and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall fee him, there is no beauty that we should defire him. He is defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was defpifed and we efteemed him not. His Meeknefs and Patience are described, Ifai. xlii. 2, 3, 4. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor caufe his voice to be heard in the ftreet; a bruifed reed fhall be not break, and the fmoaking Flax fhall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth; he shall not fail nor be difcouraged, till he have fet judgment in the earth, and the Ifles fhall wait for his Law. His Abode was to be chiefly in Galilee, Ifai. ix. 1. Matt. iv. 14. And accordingly, he was brought up at Nazareth, and dwelt at Capernaum. And thofe who have the greatest name among the Apostles were Galileans, Matt. iv. 18, 21. Joh. i. 44.

His Miracles are every where inculcated by the Prophets, and this was fo well understood by the Jews of that time, that many of the people believ'd in him, upon the account of his Miracles, and faid, When Chrift cometh, fhall he do greater Miracles than these, which this man hath done? John. vii. 31. And when St. John Baptift fent two of his Difciples to enquire of our Saviour, whether he were the Chrift, he gives them no other Anfwer, but that they fhould acquaint John with what things they had feen and heard, how that the blind faw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleanfed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised, to the poor the Gospel was preached, Luke vii. 22. which was the litęral fulfilling of that Prophecy, Ifaiah xxxv. 5, 6. and it was the very Character which all the Prophets had given of the Meffias. St. John Baptift, of whom Josephus gives a high Commendation, and whom all Men look'd upon as a Prophet, Matt. xxi. 26, had before declar'd Jefus to be the Chrift, though he now fent two of his Difciples to enquire of him, not for his own, but for their Satisfaction, that they might be

Witnesses, how the Prophecies were fulfill'd in him. And both the Preaching and Baptifm of John was preparatory to that of Chrift, and was foretold by the Prophets, Ifai. xl. 3. Malach. iv. 5.

But befides the Record of John, the Holy Ghoft gave witness to Chrift, vifibly defcending upon him at his Baptifm, with a Voice from Heaven, pronouncing the Words prophetically deliver'd before concerning the Meffias, which were always understood by the Jews to be meant of him, Matth. iii. 17. and this Voice was again repeated, tho' not fo publickly as before, at his Transfiguration, Matth. xvii. 5. 2 Pet. i. 17., and at a third time there came a Voice, to him from Heaven, in the hearing of all the People; John xii. 28. By the Hofanna's of the Multitude, and even of the Children, and by his driving the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, several known Prophecies concerning the Meffias were fulfill'd in him, Matth. xxi. 16. Joh. ii. 17.

III. The Types and Prophecies concerning the Death of the Meffias, were fulfill'd in our Saviour. His Death was foretold both in the Writings of the Prophets, and by feveral Types or Actions which did represent and prefigure his Death, with the Manner and Circumftances of it; and this was one kind of Prophefying, by the Refemblance of Actions and Things, as well as by Defcriptions in Words. Thus Abraham's offering up Ifaac, was a Type of Christ's being offer'd upon the Crofs; and Ifaac's carrying the Wood on his Shoulders, was a Type of Chrift's carrying his Crofs. The lifting up the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness, was a Type of Chrift's being lifted up; and the Pafchal Lamb, was a plain Type of the Sacrifice of Chrift. Our Saviour Chrift was facrificed upon the Crofs, at the very time of the Paffover, even in the very fame month, on the very fame day, and at the

n Vid. Bijhop of Worcester's Chronol. Append.

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Jame

Same hour, when his Type the Pafchal Lamb was to be kill'd, the Bleffed Jefus expired. A Bone of him was not broken, which was typified of him in the Pafchal Lamb; the breaking of his Legs, was prevented by his voluntary giving up the Ghoft, when he had fo much Strength and Vigour after all his Pains, as to cry out with a loud Voice; which, by the course of Nature, a Person who had endured fo much before, and had hung bleeding and languifhing for three hours at leaft upon the Cross, 'till he expir'd by the Force and Extremity of his Torments, could not have done; and his being dead fooner than was expected, and fooner than the Malefactors were, caused the fulfilling this prophetical Type, a Bone of him shall not be broken, Exod. xii. 46. Numb. ix. 12. He died likewife in the Year of Jubilee, (as Dr. Lightfoot computes) by which the Release and Redemption which he purchafed for Mankind was typified: But according to Archbishop Uber, the Jubilee fell upon the Year of Chrift's Baptifm, when he began to preach the acceptable Year of the Lord, Luke iv. 19. and that Remiffion of Sins, which was prefigur'd by the Release in the Year of Jubilee. And as the fulfilling of these feveral Types concurred in our Saviour; fo the fulfilling of them was brought to pafs by the Malice and Cruelty of his Enemies, and of those very Jews who had ever underflood thefe Types to relate to the Meffias.

The Prophecies, in like manner, were fulfilled in Him; not by any Design or Contrivance of his own, but by the mere Envy and Malice of his Murtherers. He was betray'd by one of his own Disciples, as it had been foretold of him, Pfal. xli. 9. John xiii. 18. The thirty pieces of Silver, for which he was betray'd, were by the Chief Priefts given to buy the Potters Field; by which was fulfilled a noted Prophecy, that

• Lightf. Harm. N. T. § lix. p. 243.

ftands

ftands recorded in the Book of Zechariah; But because Jeremiah had prophefied of the fame thing before him, or for fome other reason, it was better known among the Jews by the Name of Jeremiah's Prophecy; unlefs, as fome fuppofe, Jeremy be put for Zachary by a miftake of the Tranfcriber; which was obvious enough, in tranfcribing the Abbreviation of the Name of Zachary, Ies for Ze; or unless the true reading be, that which was spoken by the Prophet, without the mention of any Prophet's Name, according to the Syriac and Perfic Verfions, and fome MS. Copies ftill extant, and others mention'd by St. Auguftine. The great Antiquity of the Syriac Verfion, even before the Canon of Scripture was finifh'd, makes this Account the most probable. Our Saviour was buffeted and fpit upon, according to a Prophecy of Isaiah, Ifa. 1. 6.He had Vinegar given him to drink mingled with Gall; and his Garments were parted amongst the Soldiers, by cafting of Lots: both which were foretold, Pfal. xxii. 18. Ixix. 21. They pierced his Hands and his Feet, Pf. xxii. 16. by Crucifixion, a Punishment never used among the Jews; which yet had been foretold fhould be inflicted on Chrift fo many Ages. before it was known to them. This Prophecy could not have been fulfilled, unless Chrift had been delivered up to the Romans, a People who had no Being in the World for divers Ages after this Prediction: And no other Nation, as P Scaliger has obferved, had this kind of Punishment, by fattning Men to a Cross with Nails thruft through their Hands and Feet. And as Judea had not been under a Procurator before the Birth of Chrift, nor 'till the Banifhment of Archilaus by Auguftus; so the Power of Life and Death with which the Procurator of Judea was entrusted was not commonly granted to Procurators. Alj

P Scaligeran. 1. 4 Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. II. * Annal. 12. fub fin. & Lipf. ad loc.

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which

which manifefts an extraordinary Providence in the Accomplishment of this Prophecy. They that pafs'd by, reviled him in the very words of the Pfalmift; and in his Agony he cried out in the words of the fame Pfalm xx. 1,7,8. His Death was voluntary; for tho' it was in the power of his Enemies to crucifie him; yet his Life was in his own power, which he refigned in the words of another Pfalm, Pfal. xxxi. 5. and he caused another Prophecy to be fulfilled, by dying at that very point of time, which, if his Death had been deferred a little longer, had not been fulfilled; for the Soldiers broke the Legs of the two other that were crucified with him, but finding him dead, they broke not his Legs, though one of them fufpecting that he could not be fo foon dead, pierced his fide, to try whether he were really dead or not, by which that Scripture was fulfilled, which faith, they shall look on bim, whom they pierced, John xix. 34. Zach. xii. 10. which Text the Ancient Jews interpreted of the Meffias. The liii Chapter of Ifaiah is a clear defcription of our Saviour's Paffion almoft in every circumftance of it. He was defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief; he was wounded for our Tranfgreffions, and bruised for our Iniquities; he was oppreffed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a Lamb to the Slaughter, and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb, fo be opened not bis mouth; his Silence being taken fpecial notice of by Pilate himself, and his Meeknefs towards Judas, his moft ungrateful Difciple, is wonderful beyond all Example. He made his Grave with the Rich in his Death; though he died in that fhameful manner, under the imputation of so much wickedness, yet Jofeph of Arimathea, an honourable Counsellor, was fuffered by Pilate to bury him, which he did in his own new Tomb, He was numbred with the Tranfgreffors; and in that fenfe

S

s See Bp. Pearfon.

made