existed in the time of the prophets, suggested the predictions. Never was there anything more improbable than it was in the time of David, Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or even of Christ, that an individual of the Jewish nation should be acknowledged and worshipped as the true God, and that to the very ends of the earth. But of all the individuals of the Jewish nation the most unlikely to fulfil the prophecies was Jesus of Nazareth. Who that saw him condemned by the Sanhedrin as an impostor, and expire on the cross as a criminal, could possibly have conjectured that his name should be remembered to all generations, and that all people should praise him for ever? Who that beheld him mocked by his own people, as they bowed the knee, and cried Hail, could have predicted that the greatest of kings should fall down before him, and the most enlightened nations do him service? Who that read the inscription upon the cross, which implied that he was crucified for calling himself the King of the Jews, could have a presentiment that his name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? If he had been a mighty conqueror, whose arms could have compelled, or whose glory could have dazzled the sons of men, or a wonder of learning, rising above all the knowledge of his times, surprising the world by his discoveries, and appearing as superhuman by the powers of science, the fulfilment would not have been so satisfactory;

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or even, if lacking these things, he had been of any other nation than the Jews, the acknowledgment would not have been so astonishing. But that a man without any power or human learning— despised and rejected by a nation itself despised and hated by all the world-that such an one should be received, acknowledged, and worshipped as God, and thus fulfil the prophecies, baffles all human wisdom, and proves that He is truly what men acknowledge him. That the prophecies existed cannot be denied. Even Infidels, capable of judging of the original language, have confessed that the prophecies which we have quoted are the genuine words of David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and the other prophets; that is they admit that from two to three thousand years ago, a succession of individuals announced that a man should be born in Judea whom all nations should worship as their God. It is equally impossible to deny the fulfilment. An individual has arisen, and has been so worshipped. How, then, are we to account for the coincidence? It cannot be explained by the philosophy of the human mind. It cannot be attributed to any power of human sagacity. Other nations have not produced conjectures that have been so extraordinarily accomplished. The individuals who delivered these predictions were all of one nation. Two difficulties are here to be solved; the first, if these men were not true prophets, how they came to utter true predictions. The second, how it

has happened that one nation, and one nation only, has produced such fortunate impostors. But these are not the only difficulties which the deniers of Divine revelation have to solve. They must show, further, why these pretended prophecies were accomplished rather in Jesus of Nazareth than in Bar Kochab, or Shabthi Tzevi, or any other of those individuals who laid claim to the character of the Messiah, some of whom had all the wealth and power and learning of their nation on their side, but whose deaths annihilated all their pretensions, and whose names are now almost forgotten. They must further explain how a God of truth, as he must be, if there be a God, has in his providence suffered pretended prophecies to be fulfilled, and thus stamped the seal of truth on falsehood. They must explain how a God of love can suffer his creatures to be the victims of so dreadful a delusion, and leave them without any remedy. If the Scriptures be true, there ever has been a remedy for every error which has appeared in the world. But if false, there is none. The existence of the prophecies is certain; their accomplishment we behold with our own eyes. We must, therefore, either conclude that they are fictitious, and were fulfilled by chance; and then we must further conclude that God is not the Governor of the world, or that God, as Governor of the world, either permitted or ordered their accomplishment, and, therefore, that he has willingly given over his

creatures to delusion, or, as every reasonable mind must reject such blasphemous conclusions, we must admit that the fulfilment shows that the prophecies were true, and that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah.

LECTURE IV.

PSALM XVIII. 43.

"Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me.”

THE object of the present course of Lectures is to show that a series of predictions delivered long before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, have been fulfilled in his history, and thence to conclude that these prophecies must themselves have a Divine origin, and that He who accomplished them is the promised Redeemer. The first class of prophecies selected for this purpose is that of which we see the fulfilment with our own eyes. It is a fact which cannot be denied, that certain persons living many centuries before the Christian era, sketched the great outline of the religious portraiture of mankind, as at present exhibited to the eyes of the observer in every part of the world. Some of these, referring to the acknowledgment of Messiah's Deity, we have already considered. The feast which the Church this day celebrates, the commemoration of the manifesta