might be, must have been given in terms fo precife, and fo 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, thefe pretended prophecies are expreffed fo ambiguously or obfcurely, are so involved in metaphor and darkened by hieroglyphics, that no clear and certain sense can be affixed to them, and the fagacity of a fecond prophet seems wanting to explain the meaning of the firft.

Then, again, when we come to verify these predictions by the light of history, the correspondence is fo flight many times, and fo indeterminate, that none but an eafy faith can affure itself, that they have, in a proper sense, been fulfilled. At the least, there is always room for fome degree of fufpenfe and hesitation: either the accomplishment fails in fome particulars, or other events might be pointed out, to which the prophecy equally correfponds:

fo

fo that the refult is, a want of that entire and perfect conviction, which prophecy, no doubt, was intended to give, and, when fulfilled, muft fupply [è].

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 fuppofed them to be of this ftamp. When men had nothing to truft to; in their predictions, but their own ingenuity, they did well to deal in equivocal or enigmatic expreffion, and might leave it to chance, or to the passions of their votaries, to find an application for their random conjectures. But when the

[e] Thefe objections were long fince urged by Celfus, who speaks of the Jewish and Chriftian oracles, as fa natical, uncertain, and obfcure, 1. vii. p. 338. ayraçα, και πάροισρα, και πάνῃ ἄδηλα, ὧν τὸ μὲν γνῶμα ἐδεὶς ἂν ἔχων νἂν εὑρεῖν δύναιτο, ἀσαφῆ γὰρ καὶ τὸ μηδέν. as applicable to other jubjects befides thofe to which they were referred τὰς εἰς τὰ περὶ τότε ἀναφερομένας προφητείας δύναται και ἄλλοις ἐφαρμόζειν πράγμασι. 1. 1. p. 39. nay, as much more applicable to others, than to Fejus —μvgions 2015 ἐφαρμοσθῆναι δύνασθαι πολὺ πιθανώτερον τὰ προφητικὰ ἢ τῷ I. 1. ii. p. 73.

VOL. I.

C

prophet

prophet is, what he affumes to be, an interpreter of heaven, he may furely afford to fpeak plainly, and to deliver nothing to us but what shall appear, with the fulleft evidence, to be accomplished in the

event."

The invidious comparifon, here made, between Scriptural prophecies and Pagan oracles, will be confidered in its place. To the general principle, affumed by these inquirers, That divine prophecy must be delivered with the utmost clearness and perfpicuity, and fulfilled with irresistible evidence, it may be fufficient to reply, as before, That, though these inquirers use the words, divine prophecy, they manifeftly argue on the fuppofition of its human original, or at least application. In this latter cafe, indeed, it is likely enough that the prophet, for his own credit, or for what he might fancy to be the fole end of prophecy, might chufe, if he were entrusted with the knowledge of future events, to predict them with all poffible clearness, and

in

in fuch fort that obftinacy itself must fee and admit the completion of them: but then, on the former fuppofition, that the prophet was only the minister and inftrument of the divine counfels, in the high office committed to him, they will do well to answer, at their leifure, the following questions.

"How do they know in what manner, and with what circumftances, it was fit for divine wifdom to difpenfe a knowledge of futurity to mankind? How can they previously determine the degree of evidence with which a prediction must be either given or fulfilled? What affurance have they, that no reasonable ends could be ferved by prophecies, expreffed with some obfcurity, and accomplished in a fense much below what may feem neceffary to unavoidable conviction? Can they even pretend, on any clear principles of reafon, that very important ends, perhaps the most important, may not be answered by that mode of conveyance, which appears

to them fo exceptionable? Can they, in a word, determine before-hand, I do not fay 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 fort, be pertinently anfwered, it must be in vain to cenfure the ways of providence, as not correfponding to our imperfect and fhort-fighted views.

So much for that capital prejudice taken from the fuppofed obfcurity of the fcriptural prophecies. Of fmaller fcruples and difficulties on this head, there is no end.

Men may ask, for inftance, why the inAtruments employed in conveying these celestial notices to mankind, are frequently fo mean and inconfiderable? The subject of a prediction is the downfall of fome mighty state, or the fortune of its gover

nours.