felled to the roots. « But there shall come forth a shoot from the stem of Jesse, and a scion shall spring forth from his roots," Isaiah xi., 1. The word rendered in the Eng- lish Bible « stem," occurs but three times in the Old Testament. In Job xiv., 8, we read, « though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock (stem) thereof die in the ground," &c. ; and in Isaiah xl., 24, we read, "yea their stock (stem) shall not take root in the earth." It means, therefore, the stock or stump of a tree that has been cut down,— a stock, however, which may not be entirely dead, but where the decayed stump may send up a branch or shoot from its roots. It is thus beautifully applied to an ancient and honourable family that has fallen into decay, its glory having departed, yet where there may be a descendant that shall rise and flourish exceedingly, just as a tree may decay and fall, but with vitality in the root, it may yet send up a glorious shoot. 5. Mark the numerous circumstances, m^ny of them minute^ which the Old Testament Scriptures prophetically apply to the Messiah. His public preaching was to be of good idings : « The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, for Jehovah hath anointed me to publish glad tidings," Sac— Isaiah Ixi., 1 . This was to be accom- panied by numerous miracles of mercy. « Strengthen ye the vsreak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to the faint hearted : Be strong ; fear not ; Behold your God ! . . . Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstop- ped. Then shall the lame leap like the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: For water shall break forth in the wilder- ness, and streams in the desert."— /samfe xxxv.,3,6. He was to preach with *he autbo^it" ^f ^^^.^u^t. __j i ? im , 2- «i^-- ..iiii .ijc auw.^jiiijf Ol piO^iici aiiu lUVVglVUr IIKG UUtO B I 18 Moses, and those who disregarded his words should do so at their peril, they should be cut off from among the people.^See Deut. xvui., Ij— 19, already quoted. At the same time he was to be despised and rejected by the people and their rulera, and deliver ed by them to an accursed death. "All they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying. He trusted on Jehovah that he would deliver him : let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him."— Psa//w xxii., 7, 8. « The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, (the beard.) I hid not my face from shame and epitting."— isa^oA 1., 5, 6. In both these passages Messiah is himself the speaker, but in the following he appears in the third person : " For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men j a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as It were our faces from him ; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor- rows; yet wc did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his' own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us ^W— Isaiah liii., 2 — 6. As to his death, not only the fact, but the minutest circumstan- ces are foretold. He was to be put to death in a manner unknown to the laws of Moses, namely, by crucifixion. « They pierced my hands and my feet."-Psa/mxxii., 16. He was to be betrayed by his own familiar friend. « Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who did eat my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."-P5a/«j xli., 9. He was to be sold for thirty pieces of silver. « So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter ; a goodly price that I was prized at of them."— ZfcA. xi., 12, 13. He was to be put to death as a criminal, and along with criminals, « he poured out his soul unto death ; and he was numbered with the i so at their See Deut. was to be id deliver laugh me aying, He im deliver The Lord IS, neither , and my I hid not In both following ip before : he hath lere is no rejected d we hid jsteemed our sor- rod, and he was ace was we, like his own "Isaiah umstan- iknown pierced etrayed iend in lis heel pieces ' silver, goodly le was , «he ith the 19 • iransgressors,"— Isaiah liii., 12. His remorseless foes were to give him vinegar and gall to drink in his dying agonies. « They gave me also gall for my meat ; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."— Pso/wi Ixix., 21. They were to deride and scoff him.— See Psalm xxii., 7, 8, already quoted. They were to part his garments among them, and to cast lots upon his ves- ture. " They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, Jehovah ."—Pso/m, xxii., 18, 19. He was to display the meekness of a lamb brought to the slaughter " He was oppressed and he was afflicted ; yet he opened not his mouth ; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he open- eth not his mouth," Isaiah liii., 7. He was to make intercession for the transgressors, which is declared, IsaiaJi liii., 12. He was to be pierced as said the Prophet Zechariah. " They shall look upon me whom they have pierced ;" Chap, xii., 10. And yet none of his bones were to be broken, just as'the passover lamb was to have no bone boken. See Exodus xii, 46. Psalm xxxiv, 20. He was to be buried, yet to see no corruption ; therefore to rise again early. « Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, (in Hades,) neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption."— Pso/m xvi., 10. Although his death should be ignominous, he was to be buried in an honorable manner, "and he made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb."— /sa2a/i liii., 9. He was to rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. « Thou will show me the path o( life ; in thy presence is fulness of joy : at thy right hand are pleasures for ever more."— Psa/»j xvi., 11. « Thou hast ascended on high : thou hast led captivity captive : thou hast received gifts for men, and for the rebellious also : that thou, Jah, O God ! mayest dwell with us."~P5aJw Ixviii. 18. He was to sit on the right hand of God, tiU all his enemies were made his footstool. « Jehovah hath said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool," Psalm ex., 1. The sufferings of the Messiah were to be the great vicarious atonement for sin. The history of the trial of Abraham when caUed to offer up his son Isaac ; the sacrifice of the passover : the various expiations under the law, especially the expressive solem- nities of the great dav of atonement, werft all tvninnl nf AVc auffo-. 20 ings whom it should please the Father lo set forth as a propitiation for sin. « Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." He ,was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement by which our peace is effected wa» laid upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed. The kingdom of the Messiah was to be set up in the world, beginning at Jerusalem, and extending to the uttermost parts of the earth ; but it was not to be of this world ; its principles were to be righteousness and peace, mercy and truth ; not the policy of man, but the perfections of God "Mercy and truth meet together ; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth ; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. • * • Righteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps."— Psa/w Ixxxv., 10—13. This kingdom was not to be extended like that of Mahommed, by fire and sword, but by the propagation of the truth, first by Messiah himself, and afterwards by his chosen servants. This gospel truth was to be accompjinied to the heart of men by the power of the Spirit of God, and was to be productive of the most wonderful change of character in the subjects of His gracious influence. It was to be a benignant reign— glorious in its truth and love. « And It shall come to pass in the last days, the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto It ; and many people shall go and say, come ye, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people ; and they shall beat their swords mto plow-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword, neither shall they learn war any more."— 7sam^ ii., 2—4. The peace of His reign is thus further described. « The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid- and the calf and the young lion, and the fading together: and a little child shall lead them. ♦ • * * They shall not hurt nor destroy in all ny holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the Be^^^Isaiah xi., 6-9. This kingdom was not propitiati'oil ir sorrows." ed for our Rected wa« the worlJ, >9t parts of ^iples were the policy ruth meet rruth shall lown from , and shall 13. This ed, by fire J Messiah >spel truth ^er of the wonderful ence. It '^6. "And Fehovah's and shall low unto go up to ;ob; and iths: for Jehovah ons, and r swords : nation rar any s further and the e young them. ♦ ountain, , as the was not 21 to be confined to any particular nation for the heathen were to be gathered into it, and the Gentiles were to rejoice in its light : " Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." -Psalm ii., 8. And it was to be an everlasting kingdom, never to be shaken or removed. " Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdon. to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.''— IsaiaJt ix., 7. Daniel in a vision saw the Ancient of days seated on bis throne, and the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, and being brought near before him. " And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."^ Daniel vii., 14<. The limits of a single discourse confine one to the merest epitome of the teachings of the Old Testament on this great theme. It has appeared as we have proceeded that the predicted Saviour— the expectation of Israel, should be called Messiah,— that he should be a human being, and yet Divine ; that the time and place of his advent are distinctly specified ; that his descent m family line is fixed, and that very many remarkable circum- stances m his ministry, his sufferings, and the glory which should follow are foretold in a most minute and particular manner It follows that no Impostor could have the smallest resemblance to this mspired description of the genuine Messiah. He who shall answer God's own description as given to the Jews in these sacred ora- cles, must possess in his own person most astonishing attributes: must have come at a certain period, in a certain city, of a certain iritual King- is uniformly r right and of ludiates with to it would 3cy some of ver growing en they die, nt. And on wardness of 3 of persecu- :ophies con- I vital union s God, and 5 illustrating pe upon the of the Lord in due time, ! cover the of our Mes- ere shall be >n with you conomies is pment and !nt saints of David and They saw iwn of the 'St, 1- 25 morning, but they looked forward to the perfect day. We love their names, we venerate their virtues, we follow their faith. Their God is our God. Him we love and worship. Their A ngel of .7 /novah is our Mediator and Redeemer. Him we love and worship. And the Holy Spirit, who inspired their faith and hope, and by whom they were moved in penning Sacred Scripture, is the Divine Agent on whom we rely for every holy motion. We urge you not to embrace a new religion, but rather that which is the perfecting of your own. The Mosaic Institutions were manifestly preliminary and temporary; Christianity is their designed and adapted end. You look for the Messiah ; behold him in Jesus of Nazareth. Again, our appeal to you is in love. No true Christian despises the Jew. Our Messiah was a Jew. Jesus was born in Bethle- hem, of the family of David, of the tribe of Judah ; all his Apostles were Jews, who loved their nation, and most earnestly sought their welfare. All the multitude of early converts were either Hebrews or Jewish proselytes. Jerusalem and Judea were the cradle of Christianity. How numerous were Jewish believers then ! What crowds acknowledged Jesus as both Lord and Christ ! " A great multitude of the priests were obedient unto the faith." In every city of the known world in which the Jews dwelt, were there from among them converts to the Christian faith. Nor has this fact ever been without its counterpart, for ever since there has been '<■ a remnant according to ihe election of grace," who born Jews, have become believers in Jesus. There are now some thousands of Christian Hebrews scattered throughout Chris- tendom. The illustrous Neander, the German professor, and the historian of Christianity was a Jew, but a most firm and consistent believer in Christ. We therefore invite you to no new thing, but to follow in a course which the best of your fathers have trodden ever since the Christian era. Still further, be assured that the New Testament bears unmis- takeable marks of the same Inspiration as does the Old Testament ; they are the utterances of the same glorious voice— the thinkings of the same Infinite Mind. We pray you to give to the former a candid perusal. Let the God of your fathers be invoked to give you understanding in his testimonies. You will find homage done to Moses. You will find a full recognition of the Divine autbor- I ii jn m\ 2„wn u„ "T "' '"' '"" ™" '"*°'^' '" ™'°°'"^J f- "Shi your ow7»n ^'PTT™- Christianity will explain ,„ you Th dol e r", ""' "'''' '" '"'" "'^' -d ceremonies. the New T. ""'Z"' """ ""''^ "^ ' "'''"^'°»<' '" *« light of Jay il t1.:T ^'' '"f "' '* -" 80a«» could no.'take thZ 7',u '"T"";"' ""^ '"' """■"'»8 ""'' -'™"i»g sacrifice,, au. profitless ceremonies, unworthy of His worship '.who is a Sp.nt and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth » a^r. frL he,r typ,eal relation to the cardinal truths of Christianity cZ the? rfnveT i" '"f "*"' "^'"^ ""^ "^ "^ ^"^ j"- ^^^"'^ and7;i JH'' "'''' ?"^"'*' "' "'T-™g '%"i'y> reyeahng and «pamingth«great fact, the wonder of the Uniyerse namely *e e^atory atonement for human guilt by the S oH'' shal tw! \'""'^- ^^ '" *^ "-"^^ '» the question, " how Ch s'nrr '"' ^^''°-«-J'" Wthoutthe light which Christiamty throws upon the Levitical economy, great mystery urroundsthatall momentous question, but in ,S 1 g you'S acifice tat h r^l'^-'t' '" "'» "'"''^ »"" '" "'' »'»" of Mot ' n""" r "'' '•'''^' '=°"'' ""' ''^ '"^''^^ ty 'he law admutmg h s future ao.ngs to be good, they are no more than duty! are w,thout sta,n : m the sight of a HolyGod they are all defeC t've. On the ground of them it would be derogatory to His oyernment to accept us and smile upon us. But witlfthe p! ! feet y,car,ous nghteousness of our Divine Mediator reckoned by Thetarhrnti":;:;"'"'"'' '™ "'"' ''■^^'^ - '^« ^^"""^ throlom d °r""^ ■'"P"'''"™ of righteousness to the sinner throughout the ancient Scriptures, but the doctrine is not fully and c arly ^ught until Chris, haying finished the work of redemp, on . stir " ""• " '^^""'"^ *' -^""'^ '™«> '» Him ; h I ent r°' " '° '' "°''"^""''' "■» ■""« important one that can engage human attention, you must study it in the fuller anWe glorious light of the New Testament Scripti^e! dispersion. Tms has been already indicated in our remarks. 87 The Messiah has come and you have rejected him and do reject him. The glorious personage predicted by your ancient Prophets, and whose praises were sung by your ancient poets, came in the fulness of the time as a Jew, born in your own glorious land, and having worshipped and taught in your once magnificent tem- ple. But your nation denounced him as a deceiver, and urged his crucifixion, exclaiming, " His blcod be upon us and upon our children." Blessed be the God of all grace, many of your nation repented of the wrong, and became followers even unto death of the despised Nazarene, of whom there have been successors in every age, but the bulk of your people rejected him, and they endured the consequences. Your own historian Josephus seems overwhelmed with awe as in the midst of God's judgments when he describes the siege and sack of your beautiful Jerusalem. It was predicted that for this rejection you should be banished from your land, and be wanderers upon the earth. The prediction is fulfilled. You continue banished ones, and must so continue until you receive Jesus as the Messiah. You have entertained in dif- ferent ages since, many hopes of deliverance apart from faith in Jesus, but tlieir issue has shown them to be a mockery, as will that of all other save faith in the Lord Christ. Finally, the reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, will introduce you to your high vocation, your true and glorious mission. You have one ; but alas ! it is not understood. You are told that it is to bear testimony to one God. Surely this can- not be, for every Christian and every Mahommedan does this. You are told that it is the exhibition of a high morality. But in tljis you are not singular, for Christianity retains all your morals, and carries some points in morals to a higher point than you. You are told that it is a voluntary martyrdom in respect of pos- session and enjoyment upon earth. This cannot be, for such martyrdom is no virtue, it is asceticism, not religion, and then neither do your peo^ ' voluntarily abstain from possession and enjoyment, nor if they did, would they be alone in the thing — Monasticisim was based upon this. Christianity teaches your mission in the following terms : " For if the casting away of them, (the Jews), be the reconciling of the worid, wlmt shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead. . . And they, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in again ; for ■■ ifH S8 God is able to graft them in again. For if ,hou, (tlie Gentile^ wert out out of the olive tree whioh is wild by nature, and wer^ shall these >vh,ch be the natural branches, be grafted into Iheir own ohve tree ? ' (Eead the whole of the eleventh chapter o the Epstle to the Romans.) When thus grafted in again - vheu brought ,nto the Churches of the Saints made up 'f J w and Genule all one in Christ Jesus,-the Jews will be dilguish" ed .nstruments ,„ spreading the Gospel. They are now a stand- Su;eT :"'"'"'" "'*'" "'*^ °" andNew Testament all oal 'rl "" T"" """"•"^ '° """'•'' » '^P'-^'^ people in In I T^' "<"™*»'a"ding every attempt to amalga- mate them w,th the nations. They are thus of all nations and of 11 languages Stu„,bled by the miserable caricatures of Chril hamty wh,ch are found wherever the Virgin Mary, and sains Ir"; "f """"" '''""''^' "•"" "^'"e mu tu ™t wo sh,pped, they now testify to one God, Jehovah of Hosts : but let them become, like Neander, the Apostles of Christianity and who can calculate the influence they will exert upon hTe'arth The,r hereditary abhorrence of idolatry, combined with the hot to men,_w,ll mduce a sp.ntual crusade against all forms of suner- Ton the T'^' f ?°''™- """^y -" ^e valiant forTuTh upon the earth and having the advantage of the knowled Jof 'eTeTrhietrir—r'^^^^ m ^ " Oh House of Jacob come, And walk with us in light : No more bewildered roam, Like wanderers in thq night. The hope of Israel caUs you near, And Abraham's shield, and Jacob's fear. 3i !i f ill 29 thou by tempests tossed, Reviled, oppressed, trod down, In every region crossed, With grief familiar grown ; Scattered and abject, peeled, forlorn, Thy name a taunt, thyself a scorn ! Though thou art filled, alas ! And drunk with misery. That cup begins to pass To them that hated thee. But know, we honour Israel's name, Our God and Abraham's is the same. Rise, Jacob, from thy woes! Thy own Messiah see. He who thy fathers chose, Waiteth to pardon thee. At His command we bid thee come, Lost Israel, Zion welcomes home."