intimate and supernatural communion between God and the person who uttered the prediction. It is evident, however, that prophecy was never intended as an evidence of an original revelation. From its very nature it is totally unfit for such a purpose, because it is impossible, without some extrinsic proof of its divine origin, to ascertain whether any prophecy be true or false, till the period arrive when it ought to be accomplished. But when it is fulfilled, it affords complete evidence, that he who uttered it spake by the Spirit of God, and that the doctrines he taught were dictated by the same Spirit, and, consequently, To us, therefore, who live in an age posterior to the fulfilment of many of the ancient prophecies, and while some of them are actually accomplishing, the fulfilment of these predictions forms a powerful and striking evidence of the divine authority of the writers both of the Old and the New Testament.

true.

The first prophecy which was given forth in the garden of Eden, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent," and the predictions of the Jewish prophets respecting the appearance, the miracles, the sufferings, the death, resurrection, and subsequent glory of Messiah, and the opposition he was to endure from the people to whom he was sent, were literally accomplished, when Jesus Christ appeared in the world; and the narrations of the evangelists may be considered as a commentary upon these ancient prophecies. The deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, and its accomplishment by Cyrus,-the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, foretold by Jeremiah,-the succession of the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchies, the persecution of the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes, and the erection of the papal

kingdom foretold by Daniel,-and the destruction of Jerusalem and the dreadful miseries which should befall its inhabitants, foretold by Jesus Christ, have all received their accomplishment, according to the spirit and import of the original predictions, and this accomplishment is embodied in the history of nations.

But there are prophecies which were uttered several thousands of years ago, of the accomplishment of which we have sensible evidence at the present moment, if we look around us and consider the state of the nations and empires of the world. For example, it was prophesied respecting Ishmael, the son of Abraham," that he should be a wild man; that his hand should be against every man, and every man's hand against him; that he should dwell in the presence of all his brethren; that he should be multiplied exceedingly, beget twelve princes, and become a great nation." This prediction has been literally accomplished in the Arabs, the undoubted descendants of Ishmael, who, for time immemorial, have been robbers by land and pirates by sea; and though their hands have been against every man, and every man's hand against them, they have always dwelt, and, at this day, still dwell, in "the presence of their brethren," a free and independent people. The greatest conquerors in the world have attempted to subdue them, but their attempts uniformly failed of success. When they appeared on the brink of ruin, they were signally and providentially delivered. Alexander was preparing an expedition against them, when he was cut off in the flower of his age. Pompey was in the career of his conquest, when urgent affairs called him to another quarter. Gallius had penetrated far into their country, when a fatal disease destroyed great numbers of his men, and obliged him

to return. Trajan besieged their capital city; but was defeated by thunder, and lightning, and whirlwinds. Severus besieged the same city twice, and was twice repelled from before it. Even the Turks have been unable to subdue the Arabs, or even to restrain their depredations; and they are obliged to pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe passage of the pilgrims who go to Mecca to pay their devotions. The curse pronounced upon Ham, the father of Canaan, could also be shown to have been signally accomplished in the case of the Canaanites, and the Africans, their descendants, who have been literally a servant of servants to their brethren." They were under the dominion, first of the Romans, then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks. And in what ignorance, barbarity, slavery and misery do most of them remain? Many thousands of them are every year bought and sold, like beasts in the market, and conveyed from one quarter of the world to do the work of beasts in another. The present state of Babylon is also a striking accomplishment of the denunciations of ancient prophecy. When we consider the vast extent and magnificence of that ancient city," the glory of kingdoms and the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency," we should have thought it almost impossible that it should have become "an utter desolation," that "the wild beasts should cry in its desolate houses, and dragons in its pleasant palaces," and that "it should never be inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation," as the prophet Isaiah had foretold, several hundreds of years prior to its destruction, and when it was flourishing in the height of its glory.* Yet we know for certain,

* Isaiah xiii. 19-22.

that this once magnificent metropolis, whose hanging gardens were reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, has become so complete a desolation, that the besom of destruction has left scarcely a single trace of its former grandeur; and it is a subject of dispute among travellers, whether the exact site on which it was built be yet ascertained.

In short, the present state of the Jews, compared with ancient predictions, is one of the most striking and convincing proofs of the literal fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. The following prediction respecting them was uttered more than 1700 years before the commencement of the Christian era : "The Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other. And among those nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind."—" And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead 99* you. The whole history of the Jewish nation since the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as the present state of that singular people, forms a striking commentary upon these ancient predictions, and shows, that they have been fully and literally accomplished. The Jews, it is well known, have been dispersed almost over the whole face of the globe for more than seventeen hundred years; they have been despised and hated by all nations; they have suffered the most cruel persecutions; "their life has hung in doubt before them, and they have feared day and night," both for their

* Deut. ch. xxviii.

property and their lives; they have been sold in multitudes, like cattle in the market; they have been exposed on public theatres, to exhibit fights, or be devoured by wild beasts. So strong were popular prejudices and suspicions against them, that in the year 1348, on suspicion of their having poisoned the springs and wells, a million and a half of them were cruelly massacred. In 1492, 500,000 of them were driven out of Spain, and 150,000 from Portugal, and even at the present moment they are, in most places, subjected both to civil incapacities and unchristian severities. Yet, notwithstanding the hatred and contempt in which they are held, wherever they appear, they are most obstinately tenacious of the religion of their fathers, although their ancestors were so prone to apostatize from it; and although most of them seem to be utter strangers to piety, and pour contempt on the moral precepts of their own law, they are most obstinately attached to the ceremonial institutions of it, burdensome and inconvenient as they are. They have never been amalgamated with any of the nations among which they dwelt; they remain a distinct people, notwithstanding their numerous dispersions; their numbers are not diminished; and, were they collected into one body, they would form a nation as numerous and powerful as in the most flourishing periods of the Jewish commonwealth. The existence of the Jews in such circumstances, as a distinct nation, so contrary to the history of every other nation, and to the course of human affairs in similar cases, may justly be considered as a standing miracle for the truth of Divine revelation. Such a scene in the conduct of the Divine government, cannot be paralleled in the history of any other people on the face of the earth; and their be