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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

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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 ?

And then, of those dreams, why are they

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 dor mientibus? 1. ii. c. 61.

VOL. V.

SERMON Sometimes sent to one man, and the interpretation 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 noti—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 somniorum, potiùs quàm directo? Ibid.

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

Soph. Oedip. Tyran. ver. 577.

any solution whatever of the difficulty proposed k

Not that reason is to be wholly silenced on the argument of prophecy: for then every species of imposture would be ready to flow in upon us. The use, we should make both of that faculty, and of these preliminary considerations on the subject, the end, and the dispensation of prophecy is, briefly, this, To inquire, whether any prophecies have been given -in what sense they are reasonably to be interpreted-and how far, and whether in any proper sense, they have been fulfilled: to examine them, in a word, by their own claims, and on the footing of their own pretensions; that is, to argue on the supposition that they may be divine, till they can be evidently shewn to be otherwise.

This is clearly to act suitably to our own faculties; to keep within the sphere of our duty;

k Quod est enim criminis genus, aut rei esse alicujus ignarum, aut ipsum, quod nescias, sine aliquâ profiteri dissimulatione nescire? aut uter magis videtur irrisione esse dignissimus vobis, qui sibi scientiam nullam tenebrosæ rei alicujus assumit, an ille, qui retur se ex se apertissimè scire id, quod humanam transiliat notionem, et quod sit cæcis obscuritatibus involutum ?

Arnobius, adv. Gen. 1 ii.

SERMON

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SERMON and to reap the proper benefit, whatever it be,

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of a sober inquiry into the authority, and character, and accomplishment of the prophetic scriptures.

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All the rest is idle cavil, and miserable sumption; equally repugnant to the clearest dictates of right reason, and to that respect which every serious man will think due to the subject, and to himself.

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