IT THE CREDIBILITY OF PROPHECY MAINTAINED. T is the prerogative of God alone, or of those who are commissioned by Him, certainly to foretell future events: and the consequence is so plain and necessary, from the believing of prophecies to the believing of revelation, that an infidel hath no way of evading the conclusion but by denying the premises. But why should it be thought at all incredible for God upon special occasions to foretell future events? or how could a Divine revelation (only supposing that there was a Divine revelation) be better attested and confirmed than by prophecy? It is certain that God hath perfect and exact knowledge of futurity, and foresees all things to come as well as comprehends everything past and present. It is certain, too, that as He knoweth them perfectly himself, so He may reveal them to others in what degrees and proportions He pleaseth; and that He actually hath revealed them in several instances, no man can deny, who compares the several prophecies of Scripture with the events fulfilling the same. But so many ages have past since the spirit of prophecy hath ceased in the world, that many persons are apt to imagine that no such thing ever existed, and that what we call predictions are only histories written, after the events had happened, in a prophetic style and manner which is easily said indeed, but hath never been proved, nor is there one tolerable argument to prove it. On the contrary, there are all the proofs and authorities, which can be had in cases of this nature, that the prophet prophesied in such and such ages; and you have as much reason to believe these as you have to believe any ancient matter of fact whatever; and by the same rule that you deny these, you might as well deny the credibility of all ancient history.-Bishop Newton. CICERO, de Divin. lib. i. § 2, 10, 34, 35, 37, 82, 117, 125. THE BELIEF IN THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY, ALTHOUGH MIXED WITH SUPERSTITION, A SOURCE OF GREATNESS IN THE ROMAN CHARACTER. 'HERE were in these quarters of the world, 1,600 years ago, There were native me, whose authority disposed the whole religion of those times. By their means it became a received opinion, that the souls of men departing this life do flit out of one body into some other: which opinion, though false, yet entwined with a true, that the souls of men do never perish, abated the fear of death in them which were so resolved, and gave them courage unto all adventures, The Romans had a vain superstitious custom in most of their enterprises, to conjecture beforehand of the event by certain tokens which they noted in birds, or in the entrails of beasts, or by other the like frivolous divinations, From whence notwithstanding, as often as they could receive any sign, which they took to be favourable, it gave them such hope, as if their gods had made them more than half a promise of prosperous success. Which many times was the greatest cause that they did prevail, especially being men of their own natural inclination, hopeful and strongly conceited, whatsoever they took in hand. But could their fond superstition have furthered so great attempts, without the mixture of a true persuasion concerning the irresistible force of Divine power? CICERO, de Divin. lib. i. § 11, 12, 95. lib. ii. § 28, 148. THE MOTION AND INFLUENCE OF THE SUN AND STARS BEAR WITNESS ΤΟ THE POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS OF GOD. L ET the observer of nature consider the rising sun, about to dispense his varied bounties. The sphere of human labour and happiness is lighted up by its beams; everything that lives and moves feels and exhibits its genial influence. When he learns that these daily gifts are repeated in every part of the globe, under every variety of climate, and every vicissitude of season, his mind is impressed with the conviction that the great luminary was intended to dispense these multifarious benefits to man. He discovers the evidence of power in the nicely poised orbs of the sun and planets, whether moving or at rest in the ethereal world; he perceives the evidence of wisdom in the nice adaptation of the means to accomplish these beneficent ends; and he feels and witnesses around him an universal feeling that the ends thus effected are full of goodness. From such evidence as this, his very nature compels him to conclude, that where power has been exerted, there must have been a Being that is powerful;-where wisdom has been displayed, a Being that is wise; and where goodness has been diffused, a Being that is good.-Addison. CICERO, de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. § 15-20, 49-58, 75. SENECA, de Beneficiis, iv. c. 23. THE FABRIC OF THE WORLD.-THE FIRMAMENT AND THE STARS PROCLAIM THEMSELVES THE WORK OF AN INFINITE ARCHITECT. In to prove to any only to bid him consider the sun, N order to prove to any one the grandness of this fabric of with that insupportable glory and lustre that surrounds it; to demonstrate the vast distance, magnitude, and heat of it; to represent to him the courses of planets, moving periodically by uniform laws in their several orbits around it, affording a regular variety of aspect, guarded some of them by secondary planets, and as it were emulating the state of the sun, and probably all possessed by proper inhabitants; to remind him of those surprising visits the comets make us, the large train or uncommon splendour which attends them, the far country they come from, and the curiosity and horror they excite not only among us, but in the inhabitants of other planets, who also may be up to see the entry and progress of these ministers of state; to direct his eye and contemplation through those azure fields and vast regions above him, up to the fixed stars, that radiant, numberless host of heaven, and to make him understand how unlikely a thing it is that they should be placed there only to adorn and bespangle a canopy over our heads (though that would be a great piece of magnificence too), and much less to supply the places of so many glow-worms, by affording a feeble light to our earth, or even to all our fellow-planets; to convince him that they are rather so many other suns, with their several regions and sets of planets about them; to show him, by the help of glasses, still more and more of these fixed lights; to beget in him an apprehension of their unaccountable numbers, and of those immense spaces that lie retired beyond our utmost reach, and even imagination-I say one needs but to do this, and explain to him such things as are now known almost to everybody, and by it to show that if the world be not infinite, it is infinito similis, and therefore sure a magnificent structure, and the work of an infinite Architect. CICERO, de Nat. Deor. lib. ii. § 15-20, 49-58, 75. DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING THE BELIEF IN A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. N the other hand, if, leaving the works of nature, we ΟΝ trace the footsteps of invisible power in the various and contrary events of human life, we are necessarily led into Polytheism, and the acknowledgment of several limited and imperfect deities. Storms and tempests ruin what is nurtured by the sun. The sun destroys what is fostered by the moisture of dews and rains. War may be favourable to a nation whom the inclemency of the seasons afflicts with famine. Sickness and pestilence may depopulate a kingdom amid the most profuse plenty. The same nation is not at the same time equally successful by sea and by land. And a nation which now triumphs over its enemies may anon submit to their more prosperous arms. In short, the conduct of events, or what we call the plan of a particular providence, is so full of variety and uncertainty, that if we suppose it immediately ordered by any intelligent beings we must acknowledge a contrariety in their designs and intentions, a constant combat of opposite powers, and a repentance or change of intention in the same power from impotence or levity. Each nation has its tutelar deity. Each climate is subjected to its invisible power or agent. The province of each god is separate from that of another. Nor are the operations of the same god always certain and invariable. To-day he protects, to-morrow he abandons us. Prayers and sacrifices, rites and ceremonies, well or ill performed, are the sources of his favour or enmity, and produce all the good or ill fortune which are to be found amongst mankind. CICERO, de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. § 65, 79, 80, 86, 87, 92. |