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the state of the heathen, by the state of the temple, by the number of
years.
709. One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways. It was
necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end of the
kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the same time, and
all this before the second temple was destroyed.
710. Prophecies.--If one man alone had made a book of predictions about
Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner, and Jesus Christ had come in
conformity to these prophecies, this fact would have infinite weight.
But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during four
thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come, one after
another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people who announce it
and who have existed for four thousand years, in order to give corporate
testimony of the assurances which they have and from which they cannot be
diverted by whatever threats and persecutions people may make against them.
This is far more important.
711. Predictions of particular things.--They were strangers in Egypt,
without any private property, either in that country or elsewhere. There was
not the least appearance, either of the royalty which had previously existed
so long, or of that supreme council of seventy judges which they called the
Sanhedrin and which, having been instituted by Moses, lasted to the time of
Jesus Christ. All these things were as far removed from their state at that
time as they could be, when Jacob, dying, and blessing his twelve children,
declared to them, that they would be proprietors of a great land,
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