INTRODUCTION. | XV

other 630 years B. C. These predictions specified details, circumstances, and
agencies, In connection with which its overthrow would be effected. Improba-
ble as these predictions must have appeared when uttered, they received literal
fulfilment about 606 years B. C. The city was then laid waste, its noble mon-
uments overthrown, and its inhabitants dispersed and carried into captivity.
The ruins, which have been discovered by modern explorations, and which
attest the magnificence of this ancient city, furnish historic illustration and
confirmation of the ancient prophecies, and prove that they must have been
revealed to the men by whom they were uttered. A heathen historian, who
must have been ignorant of the Hebrew Scriptures, has given a narrative
of the destruction of this great city, comprising all that was foretold.

Babylon was once the glory of kingdoms,—the proud metropolis of the
world ; it was so when its doom was announced by Isaiah and Jeremiah. In
the predictions uttered, the nations are specified by whom the city would be
besieged and conquered, and the name of the conqueror was given, a hundred
years before he was born, and the circumstances are noted that would accom-
pany its overthrow. Improbable as the prophetic utterances seemed at first, as
the course of time swept on, the things spoken by the prophets came to pass.
Subsequent history has confirmed their truthfulness, and the ruins of this
mighty kingdom, as brought to light by modern antiquarians, add unanswera-
ble testimony to the evidence, that all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God.

The doom of Tyre, the extermination of the Edomites, the desolation of
Egypt, and especially the singular fortunes of the Hebrew nation,—as foretold
by different prophets, attest the divinity of the prophetical writings, and
strengthen the general argument for the supernatural origin of the entire Bible.
The facts contained in the history of the Jews, as developed through a long
course of ages, show in a most conclusive manner, that the spirit of prophecy
pervades, and gives authority to the sacred writings. The growth of this peo-
ple from a very humble origin, their peculiar nationality, their deliverance
from Egyptian oppression, their possession of the land of Canaan, their
institutions, their civil wars, their captivity, their restoration, their subjugation
to Roman dominion, and their final destruction 4s a nation, and more than all,
their continued existence as an isolated race, show with singular particularity
the truthfulness of the many predictions uttered by Moses and other prophets
respecting them, making their historic record of unparalleled vicissitudes a
standing monument, like alone pillar in the desert, attesting the Divine
authority of the Bible.

The prophecies cited in the foregoing remarks, form only a small part of
what are contained in the Scriptures. As a whole, they constituted an antici-
pative history of the world, so far as such history stood related to the church.
They have been in a continued course of fulfilment during successive genera-
rations tothe present time. Whence, we may inquire, this accurate foresight
of future events? Not from the foreseeing wisdom of men, for they know not