Prophecies against

Syria,

Israel, and

person from one place to another, by rapid and almost momentary transitions. The description given by Ezekiel of his vision, in the 8th chapter of his prophecies, will fully illustrate the character of a vision, as distinguished from a dream; and the fears expressed by Obadiah to Elijah will confirm what we have advanced respecting the participation of the body in the impressions made upon the mind. "It shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me." For the same reason the sons of the prophets instituted a search of three days for Elijah, after his translation, supposing that "the Spirit of the Lord had taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley."

The three succeeding chapters, including also the 17th, are a series of predictions relative to Syria, Israel, and the Assyrians; and embrace a space of time extending from the 742d to the 738th year B.C. These are occupied with the apprehensions of Ahaz B.C. 738. respecting the league of Israel and Syria against him. Moab is

the

Assyrians.

Tyre.
Ethiopia and
Egypt

next threatened, conjointly with Ephraim, in the 15th, 16th, and 28th chapters of the prophecy, delivered in two succeeding years, B.C. 725. the 726th and 725th B.C. Within three years from this period, Moab was to be so consumed as to leave a very "feeble remnant, while the hope of Ephraim, extinguished as to political existence, revived, never to be quenched, in the glories of the kingdom of Christ. Ten years afterwards, Tyre and Sidon were threatened, in the 23d chapter. The year succeeding, the sentence went forth against Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylon, Israel, and Assyria, including a train of prophecy, from the 18th to the 21st chapters. It is in this first denunciation against Babylon that all the events of that dreadful and memorable night in which she was taken are so minutely detailed. The scene of festivity turned into terror at the apparition of the hand-writing on the wall-the cry of the watchmen upon the towers of the city-the approach of the combined armies of the Medes and Persians, symbolized by the vision of a chariot, to which asses and camels, the distinctive animals employed by the two nations, were yoked-these circumstances are all described with the most astonishing precision. In the two years which followed, 713th and 712th B.C. the prophecy against Babylon is resumed, and associated B.C. 712. with predictions against Assyria, Palestine, Judea, and Egypt, occupying the book from the 10th to the 14th chapter; the 22d again, from the 24th to the 27th, and from the 29th to the 56th. Predictions relative to the Messiah are interspersed with these several denunciations; but from the 40th to the 56th chapters they relate almost entirely to him, with sudden transitions to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. We are then brought down to the 698th year before Christ, during which the Jews are severely reproved, and the Edomites included in the censure; and the miseries of mankind are

Against Babylon.

The
Edomites,

& C.

Messiah.

seen terminating in the distant, but true perspective, of the reign of Christ. The book is thus occupied from the 57th chapter to the end. In reviewing these predictions, it cannot have escaped the observation of the most superficial readers, that the prophecies which relate to the MESSIAH have the pre-eminence. It is in these that the fulness of the genius and inspiration of the prophet manifest themselves; and we are at a loss which most to admire, the sublimity of his language, or the transcendent character of his conceptions. Isaiah has been considered a prophet of difficult interpretation; and if we consider the extent and variety of his communications, the conclusion is just; they relate to subjects which pass the limit of the finite, and lose themselves in the infinite; but if we regard them as relating simply to facts, detailed in prophecy and afterwards established by actual events, our astonishment springs from another quarter-and that the striking agreement between the representation and the thing represented. Whatever might be the immediate object of the prophet, whether the prosperity or the destruction of a state, he did not fail so to connect it with the moral government of God, as to merge it in the infinite blessings which should characterize the reign of the Messiah. He, therefore, enlarges, with singular satisfaction, upon The the features of that dominion, which, while it shall ultimately absorb all others, shall educe from partial evil universal good. Thus referring all events to HIS government, "whose right it is to reign, and who must reign for ever and ever," he reduced the inexplicable politics of this world to a simple standard; and passing over the decrees of monarchs who lived but for a season, showed their subserviency to his purpose who lives for ever. The prophet, in this point of view, had no equal, no rival. All men were absorbed in their present concerns and interests. But he, ascending the Eastern mountains, stood upon their lofty summit, as a point of light, illuminated by the glory of the yet unrisen sun: darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" the plains and the vallies were enveloped in the gloom of midnight; but when the nations. looked towards Jerusalem, he appeared as the harbinger of day, and scattered abroad that radiance which he alone had received. How insignificant, in comparison with his high destiny, do the achievements of conquerors appear! And he has a key to the cabinet of princes of which they have no suspicion; he is admitted, by the intelligence from which nothing is concealed, into their most secret councils; and not only declares things present, but points out consequences of which the wisdom of this world had no conception, and declares what should be the policy of nations yet unborn. This leads us to the great question of prophecy. So many attempts had been made, in the Oracles of heathen world, to prejudge futurity, and so miserable were the shifts heathens. of oracles, by a perplexed and involved answer, to suit any circumstances which might possibly arise, that it behoved prophecy to have its credentials clear, in order to establish its claims. Accordingly,

66

the

Prophecy.

Clearness of
Isaiah's
Prophecies.

Example.

66

in the prophet before us, there are many striking appeals to the
heathen world, not only as to the superiority, but as to the distin-
guishing characteristics of inspiration over the efforts of superstition.
'I have not spoken in secret-from dark places in the earth”—is a
a testimony which sets heathen oracles at defiance, as to their
structure. But when we consider the substance of prophecy, as
compared, or rather contrasted with these, it is no longer a question
of rivalry. The one presents only double meanings, uncertain con-
clusions, unauthorized presumptions; the other a cool, perspicuous,
detailed representation of things not seen as yet. It should also be
remembered, that the results stated by the prophets were the most
unlikely, in the ordinary process of human events, that could well be
imagined. For instance, the desolation of Egypt, never to be
retrieved, at a time when she was the mistress of the world in arms,
and the admiration of the world in literature. A train of political
events may
lead to a certain conclusion; and the political foresight
of a man who has been accustomed to weigh consequences, and to
connect effects with their causes, may enable him to arrive, with no
small measure of conviction, at the fixed operation of given principles;
but what shall we say when the conclusion is against all human
calculations, all reasonable inferences?—when a train of prosperity
is shown to issue in ruin, when unpromising beginnings are encour-
aged to anticipate a glorious termination, and when the prediction
of the prophet bears equally against probability, against his country,
against his prejudices, national and individual, and against his per-
sonal interest?—These are conclusions to which nothing could lead
but inspiration, and which nothing could compel the man to deduce
but a sense of duty.

A man

Upon this high ground stands Isaiah, the prince of prophets, as well for the clearness of his revelations as for the sublimity of his conceptions and language. It is difficult to select instances in a book full of evidence upon this important question. Shall we take the grand feature of his prophecies-his constant allusion to the Messiah? The 53d chapter of his unequalled work at once surprises and convinces us. Let any one look at that chapter and say, whether it be possible to alienate it from its object? may look at a portrait, and say, such and such features agree with those of this person or the other: he may, if he please, exercise his ingenuity in finding remote resemblances, and transfer that which is the actual likeness of one, to fifty, who in some particular feature may be allowed to answer to the comparison; but the question is, whose is the entire image? and if it be a faithful delineation, only one answer can be given to it. Such is the case with Isaiah. He was no inconsiderable portrait painter; nor were his likenesses doubtful. None could mistake the resemblance of the portrait to the original; and when Jesus came to "his own," it was not that they did not know him, but that, for reasons suggested by their

prejudices, and not by their understanding, they would not receive him. The Jews have acted the unworthy part of attempting to distort the fair and marked features of the Messiah, and to apply them to others than Jesus of Nazareth. They have fixed upon single and insulated resemblances, and have satisfied themselves to apply the predictions of this interesting chapter to Hezekiah, and to other distinguished characters. It is unnecessary to add, that this has been done with little success. The object was, not to discover the original of the portrait, but, if possible, to turn the eyes of the world from the original, that they might not perceive the likeness. But we have to do with facts, and to compare facts with prophecy; and in instituting this comparison, we shall find hardly any part of the Saviour's personal character, circumstances, or office, left undetailed. When the Jews set themselves, with an inveterate obstinacy, against the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, they were not aware that, by this very hostility, they were establishing his pretensions. The evangelical prophet opens his wonderful discoveries with this very circumstance, and complains, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" If they would overthrow the claims of the son of Mary, they ought to have met him with distinction, and surrounded him with prosperity; and he had been no longer Isaiah's Messiah. His unpretending char- Delineations acter, his deep poverty, his unequalled injuries, the object of his of the sufferings, as an atonement for sin; the necessity of this sacrifice, as originating in human apostacy; the submission with which he bowed to his cruel oppressions; the violence of the procedure against him, defying all justice, and outraging even its forms, while it pretended to exercise them; the circumstances of his death, and his burial; numbered with malefactors, yet occupying a distinguished tomb with Joseph of Arimathea; the perfect innocence which submitted to all this injury; the reference of the whole to a plan of Deity, as unsearchable as himself, and subordinating all things to its benevolent intentions; the glorious effects of this sacrifice, extending themselves over the whole earth; looking to future ages yet for their development, and expecting their consummation in eternity: all these things, taken as a whole, demonstrate what each regarded separately must suppose; the sole and irrefragable reference of the prophecy to Jesus Christ.

Messiah.

But in questions of Theology we may be supposed to be biassed, and to lean to the convictions of our creed; for we are really oldfashioned enough to confess that we have a creed. We will, then, place the argument upon other grounds, and bring the predictions into contact with facts, which are simply the subject of history, and with which Theology has nothing to do. Take, for example, the Destruction prophecy relative to the destruction of Babylon. We We say nothing of the memorable description of the night of dissipation and ruin, so powerfully presented in the 21st chapter, lest it should be imagined

of Babylon.

that the advantage of being able to compare the history with the prediction should have induced a fanciful interpretation; but what shall we say of the prophecy which calls Cyrus by his name, a century before he was born? which speaks of opening the gates of brass, before we are quite certain of their existence? It is well known that, in Isaiah's days, Babylon was a rising state; it is even uncertain whether the river was then walled, as the prophecy supposes it must be; it is indisputable that Nitocris, the queen, mother of Belshazzar, added greatly to its majesty; and that Nebuchadnezzar, who was, when the prophet wrote, unknown, if not unborn, so strengthened and embellished this wonderful city, that he arrogated to himself its creation, and said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" But even supposing Babylon were what we are very sure it was not, and what it appeared a century afterwards, the circumstance that it was foretold that a deliverer of Israel should arise, whose name should be Cyrus, one hundred years before the birth of such a person, demonstrates the truth of ancient prophecy; which, as an argument in favour of revelation, does not depend upon the number of facts detailed, but upon the authenticity of them; and if it can be proved, in any one unquestionable instance, that any thing has been decidedly predicted, the argument is as conclusive, as to any application of it, as though we could produce ten thousand examples. But as it is very possible we might be arising from deceived in any single instance, although the argument is conclusive from one only, the repetition of the case renders the principle indisputable, and the inference proportionally irrefragable. Accordingly, what has been stated relative to Babylon obtains in reference to the other states, whose destiny is pronounced by the prophet. In short, such is the variety of prophecy, as to its forms and its subjects, its principles and its application, that it is capable of being tried upon the largest possible scale; and Isaiah furnishes a just exhibition of his contemporaries and successors; while, representing all, he is inferior to none.

Calling of
Cyrus.

Evidence

prophecy.

The investigation of this important topic cannot fail to convince every inquiring mind, that prophecy is not the conclusion of a penetrating and thinking intellect, calculating results from existing circumstances; far less, that it is the bold guess of a daring spirit which plunges into futurity at a venture, presuming that time may shape its conjectures, and give them a resemblance, if it cannot attach to them certainty; least of all can it be suspected to be a design to practise upon the credulity of mankind, by professing a knowledge not really possessed, and working upon the hopes and fears of the multitude, to bend them to any purpose, political or religious, which may be supposed to be in the contemplation of the prophet. Nothing of all this appears, or can be maintained, even with plausibility: but the prophetic pages are flooded with light; as though heaven would write its own truth only with its own sunbeams.