In the book of Kings we find Micaiah, the son of Im- lah, uttering a challenge, by which his predictive pow- er .> were to be judged. He had pronounced, by the word of the Lord, that Ahab should fall at Ramoth- Gilead. Ahab, in return, commanded him to he shut up in prison until he came hack in peace. "And Micaiah said. If thou return at all in peace" (that is. if the event do not verily my words), "the Lord hath not spoken by me" (that is. I am no prophet capable of predicting the future) | 1 Kings xxii. 28). The test is sound as a negative test, and so it is laid down in the law (Deut. xviii, 22 i; but as a positive test it would not be suffi- cient. Allah's death at Ramoth-Gilead did not prove Micaiah's predictive powers, though his escape would have disproved them. But here we must notice a very important difference between single prophecies and a series of prophecy. The fulfilment of a single prophecy does nol prove the prophetical power of the prophet, but the fulfilment "fa long series of prophecies by a se- ries or number of events does in itself constitute a proof that the prophecies were intended to predict the events, and. consequently, that predictive power resided in the prophet or prophets. We may see this in the so far parallel cases of satirical writings. We know for certain that Aristophanes refers to Cleon, Pericles, Nicias (and we should be equally sure of it were his satire more con- cealed than it is), simply from the fact of a number of
satirical hits i verging together on the object of his
satire. One. two. or three strokes might be intended lor more persons than one. hut the addition of each Btroke makes the aim more apparent;' and when we have a sufficient number before us. we can no longer possibly doubt his design. The same may he said of fables, and still more of allegories. The fad of a complicated lock being opened by a key shows that the lock and key were meant for each other. Now the Messianic pict- ure drawn by the prophets as a body contains at least as many trails as these: That salvation should come
through the family id' Abraham, [saac, Jacob, Judah, David; that at the time of the final absorption of the Jewish power, Shiloh (the tranquillizer) should gather the nations und< r his rule; that there .should be a great Prophet, typified by Moses; a King descended from David: a Priest forever, typified by Melchizedek ; that
there si Id b ■ born into the world a child to be called
Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace; that there should l>.- a Righteous Servant of God mi whom tin. Lord would lay the iniquitj of all; that Messiah the Prince should he cut oil', hut not for himself; that
1 an everlasting kingdom should be given by the Ancient of Days to one like the Nun of man. It seems impossi- ble- t.. harmonize so many apparent contradictions. Nev- ertheless, it is an undoubted fact thai at the time seem- ingly pointed out by one or more of these predictions there was born into the world a child of the house of David, and therefore of tie- family of Abraham, [saac, Jacob, and Judah, who claimed to be the object of these and other predictions; who i~ acknowledged as Proph- et, Priest, and King, a- Mighty God and yet a- God's Righteous Servant win. bears the iniquity of all; who
■ was cut off. ami whose death is acknowledged not to have been for hi> own, but for others' good: who has instituted a spiritual kingdom on earth, which kingdom is of a nature to continue forever, if there is any con- tinuance beyond this world and this life; and in whose doings and sufferings on earth a number of specific pre- dictions were minutely fulfilled. Then we may say that we have here a series of prophecies which are so applicable to the person and earthly life of Jesus Christ as to be thereby shown to have been designed to apply to him. If they were designed to apply to him, pro- phetical prediction i> proved.
Objections have been urged: (a.) Vagueness. — It has been said that the prophecies are too darkly and vague- ly worded to be proved predictive by the events which they are alleged to foretell. This objection is stated with clearness and force by Amnion. He says, "Such simple se nces as the following: Israel has not to ex- pect a king, but a teacher; this teacher will be horn at Bethlehem during t he reign of Herod : be will lay down his life under Tiberius, in attestation of the truth of his religion : through the destruction of Jerusalem, and the complete extinction of the Jewish state, he will spread his doctrine in every quarter of the world — a few sen-
i tences like these, expressed in plain historical prose, would not only bear the character of true predictions, but, when once their genuineness was proved, they would be of incomparably greater worth to us than till the oracles of the Old Test taken together" {ChristoL "////. p. 12). Hut to this it might be answen d, and has