must ever be consistent with itself, this claim must be Prophecy. true as well as all others. This is the part then to be tried on the evidence of prophecy: Is Christ that person described and foretold under the Old Testament or not? Whether all the prophecies relating to him be plain or not plain, it matters little; the single question is, Are there enough plain to show us that Christ is the person foretold under the Old Testament? If there be, we are at an end of our inquiry, and want no farther help from prophecy; especially since we have seen the day dawn and enjoyed the marvellous light of the gospel of God.

rophecy. peace of Christ's kingdom in the following manner : The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling, together, and a little child shall lead them.' Nobody, some modern Jews excepted, ever understood this literally; nor can it now be lite rally applied to the state of the gospel. It was and is capable of different interpretations: it may mean temporal peace, or that internal and spiritual peace-that tranquillity of mind, which sets a man at peace with God, himself, and the world. But whatever the true meaning is, this prophecy does no more obtrude one determinate sense upon the mind since the coming of Christ than it did before. But then we say, the state of the gospel was very properly prefigured in this deacription, and is as properly prefigured in a hundred more of the like kind; and since they all agree in a fair application to the state of the gospel, we strongly conclude, that this state was the thing foretold under such expressions. So that the argument from prophecy for the truth of Christianity does not rest on this, that the event has necessarily limited and ascertained the particular sense and meaning of every prophecy; but in this, that every prophecy has in a proper sense been completed by the coming of Christ. It is absurd, therefore, to expect clear and evident conviction from every single prophecy applied to Christ; the evidence must arise from a view and comparison of all together." It is doubtless a great mistake to suppose that prophecy was intended solely or chiefly for their sakes in whose time the events predicted are to happen. What great occasion is there to lay in so long beforehand the evidence of prophecy to convince men of things that are to happen in their own times; the truth of which they may, if they please, learn from their own senses? Yet some people are apt to talk as if they thought the truth of the events predicted depended very much on the evidence of prophecy they speak, for instance, as if they imagined the certainty and reality of our Saviour's resurrection were much concerned in the clearness of the prophecies relating to that great and wonderful event, and seem to think that they are confuting the truth of his resurrection when they are pointing out the absurdity of the prophecies relating to it. But can any thing be more absurd? For what ground or pretence is there to inquire whether the prophecies foretelling that the Messiah should die and rise again do truly belong to Christ, unless we are first satisfied that Christ died and rose again?

The part which unbelievers ought to take in this question, if they would make any use of prophecy, should be, to show from the prophets that Christ was necessarily to rise from the dead; and then to prove that in fact Jesus never did rise. Here would be a plain consequence. But if they like not this method, they ought to let the prophecies alone; for if Christ did not rise, there is no harm done though the prophets have not foretold it. And if they allow the resurrection of Christ, what do they gain by discrediting the prophets? The event will be what it is, let the prophets be what they will.

'These considerations show how far the gospel is necessarily concerned in prophetical evidence, and how clear the prophecies should be. Christ claims to be the person foretold in the law and the prophets; and as truth

20

some pro

21

But so unreasonable are unbelievers, that whilst some Objections of them object to the obscurity of the prophecies, from the others have rejected them altogether on account of their clearness of clearness, pretending that they are histories and not phecies, predictions. The prophecies against which this objection has been chiefly urged are those of Daniel, which were first called in question by the famous Porphyry. He affirmed that they were not composed by Daniel, whose name they bear, but by some author who lived in Judea about the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; because all to that time contained true history, but that all the facts beyond that were manifestly false. This method of opposing the prophecies, as a father answered,] of the church rightly observes, is the strongest testimony of their truth: for they are so exactly fulfilled, that to infidels the prophet seemed not to have foretold things future, but to have related things past. To an infidel of this age, if he has the same ability and knowledge of history that Porphyry bad, all the subsequent prophecies of Daniel, except those which are still fulfilling, would appear to be history and not prophecy; for it entirely overthrows the notion of their being has happenwritten in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, or of the ed since Maccabees, and establishes the credit of Daniel as a pro- the objecphet beyond contradiction, that there are several of tion was those prophecies which have been fulfilled since that pe- first started, riod as well as before; nay, that there are prophecies of Daniel which are fulfilling at this very time in the world.

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from what

Our limits will not permit us to enter into the objections which have been made to this prophet by the au thor of the Literal Scheme of Prophecy considered; nor is there occasion that we should enter into them. They have been all examined and completely answered by Bishop Chandler in his Vindication of his Defence of Christianity, by Mr Samuel Chandler in his Vindication of the Antiquity and Authority of Daniel's Prophe- 23 cies, and by Bishop Newton in his excellent Disserta- and from tions on the Prophecies. To these authors we refer the present ages reader; and shall conclude the present article with a view of some prophecies given in very remote ages, which are in this age receiving their accomplishment.

Of these the first is that of Noah concerning the servitude of the posterity of Canaan. In the greater part of original manuscripts, and in our version of the holy scriptures, this prophecy is thus expressed: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren :" but in the Arabic version, and in some copies of the Septuagint, it is, "Cursed be Ham the father of Canaan; a servant of servants shali he be to his brethren." Whether the curse was really pronounced upon Ham, which we think most probable, or only upon his son Canaan, we shall find the prediction remark

ably

facts of the

Prophecy. ably fulfilled, not barely ages after the book of Genesis was very generally known, but also at this very day. It is needless to inform any man who has but looked into the Old Testament, that when the ancient patriarchs pronounced either a curse or a blessing upon any of their sons, they meant to declare the future fortunes, not of that son individually, but of his descendants as a tribe or a nation. Let us keep this in mind, and proceed to compare with Noah's prophecy first the fortunes of the descendants of Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, and then the fortunes of the posterity of Ham by his other sons.

With the fate of the Canaanites every reader is acquainted. They were conquered by Joshua several centuries after the delivery of this prophecy; and such of them as were not exterminated were by him and Solomon reduced to a state of the lowest servitude to the Israelites, the posterity of Shem the brother of Ham. The Greeks and Romans, too, who were the descendants of Japheth, not only subdued Syria and Palestine, but also pursued and conquered such of the Canaanites as were anywhere remaining, as for instance the Tyrians and Carthaginians, of whom the former were ruined by Alexander and the Grecians, and the latter by Scipio and the Romans. Nor did the effects of the curse stop there. The miserable remainder of that devoted people have been ever since slaves to a foreign yoke; first to the Saracens who are descended from Shem, and afterwards to the Turks who are descended from Japheth; and under the Turkish dominion they groan at this day.

If we take the prophecy as it stands in the Arabic version, its accomplishment is still more remarkable. The whole continent of Africa was peopled principally by the posterity of Ham. And for how many ages have the better parts of that country lain under the dominion first of the Romans, then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks? In what wickedness, ignorance, barbarity, slavery, and misery, live most of its inhabitants? and of the poor negroes how many thousands are every year sold and bought like beasts in the market, and conveyed from one quarter of the world to do the work of beasts in another; to the full accomplishment indeed of the prophecy, but to the lasting disgrace of those who are from the love of gain the instruments of fulfilling it. Nothing can be more complete than the execution of the sentence as well upon Ham as upon Canaan; and the hardiest infidel will not dare to say that it was pronounced after the event.

The next prophecy which we shall notice is that of Abraham concerning the multitude of his descendants; which every one knows is still fulfilled in the Jews even in their dispersed state, and therefore cannot have been given after the event of which it speaks.

Of the same kind are the several prophecies concerning Ishmael; of which some have been fulfilled, and others are at present fulfilling in the most astonishing manner. Of this son of Abraham it was foretold, that "he should be a wild man; that his hand should be against every man, and every man's hand against him; that he should dwell in the presence of all his brethren; that he should be multiplied exceedingly, beget twelve princes, and become a great nation." The sacred historian who records these prophecies adds, that "God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer."

To show how fully and literally all these prophecies Prophecy. have been accomplished, would require more room than we have to bestow; and to the reader of history the labour would be superfluous. We shall therefore only request the unbeliever to attend to the history of the Arabs, the undoubted descendants of Ishmael; and to say how it comes to pass, that though they have been robbers by land and pirates by sea for time immemorial, though their hands have been against every man, and every man's hand against them, they always have dwelt, and at this day dwell, in the presence of their brethren, a free and independent people. It cannot be pretended that no attempt has ever been made to conquer them; for the greatest conquerors in the world have all in their turns attempted it: but though some of them made great progress, not one was ever crowned with success. It cannot be pretended that the inaccessibleness of their country has been their protection; for their country has been often penetrated, though it never was entirely. subdued. When in all human probability they have, been on the brink of ruin, they were signally and providentially delivered. Alexander was preparing an expedition against them, when he was cut off in the flower. of his age. Pompey was in the career of his conquests when urgent affairs called him elsewhere. Ælius Gallus had penetrated far into their country, when a fatal disease destroyed great numbers of his men, and obliged him to return. Trajan besieged their capital city, but was defeated by thunder and lightning and whirlwinds. Severus besieged the same city twice, and was twice repelled from before it. The Turks, though they were able to wrest from them their foreign conquests, have been so little able to subdue the Arabs themselves, or, even to restrain their depredations, that they are obliged to pay them a sort of annual tribute for the safe passage of the pilgrims who go to Mecca to pay their devotions. On these facts we shall not exclaim. He who is not struck upon comparing the simple history of this singular people with the prophecies so long ago delivered of them and their great ancestor, whose love of liberty is compared to that of the wild ass, would rise wholly unmoved from our exclamations.

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the Jews

A fourth prophecy of this kind, which cannot be al-The disleged to have been uttered after the event, is the denun-persion of ciation of Moses against the children of Israel in case of p plainly their disobedience; which is so literally fulfilled, that foretold, even at this moment it appears rather a history of the present state of the Jews, than a remote prediction of their apostasy and punishment." And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and falling of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shall have none assurance of thy life," (Deut. xxviii. 64, 65, 66.). "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a bye-word, among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead you." (Deut. xxviii. 37.).

Similar to this denunciation, but attended with some circumstances still more wonderful, is the following prediction of the prophet Hosea: "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image,

and

Prophecy, are preserved, that, as a nation," they may return and Prophet seek the Lord their God and David their king, and fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.'

27

Of prophe

cies re

specting

etian church.

We might here subjoin many prophecies both from the Old and the New Testament, and especially from the writings of St Paul and St John, which so clearly the Chri- describe the various fortunes of the Christian church, her progress to that state of general corruption under which she was sunk three centuries ago, and her gradual restoration to her primitive purity, that they cannot be supposed to proceed from the cunning craftiness of men, or to have been written after the events of which they speak. To do justice to these, however, would require a volume, and many excellent volumes have been written upon them. The reader who wishes for satisfaction on so interesting a subject will do well to consult the writings of Mr Mede and Sir Isaac Newton, together with Bishop Newton's Dissertations, and the Sermons of Hurd, Halifax, and Bagot, preached at Warburton's lecture. We shall only observe, that one of the ablest reasoners that Great Britain ever produced, after having paid the closest attention to the predictions of the New Testament, hath been bold enough to put the truth of revealed religion itself upon the reality of that prophetic spirit which foretold the desolation of Christ's church and kingdom by antichrist. "If (says he), IN THE DAYS OF ST PAUL AND ST JOHN, there was any footstep of such a sort of power as this in the world; or if there HAD BEEN any such power in the world; or if there WAS THEN any appearance or probability that could make it enter into the heart of man to imagine that there EVER COULD BE any such kind of power in the world, much less in the temple or church of God; and if there be not NOW such a power actually and conspicuously exercised in the world; and if any picture of this power, DRAWN AFTER THE EVENT, can now de scribe it more plainly and exactly than it was originally described in the words of the prophecy-then may it, with some degree of plausibility, be suggested, that the prophecies are nothing more than enthusiastic imaginations."

Upon the whole, we conclude with Bishop Sherlock, that the various prophecies recorded in the Holy Scriptures were given, not to enable man to foresee with clearness future events, but to support the several dispensations of religion under which they were respectively promulgated. The principal prophecies recorded in the Old Testament led mankind to hope for a complete deliverance from the curse of the fall; and therefore tended to fill their minds with gratitude, and to enforce a cheerful obedience to that God who in the midst of judgment remembereth mercy. The prophecies, whether in the Old or New Testament, that pourtray the present state of the Jews, and the various fortunes of the Christian church, as they are daily fulfilling in the presence of all men, are the strongest possible proof of the divinity of our holy religion, and supply to us in the latter-days the place of miracles, by which it was at first established.

PROPHET, in general, a person who foretels future events; but is particularly applied to such inspired persons among the Jews as were commissioned by God to declare his will and purposes to that people. Among the canonical books of the Old Testament we have the writings of 16 prophets, four of whom are denominated

the greater prophets, viz. Isaiah, Jeremiab, Ezekiel, and Proplet Daniel; so called from the length and extent of their writings, which exceed those of the others, viz. Hosea, Prop rum, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nabum, Habak. kuk, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who are called the lesser prophets, from the shortness of their writings. The Jews do not place Daniel among the prophets, because, they say, he lived the life of a courtier rather than that of a prophet. An account of the several writings of the prophets may be seen each under its particular head. See the article ISAIAH, &c.

Sons of the PROPHETS, in scripture history, an appellation given to young men who were educated in the schools or colleges under a proper master, who was commonly, if not always, an inspired prophet, in the knowledge of religion and in sacred music, and thus were qualified to be public preachers; which seems to have been part of the business of the prophets on the Sabbath days and festivals. It is probable that God generally chose the prophets, whom he inspired, out of these schools. See PROPHECY.

PROPITIATION, in Theology, a sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious. Among the Jews there were both ordinary and public sacrifices, as holocausts, &c. offered by way of thanksgiving; and extraordinary ones, offered by particular persons guilty of any crime, by way of propitiation. The Romish church believe the mass to be a sacrifice of propitiation for the living and the dead. The reformed churches allow of no propitiation but that one offered by Jesus Christ on the cross. See SACRIFICE.

PROPITIATORY, any thing rendering God propitious; as we say propitiatory sacrifices, in contradistinction to sacrifices which were eucharistical. Among the Jews the propitiatory was the cover or lid of the ark of the covenant; which was lined both within and withoutside with plates of gold, insomuch that there was no wood to be seen. This propitiatory was a type or figure of Christ, whom St Paul calls the propitiatory ordained from all ages. See ARK of the Covenant.

PROPOLIS, the name of a certain substance more tenacious than wax, with which the bees stop up all the holes or cracks in the side of their hives. See BEE, N° 13.

PROPONTIS, or SEA of MARMORA, a part of the Mediterranean, dividing Europe from Asia; it has the Hellespont or canal of the Dardanelles to the southwest, whereby it communicates with the Archipelago, and the ancient Bosphorus of Thrace, or strait of Constantinople, to the north-east, communicating with the Black or Euxine sea. It has two castles: that on the Asia side is on a cape, where formerly stood a temple of Jupiter. The castle of Europe is on an opposite cape, and had anciently a temple of Serapis. It is 120 miles long, and in some places upwards of 40 miles broad.

PROPORTION, the identity or similitude of two ratios. Hence quantities that have the same ratio between them are said to be proportional; e. gr. if A be to B as C to D, or 8 be to 4 as 30 to 15; A, B, C, D, and 8, 4, 30, and 15, are said to be in proportion, or are simply called proportionals. Proportion is frequently confounded with ratio; yet have the two in reality very different ideas, which ought by all means to be distinguished. Ratio is properly the relation or habi