really refer to the subject to which they applied it, but was merely capable of some fanciful accommodation? It is ascribing to these writers, or rather to the Spirit of God, a puerility, of which every writer of sound judgment would be ashamed. The application of the language of Scripture by way of accommodation, is a theory that has sometimes found patrons among a certain class of writers. But a due respect for the inspired writings, will ever reject it with abhorrence. It is an idle parade of ingenuity, even when it coincides in its explanations with the truths of the Scriptures. But to call such an accommodation of Scripture language a fulfilment, is completely absurd. There is nothing in Scripture to warrant such a mode of explanation.

ness.

The third branch of prophecy relates solely to the times of the Messiah. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." To him give all the prophets witThe glory of his person, the importance of his work, its progress and completion from the beginning to the end of time, is the grand theme of prophecy, to which every other part of it is subordinate. As this branch contains such a body of evidence of the truth of revelation, and so many divine attestations to him who came to fulfil the law and the prophets, it is necessary to trace it at some length. And in order to give a connected view of that series of predictions which refer solely to the Messiah, some of the prophecies that belong to the second branch will also be introduced.

The Prophets, with one consent, gave witness to Jesus Christ; and nothing remarkable befell him, and nothing great was either said or done by him, which they did not foretell. The Apostle Paul protested that he said none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come. Thus, the

reality, when it took place, exactly corresponded with the predictions that had long before been delivered, for it became the wisdom and goodness of God to give such an exact description of the Messiah, with all his marks and characters, that he might be known and distinguished from all manner of impostors who should ever pretend to or counterfeit his name.

By the dispensation of the prophecies, the dignity and grandeur of the Messiah was proclaimed, so that it might not be imagined that he was an ordinary person who was to appear in that character. In every view it was proper that so great and admirable an event as the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, he who was to renew the face of all things, should be marked by due intimations of his appearance. By these prophecies, too, God was pleased to nourish and support the faith and hope of his ancient church. For since all the elect of God since the foundation of the world, even to the coming of his Son, were to be saved by his satisfaction and merit, it was necessary that some knowledge of him should be given from the beginning. The ancient church had the same relation to the first coming of Jesus Christ, and the times of the Gospel, as we have now to his last coming and to the period of future glory. As, then, it is necessary in order to support our hope, and to nourish our faith, that we should have some knowledge of the good things reserved for us, and that we should know with certainty that Jesus Christ will come again, so, in like manner, it was necessary, in order to the faith of believers under the former dispensation, that they should be assured of the first coming of the Messiah, and that they should have some knowledge of the greatness of the blessings that he was to bring to them. Accordingly, the Apos

tle Paul, speaking of the elders, says, that they had not received the promises, but that they saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. Jesus Christ says of Abraham, that he saw his day and was glad; and to his Apostles he said, Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for, verily, I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them.

By the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, God has laid a firm foundation for the faith of his people, in causing the preceding ages to render testimony to his Son. For one of the most important proofs of the Christian religion, and which marks that God is its sole Author, is the connexion between the Old Testament and the New; and the same predictions which support the faith and hope of the people of God, serve as a subject of condemnation to all unbelievers.

Of the prophecies contained in the Old Testament which regard the Messiah, some refer to his person, some to his first advent, and others to its consequences. Of those which refer to his person, some mark his quality as the Son of God, others his divine, and others his human nature, his abasement, his exaltation, his prophetical, his priestly, and his kingly character. Of those which mark the circumstances of his advent, some speak of the time, others of the place of his manifestation. Some relate to his forerunner, others predict his actions; some mark the manner of his death, and others of his resurrection. Of the prophecies which relate to his advent, some speak of reconciliation with God, and the blessings of his grace; others of the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews; others of the ruin, particularly of Judas, and of his persecutors who

crucified him. In general, it may be remarked, that as the time of the coming of the Messiah approached, the prophecies concerning him become more distinct, more circumstantial, and appeared in greater number.

The earliest intimation of a Redeemer was given to our first parents immediately after the fall, in the following sentence pronounced on the tempter. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. iii. 14, 15. The serpent had been the instrument employed in the temptation, and on that animal the sentence of a corresponding punishment and degradation was carried into effect. The curse pronounced upon it was typical, and similar to that which Jesus Christ pronounced on the fig-tree on which he found no figs; for the serpent, considered simply as an animal, was not, any more than the fig-tree, a subject of condemnation, being not a subject of law. But as under the figure of the curse of the fig-tree was represented the curse of God upon the Jews-that mystical tree which he had planted-so under the figure of this curse pronounced on the serpent was represented the curse of God upon the Devil, who was to eat the dust, that is to say, to hold his course in the midst of all impurities, griefs, and degradations. That this was the case, is evident from the whole tenor of the Scriptures, in which the Devil is uniformly spoken of as the seducer and murderer of man, and as having introduced death and all that misery and confusion which prevail

in the world. Isaiah denominates him " the serpent" whom the Lord will punish; and in the book of Revelation he is called " that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan."

The above sentence, directed against the tempter of the human race, mysteriously opened to the latter a prospect of the greatest blessings. Although the malignant and powerful spirit who spoke through the serpent, had overcome the woman in the first assault, God was now to set them in opposition to one another. Satan had triumphed over the weakness of that sex, and from it was to proceed one who was to destroy that direful empire which he had established. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman." These words apply particularly to the woman, and not to the man, and signify that God would put in that sex the first germ of the war which should take place, and which was to issue in the ruin of Satan. It is added, "and between thy seed and her seed." This intimated the division in the human race that was to be occasioned by the entrance of sin. The woman was to have an offspring which should stand in opposition to Satan, but Satan was also to have a progeny that should belong to him. Here that enmity that has existed be

tween the children of the devil, and the children of God, which was exerted to the utmost when he, who was emphatically called the seed of the woman, appeared, and which, from the days of Cain and Abel, the two first men that were born, to the present hour, has been written in characters of blood, is at once referred to and accounted for. The seed of the woman is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, by this singular designation, which is not found in any other part of Scripture, is indicated, because he was to be "made of a woman”—