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easily admit all their contents (which I am persuaded none of the old ones do, neither any of the new ones that are followed by some sectarians, each seeming to me to reject what does not fully accord with its notions), perhaps it will occur to you that it is possible that, instead of being a history of events that have happened on this earth, they are either a relation of what has passed elsewhere, in a previous state or world; or a prophecy, as I have been told, of things to come, I mean of future

existed, according to the custom of taking the philosophical and mental years in the Bible for vulgar ones; that Amenophis, I say, was the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea: which they mention in several places, but without supporting their assertion by any proof. Then, having a Pharaoh of their own contrivance, they have followed up their original plan, the best they could, helping themselves, now and then, with other suppositions, with the fables of Josephus and of mistaken Jewish writers, no more true than him; and also with the opinions of learned moderns, who, having been told in their youth that the Sacred Books spoke of this earth and of the same vulgar things as the profane, did believe it, seemingly without inquiring whether it was true or not: or who, having perceived the imperfection of the existing systems, and not knowing a better one to present their countrymen with, have thought that it would be more advantageous for them to let them continue in their old notions, than to subvert them by shewing their inconsistency and their discordance with the Scripture: the effect of which might have been to put their souls into a kind of waste, howling wilderness, into a dreadful state of emptiness, dissatisfaction, and unbelief. I think the publishers of the Bible which I have quoted would have run no risk of weakening the faith in their own religious system, if, instead of exposing unwillingly the nakedness of the Jewish, by undertaking to reconcile Sacred with civil history, they had confined themselves to giving at the end of every chapter, good moral and practical instructions, as they have endeavoured to do, from a sincere desire, which they profess in their preface, to serve the cause of piety and virtue.

circumstances among us and within us: perhaps both, if what is to come should be, by the Supreme Will, only a representation of the past, testifying the truth that there is no new thing under the sun.

In arranging their new system, the early converts in their simplicity and unenlightened zeal, may have thought themselves bound to take literally the words of the Gospel, and to consider as past what is written in the past tense. I apprehend it did not strike them that in the two Testaments there are many prophecies*

Psalm 2. 7. Thou art my son; this day I have begotten thee. The Acts, 13. 33.-Heb. 1. 5.-5. 5.

8. 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that

16.

thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. Matt. 21. 16.

6. Thou hast put all things under his feet. Acts, 2. 35.-1 Cor. 15. 25.-Heb. 1. 13.

8. I have set the Lord always before me. Acts,

2. 25.

19. 4. Their line is gone throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Rom. 10. 18.

22.

1. My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me! Matt. 27. 46.-Mark, 15. 34.

18. They part my garments among them; and cast lots

upon my vesture. Matt. 27. 35.

25. 19. And they hate me with cruel hatred. John, 15.

25.

31. 5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Luke, 23. 46. 40. 6. Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.

Heb. 10. 6.

41. 9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. John, 13. 18.

that are written in the past tense, and also in the present, though foretelling things to come; from which, if

Psalm 44. 22. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Rom. 8. 36.

68. 18. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts from men. Eph.

4. 8.

69. 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, (John, 2. 17.) and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Rom. 15. 3.

21. And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

John, 19. 29.

118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. Matt. 21. 42—Mark, 12. 10.

Isaiah, 8. 18. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given

me. Heb. 2. 13.

9. 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great

light. Matt. 4. 16.

21. 9. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Rev. 14. 8.

28. 16. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation, Rom. 9. 33.-1 Pet. 2. 26.

29. 13. For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart from me. Matt. 15. 8.-Mark, 7.6.

42. 1. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect in
whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit
upon him. Matt. 12. 18.

49. 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee; and in the
day of salvation have I helped thee. 2 Cor. 6. 2.
50. 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheek to them
that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from
shame and spitting. Matt. 26. 67.

53.

1. Who hath believed our report? Rom. 10. 6.

3. He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows,

they had not been misled by their ancestors, they might have concluded that it was possible that many other

Isaiah, 53.

and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were
our faces from him: he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.

4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor.
rows; yet, we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted. Matt. 8. 17.-1 Pet. 2. 24.
5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed. 1 Pet. 2. 24.

6. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened

not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Acts, 8. 32. 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Acts, 8. 33. 9. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 1 Pet. 2. 22. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him: he hath put him to grief.

12. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Mark, 15. 28.-Luke, 22. 37.-1 Pet.

2. 24.

61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted. Luke, 4. 18, 19.

10. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.

passages, even all those that were written as past, were likewise prophecies; possible that the Gospel itself, which they took for a fulfilment of things foretold in the Old Testament, was also a prophecy intended to confirm the former ones: the same as we read in Gen. 41. that in the interpretation of the revelations made in dreams to Pharaoh, Joseph tells him (21. 25), The dream of Pharaoh is one; and in 32, there is: and for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh, it is because the thing is established of God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Isaiah, 62. 11. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh. Matt. 21. 5.

65. 1. I am found out of them that sought me not. Rom.

10. 20.

2. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebel

lious people. Rom. 10. 21.

Jere. 31. 15. A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children, refused

to be comforted, for her children, because they were

not. Matt. 2. 18.

51. 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. Rev. 18. 2.

Hosea, 11. 1. And called my Son out of Egypt. Matt. 2. 15.

Zech. 9. 9. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass,

and upon a colt the foal of an ass. Matt. 21. 5.

11. 12. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Matt. 27. 9.

Coloss. 1. 6. The truth of the Gospel which is come unto you, as it

is in all the world.

23. Which was preached to every creature that is under

heaven.

Titus, 2. 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath

appeared to all men, &c. &c. &c.

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