LET. be. Thus, of Meffiah it is said, XVII. Ch. 1x. 6. "His name fhall be called "Wonderful, Counsellor," &c. though he was never called by any of the names there enumerated; of the fame perfon, Jer. xxiii. 6. "This is his "name whereby he fhall be called, The "Lord our Righteousness"; of Jerufalem, Is. 1. 26. "Thou shalt be called, "the city of righteousness.” — -No man hould prefume to criticife a book, if he will not be at the pains to study the phrafeology peculiar to it.

P. 40.

"If the prophecies are evi"dent and clear, how happened it, "that the whole Jewish nation, toge"ther with the angel Gabriel, fhould mistake, and suppose the kingdom "of Meffiah to be temporal?"

The angel Gabriel was certainly under no mistake upon this point, because,

because of Chrift he fays exprefsly, LET. Luke 1. 33, "He fhall reign for XVII. "ever, and of his kingdom there shall "be no end." And as to the cafe of the Jews, it is treated of at large in a difcourfe under that title, by the author before mentioned at P. 173. to which these gentlemen are referred, P. 40. "Could not thofe infpired "writers, who prophefied concerning things of no confequence, as the

.

thirty pieces of filver, aud the caft

ing lots for Chrift's garments, have predicted with equal certainty the "more important circumftance of his "death and refurrection?"

The death and refurrection of Chrift are predicted in the strongest terms, Pf. XXII. CX. Ifai. LIII. And what can add more weight to this kind of evidence, than the prediction

of

LET. of particulars fo minute and circumXVII. ftantial as thofe of the thirty pieces,

and the divifion of the garments by lot? One would think, at the contemplation of them, all infidelity would ftop it's mouth, instead of opening it. P. 41. "In fhort, they beg to be "fhewn a fingle prophecy, concerning "which divines are agreed."

What Tully faid of philofophers may be true perhaps of divines, confidering the multitude of them that have lived from the days of the Apostles to the present times; namely, that there never was an opinion, however abfurd, which has not been maintained by fome one or other. And therefore, to reject the evidence of prophecy, till all divines shall agree exactly about it, argues a conduct as wife in the infidels, as if they should decline fitting

down

XVII.

down to a good dinner, till all the LET. clocks in London and Westminster ftruck four together.

P. 41. "They defire to know, why "the Revelation of St. John fhould be "more obfcure and ænigmatical than

66

any which was written during the

typical and fhadowy difpenfation of "Mofes ? "

Much valuable inftruction in the doctrines and duties of religion may be gathered from the Revelation, in the most clear and perfpicuous manner; witness the Moral Reflections on that book, by Pere Quefnelle. Of the predictions in the former part of it many have been explained to general fatisfaction; and others may be fo explained hereafter, as by the ftudies and labours of different perfons the fymbolical language of Scripture be

comes

XVII.

LET. comes better understood, and the events predicted are brought forward in their order. If fufficient reafons may be affigned why prophecy fhould be in fome degree obfcure for a time, they will hold with regard to those of the New, as well as thofe of the Old Teftament. Let gentlemen bestow due attention on the evidences of Christianity so often fet before them. When they fhall thereby be happily induced to believe, it will be time enough to argue with them on fuch points as the obscurity of St. John's Revelation, and the doctrine of the Trinity, which is fcoffed at in a very unbecoming manner, P. 32.

Thus much for prophecy. We proceed to fome objections against particular paffages in the New Teftament. Of these the first respects the diffe

rence