refurrection, afcenfion, and fitting at the right hand of God, in incomparable glory and majefty; concerning his benefits, that all nations fhould be blefled in him, bleffed with everlafting life, righteoufnefs, and peace, and with the gracious prefence of God, vouchfafing to dwell among them, notwithftanding their former rebellion, Pf. lxviii.; concerning the religious honcurs due to him, that men fhould be bleffed by trufting in him, Pf. ii. ; that he should be daily praised, Pf. Ixxii.; that his name fhould be remembered for ever in God's church; and the ordinances of God's worship fhould be performed with a fpecial regard to his media

tion.

SECT. III. General remarks on prophecies after

David.

I. In confidering the prophecies delivered in the ages after David, it is ufeful to reduce them to three different claffes, according to the following three different periods of time in which they were delivered, viz. 1. The times at a confiderable diftance before the captivity; 2. the times of the captivity itfelf, or very near it; 3. the times after the return from it. In the firft period, we have four prophets, who, by the infcriptions of their prophetic books, appear to have been cotemporary for fome part of their life, viz. Ifaiah, Hofea, Micah, and Amos. The first two are faid expressly to have prophefied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; Amos is faid to have prophefied in the days of the first of these kings, and Micah in the days of the three laft of them. Though the time of Jonah and Nahum's prophecy is not exprefsly mentioned, it appears to have been before the captivity, because it was before the deftruction of Nineveh. In the fecond period, we have the prophecies of Je remiah,

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remiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah; and in the third, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachy.

II. Because fometimes people fuffer themselves to be dazzled with general confufed objections against the gospel-interpretation of the prophecies, as if the contexts where they are found, treated of fubjects with which predictions of the Meffiah could have no manner of connection; it is ufeful, for obviating fuch objections, and for other good purpofes, to make fome general remarks on the manner in which predictions of the Meffiah are introduced, and on the various principal fubjects with which they are fometimes mixed.

1. Sometimes fuch predictions ftand by themfelves, detached from all other fubjects; as, for inftance, in If. ii. 1. 2. 3. &c. where the prediction of the converfion of the Gentiles is placed at the very beginning of a new prophecy, without any other introduction, but a general affertion, that what the prophet is about to deliver is by divine infpiration:

The word that Ifaiah the fon of Amos faw, con"cerning Judah and Jerufalem. And it fhall come "to pafs in the last days, that the mountain of the "Lord's houfe fhall be eftablished in the top of the "mountains;-and all nations fhall flow unto it."

2. The other fubjects with which predictions of the Meffiah are fometimes mixed, are in themselves of fuch a nature, and treated of in fuch a way, as, instead of founding juft objections against the gofpel-interpretation, affords confiderable confirmations of it.

(1) Befides practical inftructions relating to the feveral branches of true religion, the principal events with which the predictions of the Meffiah are mixed, are the revolutions which providence was to bring about by the most powerful ancient monarchies; and particularly the ufe that was to be made of those powers, in punishing the wickedness

of

of Ifrael and Judah, and other neighbouring nations; but the threatenings against God's visible church are mixed with gracious promifes of fafety, amidst the greatest dangers, and deliverance from calamities that feemned to threaten her total ruin, particularly the Babylonish captivity.

As these events were the most remarkable revolutions in thofe ancient ages of the world, divine providence appeared, in an eminent manner, in the events themselves, and divine forefight in the prediction of them; and it was fubfervient to various valuable purposes, that, on fome occafions, the more diftant events relating to the Meffiah fhould be mixed with them. Thofe other events being nearer hand, the accomplishment of them, one after another, ferved to give repeated new demonftrations, from time to time, of the divine infpiration of the prophets who had foretold them, and fo to ftrengthen the belief of the more important, but more diftant things, which the fame prophets had foretold concerning the Meffiah.

(2) Befides this, feeing the righteous judgements which these revolutions were to bring on God's church, might appear to be objections against the moft ancient prophetic promifes, particularly those relating to the fubfiftence of the Jewith polity until the Meffiah's coming, and the establishment of the everlafting kingdom in the houfe of David, it was needful the church fhould be armed against fuch temptations to unbelief, by finding the promife of the Meffiah renewed and enlarged on, amidft predictions of events that feemed to threaten the total deftruction of the church, and extirpation of true religion out of the world.

(3) Whereas the prophecies concerning the above-mentioned revolutions contain three different forts of threatenings, viz. 1. threatenings against the incorrigible adverfaries of God's kingdom in general; 2. threatenings against particular Heathen nations;

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nations; and, 3. threatenings against Ifrael and Judah; all thefe forts of threatenings are mixed with predictions concerning the Meffiah, and the converfion of the nations. It deferves particular confideration, that the more general threatenings fometimes exprefsly declare, that the events they foretell fhould be fubfervient to the more important revolution that was to be brought about by the Meffiah; of which we have a remarkable inftance in If. xxiv. & xxv. compared together; to which the 34:h and 35th chapters have a confiderable refemblance. We have clear inftances of predictions of the times of the Meffiah, mixed with threatenings againft particular Heathen nations, in If. xviii. xix. xi. and xxiii. which foretell the converfion of Ethiopia, Affyria, Egypt, and Tyre.

(4) Corcerning this conjunction of fo distant events in the fame complex prediction, it is proper to obferve, that it is fuitable to the rules of juft compofition, in hiftorical fummaries, or the moft compendious narratives, fuch as thefe predictions are, to mix together, in one context, events which hap pen indeed in very diftant ages, but which happen in the fame place, or to the fame fociety or nation. This remark is ufeful for nfwering objections againft fome predictions relating to the Meffiah, where we find, together with events that have happened already, fuch as the converfion of many nations, other events that are not yet accomplished, and perhaps will not be accomplished till the time which Daniel calls the time of the end, or the time of the univerfal converfion of Jews and Gen

tiles.

Though we abftract from the predictions which relate more directly to the Meffiah, it can be proved from other prophecies, that as it is in itfelf fuitable to the rules of juft compofition in fuch fummaries; fo, in fact, the prophets do join together, in one context, events happening to the fame

city

city or nation in very diftant ages. Thus the prophecies concerning the downfall of Babylon foretell, not only what was to happen to that city in the days of Cyrus, but the defolations that did not happen till feveral centuries after Chrift; for it was not till then that feveral things foretold concerning that city happened; fuch as its becoming partly a pool of water, and partly a habitation of wild and venomous beafts, and becoming fo uninhabitable, that neither fhould fhepherds make their fold "there, nor Arabian pitch his tent there," If. xiii. 19. to the end. Poffibly fome people who obferved Babylon continuing a great city long after Cyrus, might be apt to object, that though what was foretold about the conqueft of it by that prince was accomplished; yet as to other things foretold in the - fame predictions, there was no manner of appearance of the accomplishment of them, after fo many ages. But the event fhewed, in due time, that it is no juft objection against a prediction, that there is a long interval of time between the accomplishment of the different parts of it.

The fame obfervations are applicable to the predictions concerning Tyre, feeing it was not till long after Chrift that it was fo utterly deftroyed, as to become a place only fit for fishermen to dry their nets on; as is foretold Ezek. xxvi. 14. "I will make "thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a "place to spread nets upon; thou fhalt be built no

(5) The prophetic threatenings against Judah are not only mixed with predictions of the Meffiah, but alfo with promifes of fuch temporal fafety and deliverances, as were neceffary for the prefervation of their civil polity from utter ruin, according to

Sce, in Prideaux's Connections, a particular account of the gradual accomplishment of the predictions concerning Babylon and Tyrs.

the