' with each other; and if they lived in the fame age, the • largeness of their plan would only have subjected them 'to new difficulties, without being likely to answer any ' valuable end2?' To the fame purpose speaks bp, Hurd. In all the Hebrew prophets a unity of design is confpicuous; ' yet without the leaft appearance of collulufion, fince each prophet hath his own peculiar views, ' and enlarges on facts and circumstances unnoticed by any other. Farther ftill, thefe various and fucceffive 'prophecies are so intimately blended, and, as we may 'fay, incorporated with each other, that the credit of all depends on the truth of each. For, the accomplishment of them falling in different times, every preceding prophecy becomes furety, as it were, for those that follow; and the failure of any one must bring disgrace ⚫ and ruin on all the reft23.'

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The greater part of the Hebrew prophets are written in poetry 24. Now the graceful dignity of the Hebrew poetry cannot, obferves a great proficient in biblical learning, be always perceived in a verbal translation; which not uncommonly disguises the original, as much as a profaic rendering would caft a veil over the beauties of Homer or Sophocles. However,' fays this writer, various kinds of beauty will ever fhine by their 'native splendour throughout the Hebrew scriptures 25.'

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Amongst other confiderations, which may be adverted to as accounting for the obfcurity to be found in the Hebrew fcriptures, it may be remarked, that they are the productions of persons, who lived in A PERIOD OF TIME, and in A COUNTRY OF THE GLOBE, far remote from our own. Accordingly, fays bp. Chandler,

Doddridge's Lect. 4to. 1763, p. 280.

23 Vol. I. p. 136. "On this point fee lectures 18, 19, and 20 of the Prælectiones of bp. Lowth.

is Newcome's Ezekiel, pref. p. 38.

'the

the Hebrew, as other Eastern languages, is entirely dif⚫ferent from the European. Many things are there left to be supplied by the quickness of the reader's apprehenfion, which are with us expreffed by proper words * and repetitions, Particles disjunctive and adverfative, fignificative marks of connexion, and of tranfition from one fubject to another, are often omitted here. 'Dialogues are carried on, objections answered, comparisons made, without notice in the difcourfe 26,

'

❖

Befides, the remains of the Hebrew language are, bp. Newcome obferves, comprehended in one volume; ample indeed, and greatly diverfified as to its matter and flyle, but of very inconsiderable bulk, when compared with the Greek and Roman writings, which have escaped the wreck of time. Hence,' fays the learned prelate, it follow's, that we are not acquainted with its ⚫ full extent. If 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 hiftories af* fcribed to feveral prophets, had also been transmitted to us, the Hebrew tongue would have been enriched with many additional words and phrases, and many dark paffages in the books which are preserved would have ⚫ been placed in the clearest light.'

But notwithstanding the exiftence of fuch paffages be admitted, yet, fays this able critic, there are very few words or phrafes in the Hebrew fcriptures, 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 fifter languages, or the interpretations of the ancient tranflators. The books of Mofes contain an authentic fyftem of the religious

เ

'and political laws under which the Hebrews lived. 'The miscellaneous contents of their facred writings 'largely explain their customs and opinions. Their 'own writers, fince the volume of their facred writings 'was completed, fupply no small affistance on these 'fubjects and the accounts which hiftorians and tra'vellers give of the Eaft, where manners continue unal'tered through a course of ages, are a farther fource of 'most useful information,-We alfo derive important 'affiftance 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 studied 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 6 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 fome particu'lar extraordinary prophecies, which deferve to be care⚫fully confidered and compared with the events, whether they could poffibly have proceeded from chance or ' from enthusiasm,' Among those to which he has appealed, I fhall cite only a part of what he says refpe&ing the fate of those opulent cities of antiquity, Babylon and Tyre. Concerning Babylon it was particu⚫larly foretold, that it should be shut up and befieged 27 Newcome's Ezekiel, pref. p. 31, 36, 37. * If, xiii. 17, xxi, 2,

by

by the Medes, Elamites, and Armenians: that the river22 fhould be dried up: that the city fhould 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 feaft, were flain by Cyrus's' 'foldiers. Also it was particularly foretold, that God * would make 32 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 correspondence of these events with 'the predictions be the refult of chance? But fuppofe * these predictions were forged after the event: can the following ones alfo have been written after the event?" 'or, with any reafon, be afcribed to chance? The wild beafts 33 of the defert--shall dwell there, and the owls 'fhall dwell therein; and it shall be NO MORE inhabited 'for EVER. They fhall not take of thee a ftone for a corner, but thou shalt be defolate for EVER, faith the Lord-Babylon 5, the glory of kingdoms,-fhall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it fhall NEVER be inhabited, neither shall 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 beafts of the defert fhall lie there. Concerning Tyre, the prediction is no less remarkable :

6

་

• 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 shall hifs

29 Jer. 1. 38. li. 36.

31 Cyropædia, lib.

33 Jer. 1. 39.

7.

3 If. xiii. 19, 20, 21.

37 Ezek. xxvii. 36.

3o Jer. li. 39, 57.

32 If. xiv. 83.

34 Jer. li. 26.

36 Ezek. xxvi. 14.

‘at

* 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 39."

You actually fee the completion of many of the pro"phecies' of fcripture, 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 assemblies these 1700 or 2000 years, have been dispersed into several countries, have been tranflated into feveral 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 * 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 hiftory, the more you will be fatisfied of the truth of pro

* phecy 40'

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Jefus himself,' fays the bishop of Worcester, appeals to the Spirit of prophecy, as bearing witness to his perfon and difpenfation. Search the fcriptures, fays he

to the Jews, they are they which testify of me". '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

42

38 Ezek. xxviii. 19.

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.

42 Luke xxiv. 27.

*1 John v. 39.

'pend