A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

4. This success is agreeable to what Christ and his apostles foretold.—Matth. xvi.18. "Upon this rock will I build my church: and the gates of •ell shall not prevail against it." John xii.24. "Verily verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." And vers. 31.32. "Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John xvi.8. "When he (the comforter) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement,—because the prince of this world is judged."

So the Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. chap. i.21.—28. declares, how that after the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe; and that God chose the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty: and base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.— If any man foretells a thing, very likely in itself to ⟨p. 211⟩come to pass, from causes which can be foreseen, it is no great argument of a revelation from God: but when a thing is foretold which is very unlikely ever to come to pass, is entirely contrary to the common course of things, and yet it does come to pass just agreeable to the prediction, this is a strong argument that the prediction was from God.