2. _Relation of Prophecy to Miracles._ Miracles are attestations of revelation proceeding from divine power; prophecy is an attestation of revelation proceeding from divine knowledge. Only God can know the contingencies of the future. The possibility and probability of prophecy may be argued upon the same grounds upon which we argue the possibility and probability of miracles. As an evidence of divine revelation, however, prophecy possesses two advantages over miracles, namely: (_a_) The proof, in the case of prophecy, is not derived from ancient testimony, but is under our eyes. (_b_) The evidence of miracles cannot become stronger, whereas every new fulfilment adds to the argument from prophecy. 3. _Requirements in Prophecy, considered as an Evidence of Revelation._ (_a_) The utterance must be distant from the event. (_b_) Nothing must exist to suggest the event to merely natural prescience. (_c_) The utterance must be free from ambiguity. (_d_) Yet it must not be so precise as to secure its own fulfilment. (_e_) It must be followed in due time by the event predicted. Hume: “All prophecies are real miracles, and only as such can be admitted as proof of any revelation.” See Wardlaw, Syst. Theol., 1:347. (_a_) Hundreds of years intervened between certain of the O. T. predictions and their fulfilment. (_b_) Stanley instances the natural sagacity of Burke, which enabled him to predict the French Revolution. But Burke also predicted in 1793 that France would be partitioned like Poland among a confederacy of hostile powers. Canning predicted that South American colonies would grow up as the United States had grown. D’Israeli predicted that our Southern Confederacy would become an independent nation. Ingersoll predicted that within ten years there would be two theatres for one church. (_c_) Illustrate ambiguous prophecies by the Delphic oracle to Crœsus: “Crossing the river, thou destroyest a great nation”—whether his own or his enemy’s the oracle left undetermined. “Ibis et redibis nunquam peribis in bello.” (_d_) Strauss held that O. T. prophecy itself determined either the events or the narratives of the gospels. See Greg, Creed of Christendom, chap. 4. (_e_) Cardan, the Italian mathematician, predicted the day and hour of his own death, and committed suicide at the proper time to prove the prediction true. Jehovah makes the fulfilment of his predictions the proof of his deity in the controversy with false gods: _Is. 41:23—_“Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods”; _42:9—_“Behold, the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.”