SERMON entire and perfect conviction, which prophecy, no doubt, was intended to give, and, when fulfilled, must supply *.

Indeed, continue these inquirers, if our prophecies had been derived from no higher an original, than that of Pagan oracles, we might well enough have supposed them to be of this stamp. When men had nothing to trust to, in their predictions, but their own ingenuity, they did well to deal in equivocal or enigmatic expression, and might leave it to chance, or to the passions of their votaries, to find an application for their random conjectures. conjectures. But when the prophet is, what he assumes to be, an interpreter of heaven, he may surely afford to speak plainly, and to deliver nothing to us but what shall appear, with the fullest evidence, to be accomplished in the event."

e These objections were long since urged by Celsus, who speaks of the Jewish and Christian oracles, as fanati cal, uncertain, and obscure, l. vii. p. 338- yvwsa, xxi πάροις ρα, καὶ πάντῃ ἄδηλα, ὧν τὸ μὲν γνώμα εδεὶς ἂν ἔχων νῦν ἑυρεῖν δύναιτο, ἀσαφῆ γὰρ καὶ τὸ μηδέν. as applicable to other subjects besides those to which they were referred-Ta's His Ta περὶ τότε ἀναφερομένας προφητείας δύνασθαι καὶ ἄλλοις ἐφαρμόζειν payμxos. l. i. p. 39.-nay, as much more applicable to others, than to Jesus-μυρίοις ἄλλοις ἐφαρμοσθῆναι δύνασθαι πολύ πιθανώτερον τὰ προφητικὰ ἢ τῷ Ἰησᾶ. L. ii. p. 78.

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The invidious comparison, here made, be- SERMON tween Scriptural prophecies and Pagan oracles, will be considered in its place. To the general principle, assumed by these inquirers, That divine prophecy must be delivered with the utmost clearness and perspicuity, and fulfilled with irresistible evidence, it may be sufficient to reply, as before, That, though these inquirers use the words, divine prophecy, they manifestly argue on the supposition of its human original, or at least application. In this latter case, indeed, it is likely enough that the prophet, for his own credit, or for what he might fancy to be the sole end of prophecy, might cause, if he were entrusted with the knowledge of future events, to predict them with all possible clearness, and in such sort that obstinacy itself must see and admit the completion of them: but then, on the former supposition, that the prophet was only the mimister and instrument of the divine counsels, in the high office committed to him, they will do well to answer, at their leisure, the following questions.

"How do they know in what manner, and with what circumstances, it was fit for divine wisdom to dispense a knowledge of futurity to mankind? How can they previously deter

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SERMON mine the degree of evidence with which a prediction must be either given or fulfilled? What assurance have they, that no reasonable ends could be served by prophecies, expressed with some obscurity, and accomplished in a sense much below what may seem necessary to unavoidable conviction? Can they even pretend, on any clear principles of reason, that very important ends, perhaps the most important, may not be answered by that mode of conveyance, which appears to them so exceptionable? Can they, in a word, determine before-hand, I do not say with certainty, but with any colour of probability; what must be the character of divine prophecy, when they know not the reason, most undoubtedly not all the reasons, why it is given, and have even no right to demand, that it should be given at all?"

Till these, and other questions of the like sort, be pertinently answered, it must be in vain to censure the ways of Providence, as not corresponding to our imperfect and shortsighted views.

So much for that capital prejudice taken from the supposed obscurity of the scriptural

1.

prophecies. Of smaller scruples and difficul- SERMON ties on this head, there is no end.

Men may ask, for instance, why the instruments employed in conveying these celestial notices to mankind, are frequently so mean and inconsiderable? The subject of a prediction is the downfall of some mighty state, or the fortune of its governours. Why then is this important revelation intrusted to an obscure priest, or sordid peasant, in preference to the great persons, more immediately concerned in it f?

Again; some momentous events have been signified in dreams: why not to persons awake, and in the full possession of their best faculties 5?

And then, of those dreams, why are they

f Utrum tandem, per deos atque homines, magis verisimile est, vesanum remigem, aut aliquem nostrum, qui ibi tum eramus, me, Catonem, Varronem, Coponium ipsum, concilia deorum immortalium perspicere potuisse? Cic. Div. 1. ii. c. 55.

Illud etiam requiro, cur, si deus ista visa nobis providendi causâ dat, non vigilantibus potius dat quàm dormientibus? 1. ii. c. 61.

VOL. V.

SERMON Sometimes sent to one man, and the interpre tation of them reserved for another h?

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Why-But I have done with these frivolous interrogatories; which, though pressed with all the advantage of Cicero's rhetoric, have really no force against Pagan divination; and therefore surely none, against Scriptural prophecy; I mean, in the opinion of those who respect it least.

In truth, they who put these questions (arguing, as they must do, on the supposition that prophecy is divinely inspired) cannot excuse their presumption, even to themselves: and they, to whom such questions are proposed, will not, if they be wise, so much as attempt to resolve them. For they have the nature of arguments addressed not only to the ignorance, as we say, of the disputant, but to an ignorance clearly invincible by all the powers of human reason. Now to arguments of this sort-I know not-is the answer of good sense, as well as of modesty, and, to a just reasoner, more satisfactory by far, than

h Jam verò quid opus est circuitione et amfractu, ut sit sit utendum interpretibus sommiorum, potiùs quàm directo? Ibid.

ὁ Οὐκ οἶδ'. ἐφ ̓ οἷς γὰρ μὴ φρονῶ, σιλῶν φιλῶ.

Soph. Oedip. Tyran, ver. 577.