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faith in the prophets depends upon the authority of miracles; and fince the ftream can never rise above the spring-head, the evidence of prophecy cannot be greater than the evidence of miracles. But let us take an higher inftance; Mofes was the firft, and the greatest prophet of the law, to whom God spoke face to face he was called by God to deliver the children of Ifrael out of Egypt, and commiffioned to affure them of God's immediate protection. This I fuppofe was fufficient to make him a prophet to Ifrael: but what fays Mofes? Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice; for they will fay, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Was this a foolish complaint in Mofes? If it was, how came God to liften to it, and to furnish him with an answer above all exception, by giving him immediately a power to work miracles in confirmation of his prophecy? Does not this method of God's proceeding plainly fhew, that miracles are the prophet's greatest authority and confirmation? What is that fuperior evidence of prophecy then, which is faid fo much to exceed the evidence of miracles? But to go on : the comparison in the text, with respect to St. Peter himself, is between the word of prophecy, and the immediate word of God: and, according to this expofition of the text, St. Peter, who declares that he heard the voice of God himself in the mount, is made in his own person to say, (for the words are, We have a more fure word of prophecy,) that the dark prophecies of the Old Teftament were a furer and more certain evidence, than this immediate voice of God which he heard with his own ears. Now what is prophecy, that it should be more furely and cer

tainly to be depended on than the immediate voice of God? Is it poffible to think that St. Peter, or any man in his wits, could make fuch a comparison ?

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But further; let us confider what account St. Peter himself gives of this word of prophecy; which, we are told, is beyond comparison the best and the fureft evidence we have for our faith he compares it to a light shining in a dark place; and diftinguishes it from day-light, and that brightness which is ushered in by the day-ftar. This word of prophecy then is here compared by St. Peter to the glimmering light of a candle feen at a diftance in a dark night; which though it gives fome direction, yet is nothing compared to clear day-light. Is not this now a choice account of the evidence of the Gofpel; nay, of the very beft evidence which we have of the Gospel? Are we ftill furrounded on all fides with darkness, affifted by one only diftant glimmering light? Was it thus that Chrift came to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of Ifrael? St. Peter in his firft epiftle tells all Chriftians, that they are called out of darkness into God's marvellous light; how comes he then in this fecond epiftle to tell them, that they are still in darkness, and have nothing but a light glimmering in the darkness to direct them? Can the fame writer poffibly be fupposed to give fuch different accounts of our Gospelftate? Afk St. Paul, what ftate Chriftians are in; he will tell you, That the light of the glorious Gospel of Chrift, who is the image of God, has fhone unto them, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Afk the Evangelifts; they will tell you, The day-fpring from on high hath vifited us, to

give light to them that fit in darkness, and in the fhadow of death. Afk any, or all of the Apoftles; they will tell you their commiffion is, To open the eyes of the people, and to turn them from darkness to light; Acts xxvi. 16. agreeably to what our Lord told his difciples, Ye are the light of the world, Matt. v. 14. How different is this account from that which St. Peter is supposed to give of the best light we have under the Gospel, in contradiction to himfelf, and almost every writer of the New Teftament!

But let us go one step further, and we shall find, that St. Peter in the text is fo far from speaking of the word of prophecy, as of the beft light or evidence to be had for the point in question, whatever it was, that he manifeftly speaks of it as not the beft, but as a light to be attended to only until a better comes : hear his words; We have alfo a more fure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, UNTIL the day dawn, and the day-ftar arise in your hearts. This light you fee is to be attended to only till the daylight comes; fo far is it from being itself the best light, that it must give way to a better. What the true import and meaning of this is, we fhall fee hereafter. But furely St. Peter would not have limited any time for their attending to the word of prophecy, had he been confidering it as the best support of Chriftian faith; for in that sense it ought ever to be attended to, and to be the conftant employment of a Chriftian's meditation, fo long as life and thought remain with him.

These reasons, I suppose, prevailed with interpreters to quit the apparent sense of this text, which

feems to prefer the authority of prophecy to the authority of all other evidence, whereby the doctrine of the Gospel is confirmed; and to feek for fome other, more conformable to truth and reason. But however they are agreed in rejecting this fenfe, they are far from being agreed in establishing any other.

The Greek expofitors suppose the sense here to be, The prophecy is now to Chriftians a more fure and convincing evidence than ever it was, having been verified and established by the events. This interpretation preferves the force of the comparison; but then it places the comparison where St. Peter has not placed it. He manifeftly compares the evidence of prophecy to the evidence arifing from the glorification of Chrift, attefted by those who delivered what they had heard and feen with their own eyes and ears; but of the evidence and weight of prophecy, before and after the completion, he says nothing. Grotius thought this fense the most convenient, and has adopted it in his commentary on the place.

Others b fuppofe, that the comparative is used in this text, in the sense of the pofitive, to exprefs the great certainty of the evidence mentioned. According to them the meaning is, " that we have a very "fure evidence in the words of prophecy:" this expofition introduces a new ufe of language into the text, for which, having no fufficient authority to produce, it can claim no authority itself. The inftances given to fupport this conftruction, as far as I have seen, are not pertinently alleged.

b Erafmus, Junius, and Tremellius.

Others, preserving the natural fignification of the words, and therefore admitting the comparison, will not however allow the comparison to be absolute, but only relative; relative to the opinions and prejudices of the Jews, to whom this epiftle was directed. According to this interpretation, the Apoftle does not affert, that prophecy is in itself a better argument than the evangelical evidence, but only that it is better to Jews; who, being educated in an esteem and reverence for the prophets from their childhood, and being but new and tender converts to the Gospel, had a much greater regard to the authority of their own prophets, than to the teftimony of the Apostles. But as to this expofition; in the first place, there is nothing in the text to countenance it: in the next place; had this been St. Peter's meaning, he never would have spoken in the first person, and joined himself in the fame opinion with his countrymen: WE have, fays he, a more fure word of prophecy. Now, whatever the Jews thought, St. Peter could not think that the ancient obfcure prophecies, and which he compares immediately to a light fhining in a dark place, were a ftronger evidence than the miracles of Jefus, and the atteftation of God himself to the truth of his miffion. This therefore could not be St. Peter's meaning.

These are the most confiderable expofitions, which have been given of this paffage. It is evident that all interpreters have been fenfible of the abfurdity of setting up prophecy as a fuperior evidence to all other Gospel evidence; and that, to avoid this difficulty, they have been driven to seek out other meanings. And yet, without all queftion, the words of

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