expectation of those which were distant, and the accomplishment of the last served to confirm the first.

3. A large portion of the scripture-prophecies was committed to writing, and left open to public examination: this is a test, which the spurious predictions of the heathens could never endure.

- to raise

III. The USE and INTENT of Prophecy was, expectation, and to soothe the mind with hope; to maintain the faith of a particular providence, and the assurance of a promised Redeemer; and to attest the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

IV. Of the CHAIN of PROPHECY.

The scripture-prophecies respect contingencies too wonderful for the powers of man to conjecture or to effect. Many of those which are found in the Old Testament foretold unexpected changes in the distribution of earthly power: and, whether they announced the fall of flourishing cities, or the ruin of mighty empires, the event has minutely corresponded with the prediction. These prophecies form a regular chain or system, which may be reduced to four classes; viz.

1. Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular.

2. Prophecies relating to the neighbouring nations or empires.

3. Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah.

4. Prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ and his apostles,

CLASS I.

Prophecies relating to the Jewish Nation in particular.

1. Predictions concerning the Posterity of Abraham. Gen. xii. 1. xlvi. 3.

xv. 5. xvii. 2. 4—6. xxxii. 12. xxxv. 11.

--

Exod. xxxii. 13. Gen. xiii. 16. xxii. 17. xxvii. 4. xxviii. 14.

See the fulfilment of these predictions, as it respects the Jews

(to omit the increase of Abraham's other posterity), in Exod. i. 7. 9. 12. Numb. xxiii. 10. Deut. i. 10. x. 22. Ezek. xvi. 7. Heb. vi. 12. In less than five hundred years after the first of the above predictions was delivered, the number of the Israelites amounted to six hundred thousand men, besides women and children.

2. Prophecies concerning Ishmael. - Compare Gen. xvi. 10-12. xvii. 20. and xxv. 12-18.

From him descended the various tribes of Arabs, whose numbers and manner of living have ever since been, and to this very day are, a verification of the predictions respecting them.

3. It was foretold that the Posterity of Abraham, Isaac, 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. 18-21. Exod. iii. 8. 17. Gen. xvii. 7, 8.)

Accordingly, the Jews enjoyed this land for above a thousand years and when the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were carried into captivity, it was announced that it should be for seventy years: which the event proved to be true, and they continued in possession of Canaan, for six hundred years, until the final subversion of their polity by Titus. Although the ten tribes carried captive by Shalmaneser, and the body of the two tribes who were carried into captivity by Titus, are not now in Canaan; yet since the time of their final restoration has not arrived, this is no objection against these antient prophecies, but a fulfilment of others besides, we have reason to believe that the Jews will ultimately be restored to their native country.

4. The twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy contains most striking Predictions concerning the Jews, which have literally been fulfilled during their subjection to the Chaldæans and Romans, and in later times in all nations where they have been dispersed. To specify a very few particulars

(1.) Moses foretold that their enemies would besiege and take their cities:

This prophecy was fulfilled by Shishak King of Egypt, Shalmaneser King of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Sosius and Herod, and, finally, by Titus.

(2.) Moses foretold grievous famines during those sieges, so that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. This was fulfilled, six hundred years after the time of Moses, among the Israelites, when Samaria was besieged by the King of Assyria; again, about nine hundred years 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.

(3.) Moses predicted that the Jews should be few in number.

This was literally fulfilled by immense numbers perishing by famine during the last siege of Jerusalem, after which many thousands were sold; and also after their final overthrow by Hadrian, when many thousands were sold, and those for whom purchasers could not be found (Moses had foretold that no man would buy them) were transported into Egypt, where very many perished by shipwreck or famine; and others were massacred. Yet notwithstanding all their miseries and oppressions, they still continue a separate people, and have become "an astonishment and a byeword among the nations."

5. Josiah was prophetically announced by name, (1 Kings xiii. 2.) three hundred and sixty-one years be

fore the event.

The fulfilment of this prophecy was remarkable, plainly showing it to be, not from man, but from God. (2 Kings xxxiii. 15.)

6. The utter Subversion of Idolatry among the Jews, foretold by Isaiah (ii. 18-21.), was fulfilled after their return from the Babylonish Captivity.

The calamities, denounced against them by the same prophet, on account of their wickedness, within two hundred years afterwards overtook them. (Isa. iii. 1-14. compared with 2 Chron. xxxvi.) And, on the capture of Jersusalem by the Chaldæans, a

D

few poor people were left to till the land, as Isaiah had prophesied. (Isa. xxiv. 13, 14. compared with Jer. xxxix. 10.)

7. Jeremiah foretold the Conquests of Nebuchadnezzar, and the consequent captivity of the Jews.

These were literally accomplished. Compare Jer. xxvii. 3—7. with xxxix. 11—14. And although the predictions of Jeremiah and Ezekiel concerning Zedekiah appeared to contradict each other, BOTH were fulfilled in the event; Zedekiah seeing the King of Babylon at Jerusalem, who commanded his eyes to be put out, and being carried to Babylon where he died.

8. While Ezekiel was a captive in Chaldæa, he prophesied (v. 12. and viii.) that the Jews, who remained in Judæa, should be punished for their wickedness. In a few years all the evils predicted literally came upon them by the Chaldæans.

very

9. The profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes was foretold by Daniel (viii.) four hundred and eight years before the accomplishment of the prediction. The same prophet also foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and the cessation of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations.

10. Hosea foretold the present state of the people of Israel in these words:- 66 They shall be wanderers among the nations." (ix. 17.)

CLASS II. Prophecies relating to the Nations or Empires that were neighbouring to the Jews.

1. The once prosperous city of Tyre, as Ezekiel had foretold, (xxvi. 3—5. 14. 21.) is now become like "the top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on."

2. The Prophecies concerning Egypt (see Isai. xix. Jer. xliii. 8-13. and xlvi. and Ezek. xxix.-xxxii. particularly Ezek. xxix. 15. 10. and xxx. 6. 12, 13.) have been signally fulfilled.

Not long after these predictions were delivered, this country was successively attacked and conquered by the Babylonians and

Persians; next it became subject to the Macedonians, then to the Romans, after them to the Saracens, then to the Mamelukes, and is now a province of the Turkish empire. And the denunciation"I will make her rivers dry," is fulfilled by the generally neglected state of the numerous canals with which Egypt was antiently intersected.

3. The doom of Ethiopia was foretold by Isaiah, (xviii. 1—6. xx. 3—5. and xliii. 3.) and by Ezekiel. (xxx. 4-6.)

This country was invaded by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, or by Esarhaddon his son, and also by Cambyses, King of Persia. About the time of Christ's birth, it was ravaged by the Romans, and it has since been ravaged successively by the Saracens, Turks, and Giagas.

4. Such an "utter end" has been made of Nineveh, agreeably to the predictions of Nahum (i. 8, 9. ii. 8—13. iii. 17-19.) and Zephaniah (ii. 13-15.), that its very site cannot be precisely ascertained.

5. Babylon is made "a desolation for ever," as Isaiah (xiii. 4. 19–22. xliv. 27.) and Jeremiah (1. 38. li. 7. 36, 37.64.) had severally foretold.

This city was taken, when Belshazzar and his thousand princes were drunk at a great feast, after Cyrus had turned the course of the Euphrates, which ran through the midst of it, and so drained its waters that the river became easily fordable for his soldiers to enter the city. Its site cannot now be exactly determined.

6. Daniel predicted the overthrow, in succession, of the four great Empires of antiquity; the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman. (Dan. ii. 39, 40. vii. 17-24. viii.)

This prediction has literally been fulfilled: but neither the rise of the last three, nor their fall, could have been foreseen by men.

CLASS III.-Prophecies directly announcing the Messiah.

The great object of the prophecies of the Old Testament is the redemption of mankind. This, as soon as