agreeable to the obvious and literal Meaning of those Books, but contrary to the Sense of the Jewish Nation. And for This both Jews and Gentiles might plead the Example of the Apoftles; who, at first, did, like other unbelieving Jews, expect a temporal Prince, and did dif believe JESUS to be the MESSIAS on Account of his Sufferings, notwithstanding his Miracles; who continued in thofe Thoughts till they came to understand the fpiritual Senfe of the Scrip tures, which they received, partly by Converfation with JESUs after his Death, and partly by (t) Infpiration; and who might seem to act an inconfiftent Part, in interpreting the Scriptures in fo many Refpects about JESUS as they did, according to the traditional Rules and Explications of the Jews, and yet rejecting their traditional Explication in Respect to the temporal Kingdom of their MESSIAS.

In fine, the Miracles wrought by JESUS are, according to the Gospel-fcheme, no abfolute Proofs of his being the MESSIAS, or of the Truth of Christianity.

Thofe Miracles were prophefy'd of in the Old Testament, like the other Matters of the Gospel; and therefore they are no otherwise to be confider'd as Proofs of those Points, than as fulfilling the Sayings in the Old Teftament, like other Gofpel-matters and Events, or (as a Boylean Lecturer well expreffes it) (u) as com

(t) Acts 26. 22. 1701. Serm. 8. p. 19.

D

(x) Stanhope's Boyl, Left,

prebended

prehended in, and exactly confonant to the Prophefies concerning the MESSIAS. In that Senfe they are good Proofs, and in that Sense only. For, as I have before obferved, if Jesus is not the Perfon prophefy'd of as the MESSIAS in the Old Teftament, his Miracles will not prove him to be fo, nor prove his divine Miffion. And in that Senfe only JESUS himself urges his Miracles to prove his being the MESSIAS. For when (w) JOHN the Baptift, who had beard in Prifon of the Works or Miracles of CHRIST, but yet doubted whether he was the MESSIAS, as perhaps expecting, like other Jews, and like the Apoftles themselves, a temporal Prince, and one, who would deliver him from his Prifon, fent two of his Difciples to him, to know, whether He was the MESSIAS, or they were to look for another; CHRIST declares himself to be the MESSIAS, by howing, that the (x) Characters of the MESSIAS, as extant in the Prophets, manifeftly agreed to him in thefe Words, (y) Go and fhew JOHN again thofe Things, which you do hear and fee. The Blind receive their fight, and the Lame walk, the Lepers are cleanfed, and the Deaf bear, the Dead are raifed up, and the Poor have the Gospel preach'd unto them.

And bleffed are they, who shall not be offended in me. Which Characters confift of two Parts, firft in

(w) Matt. 11.2, 3. Vid. Hammondum & Clericum in Locum. (x) See Hammond, who cites Ifaiah, as referr'd to 29. 18, 19; 21.1; 35.5, 6. (y) Matt, 11. 4-6...

doing

doing Miracles; and fecondly, in appearing in a low State and teaching the Poor (which laft was much mistaken by, and gave great Offence to, the Jews; for as to the firft, the Jews (2) agreed to it.) Neither of which would, of itself, be fufficient to prove JESUS to be the MESSIAS, without the other; nor both together, but as they are the Characters of the MESSIAS in the Prophets.

VIII.

That thofe Proofs are Typical or Allegorical Proofs.

OF

F the Strength or Weakness of the Proofs for Chriftianity out of the Old Teftament we feem well qualify'd to judge, by having the Old and New Teftament in our Hands; the firft containing the Proofs of Chriftianity, and the latter the Application of those Proofs. And we should seem to have nothing more to do, but to compare the Old and New Teftament together.

But thefe Proofs taken out of the Old, and urged in the New Teftament, being, fometimes, either not to be found in the Old, or not urged in the New, according to the literal and obvious Senfe, which they feem to bear in their fuppofed Places in the Old, and therefore not Proofs according to scholastick Rules;

almost all Christian (a) Commentators on the Bible, and Advocates for the Chriftian Religion, both antient and modern, have judged them to be apply'd in a fecondary, or typical, or mystical, or allegorical, or enigmatical Sense; That is, in a Senfe different from the obvious and literal Senfe, which they bear in the Old Teftament.

1. Thus for Example, St. MATTHEW, after having given an Account of the Conception of the Virgin MARY, and of the Birth of JESUS, fays, (b) All This was done, that it might be fulfill'd, which was spoken by the Prophet, Jaying, “Behold a Virgin fhall be " with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they fhall call his Name IMMANUEL. But the Words, as they ftand in ISAIAH, (c) from whom they are fuppofed to be taken, do, in their obvious and literal Senfe, relate to a young Woman in the Days of AHAZ, King

(a) Origen, Eufebius, Jerom, (who fays directly, to Pammachius, that the Paffages alledged by Paul, out of the Old Testament, aliter in fuis locis, aliter in Epiftolis Paulinis fonant) Cyril, Chryfoftom, Auflin, among the Antients. And, among the Moderns, Sextus Senenfis in Bibl. Sanctâ; Glaffius in Philologia Sacrâ; Grotius in Vetus & Nov. Teft. & ficut at in Ifa. 53. 1. in Pfal. 22. 1. & in Matt. 1. 22; Cuneus dans fa Republique des Hebreux. 1. 3. c. 8. Vol. 1. p. 376; Simon Hift. Crit. du V. T. p. 97, 98Hift. Crit. du Nov. Teft. c. 21 & 22-Suppl. aux Ceremonies des Juifs. p. 7; Jenkins's Reajon. of the Chriftian Religion; Nichols Conference with a Theift. Vol. 34. White on Ifaiah; Dupin Differt. Prelim. fur la Bible. 1. 1. c. 10; and Le Clerc Bib. Choifie. Vol. 27. p. 388-399. See WHISTON's Confeffion of this Matter in Effay, &c. p. 92. (c) Ifa. 7. 14.

b) Matt. 1. 22, 23.

of

of Judah, as will appear by confidering the Context.

(d) When REZIN, King of Syria, and PEKAH, King of Ifrael, were Confederates in Arms together againft Abaz, King of Judab; ISAIAH the Prophet was fent by God first to comfort АHAZ and his Nation, and afterwards to affure them by a Sign or Miracle, that his Enemies fhould in a little time be confounded. But АHAZ refusing a Sign at the Prophets Hands, the Prophet faid, (e) The Lord fhall give you a Sign. Behold a Virgin (or (ƒ) young Woman) Jhall conceive and bear a Son, and Jhall call his Name IMMANUEL. Butter and Honey shall be eat; that he may know to refuse the Evil, and chufe the Good. For before (g) the Child fhall know to refufe the Evil and chufe the Good, the Land hall be forfaken of both her Kings. And this Sign is accordingly given AH AZ by the Prophet, who (b) took two Witnesses, and in their Presence went unto the faid Virgin or young Woman, call'd the (i) Prophetess, who in due Time conceived and bare a Son, who was named (k) IMMANUEL; after whose Birth the Projects (1) of REZIN and PEKAH were foon confounded, according to the Prophecy and Sign given by the Prophet.

And the Prophet himself puts it paft Difpute, by exprefs Words, as well as by his