Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
* * * * *
JESUS, THE MESSIAH;
OR, THE
OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES
FULFILLED
IN THE
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES.
BY A LADY.
_The Profits will be devoted to Charitable Purposes._
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE;
AND SOLD BY
L. B. SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET-STREET.
MDCCCXXVIII.
MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS, PRINTERS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
DEDICATION.
TO THE
RIGHT REV. CHARLES RICHARD, LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.
MY LORD,
I have been induced to solicit the honour of dedicating this little
work to your Lordship from the conviction that its contents are not
only consonant with the Doctrines and Articles of that Church of
which your Lordship is so bright an ornament, but that they are in
unison with the truths of Divine Revelation, that perfect standard
by which all Theology and Morality must be judged. My object in
presenting it to the Public is a wish to render the Scriptures more
familiar to the young: and while I feel grateful for the honour of
your Lordship's sanction, allow me to express my sincere thanks
for the favour you have conferred on one who is, with the greatest
respect,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's very obliged Servant,
THE AUTHORESS.
_August 18th, 1828._
PREFACE.
Custom demands a preface; and though the public is generally
uninterested in the reasons which influence an author to appear
before its tribunal, yet an introductory notice is usually expected.
This little work was the employment of many a retired moment. In
turning over the pages of the sacred volume, the writer was struck
with the exact fulfilment in the person of the Messiah, as narrated
in the New Testament, of the numerous predictions recorded of him in
the Old. These were collected for her personal gratification; and as
they accumulated, it occurred, that what had been some little source
of pleasure to her own mind, might, by the blessing of God, prove
useful to some young persons, who from circumstances, are debarred
access to, or are not inclined to read, works of a more extensive
kind.
While the writer has no disposition to despise that criticism which,
if impartially administered, is the best safeguard of the press,
neither would she timidly shrink from investigation; aware that no
partiality of friends can long buoy up an unworthy production.
This is not intended as the language of indifference, but arises
from a consciousness of the purity of motive, and the desire to
do good, which have actuated her; compared with which, all other
considerations are momentary and unsatisfying.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen. iii. 15.) 1
CHAPTER II.
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen.
xxii. 18.) 4
CHAPTER III.
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him
shall the gathering of the people be. (Gen. xlix. 10.) 6
CHAPTER IV.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And in that
day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand
for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious. (Is. xi. 1. 10.) 8
CHAPTER V.
Thus saith the Lord God,--remove the diadem, and take
off the crown, until he come whose right it is; and I
will give it him. (Ezekiel xxi. 26, 27.)
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without
a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,
and without an image, and without an ephod, and without
teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel
return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their
king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the
latter days. (Hosea iii. 4, 5.) 10
CHAPTER VI.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto
him ye shall hearken. (Deut. xviii. 15-19.) 12
CHAPTER VII.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. (Isaiah xl. 3.) 18
CHAPTER VIII.
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel. (Isaiah vii. 14.) 22
CHAPTER IX.
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he
come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose
goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
(Micah v. 2.) 27
CHAPTER X.
Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her
children, refused to be comforted for her children,
because they were not. (Jeremiah xxxi. 15.) 31
CHAPTER XI.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and
the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah ix. 6, 7.) 33
CHAPTER XII.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it
shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel ii. 44.) 45
CHAPTER XIII.
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called
my son out of Egypt. (Hosea xi. 1.) 49
CHAPTER XIV.
Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter
than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies,
their polishing was of sapphire: their visage is blacker
than a coal: they are not known in the streets: their
skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is
become like a stick. (Lamentations iv. 7, 8.) 51
CHAPTER XV.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek:
he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our
God; to comfort all that mourn. (Isaiah lxi. 1, 2, 3.) 53
CHAPTER XVI.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep
thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm
xci. 11, 12.) 57
CHAPTER XVII.
And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations
shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith
the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall
be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts:
and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of
hosts. (Haggai ii. 7. 9.) 58
CHAPTER XVIII.
And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye
delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts. (Mal. iii. 1.) 64
CHAPTER XIX.
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her
vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of
Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did
more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond
Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that
walked in darkness, have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
hath the light shined. (Isaiah ix. 1, 2.) 66
CHAPTER XX.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter
of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he
is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an
ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Zech. ix. 9.) 67
CHAPTER XXI.
Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den
of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it,
saith the Lord. (Jeremiah vii. 11.) 69
CHAPTER XXII.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength because of thine enemies; that thou
mightest still the enemy and avenger. (Psalm viii. 2.) 72
CHAPTER XXIII.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation:
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
(Psalm xl. 9.) 74
CHAPTER XXIV.
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark
sayings of old. (Psalm lxxviii. 2.) 76
CHAPTER XXV.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather
the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah
xl. 11.) 78
CHAPTER XXVI.
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his
eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
(Isaiah xi. 3.) 80
CHAPTER XXVII.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears
of the deaf shall be unstopped. (Isaiah xxxv. 5.) 82
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue
of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert. (Is. xxxv. 6.) 88
CHAPTER XXIX.
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it
is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God:
yea, thy law is within my heart. (Psalm xl. 7, 8.) 92
CHAPTER XXX.
I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien
unto my mother's children. (Psalm lxix. 8.) 99
CHAPTER XXXI.
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and
they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and
imagine deceits all the day long. (Psalm xxxviii.) 102
CHAPTER XXXII.
For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every
side: while they took counsel together against me, they
devised to take away my life. (Psalm xxxi. 13.) 104
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which
is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me
in the day of his fierce anger. (Lamentation i. 12.) 107
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which
did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against
me. (Psalm xli. 9.)
And I 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
prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of
silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the
Lord. (Zechariah xi. 12, 13.) 111
CHAPTER XXXV.
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came
upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
(Psalm xxvii. 2.) 115
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and
against his anointed. (Psalm ii. 1, 2.) 117
CHAPTER XXXVII.
False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge
things that I knew not. (Psalm xxxv. 11.) 121
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb
man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man
that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
(Psalm xxxviii. 13, 14.) 125
CHAPTER XXXIX.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and
my kinsmen stand afar off. (Psalm xxxviii. 11.) 127
CHAPTER XL.
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from
shame and spitting. (Isaiah l. 6.) 129
CHAPTER XLI.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed
him not. (Isaiah liii. 3.)
Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his
Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom
the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall
see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of
the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel,
and he shall choose thee. (Isaiah xlix. 7.) 131
CHAPTER XLII.
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and
despised of the people. (Psalm xxii. 6.) 134
CHAPTER XLIII.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth. (Isaiah liii. 7.) 137
CHAPTER XLIV.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who
shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out
of the land of the living: for the transgression of my
people was he stricken. (Isaiah liii. 8.) 139
CHAPTER XLV.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the
wicked have enclosed me: they have pierced my hands
and my feet. (Psalm xxii. 16.) 141
CHAPTER XLVI.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are
thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring? (Psalm xxii. 1.) 145
CHAPTER XLVII.
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. (Zechariah
xiii. 7.) 149
CHAPTER XLVIII.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon
my vesture. (Psalm xxii. 18.) 153
CHAPTER XLIX.
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink. (Psalm lxix. 21.) 155
CHAPTER L.
With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon
me with their teeth. (Psalm xxxv. 16.)
All they that see me, laugh me to scorn; they shoot out
the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the
Lord that he would deliver Him: let him deliver him,
seeing he delighted in him. (Psalm xxii. 7, 8.) 157
CHAPTER LI.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and
he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he
hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered
with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah liii. 12.) 159
CHAPTER LII.
He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
(Psalm xxxiv. 20.) 162
CHAPTER LIII.
And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.
(Zechariah xii. 10.) 163
CHAPTER LIV.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth
their covering. (Isaiah 1. 3.) 165
CHAPTER LV.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death; because he hath done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah liii. 9.) 168
CHAPTER LVI.
The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast
covered him with shame. (Psalm lxxxix. 45.) 171
CHAPTER LVII.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,
yet we 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 we are
healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah liii. 4, 5,
6.) 174
CHAPTER LVIII.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt
thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm
xvi. 9, 10.) 182
CHAPTER LIX.
Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity
captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell amongst
them. (Psalm lxviii. 18.) 190
CHAPTER LX.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream
dreams, your young men shall see visions: and
also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those
days will I pour out my spirit. (Joel ii. 28, 29.) 195
CHAPTER LXI.
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 upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first
born. (Zech. xii. 10.) 201
CHAPTER LXII.
The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a
priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.
(Psalm cx. 4.) 210
CHAPTER LXIII.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make
an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal
up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the
going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall
be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times. (Daniel ix. 24, 25.) 214
CHAPTER LXIV.
And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the
prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood,
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
(Daniel ix. 26.) 224
CHAPTER LXV.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the
overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate,
even until the consummation, and that determined shall
be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel ix. 27.) 229
CHAPTER LXVI.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle;
and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled,
and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go
forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall
not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah xiv. 2.) 235
CHAPTER LXVII.
The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from
the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a
nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a
nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard
the person of the old, nor show favour to the young.
(Deut. xxviii. 49, 50.)
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and
wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For
the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall
cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and
keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even
with the ground, and thy children within thee; and
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another;
because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
(Luke xix. 41-44.) 240
CHAPTER LXVIII.
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field,
and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain
of the house as the high places of the forest.
(Micah iii. 12.) 243
CHAPTER LXIX.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of
stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses
of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. (Isaiah viii. 14.) 246
CHAPTER LXX.
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to
restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my
salvation unto the end of the earth. (Isaiah xlix. 6.) 256
CHAPTER LXXI.
The LORD said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
(Psalm cx. 1.) 260
JESUS, THE MESSIAH.
CHAPTER I.
I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel.--Gen. iii. 15.
This is the first intimation we meet with of the promised Messiah,
and within this one verse is contained, as in the bud, the embryo
flower, that goodly plant of renown,[1] which the Lord hath planted,
and not man; he who is the rose of Sharon and the valley's lily.[2]
It is an epitome of the whole plan of Redemption, and contains
truths of the first importance; we shall do well to consider them
in reference to Jesus of Nazareth. The prophecy declares there
shall be enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent. The
incarnation and birth of Jesus have, by the Evangelists Matthew and
Luke, been so fully stated, that none but a strongly prejudiced
mind can deny that he was the son of Mary, then a virgin, and
that Joseph was only his supposed father, because he married his
mother.[3] The old serpent, or as he is frequently called, Satan,
discovered his enmity towards Jesus from his birth; he stirred
up the mind of Herod to destroy the holy child, Jesus, and thus
originated the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem. Though
disappointed, he personally attempted his destruction, and for forty
days and nights did he try the force of his arts to tempt Jesus
to sin.[4] And, though foiled, he again resumed the attack, and
suggested to the minds of the Scribes and Pharisees, priests and
people, to persecute the man "who spake as never man spake." It is
said he entered into, _i.e._ took full possession of, the mind of
Judas,[5] who betrayed Jesus, and also acted as guide to those who
took him. Was not Satan the ringleader of those who crucified him,
in whom his Judges declared, they could find no fault worthy of
death? Let us now behold the opposition displayed by Jesus towards
the serpent and his seed. A great part of his life appears to
have been spent in casting out and dispossessing devils from the
minds and bodies of men;[6] and in rebuking and threatening them,
he proved that he came to destroy the power and works of darkness.
His was an avowed and constant war, and the devils knew him as
their greatest foe, and the destroyer of their power.[7] Although
the heel, _i.e._ the human nature of Jesus, was bruised in the
contest, yet, by his death, (in which Satan for the moment appeared
triumphant,) he gave a mortal blow to his power and authority, by
delivering the captives of the mighty, and the prey of the terrible
one.[8] The cross, designed to display their scorn and abhorrence,
is become the praise and glory of all the children of God, to whom,
as unto their Lord and Master, the old serpent and his seed continue
to manifest the same spirit of enmity and persecution.[9] Did devils
confess Jesus to be the Son of the most high God, and shall not we
acknowledge him to be the seed promised at the fall of man, and
that he is, at the same time, Mary's son, and the Son of God?[10]
The prince of the fallen spirits, the old serpent, or Satan,
discovered his enmity to the human race in the garden of Eden; the
woman was the first whom he deceived by his arts; but it was Jesus,
her seed, who, in the after ages of the world, in the garden of
Gethsemane, bruised the serpent's head, and at his resurrection, led
captivity captive, and will eventually consign to utter darkness and
perdition, this foe to God and man.[11]
[1] Isaiah liii. 2. Ezek. xxxiv. 29.
[2] Cant. ii. 1.
[3] Matthew i. 18-25. Luke i. 27. 30-35., ii. 5, 6, 7.
[4] Matthew iv. 1-11. Mark i. 12, 13. Luke iv. 2-13.
[5] Luke xxii. 3. John vi. 70., xiii. 2-27.
[6] Matthew iv. 24., viii. 16, 18-23., ix. 32-34., x. 1., xii.
24-28., xv. 22-28., xvi. 23., xvii. 14-19. Mark i. 23-27. 33, 34,
39., iii. 22-27., v. 2-19., vii. 25-30., viii. 33. Luke iv. 36-41.,
vi. 18., vii. 21., viii. 27-36., ix. 1, 38-42, 49. John xii. 31.,
Acts x. 38., 1 John, iii. 8.
[7] Mark iii. 11, 12., v. 6, 7. Luke iv. 33, 34, 41., viii. 28.
[8] Luke xxii. 53. John xiv. 30.
[9] 1 Peter v. 8.
[10] Gal. iv. 4. Col. i. 15., ii. 9.
[11] Matthew xxv. 41. Rom. xvi. 20. Col. ii. 15. Heb. ii. 14. 2
Peter ii. 4. Jude vi. 9. Rev. xii. 7-17., xx. 1, 2, 3. 10.