For the fulfilment of this word, see Heb. v. 6; vi. 20; vii. 1-25. Respecting the royal dignity of the Messiah expected by the Jews, we will quote a passage from the book of the prophet Daniel, in which he says (Dan. vii. 13, 14), 'I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and language should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.' The fulfilment of this prophecy appears from passage, such as these—Matt. xxiv. 30; xxviii. 18; Eph. i. 20-2; Rev. i. 7; xi. 15; xiv. 14; xix. 11-16. The following is one of those Scriptures in which it is plainly foretold that the form of the true religion should not remain the same to the end of time, but that it should undergo an important amelioration: 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying; Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more' (Jer. xxxi. 31-4).

Now if these and similar prophecies were not contained in the sacred writings of the Jews; they would have had a plausible excuse for not believing in Jesus Christ, for they could have said, 'We know that our religion came from God, and that Moses was his chosen servant; how then could we believe in one who claims to be even greater than Moses, or accept his religion, when God had never told us in his word that a prophet should come, or that the Law given by Moses should ever be superseded by another more efficacious, and better adapted to the wants of man?' As it is, they are without excuse in rejecting Jesus Christ, in whom all these predictions are fulfilled, and who has brought in a complete redemption.

III

CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY ACTUALLY AROSE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL WHERE THE GROUND HAD BEEN PREPARED

IT appears, from the preceding observations, that Christianity sprang from the bosom of the ancient