numbered. This volume is illuminated, but not after the European manner, the initial letters having no ornament. Prefixed to each book there are figures of principal Scripture characters (not rudely drawn), the colours of which are distinguishable; and in some places the enamel of the gilding is preserved: but the volume has suffered injury from time or neglect, some of the leaves being almost entirely decayed. In certain places the ink has been totally obliterated from the page, and has left the parchment in its natural whiteness; but the letters can, in general, be distinctly traced from the impress of the pen, or from the partial corrosion of the ink. The Syrian church assigns to this manuscript a high antiquity; and alleges that it has been for some centuries in the possession of their bishops; and that it was industriously concealed from the Romish inquisition in 1599: but its true age can only be ascertained by a comparison with old manuscripts in Europe of a similar kind; and from such a comparison its date has been referred to the seventh century. On the margin of the drawings are some old Roman and Greek letters, the form of which may lead to a conjecture respecting the age in which they were written. This copy of the Scriptures has admitted as canonical the epistle of Clement, in which respect it resembles the Alexandrine manuscript: but it has omitted the Revelation--that book having been accounted apocryphal by some churches during a certain period in the early ages. The order of books of the Old and New Testament differs from that of the European copies,—this copy adhering less to unity of subject in the arrangement

than to chronological order. The very first emenda. tion of the Hebrew text proposed by Dr. Kennicot (Gen. iv. 8) is to be found in this manuscript. The disputed passage, 1 John v. 7, is not to be found in it: in almost every other respect, its several books agree

, with those which Europeans obtained ages ago through other channels. (t)

I have only to add, that this most valuable and interesting manuscript is now in England. Mar Dionysius, the resident bishop at Cadanette, presented it to Dr. Buchanan, who again has presented it to the University of Cambridge, in whose public library it is now lodged. It has been lately examined with great care and skill by Mr. Yeates, who has published a more minute account of it than the above, in the Christian Observer. (v) These particularities, in reference and description, will prove to you the value I attach to the discovery of this Manuscript. Its existence will compel unbelievers to drop, as broken and pointless, their favourite weapon against the genuineness of our Scriptures. I therefore consider its preservation as another interposition of Divine Providence

(t) Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, No. 115.

(v) Christian Observer, for May and June, 1810. A still fuller account of it has been recently published by Mr. Yeates in a separate volume. He has also given in the Christian Observer, for October, 1812, an interesting account of the Ethiopic Christians in Abyssinia; who amount to many millions; whose origin may be safely traced to the apostolic age; and who, having the same ordinances with other Chris. tians, possessing likewise pure doctrine, and copies of the Holy Scriptures, which, though they have descended to them in an independent channel, agree in all essential points with our own,-thus furnish another powerful evidence of the genuineness of the sacred writings.

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."

140

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

тау 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

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.” (a)

a

we

66

(w) 1 Peter, iii. 15.

(2) 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.