annals of the world0. Truly, from that day to this, has " their whole land been smitten with a most dreadful curse."
The prophecy before us closes the canon of Scrip- ture under the Mosaic dispensation, and is peculiarly worthy of our closest attention. In two points of view I propose to consider it :
I. As evincing the truth of Christianity —
In this view this prophecy is considered by all who have written on the evidences of our holy religion —
[It was a prophecy pre-eminently insisted on at the time of our Saviour's advent. When our blessed Lord had mani- fested to his disciples his glory on the mount of transfiguration, where he had conversed with Moses and Elijah, " he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. Upon which they asked him, " Why say the Scribes that Elias must first comed?" that is, ■ Why, now that we have had this accu- mulated evidence of thy Messiahship, are we to conceal it from others, more especially since it is, in part at least, that very evidence which the Scribes, and all who are instructed in the prophecies, are looking for?' Moreover, when almost the whole of the Jewish nation flocked to John's baptism, the rulers sent priests and Levites to him, to inquire, " Whether he was himself the Christ; or whether he was Elijah," whom they expected as his Forerunner e? Hence it appears that the people at large expected, about that time, the literal accom- plishment of this prophecy.
And accomplished at that time it was. Previous to John's conception in the womb, the angel, who announced to his parents God's merciful intentions towards them, said of him, " Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God : and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; to make ready a people prepared for the Lordf:" in other words, he shall fulfil the prophecy of Malachi, which you are all now expecting to see accomplished. Our blessed Lord yet more strongly declares, that John was the person ordained of God to fulfil that prophecy. John, being shut up in prison, and hearing of the miracles which Jesus had wrought, sent two of his disciples to Jesus, to inquire, whether he was the predicted Messiah ; or whether they were to look for some other person to sustain
" Luke xxi. 22—27. d Mark ix. 9—11.
e John i. 19—21. f Luke i. 16, 17.