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 used by the different writers of the New Testament. “Then affembled together the "chief priests, and the fcribes, and the "elders of the people-and confulted that

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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 to"gether 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

conferred among themselves." To this last occurrence the Apoftles themfelves 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,
.66 my God, why haft thou forfaken me?"
Nor is the behaviour of the Jews lefs
clearly pointed out in the following pro-
phetic expreffions. "All they that fee me,

laugh me to fcorn; they fhoot out the lip, they fhake the head-He trusted 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.'

Towards the conclufion of this divine hymn, David breaks out into a triumphant ftrain, anticipating the conversion 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 moft exalted rank cannot exempt the one from his authority, fo neither can the infignificance and obfcurity of the other efcape his notice. "All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship; all

they that go down to the dust shall bow " before him.”

These remarks upon the Palms fhall be closed 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 thofe facrifices which

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they offered year by year continually, "make the comers thereunto perfect-For "it is not poffible, that the blood of bulls "and goats should take away fins. Where"fore when he cometh into the world, he "faith, Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou

The converfion of the Gentiles is likewife predicted in the forty-fifth, forty-feventh, and feventy-fecond Pfalms.

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11.

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 establish the fecond. By the " which will we are fanctified, through "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ "once for alld."

From this paffage, and indeed from all the writings of St. Paul, it appears moft decidedly, that the general tendency of the Mosaical facrifices was precisely of the same nature, as the defign of Chrift's meritorious paffion. The allufions 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 déftroyed, muft, by his precious bloodfhedding, have appeafed the anger of the Almighty, and have procured for his faithful difciples 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 sense, 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 shall be reduced to the ftrange abfurdity of fuppofing the vic