hedge fuppofes and implies the ftealing of a borse. To fuppofe, therefore, that a prophet's extraordinary knowledge extends farther than the prophecies he delivers, this is not fo much as pointed out by thofe prophecies, much less is it proved by them; and as it is only a fuppofition, fo, according to St. Paul, the contrary to it may likewise be as fairly fuppofed, and then there will be one fuppofition fet against another, and thus the account will be ballanced with respect to fuppofitions,

As to the prophecy contained in Mat. xxiv. and in Luke xxj. it seems rather to burt than help the cause it is brought to fupport. For, after an account is given of Christ's coming in the clouds of heaven, and of his fending his Angels, with a great found of a trumpet, to gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, or from all parts under heaven; both the hiftorians inform us (as in Mat. xxiv. 34. and Luke xxi. 32. that Chrift added} another prediction to thefe, touching the time for their accomplishment, Verily, I fay unto you, this generation fhall not pass, 'till all these things are fulfilled. And for a farther confirmation of the truth of all this,

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as well in point of time, as otherwise, both the hiftorians have likewife obferved, that Chrift farther added, heaven and earth fhall (or will) pass away, but my words fhall not pass away; or all that I have now predicted fhall not fail of being fulfilled. Here we fee the time is fixed for the fulfilling of these predictions, viz. before that generation had paffed away; and yet feventeen hundred years are paffed, and the things predicted do not appear to have taken place. To fay, that two great events, viz. the destruction of Jerufalem, and the coming of Chrift to judgment, are referred to, and pointed out by this prophecy; this, as it is arbitrarily afferted, without any warrant from the prophecy itself, fo it does not help the cafe; the time is limitted with refpect to the whole, and therefore it must be lapfed with regard to Chrift's coming to judgment. And admitting that two events are referred to in this prophecy; then, what refers to each is fo mixed and blended, as to take from it the natural strength and force of evidence with regard to both. Upon the whole of this argument, I obferve, that tho' prophecy may be confidered, by fome, to be a growing evidence of the truth and divinity of the chrif

tian revelation; yet, perhaps, it may not be quite clear to others that it is any evidence at all; or, at most, it is fuch evidence as leaves the fubject under great perplexity and uncertainty.

As to what has been faid in the New Teftament, concerning the difperfion of the Jews into all nations, and of their continuing a diftinct people notwithstanding, nothing, I think, can be concluded from it, by way of evidence in the cafe under confideration; because this was well known to have been the cafe in fact, long before the books of the New Teftament were written. The

great difperfion of the Jews over the world arose from, and followed the captivities of Ifrael and Judah, at, and before the deftruction of their firft temple; by which they were scattered into many countries, and yet remained a diftinct and separate people from all other people in the world. And though the proclamation made by Cyrus, induced fome thousands of Jews to return to their own land; yet there were a multitude that did not return, but continued a distinct and separate people in the feveral countries where they had taken up their habitations. The author of the hiftory of the VOL. II.

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acts of the apostles informs us, that, at the feast of Pentecoft, there were at Jerufalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven, chap. ii. 5. And at verses 9, 10, 11. there are many diftinct and diftant countries particularly mentioned, out of which those Jews had been collected; viz. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mefopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Afia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and profelytes, Cretes and Arabians. This was the cafe, and had been fo for many ages, before the dispersion of the remainder of the Jews by the Romans, when their city and temple were deftroyed; and therefore, furely, it did not need the fpirit of prophecy to foretell, that it would be fo in time to come. The ground of the perpetuity of the Jews, tho' difperfed into other nations, was evidently the frong and fixed principle that had taken place in their minds, viz. that they were the peculiar people of God, and fhould continue to be fo to all generations; that God had chofen them out of, and had separated them from all other people, to be his por

tion, and his inheritance for ever; and therefore, though he may bide his face from them for a feason, yet he will never finally forfake them, but will in due time raise them up a faviour and a deliverer, (whom they characterise by the term Meffiah) who will gather them together out of all countries whither they have been driven, and will bring them again into their own land, and will make them a great and mighty people. And under this expectation they did not, nor would not, (as they had been, by their founder Mofes, ftrictly charged to the contrary) mix themselves by marriages with any other nation or people amongst whom they might refide and that has kept them a diftin&t people to this day. So that the Jews continuing a distinct and separate people, as not having been loft or fwallowed up, in, and by the feveral nations where they have had their refidence, this was the natural produce of their original conftitution; by which, as they were led to confider themselves to be the peculiar people of God, fo they were strictly required (in order to preserve that distinction and peculiarity) not to mix themfelves by marriages with the people of any other nation, and without which, probably,

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