Wherever they had Occafion to produce this Testimony, they generally began with Mofes, and then defcended in Order to the rest of the Prophets. We have a ftrong Prefumption of our Saviour's efpecial Regard to this Method, joined with a direct Proof, that He thought the Prophecies of the Old Teftament gave the best Evidence to his Miffion when collected, in the pathetic Account of his Difcourfe with the Difciples in the Way to Emmaus. a O Fools, and Now of Heart, faid He, to believe all that the Prophets have spoken! Ought not Chrift to have fuffered thefe Things, and to enter into his Glory? And beginning at Mofes and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the Things concerning himself. From which We can gather Nothing lefs than this, that, in Order to convince his doubting Difciples of the Truth of his Miffion from the Topic of Prophecy, He both fummed up all the Prophecies contained in the Scriptures concerning himself, and also pursued that Order in which Providence had thought fit to difpofe and connect them. He began from Mofes, and expounded what related to his Miffion throughout all the Scriptures.

THIS Obfervation will be ftrengthened if we confider that this was the firft Time the Argument was, and could have been, made Use of in its full Extent. The Prophecies had not till then received their full and final Completion. The Scene of our Saviour's Sufferings was now clof a Luke 24. 25 &c.

ed,

ed, he had drank the bitter Cup, had paid down our Ranfom, had fhewn himself victorious over our grand Enemy, and in short had finished the great Work of his Miffion; and now at laft every Character given of the Meffiah appeared legible in his Perfon. The Prophecies therefore could not have been earlier applied to him in a collected and dependent View. All that could be done in his Life-Time was to apply particular Prophecies, and to accommodate them to himfelf, as they one by one received their Completion in the Courfe of his Actions. But now He was able to gather them up, and to urge, as one powerful and irrefiftible Argument of the Truth of his Miffion, the perfect and thorough Correfpondence between his whole Life and Actions, and the entire Plan of them made up of the whole Set of Prophecies laid together and united. Our Saviour's Ufe of this Kind of Argument on

the

very firft Occafion, after it was capable of being put in Force, feems clearly to point out to Us the most proper Ufe of Prophecy in applying it to the Proof of his Miffion; and the Evangelift's apparent Care in describing fo particularly this important Occurrence to Us, may justly be looked upon as a defigned Recommendation of this our Saviour's Method of treating Prophecy as a Pattern moft worthy our Imitation.

THE firft View of Prophecy is chiefly concerned in leading Us to the firft Ufe of it. For the greatest Strength of Teftimony appears plainly to be deducible from the Second View of it. From

From that fingly, all the neceffary Conditions, requifite to make Prophecy a compleat Teftimony, are to be obtained; and this feems to add more Grace than Strength to the Argument. Since then there is a manifeft Order and Subordination obfervable in the Prophecies, and fince We cannot fuppofe this Order to be the Effect of Chance, neither is the Use it can be of, in bringing about the fecond End of Prophecy, confiderable enough to be thought the fole Purpose of it; it remains that it must have been planned in Subferviency to the firft End of Prophecy, and with a View of fupporting the Faith and Religion of the Old World. That they are fitted to ferve this great End will easily appear.

MAN's Innocence was the Condition on which he held his original Title to Happiness. Having loft his Innocence, he had therefore no longer any Means of obtaining Happiness. For if We fay that he could, by any natural Abilities of his own, raise himself again to forfeited Happiness, what is this but destroying all effential Difference between Virtue and Vice? taking the Scales of Justice from the Hand of God, and making Man himself Arbiter of the Terms on which he will be faved? For, on this Supposition, when he had finned, he had nothing more to do than to exert that Power with which he was endued, and be restored again to all the Priviledges of unftained Virtue. And what is fuch a Power, but a Power of setting up an Equality between Virtue and Vice? It is placing Man beyond all Poffi

bility of forfeiting his Title to Happiness. For he could never forfeit his Title to that, which he had in himself a natural Power of obtaining.

THE firft Sinner therefore could have no reafonable Expectations of Happiness, except it fhould please the Mercy of God to open for him a new Way to it. This God vouchfafed to do out of his great Compaffion for the helpless State of fallen Man. He provided an Expiation for those Sins, which Man himself was unable to expiate, the Sacrifice of his beloved Son; and changed the Conditions of Happiness, on our Part, from perfect Innocence, which we were no longer capable of, to Repentance, and Faith in the Merits and Satisfaction of Chrift. But ftill Man could not attain to the Knowledge of these Conditions, (fince they depended not on his own, but on the divine Will,) and therefore could not lay hold of the Benefits of them, without fome Revelation made to him of that divine Will. Hence it appears how excellently the first Prophecy was appointed for fupporting the Faith and Religion of the first of Men; fince without it they must have been utterly deftitute of all Faith and Principles of Religion. For without it they could neither have known the Object of Faith, nor have had Hope in the Object of religious Worship. It conveys juft fo much Light as the Condition of Man at that Time required, a general Promise of a Deliverer. Who he was to be, at what Distance of Time he was to appear, or what were to be the Characters of his

Perfon,

Person, it imported them little to know. These were Discoveries referved for the Exigences of fucceeding Ages. That there fhould arife one who should finally triumph over their grand Enemy, and thereby reftore them to the Happiness they had loft all Title to by their Defection from Innocence, was enough to raise them from Defpair to a Hope in God; it was a fufficient Foundation for Trust in his Mercies, and Faith in a promised Redeemer.

THIS Promise was granted to the Father of the whole Race of Men. They were all alike to share in the Benefits of it. It was therefore expreffed in general Terms, because it was to be the Bafis of a general Hope. But the Promise made to Abraham was more confined. It limited the Expectations of giving Birth to the promised Meffiah to his Seed. And who does not fee how conducive thefe Expectations were, towards carrying on the Interest of Providence, at that Time? God was then felecting a peculiar People for the better Prefervation of Religion, and the Foundation of religious Hopes: And what could fo effectually engage them heartily to concur in his Defigns, as to diffuse through them all, from their very Fountain, the Opinion, that they were fet apart by God, and facred to the great Purpose of giving a Meffiah to the World? Nothing could fo ftrongly cement and unite them amongst themselves, or infpire them with fo warm a Defire of preferving themfelves a diftinct People, unmixed with other Nations,

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