INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

No one, who believes in the existence of a God, can doubt the Divine Knowledge of all Things paft, prefent, and to come, or the Divine Power to reveal those things to men in fuch measure, and on fuch occafions, as Divine Wisdom directs. To God, the past, the prefent, and the future, must be the fame.

He views the greatest and most wonderful events in their remoteft caufes; the longest feries appears but as one object to his allfeeing eye, and the whole fcheme of those events is altogether prefented to the Divine Mind, of which mortals only catch a glimpfe, and furvey the broken parts. But while the prefcience of the Almighty is univerfally acknowledged, his fuperintending Providence is frequently denied. Plunging into the abyss of metaphyfical abftraction, man tries in vain to fathom its depth with the fhort line of his finite understanding; and, unable to reconcile the fuperintending and directing Providence of God with his ideas

VOL. I.

B

ideas of the free will of man, the mifts of doubt conceal this rock of confolation, hope, and joy, to which the Scriptures point as his fecurity; and he either ftruggles comfortless against the ills of life, or coldly refigns himself to the laws of fate, or the fluctuations of chance. To believe, that the Almighty Creator is alfo the conftant Governor of the univerfe, is a point of confiderable importance to human happiness; and to eftablish this doctrine upon folid ground is of confiderable importance to the interests of Religion. It is the defign of this work to draw conviction from the facred fource of Prophecy. But here it may be asked by those who freely acknowledge the power of God to declare his will to mankind by a fpecial Revelation, whether it clearly appears, that he actually has done fo? A fatisfactory answer to this very ferious question will be found in an attentive examination of thofe writings, which the Jewish and the Chriftian Church agree in believing to be prophetic, And many others have been given. The certainty of Revelation has been variously as well as repeatedly proved. It is not the defect in proof, but the want of inveftigation, that produces infidelity. For notwithstanding the pretenfions of the prefent age to zeal

5

for

for truth, who now will even read the laborious researches of her faithful advocates, Chillingworth, Stillingfleet, Pearfon, Hooker, Warburton, Cudworth, Leland, or Butler? Even Maurice is neglected, though the charms of novelty, of poetic fiction, and of a florid style unite to decorate the pillar, which he has patiently built up in her fupport, from a quarry, which her enemies have long confidered as their exclufive property. It is forgotten, that while nothing is more eafy, than to bring forward a multitude of objections in a very fmall volume, it is abfolutely impoffible to answer them within the fame compass; and the generality of readers, it is to be feared, imagine that those objections, which almost daily iffue from the prefs, in the form best calculated for extenfive circulation, are the discoveries of this enlightened age; whereas they are in fact only old arguments and objections, furbished up with the polish of modern writing, or the fpirit of modern wit and falfehood, and have long ago been proved to have neither weight nor value. Let it however be be remembered, that a truth once proved, is

Since the first publication of this work, the negle& abovementioned has ceafed to be fo great a fubject of complaint.

proved for ever.

No rational mind will ad

mit it poffible for the utmoft force which objections can mufter to overthrow a fingle demonftration, or what Dr. Jeremy Taylor has fhown to be nearly of equal strength, a moral certainty.

These confiderations have urged me to try whether one argument, which I confider as proving incontrovertibly both the certainty of Revelation and its chief defign, could not be compreffed within narrow limits in fuch a manner, as to ftrike, and not tire the attention. And it is with the earnest hope of accomplishing this great object, that I shall lay before the reader fome few of the most remarkable Prophecies, capable of the shortest and plaineft application, in two diftinct claffes, and fubjoin the facts, which have fulfilled them. The relation of these facts I fhall take from the most authentic and approved historians, both ancient and modern; and confirm every statement by obfervations, authorized by writers diftinguished for their learning, penetration, judgment, and impartiality, in order to give indisputable authority to each application of the Prophecies to the events, ftated as their accomplishment, and to the conclufions, that will be deduced from them.

FIRST CLASS. Prophecies which have been fulfilled, --down to the fubverfion of the Jewish government.

SECOND CLASS.

Prophecies relating to

the reign of Antichrift, and the reign and final triumph of the Meffiah.

The Prophecies which I have felected for the FIRST Clafs will be fhewn to have been accomplished, by the events to which they are referred, in the fulleft fenfe, and most accurate manner. It will be proved, that the facts recorded have precisely agreed with the facts predicted, and the time, mentioned in the Prophecy,

predicted.

when time is

with the time

The Prophecies I have chofen for the SECOND Clafs, are fuch as are in

part fulfilled, and are, therefore, fo far eftablished upon fafe ground by past time, and accomplishment; and are thus rendered more clearly and certainly proper objects of our attention and inquiry. But as I fhall consider them with a particular view to the present state of the world, and fhall be led to offer an opinion relative to the connexion, which they appear to have as parts of one Power, and to B 3 hazard