PROPHECY

PROPHECY is a word derived from προφητεία, and in its original import signifies the prediction of future events. 2Prophecy proves a supernatural communion with the Deity. As God alone can perceive with certainty the future actions of free agents, and the remote consequences of those laws of nature which he himself established, prophecy, when clearly fulfilled, affords the most convincing evidence of an intimate and supernatural communion between God and the person who uttered the prediction. Together with the power of working miracles, it is indeed the only evidence which can be given of such a communion. Hence among the professors of every religious system, except that which is called the religion of nature, there have been numberless pretenders to the gift of prophecy. The Pagan nations of antiquity had their oracles, augurs, and soothsayers. Modern idolaters have their necromancers and diviners; and the Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, have their seers and prophets. The ill-founded pretensions of paganism, ancient and modern, have been exposed under various articles of this work. (See DIVINATION, MAGIC, NECROMANCY, and MYTHOLOGY). And the claims of the Arabian impostor are examined under the articles ALCOBAN and MAHOMETANISM; so that at present we have only to consider the use, intent, and truth, of the Jewish and Christian prophecies. Previous to our entering on this investigation, it may be proper to observe, that in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the signification of the word prophecy is not always confined to the foretelling of future events. In several instances it is of the same import with preaching, and denotes the faculty of illustrating and applying to present practical purposes the doctrines of prior revelation. Thus in Nehemiah it is said, "Thou hast appointed prophets to preach * * * * * whoever speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, is by St Paul called a prophet." Hence it was that there were schools of prophets in Israel, where young men were instructed in the truths of religion, and fitted to exhort and comfort the people. In this article, however, it is chiefly of importance to confine ourselves to that kind of prophecy which, in declaring truths either past, present, or future, required the immediate inspiration of God. Every one who looks into the history of the world must observe, that the minds of men have from the beginning been gradually opened by a train of events still improving upon, and adding light to each other; as that of each individual is, by proceeding from the first elements and feeds of science, to more enlarged views, and a still higher growth. Mankind neither are nor ever have been capable of entering into the depths of knowledge at once; of receiving a whole system of natural or moral truths together; but must be let into them by degrees, and have them communicated by little and little, as they are able to bear it. That this is the case with respect to human science, is a fact which cannot be questioned; and there is as little room to question it with respect to the progress of religious knowledge among men, either taken collectively or in each individual. Why the case is thus in both, why all are not adult at once in body and mind, is a question which the religion of nature is equally called upon with revelation to answer. The fact may not be easily accounted for, but the reality of it is incontrovertible. Accordingly, the great object of the several revelations recorded in the Old Testament was evidently to keep alive a sense of religion in the minds of men, and to train them by degrees for the reception of those simple but sublime truths by which they were to be saved. The notions which the early descendants of Adam entertained of the Supreme Being, and of the relation in which they stood to him, were probably very gross; and we see them gradually refined by a series of revelations or prophecies, each in succession more explicit than that by which it was preceded, till the advent of Him who was the way, the truth, and the life, and who brought to light life and immortality. When a revelation was made of any important truth, the grounds of which the mind of man has not facul- Prophecy. ties to comprehend, that revelation, though undoubtedly a prophecy, must have been so far from confirming the truth of revealed religion in general, that it could not gain credit itself, but by some extrinsic evidence that it came indeed from God. Hence we find Moses, after it was revealed to him from the burning bush that he should deliver his countrymen from Egyptian bondage, replying, "Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee." This revelation certainly constituted him a prophet to Israel; and there cannot be a doubt but that he perfectly knew the divine source from which he received it: but he very naturally and reasonably concluded, that the children of Israel would not believe that the Lord had appeared to him, unless he could give them some other proof of this preternatural appearance than his own simple affirmation of its reality. This proof he was immediately enabled to give, by having conferred upon him the power of working miracles in confirmation of his prophecy. Again, when Gideon was called to the deliverance of Israel, the angel of the Lord came and said unto him, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour: go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?" Here was a prophecy delivered by the angel of the Lord to encourage Gideon's undertaking: but he, being probably afraid of some illusion of sense or imagination, demanded a sign that he was really an angel who talked with him. A sign is accordingly given him, a miraculous sign, with which he is satisfied, and undertakes the work appointed him. 8And of itself can be no proof of a revelation. From these and many similar transactions recorded in the Old Testament, it appears that prophecy was never intended as evidence of an original revelation. It is indeed, by its very nature, totally unfit for such a purpose; because it is impossible, without some extrinsic proof of its divine origin, to know whether any prophecy be true or false, till the era arrive at which it ought to be fulfilled. When it is fulfilled, it affords complete evidence that he who uttered it spoke by the spirit of God, and that the doctrines which he taught of a religious nature, were all either dictated by the same spirit, or at least are true, and calculated to direct mankind in the way of their duty. The prophecies vouchsafed to the patriarchs in the most early periods of the world, were all intended to keep alive in their minds a sense of religion, and to direct their views to the future completion of that first and greatest prophecy which was made to Adam immediately on his fall: but in order to secure credit to those prophecies themselves, they were always accompanied by some miraculous sign that they were indeed given by the God of truth, and not the delusions of fanaticism or hypocrisy. Prophecy, in the proper sense of the word, commenced with the fall; and the first instance of it is implied in the sentence denounced upon the original deceiver of mankind; "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." This prophecy, though one of the most important that ever was delivered, when considered by itself, is exceedingly obscure. That Adam should have understood it, as some of his degenerate sons have pretended to do, in a literal sense, is absolutely impossible. He prophecy knew well that it was the great God of heaven and earth who was speaking, and that such a Being was incapable of trifling with the wretchedness of his fallen creature. The sentence denounced upon himself and his wife was awful and severe. The woman was doomed to sorrow in conception; the man to sorrow and travel all the days of his life. The ground was cursed for his sake; and the end of the judgment was, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return." Had our first parents been thus left, they must have looked upon themselves as rejected by their Maker, delivered up to trouble and sorrow in the world, and as having no hope in any other. With such impressions on their minds they could have retained no sense of religion; for religion, when unaccompanied by hope, is a state of frenzy and distraction: yet it is certain that they could have no hope from any thing expressly recorded by Moses, except what they might draw from this sentence passed on their deceiver. Let us then endeavour to ascertain what consolation it could afford them. At that awful juncture, they must have been sensible that their fall was the victory of the serpent, whom by experience they had found to be an enemy to God and to man. It could not therefore but be some comfort to them to hear this enemy first condemned, and to see that, however he had prevailed against them, he had gained no victory over their Maker. By his condemnation they were secured from thinking that there was any malignant being equal to the Creator in power and dominion; an opinion which, through the prevalence of evil, gained ground in after times, and was destructive of all true religion. The belief of God's supreme dominion being thus preserved, it was still necessary to give them such hopes as might induce them to love as well as to fear him; and these they could not but conceive when they heard from the mouth of their Creator and Judge, that the serpent's victory was not complete even over themselves; that they and their posterity should be enabled to contest his empire; and that though they were to suffer much in the struggle, they should yet finally prevail, bruise the serpent's head, and deliver themselves from his power and dominion. This prophecy therefore was to our first parents a light shining in a dark place. All that they could certainly conclude from it was, that their case was not desperate; that some remedy, some deliverance from the evil they were under, would in time appear; but when or where, or by what means they were to be delivered, they could not possibly understand, unless the matter was further revealed to them, as probably it was at the institution of sacrifice (See SACRIFICE). Obscure, however, as this promise or prophecy was, it served after the fall as a foundation for religion, and trust and confidence towards God in hopes of deliverance in time from the evils of disobedience: and this appears to have been the sole purpose for which it was given, and not, as some well-meaning though weak advocates for Christianity have imagined, as a prediction pointing directly to the cross of Christ. As this prophecy was the first, so is it the only considerable one in which we have any concern from the creation to the days of Noah. It was proportioned to the then wants and necessities of the world, and was the grand charter of God's mercy after the fall. Nature had Prophecy had no certain help for sinners; her rights were lost with her innocence. It was therefore necessary either to destroy the offenders, or to raise them to a capacity of salvation, by giving them such hopes as might enable them to exercise a reasonable religion. So far the light of this prophecy extended. By what means God intended to work their salvation, he did not expressly declare: and who has a right to complain that he did not, or to prescribe to him rules in dispensing his mercy to the children of men? Upon the hopes of mercy which this prophecy gives in very general terms, mankind rested till the birth of Noah. At that period a new prophecy was delivered by Lamech, who foretells that his son should comfort them concerning the work and toil of their hands, "because of the earth which the Lord had cursed." We are to remember that the curse pronounced upon the earth was part of the sentence passed upon our first parents; and when that part was remitted, if it ever was remitted, mankind would acquire new and more lively hopes that in God's good time they should be freed from the whole. But it has been shown by bishop Sherlock*, that this declaration of Lamech's was a prediction, that during the life of his son the curse should be taken off from the earth: and the same prelate has proved with great perspicuity, and in the most satisfactory manner, that this happy revolution actually took place after the flood. The limits prescribed to an article of this kind will not permit us even to abridge his arguments. We shall only observe, that the truth of his conclusion is manifest from the very words of scripture; for when God informs Noah of his design to destroy the world, he adds, "But with thee will I establish my covenant:" and as soon as the deluge was over, he declared that he "would not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; but that while the earth should remain, feed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, should not cease." From this last declaration it is apparent that a curse had been on the earth, and that feed-time and harvest had often failed; that the curse was now taken off; and that in consequence of this covenant, as it is called, with Noah and his seed and with every living creature, mankind should not henceforth be subjected to toil so severe and so generally fruitless. It may seem surprising perhaps to some, that after so great a revolution in the world as the deluge made, God should say nothing to the remnant of mankind of the punishments and rewards of another life, but should make a new covenant with them relating merely to fruitful seasons and the blessings of the earth. But in the scriptures we see plainly a gradual working of providence towards the redemption of the world from the curse of the fall; that the temporal blessings were first restored as an earnest and pledge of better things to follow; and that the covenant given to Noah had, strictly speaking, nothing to do with the hopes of futurity, which were reserved to be the matter of another covenant, in another age, and to be revealed by him, whose province it was to "bring life and immortality to light through the gospel." But if Noah and his forefathers expected deliverance from the whole curse of the fall, the actual deliverance from one part of it was a very good pledge of a further deliverance to be expected in time. Man himself was cursed as well as the ground; he was doomed to dust: and fruitful seasons are but a small relief, compared to the greatness of his loss. But when fruitful seasons came, and one part of the curse was evidently abated, it gave great assurance that the other should not last for ever, but that by some means, still unknown to them, they should be freed from the whole, and finally bruise the serpent's head, who, at the deluge, had so severely bruised man's heel. Upon this assurance mankind rested for some generations, and practised, as we have every reason to believe, a rational worship to the one God of the universe. At last, however, idolatry was by some means or other introduced (see POLYTHEISM), and spread so universally through the world, that true religion would in all probability have entirely failed, had not God visibly interposed to preserve such a sense of it as was necessary for the accomplishment of his great design to restore mankind. This he did by calling Abraham from amidst his idolatrous kindred, and renewing to him the word of Abraham, prophecy: "Get thee out of thy country (said he), and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." These magnificent promises are several times repeated to the father of the faithful with additional circumstances of great importance, such as, "that he should be multiplied exceedingly; that he should be a father of many nations; that kings should come out of him;" and above all, that God would establish an everlasting covenant with him and his seed, to give him and them all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and to be their God." Upon such of these promises as relate to temporal blessings we need not dwell. They are much of the same nature with those which had been given before to Lamech, Noah, Shem, and Japheth; and all the world knows how amply and literally they have been fulfilled. There was however so little probability in nature of their accomplishment at the time when they were made, that we find the patriarch asking "Whereby he should know that he should inherit such an extent of country?" And as the promises that he should inherit it were meant to be a foundation for religion and confidence in God, a miraculous sign was given him that they came indeed from the spirit of truth. This removed from his mind every doubt, and made him give the fullest credit, not only to them, but also to that other promise, "that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed." What distinct notion he had of this blessing, or in what manner he hoped it should be effected, we cannot pretend to say. "But that he understood it to be a promise of restoring mankind, and delivering them from the remaining curse of the fall, there can be no doubt. He knew that death had entered by sin; he knew that God had promised victory and redemption to the seed of the woman. Upon the hopes of this restoration the religion of his ancestors was founded; and when God, from whom this blessing on all men was expected, did expressly promise a blessing on all men, and in this promise founded his everlasting covenant—what could Abraham else expect but the completion in his seed of that ancient promise and prophecy concerning the victory Prophecy to be obtained by the woman's seed? The curse of the ground was expiated in the flood, and the earth restored with a blessing, which was the foundation of the temporal covenant with Noah; a large state of which God expressly grants to Abraham and his posterity particularly, together with a promise to bring, by their means, a new and further blessing upon the whole race of men. If we lay these things to heart, we cannot suppose that less could be expected from the new promise or prophecy given to Abraham than a deliverance from that part of the curse still remaining on men: Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. In virtue of this covenant Abraham and his posterity had reason to expect that the time would come when man should be called from his dust again. For this expectation they had his assurance who gave the covenant, that he would be their God for ever. Well might our Saviour then tell the sons of Abraham, that even Moses at the bush showed the resurrection of the dead, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.13 These promises made to Abraham were renewed to Isaac and Jacob; to the last of whom it was revealed, not only that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in his seed, but that the blessing should spring from his son Judah. It is, however, by no means evident that any one of those patriarchs knew precisely by what means (A) the curse of the fall was to be entirely removed, and all men called from their dust again. It was enough that they were convinced of the fact in general terms, since such conviction was a sufficient foundation of a rational religion; and the descendants of Abraham had no other foundation upon which to rest their hopes, and pay a cheerful worship to the God of their fathers, till the giving of the law to Moses. Then indeed they were incorporated into a society with municipal laws of their own and placed under a theocratic government; the temporal promises made to their fathers were amply fulfilled; religion was maintained among them by rewards and punishments equally distributed in this world (see THEOLOGY); and a series of prophets succeeding one another pointed out with greater and greater clearness, as the fulness of time approached, the person who was to redeem mankind from the power of death; by what means he was to work that great redemption, and at what precise period he was to make his appearance in the world. By these supernatural interpositions of divine providence, the principles of pure theism and the practice of true religion were preserved among the children of Israel, when all other nations were sunk in the grossest idolatry, and wallowed in the most abominable vices; when the far-famed Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, fell down with adoration to stocks and stones and the vilest reptiles; and when Prophecy they had no well grounded hope of another life, and were in fact without God in the world. From this short deduction, we think ourselves intitled to conclude, that the primary use and intent of prophecy, under the various dispensations of the Old Testament, was not, as is too often supposed, to establish the religion, divine mission of Jesus Christ, but to keep alive in the minds of those to whom it was given, a sense of religion, and a hope of future deliverance from the curse of the fall. It was, in the expressive language of St. Peter, "a light that shone in a dark place, unto which men did well to take heed until the day dawned and the day-star arose in their hearts." But though this was certainly the original intent of prophecy (for Christ, had he never been foretold, would have proved himself to be the Son of God with power by his astonishing miracles, and his resurrection from the dead), yet it cannot be denied, that a long series of prophecies, given in different and far distant ages, and having all their completion in the life, death, and resurrection, of Jesus, concur very forcibly with the evidence of miracles to prove that he was the seed of the woman ordained to bruise the head of the serpent, and restore man to his forfeited inheritance. To the Jews the force of this evidence must have been equal, if not superior, to that of miracles themselves; and therefore we find the Apostles and first preachers of the gospel, in their addresses to them, constantly appealing to the law and the prophets, whilst they urged upon the Gentiles the evidence of miracles. In order to form a right judgment of the argument for the truth of Christianity drawn from the sure word of prophecy, we must not consider the prophecies given in the Old Testament as so many predictions only independent of each other; for if we do, we shall totally lose sight of the purpose for which they were originally given, and shall never be able to satisfy ourselves when confronted by the objections of unbelievers. It is easy for men of leisure and tolerable parts to find difficulties in particular predictions, and in the application of them made by writers, who lived many hundred years ago, and who had many ancient books and records of the Jewish church, from which they drew many passages, and perhaps some prophecies; which books and records we have not to enable us to understand, and to justify their applications. But it is not so easy a matter to show, or to persuade the world to believe, that a chain of prophecies reaching through several thousand years, delivered at different times, yet manifestly subvenient to one and the same administration of providence from beginning to end, is the effect of art and contrivance and religious fraud. In examining the several prophecies (A) This they certainly could not know from the promises expressed in the very general terms in which they are recorded in the book of Genesis. It is, however, not improbable that those promises, as they immediately received them, were conceived in terms more precise and particular; and, at all events, Dr. Warburton has proved to the full conviction of every man who is not a determined unbeliever, that Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, not only as a trial of his obedience, but also that God might give him what he earnestly desired, a feenical representation of the means by which mankind were to be redeemed from death. The learned writer thinks, and his reasoning compels us to think with him, that to this transaction our Saviour alludes when he says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Prophecy. cles recorded in the Old Testament, we are not to suppose that each of them extremely pointed out and clearly characterized Jesus Christ. Had they done so, instead of being a support to religion in general, the purpose for which they were originally intended, they would have had a very different effect, by making those to whom they were given repine at being placed under dispensations so very inferior to that of the gospel. We are therefore to inquire only whether all the notices, which, in general and often metaphorical terms, God gave to the fathers of his intended salvation, are perfectly answered by the coming of Christ; and we shall find that nothing has been promised with respect to that subject which has not been performed in the amplest manner. If we examine the prophecies in this manner, we shall find that there is not one of them, which the Apostles have applied to the Messiah, that is not applicable in a rational and important sense to something in the birth, life, preaching, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth; that as applied to him they are all consistent with each other; and that though some few of them may be applied without absurdity to persons and events under the Jewish dispensation, Christ is the only person that ever existed in whom they all meet as in a centre. In the limits prescribed us, it is impossible that we should enter upon a particular proof of this position. It has been proved by numberless writers, and, with respect to the most important prophecies, by none with greater success than bishop Sherlock in his Use and Intent of Prophecy in the several ages of the world; a work which we recommend to our readers as one of the most valuable on the subject in our own or any other language. But admitting that it would have been improper, for the reasons already hinted at, to have given a clear and precise description of Christ, and the Christian dispensation, to men who were ordained to live under dispensations less perfect, how, it may be asked, comes it to pass that many of the prophecies applied by the writers of the gospel to our Saviour and his actions are still dark and obscure, and so far from belonging evidently to him and to him only, that it requires much learning and sagacity to show even now the connection between some prophecies and the events? In answer to these questions, the learned prelate just referred to observes, "That the obscurity of prophecy does not arise from hence, that it is a relation or description of something future; for it is as easy to speak of things future plainly, and intelligibly, as it is of things past or present. It is not, therefore, of the nature of prophecy to be obscure; for it may easily be made, when he who gives it thinks fit, as plain as history. On the other side, a figurative and dark description of a future event will be figurative and dark still when the event happens; and consequently will have all the obscurity of a figurative and dark description as well after as before the event. The prophet Isaiah describes the peace of Christ's kingdom in the following manner: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling, together, and a little child shall lead them." Nobody, some modern Jews excepted, ever understood this literally; nor can it now be literally applied to the state of the gospel. It was and is capable of different interpretations: it may mean temporal peace, or that internal and spiritual peace—that tranquillity of mind, which sets a man at peace with God, himself, and the world. But whatever the true meaning is, this prophecy does no more obtrude one determinate sense upon the mind since the coming of Christ than it did before. But then we say, the state of the gospel was very properly prefigured in this description, and is as properly prefigured in a hundred more of the like kind; and since they all agree in a fair application to the state of the gospel, we strongly conclude, that this state was the thing foretold under such expressions. So that the argument from prophecy for the truth of Christianity does not rest on this, that the event has necessarily limited and ascertained the particular sense and meaning of every prophecy; but in this, that every prophecy has in a proper sense been completed by the coming of Christ. It is absurd, therefore, to expect clear and evident conviction from every single prophecy applied to Christ; the evidence must arise from a view and comparison of all together." It is doubtless a great mistake to suppose that prophecy was intended solely or chiefly for their fakes in whose time the events predicted are to happen. What great occasion is there to lay in so long beforehand the evidence of prophecy to convince men of things that are to happen in their own times; the truth of which they may, if they please, learn from their own senses? Yet some people are apt to talk as if they thought the truth of the events predicted depended very much on the evidence of prophecy: they speak, for instance, as if they imagined the certainty and reality of our Saviour's resurrection were much concerned in the clearness of the prophecies relating to that great and wonderful event, and seem to think that they are confuting the truth of his resurrection when they are pointing out the absurdity of the prophecies relating to it. But can any thing be more absurd? For what ground or pretence is there to inquire whether the prophecies foretelling that the Messiah should die and rise again do truly belong to Christ, unless we are first satisfied that Christ died and rose again? The part which unbelievers ought to take in this question, if they would make any use of prophecy, should be, to show from the prophets that Christ was necessarily to rise from the dead; and then to prove that in fact Jesus never did rise. Here would be a plain consequence. But if they like not this method, they ought to let the prophecies alone; for if Christ did not rise, there is no harm done though the prophets have not foretold it. And if they allow the resurrection of Christ, what do they gain by discrediting the prophets? The event will be what it is, let the prophecies be what they will. These considerations show how far the gospel is necessarily concerned in prophetic evidence, and how clear the prophecies should be. Christ claims to be the person foretold in the law and the prophets; and as truth must ever be consistent with itself, this claim must be true as well as all others. This is the part then to be tried on the evidence of prophecy: Is Christ that person described and foretold under the Old Testament or not? Whether all the prophecies relating to him be plain or not plain, it matters little; the single question is, Are there enough plain to show us that Christ is the person foretold under the Old Testament? If there be, we Prophecy we are at an end of our inquiry, and want no farther help from prophecy; especially since we have seen the day dawn and enjoyed the marvellous light of the gospel of God. 20 Objections from the clearness of some prophecies, But so unreasonable are unbelievers, that whilst some of them object to the obscurity of the prophecies, others have rejected them altogether on account of their clearness, pretending that they are histories and not predictions. The prophecies against which this objection has been chiefly urged are those of Daniel, which were first called in question by the famous Porphyry. He affirmed that they were not composed by Daniel, whose name they bear, but by some author who lived in Judea about the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; because all to that time contained true history, but that all the facts beyond that were manifestly false. 21 Answered, This method of opposing the prophecies, as a father of the church rightly observes, is the strongest testimony of their truth: for they are so exactly fulfilled, that to infidels the prophet seemed not to have foretold things future, but to have related things past. To an infidel of this age, if he has the same ability and knowledge of history that Porphyry had, all the subsequent prophecies of Daniel, except those which are still fulfilling, would appear to be history and not prophecy: for it entirely overthrows the notion of their being written in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, or of the Maccabees, and establishes the credit of Daniel as a prophet beyond contradiction, that there are several of those prophecies which have been fulfilled since that period as well as before; nay, that there are prophecies of Daniel which are fulfilling at this very time in the world. 22 From what has happened since the objection was first started, Our limits will not permit us to enter into the objections which have been made to this prophet by the author of The Literal Scheme of Prophecy considered; nor is there occasion that we should enter into them. They have been all examined and completely answered by Bishop Chandler in his Vindication of his Defence of Christianity, by Mr Samuel Chandler in his Vindication of the Antiquity and Authority of Daniel's Prophecies, and by Bishop Newton in his excellent Dissertations on the Prophecies. To these authors we refer the reader; and shall conclude the present article with a view of some prophecies given in very remote ages, which are in this age receiving their accomplishment. 23 And from facts of the present age, Of these the first is that of Noah concerning the servitude of the posterity of Canaan. In the greater part of original manuscripts, and in our version of the holy scriptures, this prophecy is thus expressed: "Curse be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren:" but in the Arabic version, and in some copies of the Septuagint, it is, "Curse be Ham the father of Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." Whether the curse was really pronounced upon Ham, which we think most probable, or only upon his son Canaan, we shall find the prediction remarkably fulfilled, not barely ages after the book of Genesis was very generally known, but also at this very day. It is needless to inform any man who has but looked into the Old Testament, that when the ancient patriarchs pronounced either a curse or a blessing upon any of their sons, they meant to declare the future fortunes, not of that son individually, but of his descendants as a tribe or a nation. Let us keep this in mind, and proceed to compare with Noah's prophecy first Prophecy, the fortunes of the descendants of Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, and then the fortunes of the posterity of Ham by his other sons. With the fate of the Canaanites every reader is acquainted. They were conquered by Joshua several centuries after the delivery of this prophecy; and such of them as were not exterminated were by him and Solomon reduced to a state of the lowest servitude to the Israelites, the posterity of Shem the brother of Ham. The Greeks and Romans, too, who were the descendants of Japheth, not only subdued Syria and Palestine, but also pursued and conquered such of the Canaanites as were anywhere remaining, as for instance the Tyrians and Carthaginians, of whom the former were ruined by Alexander and the Grecians, and the latter by Scipio and the Romans. Nor did the effects of the curse stop there. The miserable remainder of that devoted people have been ever since slaves to a foreign yoke; first to the Saracens who are descended from Shem, and afterwards to the Turks who are descended from Japheth; and under the Turkish dominion they groan at this day. If we take the prophecy as it stands in the Arabic version, its accomplishment is still more remarkable. The whole continent of Africa was peopled principally by the posterity of Ham. And for how many ages have the better parts of that country lain under the dominion first of the Romans, then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks? In what wickedness, ignorance, barbarity, slavery, and misery, live most of its inhabitants? and of the poor negroes how many thousands are every year sold and bought like beasts in the market, and conveyed from one quarter of the world to do the work of beasts in another; to the full accomplishment indeed of the prophecy, but to the lasting disgrace of those who are from the love of gain the instruments of fulfilling it. Nothing can be more complete than the execution of the sentence as well upon Ham as upon Canaan; and the hardest infidel will not dare to say that it was pronounced after the event. The next prophecy which we shall notice is that of Abraham concerning the multitude of his descendants; which every one knows is still fulfilled in the Jews even in their dispersed state, and therefore cannot have been given after the event of which it speaks. Of the same kind are the several prophecies concerning Ishmael; of which some have been fulfilled, and others are at present fulfilling in the most astonishing manner. Of this son of Abraham it was foretold, that "he should be a wild man; that his hand should be against every man, and every man's hand against him; that he should dwell in the presence of all his brethren; that he should be multiplied exceedingly, beget twelve princes, and become a great nation." The sacred historian who records these prophecies adds, that "God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer." To show how fully and literally all these prophecies have been accomplished, would require more room than we have to bestow; and to the reader of history the labour would be superfluous. We shall therefore only request the unbeliever to attend to the history of the Arabs, the undoubted descendants of Ishmael; and to say how it comes to pass, that though they have been robbers by land and pirates by sea for time immemorial, Prophecy. rial, though their hands have been against every man, and every man's hand against them, they always have dwelt, and at this day dwell, in the presence of their brethren, a free and independent people. It cannot be pretended that no attempt has ever been made to conquer them; for the greatest conquerors in the world have all in their turns attempted it: but though some of them made great progress, not one was ever crowned with success. It cannot be pretended that the inaccessibility of their country has been their protection; for their country has been often penetrated, though it never was entirely subdued. When in all human probability they have been on the brink of ruin, they were signally and providentially delivered. Alexander was preparing an expedition against them, when he was cut off in the flower of his age. Pompey was in the career of his conquests, when urgent affairs called him elsewhere. Aelius Gallus had penetrated far into their country, when a fatal disease destroyed great numbers of his men, and obliged him to return. Trajan besieged their capital city, but was defeated by thunder and lightning and whirlwinds. Severus besieged the same city twice, and was twice repelled from before it. The Turks, though they were able to wrest from them their foreign conquests, have been so little able to subdue the Arabs themselves, or even to restrain their depredations, that they are obliged to pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe passage of the pilgrims who go to Mecca to pay their devotions. On these facts we shall not exclaim. He who is not struck upon comparing the simple history of this singular people with the prophecies so long ago delivered of them and their great ancestor, whose love of liberty is compared to that of the wild ass, would rise wholly unmoved from our exclamations. 24 The dis-persion ofthe Jewsplainlyforetold,A fourth prophecy of this kind, which cannot be alleged to have been uttered after the event, is the denunciation of Moses against the children of Israel in case of their disobedience; which is so literally fulfilled, that even at this moment it appears rather a history of the present state of the Jews, than a remote prediction of their apostasy and punishment. "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth, even unto the other. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life." (Deut. xxviii. 64, 65, 66.) "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a bye-word, among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead you." (Deut. xxviii. 37.) Similar to this denunciation, but attended with some circumstances still more wonderful, is the following prediction of the prophet Hosea: "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the VOL. XV. Part II. Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days (A)." In this passage we find the state of the Jews for the last 1700 years clearly and distinctly described with all its circumstances. From the time that they rejected their Messiah all things began to work towards the destruction of their politics both civil and religious; and within a few years from his death, their city, temple, and government, were utterly ruined; and they themselves, not carried into a gentle captivity, to enjoy their laws, and live under governors of their own as they did in Babylon, but they were sold like beasts in a market, and became slaves in the strictest sense; and from that day to this have had neither prince nor chief among them. Nor will any one of them ever be able, after all their pretences, to prove his descent from Aaron, or to say with certainty whether he is of the tribe of Judah or of the tribe of Levi, till he shall discover that unknown country where never mankind dwelt, and where the apocryphal Eldras has placed their brethren of the ten tribes. This being the case, it is impossible they can have either an altar, or a sacrifice, or a priesthood, according to the institution of Moses, but are evidently an outcast people living under laws which cannot be fulfilled. The cause of this deplorable condition is likewise as-signed with the same perspicuity: They are scattered 25 over the face of the earth, because they do not acknowledge Christ for the Messiah; because they do not submit to their own king, the true David. In the prophetic writings the name of David is frequently given to the Messiah, who was to descend from that prince. Thus Ezekiel, speaking of the kingdom of Christ, says, "I will set up one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd." And Jeremiah says, "They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them." That in these places, as well as in the passage under consideration, the Messiah is meant, is undeniable; for David the son of Jesse was dead long before any of the three prophets was born; and by none of them it is said, "afterwards David their king shall come again;" but "afterwards the children of Israel shall return to David their king," they shall recover from their blind infatuation, and seek him whom they have not yet known. By their not receiving Jesus for the Christ, they have forfeited all claim to the divine favour, and are, of consequence, "without a king, and without a chief, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without a priesthood." The time, however, will come, when they shall re-turn and seek "the Lord their God and David their king;" when they shall tremble before him whom their fathers crucified, and honour the son even as they honour the father. That this part of the prophecy will in time be as completely fulfilled as the other has been, may be confidently expected from the wonderful preservation of the Jews for so many ages. Scattered as 4 G (n) Such is our translation of this remarkable prophecy; but the Greek version of the Seventy has it, perhaps more properly, thus: "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a chief, and without sacrifice, and without an altar, and without a priesthood, and without prophecies. Afterwards, &c. Proph. they are over the whole earth, and hated as they are by all nations, it might naturally be thought, that in process of time they would have coalesced with their conquerors, and have been ultimately absorbed and annihilated by the union, so that not a trace of them should now have remained; yet the fact is, that, dispersed as they have ever since been over the whole face of the globe, they have never, in a single instance in any country, lost their religious or national distinctions; and they are now generally supposed to be as numerous as they were under the reigns of David and Solomon. This is contrary to all history, and all experience of the course of human affairs in similar cases; it has been boldly and justly styled a standing miracle. Within 1000 or 1200 years back, a great variety of extraordinary and important revolutions have taken place among the nations of Europe. In the southern part of this island the Britons were conquered by the Saxons, the Saxons by the Danes, and the Danes and Saxons by the Normans; but in a few centuries these opposite and hostile nations were consolidated into one indistinguishable mass. Italy, about the same time that Britain was subdued by the Saxons, was conquered by the Goths and Vandals; and it is not easy to conceive a more striking contrast than that which subsisted between the polished inhabitants of that delightful country and their savage invaders; and yet how soon did all distinction cease between them! In France, the Roman colonies gradually assimilated with the ancient Gauls; and in Spain, though the Moors continued for several ages, and till their final expulsion, a distinct people, yet after they were once reduced to a state of subjection, their numbers very sensibly diminished; and such of them as were suffered to remain after their last overthrow have been long since so blended with the Spaniards that they cannot now be distinguished. But with regard to the Jews, the wonder is, that though they do not in any country where they are settled bear any proportion to the natural inhabitants, though they are universally reduced to a state of the lowest subjection, and even exposed to hatred, contempt, and persecution; yet in no instance does there seem to be the least appearance or probability of their numbers being diminished, in no instance do they discover any decay of attachment to their religious principles. Whence then comes it that this people alone, who, having no form of government or a republic anywhere subsisting, are without the means by which other people are kept united and distinct, should still be preserved amongst so many different nations? How comes it, when they have been thus scattered into so many distant corners, like dust which cannot be perceived, that they should still so long survive the dissolution of their own state, as well as that of so many others? To these questions the answer is obvious: They are preserved, that, as a nation, "they may return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." 27Of prophecies respecting the Christian church. We might here subjoin many prophecies both from the Old and the New Testament, and especially from the writings of St Paul and St John, which so clearly describe the various fortunes of the Christian church, her progress to that state of general corruption under which she was sunk three centuries ago, and her gradual restoration to her primitive purity, that they cannot be supposed to proceed from the cunning craftiness of men, or to have been written after the events of which they speak. To do justice to these, however, would require a volume, and many excellent volumes have been written upon them. The reader who wishes for satisfaction on so interesting a subject will do well to consult the writings of Mr Mede and Sir Isaac Newton, together with Bishop Newton's Dissertations, and the Sermons of Hurd, Halifax, and Bagot, preached at Warburton's lecture. We shall only observe, that one of the ablest reasoners that Great Britain ever produced, after having paid the closest attention to the predictions of the New Testament, hath been bold enough to put the truth of revealed religion itself upon the reality of that prophetic spirit which foretold the desolation of Christ's church and kingdom by antichrist. "If (says he), IN THE DAYS OF ST PAUL AND ST JOHN, there was any footstep of such a sort of power as this in the world; or if there had been any such power in the world; or if there was then any appearance or probability that could make it enter into the heart of man to imagine that there ever could be any such kind of power in the world, much less in the temple or church of God; and if there be not now such a power actually and conspicuously exercised in the world; and if any picture of this power, DRAWN AFTER THE EVENT, can now describe it more plainly and exactly than it was originally described in the words of the prophecy—then may it, with some degree of plausibility, be suggested, that the prophecies are nothing more than enthusiastic imaginations." Upon the whole, we conclude with Bishop Sherlock, that the various prophecies recorded in the Holy Scriptures were given, not to enable man to foresee with clearness future events, but to support the several dispensations of religion under which they were respectively promulgated. The principal prophecies recorded in the Old Testament led mankind to hope for a complete deliverance from the curse of the fall; and therefore tended to fill their minds with gratitude, and to enforce a cheerful obedience to that God who in the midst of judgment remembereth mercy. The prophecies, whether in the Old or New Testament, that portray the present state of the Jews, and the various fortunes of the Christian church, as they are daily fulfilling in the presence of all men, are the strongest possible proof of the divinity of our holy religion, and supply to us in the latter days the place of miracles, by which it was at first established.