first mentioned prophets, it should seem that his birth was not
to take place many years before that glorious event. But Jesus of
Nazareth was born almost two thousand years ago; and the
children of Israel yet expect a deliverer. And to conclude, it was
foretold by Malachi, and believed by the Jews then, and ever since,
that Elias the prophet, who did not die, but was removed from the
earth, should precede the coming of the Messiah, and prepare them
for his reception. But the prophet Elias certainly has not yet
appeared!

Indeed, nothing appears to be more dissimilar than the character of
the Messiah, as given by the Hebrew prophets, and that of Jesus of
Nazareth. It seems scarcely credible, that a man who, though
amiable and virtuous, yet lived in a low state, was poor, living
upon alms, without wealth, and without power; and who (though
by misfortune) died the death of a malefactor, crucified between
two robbers, (a death exactly parallel with being hanged at the
public gallows in the present day) should ever be taken for that
mighty prince, that universal potentate, and benefactor of the
human race, foretold in the splendid language of the prophets of
the Old Testament.

CHAPTER V.

EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENTS FROM THE OLD
TESTAMENT ADDUCED IN THE NEW, TO PROVE THAT
JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS THE MESSIAH.

But since one would esteem it almost incredible, that the apostles
could persuade men to believe Jesus to be this Messiah, unless they
had at least some proof to offer to their conviction, let us next
consider, and examine, the proofs adduced by the apostles and
their followers, from the Old Testament for that purpose.

Of the strength or weakness of the proofs for Christianity out of the
Old Testament, we are well qualified to judge, as we have the Old
and New Testament in our hands; the first containing what are
offered as proofs of Christianity, and the latter the application of
those proofs, and we should seem to have nothing more to do, but
to compare the Old and New Testament together.

But these proofs taken out of the Old Testament, and urged in the
New, being sometimes not to be found in the Old, nor urged in the
New, according to the literal and obvious sense, which they appear
to bear in their supposed places in the Old, and, therefore, not
proofs according to the rules of interpretation established by
reason, and acted upon in interpreting every other ancient book--
almost all Christian commen