and political laws under which the Hebrews lived, The miscellaneous contents of their facred writings largely explain their cuftoms and opinions. Their own writers, fince the volume of their facred writings was, completed, fupply no fmall affiftance on thefe fubjects; and the accounts which historians and travellers give of the East, where manners, continue unaltered through a course of ages, are a farther fource of moft ufeful information.-We alfo derive important affiance from the Maforetic 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 manufcripts. The difficulties in the Hebrew fcriptures will be diminished in propor'tion as our external helps are multiplied; and as these 'ineftimable books are carefully ftudied by men, who add to fagacity and judgment a large fhare of human learning, and that infight into the nature of language, which arifes from logical and critical inquiries, and from an acquaintance with the structure of the learned tongues and of the kindred oriental dialects 27.' I fhall, fays the great Dr. Clarke, in his Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, point at some particu. 'lar extraordinary prophecies, which deserve to be care⚫ fully confidered and compared with the events, whether they could poffibly have proceeded from chance or 'from enthusiasm.' Among thofe to which he has appealed, I fhall cite only a part of what he says refpecting the fate of those opulent cities of antiquity, Babylon and Tyre. Concerning Babylon it was particularly foretold, that it should be shut up and besieged 281 "7 Newcome's Ezekiel, pref. p. 31, 36, 37, •by 6 6 31 by the Medes, Elamites, and Armenians: that the river" fhould be dried up: that the city fhould be taken in the time 30 of a feaft, while her mighty men were drunken; which accordingly came to pafs, when Belfhazzar and all his thousand princes, who were 'drunk with him at the feaft, were flain by Cyrus's foldiers. Alfo it was particularly foretold, that God would make the country of Babylon a poffeffion 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 correfpondence of these events with the predictions be the result of chance? But fuppofe 'thefe predictions were forged after the event: can the ⚫ following ones also have been written after the event? 'or, with any reason, be afcribed to chance? The wild beafts33 of the defert--fhall dwell there, and the owls 'fhall dwell therein: and it fhall be NO MORE inhabited •for EVER. They fhall not take of thee a stone for a * corner,—but thou shalt be defolate for EVER, faith the Lord-Babylon 35, the glory of kingdoms,fhall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it fhall NEVER be inhabited, neither fhall it be dwelt in from 'generation to generation: neither fhall the Arabian 'pitch tent there, neither fhall the Shepherds make their fold there but wild beasts of the defert fhall lie there. Concerning Tyre, the prediction is no less remarkable : • I will 36 make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a • place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built NO MORE.-The merchants" among the people fhall hiss 38 at thee, thou shalt be a terror, and NEVER fhall be any more. All they that know thee among the people shall be aftonished at thee.' You actually see the completion of many of the pro' phecies' of scripture, fays bp. Newton, in the state of 'men and things around you, and you have the prophe'cies themselves recorded in books, which books have ⚫ been read in public affemblies these 1700 or 2000 years, have been difperfed into feveral countries, have been 'tranflated into feveral languages, and quoted and com⚫mented upon by different authors of different ages and nations, so that there is no room to fufpect so much as a 'poffibility of forgery or illufion.' 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 fatisfied of the truth of pro' phecy 40' · 41 'Jefus himself,' fays, the bishop of Worcester, appeals to the Spirit of prophecy, as bearing witness to his ' person and difpenfation. Search the fcriptures, says he to the Jews, they are they which teftify of mea1.'How generally they did fo, he explained at large in 'that remarkable converfation with two of his difciples after his refurrection, when, beginning at Mofes 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 confideration of fingle prophecies, but from all the prophecies taken together, and confidered as making one fyftem; in which, from the mutual de 39 Ezek. xxviii. 19. 39 A Disc. concerning the Being and Attributes of God, and the Truth and Certainty of the Chriftian Revelation, 9th ed. p. 426. 40 Vol. III. p. 420, 423. * Luke xxiv. 27. John v. 39. 'pend- 'pendance and connexion of its parts, preceding prophecies prepare and illustrate those which follow, and thefe, again, reflect light on the foregoing: juft as, in any philofophical fyftem, that which fhews the folidity of it is the harmony and correfpondence of the whole; not the application of it in particular inftances. Hence, though the evidence be but fmall, from the completion of any one prophecy, taken feparately, yet, that evi'dence being always fomething, the amount of the whole ' evidence, resulting from a great number of prophecies, 'all relative to the fame defign, may be confiderable; like many scattered rays, which, though each be weak. ' in itself, yet, concentered into one point, fhall form a ftrong light, and ftrike the fenfe very powerfully43.' The paffages that follow relate to prophecy in general. If the infidel object against the divine original of the predictions of fcripture, 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, fays Dr. Blair, in his fermon on our Imperfect Knowledge of a Future State, plainly appear to be the plan of the Deity, in all his difpenfations to mix light with darkness, evidence with uncertainty. Whatever the reafons of this procedure be, the fact is undeniable.' Indeed upon the fuppofition of im'mortality, this life is no other than the childhood of exiftence; and the measures of our knowledge muft ' needs be proportioned to fuch a state**.* Since natural religion is by no means exempt from difficulties, it is, in truth, far from being reasonable to expect, that none fhould be found in revealed religion. With respect to those which attend the Jewish and Chriftian revelations, it may, fays Dr. Priestley, be remarked, 43 Hurd, vol. I. p. 35, 47. 44 Serm. vol. I. p. 88; 100: that that the question is not, whether any of the particulars I haye been confidering, 'Separately taken, be likely or * unlikely to come from God, but whether the whole fyf'tem, attended with fuch difficulties, may be divine. If it were poffible that any person should be asked, a 'priori, whether it was probable, that, under the go⚫vernment of a wife and good being, an innocent child fhould inherit the diseases, poverty, and vices of its parent; or whether no diftinction would be made between the righteous and the wicked in war, peftilence, famine, or earthquakes, he would certainly answer it was not probable; though when he fhould come to 'know, and attentively confider the whole fyftem, of ' which fuch events make a part, he might be fatisfied, that it was the result of perfect wisdom, directed by in'finite goodness; and even that a scheme more favourable to happiness or virtue could not have been 'formed; and the time may come, when we shall know ' and acknowledge the fame with respect to the extraordinary, that we do with refpect to the ordinary, dif penfations of the Divine Being". Many enquirers into the prophetic pages of fcripture have, fays bp. Hurd, been misled by the folly of commenting on prophecy by the falfe lights of the imagina⚫tion. 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 fcriptures, they are apt to let this fo neceffary idea flip out of their 'minds; and to discourse upon them just as they would or might do, on the fuppofition that the prophet was 5 Inftitutes, vol. II. p. 88. ⚫ left |