A

DISSERTATION,

&c.

THE expectation of an extraordinary person who should arise in Judea, and be the instrument of great improvements in the manners and condition of mankind, was almost if not altogether universal at the time of our Saviour's birth; and had been gradually spreading and getting strength for some time before it. The fact is so notorious to all who have any knowledge of antiquity, that it is needless to attempt any proof of it. It may be assumed as a

principle, which even an infidel of candour would be ashamed to deny; or if any one would deny it, I would decline all dispute with such an adversary as too ignorant to receive conviction, or too disingenuous to acknowledge what he must secretly admit.

If we inquire what were the general grounds of the expectation which so generally prevailed, the answer to the question is exceedingly obvious: That the ground of this expectation was probably some traditional obscure remembrance of the original promises. But the great point is, to discover by what means this remembrance was perpetuated in the later and darker ages of idolatry, when the name of Jehovah was forgotten, and his worship neglected, except in one nation in which the knowledge and worship of the invisible Creator was miraculously preserved.

Now my conjecture is, that this was effected by a collection of very early prophecies, which were committed to writing in a very early age, and were actually existing in many parts of the world, though little known till the extirpation of Paganism, by the propagation of the Gospel. I am well aware how extravagant such an opinion may appear in this incredulous age. But I stand not in the judgment of infidels, I speak to a Christian audience. They will judge of the probability of my assertion, when I have stated the grounds on which I build it.

For the more perspicuous arrangement of my argument I shall divide it into two parts.

First I shall prove the fact from historical evidence, that the Gentile world in the darkest ages was in possession, not of yague and traditional, but of explicit writ

ten prophecies of Christ. When I have established the fact, and by that means shewn the immediate cause of the expectation which so generally prevailed, I shall then produce the more remote and higher cause, and prove that these written prophe

cies were the remains of divine oracles of

the earliest ages.

First, For the fact that the Gentile world in the darkest ages was possessed of explicit written prophecies of Christ, I shall found the proof of it on the contents of a very extraordinary book, which was preserved at Rome under the name of the oracles of the Cumaan Sibyl, which was held in such veneration that it was deposited in a stone chest in the temple of Jupiter in the capitol, and committed to the care of two persons expressly appointed to that office. For the contents of this book I shall make no appeal to the quotations of