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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

which would be sufficient to prevent them. Our ignorance being thus manifest, let us recollect the analogy of nature or providence. For though this may be but a slight ground to raise a positive opinion upon in this matter, yet it is sufficient to answer a mere arbitrary assertion, without any kind of evidence, urged by way of objection against a doctrine, the proof of which is not reason, but revelation. Consider, then, people ruin their fortunes by extravagance; they bring diseases upon themselves by excess; they incur the penalties of civil laws, and surely civil government is natural: will sorrow for these follies past, and behaving well for the future, alone and of itself, prevent the natural consequences of them? On the contrary, men's natural abilities of helping themselves are often impaired; or if not, yet they are forced to be beholden to the assistance of others, upon several accounts, and in different ways: assistance which they would have had no occasion for, had it not been for their misconduct, but which, in the disadvantageous condition they have reduced themselves to, is absolutely necessary to their recovery, and retrieving their affairs. Now, since this is our case, considering ourselves merely as inhabitants of this world, and as having a temporal interest here, under the natural government of God, which, however, has a great deal moral in it; why is it not supposable that this may be our case also, in our more important capacity, as under His perfect moral government, and having a more general and future interest depending? If we have misbehaved in this higher capacity, and rendered ourselves obnoxious to the future punishment which God has annexed to vice; it is plainly credible that behaving well for the time to come may be—not useless, God forbid but wholly insufficient, alone and of itself, to prevent that punishment, or to put us in the condition which we should have been in had we preserved our innocence.

And though we ought to reason with all reverence, whenever we reason concerning the divine conduct, yet it may be

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added, that it is clearly contrary to all our notions of government, as well as to what is, in fact, the general constitution of nature, to suppose that doing well for the future should, in all cases, prevent all the judicial bad consequences of having done evil, or all the punishment annexed to disobedience. And we have manifestly nothing from whence to determine in what degree, and in what cases, reformation would prevent this punishment, even supposing that it would in some. And though the efficacy of repentance itself, alone, to prevent what mankind had rendered themselves obnoxious to, and recover what they had forfeited, is now insisted upon, in opposition to Christianity; yet, by the general prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices over the heathen word, this notion of repentance alone being sufficient to expiate guilt, appears to be contrary to the general sense of mankind.

Upon the whole, then, had the laws, the general laws of God's government, been permitted to operate without any interposition in our behalf, the future punishment, for aught we know to the contrary, or have any reason to think, must inevitably have followed, notwithstanding anything we could have done to prevent it. Now,

5. In this darkness, or this light of nature-call it which you please-revelation comes in; confirms every doubting fear which could enter into the heart of man concerning the future unprevented consequence of wickedness; supposes the world to be in a state of ruin (a supposition which seems the very ground of the Christian dispensation, and which, if not proveable by reason, yet it is in nowise contrary to it); teaches us, too, that the rules of divine government are such as not to admit of pardon immediately and directly upon repentance, or by the sole efficacy of it; but then teaches, at the same time, what nature might justly have hoped, that the moral government of the universe was not so rigid, but that there was room for an interposition to avert the fatal consequences of vice;

which, therefore, by this means, does admit of pardon. Revelation teaches us that the unknown laws of God's more general government, no less than the particular laws by which we experience He governs us at present, are compassionate, as well as good, in the more general notion of goodness; and that He hath mercifully provided that there should be an interposition to prevent the destruction of human kind, whatever that destruction unprevented would have been. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth"-not, to be sure, in a speculative, but in a practical sense- "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish;" gave His Son in the same way of goodness to the world, as He affords particular persons the friendly assistance of their fellowcreatures, when, without it, their temporal ruin would be the certain consequence of their follies; in the same way of goodness, I say, though in a transcendent and infinitely higher degree. And the Son of God "loved us, and gave himself for us," with a love which He himself compares to that of human friendship; though, in this case, all comparisons must fall infinitely short of the thing intended to be illustrated by them. He interposed in such a manner as was necessary and effectual to prevent that execution of justice upon sinners, which God had appointed should otherwise have been executed upon them; or in such a manner as to prevent that punishment from actually following, which, according to the general laws of divine government, must have followed the sins of the world, had it not been for such interposition.

BISHOP NEWTON.

Like the argument from analogy, the proof from the fulfilment of prophecy is cumulative. In 1754-58 this argument was set forth with much fulness in "Dissertations on the Prophecies," by Dr Thomas Newton, then rector of St Mary-le-Bow,

and afterwards Bishop of Bristol. The principle of prophetic evidence has since been elucidated with eminent ability by the late Dr Lyall, Dean of Canterbury, and fresh light has been thrown on the fulfilment of special predictions by the abundant diligence of Dr Keith; but the work of Newton is not superseded. Until its appearance the field was poorly occupied, and in many departments he has left little to be done by his successors.

Dr Newton was born at Lichfield, January 1, 1704; and died at London, February 14, 1782.

Prophecies regarding the Desolation of Judea.

The desolation of Judea is another memorable instance of the truth of prophecy. It was foretold so long ago as by Moses (Lev. xxvi. 33)-"I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." It was foretold again by Isaiah, the prophet speaking, as prophets often do, of things future as present (chap. i. 7-9)-"Your country is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city."

The same thing is expressed or implied in other places; and hath not the state of Judea now for many ages been exactly answerable to this description? That a country should be depopulated and desolated by the incursions and depredations of foreign armies is nothing wonderful; but that it should lie so many ages in this miserable condition is more than man could foresee, and could be revealed only by God. A celebrated French writer, in his History of the Crusades, pretends to exhibit a true picture of Palestine, and he says, that then "it was just what it is at present, the worst of all the

inhabited countries of Asia. It is almost wholly covered with parched rocks, in which there is not one line of soil. If this small territory were cultivated, it might not improperly be compared to Switzerland." But there is no need of citing authorities to prove that the land is forsaken of its inhabitants, is uncultivated, unfruitful, and desolate; for the enemies of our religion make this very thing an objection to the truth of our religion. They say that so barren and wretched a country could never have been a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have supplied and maintained such multitudes as it is represented to have done in Scripture. But they do not see or consider, that hereby the prophecies are fulfilled; so that it is rather an evidence for the truth of our religion, than any argument against it.

The country was formerly a good country, if we may believe the concurrent testimony of those who should best know it, the people who inhabited it. Aristeas, and Josephus too, speak largely in commendation of its fruitfulness; and though something may be allowed to national prejudices, yet they would hardly have had the confidence to assert a thing which all the world could easily contradict and disprove. Nay, there are even heathen authors who bear testimony to the fruitfulness of the land: though we presume, that after the Babylonish captivity it never recovered to be again what it was before. Strabo describes, indeed, the country about Jerusalem as rocky and barren, but he commends other parts, particularly about Jordan and Jericho. Hecatæus, quoted by Josephus, giveth it the character of one of the best and most fertile countries. Tacitus saith, that it raineth seldom, the soil is fruitful, fruits abound as with us, and besides them the balsam and palm-trees. And notwithstanding the long desolation of the land, there are still visible such marks and tokens of fruitfulness, as may convince any man that it once deserved the character which is given of it in Scripture. I