things ye have SEEN and HEARD, how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. John's disciples returned to the prison, tell their master what miracles they had seen, and what doctrines they had heard, adding that Jesus Christ had not made a direct reply to their question; but had put the proof of his Messiahship on his causing the blind to see, the lame to walk, and so on; and on the plainness of his doctrine to the lowest of mankind. This is the fact. Let us hear John and his two disciples, whom we will venture to name Reuben and Othniel, and let us see what they can make of this fact.

Reuben. We do not well comprehend the meaning of Jesus.

John. I understand him thoroughly: He meant, Read what the prophets predict of the Messiah; compare my ministry with their predictions; and if my history exactly answer their prophecies, you may fairly infer, that I am the Messiah, so often promised, and so eagerly expected.

Othniel. The prophecies are very numerous, master! to which of them did he refer us?

J. To the thirty-fifth section of the prophecy of Isaiah, where miraculous works and simplicity of doctrine are said to characterise the Messiah's ministry, and these are the two evidences of his mission which he gave you; The blind see-the poor

understand good tidings. Take the parchment, and read the section.

R. The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of Jehovah and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them, that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not: behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean over it; but it shall be for those men, though fools, shall not err lion....

J. Stop, read the last line again.

shall not pass the wayfaring therein.

No

R. The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

J. FOOLS SHALL NOT ERR THEREIN that is to say, The way of holiness shall be rendered so plain

by the doctrine of the Messiah, that the most illiterate of mankind shall not be liable to err therein. To this prophecy Jesus referred you, when he said, The poor have the gospel preached unto them. This excellent method of teaching, and the miraculous recovery of sight to the blind, and of health to the diseased, were to take place at the same time, and to be introduced by the same person, and the person, who introduceth both these, is the promised Messiah.

O. We saw Jesus perform miracles; and we heard him speak as never man spake ; and the prophet, we see, describes these actions, as proofs of the identity of the Messiah; but Rabbi! the prophet does not ascribe these events to man, he says, GOD will come; Behold! YOUR GOD will come; HE will come and save you; and he calls the whole combination of events a display of THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH, the excellency of OUR GOD. What has Jesus of Nazareth to do with the incommunicable name of the blessed God?

J. The Messiah is sometimes spoken of in our prophecies as Jehovah, and sometimes he is called Jehovah's servant. Sometimes the noblest works are ascribed to him, and sometimes the greatest sufferings. Our wise men, whose eyes are darkened, and whose table is become a snare, so that what should have been for their welfare is become a trap, have imagined two Messiahs, the one an exalted, the other a debased person: but the truth is, The Messiah is one extraordinary person, in

Psal, lxix. 22, 23:

whom two natures, the nature of God and the nature of man, are united. What is affirmed of him in one view cannot be said of him in another. The idea of the person of the Messiah is a key to the prophecies. Without using it you will never be able to satisfy yourselves.

R. Is Jesus Lord then as well as Christ?

J. Our family have always thought so. My father taught me to believe myself a prophet of THE HIGHEST, because I was to go before the face of THE LORD to prepare his way; and he took his notion of the Lord, before whom I had the honour to go, from this prophet, who calls the person, before whom I JEHOVAH OUR GOD.*

go, R. I have been told, that when the late King enquired of the scribes where the Messiah should be born, they told him at Bethlehem-Judah.† Now the same prophet, who fixes the place of his birth, fixes also the rank of him, who was to be born; the ruler of Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, is to be born in BethlehemJudah. I confess this passage was incomprehensible to me. I could not conceive how a child born at Bethlehem could cause emanations of his excellency from the days of eternity.

J. There are many prophecies of this kind, and to our puerile and depraved minds they may appear inconsistent, and even scandalous. Do you think Jesus said in vain, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me?

* Isa. xl. 3. Luke iii. 4. † Matt. ii. 4. + Micah v. 2.

R. God forbid, Rabbi! that we should form our judgments of natural dignity, or of moral excellency, by exterior appearances according to the false maxims of the world. You have taught us, that the same wisdom which buried gold and diamonds in dark subterranean caverns of rock, and earth, generally throws a vail of meanness over real majesty, at once creating a field to exercise human industry, and a crown to reward it. Were we to renounce this principle, we should reverence Herod, the cruellest of tyrants, on the throne, and forsake you, the best of masters, in the prison.

J. Apply this principle to the prophecy of Micah. The GOINGS FORTH of him, who shall coME FORTH Out of Bethlehem, have been from of old, from everlasting; that is to say in plain popular style, He, who shall be born at Bethlehem, appeared often to our fathers in the earlier ages of the world.

O. Will you explain yourself, master ?

J. I will. But as I am going to reason from three facts, take care you do not draw your conclusion from either of them separately; my conclusion ariseth from the union of the three. Is God, think you, invisible?

O. Undoubtedly he is. You have informed us that no man HATH seen God at any time,* and Moses hath taught us, that no man CAN see God. We venerate these testimonies the more, because we know, they are conformable to the dictates of right reason.