world at this present time? You are therefore reduced to this necessity, that you must either renounce your senses, and deny what you may read in your bibles, together with what you may see and observe in the world; or else must acknowledge the truth of prophecy, and, in consequence of that, the truth of divine revelation. Many of the principal prophecies of scripture will by these means come under our consideration, and they may be best considered with a view to the series and order of time. The subject is curious as it is important, and will be very well worth my pains and your attention and though it turn chiefly upon points of learning, yet I shall endeavour to render it as intelligible, and agreeable, and edifying as I can to all sorts of readers. It is hoped the work will prove the more generally acceptable, as it will not consist merely of abstract speculative divinity, but will be enlivened with a proper intermixture of history, and will include several of the most material transactions from the beginning of the world to this day. DISSERTATIONS ON THE PROPHECIES, WHICH HAVE REMARKABLY BEEN FULFILLED, AND AT THIS TIME ARE FULFILLING IN THE world. DISSERTATION I. NOAH'S PROPHECY. THE first prophecy that occurs in scripture, is that part of the sentence pronounced upon the serpent, which is, as I may say, the first opening of Christianity, the first promise of our redemption. We read in Genesis iii. 15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' If you understand this in the sense which is commonly put upon it by christian interpreters, you have a remarkable prophecy, and remarkably fulfilled. Taken in any other sense, it is not worthy of Moses, nor indeed of any sensible writer. The history of the antediluvian times is very short and concise, and there are only a few prophecies relating to the deluge. As Noah was a preacher of righteousness to the old world, so he was a prophet to the new, and was enabled to predict the future condition of his posterity, which is a subject that upon many accounts requires a particular discussion. It is an excellent character that is given of Noah, Gen. vi. 9, 'Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.' But the best of men are not without their infirmities; and Noah, Gen. ix. 20, &c. having planted a vineyard and drank of the wine,' became inebriated, not knowing perhaps the nature and strength of the liquor, or being through age incapable of bearing it: and Moses is so faithful an historian, that he records the failings and imperfections of the most venerable patriarchs, as well as their merits and virtues. Noah in this condition lay uncovered within his tent: and Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father;' and instead of concealing his weakness, as a good-natured man, or at least a dutiful son would have done, he cruelly exposed it 'to his brethren without.' But 'Shem and Japheth,' more compassionate to the infirmities of their aged father, took a garment,' and 'went backward,' with such decency and respect, that they saw not the nakedness of their father' at the same time that they 'covered it.' When Noah awoke from his wine,' he was informed of 'what his younger son had done unto him.' The word* in the original signifies his little son; and some commentators therefore, on account of what follows, have imagined that Canaan joined with his father Ham in this mockery and insult upon Noah; and the Jewish rabbins have a tradition, that Canaan was the first who saw Noah in this posture, and then went and called his father Ham, and concurred with him in ridiculing and exposing the old man. But this is a very arbitrary method of interpretation; no mention was made before of Canaan and of what he had done, but only of Ham the father of Canaan :' and of him therefore must the phrase of little son or youngest son be naturally and necessarily understood. In consequence of this different behaviour of his three sons, Noah as a patriarch was enlightened, and as the father of a family, who is to reward or punish his children, was empowered to foretel * Op katan, parvus, minor, minimus. [Little, less, least.] Hinc probabiliter colligitur eum fuisse paternæ iniquitatis socium.-Piscator apud Polum. [Hence it is inferred, with some probability, that he participated in his father's crime.---See Piscator in Poole's Synopsis.] Vide Origen, in Genesim, p. 33, vol. 2, Edit. Benedict. Operosè quæritur, cur Chami maledictionem in caput filii Chanaan contorserit. Respondet Theodoretus in Genes. quæst. 57, ab Hebræo quodam se didicisse primum Chanaan avi sui verenda animadvertisse, et patri ostentasse, tanquam de sene ridentem. Et vero tale quid legitur in Beresith Rabba, sect. 37, qui liber scriptus fuit diu ante Theodoretum.--Bocharti Phaleg. lib. 4, cap. 37, col. 308. [See Origen on Genesis, p. 33, vol. 2, of the Benedictine Edition. It has been much questioned why Noah should have denounced the carse that was due to Ham on his son Canaan. Theodoret, in his 57th quest. on the book of Genesis, answers, that he had learned from a Jew, that Canaan had first seen the nakedness of his grandfather, and ridiculing the old man, he pointed him out to his father. And indeed such a tradition is found in Bereshit Rabba, sect. 37, which work was written long before Theo doret.---Bochart's Phaleg. book iv. chap. 37 coi 308 the different fortunes of their families for this prophecy relates not so much to themselves, as to their posterity, the people and nations descended from them. He was not prompted by wine or resentment; for neither the one nor the other could infuse the knowledge of futurity, or inspire him with the prescience of events, which happened hundreds, nay thousands of years afterwards. But God, willing to manifest his superintendance and government of the world, endued Noah with the spirit of prophecy, and enabled him in some measure to disclose the purposes of his providence towards the future race of mankind. At the same time it was some comfort and reward to Shem and Japheth, for their reverence and tenderness to their father, to hear of the blessing and enlargement of their posterity; and it was some mortification and punishment to Ham, for his mockery and cruelty to his father, to hear of the malediction and servitude of some of his children, and that as he was a wicked son himself, so a wicked race should spring from him. This then was Noah's prophecy: and it was delivered, as most of the ancient prophecies were delivered, in metre for the help of the memory.* Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27,— 'Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And Canaan shall be their servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, And shall dwell in the tents of Shem, And Canaan shall be their servant.' Canaan was the fourth son of Ham according to the order wherein they are mentioned in the ensuing chapter. And for what reason can you believe that Canaan was so particularly marked out for the curse? for his father Ham's transgression? But where would be the justice or equity to pass by Ham himself with the rest of his children, and to punish only Canaan for what Ham had committed? Such arbitrary proceedings are contrary to all our ideas of the divine perfections; and we may say in this case what was said in another, Gen. xviii. 25, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' The curse was so far from being pronounced The reader may see this point proved at large in the very ingenious and learned Mr. Archdeacon Lowth's Poetical Prælections (particularly Prælect. 18, &c. a work that merits the attention of all who study the Hebrew language, and of the clerov especially upon Canaan for his father Ham's transgression, that we do not read that it was pronounced for his own, nor was it executed till several hundred years after his death. The truth is, the curse is to be understood not so properly of Canaan, as of his descendants to the latest generations. It is thinking meanly of the ancient prophecies of scripture, and having very imperfect, very unworthy conceptions of them, to limit their intention to particular persons. In this view the ancient prophets would be really what the Deists think them, little better than common fortune-tellers; and their prophecies would hardly be worth remembering or recording, especially in so concise and compendious a history as that of Moses. We must affix a larger meaning to them, and understand them not of single persons, but of whole nations; and thereby a nobler scene of things, and a more extensive prospect will be opened to us of the divine dispensations. The curse of servitude pronounced upon Canaan, and so likewise the promise of blessing and enlargement made to Shem and Japheth, are by no means to be confined to their own persons, but extend to their whole race; as afterwards the prophecies concerning Ishmael, and those concerning Esau and Jacob, and those relating to the twelve patriarchs, were not so properly verified in themselves as in their posterity, and thither we must look for their full and perfect completion. The curse therefore upon Canaan was properly a curse upon the Canaanites. God foreseeing the wickedness of this people (which began in their father Ham, and greatly increased in this branch of his family) commissioned Noah to pronounce a curse upon them, and to devote them to the servitude and misery, which their more than common vices and iniquities would deserve. And this account was plainly written by Moses, for the encouragement of the Israelites, to support and animate them in their expedition against a people, who by their sins had forfeited the divine protection, and were destined to slavery from the days of Noah. We see the purport and meaning of the prophecy, and now let us attend to the completion of it. Cursed be Canaan;' and the Canaanites appear to have been an abominably wicked people. The sin and punishment of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain are too well known to be particularly specified and for the other inhabitants of the land, which was promised to Abraham and his seed, God bore with them 'till their iniquity was full.'-Gen. xv. 16. They were not only addicted to idolatry, which was then the case of the greater part of the world. |