riches and for wisdom." (1 Kings x. 23.) At the dedication of the temple, he held "a feast, and all Israel with him, from the entering in of Hamath (the northern boundary, not far from the Euphrates) unto the river of Egypt." (1 Kings viii. 65.)

The geographical position of "Hamath" appears to be about one degree of S. latitude, and one degree of longitude, W., from the nearest bend of the river Euphrates. (See Arrowsmith's Bible Atlas, 9.)

SECTION V.

Comment on the promise to Abraham.

The common assertion of infidelity, with respect to prophecies, has been, that they were written after the event. A prophecy fraudulently forged would, probably, in all such cases be as clear an exposition of the event pretended to have been foretold, as could be set forth. Or at least it would be so constructed, as to leave no room for any question, as to its intended application. Fraudulent prophecies, announced before the event, would, on the contrary, be as obscure, vague, and convertible to any affirmative or negative result of the event in question, as ingenuity and art could frame them. Of this kind were the oracles of paganism.

When Pyrrhus consulted one of them on his projected expedition against the Romans, he received the following answer. "Credo te, Eacida, Romanos vincere posse."

This sentence can be literally and grammatically construed in two ways, thus

"I believe, O descendant of Eacus, that thou art able to conquer the Romans," or " that the Romans are able to conquer thee." The imputation of this kind of oracular ambiguity has, we believe, never been alleged against the prophecies of the Bible. The only resource has been, when the coincidence is too clear and striking to be denied, to affirm that they are not genuine or authentic, and were forged after the event.

Suppose this kind of objection to be made against that part of the prophecy to Abraham, which is the subject of our present consideration, in which God assures him-" thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace -thou shalt be buried in a good old age." We find that this prophecy and the event exactly concurred. He" died in a good old age; an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people." In this case Moses, who recorded the circumstance, might have invented the prediction from his knowledge of the fact. But if Moses invented the whole prophecy by God to Abraham, after he had conducted the Israelites out of Egypt, intending to lead and establish them in the land of Canaan-if this prophecy had not been a patriarchal tradition, which he recorded, but a fiction, which he invented ;-he adopted a mode of expression, which must have betrayed his imposition at once. The prophecy, which he recorded, is this" Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve

them, and they shall afflict them." So far the prophecy and the events are so accurately coincident, that the prediction might have been invented to suit the facts but we have not completed the sentence. Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs; and they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years.”

"Four hundred years!" why Moses and the Israelites well knew, that their captivity in Egypt had lasted 215 years only. Surely the most credulous incredulity could never imagine, that Moses would wilfully discredit his own pretended prophecy, by making it affirm that, which he and all his nation knew was not the fact. It may, possibly, have been for the special purpose of confuting these cavils of scepticism, that God has caused many prophecies, to be clear and unquestionable in their application to events, but, at the same time, partially obscure in their expression. If the prediction and its accomplishment be precisely exact, we see how plausible the objection is, that the prediction is a pretence, and a mere appendage to the fact. But in the prophecy before us, there is a difficulty, an apparent error and mis-statement, such a one as no impostor would dream of encumbering his own deception with. Therefore, this prophecy could not have been an invention of Moses, but must have been a standing tradition, which he recorded. If it was a tradition, it was also a prophecy, because the tradition is the

prophecy. The very difficulty, therefore, which the prophecy comprises, proves its prophetic character. That difficulty is, as it were, the mint stamp, which indicates its sterling value. But it is very remarkable, that the difficulty here, having performed that important function, becomes a difficulty no longer, but rather a further proof in confirmation.

The four hundred years, here referred to, do not comprise that, which the context, as recorded by Moses, would lead us at first sight to suppose. They are certainly not 400 years of servitude by the Israelites in Egypt. But they are a prophetic term, referring to some period. What then is that period? It is one which applies, not to Abraham personally, but to his "Seed"-" thy seed shall be a stranger," &c. &c. The first of that seed was Isaac, who was born B.c. 1897. The period then must start from that point. The Hebrews escaped from Egypt in 1491, B.C. Here is an exact period of 406 years; or 400 years in round numbers. Thus the prophetic intention is perfectly clear, though the mode of expression, by which Moses recorded it, be not so.

The term of 400 years was announced by God to Abraham, not as the period of duration, but as the period of the cessation of that bondage, which was to afflict his seed," as strangers in a land not theirs." It is as if He had said, "know of a surety, that thy seed (until the end of four hundred years from its first germination) shall be a stranger in a land that is