overspreading of abominations, he shall make it (the city) deso late.' Zecha. xi. 12-13. And I, (the Messiah) said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price; and if not forbear so they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests. And said unto them, what will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.' Matthew xxvii. 3—10. "Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? see cast it to the potter in the house of the Lord.' Zecha. xii. 10. 'And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look on him whom they thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver IN THE TEMPLE, (in the house of the Lord), and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, it is not law ful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers Wherefore that in. field was called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled' &c. Not only were the hands and feet of the blessed Jesus pierced (Psa. xxii. 16.) but it is said John xix. 34, 'But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith have pierced, and they shall mourn.' Zec. xiii. 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones'. 'In that critical juncture of time, I will take care both of my scattered disciples, who forsook me only through weakness and fear, to recover them again, and give them renewed proofs of my love; and also to secure my own small remnant among came thereout blood and water.' Matt. xxvi. 31, 56. 'Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.'' But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all his disciples forsook him, and fled.' (See Mark xiv. 27. John xvi. 32.) John xviii. 7, 8. Then asked he them again, whom seek ye? And they said Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he; if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.' Let my disciples alone, meddle not with them; and accordingly he so overpowered their the Jews in their dis persion.' v 8, 9. hearts, that they laid hand on none of them.' Thus did the blessed Jesus, as well as in his subsequent conduct towards them-turn his hand upon the little ones.' We shall conclude these quotations with a brief reference to that remarkable chapter in Isaiah, which, by considering how wonderfully it was fulfilled in Christ, was made the means of conversion of one of the greatest monuments of grace that ever existed, we mean the Earl of Rochester. The chapter of the evangelical prophet to which we refer, is the fifty-third. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we (as if he had been a malefactor,) did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes (Jesus was scourged,) we are healed, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was affiicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief,' &c. Considering how minutely and correctly these and other statements here recorded apply to the humiliation of Christ and the closing scene of his eventful life; considering, likewise; that these things were written six hundred years before the existence of the events they describe, written too in the language and preserved in the scriptures of the Jews, who refuse to believe in a suffering Messiah, is it not surprising that the divine inspiration of the scriptures should be by any person denied, or even questioned? For the reasons we have just mentioned, the unhappy nobleman above referred to, was so deeply convinced, it is hoped by the Spirit of God, that the Prophet's pen was guided by the Holy Ghost; that it was the death of his infidelity. Well for him that it was so, or his infidelity would have been the death of his soul. We shall now, for the sake of explaining a part of the remarkable prophecy just quoted, advert again to historical or New Testament declarations, respecting the bruising of the heel,' or the sufferings of Christ's humanity. The Prophet's words, ' yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief,' are remarkable. What! did the 'Lord bruise' his beloved Son? Did he put him to grief?' So the Prophet predicts: and so the sacred historians declare. The sufferings of our Redeemer's soul were the soul of his suffering: for as to bodily torture, many a martyr has suffered as much as his Lord, and possibly some even more. Wherein, therefore, the Saviour was preeminent in grief over them, was in the state of his |