An event so connected with the religion, and with the fortunes, of the
Jewish people, as one of their race, one born amongst them, establishing
his authority and his law throughout a great portion of the civilised
world, it was perhaps to be expected should be noticed in the prophetic
writings of that nation; especially when this Person, together with his
own mission, caused also to be acknowledged the Divine original of their
institution, and by those who before had altogether rejected it.
Accordingly, we perceive in these writings various intimations
concurring in the person and history of Jesus, in a manner and in a
degree in which passages taken from these books could not be made to
concur in any person arbitrarily assumed, or in any person except him
who has been the author of great changes in the affairs and opinions of
mankind. Of some of these predictions the weight depends a good deal
upon the concurrence. Others possess great separate strength: one in
particular does this in an eminent degree. It is an entire description,
manifestly directed to one character and to one scene of things; it is
extant in a writing, or collection of writings, declaredly prophetic;
and it applies to Christ's character, and to the circumstances of his
life and death, with considerable precision, and in a way which no
diversity of interpretation hath, in my opinion, been able to confound.
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