The Lord himfelf fhall give you a fign. Behold, a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon; and shall call his name Immanuel.

Afterwards the fame prophet, proceeding with more exactnefs, marks the principal circumstances of the Meffiah's life. But ftill as if to caution the world not to expect in his kingdom the fplendor of an earthly prince, he cries out, When we shall fee him, there is no beauty, that we should defire him. He was defpifed and rejected of men—a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief; andre hid as it were our faces from him. He was defpifed, and we esteemed him not. Afterwards he goes on ftill farther, and opens the very cause of his fufferings. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our Jorrows. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions; he was bruifed for our iniquities. The chaftifement of our peace was upon him; and with his Stripes we are healed.

All the later prophets alfo following Ifaiah, continue to fill up the great outlines, which had been marked by the earlier prophets, with various particulars of the Meffiah's life and death. Even the precife time of his death is fixed by the prophet Daniel. After three-fcore and two weeks* from the

* In the prophetic language, as many years are fignified as there are days in thofe weeks,

going

going out of the decree to rebuild the temple, fhall the Mefiah be cut off-but not for himself.Other prophets fix the time of his death to happen, as it did, before the deftruction of the fecond temple.

Thus you fee in what a wonderful manner God fpake in times paft, in divers manners, unto the fathers by the prophets. From the first of these prophecies to the laft, elapfed a space of time not lefs than 3,600 years; each prophecy ftill unfolding fomething more than the preceding, till at length the prophetic history of the Meffiah was complete ; and every candid Jew, who diligently read the prophets, was convinced, when Chrift appeared, that he was the very perfon, whom these prophets had foretold. Such was the holy Simeon, who waited for the confolation of Ifrael, When he faw the bleffed child brought into the temple, fully convinced that all the prophecies relating to his birth, were now fulfilled, and that this was the very Chrift, the promised Meffiah, he took him in his arms, and with holy rapture cried out, Lord, now letteft thou thy fervant depart in peace; for mine eyes have feen thy falvation.

Such alfo was the prophetefs Anna, who, in the fame manner, fpake of him to all, that looked for redemption in Jerufalem.

The second part of the text remains to be confidered-what is meant by God's Speaking, in thefe laft days, unto us by his fon.

By the last days, the latter days, the last times, and other expreffions of the fame kind, the Jewish writers always meant to exprefs, as their best interpreters inform us, the kingdom of the Meffiah; which was to complete the defigns of Providence. These words therefore, the last days, have no reference to the conclufion of all things -the end of the world-or any thing of that import-but juftimply, that God having, through a fucceffion of ages, prepared the world by degrees, for the reception of the gospel, had, in thefe last days, or at length, completed his whole fcheme, by fending Jefus Chrift into the world -that this was the last great revelation he intended to make, in which he now fully opened, what had been obfcurely traced by the prophets, the introduction of fin by the fall of our first parents-the restoration of a loft world by the death and facrifice of a Saviour-the conditions of the gospel-covenant; faith in Chrift, and a good life-and laftly, the joyful hopes of a bleffed refurrection.

Too true it is, that few of mankind, in any age of the world, have made their full advantage of

this

1

this gracious difpenfation, by living up to that holinefs of life, which it enjoins. We must not however judge of the truth of the gospel by the little influence which it hath on the minds of men. We must remember, it was predicted by that very gofpel, that the way to life is narrow, and few would find it. With regard therefore to those deluded people, who chufe rather to give up the comforts of religion, than fubmit to its laws, the goodness of God is furely vindicated by offering them the gofpel. In the mean time, they who have never heard of this gracious difpenfation; yet have lived up to the lights they have had, will undoubtedly, through the facrifice of Chrift, meet with favour from that gracious mafter, who reaps only where he hath fown.

Thus then, from the time of Adam to this present hour, firft by the prophets, and afterwards by the son of God himself, hath this gracious fcheme of providence been opening more and more; and we have reason to believe from prophecy, will still continue to spread wider and wider, till it hath made its progress over the face of the earth.

David in the Pfalm of this day*, illuftrating probably through the spirit of prophecy, this univerfal

CHRISTMAS DAY, Pfalm xix.

range

range of the Meffiah's kingdom, compares it to the fun, which goeth forth from the uttermoft part of heaven; and runneth about unto the end of it again; and there is nothing hid from the heat' thereof.--And indeed nothing can be a more beautiful, or more juft illuftration of this grand event through all its darker and lighter periods. Daylight is firft dimly discovered through the twilight of morning. The eastern clouds are streaked with a faint light. We fee through all this fplendid obscurity, that fomething grand is approaching. The feveral fhades of darkness by degrees give way, Day comes on more and more-till at length the funrises in all its glory; and opening into the fulleft fplendor, furrounds the earth from one end of it to the other.

HAVING thus explained the text, I fhall conclude with a few fhort obfervations, which it fuggefts.

In the first place, this gradual progrefs of prophecy furnishes one of the ftrongest proofs of the Christian religion; to the truth of which the spirit of prophecy thus makes every age of the world bear teftimony. About four hundred years indeed before the coming of Chrift, all prophecy ceased.

It