that come within the approach of the oracle, have not their answers revealed the same way. Some gather their resolves by outward appearances, others by word of mouth. They all return the same way back, with their feet foremost." None ever lost their lives in this cavern, except one man, who meant to rob the sanctuary of the wealth deposited there by the superstitious. "This," says Collyer, to whom we are indebted for the substance of the immediately preceding remarks, "is the testimony of Pausanias, and it is sufficiently explicit to discover how much of chicanery might be practised in a place so constructed, upon those who, being prepared for something supernatural, require very little to strengthen the delusion, which their imagination was of itself ready to impose upon their senses." *

Some have attributed the responses of the heathen oracles to the intervention of the devil; but it is evident, from the authority of the wisest and the best of the heathens themselves, as well as from the nature of the thing itself, that they were all mere impostures, invented and supported to impose upon the credulity and superstition of mankind. Dr. Middleton alleges that Cicero, speaking of the Delphic oracle, the most revered of any in the heathen world, declares that nothing was become more contemptible, not only in his days, but long before him; that Demosthenes, who lived about three hundred years earlier, affirms of the same oracle, in a public speech at Athens, that it was gained to the interests of king Philip, an enemy to that city; that the Greek historians tell us how, on several occasions, it had been corrupted by money, to serve the views of particular persons and parties, and the prophetess sometimes had been deposed for bribery and lewdness.

How very different from the pretended predictions of the heathen oracles, are the prophecies contained in the Scriptures; they constitute a series of predictions relating principally to one great object, of universal importance, the work of man's redemption; and carried on in regular progression, through the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian dispensations, with a harmony and uniformity of design, which clearly indicate one and the same author. Then they were delivered, without solicitation, and pronounced in the most public manner: the prophet himself knew that if any of his predictions should be overthrown, according to the law he would be exposed to capital punishment. The events they foretold were often remote, and their accomplishment depending on the arbitrary will of many, and on the

* Collyer's Lectures, vol. i. pp. 35, 36.

working of a vast variety of causes. Some of them related to events which should transpire shortly after they were delivered; other events still later, but which occurred during the life time of the prophet by whom they were delivered; while others extended far beyond the age in which the prophet lived. But all the different events predicted by him were connected together. The predictions imputed contingencies, which the powers of man never could conjecture or effect, and their fulfillment furnishes a moral demonstration that the persons by whom they were delivered, were favored with supernatural communion with God, and that they were his accredited servants, for the instruction of mankind. Moreover they are all so disposed as to form a regular system, all the parts of which harmonize in one unvarying and consistent plan, which runs parallel with the history of the human race, present, past and to come; nor is the language so obscure as the enemies represent. It is true there is a prophetic language of symbol and emblem, yet it is definite and unequivocal in its meaning, and is as easily mastered as the language of poetry, by attentive persons. But this kind of language is not always used; for, as will shortly be seen, in very many instances it sinks into the plainness of historical narrative. The prophesies of the Scriptures may be referred to four classes-Prophesies relating to the Jewish nation in particular-Prophesies relating to the neighbor. ing nations or empires-Prophesies directly concerning the Messiah, and Prophesies delivered by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Mr. Paine says: "If by a prophet we are to suppose a man to whom the Almighty communicated some events that would take place in future, either there were such men or there were not. If there were, it is consistent to believe that the event so communicated would be told in terms that could be understood." Our object is not to treat on the subject of prophecy at large, but to shew that there were such men, because the events communicated to them were told in terms not only easy to be understood, but impossible to be misapprehended, and because the events were too wonderful for the powers of man to conjecture or to effect. And those which shall be given, are of such a character, that every reader, by comparing the predictions with the respective events, will readily perceive that the prophets of Israel, instead of being "impostors and liars, and their writings bombastical rants," as they have been stigmatized by the enemies of Revelation, were the accredited servants of the Most High, and that words could not have a clearer meaning or a more precise application than these prophecies, the truth of whose fulfillment shall be exhibited.

Mr. Olmsted on the subject of prophecy, says: "First prove your fact, if you can, by legitimate testimony, the only testimony by which a fact can be proved-namely, by that of witnesses who saw it, or other facts inconsistent with the now happening of the fact in question. And when you have thus proved your fact, we will believe that he who foretold it, is a prophet inspired of God. This is good logic, and the principle established by this argument is, that a prediction cannot prove a fact, but the fact may prove the inspiration of the prophet." We rejoice to meet Mr. Olmsted upon the ground proposed by him, and agreeably to his proposition will state a prophecy, and then prove the fact of its accomplishment by witnesses who saw it, or other facts inconsistent with the now happening of the fact in question, which, it is cheerfully admitted, is the only testimony by which the fact can be proved. And out of almost innumerable examples we will first select the prophecy relating to the destruction of the celebrated city of Tyre. And this selection is made, because, to prove the fact, a witness can be introduced against whose veracity neither Mr. Olmsted nor any other Infidel will object, as he has long been the object of their admiration, and one of the most able champions of their cause. Here is the prophecy, delivered by Ezekiel, and contained in chap. xxvi of his prophecies:

"And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up: and they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock it shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations: and her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people: he shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee: and he shall set engines of

war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers by reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach: with the hoofs of his horses shall be tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground: and they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandize: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water and I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard and I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

Thus saith the Lord God to Tyrus, Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee: and they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of sea-faring men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it: now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure: for thus saith the Lord God, When I shall make a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.”

Having stated the prophecy, we now proceed to prove the fact by witnesses who saw it, or other facts inconsistent with the now happening of the fact in question. The first witness we will introduce, as already stated, with all Infidels is unexceptionable, being none other than the celebrated Volney, who is well known as a zealous partizan

and successful promoter of Infidelity. Mr. Volney traveled in Syria and Egypt towards the close of the last century. His work, which was published in this country in A. D. 1798, by the Edinburgh Review is characterized as a treatise on the country which he visited; an admirable book, and of extraordinary merit. Malte Brun's Geography contains the following high compliment upon his work:

"The countries belonging to Asiatic Turkey, which remain to be described, have so frequently attracted the attention of travelers, that a large library might be formed of the accounts of those which have been published. Two or three volumes could scarce contain the names of the pilgrims who have left journals of their travels in the Holy Land; works full of repetition and purility, yet claiming the examination of the enlightened critic. Fom these, compared with the writings of Abulfeda and Josephus, the learned Basching has formed an excellent geographical treatise. In modern times we have judicious missionaries, such as Dandini; antiquaries, as Wood; and naturalists, as Maundrel and Hasselquist, who have ably elucidated particular parts of these countries. It was reserved for the genius of Volney to combine their detached accounts with the fruits of his own observations and study, so as to present the world with a complete description of Syria."*

Nothing was further from the intention of Volney, than by his writings to confirm the truth of Scripture prophecy, therefore his testimony, by the Infidel and all others, cannot but be viewed as most conclusive. We select from different portions of his work the following passages.

"Six leagues to the south of Saide, following the coast, we arrive by a very level plain at the village of Sour. In this name we, with difficulty, recognized that of Tyre, to, which we receive from the Latins; but if we recollect that the y was formerly pronounced ou; and observe, that the Latins have substituted the t for the of the Greeks, and that the & had the souud of the English th, in the word think, we shall be less surprised at the alteration. This has not happened among the orientals, who have always called this place Tsour and Sour.

The name of Tyre recalls to the memory of the historical reader so many great events, and suggests so many reflections, that I think may be allowed to enter with some minuteness into the description of a place, which was, in ancient times, the theatre of an immense

I

Malte Brun's Geog. vol. ii. p. 126.