We need not examine the other miracles in detail, since the argument is much the same in every case. They are all said to have occurred on important and critical occasions when, if we admit miracles at all, they would be most suitable. They are all said to have been _public_ miracles, either actually worked before crowds of persons, or else so affecting public men that their truth or otherwise must have been well-known at the time. And they were all of such a kind that any mistake or fraud as to their occurrence was out of the question. It is, then, on the face of it, most unlikely that miracles, _such as these_, should have been recorded unless they were true. Indeed, if the Old Testament books were written by contemporaries, or even within a century of the events they relate, it is very difficult to deny their occurrence. We decide, therefore, that the _history_ of the Jewish Religion was _confirmed by miracles_. CHAPTER XI. THAT ITS HISTORY WAS CONFIRMED BY PROPHECIES. (_A._) GENERAL PROPHECIES. Three examples considered: (1.) The desolation of Assyria and Babylonia. (2.) The degradation of Egypt. (3.) The dispersion of the Jews, including the Roman siege of Jerusalem. (_B._) SPECIAL PROPHECIES. List of eight important ones: a single example, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians considered in detail; some general remarks. (_C._) CONCLUSION. The cumulative nature of the evidence. We pass on now to the Jewish Prophecies. It should be explained at starting that the word _prophecy_ is used here in the sense of _prediction_; and not as it often is, in the Bible, to include various kinds of teaching. And the prophecies may be divided into two classes, general and special. (_A._) GENERAL PROPHECIES. We will consider the General Prophecies first, the most important of which concern the Jews themselves, and their great neighbours Assyria and Babylonia, on the one hand, and Egypt on the other. All these nations had existed for centuries, and there was nothing to indicate what was to be their future; yet the prophets foretold it, and with remarkable accuracy. (1.) _The desolation of Assyria and Babylonia._ And first as to Assyria and Babylonia. The future of these countries was to be utter _desolation_. The kingdoms were to be destroyed, the land was to become a wilderness, and the cities to be entirely forsaken. We read repeatedly that they were to be desolate _for ever_; and though this cannot be pressed as meaning literally for all eternity, it certainly implies a long duration.[131] A single passage referring to each may be quoted at length. [Footnote 131: Isa. 13. 19-22; 14. 22, 23; Jer. 50. 13, 39, 40; 51. 26, 37, 43; Nahum 3. 7; Zeph. 2. 13-14.]