CHAPTER XX
Tertulhan's Apology for the Christians.
_ discourse beyond the bounds of an Apology, it is more tedious than hard ; for abundance of volumes are to be carefully searched into, to make the computation by a different gesture of the fingers.!
We must unlock the archives of the most ancient people, of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phcenicians.
We must appeal to _ the writers of those countries who obliged posterity with the knowledge of . these things, namely, Manethon the Egyptian, Berosus the Chaldean, Iromus the Phoenician, King of Tyre, and their followers, Ptolemy of Mendes, and Menander the Ephesian, and Demetrius Phalereus, and King Juba, and Apion, and Thallus, and Josephus, a Jewish writer of Jewish antiquities, who either approved these authors. or discovered their errors.2
We must also compare the registers of Greece to see what things were done, and when, in order to adjust the successive periods and links of time, which is necessary to clear up history, and set actions in their proper light.
And yet, methinks, I have done this already i some measure, and proved, in part, what I proposed, by giving you here a sprinkling of those authors, where you may see the proofs at large.
But I conclude it better not to pursue this point further, for fear that by being in: haste, either I should not say
_ enough to set the matter beyond dispute, or else by pursuing it particularly I should deviate too far from the main design of this
Apology.
| eid O———
CHAPTER XX.
THAT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROPHECIES
IN HOLY SCRIP-
TURES PROVE THEM TO BE OF AUTHORITY DIVINE.
Ir for the reasons aforesaid I have been shorter than you might expect in my proofs of the antiquity of Holy Scripture, I shall
1 Multis. instrumentis cum digitorum suppatarits gesticulis adsidendum est.
_ Abundance of volumes are to be searched into to make the computation by a different gesture of the fingers.
The multiplication table performed by a different gesture of the fingers is now almost known to everybody ; but whether it was in use in Tertullian's time, and referred to here by him, I will not say ; but surely he has exactly expressed it.
And the reason for calling the figures from 1 to 9 digits, I believe, was from-this computation by the fingers.
2 Manethon Aigyptius, et Berosus Chaldeus, et Iromus Phenix, Sectatores - guogue eorum Mendesius Ptolemeus, et Menander Ephesius et Demetrius Phalerus.
Concerning this passage, and the antiquity and credibility of these historians, I desire the reader to consult Bochartus, de Lingud Phenic et Pui.
| 'lib. ii. cap. 17, and likewise B, Stillingfleet's Ordg. Sac. lib. i. cap. 2, 3, etc.
Tertullian's A pology for the Christians. make you amends now with proofs of much greater importance; I will show you the Majesty, the God that speaks in these writings ;
I will demonstrate the divineness of their authority, if you are still in doubt about their antiquity.
Nor need I be long upon this article, or send you a great way for instruction; the world before you, this present age, and the events therein, shall be your instructors.
For there is nothing of moment now done but what has been foretold ; and what we ourselves see, our forefathers have heard from the prophets.
They have heard that cities should be swallowed up of earthquakes, and islands invaded by seas, and nations torn in pieces by foreign and intestine wars, and kingdom split against kingdom, and_ famine and pestilence take their marches through the world, and every country swarm with proper evils ; that the beasts of the mountains should lay waste the plains,
~ that the weak and mighty should rise and fall by turns, that justice should grow scarce and iniquity abound, that arts and sciences should lie uncultivated, and the seasons of the year be unkindly,
~ and the elements take an exorbitant course, and the order of nature be disturbed with monsters and prodigies ;—all these things were written beforehand for our admonition.
For while we suffer, we read our sufferings; while we reflect upon the prophecies, we find them a-fulfilling ; and this I take to be a proper and most sensible proof of the divine authority of these writings, to feel their predictions verifying upon ourselves.
Hence it is that we come to be so - infallibly certain of many things not yet come to pass, from the experience we have of those that are; because those were presignified by the same Spirit with these which we see fulfilling every day.
The very words and characters of both were indited by the impulse of the very same spirit; and this prophetic spirit sees everything always and at once, though men see only by pieces and successions of time, and are forced to distinguish between the beginning of a prophecy, and the fulfilling it, to separate present from future and past from present. eee, Wherein therefore I beseech you now, are Christians to blame for believing things to come, who have two such motives to believe, or two such mighty pillars to lean upon, as the past and present accomplishment of\the predictions contained in Holy Scripture ?
\ eres se