nish us with examples. And if the prophetical part of Scripture, which refers to the rise and fall of kingdoms, had been more explicit than it is, it would have appeared to encroach on the free agency of man ; -it would have been a communication of the foreknowledge of events which men would have grossly abused and perverted to other purposes rather than to the establishment of the truth; and, instead of being a stronger evidence of Christianity, it would have been considered as the cause of the accomplishment of the events predicted, by the unity and combination it would have excited among Christians; and thus have afforded to the unbeliever a more reasonable objection against the evidence of prophecy than any that can be now alleged. It is in cases wherein they could not be abused, or wherein the agents instrumental in their fulfilment were utterly ignorant of their existence, that the prophecies are as descriptive as history itself. But whenever the knowledge of future events would have proved prejudicial to the peace and happiness of the world, they are couched in allegory, which their accomplishment alone can expound; and drawn with that degree of light and shade that the faithfulness of the picture may best be seen from the proper point of observation, -the period of their completion. Prophecy must thus, in many instances, have that darkness which is impenetrable at first, as well as that light which shall be able to dispel every doubt at last; and, as it cannot be an evidence of Christianity until the event demonstrate its own truth, it may remain obscure till history become its interpreter, and not be perfectly obvious till the fulfilment of the whole series with which it is connected. But the general and often sole objection against the evidence from the prophecies, that they are all vague and ambiguous, may best be answered and set aside by a simple exhibition

of those numerous and distinct predictions which have been literally accomplished; and therefore to this limited view of them the following pages shall chiefly be confined.

Little need be said on the nature of proof from prophecy. That it is the effect of divine interposition cannot be disputed. It is equivalent to any miracle, and is of itself evidently miraculous. The foreknowledge of the actions of free and intelligent agents is one of the most incomprehensible attributes of the Deity, and is exclusively a divine perfection. The past, the present, and the future, are alike open to his view, and to his alone; and there can be ne stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High, than that which prophecy affords. Of all the attributes of the God of the universe, his prescience has bewildered, and baffled the most, all the powers of human conception; and an evidence of the exercise of this perfection in the revelation of what the infinite mind alone could make known, is the seal of God, which can never be counterfeited, affixed to the truth which it attests. Whether that evidence has been afforded, is a matter of investigation; but if it has unquestionably been given, the effect of superhuman agency is apparent, and the truth of what it was given to prove, does not admit of a doubt. If the prophecies of the Scriptures can be proved to be genuine; if they be of such a nature as no foresight of man could possibly have predicted; if the events foretold in them were described hundreds or even thousands of years before those events became parts of the history of man; and if the history itself correspond with the prediction; then the evidencewhich the prophecies impart is a sign and a wonder to every age: no clearer testimony or greater assurance of the truth can be given; and if men do not believe Moses and the prophets, neither would they

be persuaded though one arose from the dead. Even if one were to rise from the dead, evidence of the fact must precede conviction; and, if the mind be satisfied of the truth of prophecy, the result, in either case, is the same. The voice of Omnipotence alone could call the dead from the tomb; the voice of Omniscience alone could tell all that lay hid in dark futurity, which to man is as impenetrable as the mansions of the dead; and both are alike the voice of God.

Of the antiquity of the Scriptures there is the amplest proof. The books of the Old Testament were not, like other writings, detached and unconnected efforts of genius and research, or mere subjects of amusement or instruction. They were essential to the constitution of the Jewish state; the possession of them was a great cause of the peculiarities of that people; and they contain their moral and their civil law, and their history, as well as the prophecies, of which they were the records and the guardians. They were received by the Jews as of divine authority; and as such they were published and preserved. They were proved to be ancient, eighteen hundred years ago.b Instead of being secluded from observation, they were translated into Greek above two hundred and fifty years before the Christian era; and they were read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day. The most ancient part of them was received, as divinely inspired, and was preserved in their own language, by the Samaritans, who were at enmity with the Jews. They have ever been sacredly kept unaltered, in a more remarkable degree, and with more scrupulous care, than any other compositions whatever. And the anti

• There are not wanting proofs of the most scrupulous care of the Hebrew text on the part of the Jews: they have

quity and authenticity of them rest so little on Christian testimony alone, that it is from the records of our enemies that they are confirmed, and from which is derived the evidence of our faith. Even the very language in which the Old Testament scriptures were originally written, had ceased to be spoken before the coming of Christ. No stronger evidence of their antiquity could be alleged, than what is indisputably true; and if it were to be questioned, every other truth of ancient history must first be set aside.

That the prediction was prior to the event, many facts in the present state of the world abundantly testify; and many prophecies remain even yet to be fulfilled. But, independently of external testimony, the prophecies themselves bear intrinsic marks of their antiquity, and of their truth. Predictions concerning the same event are sometimes delivered by a succession of prophets. Sometimes the same prophecy concerning any city or nation gradually meets its fulfilment during a long protracted period, where the truth of the prediction must be unfolded by degrees. They are, in general, so interwoven with the history of the Jews; so casually introduced in their application to the surrounding nations; so frequently concealed in their purport, even from the honoured but unconscious organs of their communication, and preserving throughout so entire a consistency; so different in the modes of their narration, and each part preserving its own particular character; so delivered

counted the large and small sections, the verses, the words, and even the letters in some of the books. They have likewise reckoned which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch, which is the middle clause of each book, and how many times each letter of the alphabet occurs in all the Hebrew Scriptures. This, at least, shews that the Jews were religiously careful to preserve the literal sense of Scripture.(Allen's Modern Judaism. Simon, Crit. Hist. 6, 26.)

man.

without form or system; so shadowed under types and symbols; so complete when compared and combined; so apparently unconnected when disjoined, and revealed in such a variety of modes and expressions, that the very manner of their conveyance forbids the idea of artifice; or if they were false, nothing could admit of more easy detection; if true, nothing could be more impossible to have been conceived by And they must either be a number of incoherent and detached pretensions to inspiration, that can bear no scrutiny, and that have no reference to futurity but what deceivers might have devised; or else, as the only alternative, they give such a comprehensive, yet minute representation of future events—so various, yet so distinct-so distant, yet so true-that none but he who knoweth all things could have revealed them to man, and none but those who have hardened their hearts and closed their eyes, can forbear from feeling and from perceiving them to be credentials of the truth, clear as light from heaven. To justify their pretensions to their contemporaries, the prophets referred, on particular occasions, to some approaching circumstance as a proof of their prophetic spirit, and as a symbol or representation of a more distant and important event. They could thus be distinguished in their own age from false prophets, if their predictions were then true, and they ventured to raise, from the succeeding ages of the world, that veil which no uninspired mortal could touch. They spoke of a deliverer of the human race; they described the desolation of cities and of nations, whose greatness was then unshaken, and whose splendour has ever since been unrivalled; and their predictions were of such a character, that time would infallibly refute or realize them.

Religion deserves a candid examination, and it demands nothing more. The fulfilment of prophecy