juft fpecified, I beg you will ac cept; and believe me, dear Sir, to be with the greatest esteem and respect

Your obliged,

And affectionate humble Servant,

WILLIAM GILPIN.

VICAR'S HILL, September 22, 1800,

CONTENTS

SERMON XXVI.

JOHN i, 45.

WE HAVE FOUND HIM, OF WHOM MOSES IN THE LAW, AND THE PROPHETS DID WRITE-JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE SON OF JOSEPH.

ESUS had called Philip to be a difciple.

JES

Philip rejoiced to meet with a person, who appeared marked by the prophets as the Shiloh of Moses---the branch of Ifaiah---the holy one of Da vid--and the Meffiah of Daniel---could not enjoy the important difcovery alone, but went to Nathaniel, a pious friend, to whom he imparted it; We "have found him, faid he, of whom Mofes, and "the prophets did write---Jefus of Nazareth, the "fon of Jofeph,"

VOL. II,

B

Natha

Nathaniel, it seems, was not quite so easy of belief. It occurred immediately to him, that Bethlehem, not Nazareth, was marked by the prophet, as the birth-place of the Meffiah. Can that good thing, faid he, or that great perfonage (for so it might be tranflated) come out of Nazareth? Philip, not able to answer the difficulty on the spot, defired Nathaniel to go with him to Jefus. The difficulty, it is probable, was immediately removed; for it appeared that Jefus was born in Bethlehem, and not at Nazareth: but what tended chiefly to fix Nathaniel's faith, was his learning from Jefus a private circumstance of his own life. Before Philip called thee, faid Jefus, I faw thee under the fig-tree. Nathaniel answered, Rabbi, thou art the fon of God--thou art the king of Ifrael: which was, in other words, a plain confeffion of his belief in him as the Meffiah.

In the following difcourfe I fhall first fhew you on what evidence these two difciples believed in Jefus as the Meffiah; and fecondly, I fhall apply their cafe to that of the chriftians of these times.

In order to fhew on what evidence these two difciples believed Jefus to be the Meffiah, we must first run over, at leaft flightly, the whole of

the

the evidence contained in what Mofes and the prophets did write.

In the contents of thefe divine books, we fhall find three kinds of prophetic evidence, if I may fo fpeak.---The firft is contained in the hiftory of the Jews; whofe fingular ftory, when feen in connection with the whole chain of prophetic evidence, fets forth, in a variety of circumftances, the redemption of the world by Chrift. The call of Abraham from a heathen ftate reprefents the gracious call of chriftians to forfake the wickednefs of the world.---The facrifice of Ifaac was a direct representation of the great facrifice of Chrift; performed on Mount Moriah, which most interpreters suppose to be the very Mount Calvary where our Saviour suffered.*---The faith by which Abraham was led through all the difficulties of his life, is a juft reprefentation of that faith, by which the chriftian is exhorted to pass through his earthly pilgrimage to his heavenly habitation. The bondage of the Ifraelites in Egypt strongly sets forth the bondage of fin, under which mankind was reduced and the miraculous deliverance by the hand of Mofes, that ftill greater deliverance by Christ from a heavier bondage. The travels of

* See 2 CHRONICLES, iii, 1, where we find Jerufalem flood on this mountain.

the children of Ifrael through the wilderness were productive of many prophetic events. Their miraculous fupply of food from heaven---their thirst quenched with water from a rock, which St. Paul tells us was an emblem of Chrift---and the lifting up of the brazen ferpent, which our Saviour himfelf mentions as a reprefentation of his crucifixion ---may all be called hiftorical prophecies of different parts of the chriftian difpenfation.--Then again, after the travels of the Ifraelites through the wildernefs, their fettling in the land of promife, (the end of all their labours,) aptly represents that great home, which the real chriftian hath ever in his view.'

The fecond kind of prophetic evidence, contained in what Mofes and the prophets did write, is found in the various ceremonies of the jewifh church, after it became established. Almost every one of thefe ceremonies pointed at Chrift. But we observe here something rather fingular. The hiftory of the Jews, we have just seen, gives us a typi, cal reprefentation of feveral circumftances with regard to the redemption of man, But the rites, and ceremonies of the jewish church point out in general the one great end, (which was indeed the peculiar end) of Chrift's coming into the world---the

atone.