criptures may be referred to four classes, viz. Prophecies relating to the Jewish nation in particular,-Prophecies relat ing to the neighbouring nations or empires,-Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah,-and Prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

there have been false prophets-pretenders to inspiration- mation is indeed divine. The prophecies contained in the therefore they to whom the Spirit of God has truly spoken cannot obtain a candid hearing. Yet, if the things considered differ most essentially in the mode, in the circumstances, in the proof,-in all respects, indeed, except the name, -where is the candour, or even the common sense, of involving them in one sentence of rejection? The false pretensions to prophecy that have appeared in the world are no more a proof that there never were true predictions, than the circulation of base coin proves that there is no pure gold or silver employed in commerce and manufactures.

CLASS I.

Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular.

1. We begin with ABRAHAM, the great progenitor of the Jews. At a time when he had no child, and was greatly advanced in years, it was foretold that his posterity should be exceedingly multiplied above that of other nations. The chief of these predictions are to be found in Gen. xii. 1-3. xlvi. 3. Exod. xxxii. 13. Gen. xiii. 16. xv. 5. xvii. 2. 4-6. xxii. 17.

2. ISHMAEL'S name and fortune were announced before he was born; particularly, that his descendants should be very numerous, and that he should beget twelve princes. The whole came to pass precisely as it was foretold. Compare Gen. xvi. 10-12. xvii. 20. and xxv. 12-18. I will make him a great nation, said Jehovah to Abraham (Gen. xvii. 20.); and this prediction was accomplished as soon as it could be in the regular course of nature.

III. The USE AND INTENT OF PROPHECY may be considered in various lights. Some have represented it as designed to meet and accommodate the natural anxiety and impatience of men to know futurity-to relieve and soothe the troubled mind to repress the vain and forward-to discourage schemes of vice-to support desponding virtue. Some have argued, that prophecy was designed to cherish and promote a religious spirit to confirm the faith of God's sovereignty and the Jews (to omit the vast increase of Abraham's other posterity) The fulfilment of these predictions will be found as it respects particular providence. Some men, measuring the thoughts and ways of God by those of men, have fancied, that an ob- in Exod. i. 7. 9. 12. Numb. xxiii. 10. Deut. i. 10. x. 22. Ezek. scure people, a carpenter's son, his birth, and acts, and igno-xvi. 7. Heb. xi. 12. In less than five hundred years after the minious death, were subjects beneath the attention of the first of the above predictions was delivered, the number of the Supreme Ruler; and have substituted, as more becoming Israelites amounted to six hundred thousand men, besides women objects of prophecy, the splendid events, as they supposed, and children; and the Scripture accounts of their numbers are of the rise and fall of kingdoms, and the revolutions of mighty so confirmed by the testimonies of profane authors, that no doubt states and empires. But the ways of God are not as our can arise as to the exactness of the completion. ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. The events which to us appear magnificent and interesting are trivial in his sight, and those which we might overlook or despise form the principal figures in the plan of his infinite wisdom and goodness. There were intermediate events predicted, as subordinate ends of prophecy, as the state and history of Abraham's, and Jacob's, and David's family; but the great use and intent of prophecy, to which all others were subservient, was to maintain the faith of the Messiah, and to prepare the world for his appearance and mediation. At the same time, it was calculated to serve as an evidence of the divine origin of Scripture. Considering it in this light, we should first satisfy ourselves that it was given, not after, but long before the events took place; and then carefully compare the facts and circumstances predicted with the events accomplished. If they correspond, the conclusion is unavoidable, that the prophet was commissioned by Omniscience to utter the prophecy, and that it has been fulfilled by sovereign and almighty power. Have Jacob and Moses, David and Isaiah, Daniel and the other prophets, many hundreds of years before, accurately described times, places, characters, and ends, with their relative circumstances and contingencies? And have these descriptions been verified in subsequent and exactly corresponding events?-then they must have been divinely inspired, and their record and testimony must be true and divine. By these prophecies, interspersed with the greater part of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament, the sacred writers have established their claim to inspiration, that they have not followed cunningly devised fables, but that they spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The use and intent of prophecy, then, was to raise expectation, and to soothe the mind with hope,-to maintain the faith of a particular providence, and the assurance of the Redeemer promised, and particularly to attest the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

From Ishmael proceeded the various tribes of Arabs (also called Saracens, by Christian writers), who anciently were, and still continue to be, a very powerful people. They might, indeed, be emphatically styled a great nation, when the Saracens made their rapid and extensive conquests during the middle ages, and erected one of the largest empires that ever was in the world. He will be a wild man (Gen. xvi. 12.), literally, a wild ass-man, that is, as wild as a wild ass; and the account of that animal, in Job xxxix. 5-8., affords the best possible description of the wandering, lawless, and freebooting lives and manners of the Arabs. Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pas ture, and he searcheth after every green thing. God himself has sent them out free, and has loosed them from all political restraint. The same wilderness, in which their ancestor, Ishmael, dwelt more than three thousand seven hundred years ago, is still their habitation, and in the barren land, where no other human beings could live, they have their dwellings. They scorn the city, and therefore have no fixed habitations. For their multitude, they are not afraid. When they make depredations on cities, towns, or caravans, they retire into the desert with such precipitancy, that all pursuit is eluded; and in this respect, the crying of the driver is disregarded. They may be said to have no lands, and yet the range of the mountains is their pasture; The prophecies recorded in the Scriptures respect contin- they pitch their tents and feed their flocks wherever they please; gencies too wonderful for the powers of man to conjecture or and they search after every green thing, are continually lookto effect. Many of those, which are found in the Old Tes- ing after prey, and seize every kind of property that comes in tament, foretold unexpected changes in the distribution of their way. It was further foretold that Ishmael's hand should earthly power; and, whether they announced the fall of be against every man, and every man's hand against him. flourishing cities, or the ruin of mighty empires, the event. minutely corresponded with the prediction. This chain of Sesostris, Cyrus, Pompey, Trajan, and other ancient sovereigns predictions is so evident in the Scriptures, that we are more vainly attempted to subjugate the wandering Arabs: though embarrassed with the selection and arrangement of them, than they had temporary triumphs over some tribes, they were ultidoubtful of their import and accomplishment. To a super-ites to the present day, they have maintained their indepenmately unsuccessful. From the commencement of the Ishmaelficial observer, they may seem to be without order or connection; but, to a well-informed mind, they are all disposed in such a mode and succession as to form a regular system, all the parts of which harmonize in one amazing and consistent plan, which runs parallel with the history of mankind, past, present, and to come and furnishes a perfect moral demon stration, that the book which contains such predictive infor

IV. ON THE CHAIN OF PROPHECY.

dency and if there were no other argument to evince the divine origin of the Pentateuch, the account of Ishmael, and the prophecy concerning his descendants, collated with their history and manner of life during a period of nearly four thousand years, would be sufficient; it may, indeed, be pronounced absolutely demonstrative.3

3. It was foretold that the POSTErity of Abraham, Isaac,

For a full account and exposition of the prophecies concerning Ishmael, see Bishop Newton's second Dissertation.

AND JACOB, should possess the land of Canaan; so that, though they should be expelled thence for their sins, yet their title should endure, and they should be resettled in it, and there continue in peace to the end of the world. (See Gen. xii. 7. xiii. 14, 15. 17. xv. 18, 19, 20, 21. Exod. iii. 8. 17. Gen. xvii. 7, 8.) In unison also with these original promises are the predictions, that this land of Canaan should be to the children of Israel an everlasting possession. (See Deut. xxx. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Jer. xxx. 3.)

after Moses, among the Jews, during the siege of Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity; and finally, fifteen hundred years after his time, during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.

for multitude, Moses predicted that they should be few in num (3.) Though the Hebrews were to be as the stars of heaven ber.

This prophecy was literally fulfilled in the last siege of JeruThe completion of these predictions has been as remarkable salem, in which Josephus tells us that an infinite multitude perished by famine; and he computes the total number who and exact as the predictions themselves. (See Num. xxi. Deut. ii. and Josh. iii.) The Israelites enjoyed this land for above a Judæa, at one million two hundred and forty thousand four hunperished by it and by the war in Jerusalem, and other parts of thousand years; and when, for their wickedness, God sent the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into captivity, he declared it should dred and ninety, besides ninety-nine thousand two hundred who be but for seventy years, which accordingly was true; and they and bondwomen: and after their last overthrow by Hadrian, were made prisoners, and sold unto their enemies for bondmen continued six hundred years together, till by their rejection and murder of the Messiah they were again doomed to a more last-many thousands of them were sold; and those, for whom puring captivity, begun by Titus Vespasian, and continued to this chasers could not be found (Moses had foretold that no man day. And though the ten tribes carried away captive by Shal-would buy them) were transported into Egypt, where multitudes maneser, and the body of the two tribes by Titus, are not now in perished by shipwreck or famine, or were massacred by the inCanaan; yet since the period of their final restoration is not yet scattered among all nations, among whom they have found no habitants. Since the destruction of Jerusalem, they have been come, their present case is so far from being an objection against ease, nor have the soles of their feet had rest: they have been these ancient prophecies before us, that it would be a great one against the others if it were so. And he who considers that the oppressed and spoiled ever more, especially in the East, where prediction, now under consideration, has hitherto been exactly the tyranny exercised over them is so severe, as to afford a literal fulfilled in all the periods already past, cannot doubt of the ful-fulfilment of the prediction of Moses, that thy life shall hang in filling of what remains to come in its proper season, and will doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt not question but that God will ultimately and completely, as he HAVE NONE assurance of thy life. (Deut. xxviii. 66.) Yet, notpromised, give to the seed of Abraham all the land of Canaan withstanding all their oppressions, they have still continued a separate people, without incorporating with the natives; and they for an everlasting possession. See Ezek. xxxvii. 25. have become an astonishment and a by-word among all the nations, whither they have been carried, since their punishment has been inflicted. The very name of a Jew has been used as a term of peculiar reproach and infamy. Finally, it was foretold that their plagues should be wonderful, even great plagues, and of long continuance. And have not their plagues continued more former captivities were very short: during their captivity in than seventeen hundred years? In comparison of them, their Chaldæa, Ezekiel, and Daniel prophesied ; but now they have no true prophet to foretell the end of their calamities. What nation has suffered so much, and yet endured so long? What nation has subsisted as a distinct people in their own country so long as the Jews have done in their dispersion into all countries? And what a standing miracle is thus exhibited to the world, in the fulfilment, at this very time, of prophecies delivered considerably tation is it to the divine legation of Moses! more than three thousand years ago! What a permanent attes

4. The twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy contains a series of most striking predictions relative to the JEWS, which are fulfilling to this very day. Bp. Newton and Dr. Graves have shown its accomplishment at great length. To specify a very few particulars :(1.) Moses foretold that they should be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth,-"scattered among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other, find no ease or rest,-be oppressed and crushed always,—be left few in number among the heathen, pine away in their iniquity in their enemies, land, and become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word

unto all nations.".

These predictions were literally fulfilled during the subjection of the Jews to the Chaldæans and Romans; and in later times, in all nations where they have been dispersed. Moses foretold that their enemies would besiege and take their cities; and this prophecy was fulfilled by Shishak king of Egypt, Shalmaneser king of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Sosius, and Herod, and finally, by Titus. Though dispersed throughout all nations, they have remained distinct from them all; and notwithstanding the various oppressions and persecutions to which they have in every age been exposed in different parts of the world, "there is not a country on the face of the earth where the Jews are unknown. They are found alike in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. They are citizens of the world, without a country. Neither mountains, nor rivers, nor deserts, nor oceans,-which are the boundaries of other nations,-have terminated their wanderings. They abound in Poland, in Holland, in Russia, and in Turkey. In Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and Britain, they are more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and India, on the east and the west of the Ganges,-they are few in number among the heathen. They have trod the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; and the European traveller hears of their existence in regions which he cannot reach, even in the very interior of Africa, south of Timbuctoo.2 From Moscow to Lisbon,-from Japan to Britain,-from Borneo to Archangel,-from Hindostan to Honduras, no inhabitant of any nation upon earth would be known in all the intervening regions but a Jew alone."3

(2.) Moses foretold that such grievous famines should prevail during the sieges of their cities, that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.

This prediction was fulfilled about six hundred years after the time of Moses, among the Israelites, when Samaria was besieged by the king of Syria; again, about nine hundred years 1 Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i. diss. vii. Dr. Graves on the Pentateuch, vol. ii. pp. 417-443. See also Mr. Kett's History, the Interpreter of Prophecy, vol. i. pp. 87-122.

Lyon's Travels in Africa, p. 146.

Keith's Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion from the Fulfilment of Prophecy, p. 84. (Svo. edition.) In pp. 80-160. there is a compendious and excellently arranged digest of the predictions respecting the Jews, and their accomplishment.

5. JOSIAH was prophetically announced by name, three hundred and sixty-one years before the event (1 Kings xiii. 2.) by a prophet, who came out of Judah on purpose to de

"The condition of the Jews in Palestine is more insecure, and exposed to insult and exaction, than in Egypt and Syria, from the frequent lawless and oppressive conduct of the governors and chiefs." (Carne's Letters from the East, p. 305.) The quarter of Jerusalem, now inhabited by the Poor wretches! every thing about them exhibited signs of depression and Jews (all travellers attest), presents nothing but filth and wretchedness. misery: outcasts from the common rights and sympathies of men; oppressed and despised alike by Mahometans and Christians; living as aliens in the inheritance of their fathers,-what an awful lesson of unbelief do they hold out!" (Three Weeks in Palestine, p. 69) The Rev. Mr. Jowett, speaking of the actual state of the Jews in the East, relates the following circumstances (on the authority of a gentleman who had for some years been the British consul at Tripoli), which strikingly illustrate the accomplishment of prophecy, as well as the state of degradation in which the Jews there live. The life of a man seems to be there valued no more than the life of a inoth. If the Bey has a fear or jealousy of any man, he sends some one to put a pistol to his head and shoot him. If it happens to be a Christian remonstrance is made by the consul of his nation; the Bey is quite ready to give satisfaction; he sends some one to shoot the first agent of his cruelty; and then, with an air of great regret, asks the consul if he is satisfied; if not, he is ready to give him satisfaction still further. But if the object of his wrath be a Jew, no one would think of demanding satisfaction for His death. This people feel the curse in full, that, among the nations where they are scattered, they should find no ease, and have none assurance of their life. They are known, by their being compelled to wear a particular dress, which they sometimes change IN THEIR OWN HOUSES, on occasion of their merry-makings; but even in these they are not free, the Moors exercising the privilege of free ingress at any time. When a vessel comes into port, the merchant (a Mahometan) compels every Jew, whom he meets by the way, to come and help in unlading, carrying. &c; nor do they dare to resist." (Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 231. London, 1822, 8vo. See also his Christian Researches in Syria, pp. 232–234. is disgusting," says a recent intelligent traveller. "to see the way in London, 1825. 8vo.) Nor is the situation of the Jews in Persia much better. which the Persians abuse and oppress the unfortunate Israelites. When a Persian wishes to have the snow cleaned from his flat-roofed house, he goes into a street, and catches a Jew, and obliges him to perform the office. For the murder of a Jew, a Persian has only to cut round a finger, so as to draw blood, and the offence is expiated." (Alexander's Travels from India to England, p. 178. London, 1827. 4to.) On the degraded and insecure state of the Jews in Turkey, Mr. Hartley has collected some painfully interesting anecdotes. (Researches in Greece, pp. 202-2018.)

nounce the judgments of God upon the priests of the altar, | mainder should be scattered into all the winds; and that even and upon the altar itself, which Jeroboam had then recently erected at Bethel.

then the sword should follow them. In a very few years all these evils came upon them by the hand of the Chaldæans.' 9. The PROFANATION OF THE TEMPLE by Antiochus Epiphanes, together with his death, and a description of his temper, and even of his countenance, was clearly foretold by Daniel, four hundred and eight years before the accomplishthe destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the desolation of that ment of his prediction. (Dan. viii.) He likewise prophesied city, and also of Judæa, and the cessation of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations. (ix. 26, 27.) The accomplishment of these predictions is attested by all history.

10. Lastly, Hosea foretold the PRESENT STATE of the people of Israel, in these remarkable words:-They shall be wanderers among the nations. (ix. 17.)

The preceding are only a small number in comparison of the multitude of predictions (nearly two hundred) that might have been adduced; and which refer to the Israelites and Jews, and other descendants of Abraham. We now proceed to

It received a great blow from Alexander, not only by his taking and burning the city, but much more by his building of Alexandria in Egypt, which in time deprived it of much of its trade, and thus contributed more effectually to its ruin. It had the misfortune afterwards of changing its masters often, being sometimes in the hands of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, and sometimes of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria, till at length it fell under the dominion of the Romans. It was taken by the Saracens about the year of Christ 639, in the reign of Omar their third emperor. It was retaken by the Christians during the time of the holy war, in the year 1124, Baldwin, the second of that name, being then king of Jerusalem, and assisted by a fleet of the Venetians. From the Christians3 it was taken again, in the year 1289, by the Mamelukes of Egypt, under their Sultan Alphix, who sacked and razed this and Sidon, and other strong towns, in order that they might never afford any harbour or shelter to the Christians. From the Mamelukes it was again taken in the year 1516, by Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks; and under their dominion it continues at present. But, alas, how fallen, how changed from what it was formerly! For from being the centre of trade, frequented by all the merchant ships of the east and west, it is now become a heap of ruins, visited only by the boats of a few poor fishermen. So that, as to this part likewise of the city, the prophecy has literally been fulfilled: -I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon.1

How utterly this once flourishing city is now destroyed, agreeably to the divine predictions, every traveller attests who has visited its site. We select two or three of the most striking

contrast of grandeur and debasement than Tyre, at the period of being besieged by that conqueror, and the modern town of Tsour erected on its ashes."

2. EGYPT was one of the most ancient and powerful kingdoms in former ages; and at one period is said to have contained eighteen thousand cities and seventeen millions of inhabitants. The revolutions and state of this kingdom were minutely described by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The last-mentioned prophet, among other most striking denunciations, expressly says, that Egypt shall be the basest of kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even under the border of Ethiopia. The pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword. And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked, and I will make the land waste, ana all that is therein, by the hand of strangers. I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their idols to cease out of Noph (or Memphis, Ezek. xxix. 15. 10. xxx. 6. 12, 13). It is now upwards of two thousand four hundred years since this prophecy was delivered; and what likelihood or appearance was there, that so great a kingdom, so rich and fertile a country, should for so many ages bow under a foreign yoke, and never during that long period be able to recover its liberties, and have a prince of its own to reign over them? But as is the prophecy, so is the event. For, not long afterwards, Egypt was successively attacked and conquered by the Babylonians and Persians: on the subversion of the Persian empire by Alexander, it became subject to the Macedonians, then to the Romans, and after them to the Saracens, then to the Mamelukes, and is now a province of the Turkish Empire; and the general character of its inhabitants is a compound of baseness, treachery, covetousness, and malice.9 Syene is in ruins; and the idols of Egypt are scattered. And all modern travellers attest that the numerous canals with which this country was anciently intersected are (with the exception of a few in Lower Egypt) now neglected. The consequence is, that a very large proportion of the country is abandoned to sand and to unfruitfulness, while the effect is a fulfilment of the threatening, I will make her rivers dry. The annual supply of enriching and fertilizing water being now lost to an immense tract of country on both sides of the Nile, sand, the natural soil, prevails: vegetation, which once bound together the earth by the roots and fibres of grass, is burnt up. And what was once a fruitful field has become desolate, overwhelmed by flying blasts of sand, and consigned to ages of solitude,10

Dr. SHAW, who travelled in the former part of the last century, says, "I visited several creeks and inlets, in order to discover what provision there might have been formerly made for the security of their vessels. Yet notwithstanding that Tyre was the chief maritime power of this country, I could not observe the least token of either cothon or harbour that could have been of any extraordinary capacity. The coasting ships, indeed, still find a tolerably good shelter from the northern winds under the southern shore, but are obliged immediately to retire, when the winds change to the west or south: so that there must have been some better station than this for their security and reception. In the N. N. E. part likewise of the city, we see the traces of a safe and commodious basin, lying within the walls; but which at the same time is very small, scarce forty yards in diameter. Neither could it ever have enjoyed a larger area, unless the buildings which now circumscribe it were encroachments upon its original dimensions. Yet even this port, small as it is at present, is notwithstanding so choked up with sand and rubbish, that the boats 3. ETHIOPIA was a very considerable kingdom of Africa, of those poor fishermen, who now and then visit this once re- bordering upon Egypt. Its doom was denounced by the pronowned emporium, can with great difficulty only be admitted."5 phets Isaiah and Ezekiel ; and Nahum, after its accomplish"This city," says MAUNDRELL, who travelled nearly about the ment, declares what that doom was :-Art thou better, says same time, "standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises at he to Nineveh, than populous No, that was situate among the a distance something very magnificent. But when you come to rivers, that had waters round about it, whose rampart was the it, you find no similitude of that glory, for which it was so re-sea, and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were nowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes, chap. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii. On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here, but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c. there being not so much as one entire house left: its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, viz. that it should be as the top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on.”

her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men. (Nah. iii. 8-10.)

Ethopia was invaded and most cruelly ravaged by Sennacherib king of Assyria, or Esarhaddon his son, and also by Cambyses king of Persia. About the time of our Saviour's birth, the Romans ravaged part of this country; and since the subversion of their empire, it has been ravaged successively by the Saracens, Turks, and Giagas.

"Of this once powerful mistress of the ocean," says a recent traveller, "there now exist scarcely any traces. Some miserable cabins, ranged in irregular lines, dignified with the name of 4. NINEVEH was the metropolis of the Assyrian empire, streets, and a few buildings of a rather better description, occuan exceeding great city, according to the prophet Jonah (iii. pied by the officers of government, compose nearly the whole of 3.), whose statement is confirmed by profane historians, of the town. It still makes, indeed, some languishing efforts at three days' journey in circuit, and containing a population of commerce, and contrives to export annually to Alexandria car- Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, yet that remore than six hundred thousand inhabitants. Though the goes of silk and tobacco, but the amount merits no consideration.pentance was of no long continuance: for soon after, NaThe noble dust of Alexander, traced by the imagination till found stopping a beer barrel,' would scarcely afford a stronger

hum predicted not only the total destruction of that city, which was accomplished one hundred and fifteen years afterwards, but also the manner in which it was to be effected.

Jolliffe's Letters from Palestine, p. 13. 1820. 8vo.

See Isa. xix. Jer. xliii. 8-13. and xlvi. and Ezek. chapters xxix.—xxxii. The prophecies concerning Egypt are minutely considered and illus trated by Bishop Newton in his twelfth Dissertation.

10 Jowett's Christian Researches, p. 164.

11 See Isa. xviii. 1-6. xx. 3-5. xlii. 3. Ezek. xxx. 4-6.

While they were folden together as thorns, they were devoured as the stubble full dry. (i. 10.)

The Medians, under the command of Arbaces, being informed of the negligence and drunkenness that prevailed in their camp, assaulted them by night, and drove such of the soldiers as survived the defeat, into the city. The gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved; which, Diodorus Siculus informs us, was literally fulfilled. And its utter destruction foretold by Nahum (i. 8, 9. ii. 8-13. iii. 17-19.) and Zephaniah (ii. 13—15.), has been so entirely accomplished, that no vestiges whatever have remained of it. Such an utter end has been made of it, and such is the truth of the divine predictions.

5. Concerning BABYLON, it was foretold that it should be shut up by the Medes, Elamites, and other nations (Isa. xiii. 4. Jer. li. 7.); that the river Euphrates should be dried up (Isa. xliv. 27. Jer. 1. 33. li. 36.); and that the city should be taken by surprise during the time of a feast, when all her rulers and mighty men were drunken. (Jer. 1. 24. li. 39. 57.) All which was accomplished when Belshazzar and his thousand princes, who were drunk with him at a great feast, were slain by Cyrus's soldiers (men of various nations) after Cyrus had turned the course of the Euphrates, which ran through the midst of Babylon, and so drained its waters, that the river became easily fordable for his soldiers to enter the city. Further, it was particularly foretold, that God would make the country a possession for the bittern, and pools of water (Isa. xiv. 23.); which was accordingly fulfilled, by the country being overflowed, and becoming boggy and marshy, in consequence of the Euphrates being turned out of its course in order to take the city, and never restored to its former channel. Could the correspondence of these events with the predictions be the result of chance? But suppose these predictions were forged after the event, can the following also have been written after the event, or with any reason be ascribed to chance?

The wild beasts of the desert shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities therof,-so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.—They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.-Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant.-Babylon shall sink and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and dragons in their pleasant places.3

It is astonishing with what exactness these various predictions have been accomplished. After its capture by Cyrus, it ceased to be a metropolis. It was afterwards dispeopled by the erection of the new cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon (B. c. 293), which were built with this design in its neighbourhood, and which completed the ruin and desolation of Babylon,—a desolation that continues to this day.

6. Daniel predicted the fate of the FOUR GREAT MONARCHIES, viz. the subversion of the Babylonian empire by the Medo-Persians, and of the Persian empire by the Grecians, under Alexander the Great; the division of his empire into four parts, which accordingly took place after the death of Alexander; and the rise of the Romans, who were to reduce all other kingdoms under their dominion, and form one vast empire, that was to be different from all former kingdoms. The Romans did arise, and reduce all other kingdoms under

1 Bp. Newton, vol. i. Diss. ix.

The Hon. Capt. Keppel, who visited the ruins of Babylon in the year 1824, thus describes the scene:-" As far as the eye could reach, the hori zon presented a broken line of mounds: the whole of this place was a desert flat; the only vegetation was a small prickly shrub thinly scattered over the plain, and some patches of grass where the water had lodged in pools, occupied by immense flocks of bitterns: so literally has the prophecy of Isaiah been fulfilled respecting devoted Babylon, that it should be swept with the besom of destruction,' that it should be made a posses sion for the bittern and pools of water." Narrative of a Journey from India to England, vol. i. p. 1:25. (London, 1827. Svo.) In pp. 171-188. Capt. Keppel has described the present state of the ruins of Babylon. 3 Jer. 1. 39, 40. li. 26. 37. 64. Isa. xiii. 19-22.

their dominion; and did actually form one vast republic, which was different from all other governments that had preceded it." The prophecies of Daniel, and his history of the four monarchies, are so exactly parallel, that the celebrated infidel Porphyry, in the second century, could only evade the force of them by asserting, contrary to all evidence, that they were written long after the events: which is as absurd as if any one should maintain that the works of Virgil were not written under Augustus, but after his time; for the book of Daniel was as public, as widely dispersed, and as universally received, as any book could ever possibly be.

Here let us pause, and consider the series of predictions exhibited in the preceding pages, which indeed form only a small part in comparison of those which might have been adduced. Let the reader carefully and impartially survey them, and contrast them with their respective accomplishments; and let him then say, whether the prophecies do not contain information more than human? Not to dwell on general prophecies, let him select the five first of those contained in this second class, and compare and meditate fully on these five predictions. "The priority of the records to the events admits of no question; the completion is obvious to every inquirer. Here then are five facts. We are called upon to account for those facts upon rational and adequate principles. Is human foresight equal to the chance? Enthusiasm? Conjecture? Chance? Political contrivance? If none of these neither any other principle that may be devised by man's sagacity-can account for the facts; then true philosophy, as well as true religion, will ascribe them to the inspiration of the Almighty. Every effect must have a cause. But if God is the author of these predictions, then the book which contains them is stamped with the seal of heaven: a rich vein of evidence runs through the volume of the Old Testament; the Bible is true; infidelity is confounded for ever; and we may address its patrons in the language of Saint Paul-Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!"6

CLASS III.

Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah.

Ir we turn from the prophecies respecting the circumstances of individuals, as well as the empires and kingdoms of the world in ancient times, to those predictions in which we ourselves are more immediately concerned, we shall find that they are not less remarkable, and astonishingly minute. The great object of the prophecies of the Old Testament is the redemption of mankind. This, as soon as Adam's fall had made it necessary, the mercy of God was pleased to foretell. And, as the time for its accomplishment drew near, the predictions concerning it gradually became so clear, that almost every circumstance in the life and character of the most extraordinary personage that ever appeared among men was most distinctly foretold. The connection of the predicfined to the Jewish people, gives additional force to the tions belonging to the Messiah, with those which are conargument from prophecy; affording a strong proof of the of Moses and of Jesus Christ, and equally precluding the artintimate union which subsists between the two dispensations ful pretensions of human imposture, and the daring opposition of human power. The plan of prophecy was so wisely constituted, that the passions and prejudices of the Jews, instead of frustrating, fulfilled it, and rendered the person, to whom they referred, the suffering and crucified Saviour who had been promised. It is worthy of remark, that most of these predictions were delivered nearly, and some of them more than three thousand years ago. Any one of them is sufficient to indicate a prescience more than human: but the collective force of all taken together is such, that nothing more can be necessary to prove the interposition of omniscience, than the establishment of their authenticity; and this, even at so remote a period as the present, we have already seen, is placed beyond all doubt. For the books, in which they are contained, are known to have been written at the time to which, and by the persons to whom, they are respectively assigned, and also to have been translated into different languages, and dispersed into different parts, long before the coming of Christ. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that any forgery with respect to them, if attempted by the first Christians,

Dan. ii. 39, 40. vii. 17-24. viii. and ix. Bp. Newton, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th Dissertations, and Brown's Harmony of Scripture Prophecy, chapters xii-xiv. pp. 141-174. Edinburgh, 1800. Religionis Naturalis et

Bp. Newton, vol. i. Diss. x. See also Kett's History, the Interpreter of Revelatæ Principia, tom. ii. pp. 142-158. Prophecy, vol. i. pp. 123. et seq.

A Key to the Prophecies, by the Rev. David Simpson, p. 76.