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النشر الإلكتروني

Reason was not uncultivated amongst them; they had poets, historians, and philosophers;* and if they were ignorant of the prophecies, it was in some measure their own fault. They had always much intercourse with the inhabitants of Palestine, both before and after the captivity, and many of the latter were scattered throughout Egypt, and the Assyrian empire; so that they were not without opportunities of knowing the true God, and his denunciations against their impiety. Nor are these casual privileges alone their accusers. In the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, Jeremiah sent a long and circumstantial prophecy against Chaldee to that people, by the hand of Seraiah, the chamberlain of the palace, who was going thither on public business-commanding him to read it aloud to them, and then binding it to a stone, to cast it into the Euphrates, as a type of their fall, to rise no more! But to us who have lived to see Tyre in ruins, and the mighty Babylon swept away-the prophecies are inestimable! for to us, they establish the credibility of the messengers whose chief errand was of far higher moment: and in their cotemporaries, who had not this advantage, the same confidence was inspired by a multitude of predictions whose accomplishment they witnessed.

CATHERINE. Some things, however, were foretoldsuch as the immediate death of Hezekiah, and the destruction of Nineveh in forty days, which did not come to pass; were not such failures calculated to disturb their faith in the prophecies ?

MRS. M. Not at all; because the denunciation in these instances was clearly conditional; and, must rather

* Herodotus and Thucydides were contemporary with Ezra and Nehemiah.

be considered as threatenings of the penalty incurred by Hezekiah and the Ninevites, than as absolute decrees. We may be sure that the design was to awaken them to a sense of their guilt, because we are told that the evil was averted by their penitence and their prayers. What soever is determined by Him who has the uncontrolled power to execute, must assuredly come to pass, because liability to change would argue imperfection in Deity: a possibility altogether inadmissible. The absolute decrees of the great Supreme may exercise our faith, but " except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," is to us the practi

cal admonition.

CATHERINE. The events you have related are certainly the fullest evidence to the authenticity of the Scriptures; and to the witnesses and the actors must have carried conviction. But to us, they are like a dream. The immense length of time that has elapsed since their occurrence has a tendency to weaken their effect on the mind-and it is yet more unfortunate, that an opportunity is thereby offered for the assertion, that the fact was antecedent to the prophecy.

- MRS. M. Such, indeed, is the feeble constitution of our nature but the abundance of testimony completely refutes the objector; whilst to us, the fleeting images of the dream, which we are sure did once exist, are continually restored by the hourly accomplishment of other prophecies before our own eyes. The actual condition of the Jewish nation at this day, so precisely accordant with the declaration of the prophets, would, in the absence of every other proof, establish their divine inspiration. Moses, on the banks of the Jordan, before their entrance into Canaan, reminded them of their repeated 66 covenant with

God, to keep his commandments, and his statutes, because he had taken them to be a peculiar people, and had made them high above all nations in praise, and in name, and in honour;" and most affectingly enumerated the various blessings which should follow their obedience. But if they did turn aside from their God, that then, the reverse of all these blessings should come to pass, and in the end, that they should "be rooted out of their land, and strangers should possess it-that they should be scattered among all people upon the face of the earth-that among these they should find no ease, but should be only oppressed and crushed always, and that these plagues should be of long continuance."

These terrible words of Moses, together with many others of the same import, were spoken three thousand years ago, and the same things were afterwards predicted by later prophets. Seven hundred years before the birth of our Saviour, Hosea said, "the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice." Now here are prophecies that have been fulfilling for eighteen hundred years-and are daily fulfilling. The Israelites have been rooted out of their own land, they have been dispersed into all the nations-there is no inhabited place where they are not found, nor have they lived in "ease" and honour any where. The very soul is sickened at the histories of their sufferings. Thousands and millions of these injured people have been destroyed by the cruelty and rapacity of their rulers, so that had they not been most signally preserved a standing miracle to the world, the very name of

* Deut. 28..

a Jew, would now be like that of Amalek, "blotted out from under heaven!" They have, too, been many days without a king and without a sacrifice-every where subordinate, they have no government of their own, nor can they have the full exercise of their religion, whilst Jerusalem, the only place where their solemn feasts may be held, remains in the hands of their enemies.

FANNY. The preservation of the Jews under circumstances so repugnant, would seem plainly to indicate some illustrious design, yet to be accomplished.

MRS. M. No one who believes the words of Holy Writ, entertains any doubt on that subject. They themselves are supported by the prospect of glorious days, to the stock of Abraham. Jeremiah, who lived in the decline of the Hebrew state, and whilst the divine judgments were suspended, consoles them in this encouraging language"Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the Lord: for 1 am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure." "" I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid." By the evangelical prophet Isaiah, they have a multitude of most splendid promises. All the beauty and magnificence of nature are employed as emblematical of their future peace and security. They have, therefore, abundant reason to trust in Him who has said-" For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer." "The sons also of them that

afflicted thee, shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee, shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, the city of the Lord; the Zion of the Holy One of Israel." "I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.""And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children and their children's children, for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever."

CATHERINE. What is meant by the promise that David should be their prince for ever?

MRS. M. It is not to be supposed that the name of David in this place is to be literally understood: that David, the son of Jesse, is to be raised from the dead, to become again the prince of Israel. We must then seek an explanation in the figurative style of the prophetic writings and your question introduces us easily to another branch of prophecy, and to that which was its chief object, the promise of the Messiah.

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The divine Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ, was to proceed from the Hebrew nation, and was first to preach his gospel to them-hence it was proper that such an expectation should be kept up amongst them -and hence also it was proper, that amongst them, the prophets in succession should arise-for " to Him give all the prophets witness." Before the calling of Abraham from the Gentiles, the Redeemer had been revealed to Adam, and the patriarchs; but in language so obscure, that their conceptions of the extent of the blessing were probably very imperfect. Advancing in time, revelations become more lucid-the clouds disperse, and the "

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