believing of revelation, that an infidel hath no way of evading the conclufion but by denying the premises. But why fhould it be thought at all incredible for God upon fpecial occafions to foretel future events? or how could a divine revelation (only fuppofing that there was a divine revelation), be better attefted and confirmed than by prophecies? It is certain that God hath perfect and moft exact knowledge of futurity, and forefees all things to come, as well as comprehends every thing past or prefent. It is certain too that as he knoweth them perfectly himself, fo he may reveal them to others in what degrees and proportions he pleaseth; and that he actually hath revealed them in feveral inftances, no man can deny, every man must acknowledge, who compares the feveral prophecies of fcripture with the events fulfilling the famel. bởi

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But fo many ages have paffed fince the fpirit of phecy hath ceafed in the world, that feveral perfons are apt to imagin, that no fuch thing ever exifted, and that what we call predictions are only hiftories written, after the events had happened, in a prophetic ftile and manners which is eafily faid indeed, but hath never been proved, nor is there one tolerable argument to prove it. On the contrary there are all the proofs and authorities, which can be had in cafes of this nature, that the prophets prophefied in fuch and fuch ages, and the events happened afterwards in fuch and fuch ages and you have as much reafon to believe thefe, as you have to believe any ancient matters of fact whatever; and by the fame rule that you deny thefe, you might as well deny the credibility of all ancient hiftory.

But fuch is the temper and genius of infidels; they understand neither what they fay, nor whereof they affirm; and fo betray their own ignorance, rather than acknowlege the force of divine truth; and affert things without the leaft fhadow or color of proof, rather than admit the ftrongest proofs of divine revelation. It betrays ignorance indeed, altogether unworthy of perfons of liberal education, not to know when fuch and fuch authors florifhed, and fuch and fuch remarkable events hap pened; and it must be fomething worse than ignorance

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to affert things without the least shadow or color of proof, contrary to all the marks and characters by which we judge of the truth and genuinnefs of ancient authors, contrary to the whole tenor of hiftory both facred and profane, which in this refpect give wonderful light and affistance to each other: and yet thefe are the men, who would be thought to fee farther and to know more than other people, and will believe nothing without evident proof and demonstration.

The facts, fay they, were prior to the predictions, and the prophecies were written after the hiftories. But what if we should be able to prove the truth of prophecy, and confequently the truth of revelation, not by an induction of particulars long ago foretold and long ago fulfilled, the predictions whereof you may therefore fuppofe to have been written after the hiftories, but by inftances of things which have confeffedly many ages ago been foretold, and have in thefe later ages been fulfilled, or are fulfilling at this very time; fo that you cannot poffibly pretend the prophecies to have been written after the events, but muft acknowledge the events many ages after to correfpond exactly with the predictions many ages before? This province we will now enter upon, this tafk we will undertake, and will not only produce inftances of things foretold with the greateft clearness in ages preceding, and fulfilled with the greateft exactnefs in ages following, if there is any truth in hiftory facred or profane; but we will alfo (to cut up the objection entirely by the roots) infift chiefly upon fuch prophecies, as are known to have been writ ten and published in books many ages ago, and yet are receiving their completion, in part at least, at this very day.

For this is one great excellency of the evidence drawn from prophecy for the truth of religion, that it is a growing evidence; and the more prophecies are fulfilled, the more teftimonies there are and confirmations of the truth and certainty of divine revelation. And in this respect we have eminently the advantage over those, who lived even in the days of Mofes and the prophets, of Chrift and his apoftles. They were happy indeed in

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hearing their difcourfes and feeing their miracles, antl doubtless many righteous men have defined to fee thofe things which they faw and have not seen them, and to hear thofe things which they heard and have not heard them; (Mat. XIII. 17.) but yet bday we have this advantage cover them, that feveral things, which were then only foretold, are now fulfilled; and what were to them only *matters of faith, are become matters of fact and certainty to us, upon whom the later ages of the world are come. God in his goodness hath afforded to every age fufficient sevidence of the truth. Miracles may be faid to have been the great proofs of revelation to the first ages who faw them performed, Prophecies may be faid to be the great proofs of revelation to the laft ages who fee them fulfilled. All pretence too for denying the prophecies of fcripture is by thefe means abfolutely precluded; for how can it be pretended that the prophecies were written after the events, when it appears that the latest of these prophecies were written and publithed in books near 1700 years ago, and the events have, many of them, been accomplished feveral ages after the predictions, or perhaps are accomplishing in the world at this prefent time? You are therefore reduced to this neceflity, that you muft either renounce your fenfes, and deny what you may read in your bibles, together with what you may fee and obferve in the world: or elfe muft acknow lege the truth of prophecy, and in confequence of that the truth of divine revelation.

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Many of the principal prophecies of fcripture will by these means come under our confideration, and they may be beft, confidered with a view to the feries and order of time. The fubject is curious as it is important; and will be very well worth my pains and your attention: and though it turn chiefly upon points of learning, yet I thall endevor to render it as intelligible, and agreeable, and edifying as I can to all forts of readers. It is hoped the work will prove the more generally acceptable, as it will not confift merely of abftract fpeculative divinity, but will be inlivened with a proper intermixture of hiftory, and will include feveral of the moft material tranf actions from the beginning of the world to this day.

DISSER

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I.

NOAH'S PROPHECY

HE first prophecy that occurs in fcripture, is that part of the fentence pronounced upon the ferpent, which is, as I may fay, the firft opening of Chriftianity, the first promife of our redemption. We read in Genefis (III. 15.) I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel. If you underftand this in the fenfe which is commonly put upon it by christian interpreters, you have a remarkable prophecy and remarkably fulfilled. Taken in any other fenfe, it is not worthy of Mofes, nor indeed of any fenfible writer. Gan yli aboon bus

The hiftory of the antediluvian times is very fhort and concife, and there are only a few prophecies relating to the deluge. As Noah was a preacher of righteoufness to the old world, fo he was a prophet to the new, and was enabled to predict the future condition of his pofterity, which is a fubject that upon many accounts re quires a particular difcuffion.

It is an excellent character that is given of Noah, (Gen. VI. 9.) Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. But the beft of men are not without their infirmities; and Noah (Gen.

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IX. 20, &c.) having planted a vineyard, and drank of the... wine, became inebriated, not knowing perhaps the nature and ftrength of the liquor, or being through age incapable of bearing it: and Mofes is fo faithful an hiftorian, that he records the failings and imperfections of the moft venerable patriarchs, as well as their merits and virtues. Noah in this condition lay uncovered within his tent and Ham the father of Canaan faw the nakedness of his father; and instead of concealing his weakness, as a good-natured man or at leaft a dutiful fon would have done, he cruelly expofed it to his two brethren without. But Shem and Japheth, more compaffionate to the infirmities of their aged father, took a garment and went backward with fuch decency and refpect, that they faw not the nakedness of their father at the fame time that they covered it. When Noah awoke from his wine, he was informed of what his younger fon had done unto him. The (1) word in the original fignifies his little fon : and fome (2) commentators therefore, on account of what follows, have imagined that Canaan joined with his father Ham in this mockery and infult upon Noah; and the (3) Jewith rabbins have a tradition, that Canaan was the first who faw Noah in this pofture, and then went and called his father Ham, and concurred with him in ridiculing and expofing the old man. But this is a very arbitrary method of interpretation; no mention was made before of Canaan and of what he had done, but only of Ham the father of Canaan; and of him therefore muft the phrafe of little fon or youngest fon be naturally and neceffarily understood.

In confequence of this different behaviour of his three fons, Noah as a patriarch was inlightened, and as the fa ther of a family who is to reward or punith his children

ferit. Refpondet Theodoretus in Genel. quæft. 57. ab Hebræo quodam fe didiciffe primum Chanaan avi fui verenda animadvertiffe, et patri oftentaffse, tanquam de fene ridentem. Et vero tale quid legitur in Berefith Rabba fect. 37. qui liber fcriptus fuit diu ante Theodoretum, Bocharti Pha leg. Lib. 4. Cap. 37, Col. 308.

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