(having the fact, as I said, to reason upon) that, to obtain such purpose, it was fit to select a peculiar people? And, if thus much be acknowledged, it will hardly be thought a question of much moment, though no answer could be given to it, why the Jews had that exclusive privilege conferred upon them.

It is true, a great scheme of prophecy was once revealed to a gentile king;* but a king, connected with the Jews, and who had a Jewish prophet for his interpreter. It is, besides, observable of that prophetic scheme, that it laid open the future fortunes of four great empires; but all of them instruments in the hand of God to carry on his designs, on the Jewish people first, but ultimately, with regard to Jesus. For it hath been remarked with equal truth and penetration, that Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the four kingdoms was designed, as a sort of prophetic chronology, to point out, by a series of successive empires, the beginning and end of Christ's spiritual kingdom. So that the reason, why those four empires only were distinguished by the spirit of prophecy, was not because they were greater than all others, but simply because the course of their history led, in

* Daniel, c. ii.

a regular and direct succession, to the times and reign of Christ.*

We see then, on the principle, that prophecy was given for the sake of Jesus only, that no presumption lies against the truth of it, on account of its respecting chiefly one people, how inconsiderable soever in itself, or from its silence in regard to some of the largest and most flourishing kingdoms that have appeared in the world.

IV. Lastly (for I now hasten to an end of this discourse) I infer from the same principle, "That,

* Est autem Quaternio iste regnorum Danielis (quod imprimis observari velim) CHRONOLOGIA QUÆDAM PROPHETICA, non tam annorum quam regnorum intervallis distincta, ubi regnorum in præcipua orbis terrarum parte, simul ecclesiam et populum Dei complexa, sibi invicem succedentium serie, monstratur tempus quo Christi regnum a tot seculis promissum et primum inchoandum sit, idemque demum certis temporibus consummandum.

-Ex his, quæ dicta sunt, ratio elucet, quare, ex omnibus mundi regnis, quatuor hæc sola selegit Spiritus sanctus, quorum fata tam insigni ornaret prophetia; nempe quia ex his solis inter omnia mundi regna periodus temporum ejusmodi contexi potuit, qua recta serie et ordinata successione perduceret ad tempora et momenta regni Christi. Non vero quia nulla istis paria imperia, forsan et aliquibus majora, per omnia secula orbis visurus esset. Nam neque Saracenorum olim, neque hodie Turcarum, neque Tartarorum regna ditionis amplitudine Persico aut Græco, puto nec Assyrio, quicquam concedunt; imo, ni fallor, excedunt.

MEDE'S Works, b. iii. p. 712. Lond. 1672.

if, even after a mature consideration of the prophecies, and of the events, in which they are taken to be fulfilled, there should, after all, be some cloud remaining on this subject, which with all our wit or pains we cannot wholly remove, this state of things would afford no objection to prophecy, because it is indeed no other than we might reasonably expect."

For, 1. If Jesus be the end of prophecy, the same reasons that made it fit to deliver some predictions darkly, will further account to us for some degree of obscurity in the application of them to their corresponding events.

I say will account to us for such obscurityfor, whatever those reasons were, they could not have taken effect, but by the intervention of such means, as must darken in some degree, the application of a prophecy, even after the accomplishment of it; unless we say, that an object can be seen as distinctly through a veil, as without one. For instance; figurative language is the chief of those means, by which it pleased the Inspirer to throw a shade on prophecies, unfulfilled: but figurative language, from the nature of it, is not so precise and clear, as literal expression, even when the event prefigured has lent its aid to illustrate and explain that language.

If then it was fit that some prophecies concerning Jesus should be delivered obscurely, it cannot be supposed that such prophecies, when they come to be applied, will acquire a full and absolute perspicuity.*

2. If the dispensation of Jesus be the main subject of the prophecies, then may some of them be still impenetrable to us, because the various for. tunes of that dispensation are not yet perfectly disclosed, and so some of them may not hitherto have been fulfilled. But the completion of a prophecy is that which gives the utmost degree of clearness, of which it is capable.

3. But lastly and chiefly, if the end and use of prophecy be to attest the truth of christianity, then may we be sure that such attestation will not caṛry with it the utmost degree of evidence. For Christianity is plainly a state of discipline and probation calculated to improve our moral nature, by giving scope and exercise to our moral faculties. So that, though the evidence for it be real evi

* To this purpose the late learned and ingenious author of the Discourses on Prophecy-" A figurative and dark description of a future event will be figurative and dark still, when the event happens." And again-" No event can make a figurative or metaphorical expression to be a plain or literal one." Bishop Sherlock, Disc. ii. p. 32 and 36, London, 1749.

dence, and on the whole sufficient evidence, yet neither can we expect it to be of that sort which should compel our assent. Something must be

left to quicken our attention, to excite our industry, and to try the natural ingenuity of the human mind.

Had the purpose of prophecy been to shew, merely, that a predicted event was foreseen, then the end had been best answered by throwing all possible evidence into the completion. But its concern being to shew this to such only as should be disposed to admit a reasonable degree of evidence, it was not necessary, or rather it was plainly not fit, that the completion should be seen in that strong and irresistible light.*

For all the reasons, now given (and doubtless, for many more) it was to be expected, that prophecy would not be one cloudless emanation of light and glory. If it be clear enough to serve the ends, for which it was designed, if through all its obscurities, we be able to trace the hand and intention of its divine Author; what more would we have? How improvidently, indeed, do we ask more of that great Being, who, for the sake of the natural

* Le dessein de Dieu est plus de perfectionner la volonte, que l'esprit. Or, la clarte perfaite ne serviroit qu'a l'esprit, et nuiroit a la volonte. Pascal.