I.

and qualify such events as it decrees to bring SERMAN
to pass ; to animate desponding virtue, on the
one hand, or to relieve predestined misery, on
the other ; to adapt itself, in short, to our ne-
'cessities by a clear discovery of its will in those
many intricate situations, which perplex. hu-
man prudence, elude human foresight, and,
but for this previous admonition, would bear
too hard on the natural forcé, or infirmity of
the human mind?: Some such idea, as, this,
was plainly entertained by those of the Pagan
philosophers who concluded, from the exist-
ence of a divine power, that there must needs
be such a thing as divination. They thought
the attributes of their gods, if any such there
were, concemned in giving some notice of fu
turity to mankind. i

2. Others, again, encouraged in this con jectural ingenuity by partial views of scripture, come to persuade themselves that prophecy is an act of special grace and favour, not to this or that state, or individuals, indiscriminately, as either may seem to stand in need of it; but to one peculiar and chosen people, who, on some account or other, had merited this ex traordinary distinction.

SERMON

1.

Self-love seems to have suggested this idea to the ancient and modern Jews, and many

; others, I doubt, are ready enough to suppose with them, that prophecy, under the Mosaic dispensation, had no other reasonable use, or end.

3. Lastly, there are those who erect their thoughts to nobler contemplations, and conclude that this intercourse between heaven and earth can only be carried on with the sublime view of preserving an awful sense of Providence in an impious and careless world.

Vanity, or superstition, may they say, has suggested to particular men, or to societies of men, that their personal or civil concerns are of moment enough to be the subject of divine prophecies, vouchsafed merely for their own proper relief or satisfaction. But nothing less than the maintenance of God's supreme authority over his moral creation could be an object worthy of his interposing in the affairs of men, in so remarkable ia manner. : To keep alive in their minds a prevailing sense of their dependance upon him, is, then, the ultimate end of prophecy: and what more suitable (will they perhaps add, when warmed with this moral enthusiasm,) to the best ideas we can form of

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?

19 [!,

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 argu. ment the other way, and from the reality of divination, inferred the existence and providence of their gods d. 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

I.

SERMON what use might be made of this faculty, and

to what purpose men, according to their different 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 prophecy 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.

5. 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