conditions cannot be a true prophecy-but only that whatever possesses them cannot be a false one-but necessarily proves itself to answer to the idea of a true prediction, because it involves divine foreknowledge.

But there is another method of treating prophecy, which, if less minute and specific, is, perhaps, more commanding; and if less fitted to produce conviction of the truth of particular prophecies, is more adapted to do justice to the entire scope and design of it; and, therefore, becomes a more faithful display of its entire majesty and divinity. This, for the sake of distinction, might be named the composite method. If an artist had undertaken to display and demonstrate the symmetry and beauty of any ancient piece of art say in architecture, sculpture, or painting, though he might justly select separate portions, sections, or limbs out of the whole object, and show by comparison, that they were distinguished by those excellencies which he wished to ascribe to the whole, yet this would not be the most satisfactory and complete way of treating the entire subject. It might be objected, that he had chosen a too favorable specimen, and that a comprehensive judgment could not be formed on so small a portion. And were he even to adopt the laborious process of examining each part of his complex subject separately, and of proving that every one of them was equally beautiful and perfect, still a correct judgment could scarcely be formed without a distinct review of the whole as a composition. For however excellent and perfect the parts taken separately, yet it is the whole sum of the parts in their connexion and grouping that must constitute the perfection of the entire work. Again, if we wished to prove that there existed such a thing as sensation or life in the human body, we might take an individual nerve here, and another there, and show that by their means the presence and action of external objects was perceived, and that this proved what was understood by sensation. But this method of proof would be less satisfactory than an appeal to the general evidence that the entire body is endued with the power of sensation, and that it has at its service certain organs whose functions are appropriated to different kinds of sensation. Both these methods of proof are valuable for different purposes, and so both methods of treating the argument from prophecy, that which we have called the inductive, and that which, to distinguish it, may be named the composite, are essentially necessary to complete this branch of the evidence of inspiration.

The advantages of this double method of proof are great and important-especially, since we can thereby come to the same conclusion in two different ways-we both show inspiration in each separate prophecy, and we show it of the whole scheme as comprehending an infinite variety of particulars, a vastly complicated subject, and a protracted series of ages through which

both the prophecies and their fulfilment extend. If an objector is dissatisfied with our inference from the whole constitution of the Old Testament-the prophetical, typical, and miraculous departments, and alleges that we ascribe to it a quality in the mass that does not belong to it in its particular sections, then we can take him to any isolated portion, or specific prediction, and point to its distinct and palpable verification as forming a separate and independent proof of the matter in question-just as we could prove to an objector against any work of art, that the selected portion was distinguished by that excellence and beauty which had been attributed to the whole. Then, upon the other hand, if another objector should allege of any particular section of prophecy on which an argument had been founded, that it was only a solitary case, and might be susceptible perhaps of a different construction and application-that it might be a happy guessthat the prophecy might in that case have wrought its own accomplishment, or that the agreement of prediction and fact was only one of those singular and rare coincidences which amidst the vast multiplicity of human events are sure sometimes to occur,then we should be able to refer such an objector to the more comprehensive and complicated view of the whole scheme of sacred prophecy-we should say, 'Your solution of the case cannot be applied to the whole series of prophetic announce'ments, viewed in their reference to continued fulfilment-viewed in their composition: your objection has no force in relation to 'that universal dovetailing and nice fitting of prediction with fact 'which we are prepared to show in the whole case of our argu'ment, through the whole extent of time which it fills, and the vast variety of events and persons which it comprises.' In the case of such an objector, it is manifest, that the efficiency of our reply would arise from being able to present, not an isolated prediction, which he might excuse himself for explaining in his own way, but from a long, continuous, and harmonious series of such predictions, all fitting in time, place, and order with their fulfilments. Hence it will appear, that much of the strength of the argument from prophecy depends on the complexity, continuity, and length of the whole series. The more extended the scheme of predictions, the more complicated the facts to which they point, the more minute and extraordinary the details-the more convincing will be the entire argument arising from the fulfilment. A common jury understands the weight and value of such circumstantial evidence, and frequently, in cases of the greatest importance, they are required to decide when nothing but such circumstantial evidence can be obtained: but yet where such proof is both minute, abundant, and inclusive of a great number of particulars, they find no difficulty in making up their minds to a

verdict.

Now the proof of the inspiration of sacred prophecy partakes of the nature both of demonstration and circumstantial evidence. Every separate prophecy palpably fulfilled is a demonstration of divine foreknowledge, and the whole series forms an accumulative force of demonstration, fortified by circumstantial evidence also, which no sophistry can by any possibility set aside; here is a mass of evidence concurrently and multitudinously convincingabsolutely perfect in its kind, triumphant and unanswerable.

It is necessary, however, to observe that the great argument for inspiration derived from prophecy cannot be completed without connecting with it the design and import of the typical economy. Besides what may be denominated pure and direct prophecy, there was a system of worship and religious service instituted by Moses which is alleged, by the sacred writers, to have been 'a shadow of good things to come.' The consideration, therefore, of the typical character of the ancient economy is necessarily implicated in the general subject of prophetic inspiration. In no respect can the Mosaic institution be understood or vindicated, as of divine authority, but as altogether a typical, that is a prophetical dispensation, having neither its end nor its efficiency, in the literal import of its precepts, or the mechanical performance of its singular services and ceremonies-but as deriving all its significancy from its prophetic reference to that which was to come, and on account of which it was introduced and maintained. The feast of the Passover, the tabernacle, and the ark; the temple and the altar, the ablutions and atonements, with numerous other matters, were all emblems and types, of divine appointment, and served the purpose of present instruction in the great principles, doctrines, and facts of the forthcoming dispensation, while by their adumbration of what was known only to the deep councils of the Eternal Mind, they as strictly involved prophecy and proved inspiration, as any of the express predictions which pointed in so many words to future times and events. Hence the principal and, perhaps, the most important view of the typical economy is to be found in this fact that a divinely instituted type is a prophecy-and, consequently, that the economy of Moses, undeniably typical as it was, and as the inspired writers assume it to have been, in all its leading ceremonies, officers, places, and observances, must of necessity be viewed as one grand, living, and harmonious prophecy from beginning to end. It was a picture not of that which had been, or was-but of that which was to be, and which was yet remotely distant, when the typical dispensation was set up-a rehearsal before the world of those grand and glorious counsels of the divine Mind which in the fulness of the times were to be carried into effect, but not till they had been both symbolically acted and literally

foretold.

If, then, the correspondence between the type and the antitype is so close, so obvious, so manifestly the result of previous design and arrangement, the character of inspired prophecy must pertain as strictly to the doings as to the sayings of the Old Testament; and the entire system must be one continued course of prophecy drawn out into a sacred and divine drama, which finds its reality and its counterpart in the dispensation of Jesus Christ. Here is demonstrably a designed anticipation of future times and things carried out to a vast extent, and preserving a beautiful order which cannot be mistaken. The identity of authorship is thus clearly shown. If the one is divine so is the other. If the one foreshadowed the other, it could do so only because it was the appointment of infinite wisdom--and the very fact of its pointing into distant futurity, and in such a precise and complicated manner, includes essentially all that is involved in a true prophecy emanating from the prescience of the Deity. A system which so wonderfully typified the Christian economy, which pointed to its extraordinary Founder, its leading facts and peculiar doctrines so many ages beforehand, must be of God; and must be acknowledged to have in it a most elaborate and convincing proof of inspiration. In the New Testament we find Jesus Christ making a continued appeal to the inspired authority of the Old. Moses, David, and the prophets are regularly cited as foreshowing those things which are now said to have come to pass. A sanction is given to their writings, and an admission made that they spake and wrote by divine authority. The whole life and ministry of Christ is, indeed, full of appeals to the books, to the men, and to the system. Every claim of his, some way or other, is backed by their authority. This was the most direct and efficient way of convincing his hearers; because the inspiration of Moses and the prophets was with them a settled point. Hence the sanction Christ derived from their writings, and the arguments drawn from them, in support of his own claims, were felt to be unanswerable. These weapons did infinite execution. They were drawn from a divine armoury. Reply became hopeless; objection was set at defiance-and their only resource at last was brute force.

After the death and resurrection of Christ, his apostles Peter James and John, with the proto-martyr, and after them the gifted and argumentative apostle of the Gentiles, uniformly took their stand on the inspiration of Moses and the prophets, and argued alike from the shadows of the law and the words of the prophets. All that had happened to the Messiah, so completely sinister to what might have been naturally deemed probable-especially the rejection and crucifixion of him by the very people who had been for ages sighing and waiting for his approach, was

proved to have been the subject of long antecedent prophecy. The establishment of a new kingdom, comprising both Gentiles and Jews, and the consequent extension of the promised blessing, through the seed of Abraham, to all nations, was demonstrably shown to have been marked out by the most ancient and venerated of the prophets. But besides their citation of the verbal prophecies, they continually appealed to the entire dispensation of Moses, as typical and prophetical. St. Paul, for instance, elaborately sustains the divine authority of the Christian system by showing that it answered to all that had been sketched and designed in the law-that it was but a schoolmaster until or for Christ-that in itself it made nothing perfect-but was made up of pointings, glimpses, and predictions of the better things to

come.

These observations will probably suffice to show that the character of sacred prophecy is not simple and limited to oracular sayings, but complex and vast; that its subjects are neither few nor uniform, but numerous and diverse: yet, that from the complexity and variety of the entire subject there arises the most elaborate and satisfactory proof of its inspiration: and this especially by the double course it has pursued from the time of Abraham down to its cessation, thereby supplying ample and immediate means to every age, as time rolled on, of bringing some of its predictions to the test of passing events, while it remained, when Malachi closed and sealed the book, for the fulness of the times only to arrive, in order to make that matter of history which had occupied the earliest, the chief, and the most momentous of its oracles.

The principal epochs of prophecy have been distinctly sketched and ably illustrated by many eminent divines and scholars. They are as follows-from the fall to Noah-from the flood to Abraham -from Abraham to Moses-from the national incorporation of the Jews to the time of Samuel-and from Samuel to Malachi. Then the divine vision passed away from the church, and the ascending angel shook beams of celestial light from his awful wings, while he sounded aloud as he went up- Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible 6 day of the Lord."

6

Prophecy had been the living spirit, the guardian angel of Judaism, but now its last accents from the lips of Malachi sounded like the farewell and faithful admonitions of a departing but grieved and injured friend. With all its portentous threatenings on a rebellious and unbelieving people, it still spoke of the great and gracious Messenger that was to come, and then delivered the mystic trumpet of prophecy to the immediate precursor of the Messiah-the next messenger of the Godhead commissioned to