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Such alas! has been, and is, and may again be the case with many. Many of those, who saw this signal miracle, scrutinized it, perceived its reality, and yet disregarded its force and intention. And even now "the true light, which cometh into the world to enlighten every man, shineth in the world's darkness," and even enters into the dark chambers of our own souls, and yet we see it not, we comprehend it not, we are not guided by it. Yet "our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us." Let us then arise," and, “though we were sometime darkness, let us be light in the Lord;" and "let our light shine before men, to the glory of our heavenly Father, by our good works which they shall behold." For dreadful and hopeless is the state of those, say they see, and whose sin therefore remaineth;" "who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." May, therefore, that "God, which commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; so that we may be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

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LECTURE XV.

OUR LORD'S STATEMENT THAT THE FULFILMENT

OF HIS OWN

MESSIAHSHIP.

PLAYED AND

PREDICTIONS WOULD EVINCE HIS

THE MANNER IN WHICH HE DISNOTICED HIS UNLIMITED KNOW

LEDGE OF MEN AND THINGS.

St. JOHN XIII. 18, 19.

I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.

Ir was asserted by our Lord of John the Baptist, that "there had not arisen a greater prophet than he;" nay that he was "even more than a prophet." And the reason which he assigned for such an assertion was this, that John was the very "messenger of whom it was written, that he should be sent to prepare the way of the Lord." "He came for a witness" to that dignified Person to whom all the prophets had referred; and his predictions were, in many respects, more minute and particular than those of his predecessors. "He came for a wit

ness," not by his verbal annunciations alone, but by his personal, and therefore more definite testimony to him "whom God had sent."

Now in all these particulars Jesus as far surpassed his forerunner, as the immediate forerunner did the remoter prophets. Jesus was the very personage, to whom all these, "at sundry times and in divers manners," gave their inspired testimony; and in and by whom their predictions were to have their accomplishment. He carried forward the scheme of prophecy still further; describing in more precise and even in literal terms the great events which were approaching. He applied the language of preceding prophets to those events, so as to decide beforehand the true interpretation of their predictions. And he included, at the same time, such a distinct mention of additional particulars, as proved that futurity was much more extensively open to his view. Nay further, the events predicted were such in themselves, and so circumstanced, and Jesus also manifested such a familiar acquaintance with them, as an original prophet, that his Messiahship is as fully proved from hence as his divine Mission. And this his extensive prescience is also in another way illustrated and proved, by the knowledge which he ever displayed of past and present things, as well as of futurity; by his knowledge of the characters, surmises, and intentions of all with whom he was

concerned; a knowledge, such as nothing less than omniscience could have communicated to him.

These considerations are pointed out to us by our Lord himself in the words of our text, with which he prefaced and prepared his distinct intimation of the treachery of Judas. He asserted his acquaintance with the characters of his disciples, although not as yet displayed by their conduct. When he spoke these words he was about to prove that "he knew whom he had chosen," by declaring beforehand not only the treachery of Judas, but the denial of Peter, and the cowardly desertion of all of them in that hour of danger, which, though by them not foreseen, was near at hand. He cited the Scripture, which declared the hostile conduct of one "that eat bread with him," that he might expressly apply it to one of those individuals, who then sat with him at the table. And he explained the design with which he predicted this to them, in a declaration, similar to which he made many others. "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he."-It will be our endeavour to remind you of some of the instances of this wondrous prescience of Jesus, in order that we may shew how it bears upon the question of the divine mission and Messiahship of Jesus; and that you may thus duly apprehend the force of those arguments, which our Lord has derived from

the accuracy with which he both spoke of things to come, and discerned the spirits of men.

The predictions of Jesus extend even to the general resurrection, and to the consummation of all things. If we believe that he was what he claimed to be, we may confidently expect that all these predictions will be fulfilled in their season, although the season for the accomplishment of some of them is yet distant, and others are but imperfectly fulfilled. They are all such as it became the promised Messiah to deliver; they are all such as it appertains to him to accomplish. And our conviction of his power and authority will indeed rest on the most solid basis, if to every other demonstration of it, we can also establish the prescience of Jesus, by shewing the fulfilment of his numerous predictions. We must for this purpose consider those which have received their accomplishment.

I. Let us first consider such as were not accomplished until after the Evangelists published a record of them in their Gospels. Such was the frequently repeated prediction of the calamities which were coming upon the Jews, and of the overthrow of their temple, and city, and nation. Jesus at one time gave only a general intimation of the sad event, or couched it under an illustrative parable. In other instances he concisely noticed

a Matt. viii. 12. Luke xiii. 6, 35; xix. and x.

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