We are forbidden by our limits to fully treat this great subject, which is in fact commensurate with the Scriptures themselves. The substance of the O. T., from the Protevangelium of Gen. iii. 15 to the latest prediction of Malachi, with the inter. mediate communications of type and prophecy, points to the coming one' (6 ipx6i.cevor of Matt. xi. 3 and Luke vii. 19), the desire of all nations' (Hag. ii. 7), 'the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel' (Luke ii. 32) ; while the N. T. supplies the historical counterpart, gathering up and applying the ancient testimony to Jesus of Nazareth, and (like St. Paul, as the first-fruits of his conversion) 'proving that he is the very Christ,' or Messiah (Acts ix. 22). The Messianic interpretation of the salient predictions of the Jewish Scriptures is inevitable to the careful student of the N. T. In the N. T. there occurs a double guarantee of such interpretation, a gene ral and a specific direction. In such passages as Matt. xxi. 42 ; xxvi. 54, 56 ; Mark xiv. 49 ; Luke xxiv. 27, 32, 44 ; and John v. 39, we have Jesus asserting for himself a general fulfilment of the ancient Scriptures in his earthly career ; and his leading disciples, in their confession and teach ing, fully maintained this general application of prophecy to their Master—thus did the Apostle Philip, in John i. 45 ; St. Peter, in Acts x. 43 (comp. r Pet. i. 10-12) ; St. Paul (Acts xvii. 1-3 ; xxvi. 22 ; xxviii. 23) ; and St. John, in Rev. xix. to. While the accomplishment of particular pro phecies is specifically vouched for still more fully and frequently, of which instances will be given in the course of this Article. We now proceed to notice, briefly, The gradual growth of the fliessianic Revelation. —r. In the primeval promise (Gen. iii. 15) lies the germ of a universal blessing. The seed of the woman,' the vagueness and obscurity of which phrase was so suited to the period of the protevan gelium, is cleared in the light of the N. T. (see Gal. iv. 4, where the -yei.Aucvov fix ryvvacds explains the original runt). The deliverance intimated was no doubt understood by our first parents to be uni versal, like the injury sustained, and it is no absurdity to suppose that the promise was cherished afterwards by thoughtful Gentiles as well as believing Jews ; only to the latter it was subsequently shaped into in creasing precision by supplementary revelations, while to the former it never lost its formal vague ness and obscurity. The O. T. gives us occasional gleams of the glorious primeval light as it struggled with the gross traditions of the heathen. The nearer to Israel the clearer the light ; as in the cases of the Abimelechs (Gen. xx. 6 ; xxvi. 28), and Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18), and Job (xix. 25), and Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17), and the Magi (Matt. Ii.), and the Samaritan woman (John iv. 25 ; and see, on The of the Samaritans, Westcott's Introduction, pp. 148, 149). But, even at a dis tance from Israel, the light still flickered to the last, as the unconscious prophecies of heathendom' show, as Archbishop Trench happily designates— though in a somewhat different sense—the yearnings of the Gentiles after a deliverer (Hulsean Lectures for 1846 ; see also Bishop Horsley's Dissect. on the Messianic Prophecies dispersed among the Heathen, Sermons, vol. ii. (ed. 1829), pp. 263-318 ; and comp. Virgil's well-known eclogue Pollio, and the expectations mentioned by Suetonius, Vit. Vespa c. iv. 8, and Tacitus, Hist. v. 9, r3, and the Sibylline oracles, discussed by Horsley [at antea], with a strong leaning to their authenticity). But although the promise was absolutely indefinite to the first father of man (on which see Bishop Horsley, Sermon xvi., pp. 234, 235, comp. with Dr. Stanley Faber's Prophetical Dissert. vii., 4 and 5), addi tional light was given, after the Deluge, to the second father of the human race. 2. To Noah it was given to see a special reservation of blessing for one of his sons in preference to the other two, and-as if words failed him-he exclaimed, 'Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem !' (Gen. ix. 26). Not that at any time God meant to confine a monopoly of blessing to the individual selected as the special depository thereof. In the present instance Japheth, in the next verse, is associated with his brother for at least some secondary advan tage : God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.' 3. The principle of limitation goes on. One of Shem's descendants has three sons. One only of these is selected as the peculiar treasurer of the divine favour. But not for himself alone was Abraham chosen. As in Shem's instance, so here again Abraham was to be the centre of blessing to even a larger scope. More than once was he assured of this : In thy seed [` in thee,' chap. xii. 3] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed' (Gen. xxii. 18). The Messianic purport of this repeated promise cannot be doubted after Christ's own statement (John viii. 56), and St. Paul's comment (Gal. iii. 16). 4. In Abraham's grandson-the father of twin sons-we meet with another limitation ; Jacob not only secures the traditional blessing to himself, but is in spired to concentrate it at his death on Judah, to the exclusion of the eleven other members of his family.
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren praise. . . The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come' (Gen. xlix. 8, to) [SHILOH]; also to Perowne's Essay, pp. 26, 188 ; Delitzsch, in loc.; Bishop Pearson, Creed, art. ii. ; Hengstenberg, Christol.
59, 60 ; Davison, On Prophecy, p. io6; Doi linger, Gentile and Yew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ, translated by Darnell, ii. 392. On kelos and Raschi, it may be worth while to add, make Shiloh' here to refer to the Messiah, as do D. Kimchi and Abendana.) To us the Messianic interpretation of the passage seems to be called for by the principle of periodical limitation, which amounts to a law in the Christological Scriptures.
We accept the conclusion, therefore, that the of this verse is the 'Prince of Peace' of Is. ix. 5 [6] ; and the b19, rq, 'This man is peace,' of Micah v. 4 ; and the 616c; the peace speaker,' of Zech. ix. to ; and the Elp.077 our peace,' of St. Paul, Eph. ii. 14-in a word, our Messiah, Jesus Christ. 5. Passing by the later predictions of the Pentateuch, the prophet like unto Moses,' and the star' and the sceptre' of Balaam, we come to the next salient period of pro phecy in the age of David. Here another advance is found in prophetic limitation. Jacob had only specified the Tribe, now the particular Family is indicated from which Messiah was to spring. From the great promise made to David (2 Sam. vii. I I, 16), and so frequently referred to afterwards (1 Kings xi. 34, 38 ; Ps. lxxxix. 3o-37 ; Is. lv. 3 ; Acts xiii. 34), and described by the sweet psalmist of Israel himself as an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure' (2 Sam. xxiii. 5), arose that con centrated expectation of the Messiah expressed by the popular phrase Son of David, of which we hear so much in the N. T. (comp. Matt. ix. 27; xii.
23 • xxi. 9 ; xxii. 42 ; Mark x. 47, 48 ; xi. to Luke i. 32 ; xviii. 39 ; John vii. 42 ; Rom. i. 3 ; Rev. xxii. 76 ; with Jer. xxiii. 5). Having now confined Messiah's descent to the family of the il lustrious king who was the man after God's own heart,' prophecy will await God's own express identification of the Individual (see it given Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii. 5 ; Mark i. II ; ix. 7 ; Luke iii. 22 ; ix. 35 ; and referred to z Pet. i. 17). But it will not idly wait. It has other particulars to announce, to give point and precision to a nation's hopes.
All the more important events of the coming Redeemer's life and death, and subsequent king dom and exaltation, were foretold. . . . Bethlehem was to be his birth-place (Micah v. 2, comp. with Matt. ii. 1-6) ; Galilee his country (Is. ix. I, 2, comp. with Matt. iv. 14-16); a virgin his mother (Is. vii. 14, comp. with Matt. i. 23) ; he was to preach glad tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted (Is. lxi. 1, comp. with Luke iv. 17-21); though her king, he was to come to the daughter of Zion just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass (Zech. ix. 9, comp. with John xii. 1405) ; he was to be despised and rejected of men ; was to be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Is. liii. 3, 7, comp. with Ps. xxii. 6 ; John i. I I ; xviii. 4o; Mark xiv. 61 and xv. 5) ; his garments were to be parted, and lots cast upon his vesture (Ps. xxii. 18, comp. with John xix. 23, 24); his hands and feet were to be pierced (Ps. xxii. 16, comp. with Luke xxiii. 33, and John xx. 25) ; he was to have vinegar given to him to drink (Ps. lxix. 21, comp. with Matt. xxvii. 34, 48) ; he was to pour out his soul unto death ; was to be numbered with the trans gressors; and his grave, though intended to be with wicked men [see this trans. in Mason and Bernard's Hebr. Gram., ii. 305], was in reality destined to be with a rich man (Is. liii. 9, comp. with Matt. xxvii. 57, 58) ; his soul was not to be left in hell, nor his flesh to see corruption (Ps. xvi. to, comp. with Acts ii. 31, and xiii. 34-36); he was to sit on the right hand of Jehovah till his foes were made his footstool (Ps. cx. 1, comp. with I Pet. iii, 22 ; Heb. i. 3 ; Mark xvi. 19, and i Cor.
xv. 25) ; his kingdom was to spread until ulti mately the kingdom and dominion, and the great ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, should be given to the saints of the Most High' (Dan. vii. 27; see Perowne, Coherence, pp. 29, 3o). Slight as is this sketch of the prophetic announce ments with which God was pleased to sustain human hope amidst human misery, as a light that shineth in a dark place' (2 Pet. i. 19), shining more and more unto the perfect day' (Prov. iv. 18), it is yet enough to suggest to us how great must have been the longing for their Deliverer which such persistent and progressive promises were likely to excite in the hearts of faithful men and women.