the results that were to flow from it, more pointedly described; so that the Gospels have somewhat of the appearance of a continuation of this prophet, or a filling up of the outline which he presented to the | Church some centuries before. What is also striking, and gives peculiar force to this branch of fulfilled prophecy as an evidence of the truth of Christ's mission, is the fact, that the leading features in the predictions were of such a kind as to differ most materially from the general views and expectations of the Jews-differed so much, indeed, that to the last they would not receive them. We shall take a brief survey of them, chiefly for the purpose of bringing out the striking peculiarities now referred to.

1. There are predictions bearing on the circumstances connected with Christ's appearing. These are principally two; and the one first announced is, that he should suddenly come to his temple." (Chap. iii. 1.) A very important and instructive word! for it implies, that he who was to come, and to come as a messenger, should still be an essentially divine person-the very being who could claim that temple as his own; in other words, the God who was worshipped there. The Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's time did not understand this; for if they had, they could have had no difficulty in answering the question, how he could be at once David's son, and yet be represented by David himself as his Lord; nor would they have held him guilty of blasphemy, when, as Messiah, he declared himself to be the Son of God. (Matt. xxii. 45; John v. 18, x. 33.) The Jews both of that time and of all future periods have been quite ignorant of the real constitution of Messiah's person as at once God and man; and have been almost unanimous in holding, that while he might be called in a sense the Son of God, it was not in that sense which bespoke his being equal with God.* In this they, as well as the Socinians and Arians of our day, stand plainly condemned by the testimony of Malachi.

The prophecy declares that he should come suddenly to his temple. "And it is remarkable, that the temple was the place of his very first public appearance; and in his coming on that occasion there was an extraordinary suddenness." This circumstance, however, which is noticed by Horsley, was rather a kind of sign and token of the approaching fulfilment of the prophecy, than the fulfilment itself; for Christ's appearing as a babe in the temple was not exactly his coming in the sense intended by the prophet, as the grand messenger of Heaven personally to transact with men. But any event may justly be called sudden, for which men are not rightly prepared, and consequently are apt to be taken by surprise by it when it happens. In this sense Christ's appearance

Those who wish to see the proof from Jewish authorities, will find it in Lightfoot, vol. ii. 388, 622, 702. Schoettgen, indeed, produces various extracts from Jewish writings (De Messia, l. iii.), which seem to assert the proper divinity of the Messiah; but these writings contain such a mass of conjectures and contradictions, that some confirmation might be found in them for almost every truth, as well as every

heresy. There can be no doubt, however, that Lightfoot

here gives the true account of what is now, and has always been, the general belief among the Jews at and since the time of Christ.

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in the temple throughout was emphatically a sudden one, since the mass of those he found there were entirely unfitted for standing in his presence; of which he gave them a strong and sensible demonstration in the symbolical action which he twice performed, of driving the money-changers and the traffickers out of the temple. Such an exercise of righteous authority also implied that he regarded the temple as strictly his own, while it manifested the persons about it to be anything but prepared and looking for his coming. And as if to leave no doubt as to the name or authority by which he then acted, he expressly asserted on the last occasion his absolute lordship over the house: "My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." (Luke xix. 46.)

But there is another circumstance more fully brought out in Malachi's predictions respecting the appearance of Christ on earth-it was to be preceded by the agency of a special forerunner: "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me;" and this preparatory messenger is at the close of the book more exactly characterized as Elijah the prophet. (Chap. iv. 5.) The Jews here again so entirely misunderstood the prophet's meaning, that they might justly be said to disbelieve it. They looked for the re-appearance of the literal Elias (as indeed they do for the most part to this day), and deemed it one of the marks of honour which God was going to put upon their nation, the sending of such an exalted messenger to announce the immediate approach of the Redeemer. In this idea concerning the object of his coming, they made a far more serious mistake than in regard to the person meant by the name Elias. For it mattered comparatively little who that might be; the work to be done by him was the point of chief moment; and if Elias was to come, or another with his name, because sent to do substantially his work, what did this betoken? Alas! the very reverse of a state of preparation on their part, or a mark of honour on God's. Be the person who he might, that in his mission there was to be the sending of an Elias, clearly bespoke him to be a preacher of repentance—a stern reprover of sin-a herald mainly of a God of judgment, proclaiming by his very name and office that all was in a state of disorder and corruption, and would inevitably go to perdition unless the hand of this strong one might prevail, under God, to set it right again.

The event proved that the Jews of our Lord's time could as little take in the true doctrine of Malachi's prediction regarding the forerunner, as that regarding the Lord himself. Their own Scriptures stand here also as a strong witness against them, and for Christ. Such a preacher of repentance as Elias did go before his manifestation to Israel-not actually Elias, indeed, in the sense understood by them, so that John said he was not that prophet, but one clothed with the spirit and power of Elias; in his gifts and office greater even than he, but, like him, calling aloud on men, as with a voice of thunder, to return from their evil ways, and striving, as with the might of a giant, to turn back the tide of corrup

tion, and revive in the degenerate children the hearts of their pious fathers; so that in him was really fulfilled the part of the messenger, the Elias foretold by Malachi. In short, there did thus appear the Elias "who was for to come;" but they knew him not, and did to him, as to his great prototype in the times of Ahab, “whatsoever they listed." He was sent forth to prepare the way, but the hardness of their hearts prevented this in great measure from being effectually done-a small remnant alone made themselves ready; and the curse, which was to smite the earth in case of that repentance-work not being accomplished, ere long fell upon most of them with unsparing severity.

2. The predictions in Malachi, which describe the character in which Christ was to appear, are chiefly of a threatening kind, and import a work of judgment. In the 3d chapter, immediately after his appearance in the temple is foretold, it is asked, "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap," &c. And in the first verse of the next chapter the same idea is again presented, when the prophet speaks of the day coming, namely, the day of the Lord's appearing, "which should burn as an oven, so that the proud and all that do wickedly should be stubble." We are not to suppose, as is very commonly done, that the prophet here suddenly starts off from Christ's first to his second coming, as if such a description did not properly suit the manner and purposes of his first appearing upon earth. John the Baptist might instruct us better; for when he comes forth to Israel as the herald of Christ's immediate approach, it is with the solemn truth, and partly also with the very language, here found in Malachi. For what does he say was to take place at that new era in the kingdom of heaven? The hewing down of every tree that was not bearing fruit-a thorough purging of the floor of God's house-a baptizing with fire, and even a burning up with fire of what was unprofitable and vain. (Matt. iii. 11, 12.) These expressions unquestionably represent the character of Christ's first appearing as consisting much in the execution of a work of judgment; and in this, again, the thing foretold was so widely different from what the mass of the Jewish people expected, that in the face of their own Scripture they rejected him in whom, at the very time, it was receiving its fulfilment.

There can be no doubt that John, in speaking of the character of Christ's appearing, used the peculiar expression of "baptizing with fire," and referred generally to the consuming property of fire, with the view of forcibly impressing on all, that what had been foretold by Malachi was then actually on the eve of being realized. It is true that Christ did not come into the world avowedly to judge or condemn, but rather to save it; but it is not less true, on the other hand, that his manifestation had all the effect among men of a work of judgment, and that the spiritual regeneration, which he came to produce on them, necessarily proceeds, both in the world at large and in each individual heart, by the destruction of what is evil, as well as the implantation and growth of

what is good. Every word Christ spake, every action he performed, every gift of the Spirit he shed forth, was, from its very nature, of a quick and searching character, reaching to the inmost thoughts of the heart; it was on men's souls like the action of fire on the earth's metallic ores, separating between the precious and the vile, that the one might be preserved, and the other destroyed. So that the time of Christ': tabernacling upon earth, though presenting nothing majestic or alarming in outward appearance, was in reality a dreadful searching time-a time of trial and judgment such as had never been known before. And, alas! how few proved able to stand it. To how many did he become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence! To how few a ground of safety and deliverance! The thoughts, truly, of many hearts were revealed; but these, excepting in a few cases, were thoughts only of evil, the thoughts of hearts that would not submit themselves to the righteousness of God, and were therefore ripening to perdition.

We need scarcely say, that this must be in a measure the character of Christ's revelation still, through a preached Gospel; and that it behoves all who enjoy that privilege to take heed that the process in their case be a regenerating, and not a destructive one-a destructive one, indeed, but only of the old man of corruption, that their spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prediction of Malachi implies, that amid all the appearance of severity, there still was a design of mercy in the manifestation of Christ; his mission was still to be of a salutary and saving character to those who were prepared to receive him; to them the promise is given of his arising on them with healing under his wings, and of being preserved as jewels, while the work of judgment is proceeding (chap. iii. 17, iv. 2); and only because men are so prone to resist the purification which he seeks to accomplish on their natures, and thus to lose their interest in his mercy, was the character of his appearing invested with so stern and terrible an aspect.

3. In regard to the results that were to flow from the manifested presence of the Lord, as these are described in Malachi, a few words only are needed, as they have been partly hinted at already. They were to be of a very mixed nature, but manifestly with a preponderance of evil in respect to the greater part of those for whom the prophet more immediately writes. Amid the images of life and death, blessing and cursing, which pass before us in reading his pages, we cannot but feel that the dark side occupies decidedly the largest place; nor is it without meaning that the prophet seals up the vision of the old covenant with a threat, that the Lord's coming might possibly be to smite the earth with a curse. How far were the Jews of our Lord's time-or of this, for the delusion cleaves to them as inveterately as ever-from entering into this part of the prophetic message, when they expected a Messiah who should be the deliverer of their nation as a whole! who had only to do a work of outward healing and recovery, in which all were to be alike interested! Still, however, there was to be a glorious and blessed, work accomplished in a certain portion of the mass;

from oblivion the incidents which all good men would seek to be for ever forgotten? Why provoke enmity anew by recurring to events which some Papists profess to deplore? The simple answer is, Whatever Papists profess, the Papacy is unchanged and unchangeable; it ceases to be Papacy the moment it consents to be changed. But the truth is, Popery in Britain wears a mask-it is a wolf in sheep's clothing. In Spain it appeared in its real character, feeding on the blood, and regaling itself with the sighs and groans of Christians. If we would not, in our turn, become its victims, its true character should be exhibited at length, and every scriptural means employed to repel its Antichristian dogmas from our borders.

We have already had occasion to notice the secrecy with which the Inquisition acted.* Its blow was fatal, like that of the lightning, but it was not accompanied with thunder, to give any alarm. Many were seized, immured, tormented, without seeing the hand that grasped them; and yet, everywhere was the apparatus of the Inquisition at work. Scarcely had any one been only suspected of an heretical taint when he was seized and secured. Every one who knew any who were suspected of heresy, was bound to inform the Inquisition within six days, under pain of mortal sin and excommunication. Priests in the confessional, as well as Inquisitors in their halls of judgment, abetted this nefarious practice. Malice and revenge combined with superstition and terror to deliIver up victims to wrath. "The father sometimes informs against his own child, the wife against her husband, and the betrothed against the object of her tenderest attachment." Popery first tears men from God, and then from each other; and all this was perpetrated by men who had adopted, as established and unquestionable, the maxim that the "Holy Office could not err." At the same time, the scrutiny was so strict, that if the accused but happened to repeat inaccurately the Are Maria, this was regarded as a legitimate presumption of guilt. No wonder though Torquemada lived in terror of his life from an outraged people when this system was first set up! From the Council of the Supreme down to the veriest menial in the service, it was throughout a system of cruelty and bloodshed.

It is time, however, to exhibit some additional specimens of the cruelty to which we have so often referred. All that have hitherto been mentioned have been but as the first-fruits

*There are many examples of the mode of securing this secrecy on record. Every one who entered the walls of the Inquisition was sworn to secrecy, and Dr. M'Crie relates, from Townsend's Travels, that the Dutch ambassador in Spain in 1787, could never be induced to give any account of what happened during his imprisonment in the Inquisition at Barcelona, thirty-five years previous to that period. He even became agitated when questioned on the subject. His companion, M. Falconet, maintained the same absolute silence. He had destroyed an image of the Virgin, and because the consul, who witnessed the fracture, did not turn informer, he was treated as a partner in the crime.

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of what might be narrated. We pass by the mockery of justice implied in the appointment of one of the Inquisitor's own advocates to defend the prisoner-he was really, under the title of advocate for the accused, the agent and proctor of the accusers. We do not dwell on the practice of concealing from the prisoner the names of the witnesses who were to prove his guilt, nor on the other outrages against equity as well as mercy perpetrated by the Inquisition. Let the principles be known from the practice.

And THE TORTURE deserves the first place in this catalogue of atrocities. After the evidence had been taken, if the Inquisitors supposed that there was only a semi plena probatio, or half proof, they were empowered to employ bodily torments to compel the accused to give evidence against himself. He might appeal to the Council of the Supreme; but then the Inquisitors against whom the appeal was taken. were judges of its validity, and they had it, therefore, in their power to execute their own sentence without delay. "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." The engines of horrid cruelty employed in those polluted dens were various, and the recital of their horrors is more repulsive by far than the investigations of the anatomist on the dead. The bones of the victims of superstition were moved from their socket by the pulley or the rack, and the blood was made to start from their veins. The "infernal operation" produces loathing even in the narrative; and one who was himself secretary to the Holy Office (Llorente) has confessed that no accounts given of the torture can be accused of exaggeration. He describes the Inquisitors as "coldblooded barbarians." My pen," he says, refuses to trace the picture of their horrors, for I know nothing more opposed to the spirit of charity and compassion which Jesus Christ inculcates in the Gospel, than the conduct of the Inquisition; and yet," he adds, " in spite of the scandal which it has given, there is not, after the eighteenth century is closed, any law or decree abolishing the torture." If we may credit the narrative of General Juan Van Halen, he endured it at a comparatively recent date.

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The place for perpetrating these atrocities in the Spanish Inquisition, we learn from one who had been in it, was generally an under-ground or very dark chamber. When the Inquisitor and other functionaries had taken their places, the person to be tortured was introduced; and the executioner, dressed so as to be appalling, was also present. The latter was covered with a black linen garment down to his feet, and his head and face were hid by a long black cowl, with only two openings for the eyes. The appearance startled the criminal, and added to the horror of his position-it seemed as if he were already in the grasp of the fiend to which the Inquisition pretended to consign the