LECTURE IV.

ISAIAH LIII. 10.

When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

GUIDED by the light of prophetic truth, we have traced the Messiah though his sufferings to His cross, and from thence to His costly and honoured tomb, so strangely at variance with the circumstances of His fate. Comparing these predicted facts with the Passion, and Death, and Burial of our Lord, we have seen them accord with a minuteness, which upon principles of mere coincidence is quite inexplicable. We pointed out the course of the events, in appearance indeed casual, and rising out of each other in the most natural succession imaginable, yet conducting to results, which plainly manifested them to have been overruled by the power and providence of God. The awful spectacle which next presents itself for our contemplation, is Death dethroned,

and driven awhile from his dominion, by that stronger Potentate, who had power to take from him his armour wherein he trusts, and to make of him a captive and a spoil. The Spirit which foretold so much of what seemed minute and unimportant in the history of the Messiah, would hardly pass over in silence the astonishing theme of Death and the Grave subdued. It would have been a marvel, nay more, it might have been a stumblingblock to faith, had the same Spirit, which spake so largely of His sufferings, said nothing of "the glory that should follow;" by the obvious inconsistency of an omission so remarkable with its minuteness in lesser things. We are sure, however, that He who hath hitherto received so convincing a testimony of Prophecy, is not left without it for the remainder of His sublime and unparalleled career. His own appeals to Scripture upon this important portion of His history, were not made in ignorance. He could ask with confidence whether Christ ought not to have suffered the things which He had suffered, and then "to enter into His glory." Neither would His apostles have been found labouring so earnestly by the help of this

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argument to corroborate the grand and vital truth ;—“ opening and alleging out of the Scriptures that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead *." And indeed it is not difficult to cite abundance of texts, which assign to the Messiah a being subsequent to death, as well as many others which speak of Him in language unintelligible except upon the like supposition. Our text itself, an questionable prediction of Christ, might be advanced as conclusive on this head. And it is moreover remarkable for continuing onward the amazing narrative without break or interruption, as if it spake of the same existence, of which death was to prove, in Him, no more than a brief suspension. For no sooner has His soul made “an offering for sin," which is a fresh allusion to His death, already mentioned, than, without any apparent interval deserving of remark, He is presented to us again, a living witness of a progeny of His own, and continuing to be, for an indefinite and lengthened period, an active and prosperous instrument in furthering the pleasure of the Lord.

*Acts xvii. 3.

F

Upon passages not more explicit than this, St Paul has grounded a prophetic testimony of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Thus he cites the second Psalm: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee." And a text from Isaiah, which, separately considered, bears much more obscurely upon the amazing fact of a corporeal resurrection. It is where God renews the promise of an everlasting covenant with His people, in these words: "I will give you the sure mercies of David." He spake this, argues the apostle, with reference to His future purpose of raising up Jesus from the dead, "now no more to return to corruption *." Now, although we might, upon St Paul's authority, advance these Scriptures as a sufficient proof of "the testimony of Jesus" upon this head, yet we are prepared to admit, that when viewed merely in their terms, the interpretation would seem forced and difficult. But then we ought to remember, that the clearness of any given .prophecy is not to be judged solely by the terms in which it is conceived, but by a reference to the great aggregate of prophetic light which

*Acts xiii. 34.

the same truth has at any time received. Allusions in themselves obscure become abundantly intelligible, when the subject to which they refer is grown familiar to the hearer's apprehension, through the medium of former and more distinct annunciations. So that it is a thing impossible, unless this observation be kept constantly in view, to arrive at any just conclusions as to the general clearness which pervades these ancient "oracles of God." To illustrate this in the example under review, the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead, there is extant at least one prophetic declaration, whose meaning can with with difficulty be misconceived. And it is worthy to be observed, in reference to what we have just stated concerning the general clearness of prophetic light, that St Paul concludes the argument, which he had begun upon the seemingly obscure, with the convincing and satisfactory distinctness of this; thus concentrating them all in one flood of mutually assisting light upon the great truth which he designed to corroborate. The pro

phecy alluded to is that of David in Psalm xvi. in part indeed, but only in part, applicable