gions of the South and East, not yet profeffing the faith, but hereafter, as we prefume, to be enlightened by it, the fame practice, at this day, overspreads; when we confider all this, we fhall ceafe perhaps to admire, that the ftyle in question was adopted, rather than any other; or we shall only admire the divine goodness and wisdom of its author, who had contrived beforehand, in the very form of this revelation, what may poffibly help to bring on and facilitate the reception of it. Certainly, it may become us, on fuch an occafion, to inlarge our ideas a little; and not to conclude haftily and peremptorily that, when a general bleffing was intended by providence, the mode of conveying it should be inftituted fingly with an eye to our local notions and confined prejudices, and with no regard to the more prevailing fentiments and expectations of mankind. In the mean time, it is paft a doubt that the hieroglyphic ftyle was predomi nant nant in the antient world; in Judæa, para ticularly, from the times of Mofes to the coming of Chrift. There was indeed a degree of obfcurity in it, fo far at least as to furnish the Jews, who had no mind to listen to their Prophets, with a pretence of not understanding them; (as we see from the complaint brought against the prophet Ezekiel in the text, Doth be not speak Pa rables?) yet ftill, it cannot be denied, That this mode of writing was of common and ap proved ufe in the ages, when the prophecies were delivered, and among the people, to whom they were addreffed. Our FIRST propofition is then reafonably made out; and fo much of the SECOND, as affirms that the prophetic ftyle is constructed an fuck principles as make it the subject of just criticism and rational interpretation. For it was conftructed, as we have feen, on the fymbolic principles of the hieroglyphics which were not vague uncertain things but fixed and constant analogies, determinable in their own nature, or from the steady fteady use that was made of them. And a language, formed on fuch principles, may be reafonably interpreted upon them. So that what remains is only to fhew, that there are means, by which this abftrufe language may become intelligible to us, at this day. II. That there are fuch means, you will eafily collect, without requiring me to come to a detail on fo immenfe a fubject, from the following confiderations. 1. Some light may be expected to arife from the study of the prophecies themfelves. For the fame symbols, or figures, recur frequently in thofe writings: and, by comparing one paffage with another; the darker prophecies with the more perfpicuous; the unfulfilled, with fuch as have been completed; and those which have their explanation annexed to them, with those that have not; by this course of inquiry, I fay, there is no doubt but some confiderable progrefs may be made in in fixing the true and proper meaning of this mysterious language. 2. Very much of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, on which, as we have seen, the prophetic ftyle was fashioned, may be learned from many antient records and monuments, ftill fubfifting; and from innumerable hints and paffages, fcattered through the Greek antiquaries and historians, which have been carefully collected and compared by learned men. 3. The Pagan fuperftitions of every form and fpecies, which were either derived from Egypt, or conducted on hieroglyphic notions, have been of fingular use in commenting on the Jewish prophets. Their Omens, Augury, and Judicial Aftrology feem to have proceeded on symbolic principles; the mystery being only this, That fuch objects, as in the hieroglyphic pictures, were made the fymbols of certain ideas, were confidered as omens of the things themselves. Thus, the figure of a horse, being the fymbol of profperity and fuccefs fuccefs in arms, when a head of this animal was found in laying the foundations of Carthage, the Sooth-fayers concluded, that the character of that ftate would be warlike, and its fortune profperous: or, thus again, because the fun was the common emblem of a King, or fupreme governour in any state, an eclipse of this luminary was thought to indicate the ruin, or diminution, at leaft, of his power and fortune; and the fuperftition is not quite extinct at this day [b]. But, of all the Pagan fuperftitions, that which is known by the name of Oneirocritics, or the art of interpreting dreams, is most directly to our purpose. There is a curious treatise on this fubject, which bears the name of Achmet, an Arabian writer; and another by Artemidorus, an Ephefian, [6] Hence, the allufion of our great poet, or from behind the moon In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds who |