IN THE COURSE OF WHICH ARE ELUCIDATED MANY PREDICTIONS,

WHICH OCCUR

IN ISAIAH, AND DANIEL,

IN THE WRITINGS OF THE EVANGELISTS,

AND

THE BOOKS OF REVELATION;

AND WHICH ARE THOUGHT TO FORETELL, AMONG OTHER

GREAT EVENTS,
A REVOLUTION IN FRANCE,

FAVORABLE TO THE INTERESTS OF MANKIND,

THE OVERTHROW OF THE PAPAL POWER,

AND OF

ECCLESIASTICAL TYRANNY,
THE DOWNFAL OF CIVIL DESPOTISM,
AND THE SUBSEQUENT MELIORATION OF THE STATE OF

THE WORLD:

TOGETHER WITH A LARGE COLLECTION OF EXTRACTS, INTERSPERSED

THROUGH THE WORK, AND TAKEN FROM NUMEROUS COMMENTA.
TORS; AND PARTICULARLY FROM

Joseph Mede, Vitringa, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Dr. Henry More, Dr. John Owen, Dr. Cressener,

Peter Jurieu, Brenius, Bishop Chandler, Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. William Lowth, Fleming,
Bengelius, Daubuz, Whitby, Lowman, Bishop Newton, and Bishop Hurd.

BY THE REV. JOSEPH TOWERS, L.L. D.

VOL. I.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DUANE, PHILADELPHIA.

1808.

gier

Tappan Prest an 4-29-1932

PREFACE.

6.6-32r.no

THE two great pillars, on which the belief of Christianity tests, are Miracles and Prophecy. If then the prevalence of that belief be of no small consequence with respect to the present and the future happiness of mankind, it cannot but be important, that the evidences of the latter, as well as the proofs of the existence of the former, should be placed in a variety of lights, and that different persons, with a view of contributing something to their credibility and strength, should direct their minds to this subject, and publish the result of their reflections. This, a task at all times usefui, seems peculiarly called for at a period, when the disciples of infidelity are so active and so successful in the gaining of proselytes. But, although it is to considerations of this kind, that tlre following work, on its present extensive scale, is in a great degree to be ascribed, it did not take its rise from premeditated design, and the commencement of it was altogether owing to accidental circumstances. Perhaps it may

be

proper to explain the particular circumstances which suggested it, and to state, at some length, the several motives which have encouraged me to prosecute and extend my plan.

A Discourse on the Apocalypse by Mr. Fleming, whose application of one of its predictions to the French monarchy has excited a considerable degree of public curiosity, happened to be in my possession. To reprint either a part or the whole of that Discourse was, in consequence, strongly recommended to me by an intimate friend. This, however, I without hesitation declined. But a short time after, another gentleman, who was prepairing for the press an ingenious work of miscellancous literature, having accidentally heard of my having this very scarce treatise in my possession, applied to me to furnish him with some extracts from it, as a curi. osity worthy of being preserved, and, as I happened at that time to be perfectly at leisure, it was proposed, that I should communicate a statement of my ideas on the meaning of those extracts. My