Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	contain_v	history_n	year_n	3,071	5	5.5025	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53952	A discourse concerning the existence of God by Edward Pelling ...	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1696 (1696)	Wing P1078; ESTC R21624	169,467	442

acted after such a Prophetical manner as to have Foretold things Future things which Natural Causes did not necessarily produce things which could not have been foreseen but through a continued train and succession of Accidents and through many Circumstances in themselves dubitable and uncertain nay some things which depended not so much upon Natural or Moral Causes here below as upon an over-ruling Power which some have called by the Name of Fate whereby others understand the Absolute Decrees and Pleasure of Heaven I say if things of these kinds have been certainly and infallibly Predicted it is a plain Argument of the Existence of an Omniscient Being because none but an Omniscient Being or a Deity could Foreknow them none but an Almighty Being could Direct and Govern them And therefore this is claim'd as a peculiar Prerogative of the Deity to declare the things that are coming and shall come Isa 44. 7. an Argument which the Prophet there used to shew that the Idols which the Apostate Jews Worshipp'd were not Real Deities This then being so evident and undeniable the whole matter will turn upon this main point Whether there have been at any time such Predictions as these For the clearing whereof we must refer our selves to those Books which have been all along of so great Authority with Jews and Christians since they were first compiled especially to those Books which we commonly call the Old Testament Books of such Venerable Antiquity that the very last of them was written Four hundred years before the Birth of Christ that is above Two thousand years ago and the first of them contains the most Ancient History that is in the World and is at least Three thousand two hundred years old Though in several other Writings which are but of vulgar note we meet with divers Accounts of Prophecies yet because there are the most Ancient the most Authentick and are believed to have been penned by Prophets themselves I shall take notice only of such as we find in them considering those Writers now not as Men divinely inspired but as fair Historians only the Credit whereof there is no sober modest man but will be ashamed to deny them Now here I might sill a large Volume were I minded to write a particular Account of the most Intelligible Predictions we find throughout the Scriptures and of the Accomplishment of them But 't will be enough for me to take notice only of Three sorts 1. Such as relate to the Great Ancient Empires 2. Such as relate to Jesus Christ 3. Such as relate to some Memorable and Remarkable Events after his departure out of the world 1. First Such Predictions as relate to the Great Ancient Empires Of which the Assyrian Monarchy was the First and long before the Translation of it to the Medes and Persians Cyrus who was designed to translate it was mention'd by name as God's Shepherd and Anointed by Isaiah a Prophet of the Jews who told them before hand what great things God would do for Cyrus and that Cyrus would perform all God's pleasure Isa 44 45. Yet this was many years before ever Cyrus was born Two hundred and ten years saith Josephus who adds That Cyrus having Jos Antiq. lib. 1. c. 1. read that Ancient Prophecy concerning him to express his Thankfulness to God gave the Jews leave to return home out of their Captivity and to rebuild God's Temple at jerusalem towards which he promised his own assistance The Jews had then been Captives at Babylon about Seventy years which sore Judgment had been literally foretold them together with the determinate Time of it by the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 25. 11. This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years By the way let me observe That Jeremy began his Prophecying in the Thirteenth year of that good Prince Josiah King of Judah And that Josiah by name had been foretold in the Reign of Jeroboam as we find 1 Kings 13. 2. And that Prophecy was by certain computation given about Three hundred and fifty years before the days of Josiah But to go on Towards the end of the Captivity at Babylon Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's Dream concerning the Great Image the Head whereof was of fine Gold the Breast and Arms of Silver the Belly and Thighs of Brass the Legs of Iron and the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay This Vision was a Representation of the Four Famous Empires as we see by Daniel's own Exposition Dan. 2. The First Empire was that then in being the Babylonish represented by an Head of Gold because it was the most Considerable and Glorious of all the Four As to the Three next the Vision was Prophetical intended to shew the several Successions of them and that the Latter would still be inferior to the Former in Splendor and Dignity Whereas therefore the Babylonish Empire was of Gold the Second was to be of Silver and that was the Persian Empire represented by Two Arms because it consisted of Two great People the Persians and Medes that were to be united together into one State and that under Cyrus who would be related to both Nations to the Medes by the Mother's side and to the Persians by his Father's By the Third Kingdom is meant the Macedonian or Grecian Empire that was to be erected by Alexander the Great upon his Signal Victories over the Persians This was represented by a Brazen Belly and Thighs because as St. Jerome thinks Brass of all Metals giving the greatest sound was sit to set forth the Extraordinary Fame which would be spread over the world not only of the Greeks Power and Fortune but of their Eloquence also The Roman Empire was to be the Fourth and that was represented by Legs of Iron because as Iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things so was the Roman Power to break and subdue all the Principalities which Alexander left to his Commanders and their Successors and so would possess it self of all the Riches and Glory of the Three former Empires Nevertheless how strong soever the Roman Power was to be at the first founding of that Empire in process of time it would be impaired weakned and debased like Iron mingled with Mire and Clay Which St. Jerome observes was when the strength of Rome was so wasted by their long Wars Foraneous and Civil that they were forced upon many Occasions to call in the Aid of Barbarous Exotick People which mixing themselves with the Old Roman Blood gave it an alloy so that they lost great degrees of their Ancient Strength and Honour This Succession of the Empires thus predicted in the Second Chapter of Daniel's Prophecy we sind foretold again in some other places under other Representations but I instance in this only because it is most obvious to every ordinary Understanding And now whoever will take the pleasure to examine some Humane Writers from Herodotus down to Justin the Historian