abiding on him, and heard the Voice from Heaven, that faid, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. All this was done, before John was caft into Prifon and therefore 'tis not to be thought, he fent for Information, as tho' he had not known himself that Jesus was the Chrift, or any ways doubted of it. But he fent this Meffage by fuch as wanted Confirmation of their Faith, and would not ('tis likely). take their Masters bare word, that He whom John baptized was the Meffiah. Their Mafter was a Prifoner, and in danger of dying a violent Death; would the Meffiah

fuffer

and

fuffer that? Was that the favour his Fore-runner must expect? Was it likely the Meffiah should be fuch a one as Jefus? Thefe doubts, or the like, might vex the minds of John's Difciples; therefore to deliver them from them, and to give them truer Notions of the Perfon and Office of the Meffiah, to fatisfie themfelves and others they should meet withall, he fends them to Jefus himself with the forefaid Queftion- i. e. to enquire, whe ther he were the Perfon that was to come, or whether they must look for another. which our Lord anfwersGo and shew John again, those K 2 things

To

things which ye do hear and fee the Blind receive their Sight, and the Lame walk, the Leapers are cleanfed, the Dead are raised up, and the Poor have the Gospel preached unto them. All thefe Particulars are found in Isaiah xxix. 18. xxxv. 5, 6. lxi. 1. and are fo many Prophefies of the Works of the Meffiah; for it is to be obferv'd, that the Satisfactoriness of our Lord's Anfwer to thefe Difciples, confifts in this, that it had been foretold and expected, that He who was to come, fhould do thefe Miracles. You come from John to learn whether I am He who was to comego back, and tell him of the Works

Works you fee Me do, and hear that I have done: And if thefe Works betoken and delineate Him that was to come, let him judge of me, as he fees fit. This fhews, that the great mark of him that was to come, was, that he should work great Miracles.

A. I agree, Sir, to all this, but what Use am I to make of it?

B. To obferve, and remember, upon Occafion; that it was foretold by Prophets, and expected by the Jews, that whenever Chrift, or the Meffiah, came into the World, he should work great and many Miracles. The like thing never happened to any K 3 Man

Man living befides. It was never foretold by a Prophet, of any particular Person, nor expected by any People, that fuch or fuch a certain Man, fhould work Miracles, when he came and lived in the World: This Honour was peculiar to our Lord Jefus.

A. I will referve this Observation, for the Jews, when I meet them, for I think it is good there; but, as yet, I do not see what to do with it, to fuch as believe the Old Teftament no more than they do the New. Will you be pleafed to go on, to fhew how he fulfilled thefe Prophefies, and fatisfied the Expectations they had raised among the People. B. This