SECT. by the violent incurfions of the northern III. barbarians.

One cannot avoid obferving the coincidence between David's expreffion, "the "rulers take counsel together," and thofe ufed by the different writers of the New Teftament." Then affembled together the "chief priests, and the fcribes, and the "elders of the people-and confulted that they might take Jefus by fubtilty, and "kill him”—“Then gathered the chief priefts and the elders a council," and "from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death." In a fimilar manner, after the crucifixion of our Lord, the fame plots continued to be carried on against his religion. We read in the Acts, "When they had commanded "them to go afide out of the council, they

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conferred among themselves." To this last occurrence the Apostles themselves apply the prophecy under confideration. So exactly is this prediction accomplished in every particular.

It is a remarkable circumftance, that David, in the twenty-fecond Pfalm, makes ufe

II.

ufe of the very words which Chrift did, CHAP. when fuffering upon the crofs. "My God, "my God, why haft thou forfaken me?" Nor is the behaviour of the Jews lefs clearly pointed out in the following prophetic expreffions. "All they that fee me,

laugh me to fcorn; they fhoot out the lip, they fhake the head-He trufted in "the Lord, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, feeing he delighted in him." The manner of his death, and the fubfequent actions of the foldiers, are all defcribed with an exactness, attainable by infpiration alone. "The affembly of the

wicked have inclofed me; they pierced
my hands and my feet-They part my
garments among them, and caft lots upon
my vefture."

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Towards the conclufion of this divine hymn, David breaks out into a triumphant ftrain, anticipating the converfion of the Gentiles." All the ends of the world fhall "remember, and turn unto the Lord; and "all the kindreds of the nations fhall wor"fhip before thee, For the kingdom is the "Lord's; and he is the governor among "the nations." High as well as low fhall

• Pfalm xxii. 1.

embrace

SECT. embrace the religion of Jefus. For, as the 111. most exalted rank cannot exempt the one from his authority, fo neither can the infignificance and obfcurity of the other escape his notice. “ "All they that be fat upon earth fhall eat and worship; all they that go down to the duit fhail bow " before him”.”

Thefe remarks upon the Palms fhall be clofed with a paffage, which declares the facrifices and ordinances of the Law to be no longer acceptable to God, after the manifeftation of Chrift in the flesh; and the commentary of St. Paul will be no improper accompaniment to it. “The Law

having a fhadow of good things to come, "and not the very image of the things, “can never, with those facrifices which "they offered year by year continually, "make the comers thereunto perfect-For “it is not poffible, that the blood of bulls "and goats fhould take away fins. Where"fore when he cometh into the world, he "faith, Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldeft not, but a body haft thou pre

↳ The converfion of the Gentiles is likewise predicted in the forty-fifth, forty-feventh, and seventy-fecond Pfalms.

"pared

II.

pared me in burnt-offerings and facri- CHAP fices for fin thou haft no pleasure. Then "faid I, Lo! I come (in the volume of "the book it is written of me), to do thy " will, O God. He taketh away the firft, "that he may eftablish the fecond. By the " which will we are fanctified, through "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ " once for all."

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A

From this paffage, and indeed from all the writings of St. Paul, it appears moft decidedly, that the general tendency of the Mofaical facrifices was precifely of the fame nature, as the defign of Chrift's meritorious paffion. The allusions of that Apostle to the ordinances of the Jewish Law are fo numerous and fo pointed, that it is in vain to feek for any other fatisfactory explanation. If to profit by the example of our bleffed Saviour be the fole end of the Gospel difpenfation, it will be no easy matter to discover any circumftantial refemblance between his death upon the cross, and that of the victims before the altar. They were undoubtedly flain to avert the wrath of God from the church of Ifrael,

⚫ Pfalm xl. 6.

a Heb. x. I.

and

SECT, and to make atonement for the fins of his III. people; for we furely cannot view them in the light of examples: Chrift, therefore, unless the whole harmony of Scripture be deftroyed, muft, by his precious bloodfhedding, have appeased the anger of the Almighty, and have procured for his faithful disciples great and endless benefits.

It is readily allowed, that the pure doctrine preached by our Lord proved eventually the cause of his death, by exciting against him the inveterate hatred of the Scribes and Pharifees; and, in that fenfe, he may indeed be faid to have fallen a facrifice to the truths which he propagated: but it requires no very fuper-eminent powers of ratiocination, to difcriminate between a facrifice to opinions, and a facrifice for the benefit of others; between the atrocious murder of Socrates, and the patriotic felf-devotion of the Decii. To fum up the whole argument: the facrifice of Chrift is defcribed by the Apostle, as being of the fame nature with the facrifice of the Jewish victims; but, if the facrifice of Chrift confifted only in his falling a facri fice to his opinions, we fhall be reduced to the strange absurdity of supposing the vic