this kingdom, there will be no lessons to learn, but those of peace and good will to men.

Blessed be God, the time is coming when superstition and ignorance, pride and passion, bloodshed and misery, will yield before the dominion of the Prince of Peace; when the hand of cultivation shall spread bloom and beauty through all the valleys, and up the sides of every hill and mountain, and over all the continents and islands of the earth. And at last he will sit down upon his throne, the grand pacificator and restorer of a world. How glorious! What a vast object lies before the Prince of Peace!

If such be his mission, then his followers should be children of peace. How numerous are his injunctions: 'Have peace one with another.' 'But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.' 'This is my commandment, that ye love one another.' 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.' Such are a few of the commands of the Prince of Peace. How blessed is the spirit of peace. It kindles with the hopes of the just made perfect; its piety emulates the adoration of angels; its love is pure and fervent as the love of seraphs; its dominion immortal as the soul.

LXII. PROPHET.

'Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.' John vi. 14.

JESUS is distinguished as a Prophet in nine instances. Indeed, we may say, he is thus considered throughout all the Scriptures. Moses speaks particularly of him, Deut. xviii. 15; and Stephen, in his address before his murderers, quotes his language, Acts xvii. 37. The Jews expected the Messiah would appear under this very title and character, as appears evident from their conversation with John the Baptist, John i. 19-22. Moses also spake of

Jesus as a Prophet, Deut. xviii. 15; and if we had room, we could show a very exact comparison between the Jewish prophet, and 'that Prophet that should come into the world;' but we have preferred to confine our remarks to the prophecies of Jesus. himself.*

This is an exceedingly interesting title. Jesus was a Prophet in the highest and most emphatical sense. He is the great, the supreme, the abiding Prophet of his church. He came to make a full disclosure of

*On this point, as well as on the prophecies of Jesus himself, the reader would do well to consult an excellent work, entitled 'Dissertations on the Prophecies.' By THOMAS NEWTON, D. D. Dissertations . and xviii-xxi.

Jehovah's will, and to confirm and complete the whole system of revelation,

A few remarks on the nature of the prophetic character of Jesus will be offered, and then a parallel will be drawn, pointing out, on the one hand, the prophecies, and on the other, their fulfilment.

I. The clearness of his prophecies.

II. Their minuteness.

III. Their improbability.
IV. Their number.

All these particulars deserve to be mentioned and carefully considered, that the character of this Prophet may stand out before the world as the greatest that has ever appeared. We have presented them rather more for the benefit of the reader than because we have room to carry them out.

I. The clearness of his prophecies. They are generally delivered in plain, historical language. There is nothing obscure or ambiguous, like the ancient oracles. Every thing was delivered with the utmost plainness and perspicuity. If figures were employed, they were such as the people were accustomed to hear in their sacred writings.

II. Their minuteness. A few examples under this head will be sufficient to illustrate the whole. The first relates to the death and resurrection of Jesus; the second, to the denial; the third, to the final overthrow of Jerusalem. "The Son of man shall be mocked, and spit on, and the third day he shall rise again. All ye shall be offended because of me this night. This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled.‡

* Luke xviii. 32.

Matt. xxvi. 31.

Ib. xxiv. 34.

III. The improbability of his prophecies. Here we present a single instance, which will be a fair illustration of the whole. We do not mean that all the prophecies of Jesus were improbable when spoken, for some things might be safely calculated on by a process of reasoning. But one improbable event is sufficient to establish his prophetic character. Look at the prophecies relative to the overthrow of the holy city, especially the Temple. There it stood before the eye of the great Prophet, as he sat upon the mount of Olives, with its innumerable and stately dwellings: above them, glittering like a succession of diadems, those alabaster porticoes and colonnades; there was the court of the priests, and, highest, the crowning splendor of all, the central temple, the place of the sanctuary, and of the Holy of Holies, covered with plates of gold, its roof planted with the lofty spear-heads of gold, the most precious marble and metals everywhere flashing back the day, till mount Moriah stood forth to the eye of the stranger approaching Jerusalem what it had been so often described by its bards and people, "a mountain of snow studded with jewels." How improbable that such a magnificent edifice, one that had been five hundred years in building, should be demolished during the lifetime of the very persons whom the great Prophet addressed! But its glory has long since departed, and the inhabitants of the holy city are scattered among all nations. Jerusalem has now stood before the world for eighteen centuries a living monument of the prophetic character of Jesus! Now let the infidel scoff, and the unbelieving Jew deride,

and we have only to point the one to the testimony of travellers, and the other to his own Scriptures.

IV. The number of his prophecies. Eusebius is said to have made a separate treatise on this part of our subject, but the book is now lost.* We have not

met with any writer who has made a complete collection of them, though it has been attempted. We suppose this would be a very great task, even if it could be accomplished, for many of the prophecies are so blended with his sayings and teachings that a classification would be exceedingly difficult. The Almighty has, through the medium of this Prophet, given us truth on truth, prophecy on prophecy, but He has seen fit to leave us to arrange the whole into such a form as may appear best. It is so with the moral code of Jesus, if that phrase be allowed. There lie the great moral precepts, but it was left to other ages to present the whole in a systematic manner. We mean this not to depreciate Revelation, for we have a high veneration for God's book. To us, it is rather a proof of its genuineness. But we cannot pursue this thought. All we shall attempt will be to present in a parallel form some of the prophecies uttered by the Saviour during his ministry.

* See JORTIN'S Discourses on the Christian Religion, p. 194.

KIDDER'S Sermons. BOYLE'S Lectures, vol. i. 96, where the reader will find a very able account of the prophecies concerning Jerusalem. WHITBY'S general preface to his Commentary, sec. xii. BISHOP NEWTON's Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. ii. p. 222, &c. TILLOTSON'S Works, vol. ii., serm. clxxxiii-clxxxvii., &c. Observations on our Lord's Conduct as a Divine Instructor, part I., chap. iii., sect. i. By WILLIAM NEWCOME. An Introduction to the Holy Scrip tures. By THOMAS H. HORNE; fourth edit., vol. i., chap. iv., sect. iii. ; particularly Appendix, No. IV.