lished, some other individual, if not hundreds, would have appeared, exhibiting the same correspondence. Where is the record of such an event? Can the person be mentioned, in whom there was even an approximation to the fulfilment exhibited in the history of Jesus? I need not say, that no one ever pretended to be able to find such a person. These prophecies describe a combination of gentleness with power; merit with ignominy; benevolence with contempt; they bring together details of ancestry, of family, of birth, of time, of works, of sufferings, of death, which it were ridiculous to pretend have been united in any individual whose name is in the annals of man, except the Son of man, Christ Jesus.

But it may be said, that among these predictions, there are some which human design might have brought to pass. It may be suggested, that a band of men undertaking to promote an imposture, and having these predictions before them, might have selected for their leader one who had been born at Bethlehem, of the lineage of David, and might have ordered his appearance at the precise time of the prophecy. Let this be supposed, and let us overlook the fact that no possible motive can be assigned that could induce a band of impostors to desire the setting up of such a cause as that of Christ; still, how would imposture contrive to unite in its leader the fulfilment of prophecies which, on one hand, foretold him as eminent for wisdom and benevolence; and, on the other, for shame and suffering? How, on this supposition, could all those predictions have been accomplished which relate to the agonies of the cross? Would a deceiver seek crucifixion for the sake of fulfilling prophecy? How was it managed that one should betray him; and afterwards, out of remorse, hang himself? How was it contrived that the enemies of Christ should measure the price of his blood at the exact sum predicted; and then,

that the mercenary traitor should return it to them again, and they should use it in purchase of the predicted potter's field? How did imposture so artfully combine in its cause all the persecutors of Christ, that, without any design to advance its interests, they should have chosen precisely that mode of execution; those expressions of contempt; those instruments of torture; those companions of his sufferings; that mixture for his drink; that severity to his body, while he was alive, and that forbearance to it after he was dead; which, if they had been anxious to prove him the true Messiah, foretold in the Scriptures, would have composed the most effectual means they could possibly employ? Most evidently, the bitter adversaries of christianity-not its friends-brought out the demonstration that Jesus was he to whom gave all the prophets witness.

It

And now is there any possible escape from the absolute necessity of acknowledging that the Spirit of God was in the writers of the Bible, and that this Spirit has testified of Jesus? Will any one pretend, that in the idea of chance there is any explanation of the coincidences which have been mentioned? will not be useless to spend a moment on this matter of chance. It is conceivable that a prediction, uttered at a venture, confining its terms to but one event, and expressing that in a general way, may happen to result so plausibly as to seem like a genuine prophecy. But only let it descend to the minutia of time, place, and incidents, and it is evident that the possibility of its success, by a fortuitous concurrence of events, will become extremely desperate. Hence the oracles of heathen antiquity always took good care to confine their predictions to one or two particulars, and to express them in the most general and ambiguous terms. Hence, in the whole range of history, except the prophecies of the Scriptures, there is not a single instance of a prediction,

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expressed in unequivocal language, and descending to any minuteness, which bears the slightest claim to the praise of fulfilment. But to set this in a more impressive light, I will quote a few sentences from one of the most scientific laymen of the present day. Suppose (says Olinthus Gregory) that, instead of the spirit of prophecy, breathing more or less in every book of Scripture, predicting events relative to a great variety of general topics, and delivering besides almost innumerable characteristics of the Messiah, all meeting in the person of Jesus; there had been only ten men in ancient times who pretended to be prophets, each of whom exhibited only five independent criteria as to place, government, concomitant events, doctrine taught, effects of doctrine, character, sufferings, or death; the meeting of all which in one person should prove the reality of their calling as prophets, and of his mission in the character they have assigned him: suppose, moreover, that all events were left to chance merely, and we were to compute, from the principles employed by mathematicians in the investigation of such subjects, the probability of these fifty independent circumstances happening at all. Assume that there is, according to the technical phrase, an equal chance for the happening or the failure of any one of the specified particulars; then the probability against the occurrence of all the particulars in any way, is, that of the fiftieth power of two to unity; that is, the probability is greater than eleven hundred and twenty-five millions of millions to one, that all these circumstances do not turn up even at distinct periods." But this calculation, you must observe, specifies no particular period for these things to take place; but allows, from the time of uttering the predictions, to the end of the world, for all the fifty particulars to occur. But if a time be fixed, at or Gregory's Letters.

near which they must happen, the immense improbability that they will take place exceeds all the power of numbers to express. This, moreover, is on the supposition of every thing being under the disposal of that fiction of unbelief, a blind chance. How infinite does the improbability appear, when it is remembered, that "all events are under the control of a Being of matchless wisdom, power, and goodness, who hates fraud and deception; who must especially hate it when attempted under his name and authority." This is enough, one would think, to silence for ever all pleas of chance, as furnishing an unbeliever the least opportunity of escape from the evidence of prophecy. What then is the conclusion to which, by the considerations presented in this lecture, we are authorized to come?

First: That in the Bible, there is a great variety of prophecy relative to the Messiah, which has been so remarkably fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and so entirely unfulfilled in any other individual of whom we have any history, that the correspondence necessarily proves the predictions to have been given by inspiration of God, and Jesus Christ to be the person to whom that inspiration, in the uttering of those predictions, referred.

Secondly That the Bible, in thus containing genuine prophecies scattered through its several books, contains a revelation from God, and exhibits numerous and wide-spread impressions of the seal of divine authority.

Lastly: That Jesus Christ, being thus pointed out and honoured by the Spirit of God breathing on the lips of holy men, who in various centuries before his coming concurred in rendering him their testimony, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, was and is to come, no other than what he said--the Son of God-the Saviour of sinners-"King of kings, and Lord of lords."

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"Behold, (saith He,) I come quickly blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." "He that confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven." But how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"

LECTURE VIII.

PROPHECY.

OUR blessed Lord was a prophet, as well as the grand subject of prophecy. Not only did he possess omnipotence to call up the dead from the sepulchre, but omniscience also to bring forth from the darkness of the future, what, to uninspired man, lies as secret as the mysteries of death. By prophecy, as well as miracles, he established the divinity of his mission. In the latter, his appeal was to the senses of eye-witnesses: "The works that I do, they bear witness of me." In the former, it was to the testimony of subsequent history: "Now I tell you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." He predicted not only his own sufferings, and death, and resurrection, but the manner and circumstances attending them; the treachery of Judas; the denial of Peter; the particulars of his ignominious treatment in the council of the Jews, and under the hands of Pilate and his soldiers. He foretold the rapid spread of the Gospel; the persecutions of his disciples; the precise manner of Peter's martyrdom; the continuance of John till after the destruction of Jerusalem; the rejection of the Jews, and the bringing of the Gentiles into the church of God.

But none of our Saviour's prophecies are more impressive than those concerning the destruction of