that of Almighty God, it was necessary that he should bring abundant evidence of his Divine mission, and prove, by testimonies of the most unquestionable kind, his title to the honour he assumed. Nor was he backward to give all the proof which the occasion required. He appealed to the testimony of John the Baptist, whom the whole Jewish nation considered as a prophet, and whose testimony therefore ought to have great weight with them. He appealed also to his own miracles, which were so great and numerous as to be in themselves an indubitable evidence that God was with him. He further appealed to the testi- mony which his heavenly Father also had given to him at his baptism, both by an audible voice from heaven, and by the visible descent of the Holy Spirit upon him. Lastly, he appealed to the Holy Scrip- tures, which the Jews themselves received as the word of God, and which bore testimony to him ; even such testimony as would be found to agree exactly witli his person and character in every re- spect. As these had existed for centuries, and might be compared with all that he had either done or taught, their testimony must be unexceptionable, and must carry conviction to every mind.
From the words before us we shall be led to notice,
T. The transcendent excellency of the Holy Scrip- tures—
Two things are here spoken respecting them :
1. They reveal unto us eternal life —
[Reason never could suffice for discovering the immortality of the soul. Philosophy never enabled any man so to establish the certainty of a future state, as to render it an article of general belief, or to produce any considerable influence on the minds of those around him. Many have reasoned well upon the subject, and spoken what approximated to the truth : but they never could with certainty affirm a future state of rewards and punishments ; much less could they tell us how to avoid the one, and obtain the other. But the Scriptures have drawn aside the veil and shewn us that this present world is intro- ductory to another, in which men. shall exist to all eternity. The Old Testament, it is true, speaks but darkly on this point: yet was it sufficiently clear to impress the Jewish nation at large
1630.1 Christ's appeal to the scriptures. 345
with a persuasion that both the souls and bodies of men should live in a future state of existence. The Sadducees, who were the free-thinkers of the day, were exceptions to the general rule. The national creed in these respects accorded with what was more fully revealed under the Christian dispensation. " By the Gospel, life and immortality have been fully brought to light ;" yea, and the way of salvation been clearly revealed : so that we who live under its benign influence, do not merely think, but know, that there is for those who believe in Christ, a salvation treasured up, a " salvation with eternal glory." In this respect therefore a very child amongst us is better instructed than all the wisest philosophers of Greece and Rome.]
2. They testify of Christ Jesus our Lord —
[" The testimony of Christ," we are told, " was the spirit of prophecy" from first to last. The testimony which the Scriptures have borne to Christ is clear ; not like the ambiguous answers of heathen oracles, which were so formed, as to be, without any great difficulty, accommodated to any event ; but clear and precise, and incapable of any other interpretation than that which, upon the very face of it, it professed. Take, for instance, the prophecy relating to the time and place of our Saviour's birth; and it was as much understood before his advent as afterwards, even by those who had not the grace to welcome his arrival. It was also copious, so that no one thing which could by any means be desired to designate the Messiah's advent, was omitted. His person, his work, his offices were all described and shadowed forth : the nature of his salvation was fully delineated, and the extent of his kingdom declared. Nothing was left for any reasonable man to desire either for the rectifying of his views, or the ascertaining that those views were correct. It was in the highest possible degree convincing. The prophecies concerning him were so minute that they could never have entered into the mind of an uninspired man, nor could by any possibility have been accomplished by any con- trivance or conspiracy of men. Though a Jew, our Lord Jesus was to die, not a Jewish, but a Roman death, the death of the cross. Yet in his crucifixion he was not to suffer all that was usually associated with that punishment; for " not a bone of him was to be broken." On the other hand, there were to be inflicted on him indignities, never associated with that punish- ment in other instances ; he was to be scourged before his crucifixion, and to be pierced to the heart with a spear after it. The very taunts with which he was to be insulted on the cross were accurately and literally foretold ; as was also the cruelty in offering him vinegar in the midst of all his torments. The division of one of his garments, and the casting of lots upon the other, were among the circumstances which no human being could