fhould not burt or deftroy in all the holy Mountain 2 Ifai. lxv. 25. Virgil does almost repeat his Words.Nec magnos metuent Armenta Leones. Occidet & Serpens, &fallax Herba Veneni occidet. And as God introduces the Meffiab, with faying, I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth, and the Sea, Hag. ii. 7. Virgil does in a manner tranflate it in this Eclogue, introducing the Great Perfon then to be born, and the Joy that fhould be in the whole Creation. Afpice convexo nutantem Pondere Mundum, Terrafque, Tra&tufque Maris, Cœlumque profundum : Lo! teeming Nature, bending with its Load, Here the Poet describes Nature as in Labour to bring forth this great King, as the other Prophecy of the Sibyls, before mentioned, fpeaks: And he fays, Aderit jam Tempus: That the Time was then at hand. Jam nova Progenies Calo dimittitur alto: Now a new Progeny from Heaven defcends. And he applies it to Saloninus, the Son of Pollio the Conful, then newly born, as if it was to be fulfilled in him. But as there was nothing like it in the Event, fo thefe Words are too great to be applied to any Mortal, or the Reign of any King that ever was in the World; or to any other but to the Meffiah, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. (10.) DE. But you know the Authority of these Sibyls is difputed: Some fay, the Chriftians did interplate them, and added to them, in about a hundred Years after Chrift. CHR. It is true, the Chriftians did often quote them against the Heathen; as St. Paul quoted the Heathen Poets to the Athenians, Acts xvii. 28. And Clem. Alexandrinus, in his Strom. 1. vi. fays that St. Paul quoted the Sibyls likewife, in his Difputations with the Gentiles; and the Chriftians were called Sibytlianifts, from their quoting quoting the Sibyls fo often. But Origen, in his Anfwer to Celfus, 1. 7. challenges him to fhew any Interpolation made by the Chriftians; and appeals to the Heathen Copies, which were in their own Poffeffion, and kept with great Care. But what I have quoted to you out of Virgil, was before Chrift was born, and therefore clear of thefe Objections. DE. Then the Jews must have had fome hand in them; as likewise in that Eaftern Tradition you have spoke of. CHR. If fo, you must fuppofe that the Jews had it from their own Prophets. And this will be a strong Confirmation, that the Time of the Meffiab's Coming was plainly told in the Prophets. (11.) DE. What fay the Jews to this? For I cannot imagine how they can get off of it. CHR. Some of them fay, That the Meffiah put off his Coming at the appointed Time, because of their Sins: Others fay, He did come at the Time, but has concealed himfelf ever fince. Dr. These are mere Excufes: Do they pretend any Prophecy for this? But to what Purpofe? For thefe Excufes fhew, that Prophecies are no Proofs; because, if they may be thus put off, they can never be known; and they may be put off, and put off, to the End of the World. (12.) CHR. But now, SIR, as to your Point. If this general Expectation, both East and Weft, of the great King of the Jews to be born about that very Time that he did come, was occafioned by the Jewish Tradition of it, it ftrengthens the Truth of the Holy Scriptures, whence the Jews had it. But otherwife, if God, we know not how, did fend fuch a Notion into the Minds of Men all over the World, at that particular Time, and never the like, either before or fince, then the Miracle will be greater, and the Attestation to the Coming of Chrift ftronger; and, as you faid, it will be more wonderful, and more convincing to you, than the Star was to the wife Men in the East. E 4 ДБ DE. I must take time to answer this. I made nothing at all of this of the Magi and the Star, and of Herod's flaying the Infants upon it; I thought it a ridiculous Story, and to have no Foundation in the World. But when I fee Suetonius telling us of the Decree of the Senate of Rome to destroy all the Children born that Year, and for the fame Reafon, for fear of this great King, that was then to be born; I must think there was a strange chiming in of Things here, one to anfwer the other; I know not how it happened; By chance, or how ! (13.) CHR. You cannot imagine there could be any Concert in this Matter: That the Chaldeans, and Romans, and Fers, fhould all agree upon the Point, and hit it fo exactly, without any one of them discovering the Contrivance! Efpecially when it was fo terrible to both the Romans and the Jews, that they took fuch defperate Methods to prevent it, as to destroy their own Children! DE. It is ridiculous to talk of a Concert: I will not put my Caufe upon that; would they concert what they thought their own Defiruction? Befides, the Jews and Romans were then Enemies; and the Chaldeans were far off, and had little Correfpondence with either of them : And fuch an univerfal Notion could not be concerted. Whole Nations could not be trufted with a Secret ; and if they all kept it, and against their own Interest too, it would be as great a Miracle as any in your Bible. (14.) CHR. How much more impoffible is it to fuppose, that there fhould be a Concert between different Ages, between all the Ages, from Adam downwards, in all thofe Prophecies of the Coming of the Meffiah? How fhould they know it but by Revelation? And would they have all agreed fo exactly, as to the Time, Place, Manner, and other Circumstances, if it had been a Forgery, contrived by different Perfons, and in different Ages? (15.) This is an Argument which St. Peter thought ftronger than the Conviction even of our outward Senses; for, having fet down what he, and the other two Apoftles, had had both feen and heard upon the Holy Mount, he adds, We have yet a more fure Word (that is, a stronger Proof) of Prophecy, whereunto you do well to take heed, as unto a Light that fhineth in a dark Place, until the Day dawn, and the Day-Star arife in your Hearts, 2 Pet. i. 19. And he inforces it thus, For the Prophecy came not, in old Time, by the Will of Man, but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft. DE. I will grant his Argument fo far, that it is eafier to fuppofe the Senfes of three Men, or of all the Men in the World, to be impofed upon, than that Adam, Abraham, and I, had concerted together: But I will not give you my Anfwer yet. Have you any more to fay upon this Head of Prophecy? CHR. I need fay no more till your Anfwer comes; for you have granted that this Proof is ftronger than what we fee with our Eyes. (16.) But that your Answer may take in all together, I will give you fomething further: I have fet down already fome of the great Prophecies of the Coming of Chrift, his Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection. But there are others which reach to several minute Circumftances, fuch as cannot be applied to any other Fact that ever yet happened, and which could not have been foreseen by any but God; nor were known by the Actors who did them, else they had not done them. For they would not have fulfilled the Prophecies that went before of Christ, in applying them to him whom they crucified as a falfe Chrift. See then how literally feveral of thefe Prophecies were fulfilled As Pfal. Ixix. 21. They gave me Gall to eat, and Vinegar to drink. Then read, Matth. xxvii. 34. They gave him Vinegar to drink, mingled with Gall. It is faid, Pfal. xxii. 16, 17, 18. They pierced my Hands, and my Feet-They ftand ftaring and looking upon me, They part my Garments among them, and caft Lots upon my Vefture. As if it had been wrote after Joh. xix. 23, 24. It was merely accidental in the Soldiers; they would not tear his Coat, because it was woven, and without Seam; therefore they caft Lots for it: Thus fulfilling this this Scripture, without any Knowlege of theirs; for they were Roman Soldiers, and knew nothing of the Scripture: Again, it is faid, Pfal. xxii. 7, 8. All they that fee me laugh me to fcorn; they shoot out their Lips, and shake their Heads, faying, He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him if he will have him. Compare this with, Matth. xxvii. 39. 41, 42, 43. And they that paffed by reviled him, wagging their Heads, and faying Come down from the Crofs. Likewife alfo the chief Priefis mocking him, with the Scribes and Elders, faid -He truffed in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. It is faid again, Zech. xii. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. His very Price was foretold, and how the Money fhould be difpofed of, Zech. xi. 13. Fulfilled, Matth. xxvii, 6, 7. And his riding into Jerufalem upon an Afs, Zech. ix. 9. which the learned Rabbi Saadia expounds of the Meffiah. That he fhould fuffer with Malefactors, Ifai. liii. 12. That his Body fhould not lie fo long in the Grave as to fee Corruption, Pfal. xvi. 10. Many other Circumftances are told, which cannot be applied to any but to Chrift. I have fet down these few, that you may take them into Confideration, when you think fit to give your Answer as to this Head of Prophecies: And you are to take care to find fome other Fact, guarded with Prophecies, like this, or else you muft confefs that there is no other Fact that has fuch Evidence as this. 17. But before I leave this Head, I must mention the Prophecies in our Bible, of Things yet to come to the End of the World; and of the new Heavens and new Earth that fhall fucceed. DE. These can be no Proofs here, because we cannot fee the fulfilling of them. CHR. You may believe what is to come, by the fulfilling you have feen of what is past. But I bring this now to fhew you, that there is no other Law, or Hiftory, in the World, that so much as pretends to this, or |