|
For the fulfilment of this word, see Heb. v. 6; vi.
20; vii. 1-25. Respecting the royal dignity of the Messiah
expected by the Jews, we will quote a passage from the
book of the prophet Daniel, in which he says (Dan. vii.
13, 14), 'I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there
came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of
man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they
brought him near before him. And there was given him
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples,
nations, and language should serve him: his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.'
The fulfilment of this prophecy appears from passage,
such as these—Matt. xxiv. 30; xxviii. 18; Eph. i. 20-2;
Rev. i. 7; xi. 15; xiv. 14; xix. 11-16. The following
is one of those Scriptures in which it is plainly foretold
that the form of the true religion should not remain
the same to the end of time, but that it should undergo
an important amelioration: 'Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although
I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel |
|
|
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law
in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write
it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
and every man his brother, saying; Know the Lord: for
they shall all know me, from the least of them unto
the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more'
(Jer. xxxi. 31-4).
Now if these and similar prophecies were not contained
in the sacred writings of the Jews; they would have
had a plausible excuse for not believing in Jesus Christ,
for they could have said, 'We know that our religion
came from God, and that Moses was his chosen servant;
how then could we believe in one who claims to be even
greater than Moses, or accept his religion, when God
had never told us in his word that a prophet should
come, or that the Law given by Moses should ever be
superseded by another more efficacious, and better adapted
to the wants of man?' As it is, they are without excuse
in rejecting Jesus Christ, in whom all these predictions
are fulfilled, and who has brought in a complete redemption.
III
CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY ACTUALLY AROSE
AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL WHERE THE GROUND HAD BEEN
PREPARED
IT appears, from the preceding observations, that Christianity
sprang from the bosom of the ancient |
|