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LECTURE VIII.

PROPHECY.

2 PETER I. 16-21.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We

have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

In the last lecture, we considered the proof of the divine authority of the Christian religion, derived from the miracles which were wrought in attestation of it.

We now proceed to consider the second great branch of the same proof, that from prophecy; the nature

and importance of which are fully developed in the words of the text. It will be recollected, that the state of our general argument is this. We have abundantly proved the AUTHENTICITY and CREDIBILITY of the books of the New Testament, and by them established those of the Old. Indeed, the former are built upon the latter, and recognize them in almost every page.

We have also demonstrated the DIVINE AUTHORITY of the New Testament from the evidence of miracles; which includes again the divine authority of the Old. For Christianity is the completion of the religion of Moses; his miracles, doctrine, and legation, are repeatedly and solemnly attested by our Saviour and his apostles, and declared to be from God.

The Old and New Testaments, therefore, are true; the sacred books are all genuine, and were severally published at the time when they profess to have been— the facts occurred as they are there stated; every thing may be fully credited, so far as the historical question goes. Moreover, the religion contained in the Holy Scriptures is proved to be of divine authority, to the extent of the evidence which miracles afford.

We now come to the second proof of this divine authority, arising from the clear and undoubted prophecies which have been fulfilled, and are now fulfilling before the eyes of men, in the events and revolutions of the world.

A proof this of surprising force, and as much dis playing the interposition of Almighty God as miracles. Nay, more so-not as to the truth of the interposition, but as to the extent and prominence of the display of the divine attributes. Miracles are proofs chiefly of the omnipotence of God; but prophecy exhibits also the foreknowledge, the omniscience, the wisdom, the truth, the moral sovereignty of the supreme Governor of the world.

The argument arising from prophecy follows that from miracles. Prophecy is designed not to give immediate conviction-its very nature forbids that-but to lay in the materials of conviction, for those who should witness the accomplishment of its predictions. Miracles, therefore, being a direct, independent evidence of a divine communication, and waiting for no remote fulfilment, were the fit attestation, in the first instance, of a revelation from heaven. The Law was introduced on the evidence of miracles: but when Moses had proved his own commission by these immediate credentials, he delivered predictions of a greater Prophet; which, concurring with those of the patriarchs, and leading on to the whole series of predictions which designated the person of the Saviour, and the nature of his kingdom, made the evidence from prophecy essential to the future ages of the Church. The Jews being in possession of a religion attested by miracles, would have still adhered to it, unless something in that very religion had taught them to look for a new dispensation at the coming of their Messiah. To them, therefore, prophecy was indispensable; and accordingly our Lord not only performed miracles as a prophet of God, but professed to be the Messiah foretold in the Jewish scriptures. The fulfilment of the predictions, therefore, relating to the Messiah, furnished the appropriate confirmation of all those claims which rested on our Lord's miracles and doctrine. Thus, as our text observes, we have "the word of prophecy" made more sure.

Prophecy also is important to the Christian church, as a perpetual testimony to the truth of divine revelation, both in the predictions already accomplished in the person of Christ, and in the history of the Jewish people and neighbouring nations; and in the gradual fulfilment of those extended chronological predictions which embrace all the succession of events to the end of time.

The prophetical argument of course requires a more patient attention than that derived from miracles. Miracles were palpable, instant, direct appeals to the omnipotent God, subject to the immediate senses, the eyes, and ears of man: prophecy requires time, and a cautious and minute comparison of the language of the sacred oracles with the correspondent fulfilment. The argument is of a slower growth and a longer period; but when fairly established, brings in all the perfections of Deity in attestation of a divine revelation: it is a standing miracle.

And if the prophecies are found to be pronounced by the same persons, and for the support of the same doctrines and no other, as were supported by the miraculous operations-that is, if those who wrought the miracles delivered the predictions; and those who delivered the predictions performed the miracles, the result in point of evidence is the more triumphant.

Let us now proceed to consider this evidence of scriptural prophecy in its GENERAL FEATURES AND SCHEME; and then let us give a specimen of the

ACTUAL AND CLEAR FULFILMENT OF ITS PREDICTIONS BEFORE THE EYES OF MANKIND.

We shall confine ourselves to the first of these divisions on the present occasion. We shall here begin by laying down a definition of prophecy-we shall then point out its vast extent-the union and harmony of all its parts in the person of the Saviour-the infinite wisdom apparent in the contrivance and arrangement of these parts-the divine commission and unimpeachable moral conduct of the persons who delivered the several predictions and the important practical uses which prophecy has subserved, and still subserves, in the church. These particulars constitute what we may call the general features, or scheme of divine prophecy.

I. SCRIPTURAL PROPHECY IS THE DECLARATION

BEFOREHAND OF SUCH EVENTS AS CAN BE KNOWN

ONLY TO THE OMNISCIENT GOD. It implies the undoubted prediction of future and often remote occurrences, dependent on the contingencies of human affairs, and frequently on the character and conduct of persons at the time unborn; so as distinctly to mark the foresight and sovereignty of the infinitely wise and powerful Creator and Governor of the world.

The conjectures which the most sagacious of mankind may venture to indulge with respect to futurity, are, as we all know, few and hazardous; and are only rarely confirmed, and then very partially, by events. The oracles of the heathen were of this kind; they were merely, as our text expresses it, "cunningly devised fables," designed to soothe the immediate apprehensions of men as to some pending concern, calculated to gratify the depraved passions of earthly rulers and conquerors, and aiming at the advancement of those who delivered them, to wealth, authority, or reputation. They were couched, moreover, in loose and ambiguous language; were very seldom accomplished; and then, perhaps, by some disgraceful play upon terms. They were little more than the guesses of jugglers and fortune-tellers.1

Divine prophecy is no " cunningly devised fable; -it came not at any time by the will of man." It is the clear prediction of important events connected with the salvation of mankind; events so numerous, so circumstantially marked out, so entirely beyond the

1 When Croesus consulted the oracle at Delphi, relative to his intended war against the Persians, he received the following reply: Κροισος Αλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλύσει; "Cræsus crossing the Halys, shall destroy a great empire." This he naturally interpreted of his overcoming the Persians. He was himself conquered, and lost his empire. The juggling oracle, however, by the ambiguity, saved its credit.Herod. lib. i. c. 53; Suidas, iii. 382; H. Horne, i. 4. § 3.