"Laodicea was the metropolis of the Greater Phrygia; and, as heathen writers attest, it was an extensive and very celebrated city. Instead of then verging to its decline, it arose to its eminence only about the beginning of the Christian era. 'It was the mother-church of sixteen bishoprics.' Its three theatres, and the immense circus, which was capable of containing upwards of thirty thousand spectators, the spacious remains of which (with other ruins buried under ruins) are yet to be seen, give proof of the greatness of its ancient wealth and population, and indicate too strongly that in that city where Christians were rebuked, without exception, for their lukewarmness, there were multitudes who were lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. The amphitheatre was built after the Apocalypse was written, and the warning of the Spirit had been given to the church of the Laodiceans to be zealous and repent; but whatever they there may have heard or beheld, their hearts would neither have been quickened to a renewed zeal for the service and glory of God, nor turned to a deeper sorrow for sin, and to a repentance not to be repented of. But the fate of Laodicea, though opposite, has been no less marked than that of Philadelphia. There are no sights of grandeur nor scenes of temptation around it now. Its own tragedy may be briefly told. It was lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot; and therefore it was loathsome in the sight of God. It was loved, and rebuked, and chastened in vain. And it has been blotted from the world. It is now as desolate as its inhabitants were destitute of the fear and love of God; and as the church of the Laodi

178 PREDICTIONS CONTAINED IN DANIEL, &c.

ceans was devoid of true faith in the Saviour, and zeal in his service, it is, as described in his travels by Dr. Smith, 'utterly desolated, and without any inhabitant, except wolves, and jackals, and foxes.' It can boast of no human inhabitants, except occasionally when wandering Turkomans pitch their tents in its spacious amphitheatre. The finest sculptured frag

ments' are to be seen at a considerable depth, in excavations which have been made among the ruins. And Colonel Lake observes, there are few ancient cities more likely than Laodicea to preserve many curious remains of antiquity beneath the surface of the soil; its opulence, and the earthquakes to which it was subject, rendering it probable that valuable works of art were often there buried beneath the ruins of the public and the private edifices.' A fearful significancy is thus given to the terrific denunciation, 'Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.'

There are some very interesting predictions contained in Daniel, in Revelations, and in one of Paul's epistles, relating to the church of Rome; and to the religion of Mohammed; which have been, in a most extraordinary manner fulfilled; and likewise the predictions concerning the diffusion and propagation of the gospel. But a fair representation of them would require a much larger space than is consistent with the design of this work; and I must hasten to the close of this part of the subject. I shall, therefore, only notice two or three other predictions, which are hav

PREDICTIONS CONTAINED IN DANIEL, &c. 179

ing their accomplishment among ourselves at the present day.

Peter says, "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" And are there not scoffers among us, some of whom walk after their own lusts? Do they not make a mock of experimental religion, and scoff at the threatenings of God against sinners? And do they not say, "Where is the promise of his coming?" or at least pretend that he was mistaken as to the time when he would come.

Again, the same apostle says, "There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." And have there not arisen false teachers among us? And did they not privily, in the days of our fathers, while professing to be orthodox, bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them? The apostle also says, "many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." And is it not so? Do not many follow the pernicious ways of these false teachers? And is not the way of truth evil spoken of ?

But again, the apostle Paul, speaking of those that receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, says, "God shall send them strong delusions, to believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Here is a declaration of the awful truth, that, when men reject the truth from hatred of it, and refuse cordially to embrace it, God sends upon them

a judicial blindness, so that they are left to embrace and continue in fatal and soul-destroying errors, which at last will drown their souls in perdition. And is it not so? Have we not examples of it among us? How often do we see those who have sat under the sound of the gospel, and whose hearts have been moved upon by the Holy Ghost,-how often do we see them resisting those influences, and rejecting the truth, because they hate it, and cannot submit their hearts to it? And how often does God leave them to embrace some soul-destroying error, to their own damnation ?

Once more, the impenitent often bring up the inconsistent conduct of professors of religion, and the cases of apostasy that occur among them, to prove that there is nothing in religion. But it proves just the contrary. All this is predicted. Christ intimates that there will be many false professors; and John, speaking of such says, "They went out from us, because they were not of us." Christ says also, that because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; and is it not so? Does not iniquity abound? And has not the love of many among us waxed cold? Are not some of us now verifying this prediction ? How warm is our love to him that died for us? Does it lead us to live, not to ourselves, but unto him? How much sacrifice of personal interest or feeling does it lead us to make, for the sake of Him and his cause?

It appears from the facts that have been presented in this and the preceding chapter, that the whole Bible, as we have it, was given by inspiration of God. We

have shown that prophecies spoken by Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Obadiah, and Nahum, have been fulfilled. We might likewise show the same of David and of all the prophets; but think it unnecessary in this place. We have seen also, that prophecies spoken by Jesus Christ, Paul, and Peter, have been fulfilled. We might have shown the same of John. But to prove the truth of the Bible from prophecy, it is not necessary to point out particular predictions that have been fulfilled in every particular book. The Jews had a rule that a man who was acknowledged as a prophet,— whose words had been attested by fulfilment, or by miracles, or signs, or by another acknowledged prophet, was sufficient to attest the inspiration of another prophet. Now we have this testimony in regard to all the parts of the Bible. Jesus Christ was shown to be a prophet, by the testimony of John the Baptist, whose prophetic character was attested by an angel, and acknowledged by the people; Christ has also been shown to be a prophet by the miracles which he wrought, and by the fulfilment of predictions which he uttered. And we have his testimony to the whole of the Old Testament,-" All things which are written in the law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms," concerning himself, he says must be fulfilled; thus recognizing these three parts into which the Jewish Scriptures were divided, as of Divine origin; and these comprise all that we now have in the Old Testament. Christ also declared to his apostles that he would impart to them the gift of inspiration, to enable them to write the gospel, and settle the foun