Heathens, in the primitive times, fhould have borne fuch unqueftionable teftimony, fome exprefsly, others by indirect circumstances, as hiftory informs us they did, to the miracles faid to be performed by Chrift and his apoftles, upon the human body, unless they were really performed. In like manner, the reception, which the miracles recorded in the Old Teftament met with, is a miracle, unless thofe miracles were true. Thus alfo the very exiftence of the books of the Old and New Teftaments, of the Jewish and Chriftian Religions, &c. &c. are miracles, as is abundantly fhewn by the advocates for Christianity, unlefs we allow the Scripture miracles. Here then a man must either deny an analogy and affociation, and become an abfolute fceptic, or acknowledge that very ftrong analogies may fometimes be violated; i. e. he muft have recourfe to fomething miraculous, to fomething fupernatural, according to his narrow views. The next queftion then will be, which of the two oppofite miracles will agree beft with all his other notions; whether it be more analogous to the nature of God, providence, the allowed hiftory of the world, the known progrefs of man in this life, &c. &c. to fuppofe that God imparted to certain felect perfons, of eminent piety, the power of working miracles; or to fuppofe that he confounded the understandings, affections, and whole train of affociations, of entire nations, fo as that men who, in all other things, feem to have been conducted in a manner like all other men, should, in respect of the hiftory of Chrift, the Prophets, and Apoftles, act in a manner repugnant to all our ideas and experiences. Now, as this laft fuppofition cannot be maintained at all upon the footing of Deifm, fo it would be but juft as probable as the first, even though the objector Thould deny the poffibility of the being of a God; for the leaft prefumption that there may be a being of immenfe or infinite power, knowledge, and good nefs, immediately turns the fcale in favour of the firft fuppofition.

Fifthly, It is to be confidered, that the evidences for the Scripture miracles are many, and moft of them independent upon one another; whereas the difpenfation itself is a connected thing, and the miracles remarkably related to each other. If therefore only fo much as one miracle could be proved to have been really wrought in confirmation of the Jewish or Chriftian revelations, there would be less objection to the fuppofition of a fecond; and, if this be proved, ftill lefs to that of a third, &c. till at laft the reluctance to receive them would quite vanish (which indeed appears to have been the cafe in the latter part of the primitive times, when the inconteftable evidences for the Chriftian miracles had been fo much examined and confidered, as quite to overcome this reluctance; and it seems difficult to account for the credulity in receiving falfe miracles which then appeared, but upon fuppofition that many true ones had been wrought), But it is not fo with the evidences. The greatest part of thefe have fo little dependence on the reft, as may be feen even from this chapter, that they must be fet afide feparately by the objector. Here it ought to be added, that the objectors have scarce

ever attempted to fet afide any part of the evidence, and never fucceeded in such an attempt; which is of itself a strong argument in favour of the Scriptures, fince this is plainly the moft natural and eafy way of difproving a thing that is falfe. It ought also to be observed here, that the accomplishment of prophecy, by implying a miracle, does in like manner overbear the reluctance to receive miracles. So that if any confiderable events, which have already happened in the world, can be proved to have been foretold in Scripture in a manner exceeding chance and human forefight, the objection to miracles, confidered in this propofition, falls to the ground at once.

Sixthly, if any one fhould affirm or think, as fome perfons feem to do, that a miracle is impoffible, let him confider, that this is denying God's omnipotence, and even maintaining that man is the fupreme agent in the universe.

PROP.
PROP. XIV.

THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES FOR THE GENUINENESS, TRUTH, AND DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES, DO NOT GROW LESS FROM AGE TO AGE; BUT, ON THE CONTRARY, IT MAY RATHER BE PRESUMED THAT THEY INCREASE.

IT is fometimes alledged as an indirect objection to the Christian Religion, that the evidence for facts done in former times, and at remote places, decreases with the distance of time and place; and confequently that a time may come hereafter, when the evidence for the Chriftian Religion will be fo inconfiderable as not to claim our affent, even allowing that it does fo now. To this I anfwer,

Firft, That printing has fo far fecured all confiderable monuments of antiquity, as that no ordinary calamities of wars, diffolutions of governments, &c. can deftroy any material evidence now in being, or render it lefs probable, in any difcernible degree, to those who shall live five hundred or a thousand years hence.

Secondly, That fo many new evidences and coincidences have been discovered in favour of the Jewish and Chriftian hiftories, fince the three great concurring events of printing, the reformation of religion in these western parts, and the reformation of letters, as in fome measure to make up for the evidences loft in the preceding times; and, fince this improvement of the hiftorical evidences is likely to continue, there is great reafon to hope that they will grow every day more and more irrefiftible to all candid, ferious inquirers.

One might alfo alledge, if it were needful, that our proper business is to weigh carefully the evidence which appears at prefent, leaving the care of future ages to Providence; that the prophetical evidences are manifeftly of an increafing nature, and fo may compensate for a decrease in the hiftorical ones; and that though, in a grofs way of fpeaking, the evidences for facts diftant in time and place are weakened by this diftance, yet they are not weakened in an exact pro>

portion

portion in any cafe, nor in any proportion in all cafes. No one can think a fact relating to the Turkith empire lefs probable at London than at Paris, or at fifty years diftatice than at forty.

PROP. XV.

THE PROPHECIES DELIVERED IN THE SCRIPTURES PROVE THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES, EVEN PREVIOUSLY TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GENUINENESS OF THESE PROPHECIES; BUT MUCH MORE, IF THAT BE ALLOWED.

IN order to evince this propofition, I will diftinguifh the prophecies into four kinds, and fhew in what manner it holds in refpect of each kind.

There are then contained in the Scriptures,

Firft, Prophecies that relate to the state of the nations which bordered upon the land of Canaan.

Secondly, Thofe that relate to the political ftate of the Ifraelites and Jews in all ages.

Thirdly, The types and prophecies that relate to the office, time of appearance, birth, life, death, refurrection, and afcenfion of the promifed Meffiah, or Chrift.

I

Fourthly, The prophecies that relate to the ftate of the Chriftian church, especially in the latter times, and to the fecond coming of Chrift.

I begin with the prophecies of the first kind, or thofe which relate to the ftate of Amelek, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Syria, Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, and the four great fucceffive empires of the Babylonians, Perfians, Greeks, and Romans. Now, here I obferve, first, that if we admit both the genuineness of these prophecies and the truth of the common hiftory of the Scriptures, the very remarkable coincidence of the facts with the prophecies, will put their divine authority out of all doubt; as I fuppofe every reader will acknowledge, upon recollecting the many particular prophecies of this kind, with their accomplishments, which occur in the, Old, Teftament. Secondly, if we allow only the genuineness of thefe prophecies, fo great a part of them may be verified by the remains of ancient Pagan hiftory, as to eftablish the divine authority of that part. Thus, if Daniel's prophecies of the image, and four beafts, were written by him in the time of the Babylonian empire, if the prophecies concerning the fall of Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, &c. be genuine, &c. even profane history will fhew, that more than human forefight was concerned in the delivery of them. Thirdly, that fuch of these prophetic events as remain to this day, or were evidently pofterior to the delivery of the prophecies, prove their divine authority even antecedently to the confideration of their genuineness, as is affirmed in the former part of the propofition. Of this kind are the perpepetual flavery of Egypt; the perpetual defolation of Tyre and Babylon; the wild unconquered state of the Ifhmaelites; the great power and Arength of the Roman empire beyond thofe of the three fore

going empires; its difmiffion into ten kingdoms; its not being fubdued by any other, as the three foregoing were; the rife of the Mahometan religion, and Saracenic empire; the limited continuance of this empire; and the rife and progrefs of the empire of the Turks. To thefe we may add the tranfactions that paffed between the contemporary kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, prophefied of in the eleventh chapter of Daniel. For, fince thefe prophecies reach down to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, and the beginning fubjection of thefe kingdoms to the Roman power, they cannot but have been delivered prior to the events, as may appear both from the confideration of the Septuagint tranflation of the book of Daniel, and the extinction of the biblical Hebrew as a living language before that time, even though the book of Daniel fhould not be confidered as a genuine book; for which fufpicion there is, however, no foundation. Laftly, we may remark, that these, and indeed all the other prophecies, have the fame marks of genuineneís as the reft of the Scriptures, or as any other books; that they cannot be feparated from the context without the utmost violence; fo that, if this be allowed to be genuine, those muft alfo; that hiftory and chronology were in fo uncertain a state in ancient times, that the prophecies concerning foreign countries could not have been adapted to the facts, even after they had happened, with fo much exactnefs as modern inquirers have fhewn the Scripture prophecies to be, by a learned nation, and much lefs by the Jews, who were remarkably ignorant of what paffed in foreign countries; and that those prophecies, which are delivered in the manner of dream and vifion, have a very strong internal evidence for their genuineness, taken from the nature of dreams, as this is explained in the foregoing part of this work.

I proceed, in the fecond place, to fhew how the prophecies that relate to the political ftate of the Jews, prove the divine authority of the Scriptures. And here, paffing by many prophecies of inferior note and of a subordinate nature, we may confine ourselves to the promife, or prophecy of the land of Canaan, given to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; to the prophecies concerning the captivity of the ten tribes, and the Babylonith captivity of the two tribes, with their return after feventy years; and to thofe concerning the much greater captivity and defolation predicted to fall upon thofe chofen people in the xxviiith chapter of Deuteronomy, in various places of the prophecies, and by Christ and his apoftles in the New Teftament. There was no natural probability, at the time when thefe prophecies were delivered, that any of these events fhould happen in the manner in which they were predicted, and have accordingly happened; but, in fome, the utmoft improbability: fo that it muft appear to every candid intelligent inquirer, that nothing less than fupernatural knowledge could have enabled thofe who delivered thefe predictions, to make them. The divine authority, therefore, of the books which contain these predictions is unquestionable, provided we allow them to be genuine.

Now, befides the forementioned evidences of this, thefe prophecies have fome peculiar ones attending them. Thus the mere deparVOL. V.

E

ture

ture of the Ifraelites out of Egypt, in order to go to the land of Canaan, and carrying Jofeph's bones with them, plainly imply that the promise of this land had been given to their ancestors. Thus alfo the prophecies relating to the captivities of Ifrael and Judah, and to their reftorations, make fo large a part of the old prophets, that, if they be not genuine, the whole books must be forged; and the genuineness of thofe in the New Teftament cannot but be allowed by all.

I come now, in the third place, to speak of the types and prophecies that relate to Chrift, the time of his appearance, his offices, birth, life, death, refurrection, and afcenfion. Many of these are applied to him by himself, and by the authors of the books of the New Teftament; but there are alfo many others, whose discovery and application are left to the fagacity and industry of Chriftians in all ages. This seems to be a field of great extent, and the evidence arifing from it of an increasing nature. It is probable that the Christians of the first ages were acquainted with fo many more circum. ftances relating to the life, death, &c. of Chrift, as on this account to be able to apply a larger number of types and prophecies to him than we can. But then this may perhaps be compenfated to us by the daily opening of the Scriptures, and our growing knowledge in the typical and prophetical nature of them. What is already difcovered of this kind feems no ways poffible to be accounted for, but from the fuppofition that God, by his power and foreknowledge, fo ordered the actions, hiftory, ceremonies, &c. of the Patriarchs and Jews, and the language of the prophets, as to make them correfpond with Chrift, his offices, actions, and fufferings. If any doubt of this, let him attempt to apply the types and prophecies to any other person. I will juft mention four claffes, into which thefe types and prophecies may be diftinguished, and under each of them a few remarkable inftances. There are then,

First, prophecies which evidently relate to Chrift, and either to him alone, or to others in an inferior degree only. Such are that of Jacob, concerning Shiloh; of Mofes, concerning a great prophet and lawgiver that should come after him; of Isaiah, in his fifty-fecond and fifty-third chapters; of Daniel, concerning the Meffiah; many in almoft all the prophets concerning a great prince, a prince of the houfe of David, &c. who fhould make a new covenant with his people, &c. &c.

Secondly, typical circumftances in the lives of eminent perfons, as of Ifaac, Jofeph, Joshua, David, Solomon, Jonah; and in the common hiftory of the Jewish people, as its being called out of Egypt.

Thirdly, typical ceremonies in the Jewish worship, as their facrifices in general, thofe of the paffover and day of expiation in particular, &c. To this head we may also refer the typical nature of the high-priesthood, and of the offices of king, prieft, and prophet, amongst the Jews, &c.

Fourthly, the apparently incidental mention of many circumftances in these things, which yet agree fo exactly, and in a way fo

much