mission that evil opinions should flourish is no evidence of their truth; for the Lord hath foretold of these things. The growth of the Gospel has indeed been rapid and gradual, but never has it enjoyed a progress of uninterrupted felicity. It has always been clogged with difficulties and surrounded with danger, convincing us at once of the foreknowledge of its Author and its own vital vigour.

Thus have we found described in these prophetic parables of our Lord a complete and lively picture of the state and progress of the Church, as it has been, as it is, and as it will be until time shall be no more. And now let us turn to estimate the nature and measure the value of the testimony of these fulfilments.

Now, the first general inference which we draw from the fulfilment of these prophecies is this-that they must necessarily have been uttered by Jesus in the fulness of the spirit of foreknowledge. And if so, the question as to the probability of miracles in general, and of the certainty of those of Jesus in particular, is at an end. The infidel himself allows that "a prophecy is a real miracle," subject to the same rules and leading to the same inferences as any other wonderful work. Here then we say is prophecy, and

here, therefore, we conclude is a real miracle. The infidel may deny the existence of the spirit of foreknowledge in Jesus if he will. He may talk of conjecture, or of reasoning, or of assertions hazarded by imposture or enthusiasm, and by accident fulfilled. We can only lament the blindness of his heart, or the perverseness of his understanding, and continue to maintain, with a firmness and a resolution which the reasonableness of the opinion justifies, that the predictions of our Lord were too bold for conjecture, too positive for reasoning, and too varied and minute for mere accident to accomplish.

A second inference seems equally sure, and it is this that it is impossible to view those prophecies of our Saviour which we have detailed, in connection with their accomplishment, and not allow that the foreknowledge in which they were uttered was of divine origin. The predictions were uttered ages ago. That is one fact undeniable and undenied. The predictions have been fulfilled in every age, and are fulfilling in our That is another fact of like clearness and certainty. Take, then, these two facts together, and tell me what other conclusion you can fairly draw than this, that the spirit in which the words were spoken was of God, and that their fulfilment was also of him.

own.

For consider, that these prophecies involve in their fulfilment the truth and divinity of the whole of the religion of which they form a part. The woes which Jesus pronounced upon Jerusalem he frequently declared to be called down upon her because she knew not the hour of her visitation, and would obey none of his laws, and gave heed to none of his claims. "Did ye never read in the Scriptures," said he, "the stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Therefore, I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."* Hear also another parable which he spake. The Lord of a certain vineyard, whose husbandmen were fruitless and disobedient, said, "What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. And he sent unto

them his son; but the husbandmen cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, therefore, shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them. He shall come and destroy those husbandmen, and give their vineyard to others." Now the chief priests and scribes perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. "And when they heard it they said, God forbid." But God did ‡ not forbid. In all its minuteness, in all its extent, in all its singularity, their ruin was accomplished, and they themselves were slain, and their city * Matt. xxi. 42. + Matt. xxi. 33. Luke xx. 16.

made a perpetual wonder in the hands of strangers. Jesus also said, " Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He speaks not of a church in general, but of his own Church in particular, and of himself as its builder, and of building it upon the rock of Peter or of his confession. And the whole of this we have seen literally fulfilled. Now, it is impossible for any man to look upon the completion of these predictions, and not think that the completion was permitted by God. It is equally impossible for any honest and unprejudiced man to suppose their completion, after having been thus solemnly appealed to by Jesus, to have been permitted by God, had not the religion in whose favour they were appealed to, been true. For by only not permitting their full and fair accomplishment, God would have given us the immediate means of detecting the existence of imposture and deceit. But God has permitted the fulfilment of those judgments which Jesus denounced upon the adversaries of his claims, and of those promises which he made of establishing his pretensions; and therein we are plainly taught that his claims ought to have been admitted, and that his pretensions were just.

Here, then, at length, we are enabled to estimate the nature, and measure the value of that testimony

which his own accomplished predictions are able to bear to the truth of Jesus. They were uttered in the wisdom of the spirit of divine foreknowledge. They were appealed to as proofs of his divine mission, and by their accomplishment, therefore, they are created not only into real miracles, but divine. They are miracles which are performing in the present generation, and before our own eyes, and so demonstrate to the senses and to the experience of the men of the present and every other generation, not only the probability, but the absolute certainty, that Christianity is supported by the evidence of real and divine miracles. They may be reasoned upon also like any other miracles; and, as the Jews and the primitive Christians had an opportunity of beholding the wonderful performance of the works of Jesus, and by comparing them with his life and doctrine, were enabled to demonstrate the divine authority of his commission; so also, and with equal certainty, may we do the same, by only applying the same course of argument to the wonderful fulfilment of his prophecies. What that course of argument is, I have already pointed out in a previous Discourse; and it is necessary, therefore, further only to observe, first, how completely the words of the Apostle are verified, when he says, that "the spirit of prophecy is the

* Discourse V.