L.

divine wisdom. than that this celestial light SERMON should be afforded to such ages or nations as are most in want of that great and salutary principle?

There is reason to believe, that many of the ancient speculatists reasoned thus on the subject of divination. For, as they argued from the existence of their gods, to the necessity of divination; so, again, they turned the argument the other way, and from the reality of divination, inferred the existence and providence of their gods. In drawing the former conclusion, they shewed themselves to be in the system of those who maintain, that the end of prophecy is the instruction of men in their civil or personal concerns: when they drew the latter, they seemed to espouse the more enlarged sentiments of such as make the end of prophecy to be, The instruction of men in the general concerns of religion.

I omit other instances, that might be given; and concern myself no further with these, than just to observe from them; That the foundation of all such systems is laid in the prejudices of their respective patrons; conjecturing rather

d Si divinatio sit, dii sunt.

SERMON what use might be made of this faculty, and

I.

to what purpose men, according to their dif ferent views or capacities, would probably apply it, than regarding it, with due reverence, as directed by the spirit of God. For then they would see, that not one of those ends, nor any other of human conjecture, could be safely relied upon, as being that of prophetic inspiration. Not that all these ends need be rejected as manifestly unworthy of the divine intention; perhaps, each of them, in a certain sense, and with some proper limitation, might without impiety be conceived to enter into it. But neither could it be presumed, if none of those ends could have been pointed out, that therefore there was no reasonable end of divine prophecy; nor could it with modesty be affirmed that the noblest of these ends was certainly that, which the wisdom of God proposed chiefly and ultimately to accomplish by it, unless the information had been given by himself.

III. But this folly of commenting on propheey by the false lights of the imagination is never more conspicuous, than when the DISPENSATION of this gift, I mean the mode of its conveyance, comes to exercise the curiosity of presumptuous men.

I.

"If it be true, will some say, that the Su- SERMON preme Being hath at any time condescended to enlighten human ignorance by a discovery of future events, these divine notices, whatever the end or subject of them might be, must have been given in terms so precise, and so clearly predictive of the events to which they are applied, that no doubt could remain either about the interpretation or completion of them.

On the contrary, these pretended prophecies are expressed so ambiguously or obscurely, are so involved in metaphor and darkened by hieroglyphics, that no clear and certain sense can be affixed to them, and the sagacity of a second prophet seems wanting to explain the meaning of the first.

Then, again, when we come to verify these predictions by the light of history, the correspondence is so slight many times, and so indeterminate, that none but an easy faith can assure itself, that they have, in a proper sense, been fulfilled. At the least, there is always room for some degree of suspense and hesitation: either the accomplishment fails in some particulars, or other events might be pointed out, to which the prophecy equally corresponds so that the result is, a want of that

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. 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."

But

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-äyvwça, xal πάροτρα, καὶ πάντη άδηλα, ὧν τὸ μὲν γνώμα ὐδεὶς ἂν ἔχων νῦν ἑυρεῖν δύναιτο, ἀσαφῆ γὰρ καὶ τὸ μηδέν. as applicable to other subjects besides those to which they were referred-ra's Eis Tà περὶ τέτε ἀναφερομένας προφητείας δύνασθαι καὶ ἄλλοις ἐφαρμόζειν payμao. l. i. p. 39.-nay, as much more applicable to others, than to Jesus-μυρίοις ἄλλοις ἐφαρμοσθῆναι δύνασθαι πολύ πιθανώτερον τὰ προφητικὰ ἢ τῷ Ἰησε. l. ii. p. 78.

The invidious comparison, here made, between 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 chuse, 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 minister 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

SERMON

1.