death silenced them: what they had to declare from the Lord, whom they served, they boldly pronounced, in spite of threats and menaces, torture and imprisonment. In the midst of Israel they prophesied the downfal of that kingdom, while the everlasting duration of Judea made also the theme of their discourses; and to the wicked kings who occupied the throne of David, they as fearlessly declared God's anger for their impiety, while they foretold the miseries of the Babylonish captivity.

Those of the Prophets, who intimated the place to which the Jews were to be carried into captivity, precisely described the land of Babylon; and their predictions were pronounced even at a time when that country itself was subjugated to the Assyrian yoke; and also, while the Prophets themselves were witnessing the desolation of the Ten Tribes by the Assyrians, they still continued to predict, that the inhabitants of Judea should be led away captive to Babylon.

Will any one assert, that these prophecies, that predictions so improbable, so unlikely to come to pass, were the fabrications of an impostor? One perusal of Scripture with attention is entirely sufficient to dissipate such an idea. We behold, in the writings of the Prophets, so much diversity in the things on which they treat; and in the turn of their expressions and thoughts, we find so many

little circumstances recited, which occur naturally and which had such close affinity to the time in which they wrote, that it is quite impossible to believe, that any impostor would have been able to have varied his expressions in such a wonderful manner, or that he could have succeeded in so entirely altering his style. And surely the impostor, who immortalized Cyrus*, by calling him by name in the sacred volume, would not have failed to have bestowed the same honour on Darius and Artaxerxes, who completed the work which Cyrus had begun. A pretended prophet would also have introduced into his predictions, many of those remarkable circumstances, which we find related in those histories given by Ezra and Nehemiah. It would have been as easy to have produced them to after generations as prophecies; and they would have appeared in that shape with much more weight and dignity, than as mere historical facts.

Daniel alludes to the deliverance of the Jews, mentioned by Jeremiaht, and he speaks of the seventy weeks which that Prophet had named, more than once; while he acknowledges also that these misfortunes happened to Judea in accordance with the predictions pronounced by

*Isai. xliv. 28.

+ Jer. xxv. and xxix. Dan. ix.

Moses to the children of Israel while in the wilderness. Ezra, many years after Daniel, speaks of this prophecy of Jeremiah; and we cannot doubt but the predictions and promises of a reestablishment so anxiously looked for (the prospect of which alone could have supported a whole nation, in the patient endurance of a seventy years' bondage in a distant and foreign land,) must have been a constant and public subject of their dis

course.

It is then clear and indisputable, that the Books of the Prophets, as well as those of Moses, were composed before their captivity: for since we are constrained to acknowledge this with regard to Jeremiah, the bitterest opposer of Divine truth will see, we feel assured, that it is worse than useless to contend respecting the other Prophets. If Jeremiah predicted the desolation of Jerusalem before it took place, if he foretold the restoration of the Jews before their captivity, he must, it follows, have done so by Divine inspiration; and if Jeremiah was inspired by God, we certainly can have no difficulty in believing that the other Prophets were equally so. We behold in their writings the same spirit convincing the world of sin, and calling man to righteousness. We see the same fearless threatenings, the same lively exhorta

* Ezra i. 1.

tions, the same heavenly comfort, the same precious promises; and we view the same complete fulfilment of their predictions, and all of this in perfect accordance with the Law of Moses, and the promises of the Gospel; all leading to that one great end, the salvation of sinners through the Saviour. I ask, who is the author of so much truth, so much uniformity, so much consistency?

We will in this chapter ask one more question: Was the author of the sacred writings, whom infidelity calls an impostor, a friend, or was he an enemy, of the Jewish nation? We cannot believe him to have been their enemy, since he attributed to them all the advantages of a people chosen by God before all other nations. And if he were their friend, why cover them with the opprobrium of unbelief and idolatry? Why relate their persecutions of the Prophets, the servants of God; their continual rebellion and hardness of heart?

The more we reflect on the Holy Scriptures, the more assured we are of their Divine origin; the more we read their sacred pages; the more impossible we see it to be, that falsehood or imposture had any thing to do with their composition. May this be the conviction of all who peruse this book. May it assist in displaying to the minds of those, who are seriously inquiring after truth, the brightness of the pages of Revelation; and may it be the means of leading him, who now denies his

God, and boldly reviles his Bible, to "seek the Lord while he may be found, to call upon him while he is near*." For, assuredly, if he find not the value of true religion, while opportunity is given him, he will, like Dives, discover it when in torment; and, when it is too late, will call upon that God whom he now rejects.

* Isai. lv. 6.