sought; which will, in many instances, rise in its conclusiveness, in proportion to the circumstantial accuracy of the prediction. But of the evidence, which may be obtained of the prophetical character, perhaps the most certain is that which arises from the revelation of the exact time of the occurrence. A series of predictions, answering to this description, occupy no inconsiderable place in the prophetical part of the scriptures; which, as not merely specifying the circumstances of the events which they foretell, but as declaring the very date of their accomplishment are properly termed chronological.

In fulfilling the part, which I have been called to perform, it is my purpose to select, for illustration, the prophecies thus characterised, from the series of inspired compositions. Independent of the quality by which they are more eminently distinguished, they combine in them every qualification by which the prophetical character is sustained, and the claim to inspiration is established. As the limits prescribed to discussion, in this place, confine me to a selection; in the wide field which the subject of prophecy opens to investigation, I know not how the choice could admit of improvement.

II. Of the predictions distinguished as chronological, it is no less observable than of the general body of prophecy, that the events which they foreshew are of that magnitude and impor

tance, that the fate of nations, the destiny of kingdoms, is involved in their accomplishment. As the entire prophetical scheme more particularly concerned the rival monarchies of Judah and Israel; the great political revolutions which they sustained are the subject of prophecies of the kind which I have chosen for discussion. During the time in which these kingdoms remained, the succession of inspired persons flourished, by whom those predictions were delivered. In discharging the office to which they were deputed, they not only declared the reverses, by which the national transgression would be visited, but determined the time, beyond which the visitation of God would not be protracted. And the important epochs, which they have thus determined, and from which they are designated, are not less remarkable for their coincidence with great moral than political revolutions. In the very time when they were uttered, they bear evidence to the superintendence of Him by whom they were inspired; of whose providence it was one object of prophecy to assert the existence and to declare the progress: the crisis chosen for their delivery being not less wonderfully adapted, than that fixed for their accomplishment,-to the political and moral changes which they were intended to operate. At the critical time when they were delivered, the menaces which they conveyed, were calculated to avert

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weaker of the conflicting parties was overthrown. When exhausted by this protracted struggle, the nation who remained victors, beheld a more bold and formidable rival arise in the Medes and Persians, by whom the sovereignty would be usurped, for which they had so long and obstinately contended; the restoration of the Jews to their former territories and independence under this new dynasty might be conjectured, by ordinary foresight or sagacity. As it was consistent with sound policy, thus to re-establish a nation, who were the inveterate foes of the Babylonians, and who might act as a check upon their ambition, on that side of their territories, which was least accessible to the arms of the dominant power; was probable that the Jews, in the prosecution of these measures, might recover their independence, and be reinstated in their dominions. might be even conjectured, that these revolutions in the civil state of the Jews would have a dependence on their moral condition; and that the crisis of their subjugation and captivity would be coincident with the time of their greatest corruption; and the event of their restoration be consequent to the period of their amendment. For it was but reasonable to conclude, that when enervated by vice, they would be less qualified to withstand the incursions of the people, by whom they were menaced with invasion and subjugation. And when reformed, under the chastening

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rod of adversity, they would be safer depositories of power, as less likely to abuse the trust, or to employ it against their liberators and benefactors.

But, however it may be conceived, that in the ordinary course of events, these causes might be pursued to their probable consequences; to declare the exact time when those moral and political revolutions would occur, was obviously beyond the reach of that foresight or sagacity which was merely human. As the Omniscient Being “whose kingdom ruleth over all,” who "bringeth low and lifteth up," could alone foreknow the exact crisis of events, which accident or design might tend to retard or hasten, however necessarily produced, by known laws, and regular in their operation; by inspiration, from him alone, could the precise time of the occurrence be infallibly predicted.

2. But the facility with which the accomplishment of a prediction admits of being proved, furnishes an additional test, by which the superiority of chronological prophecy may be still further established. The limitation which it receives in the determination of a particular conjuncture of time, precludes the chance of misconception or error, respecting the events, in which the circumstances of the prediction remain to be verified. As the reality of the accomplishment consequently depends on a definite period, it may be measured

by a scale that is as certain as it is simple in the application. It is thus merely necessary to number so many years in succession from a given epoch; and the conformity of the time which is predicted, with that which has elapsed, reduces the accomplishment of the prediction to a demonstrative certainty.

In the evidence arising from the application of these tests, chronological prophecy acquires an increasing influence over our conviction, from the nature of the scale by which the course of time is not unfrequently computed. By the institution of the sabbatical period and jubilee, its progress was distributed, among the Jews, into cycles of seven and forty-nine years; by the returns of which, they regulated their religious ordinances and social transactions. According to the revolutions of these cycles, they determined their festivals and completed their civil engagements. As these periods were of divine appointment, it is not reasonable to suppose, that they would be altogether disregarded by the Deity, in the revelations which he conveyed through the intervention of the prophets, and declared he would accomplish in an appointed time. Of the prophecies in which a definite period is assigned, at the expiration of which the event predicted should occur, not a few are accordingly measured by the lapse of those septennial cycles. From their peculiar constitution, however, as