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sider the prophets, as acting wholly on human SERMON views and motives; and not as over-ruled in all their predictions by the spirit of God. For it is natural enough for vain man, if left to himself in the exercise of the prophetic power, to turn his view towards such objects as appear to him great, in preference to others; and to estimate that greatness by the lustre of fame, in which they shine out to the observation of mankind. But a moment's reflection may shew the probability, the possibility at least, that God's thoughts are not as our thoughts; and that, if the prophet's foresight be under the divine influence, there may be reason enough to direct it towards such scenes and objects, as we might be apt to undervalue or overlook. It is even very conceivable, that, if God be the dispenser of prophecy, and not man, all that seems great and illustrious in human affairs may to his all-judging eye appear small and contemptible; and, on the other hand, what wę account as nothing, may, for infinite reasons, unknown to us, but so far as he is pleased to discover them, be of that importance as to merit the attention of all his prophets from the foundation of the world.

b Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the dust of the balance. Isaiah xl. 15.

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It is evident, then, that to reason in this manner on the subject of divine prophecy, is to suffer ourselves to be misled by a poor and vulgar prejudice; and to forget, what we should ever have present to us, the claim of God's prophets to speak, not as themselves will, but as they are moved by his Spirit.

II. The END, or ultimate purpose of prophetic illumination, is another point, on which many persons are apt to entertain strange fancies, and to frame unwarrantable conclusions, when they give themselves leave to argue on the low supposition, before mentioned.

1. It is then hastily surmized that the scriptural prophecies, if any such be acknowledged, could only be designed, like the Pagan oracles, to sooth the impatient mind under its anxiety about future events; to signify beforehand to states or individuals, engaged in high or hazardous undertakings, what the issue of them would be, that so they might suit their conduct to the information of the prophet, and either pursue their purpose with vigour, or expect their impending fate with resignation. For, what other or worthier end, will some şay, can Heaven propose to itself by these extraordinary communications, than to prepare

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and qualify such events as it decrees to bring SERMON 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 necessities by a clear discovery of its will in those many intricate situations, which perplex human prudence, elude human foresight, and, but for this previous admonition, would bear too hard on the natural force, or infirmity of the human mind? Some such idea, as this, was plainly entertained by those of the Pagan philosophers who concluded, from the existence 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, concerned in giving some notice of fu turity to mankind.

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 extraordinary distinction.

Si dii sint, est divinatio.

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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 a 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

I.

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.