in it, but the Magistrates would not allow him liberty, till at length the council was informed he was no preacher, as indeed he was not, and so was let out. "About the year 1680 or 1686, when Mr. Webster was living peaceably in the house of Green of Descarth, in Galloway, a party of Lord William Douglas's troop came on a Sabbath morning, secured him in his chambers, and carried him to Dumfries. He was examined on the ordinary questions, and, with two worthy men in Dumfries, he was thrust into the thieves' hold, and had for companions three men in for crimes, for robbery, murder, &c. Here Mr. Webster and his friends continued full three weeks, and after that removed to the pledge house, where debtors used to be put; there he was confined four weeks, and liberated by General Drummond." A little after Mr. Webster was a third time taken prisoner, when walking on the streets of Edinburgh, but the Viscount of Strathallan quickly let him go. "Such was this good man's modesty, that in his last letter to me," "he terms all this says Woodrow, poor and insignificant sufferings, not worthy a room in history." Being licensed by some Presbyterian ministers, he was first settled in an indulged meeting at Craigmillar, by Edinburgh; after the Revolution he removed to Whitekirk, in East Lothian; and was for twenty years minister in the Tolbooth Church of Edinburgh. In all these places he preached the gospel with much clearness and fervour, and was universally esteemed. In 1716, it was noised abroad in the church, that Mr. John Simpson, Professor of Divinity, taught Arminian doctrine and other errors; Mr. Webster having conversed with him, was the first that complained of him. In a letter he wrote to him, he has the following words:- By lively Christians attended at these solemnities in the Tolbooth Church. From a manuscript of Mr. Hog, which he wrote with respect to this worthy minister, we extract the following parts:-"We are weak this day, for a great man in our Israel has fallen a learned, divinely eloquent, and faithful witness. It greatly heightened our affliction that his death was more sudden than we had expected. He having fallen asleep quickly, and without any visible pangs, after a sensible recovery, whereby our hopes were a little revived. He died composedly, and with sweetness, in the stayed exercise of that faith he was honoured to preach to others, and did notably exemplify in his conversation. I remember some pleasant conversation another gentleman and I had with him in a coffee-house in Edinburgh, the day immediately preceding his death, when he gave us a pleasant abstract of some memorable passages of his life; I cannot represent what he taught us, in the energy wherewith he spake, I only name some particulars which were refreshful to us. He mentioned, with humble regret, a notable fallacy in the heart of man, after the most lively and promising awakenings, viz. pleasant prospects of pardoning mercy, from some desirable qualities which we observe or fain would find in our selves, and a forming of many legal connexions of this nature, which are strong remains of the covenant of works, and yet so refined and subtile, that the most keen penetrating eye cannot discern without special and efficient teaching, though notwithstanding they run directly cross to the gospel. It is not in the quality of a convinced, contrite, or humbled temper that the sinner is to apply for pardon. He appears at heaven's door and implores mercy only in the capacity of a sinner. "This blessed man imparted to us another remark on the foresaid conversation, namely, that many years bypast the Lord had shewed him with much of convincing and humbling evidence, the high and enormous wickedness of rejecting the righteousness which the gospel offereth, in regard, it is the righteousness of God,-a righteousness which not only cometh up to the full, unto every thing required in the law, but is also of an overflowing value and infinite demerit,-a righteousness wherein justice acquiesceth to the full, and is lodged in him who is God and man. "I remember likewise some conversation we had concerning death, with the necessary preparations for it, and the words of old Simeon were quoted, "Now, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." A note was proposed from the passage and pleasantly insisted on, namely, that manifestations of Christ, suiting the eagerness of persons and cases, are the true preparations for death. This he acquainted us was just the state of his spirit at the time he was in expectation of death; but with composure and quietness, and without anxious cares and fears, which had often discomposed him before. When dying, he said, among other things, I have sweet peace of these appearances, for which I have often been accounted a fool!'" His brethren who knew him well always speak honourably of him: says Boston, in a sermon, "A great man of God, in this church, was taken away from among us May, 1720;" and in his Memoirs he remarks, " on May 17, 1720, it pleased the Lord to call to himself Mr. James Webster, a man eminent for maintaining the purity of the doctrines of the Gospel, a nonjurist to the last breath, and in or about the last time he was in the judicatory, where the matter of the Marrow was considered, expressing his concern that they would beware of condemning it." Mr. Ebenezer Erskine preaching in the Tolbooth Church sometime after his death, says, I suppose there may be many hearing me, whose hearts are inwardly groaning for the removal of that eminent light, which shone with so much brightness among you for so many years. It bodes ill to our Zion, when such watchmen are called off from her walls, as on all occasions are ready to blow the trumpet on the approach of any danger from hell or earth." He was in his day popular for evangelical views, holy conduct, and Christian zeal. He prefaced several pieces, and published a volume of Communion Sermons with table services; after his death another small volume was published, probably by his son, the late Dr. Webster, who succeeded him. With respect to his sermons, to use the words of the preface to his posthumous ones, "Here there is excellent matter, clearness of thought, plainness of style, an evangelical strain running through the whole. Here the way to eternal happiness is clearly pointed out, and the necessity of close walking therein enforced with the strongest arguments; at the same time, holiness is pressed from right topics, in a gospel strain and scriptural style." The following hints from the writings of this eminent divine deserve to be recorded:-" Indistinct notions of the covenants have been a plentiful source of the many errors that have corrupted the church. A great many of the Pelagian and Arminian errors take their rise from, and are owing to, an utter ignorance or mistakes about them; yea, many in our times have high pretensions to orthodoxy, yet by their lives, strangers to the covenant of grace, are carried away by a legal spirit, than which there cannot be a worse temper and dispo sition; for if a legal spirit run through our doctrine and worship, our exhortations, motives, and directions to duty, it will take us off from the alone foundation Christ Jesus, and settle all upon ourselves, which makes another gospel. I am inclined to think, that one chief reason why the gospel hath so little success in our day, is the legal sermons, from which we cannot expect that the warm influences and powerful operations of the Spirit will be conveyed any other way than by the hearing of faith." "Mere religion in its nature can never be known, without the consideration of its respect unto, and dependence upon, our Redeemer. I shall, therefore, take a view of gospel holiness, as relative to the Mediator Jesus Christ. He is the efficient cause and author thereof: he fortifieth us by the power and effectual operations of his Spirit; the whole preparation to holiness is from him; he is the exemplary cause. Holiness is a fair copy of Christ, the grand and glorious pattern; it groans after a greater conformity to our blessed Head, and to come nearer to the fulness of the stature of Christ. He is likewise the final cause. All the graces and all their actings are levelled at the honour of the Mediator, and the showing forth the virtues and praises of him who hath called us. Mediator's love is its standard and rule; the heart breathes out that passionate desire and wish, Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!' Christ is the great object of holiness. On him our fear, love, delight, and hope, are terminated. Holiness is also a part of the acknowledgment due to Christ for the great bles sing of redemption; and this debt the ransomed cheerfully and daily pay. Love to Christ is the great motive of their actions. And likewise they place their trust The and faith in his merits and intercession, for acceptance with, and access to God; on that golden altar they offer their sacrifices. The propose Christ Jesus, and set him always before them as the righteous judge, omniscient witness, and gracious rewarder of their holiness. Their great desire in all their actions is to attain to nearer fellow ship with him. His great and precious promises are their great encouragement, and animate and support them under all difficulties. A sense of this love prompts them to do, speak, appear, and suffer for him; they act in a constant, immediate, and universal dependence on him, for his benign influences and strength to work all their works in them and by them; and when they have done all, they set the crown on Christ's head, and give him all the glory, by ascribing all their holiness to him. I think what is said will convince us of the great difference betwixt evangelical holiness, and the morality so much cried up at this day, to the great prejudice of, and in opposition to, sincere religion and true righteousness." FOR THE CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR. Remarks on the Evidence from the Old Testament that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah. THE miracles which our Lord performed, and the doctrines which he taught, gave the most incontestible evidence of his divine mission. But there is another argument, which must have been very convincing to the mind of a Jew, and which was frequently advanced by the Apostles and Evangelists, in disputing with their unbelieving countrymen. This argument was de rived from the Old Testament prophecies. Independently of the ceremonial institutions, almost the whole of which represented "Him that was to come," the sacred writings contained full and clear descriptions of his character and kingdom, and definitely fixed the time of his advent. These prophetic delineations the Jews had miserably perverted; and it was the object and endeavour of the Christian preachers to convince them that their interpretations were false,— that all the ancient predictions were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth,-and that consequently he was the true Messiah. In this way they combated those obstinate disputants who assailed them in every place, and who indefatigably laboured to obstruct their success. It may be no unprofitable exercise to enter into the spirit of the reasoning that was often so triumphantly employed by these champions of the faith, and to examine the proofs which the Old Testament affords that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Saviour of the world. They had to contend with violent prejudices, as well as to establish a particular point; it is probable, therefore, that the removal of these would be their first business. It is well known that the two most inveterate prejudices of the Jews against our Lord and his doctrines, were their expectation of a temporal Messiah, and their persuasion of the perpetuity of their religious system. In the sequel of this essay, I shall first show that these really were preju dices, and that they had no foundation in the Old Testament Scriptures, and then attempt to prove that the period which these Scriptures had fixed for the Messiah's advent, exactly corresponded with the time in which our Lord appeared in Judea. I. For a considerable time prior to our Lord's advent it was an opinion universally prevalent among the Jews, that the Messiah was to erect a temporal kingdom, and appear in all the splendour of an earthly monarch; that he would rescue them from the state of subjection into which they had fallen, and avenge all the insults and injuries which they had suffered from their enemies; and that he would reduce all the neighbouring countries under, their authority, and make them rulers of the whole world. This opinion, so consonant to the proud and contemptuous feelings with which they regarded the test of mankind, and so well calculated to console their minds under their then distressing circumstances, was fondly indulged, and soon acquired the firmest hold of their understandings and their hearts. It filled them with the most deep-rooted prejudices against the external appearance of Christ, - prejudices which were never completely eradicated even from the minds of the Apostles, till the effusion of the Holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost. Such an opinion, however, was directly contrary to the numerous and particular descriptions which the prophets gave of his humble exterior of the opposition which his kingdom would meet with,and the sufferings which his subjects would endure from the world. That his kingdom was not to be of this world is evident from its permanence. This is an attribute which all the prophets ascribe to it. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away." That these passages, and many others which might be quoted, refer to the kingdom of the Messiah, is so evident, that the Jews themselves will not deny it. It is apparent also, from the nature and form of the kingdom itself, that it was not to be of a temporal kind. The Scriptures contain such representations of it as are applicable to no earthly kingdom. The outward circumstances, the associates, and the employments of its sovereign, were to be the farthest possible from the magnificence of a prince among men. "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets; a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, behold thy King cometh unto thee lowly, and riding upon an ass." And if we have sometimes magnificent descriptions of his kingdom and glory, the context, or the scope of the writer limits us to a spiritual interpretation. Isaiah expressly declares that this King would be rejected by his countrymen. "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not." It is truly surprising that the Jews could expect a temporal Messiah, and yet acknowledge the inspiration of the 53d chapter of Isaiah. It has been asserted by some Jewish writers, that the prophet is here speaking of Jeremiah, or the people of Israel, and consequently is not to be understood as alluding to the Messiah. But a bare inspection of the passage will convince every one that this is an unnatural interpretation of it. He mentions many things that are competent to no merely human being, and he expressly distinguishes the object of his prediction from the Jewish people. Jewish people. "He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken." Thus it is evident that the Jewish expectation of a temporal Messiah was unreasonable, and had no foundation in their own Scriptures. |