cumstance must proportionably lofe more of its Force, as its natural Power to withstand the Violence offered it is lefs.

it

DESCRIPTIVE Definitions are always to be viewed intire. If you difunite the Parts of them and yet make use of every Circumftance thus independent, they will by no Means enable You to find out the Individual they were intended for, though they would readily do it when collected. If we had a Portrait given Us to find out the Perfon it was intended to represent, we should compare it intire with the Perfons that offered themselves to our Notice; and when We found one whose Face and Proportions it exactly refembled, we fhould conclude him to be the Man we were in Search of. But if, inftead of this Method, we fhould cut the Piece into as many Parts as there were Limbs or Features, and then look upon every small Section as a compleat Teft of the Original, into what endless Miftakes fhould We be led! And yet in one Cafe the Resemblance between the feveral diftinct Parts is the fame as in the other, but We fee the Advantage of laying them all together, For the Correfponding of this one Part is a Proof that all the rest are not misapplied.

How then did our Saviour and his Apostles proceed, in applying to his Perfon the Characters of it, that were exhibited in the prophetical Writings? It cannot be fhewn that our Saviour has ever recommended the Use of any one particular Prophecy, exclufive of others, to the Attention

D 2.

of

of those whom he was defirous of leading to a Faith in him. And till this be fhewn, I fee not how it can be laid down as his Senfe of Prophecy, that any one particular Prophecy, much lefs that every particular Prophecy, is of itself a separate and distinct Proof of the general Truth of Christianity. He has indeed applied to himfelf particular Prophecies, and affured Us that they received their Completion in fome Part of his Life or Sufferings. But he has no where reftrained the Proof of his Meffiahship to any one of these, nor ascribed to them a separate Power of proving him to be the Chrift. His Conduct was all along the very Reverse of this. He did not think that the fulfilling of any one Prophecy, or any Set of them, was fufficient to evince the Truth of his Miffion. He thought that nothing less than a full Completion of all the Prophecies was fufficient for this great Purpose. He all along fhewed a strong Defire of bringing about the Accomplishment of still more and more Prophecies; and when any human Endeavours were exerted that tended to prevent their further Accomplishment, He exprefsly opposed them. When his Difciples attempted to rescue him from the Betrayer and the Company that attended him, He ordered them to defift, affuring them that, if the Recovery of his Liberty had been agreeable to the Defign he was carrying on, He wanted not the Means to effect it. a But

a Matt. 26, 54,

bow

how then, he adds, fhall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

AND as He fulfilled all the Scriptures, fo he never recommended any feparate Part of them, but the whole Volume, as a proper Foundation of their Faith, to others. When he endeavoured to bring others to a Belief in him, he did not refer them to this or that Prophecy as a full Evidence of his Truth, but bid them search the Scriptures without Limitation for the Proofs of his Character and Miffion, for they are they, fays He, which testify of Me. When He reproved the Incredulity of the Two Difciples in the Way to Emmaus, he did not think it fufficient, for the raising and invigorating their Faith, to recapitulate fome of the most eminent Prophecies concerning himself, and to urge them as fo many different, independent Arguments for their believing, but, as one great, full, and powerful Argument, Beginning at Mofes and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the Things concerning himself.

THOSE Whom He pitched upon to be his Witneffes to the World, were fuch as attended him through all the Scenes of his Ministry. They were not furnished with an imperfect Knowledge of it, nor admitted only to be conscious of one or two predicted Events, but were acquainted with his Preaching, his Miracles, his Perfecution, his Death, Burial, Refurrection, and Afcenfion; For they were to give Evidence, not of a partial, but of a general Correspondency be

tween

tween his Life and the prophetical Plan of it. And Ye alfo fhall bear Witnefs of Me, fays He, because Ye have been with Me from the Beginning. John 15.27.

ACCORDINGLY the Evangelifts are not contented with reciting only fome of the most memorable Events in his Life, or with applying to it fome of the most exprefs and important Predictions, but they lay before Us the whole Scheme of his Life and Doctrine, and feem careful to inform Us of fome of the minutest Incidents in them, and to apply fome of the more indirect Prophecies, which were more likely to efcape the Notice of common Enquirers. St. Matthew efpecially has been fo diligent in collecting the prophetic Teftimonies of Christ, that there is Scarce a fingle Occurrence which ever happened to him, but what he fhews to have been foretold by fome Prophet. So infufficient a Foundation of a Chriftian Faith did he think the fulfilling of any fingle and separate Prediction; fo industrious has he been to display to Us, in its full Force, the great Argument of the Whole Life of Jesus, correfponding to the Whole Picture of it, drawn in the prophetical Writings. The fame Design is vifible in the Writings of the other Evangelifts. And will any one now object that they forgot this Defign, when they fhewed a Refemblance between particular Prophecies and the particular Acts of our Saviour? How'elfe could the general Agreement be made out, without fhewing thefe particular Likeneffes? To attempt this

would

would be like attempting to fhew the Refemblance between a Face and a Picture, and yet owning that the several Features were not at all alike. To reconcile this Scheme to the Conduct of the Evangelifts, one would think a Reason for their not applying more particular Prophecies would be expected, rather than a Reason for their applying fo many. For it might be faid, that, if they wanted to fhew Us this general Correfpondency, they fhould have collected and applied the whole Body of the Prophecies. But neither was this requifite. For the prophetical Writings were still extant. When therefore they had drawn a compleat Account of the Tranfactions of Christ, they might fafely leave it to Us, now poffeffed of both the correfponding Parts, to make the Comparison. We might read in the Prophets all that the Meffiah was to do and fuffer: We might read in the Evangelifts all that our Lord did and fuffered: and therefore were not unfurnished with every Thing, that could fatisfy Us in the Reality of the Likeness, which run through the whole. It might nevertheless be judged expedient that They themselves fhould point out the Refemblance in fome Particulars either for the Benefit of those, who might want Leifure or Opportunity themselves, to examine the Prophets, that fuch might not be wholly unfurnished with this great Argument for the Truth of their Profeffion; or for the Sake of applying fome of the more obscure Prophecies to their proper Events; or however it

was