SERMON I.

Jefus foretold by Mofes and the Prophets.

JOHN i. 45.

We have found him of whom Mofes in the Law, and the Prophets did write, Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of Jofeph.

T

HE Season, good Chriftians, that commences this Day is that of Advent, with which it is the peculiar Computation of the Church of England to begin her Year, and to renew the annual Course of her Service; therein differing from all other Accounts of Time whatfoever. The Reafon of which is, because she does not number her Days, or measure her Seasons fo much by the Motion of the Sun, as by the Course of our Saviour; beginning and counting on her Year with him, who, being the true Son of Righteoufnefs, began now to rife upon the World, and, as the Day Stars on high, VOL. II. B

to

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to enlighten them that fat in Spiritual Darknefs.

The Defign of the Church in fetting apart this Seafon is to prepare us for a religious Commemoration of the Advancement or Coming of Chrift, in the Flesh. For which Reason the Prophecy of Ifaiah is reserved to this Time, in the Table of Leffons both for ordinary Days, as well as Sundays; (he being the most Evangelical Prophet, and containing the clearest Predictions of our Saviour) and the Epistles and Gofpels appointed for those Sundays, all affure us of the Truth of Chrift's first coming; and as a proper Means to bring our Lives to a Conformity with the End and Defign of it, they recommend to us the Confideration of his fecond Coming, when he will execute Vengeance on all those that obey not his Gofpel.

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I conceive therefore that the most suitable Provifion for your Thoughts at this Time, will be first to lay before you the clearest Prophecies and Predictions of the Meffiah in the Old Teftament; and then to fhew you from the New, how thofe feveral Prophecies and Predictions were fulfilled in our Jefus. And in order to this, I have chofen the Words of my Text as naturally leading us to both these Topicks.

The

The Words are Philip's, who no fooner $ ER M obeyed our Saviour's Call, and was convinced of his being the Meah, but he generously and piously fought for his Friend Nathaniel, (the fame very probably who is elsewhere called Bartholomew) to difcover the impor tant News to him. And having found him, he immediately reveals the happy Tidings, never stays to introduce it with any formal Harangue, but, as if full and overflowing with the joyful Difcovery, at once breaks out into a Relation of the Matter; We have found him, of whom Mofes in the Law, and the Prophets did write, Jefus of Nazareth the Son of Jofeph. WE, i. e. himself and Andrew and Peter and another Disciple of St. John the Baptift, who had found and been with him the Day before; we have found (faith he) the Meffias, or that Pro phet which Mofes and the Prophets did say should come, who is no other than Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of Jofeph. He calls him Jefus of Nazareth, either because he as yet knew nothing of Bethlehem's being the Place of his Birth; or if he did know it, because he alfo knew that Nazareth was the Place of his Abode, and that he was for that Reason (as the Scriptures alfo give us to understand) called a Nazarite or Nazarene. As to his

SERM. calling him the Son of Jofeph, that might

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probably be owing to the vulgar Opinion, according to which Jofeph, we know, was his reputed Father, infomuch that St. Luke, c. iii. 21. when he reckons up his Genealogy, says, he was supposed to be the Son of Jofeph. So that upon the very firft View of the Words, the full Meaning of them appears to be this, viz.

That Jefus of Nazareth the Son of Jofeph, was the Meffiah foretold by Mofes and the Prophets. This Propofition therefore I fhall undertake to establish; and to make it as clear and as plain to you as poffible, I shall observe the easy and natural Method, viz.

I. I fhall firft enquire what those Things are, which Mofes in the Law, and the Prophets did write concerning the Messiah; and

then

II. Secondly, I fhall fhew how all those Things were punctually fulfilled in Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of Jofeph.

By the first will be discovered the several Marks by which the Meffiah when he came was to be known:

By the second it will appear that all these Marks concurred in Jefus, from whence it will

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will follow beyond all Contradiction, that SER M. the Words of Philip in my Text are true, viz. That Jefus of Nazareth, the Son of Jofeph, was the Meffiah foretold by Mofes and the Prophets.

I. First then I am to enquire what those Things are which Mofes in the Law and the Prophets did write concerning the Meffiah, i. e. what is written in the Old Teftament concerning him; for under Mofes and the Prophets all the Books of the Old Testament are comprehended. By Mofes (which the Jews always name feparately, as being the first and greatest of the Prophets) are to be understood the five Books which he wrote; by the Prophets are included all the reft. Except fometimes the Pfalms be added, which then comprehend not only the Pfalms, but the Books alfo of Job and of Solomon, and fome others: But these at other Times, when only Mofes and the Prophets are mentioned, are comprehended under the latter.

In the Prosecution of my Difcourfe, I fhall begin with Mofes, and first enquire what Predictons the Law or Pentateuch gives us of the Meffiah, and then shall proceed to see what is foretold of him in the rest of the Books of the Old Teftament; though I shall