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Faith of the World, refreshing the thirsty Souls of his faithful Servants with a due Share of his Goodness, ever repeating the decayed Impreffions of his Promises, and keeping alive and invigorating their Hopes, by renewed Affurances of his gracious Intentions! Upon the Whole, fince it appears that the Order, in which the Prophecies are now difpofed, is of all others the fitteft for producing and fuftaining the Faith of the Old World, and that all other poffible Diftribution of them, would neceffarily destroy or greatly weaken this Tendency in them, we may fairly conclude, that the all-wife and bountiful Author of them, when he placed them in this beautiful Subordination, was not regardless of the great Benefits which, only under the Form he had given them, they were most capable of producing. Or in other Words; that a fucceffive View of the Prophecies leads us to discover that they were defigned by Providence, to fupport the Faith and Religion of the Old World.

WHEN now, in Purfuance of this great Defign, God had, by Speaking, as the Apostle expreffes it, in different Parts and in different Manners to the Fathers by the Prophets, made a compleat Revelation of his Will concerning the Redemption of the World; when he had by frequent Additions difplayed every Character of the Meffiah, and thus filled up and finished the Great Out-Line that was delineated in the firft general Prophecy of him: then commenced the Second Ufe of Prophecy, then was it fitted to C

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give a compleat Evidence to the Saviour that was to come. At that Period the Expectations of the faithful were raised to the greatest Height. They contemplated with awful Veneration the great Plan that was now wholly unfolded, and waited, with pious Fervour and devout Wishes, for the approaching Salvation. They stood wrapped up in filent Admiration, when they perceived the grand Crifis draw near in which the Promises of God, now fhut up, were about to be made good; and, filled with a deep and still Attention, expected when God would open in Reality that glorious Scene, the Description of which was now compleated. How their Hopes were answered by the Event, it best becomes the facred Volumes to tell.

II. A

II. A Defence and further Illuftration

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of the Argument.

INCE the firft Ufe of Prophecy laid down above, and all collective Views of the Prophecies for either of the Purposes

to which they have been applied, have been lately oppofed with great Severity, and condemned by an Author of great Note; to lay down fuch a View of them without any Regard to his Objections might be cenfured as Rashness, as a Want of proper Deference to an Author of his Eminence; nay as a Step unfafe for the Scheme itfelf; fince it might be looked upon as leaving a Fortress undefended, except by its natural Strength, when a Battery directed by a great Mafter was playing against it. I fhall therefore confider the Objections he has made to it.

He tells us that our Saviour himself and his Apoftles confidered the Prophecies of the Old Teftament, in a Light very different from that in which his Lordship would place them. That they always applied them fingly and independently on each other to this or that Occafion, as fo many different Arguments for the general Truth of the Gospel. a In fup

a Examination of the Lord Bishop of London's Difcourfes &c. by Conyers Middleton D. D. Pag. 8.

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port of this Declaration he proceeds to fhew, bow Jefus himself conftantly taught that his Perfon and Character were particularly foretold, and marked out by Mofes and all the later Prophets as the Meffiah, or that great Prophet who was to come: and that he came accordingly, as it had been foretold to them, not to deftroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. a This he illustrates from his general Exhortation to the Jews to fearch the Scriptures for the Proofs of his Character and Miffion, for they are they which testify of Me, fays our Saviour. From bis afferting that a Belief in Moses ought to produce a Belief in him. Had lieved Mofes would have believed Me; for He wrote of Me. From his Reproof to his Difciples in the Way to Emmaus, Luke 24.25 &c. From thofe particular Prophecies alledged by him as prefigurative of his Character and Miffion. Which Inftances of the Ufe of Prophecy, as it was applied by Fefus bimfelf, fufficiently fhew, he thinks, that the ancient Prophecies were confidered by him fingly and independently, as fo many diftinct Arguments for the Truth of his Miffion. This Argument he endeavours further to ftrengthen by an Account of the Practice of the Apostles, who refer Us, he fays, for the Evidences of our Faith to Mofes and the Prophets, Saint Matthew was fo diligent in collecting the prophetic Teftimonies of Chrift, and applying them feverally on all Occafions as fo many diftinct Proofs of the Miffion of Jefus, that there is fcarce A SINGLE OCCURRENCE WHICH EVER a Page 9. b See Pag. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

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HAPPENED TO CHRIST, but what he declares to have been before told by fome Prophet, and FULFILLED BY A CORRESPONDENT EVENT. And all the other Evangelifts, he tells Us, pursue the fame Method.

AFTER having weighed all that is here drawn out from the Scriptures, to inftruct Us in the Method the Apoftles, and our Saviour himself made Ufe of, in applying the Prophecies of the Old Teftament, I muft confefs I do not discover the least Appearance of any Thing in it inconsistent with his Lordship's Scheme. Nay it seems to Me to agree entirely with it, and to be in all Refpects fuch an Account as the Bishop himself might be fuppofed to have gathered from the New Testament, had he been called upon to fhew that his Notion of a Syftem of Prophecy was reconcileable to the Senfe of our Saviour and his Evangelifts. For fuppofing them all to have been actually of Opinion, with the Bishop, that there was a Chain of Prophecies reaching from very diftant Ages down to a few Centuries before his Coming, is there any Thing in all their Conduct or Difcourfe, as Doctor Middleton reprefents it, that betrays a Contradiction of Sentiments? Could not our Saviour, without departing from this Opinion, have exhorted the Jews to search the Scriptures for the Proofs of his Character and Miffion? or rather, would he have used any other Exhortation, if he had intended to establish amongst them this very Opinion? Could he not preferve the fame Confiften

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