q It is the custom of the Prophets, as 9 St. Jerom obferves, when they speak against Babylon, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Philistines, and other Nations, to use many Expreffions and Idioms of the Language of the People concerning whom they speak. One who was as converfant in the Jewish Learning as most Men have been, tells us, that their Books abound every where with Parables, that Nation inclining by a kind of natural Genius to this fort of Rhetorick. And St. Jerom had, in his time, obferved, that the Syrians, but especially the People of Palestine, were wont to ufe Parables in all their Difcourfe. And it is to be confidered, that feveral things, which are fet down as Matter of Fact, might not be actually done, but only reprefented as done, to make the more lively impreffion upon the Hearers and Readers, who well enough understood, that it was not neceffary, that thefe things fhould be actually performed; but they might be only parabolical Descriptions, or Reprefentations of Matter of Fact, the better to illuftrate and convey thofe Commands and Inftructions to their Minds, which were to be delivered. Thus St. Jerom and Maimonides understood Ezekiel's lying on his fide for Three hundred and ninety Days, and Hofea's marrying an Adulterefs, only as Similitudes, or Parables and Figures of Speech; and thus, from the ancient Rabbins, they interpret both what is related of these two Prophets, and that which is faid of Jeremiah's hiding his Girdle in Euphrates. This was the most intelligible and effectual way that could be made ufe of to a People, among whom fuch figurative Expreffions were ufual, and known to mean no more than Hier. in Abdiam. Lightf. Hebr. & Talmud, exercit. on Matt. 13. 3. Familiare eft Syris & maxime Palæstinis ad omnem fermonem fuum Parabolas jungere, &c. Hier. in Matt. 18. 23. Hier. in Hofe. Proæm. & Comment. in c. 1. Maimon. More evoch. Part. 2. C.46. ་ what what they were intended for. So Jeremiah is faid to to be fet over the Nations, and over the Kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to deftroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant, Jer. i. 1o. because he was appointed to prophefie of all these things. Ezekiel fpeaks of himself, as coming to deftroy the City, because he prophefied that it should be destroyed, Ezek, xl. 3. and the fame Prophet, in his Defcription of the City and the Temple, has delineated the Temple larger than all the earthly Jerufalem, and Jerufalem larger than the whole Land of Canaan, to fhew the Jews the neceffity of understanding him in a mystical and fpiritual Sense; as "one has obferved, who very well understood the dimenfions of both. And thus Ezekiel was also carried from place to place in Vision only, as the Text seems to exprefs, Ezek. xi. 1. xl. 1,2. as the Jews in St. Jerom's time understood it, and as the Chaldee Paraphrafe interprets it. But Hofea might be commanded either in vifion or in reality to marry a Woman who had been an Adulterefs, but afterwards became chaste and vertuous; thereby to fet an Example to the Ifraelites, who had gone a whoring af ter other Gods, that if they would forfake their falfe Gods, and return to the true God, the God of their Fathers, he would still accept and receive them, in like manner as the Prophet had took an Adulteress to Wife, upon affurance that fhe would prove faithful to him. However this be understood, thefe Actions, and others of like nature, are to be look'd upon no otherwise than as the Style of Scripture, or as certain ways of expreffing the Divine Will to Men. For X • Sic dicuntur Hiftorici eos occidere, quorum cædem narrant. Cafaub. Comment. ad Theophraft. Charact. ei ofoorias. Lightf. Profpect of the Temple, ch. II. * Hier. Præf. in Dan. Nec culpandus Propheta interim, ut fequamur hiftoriam, fi meretricem converterit ad pudicitiam, fed potius laudandus, quod ex mala bonam fecerit id. Comment. in Hof. c. 1. the Mind may be exprefs'd by Actions as well as by Words, and whatever Actions were perform'd with this intention, properly come under the notion of Style, or different ways and modes of Expreffion; and all Objections made against them under any other notion, proceed upon a mistake, and can be of no force. The Prophetick Schemes of Speech which feem most strange to us, were ufual with the Eastern Nations, as a Mr. Mede fhews of the Indians, Perfians and Egyptians. The Revelation of St. John chiefly confists of Allufions to the Customs, and Hiftory, and Notions, and Language of the Jews, as he and Dr. Lightfoot have fhewn in many places, which are most contrary to our manner of fpeaking. And fome Paffages allude to the cuftoms of other Nations, well known and practised at that time. Thus the Slaves were wont to have their Master's Name or Mark upon their Forehead, and the Soldiers to have the Name of their General upon their Right Hand; and the like Marks were wont to be received by Men, in token that they had devoted themselves to their Gods: from whence we read of the Mark of the Beast received by his Worfhippers, in their Right Hand, or in their Foreheads, Rev. xiii. 16. and of his Father's Name written in the Foreheads of those that stand in Mount Sion with the Lamb, Rev. xiv. 1. St. Paul alludes to the Grecian Games in his Epiftle to the Corinthians, who were much addicted to thofe Sports, and had one fort of them, the Ifthmian, perform'd among them, I Cor. ix. 24, 25. and he alludes to the diftinction among the Romans, between Freemen and Slaves: For which he gives this reason, that it was in condefcenfion to them, I speak after the manner of Men, because of the Infirmity of your Flesh, Rom. vi. 19. Melchifedec is . * Eft enim Actio, quafi corporis quædam eloquentia. Cic. Orator. Comment. in Apocal. Part. I. b Vid. Grot. ad loc. * faid to be without father, without mother, without ✶ defcent, Heb. vii. 3. because his Pedigree is unknown; which was a moft fignificant way of Expreffion to the Jews, who were fo careful and exact in their Genealogies. But the very fame manner of Expreffion is also us'd by Livy, Horace, Seneca, and Dion Caffius, upon the like occafions. There is much of Nature, but very much likewife of Use and Custom, in the feveral Schemes and Forms of Rhetorick. We meet with a fudden Change of the Perfon speaking, Jer. xvi. 19, 20, 21. xvii. 13. and with interlocutory Difcourfe, Ifa. Ixiii. and many places of Scripture are obfcure to us, for want of diftinguishing the Perfons who fpeak: Thus, for inftance, Jer. xx. 14. the Prophet feems tranfported abruptly, from one Extreme to another, but if they be the Words of the wicked (mention'd ver. 13.) under the Divine Vengeance, from the 14th ver. to the end of the Chapter, the Senfe will be more eafy. This ab rupt Change of the Perfon is taken notice of by Longinus, as an Excellency in Homer, Hecateus, and Demofthenes; and the want of distinguishing the Perfons fpeaking, has been a great Caufe of mifunderstanding the Scriptures, as Juftin Martyr and Origen observe. Many Inftances of the like nature might be given in the best Heathen Poets. And the reading the ancient Poets, is the best help for the understanding all other Authors of great Antiquity; for the ancienter any Author is, the nearer his Style comes to Poetry. The * Αγυεαλό η Θ Patre nullo, matre ferva, Liv. l. iv. c. 3.-nullis majoribus or tos, Hor. Serm. 1. i. fat. 6. duos Romanos reges effe, quorum alter Patrem non habet, alter Matrem. Nam de Servii Matre dubita tur: Anci Pater nullus; Numa nepos dicitur, Sen. Epift. cviii. εἰπάτωρG αυτό (Σηβής) + ἔμπροσθεν χρόνον ὑπ ̓ ἀφανείας Θ, Dion. Caff. 1.1xxvi. Juftin. Apol. 2. Origen, Philocal. c. 7. E 3 first design of Writing was to delight, fo as to be the better able to inftruct, which made Verfe much more ancient than Profe; and tho' it be natural for Men to fpeak in Profe, and not in Verfe, yet, it feems, the humour of the Greeks would not bear the writing Philofophy in Profe, till the time of Cyrus; for then Pliny tells us, Pherecydes firft wrote in Profe, which muft be understood of Philofophy, for he afcribes the first Writing of Profe in Hiftory to Cadmus Milefius. Orpheus, Hefiod, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Thales, and Eudoxus, wrote their Philosophy in Verse. And the ancient Writers now extant in Profe, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, have many Expreffions, which are seldom or never met withal befides but in the Poets. H. Stephens made a Collection of the Poetical Words us'd by Xenophon, which is prefix'd to his Works. And the Orators both among the Greeks and Romans, were as exact and curious in the Feet and Measure of their Profe, as the Poets could be in Verfe. Great part of the Scriptures is in Verse, and the different way of writing in different Ages and Nations, appears in nothing more, than in the feveral forts of Poetry. That way of writing all Verse in Rhime, which in these parts of the World is most in use and esteem, would have been ridiculous to the Greeks and Romans Tho' the use of Rhime in Verfe is fo far from being without Example in Antiquity, that it is perhaps the most ancient of all ways of writing Verfe, Acrofticks, tho' of no esteem, and little us'd in many Ages and Countries, are of great Antiquity among the Greeks and Romans, as well as in the Eastern Nations. Verfes compofed in the Acrostick and Alphabetîcal way, were found to be a help to the Memory, and this Benefit, and the Ornament which it was then fuppos'd to give to Poems, is the g Plin. Hift. I. v. c. 29. 1. vii. c. 56. Vid. Harduin. ad los. Plut. de Pythia Qrac. caufe |