We mention these, not that we intend to trace out their fulfilment, but merely, in passing, to insert a remarkable testimony concerning them from one of the most learned expositors of the prophetic Scriptures, and another from the most learned and acute of the ancient opposers of Christianity. Bishop Newton, speaking of that portion of Daniel's prophecies which relates to the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, from the death of Alexander the Great to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, a period of one hundred and forty-eight years, remarks, "There is not so complete and regular a series of their kings, there is not so concise and comprehensive an account of their affairs, to be found in any author of those times. The prophecy is really more perfect than any history. No one historian hath related so many circumstances, and in such exact order of time, as the prophet hath foretold them; so that it was necessary to have recourse to several authors, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian, and to collect here something from one, and to collect there something from another, for the better explaining and illustrating the great variety of particulars contained in this prophecy."* Thus far, the testimony of a learned friend of Christianity. The corresponding testimony of a learned enemy we have in the celebrated Porphyry of the third century, to whom the exact correspondence between the predictions and the events was so convincing, that he could not pretend to deny it. He rather labored to confirm it; and from the very exactness of the fulfilment * Newton on Prophecy, ch. 2, p. 149, forged his only weapon of defence, in the assertion that the prophecy could not have been written by Daniel, but must have been written by some one in Judea, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. Others after him have asserted the same thing, not only without any proof, but contrary to all the proofs which can be had in cases of this nature. They preferred the denial of the plainest historical evidence of the time when the prophecy was written, to the acknowledgment that its author must have written "by inspiration of God." Paine, however, whose willingness to escape the argument from prophecy cannot be questioned, and who was probably ignorant of what Porphyry had acknowledged as to the correspondence between the words of this prophet and those of subsequent history, confessed the authenticity of the book of Daniel. Here, then, we have one famous infidel acknowledging that the prophecy was written at the time and by the man to whom it is ascribed, and another verifying the exactness of its fulfilment in the history of a subsequent age. Paine denied the fulfilment; Porphyry, the authenticity. Porphyry acknowledged the fulfilment; Paine, the authenticity. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." I now call your attention to the prophecies concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. They are scattered everywhere throughout the prophetic portions of the Bible. "To him bear all the prophets witness." None of them could lay down the pen of inspiration till they had written something, directly or indirectly, of Jesus. * Lardner, ch. 4, p. 215. 1. The first class of these predictions consists of those which relate to the time and circumstances of the advent of Christ. Daniel, B. C. 556, determined the year of his coming, when four hundred and ninety years should be accomplished from the going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Jacob, more than a thousand years before Daniel, had said it would be when the sceptre was departing from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet.* Haggai and Isaiah declared that it would be before the destruction of Jerusalem, and during the existence of the second temple. Micah designated Bethlehem Ephratah as his birthplace. Many prophecies predicted that he should come, not only of the stock of Judah, but of the stem of Jesse. Isaiah and Malachi spoke of the messenger who should go before him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare his way." 2. The next class of predictions concerning our Lord contains those which speak of his life, sufferings, death, resurrection, and the increase of his kingdom. These are so numerous and particular, and so familiar to most readers of the Bible, that we shall content ourselves with a rapid summary. They predicted that Christ, or Messiah, would be born of a virgin; that he should enter Jerusalem on the foal of an ass; ;** that in his manner of teaching he should be characterized by special gentleness and compassion; that he would be distinguished as wise "to Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1; 4:5. * Gen. 49:10. † Isa. 40:9; 41:27; Hag. 2: 6-8. ¶ Isa. 7:14. + Micah 5:2. Isa. 11:1. ** Zech. 9:9. tt Isa. 42: 1–3.、 speak a word in season to him that is weary;"* that he should blind the eyes of the learned and proud,† and preach good tidings to the poor and despised; that under his ministry the lame should be made to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the captive to be loosed, and the dead raised up; that he should teach the perfect way, and be the instructor of the Gentiles; that he should be a sacrifice for sin, be rejected of the Jews, who themselves should be rejected of God;" "that the kings of the earth and all people should worship him;"¶ but that the people who rejected him should continue a distinct people, and yet be scattered over all nations, and wander about without princes, without sacrifices, without an altar, without prophets, looking for deliverance and not finding it, till a very distant period.** The correspondence between the several particulars related of the death of Christ, and the predictions scattered through the Bible, is extremely striking. The evangelists in this respect are but echoes of the prophets. I can give but a rapid sketch. These predictions include the treachery and awful end of Judas, the precise sum of money for which he betrayed his Master, and the use to which it was put. They specify not only the sufferings of Christ, but of what. they should consist. That his back should be given to the smiters, his face to shame and spitting;" that * Isa. 50:4. † Isa. 5:15. Isa. 35:5, 6; 9:2. § Isa. 42:6. Isa. ch. 53; 8:14, 15. Isa. 60:10-12, etc.; 53:12. ** Jer. 31:36; Hos. 3:4, 5. †† Psa. 41:9; 55:12–15. Zech. 11:12, 13. ff Isa. 50: 6. he should be put to death by a mode which would cause his hands and his feet to be pierced; that he should be wounded, bruised, and scourged;* that in his death he should be numbered with transgressors, and in his sufferings have gall and vinegar given him to drink; that his persecutors should laugh him to scorn, and shake their heads, reviling him, and saying, "He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him." Although it was the custom to break the bones of those who were crucified, and although the bones of the thieves crucified with him were broken, yet it was predicted that "not a bone of him should be broken;" and moreover, that his garments should be divided, and lots cast for his vesture;¶ that while he should "make his grave with the wicked," as he did in being buried like the wicked companions of his death, under the general leave for taking down their bodies from the cross, he should at the same time make his grave "with the rich," as was done when they buried him in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.** I might enumerate many more details of prophecy centering upon the life and Ideath of Christ. What have been mentioned are abundantly sufficient for our present argument. I have only recited a concise list of the predictions. I *Zech. 12:10; Psa. 22:16. † Isa. 53:4, 5, 8, 12. Psa. 69:21. § Psa. 22:7, 8. ** Isaiah 53: 9. Num. 9:12; Exod. 12:46; TPsa. 22:18. The translation of this verse in Lowth's Isaiah is much more to the point than that of the common text: "And his grave was appointed with the wicked; but with the rich man was his tomb." |