38*) 



C H R I S T I A N I T V. 



to leave the event, or rather it* mam circumitanct s, unin- 

 telligible before the fulfilment, and so clear as to be intel- 

 ligible after it. It is easy to conceive that this may be 

 ad at ainable object ; and it is Hying much for the ar- 

 l a* it stands, that this happiest illustrations of the 

 is on the one hand, and this obscurity on the other, 

 to be gathered from the actual prophecies of the Old 

 Tettanxnt. 



1SS. It is not, however, by this part of the argument, 

 that we expect to reclaim the enemy of our religion from 

 his infidelity i not that thr examination would not satisfy 

 him, but that the examination will not be given. What 

 a vi ,lrncr it would be off rn ,; to all his antipathies, 

 Were we to la'id him. at the outset of our discussions, 

 among the chapters of Daniel or Isaiah ! He has too in- 

 veterate a contempt for the Bible. He nauseates the 

 whole subject too strongly to b pr> va'led upon to ac- 

 company us to such an exercise On such a subject as 

 this, there is no contrast, no approximation betwixt us ; 

 and we leave him with the assertion, (an assertion which 

 he has no title to pronounce upon, till after he has finish- 

 ed the very examination which we are most anxious to 

 engage him in), that in the numerous prophecies of the 

 Old Testament, there is such a multitude of allusions to 

 the events of the New, as will give a strong impression 

 to the mind of every enquirer, that the whole forms one 

 magnificent series of communications betwixt the visible 

 ana the invisible world ; a great plan over which the un- 

 seen God presides in wisdom, and which, beginning with 

 the first ages of the world is still receiving new devo- 

 lopentcnts from every great step in the history of the 

 specie*. 



1S4. It is impossible to give a complete exposition of 

 this argument without an actual reference to the prophe 

 cie* themselves ; and this would lead us far beyond the li- 

 mits of our article. But it can be conceived, that a 

 prophecy, when first announced, may be so obscure, as 

 to be unintelligible in many of its circumstances ; and 

 yet may so far explain itself by its accomplishment, as 

 to carry along with it the most decisive evidence of its 

 being a prophecy. And the argument may be so far 

 strengthened by the number, and distance, and indepen- 

 dence, of the different prophecies, all bearing an ap- 

 plication to the same individual and the same history, as 

 to leave no doubt on the mind of the observer, that the 

 events in question were in the acuial contemplation of 

 those who uttered the prediction. If the terms of the 

 prophecy were not comprehended, it at least takes off 

 the suspicion of thr event being brought about by the 

 controul or agency of men who were interested in the 

 ace .mpiuhmtnt. If the prophecies of the Old Testa- 

 ment are just invested in such a degree of obscurity, as 

 i* enough to disguise many of the leading circumstances 

 from those who lived before the fulfilment, while they 

 Vrivr from the event an explanation satisfying to all 

 who live after it, then, we say, the argument for the di- 

 vinity of the whole is stronger, than if no such obscu- 

 rity had existed. In the history of the New Testament, 

 we sec a natural and consistent account of the delusion 

 respecting the Messiah, in which this obscurity had left 

 the Jewish prople of the strong prejudices, even of 

 : tt disciples of the manner in which these preju- 

 1.. were dissipated, only by the accomplishment and 

 of their final conviction in the import of these prophc- 

 i bring at 1 nt so strong, that it often forms their 

 aaam argument for the divinity of that new religion which 

 commissioned to publish to the world. Now, 

 asM.ming, what we still persist in asserting, and ak to 

 be tried "pom, that an actual comparison of the prophe- 



cies in the Old Testament, with their alleged fulfilment Clftirt 

 in the New, will leave a conviction beliind it, that there 

 i* a real correspondence betwixt them ; we eee, in the "^f 

 great events of the mwdispn ught about by 



the blind instrumentality of prejudu:- ai.il opposition, 

 far more unambiguoun cimracter- nt the tinker of God, 

 than if every thing had happened with the full coi.cur- 

 rence and anticipation of the different actors in this, his- 

 tory. 



135. There is another essential part of the nrgument, 

 which is much strengthened by this obscurity. It i neces- 

 sary to fix the date of the prophecies, or to r-tahlii-h, at 

 least, that the timoof their publication was antecedent to 

 the events to which they refer. Now, had these pro- 

 phecies been delivered in terms so explicit, as to force the 

 concurrence of the whole Jewish nation, the argir 



for their antiquity, would not have come down in a 

 as latisfying, as that in which it is actually exhibited. 

 The testimony of the Jews, to the date of their sicred 

 writings, would have been refused as an interested te.-ti- 

 mony. Whereas, to evade the argument as it stands, 

 we must admit a principle, which, in no question of or- 

 dinary criticism, would be Buffered for a single moment 

 to influence your understanding. We must conceive, 

 that two parties, at the very time that they were ii flu- 

 enced by the strongest mutual hostility, combined to sup- 

 port a fabrication ; that they have not violated this com- 

 bination ; that the numerous writers on both sides of the 

 question have not suffered the slightest hint of thia my- 

 sterious compact to escape them ; and that, though the 

 Jews are galled incessantly by the triumphant tone of the 

 Christian appeals to their own prophecies, they have ne- 

 ver been tempted to let out a secret, which would have 

 brought the argument of the Christian-, into disgrace, 

 and shown the world, how falsehood and forgery mingled 

 with their pretensions. 



1 36. In the rivalry which, from the very commencement 

 of our religion, has always obtained betwixt Jews and 

 Christians, in the mutual animosities of Cliristian sects, in 

 the vast multiplication of copies of the scriptures, in the 

 distant and independent societies which were scattered over 

 so many countries, we see the most satisfying pledge, both 

 for the integrity of the sacred writings, and for the date 

 which all parties agree in ascribing to them. We hear of 

 the many securities which have been provided in the vari- 

 ous forms of registrations, and duplicates, and depositories; 

 but neither the wisdom, nor the intert sts of men, ever pro- 

 vided more effectual checks against forgery and corrup- 

 tion, than we have in the instance before u->. A i.d the argu- 

 ment, in particular, for the antecedence of the prophtcie* 

 in the events in the New Testament, is o well establish- 

 ed by the concurrence of the two rival parties, that we 

 do not see, how it is in the power of additional testimony 

 to strengthen it. 



137. but neither is it true, that the prophecies are deli- 

 vered in terms so . bscure, as to require a painful examina- 

 tion, before we can obtain a full perception of the argu- 

 ment. Those prophecies which relate to the fate of particu- 

 lar cities, such as Nineveh, and Tyre, and Babylo i ; those 

 which relate to the issue of particular wars, in which the 

 kings of Israel and Judah were engaged; and some of 

 those which relate to the tuture iiistory of the adjoining 

 countries, are not no much vcii-.-d by symbolical ! gnagc, 

 as to elude the under landing, even of the most negligent 

 observers. It is true, that in these instances, both the 

 prophecy and the fulfilment appear to us in ic.e light of 

 a distant antiquity. Tin y have aecoinpl">hed their end. 

 They kept alive the faiiii and worship ot successive ge- 

 aerations, They multiplied the evidences of the trite 



