The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature

257

Rom. xv. 19: 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10-28, &c., and xiii. 1, 2, 8, and the whole 14th chapter: 2 Cor. xii. 12, 13: Gal. iii. 2, 5.

258

See the Koran, chap. xiii. and chap. xvii.

259

[Mahomet expressly declares that he worked no public miracles in confirmation of his mission, “because the former nations have charged them with imposture.” He claims, however, to have had private miraculous assurances of his mission, and most preposterous they were.Whately, in his Christian Evidences, has handled this aspect of miracles with great ability. See also Paley’s Evidences, sec. 3: and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, chap. 1.]

260

[Alexander, in his Evidences, and several other writers have placed this argument in a very convincing light. Arnobius, one of the earliest Christian writers, asks, “Shall we say that the men of those times were inconsiderate, deceitful, stupid, and brutish enough to feign having seen what they never saw? and that when they might have lived in peace and comfort, they chose gratuitous hatred and obloquy?”The rejection of Christianity by so many in the first age was the result of the continued action of personal and hereditary prejudice and depravity, capable of resisting any supposable evidence. The reception of Christianity by multitudes, under the same evidences, and to their immediate personal damage, shows strongly that there was enough evidence to produce those effects. Thus the rejection by some does not countervail the acceptance by others.]

261

P. 294 (#FNanchor_288), &c.

262

[Compare Butler’s Sermons; on Balaam, and on Self-deceit.]

263

See the foregoing chapter.

264

[“Whenever a general scheme is known to be pursued by a writer, that scheme becomes the true key in the hands of his reader, for unlocking the meaning of particular parts, which would otherwise not be seen clearly to refer to such scheme. The inspired writers had one common and predominant scheme in view, which was to bear testimony to Jesus. Whatever passages occur in their writings, which bear an apt and easy resemblance to the history of Jesus, may, or rather must in all reasonable construction, be applied to him.” – Hurd on the Proph., p. 117.]

265

[Consult on this point, Gulick, Theologia Prophetica: Vitringa, Observationes: Hengstenburg, Christologia: Horsley’s Tracts and Sermons: King’s Morsels of Criticism: Waugh’s Dissertations: Lyall’s Propœdia Prophetica.]

266

It appears that Porphyry did nothing worth mentioning in this way. For Jerome on the place says: Duas posteriores bestias – in uno Macedonum regno ponit. And as to the ten kings; Decem reges enumerat, qui fuerunt sævissimi: ipsosque reges non unius ponit regni, verbi gratia, Macedoniæ, Syriæ, Asiæ, et Ægypti; sed de diversis regnis unum efficit regum ordinem. [“The two latter beasts he places in one of the Macedonian kingdoms.” “He reckons up ten kings who had been excessively cruel and these not kings of one country, as Macedonia, for instance, or Syria, or Asia, or Egypt; but makes up his set of kings out of different kingdoms.”] In this way of interpretation, any thing may be made of any thing.

267

P. 189 (#Page_189), &c.

268

John i. 3.

269

Eph. iii. 9.

270

Acts iii. 21.

271

Rev. x. 7.

272

Dan. ii. 44.

273

Dan. vii. 22.

274

Rev. xi. 17, 18; xx. 6.

275

Dan. vii. 27.

276

Chap. ii. (#II_CHAPTER_II)iii. (#II_CHAPTER_III) &c.

277

Deut. xxviii. 64; xxx. 2, 3: Isa. xlv. 17.

278

Isa. lx. 21: Jer. xxx. 11; xlvi. 28: Amos ix. 14, 15: Jer. xxxi. 36.

279

Isa. viii. 14, 15; xlix. 5; chap. liii.: Mal. i. 10, 11, and chap. iii.

280

Isa. xlix. 6, chap. ii., chap, xi., chap. lvi. 7: Mal. i. 11. To which must be added, the other prophecies of the like kind, several in the New Testament, and very many in the Old; which describe what shall be the completion of the revealed plan of Providence.

281

[See Davidson’s Disc. on Proph.: Blaney on Daniel’s LXX. Weeks: Hurd’s Introd. to the Study of Proph.: Jortin’s Ser. at Boyle Lect.: Fuller’s Gosp. its own Witness, part ii.: Waugh’s Diss.: Apthorpe’s Discourses.]