junctive and adversative, significative marks of connexion, and of transition from one subject to another, are often omitted here. Dialogues are carried on, objections answered, comparisons made, without notice in the discourse26

If

Besides, the remains of the Hebrew language are, bp. Newcome observes, comprehended in one volume; ample indeed, and greatly diversified as to its matter and style, but of very inconsiderable bulk, when compared with the Greek and Roman writings, which have escaped the wreck of time. Hence,' says the learned prelate, it follows, that we are not acquainted with its full extent. the book of Jasher and of Lamentations, all the odes of Solomon, and all his writings on natural history, were now extant; if the larger annals of the kings of Judah and Israel, and the histories ascribed to several prophets, had also been transmitted to us, the Hebrew tongue would have been enriched with many additional words and phrases, and many dark passages in the books which are preserved would have been placed in the clearest light.'

But notwithstanding the existence of such passages be admitted, yet, says this able critic, there are very few words or phrases in the Hebrew scriptures, of which a probable explanation cannot be given, either from the nature of the thing, or the context, or a comparison of the doubtful place with parallel ones, or the aid of the sister languages, or the interpretation of the ancient translators. The books of Moses contain an authentic system of the religious and political laws under which the Hebrews lived. The miscellaneous contents of their sacred writings largely explain their customs and opinions. Their own writers, since the volume of their sacred writings was completed, supply no small assistance on these subjects: and the accounts which historians and travellers give of the East, where manners continue unaltered through a course of ages, are a farther source of most useful information.

26 Def. of Chr. from the Proph. Intr. p. 11.

We also derive important assistance from the Masoretic punctuation; from the grammars, lexicons, concordances, and commentaries of the later Jews, and from the more complete, learned, and judicious ones of modern times; -and from that grand and highly useful undertaking, the collation of Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts. The difficulties in the Hebrew scriptures will be diminished in proportion as our external helps are multiplied; and as these inestimable books are carefully studied by men, who add to sagacity and judgment a large share of human learning, and that insight into the nature of language, which arises from logical and critical inquiries, and from an acquaintance with the structure of the learned tongues and of the kindred oriental dialects"."

I shall, says the great Dr. Clarke, in his Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, point at some particular extraordinary prophecies, which deserve to be carefully considered and compared with the events, whether they could possibly have proceeded from chance or from enthusiasm.' Among those to which he has appealed, I shall cite only a part of what he says respecting the fate of those opulent cities of antiquity, Babylon and Tyre. 'Concerning Babylon it was particularly foretold, that it should be28 shut up and besieged by, the Medes, Elamites, and Armenians: that the river29 should be dried up: that the city should be taken in the time 30 of a feast, while her mighty men were drunken; which accordingly came to pass, when Belshazzar and all his thousand princes, who were drunk with him at the feast, were slain by Cyrus's soldiers. Also it was particularly foretold, that God would make the country of Babylon a possesion for the bittern, and pools of water; which was accordingly fulfilled by the overflowing and drowning of it, on the breaking down of the great dam in order to take the

city. 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 ones also have been written after the event? or, with any reason, be ascribed to chance? The wild beasts 33 of the desert— shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be NO MORE inhabited for EVER.-They shall not34 take of thee a stone for a corner,-but thou shalt be desolate for EVER, saith the Lord,-Babylon35, 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. Concerning Tyre, the prediction is no less remarkable: Iwill36 make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built NO MORE.— The merchants37 among the people shall hiss at thee, thou shalt be a terror, and any more. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee3.'

NEVER shall be

38

'You actually see the completion of many of the prophecies' of scripture, says bp. Newton, in the state of men and things around you, and you have the prophecies themselves recorded in books, which books have been read in public assemblies these 1700 or 2000 years, have been dispersed into several countries, have been translated into several languages, and quoted and commented upon by different authors of different ages and nations, so that there is no room to suspect so much as a possibility of forgery or illusion.' And it may be added, that the more you know of ancient and modern times, and the farther you search into the truth of history, the more you will be satisfied of the truth of prophecy 4°.?

39 A Disc. concerning the Being and Attributes of God, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation, 9th ed. p. 426.

40 Vol. III. p. 420, 423.

'Jesus himself,' says the bishop of Worsester, appeals to the spirit of prophecy, as bearing witness to his person and dispensation. Search the scriptures, says he to the Jews,they are they which testify of me".-How generally they did so he explained at large in that remarkable conversation with two of his disciples after his resurrection, when, beginning at Moses and ALL the prophets, he expounded unto them in ALL the scriptures the things concerning himself." Accordingly the argument from prophecy is not to be formed from the consideration of single prophecies, but from all the prophecies taken together, and considered as making one system; in which, from the mutual dependance and connexion of its parts, preceding prophecies prepare and illustrate those which follow, and these, again, reflect light on the foregoing: just as, in any philosophical system, that which shews the solidity of it is the harmony and correspondence of the whole; not the application of it in particular instances. Hence, though the evidence be but small, from the completion of any one prophecy, taken separately, yet, that evidence being always something, the amount of the whole evidence, resulting from a great number of prophecies, all relative to the same design, may be considerable; like many scattered rays, which, though each be weak in itself, yet, concentered into one point, shall form a strong light, and strike the sense very powerfully.'

The passages that follow relate to prophecy in general.

If the infidel object against the divine original of the predictions of scripture, that there is much of darkness and of difficulty belonging to them, let it be remembered, that this objection is far from being peculiar to prophecy. It does, says Dr. Blair, in his sermon on our Imperfect Knowlege of a Future State, plainly appear to be the plan of the Deity, in all his dispensations to mix light with darkness, evidence with uncertainty. Whatever the reasons of this procedure be, the fact is undeniable.' Indeed upon the supposition of immortality, this life is no other than the childhood of

existence; and the measures of our knowlege must needs be proportioned to such a state".

Since natural religion is by no means exempt from difficulties, it is, in truth, far from being reasonable to expect, that none should be found in revealed religion. With respect to those which attend the Jewish and Christian revelations; it may, says Dr. Priestley, be remarked, that the question is not, whether any of the particulars I have been considering, seperately taken, be likely or unlikely to come from God, but whether the whole system, attended with such difficulties, may be divine. If it were possible that any person should be asked, a priori, whether it was probable, that, under the government of a wise and good being, an innocent child should inherit the diseases, poverty, and vices of its parent; or whether no distinction would be made between the righteous and the wicked in war, pestilence, famine, or earthquakes, he would certainly answer it was not probable; though when he should come to know, and attentively consider the whole system, of which such events make a part, he might be satisfied, that it was the result of perfect wisdom, directed by infinite goodness; and even that a scheme more favorable to happiness or virtue could not have been formed; and the time may come, when we shall know and acknowlege the same with respect to the extraordinary, that we do with respect to the ordinary, dispensations of the Divine Beings."

Many enquirers into the prophetic pages of scripture have, says bp. Hurd, been misled by the 'folly of commenting on prophecy by the false lights of the imagination. It is true that prophecy, in the very idea of that term, at least in the scriptural idea of it, implies the divine agency; and that, exerted not merely in giving the faculty itself, but in directing all its operations. Yet I know not how it is, that, when men address themselves to the study of the prophetic scriptures, they are apt to let this so necessary idea slip out of their minds; and to discourse upon them just as they would or