applying the prophecies to the events, feems to prefage, that the latter times are now approaching; and that by the more full discovery of the true meaning of the prophetic writings, and of their aptness to fignify the ¿ events predicted, there will be fuch an acceffion of evi'dence to the divine authority of the fcriptures, as none 'but the wilfully ignorant, the profligate, and the obduI rate can withstand. It is therefore a confirmation of the prophetic writings, that, by the obscurity of one part of them, a way fhould be prepared for effecting that glorious converfion of all nations, which is predicted in others, in the time and manner in which it is ' predicted 54'

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Perhaps the following remarks of Dr. Worthington are not altogether inapplicable to the conclufion of the preceding extract from Dr. Hartley. Time may' ope' rate, and often doth, on the fide of both probability and credibility. It is a proverbial saying, that time brings every thing to light. It often detects frauds and impostures, removes falfe colourings and disguises, and overcomes prejudices, which obfcured the evidence, and kept the mind in fufpence from giving its assent, It may bring new proofs to light, which lay hid before; and what was no more than barely probable, or credible, may become abfolutely certain. Sir Ifaac Newton had made a probable conjecture, concerning the form of the earth what he rendered probable, the French geometricians have fince demonftrated to be certain. Things incredible to some perfons and ages, have been 'known to others for certain truths. The late difcoveries in philosophy, and the reports of travellers, are full of inftances of this kind; and what the philofopher knows for certain, fhocks the faith of the peafant.

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54 On Man, 1749, vol. II. p. 157.

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'Apply this to revelation. At the first preaching of the gofpel, it was thought a thing incredible, that God 'fhould raife the dead, Acts xxvi. 8. And Paul feemed, 'to the men of Athens, to be a fetter-forth of strange 'Gods, because he preached unto them Jefus and the re'furrection, ch. xvii. 18, and yet Jefus and the refurrec'tion were foon afterwards believed in by great numbers ' there and elsewhere 55.'

Of the importance of contemplating, frequently and accurately, those arguments in fupport of revelation, which are derived from prophecy, Chriftians, I appre hend, are not in general fufficiently apprized. 'Faith, fays an eminent writer, is not one abfolute and deter, 'minate thing, but it admits of degrees; proceeding from a fimple affent to a propofition, which arifes from a 'bare preponderancy of the arguments in favour of it, and advancing by the most infenfible gradation, to that fulness of perfuafion, which arifes from the perception of the greatest clearness and ftrength of the evidence for it. The paffions and affections, if they be at all moved by a bare affent, will be extremely languid, though the thing itself be of the greatest moment; ' whereas a full perfuafion of the reality of an interesting ' object excites the most vigorous and fervent emotions, 'The difference of the impreffion they make upon the mind is properly compared to the effect of an object, 'placed at a very great, or a very small diftance. If any

thing in the. conduct of life depend upon belief, we fhall, in the former cafe, be hardly influenced by it at all; a very fmall motive being fufficient to overpower 'the effect of fo fuperficial a faith; at best we shall be 'irrefolute and inconstant; whereas, in the latter case, we shall be determined to vigorous and immediate ac

tion. It is, therefore, of the greatest consequence, not only that unbelievers be made converts to the Chriftian

faith, but that the faith of believers themselves be ftrengthened, and they be thereby converted from merely nominal into real Chriftians.-Now faith is inI creafed by the very fame means by which it is first 'generated, viz. by an attention to the proper evidences, ⚫ and a frequent contemplation of the object of it. Those 'persons therefore, who call themselves Chriftians, and 'who must be supposed to wish to feel and act as becomes Christians, fhould ftudy the evidences of their ' religion. They should both frequently read the fcrip⚫tures, and also other books, which tend to prove their ⚫ truth, and illuftrate their contents 5".'

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Having fo long confined the attention of the reader to general remarks alone, I shall shortly again bring before his view fome illustrations of particular prophecies: hav, ing had an opportunity, on the fubject of the prefent chapter, of selecting from a more than ordinary number of excellent writers, I fhall abstain from introducing any obfervations of my own.

The present chapter confifts almost entirely of extracts. If this circumftance be conceived to call for an apology, I have only to observe, that it seemed important to the cause of truth and to the interests of revelation, that all the principal arguments on the credibility of prophecy, arguments which have already been clearly stated by different writers, fhould be brought together" into a tolerably narrow compafs; and that I was unacquainted with any work, in which this useful task had been com

56 Priestley's Inftitutes, vol. I. p. 168.

57 At the fame time it may not be improper to obferve, that thofe general remarks on prophecy, which are introduced in the ivth chapter of the prefent work, occur not again in the xixth; and therefore thefe two chap ters may, with propriety, be perufed in connexion.

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pletely performed. And though there may occasionally, in the courfe of the extracts, have been somewhat of repetition, it may be remarked, that the ideas repeated are generally fufficiently important, to deferve to be brought before the mind again and again, and to be placed in a variety of lights.

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CHAPTER XX.

ON THE MONARCHICAL IMAGE AND THE TEN. HORNED BEAST IN DANIEL,

THE

HE predictions, relative to modern times, which occur in chapters ii. and vii, of Daniel, are pecuculiarly worthy of examination; for they are more than ufually clear, and will reflect a light on the apocalyptical prophecies. But, previously to entering on a brief examination of them, I fhall cite a few fhort teftimonies of writers respecting this distinguished prophet.

With refpect to the authenticity of the book of Daniel, there is,' fays bp. Newton, all the external evidence that can well be had or defired in a cafe of this 'nature; not only the teftimony of the whole Jewish church and nation, who have conftantly received this book as canonical; but of Jofephus particularly, who * commends him as the greatest of the prophets; of the Jewish Targums and Talmuds, which frequently cite "and appeal to his authority; of St. Paul and St. John, * who have copied many of his prophecies; of our Sa

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Comparing feripture with fcripture is the best way to understand ⚫ both the one and the other,' bp. Newton, vol. I. P. 494.

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⚫viour himself, who citeth his words, and ftyleth him Daniel the prophet;' and' of ancient hiftorians, who relate many of the fame tranfactions.-Nor is the internal lefs powerful and convincing than the external evidence; for the language, the style, the manner of writing, and all other internal marks and characters, are perfectly agreeable to that age; and he appears plainly ' and undeniably to have been a prophet by the exact accomplishment of his prophecies, as well those which have already been fulfilled, as thofe which are now ful'filling in the world'.'

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Dr. Samuel Chandler, in speaking of Daniel, fays, upon account of his extraordinary piety and wisdom, he is taken notice of and commended by Ezekiel3, who was his fellow prophet and contemporary.-The purity of the language in which the book is written, both of the Chaldee and Hebrew, is an undeniable 'argument of its great antiquity.' For fince every language, from the very nature of it, is in a conftant flux, ' and in every age deviating from what it was in the former; the purity of Daniel's language makes it evident, that it must be written before the purity of thofe languages was loft, i. e. about the time when Ezekiel's < Daniel lived and flourished'.'

Porphyry, an heathen philosopher of the third century, and a pupil of Longinus, who wrote an elaborate work in fifteen books again ft Chriftianity, did, as we are informed by Jerom, object again ft the character of

This prophecy is writ partly in Hebrew, and partly in Chaldec : for which this reafon may be affigned; that those parts of it in which the Babylonian empire was concerned were writ in that language, viz. from ch. ii. 4. to the end of the viith chapter: a great part of which was pro'bably entered into their public registers.' Mr. Lowth's Intr. to Dan. 5 Vindic, of Dan. p. 61, 63.

Daniel,