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bound himself to any other nation, to account to them for their temporal profperity and adverfity: but to the Jews, with whom he had established a law and a covenant upon temporal promises, he stood obliged to make good his word, and to justify himself to them in the administration of temporal affairs. For this reafon a fucceffion of prophets was raised up among them, at whose mouths they might receive the direction of God: and this is what Mofes means when he says, What nation is there so great, who hath God fo nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? Deut. iv. 7.

Whenever it was neceffary to punish the people for their difobedience, that they might not be tempted by the profperity of other nations, and their own adverfity, to fall away to other gods, they were forewarned of the things that were to befall them; their calamities were prophetically described to them, that they might know, whenever they suffered, that it was the very hand of God, of their own God, that was upon them: and this is the reafon of our finding fo many prophecies, under the law, relating to the civil ftate and condition of the Jews; for this cause the great captivity of Babylon is fo largely and fully foretold by the prophets, that the people might not be tempted to think that the gods of the nations had prevailed against them, and thereby be feduced, as oftentimes they were feduced by this very imagination, to forfake God in their distress; but that they might know that the almighty hand of the Lord was in all their fufferings, and might thereby become humble and obedient; and further, that they might know that all their

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adverfity and profperity came on them according to the express terms of their covenant with God, who bleffed them when obedient, and humbled them when obftinate. All nations have had, and ftill have, their turns of profperity and adverfity; and God thinks not himself obliged to account to them for the measures of his providence towards them. But the cafe was otherwife with the Jewish nation; for God having established a covenant with them, upon temporal promises and temporal curfes, the very execution of the covenant, on God's part, required him to appear and openly adminifter the penalties and promises of his law; to procure the happiness of the people when obedient, and to inflict the punishment due to their iniquity. Hence it is that he directs them in the way of temporal happiness by the voice of his prophets, and gives them open warning of all evils which he brings on them; that they might fee him in every inftance performing the word of his covenant. Every prophecy from God fpoke in the language of Mofes's fong, See now, that 1, even I am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

This accounts for all the prophecies of the Old Teftament relating to the temporal ftate of the Jewifh nation with which we have no further concern, than only to give a reasonable account of them; that the ancient prophets of God may not pafs for mere fortune-tellers, as they have been reprefented to the world of late.

The people of the Jews were fo prone to follow the customs of the nations around them, and to fall

away to idolatry, that, from their coming into Canaan, till the times of the Babylonish captivity, there was a perpetual struggle between the prophets of God, and the falfe prophets of the nations, which should prevail; with this view are many ancient prophecies given, to preferve the people from being feduced by the nations round them. We may learn this from the reproof given to the meffengers of Ahaziah, who had fent to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he fhould recover of his disease: Go, says the angel of the Lord to Elijah, Go meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and fay unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Ifrael, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus faith the Lord, Thou fhalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but fhalt furely die. 2 Kings i. 3, 4. To the very fame purpose God speaks in the prophet Isaiah, rendering an account of his ancient prophecies; I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I fhewed them; I did them fuddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obftinale, and thy neck is an iron finew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I fhewed it thee: left thou shouldeft fay, Mine idol hath done them; and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. Isaiah xlviii.

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You fee now upon what foot all the prophecies in the Old Teftament ftand, which relate to the temporal concerns of the Jewish nation; you fee likewife the reason why this kind of prophecy has ceafed

in the Chriftian church. The Gospel is not founded in temporal promises; fo far from it, that we are called upon to take up our cross, and follow Chrift. The bringing in of better hopes has vacated the promises of the Mofaic covenant; and it is expected of us, after so much light given, that our faith should be proof against the adversities of the world, without the help of a prophet to foretel, or to reveal to us, in every inftance, the counsel of God.

These prophecies relating to the things of this life concern us but little; they have had their completion, long fince, in events which affect not us: but others there are, relating to the great depofitum entrufted with the Jews, even the hopes of redemption, which were to be a bleffing to all the nations of the earth, in which we are highly concerned, and which will deserve our particular confideration.

DISCOURSE VI.

THE prophecies of the Old Testament, generally

confidered, relate either to the temporal ftate and condition of the Jews, and were, in order to the administration and execution, on God's part, of the temporal covenant, given to Abraham and his natura) defcendants; or they relate to that great and univerfal bleffing, promised to Abraham and to his feed, though not limited to them, but exprefsly defigned and extended, in the words of the original covenant, to all the nations of the world. Of these, we have already confidered the firft kind, and endeavoured to fhew the purport and defign of Providence in the many oracles reducible to this head. It remains now, that we confider the prophecies of the fecond kind in the fame method, not inquiring into the exprefs meaning and accomplishment of every fingle prophecy applicable to this fubject, but into the general use and defign of these prophecies; which being difcovered, we fhall be able, with better fuccefs, to apply ourselves to the examination of each divine oracle. The prophecies of the feveral periods, already confidered, have been found to correfpond to the state of religion in the world, at the time of giving the prophecy: a great prefumption that the

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