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in favour of the Christian Religion; another reward to European Christians for their zeal and activity in transmitting the benefits of the Gospel to heathen nations: and I rejoice in this fresh instance in which

"I may assert eternal Providence,

“And justify the ways of God with men.”

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LETTER VI.

On the Evidence deducible from the Prophecies.

It is well, my dear Friend, for Christians in general, that they can arrive at a perfect conviction of the truth of the religion they profess, a well-grounded assurance of "the hope that is in them," (w) without instituting so long an investigation as that, the results of which were laid before you in my last letter. Such an inquiry may serve to convince unbelievers, that even the external evidences of Christianity are, in their nature, really irresistible to all those who do not voluntarily sheath their understandings against the impressions of evidence flowing from all quarters, and shut their eyes against the light of truth: but those who are willing to derive conviction from the fountain of divine knowledge, have a far shorter way to arrive at it than that we have so recently been tracing. The Bible is its own witness: the predictions scattered through it prove its divine origin. Other evidences may obtain admission to the mind, but this species demands it: others may dispel darkness, but this comes clothed in light. In the present world we are in a benighted state; but happily "we have a sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do dwell that we take heed, as unto a light that “shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts." (x)

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(w) 1 Peter, iii. 15.

(x) 2 Peter, i. 19.

Prophecy, viewed in the sense we now wish to contemplate it, that is, as implying the knowledge and announcement of things, which are either secret in their own nature, as the mind and will of God, or so remote in point of space, or distant in point of time, as to be undiscoverable by human skill and foresight; or simply, as denoting the prediction of future events depending on the action of free agents, (y) was obviously never intended as evidence of an original revelation. It is plainly unfit for such a purpose, because it is impossible, without some extrinsic proof of its divine origin, to know whether any prophecy be true or false, till the æra arrive at which it ought to be accomplished. Yet the frequent occurrence of prophecies may be productive of great religious advantages antecedent to their being fulfilled, since it may keep alive a sense of religion, and inspire with a hope of future deliverance from present calamity, such as slavery or banishment. And this seems to have been one great object in delivering the prophecies under the Old Testament dispensation, since most of them pointed to emancipation from either bodily or spiritual bondage.

But whatever may be the tendency or the utility of prophecy previous to its completion, its tendency subsequent to such a completion is, so far as it is known, decidedly and inevitably favourable to the divine appointment of him who delivered the prediction, and, in

(y) I here give this restricted definition, because the word is sometimes used in Scripture to denote preaching or teaching. See Nehemiah vi. 7. 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 3, 4, &c. Indeed, we find the word prophesying in Scripture used to denote in general the speaking, or writing, by Divine revelation, whether with reference to doctrines or to matter of fact.

certain cases, to the divine selection of the person to whom such prediction points. The foreknowledge of future contingent events is universally allowed to be a peculiar attribute of Deity. Future contingencies, such, for example, as those which relate to the rise and fall of nations and states not yet in existence, or to the minute concerns of individuals not yet born, are secrets which it is evident no man or angel can penetrate; their causes being indeterminate, their relations with other things fluctuating and unknown: it follows, therefore, that the prediction of such contingent events cannot otherwise than proceed from God; and farther, since God cannot, without a violation of his perfect Holiness and Rectitude, visibly aid delusion and wickedness, the inference is equally cogent and necessary, that the accomplishment of predictions delivered by those who pretend they have divine authority, amounts to a full proof that they really possess the authority they assume. Other arguments may be evaded; other evidence may not convince; strange effects (though not miraculous ones) may be produced by other than divine power: but the plain and complete correspondence of events to the standing records of ancient prophecies, obvious and conspicuous to all who will be at the pains to compare them, and applying accurately to the nicest shades of the specified circumstances, suggests most forcibly the conviction, that the predictions came from God, and were declared to man‍ for the wisest and most important purposes. This or "nothing (says Justin Martyr) is the work of God: "to declare a thing shall come to be, long before it is

"in being, and then to bring about the accomplishment "of that very thing, according to the same declara❝tion." (*)

This then is a kind of evidence that may be known, read, and appreciated, by all men; and this is the species of evidence with which every part of Scripture, from the Pentateuch to the Apocalypse, abounds. The history of the fall of man is immediately succeeded by the significant prediction of that "Seed of "the Woman which should bruise the Serpent's head." Even there the Messiah was marked out so as not to be mistaken: the prophecy has never been applied to another: the "light of the world" shone distinctly, though it might, notwithstanding, glimmer feebly, when seen through the long vista of four thousand years. Previous to the general deluge, the will of God was but seldom declared in prophecy; but almost immediately after that remarkable event, Noah delivered some extraordinary predictions relative to the descendants of his three sons; and those predictions, though they were divulged more than two thousand years before the Christian æra, have been fulfilling through the several periods of time to this day! In like manner the prophecies revealed from time to time, as those concerning the Ishmaelites, those of dying Jacob, of Balaam, of Moses (concerning the Jews), the prophecies relating to Ninevah, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, the great empires, the destruction of Jeru

(2) Just. Mart. Apol. ii. sect. 14. This excellent apologist has indeed entered fully into the argument from prophecy, in the Apology just quoted.

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