world; the inference from that completion is not to be evaded.

For as to the publication of the prophetic docu ments, it is here, in each case, unquestionable. The Apocalypse was written before the end of the first century. The latest period of St. John's life so far certifies its antiquity. And although it was not for some time received into the general Canon of the New Testament, it was known, and published; and it was admitted into that Canon, before the dissolution of the Western Empire; and some centuries before the æra of the Papal dominion, which it describes. But our business is simply with its publication. The early publication of the Epistles of St. Paul is abundantly notorious.-The conditions therefore, which were originally proposed, are found to obtain in this branch of Scripture prophecy, conditions warranting a divine Inspiration.

One remark more I shall subjoin; it extends to the three cases of Prophecy which have been examined. Those have been, 1. the prophecy, which predicts the establishment of the Gospel; 2. that which foreshews the rejected and outcast condition of the Jewish people; and 3. that which describes the great eclipse and corruption of Christianity under the dominion of the Church of Rome.

These are no prophecies of curiosity. The sub

jects themselves are of that kind in which the history of Revelation is deeply concerned. They comprise the cardinal points of the supposed dispensation of God; the Christian Church established; the Jewish cast into exile; the Christian corrupted.

These instances of prophecy have been selected because of the perspicuity of the proof by which they appear to be supported. For I believe it will be found, that these prophecies are among the most copious and prominent, and have the greatest stress laid upon them, in the whole volume of Scripture; and that the evidence of a clear completion falls at this day, and has always fallen, with the greatest force upon these particular instances. But whilst the simplicity of the argument to be framed upon them recommends them to our attention; it is also true, that they are the most important, in their subjects, that are brought forward in Holy Writ, or that can affect the visible history of Revelation. A coincidence this, between the intrinsic importance of the subjects, and the corresponding state of the evidence, which will convey to us, upon reflection, some idea of the wisdom shewn in the structure of Prophecy; a wisdom distinct from the foreknowledge manifested in these predictions, but, like that foreknowledge, leading us to a divine source. For this is now seen to be the provision made for the Prophetic Evidence, that so long as Christianity

shall exist as a public Religion, or the Jew survive, or the history of the long dark age of the Christian Church shall be known, the prescience of prophecy will not want a clear and commanding proof.

NOTE ON PAGE 476.-The distribution of the Prophetic subject, concerning the Rise of Antichrist, into its leading members, is made with great justness and decision of judgment, by Tertullian; who has, moreover, connected together the predictions of St. Paul with those of the Apocalypse, and reduced them into a scheme of combined and perspicuous interpretation. I shall extract from his Exposition a passage, which, to the learned reader who has considered the subject, will bespeak at once the exactness and comprehensive views of Tertullian's thoughts upon this great Gospel-Prophecy, and that too, before it had been unfolded by the event. "Jam enim arcanum iniqui"tatis agitatur; tantum qui nunc tenet, teneat; donec de me"dio fiat. Quis, nisi Romanus Status? cujus abscessio in "decem reges dispersa Antichristum superducet. Et tunc re"velabitur iniquus, quem Dominus Jesus interficiet spiritu oris "sui, et evacuabit, apparentia adventus sui, &c."-De Resurrect. Carn. p. 397, ed Lutet.

END OF DISCOURSE X.

DISCOURSE XI.

ON THE INSPIRATION OF PROPHECY.

Proof of it in the Predictions concerning Pagan Kingdoms; Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and Egypt.

ISAIAH XIII. 19, 20.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

JUDEA, though separated from the rest of the world, by the enclosure of its peculiar law and religion, stood full in the way of those states and kingdoms, which in ancient times agitated the earth. It was from the East that the flood of human affairs held its course. It was there that the kingdoms of Nineveh and Babylon, Tyre, and Egypt, rose into power, and these are the Pagan states, the earliest of which we have any authentic account, as having

been great enough materially to affect the condition of neighbouring and distant countries. Judæa fell under the influence which resulted from its contiguity to them all. With respect to them, it held a station of exposure and collision; and Prophecy, occupying that station, took a range proportionably extended. Accordingly the prophecies of Scripture embrace something of the actions and fortunes of each of these kingdoms; their conquests, their vicissitudes, their overthrow, or final degradation.

But the prophets of Israel and Judah direct also many of their predictions to the affairs of smaller states, of less note than those which I have now mentioned; states, of which we read little beyond the records of Holy Writ, and scarcely know in any other way than by their connexion with the people of Judæa. Of this kind are Moab, Edom, and Ammon: these have their place among the subjects of Scripture prophecy. But as to our information respecting them, they are little more than appendages of Jewish history.

It follows, that in examining the evidence of In. spiration attaching to these two branches of prophecy, we shall find a difference in our power of applying to them the conditions of the Test proposed. External and independent history will enable us to judge of the predictions which regard the greater empires; whilst the means will fail of exploring the truth of prophecy, in the instance of