SERMON we may clearly discern the difference between Pagan oracles, and Scriptural prophecies. Both have been termed obscure and ambiguous; and an invidious parallel hath been made, or insinuated, between theme. The Pagan oracles were indeed obscure, sometimes to a degree that no reasonable sense could be made of them: they were also ambiguous, in the worst sense; I mean, so as to admit contrary interpretations. The scriptural prophecies we own to be obscure, to a certain degree: And we may call them, too, ambiguous; because they contained two, consistent, indeed, but different meanings. But here is the distinction, I would point out to you. The obscurity and ambiguity of the Pagan oracles had no necessary, or reasonable cause in the subject, on which they turned: the obscurity and ambiguity of the scriptural prophecies have an evident reason in the system, to which they belong. As the Pagan predictions had near and single events for their object, the fate perháps of some depending war, or the success of some council, then in agitation, they might have been clearly and precisely delivered; and in fact we find that such of the Jewish predictions as foretold events of that sort and charac • DR. MIDDLETON, Works, vol. III. p. 177. London, 1752, 4to. III. ter, were so delivered: But, the scriptural SERMON prophecies under consideration respecting one immense scheme of Providence, it might be expedient that the remoter parts should be obscurely revealed; as it was surely natural that the connected parts of such a scheme should be shewn together. We see then what force there is in that question, which is asked with so much confidence" Is it possible, that the same charac"ter can be due to the Jewish prophecies, "which the wise and virtuous in the heathen "world considered as an argument of fraud " and falshood in the Pythian prophecies ?" First, we say, the character is not entirely the same in both: and, secondly, that, so far as it is the same, that character is very becoming in the Jewish, but utterly absurd in the Pythian prophecies. What was owing to fraud or ignorance in the Pagan Diviner, is reasonably ascribed to the depth and height of that wisdom, which informed the Jewish Prophets. To proceed with our subject. It further appears, 4 DR. MIDDLETON, vol. III. p. 177. See further on this subject, D. L. vol. V. p. 290, SERMON III. On the grounds of the text, we now stand upon, "to be very conceiveable and credible that the line of prophecy should run chiefly in one family and people, as we are informed it did, and that the other nations of the earth should be no further the immediate objects of it, than as they chanced to be connected with that people." Prophecy, in the ideas of scripture, was not ultimately given for the private use of this or that nation, nor yet for the nobler and more general purpose of proclaiming the superintending providence of the Deity (an awful truth, which men might collect for themselves from the established constitution of nature) but simply to evidence the truth of the Christian revelation. It was therefore confined to one nation, purposely set apart to preserve and attest the oracles of God; and to exhibit, in their public records and whole history, the proofs and credentials of an amazing dispensation, which God had decreed to accomplish in Christ Jesus h h Quand UN SEUL HOMME auroit fait un livre des prédictions de Jesus Christ pour le tems et pour la maniere, et que Jesus Christ seroit venu conformément à ces propheties, ce seroit une force infinie. Mais il y a bien plus ici. C'est une SUITE D'HOMMES durant quatre mille ans, III. This conclusion, I say, seems naturally and SERMON fairly drawn from the great principle, that the spirit of prophecy was the testimony of Jesus, because the means appear to be well suited and proportioned to the end. The Testimony thought fit to be given, was not one or two prophecies only, but a scheme of prophecy, gradually prepared and continued through a large tract of time. But how could such a scheme be executed, or rather how could it clearly be seen that there was such a scheme in view, if some one people had not been made the repository, and, in part, the instrument of the divine counsels, in regard to Jesus; some one people, I say, among whom we might trace the several parts of such a scheme, and observe the dependance they had on each other; that so the idea, of what we call a scheme, might be duly impressed upon us? For, had the notices concerning the Redeemer been dispersed indifferently among all qui constamment & sans variation viennent l'un ensuite de l'autre prédire ce même avénement. C'est UN PEUPLE TOUT ENTIER qui l'annonce, et qui subsiste pendant quatre mille années, pour rendre EN CORPS témoignage des assurances qu'ils en ont, & dont ils ne peuvent être detournés par quelques menaces et quelque persecution qu'on leur fasse: CECI EST TOUT AUTREMENT CONSIDERABLE. Pascal. SERMON nations, where had been that uncorrupt and III. unsuspected testimony, that continuity of evidence, that unbroken chain of prediction, all tending, by just degrees, to the same point, which we now contemplate with wonder in the Jewish scriptures? It is not then that the rest of the world was overlooked in the plan of God's providence, but that he saw fit to employ the ministry of one people: This last, I say, and not the other, is the reason why the divine communications concerning Christ were appropriated to the Jews. Yes, but "some one of the greater nations had better been intrusted with that charge." This circumstance, I allow, might have struck a superficial observer more: but could the integrity of the prophetic scheme have been more discernible amidst the multiform and infinitely involved transactions of a mighty people, than in the simpler story of this small Jewish family; or would the hand or work of God, who loves to manifest himself by weak instruments, have been more conspicuous in that designation? i See the passage before referred to in Serm. I. p. 6. |