Ὅτι λέγω, κέλεται δὲ Θεός [με] ἕκασ ̓ ἀγορεύειν. which is very like the words cited from Plato. Tacitus, Annal. ii. 54. Tunc [facerdos] haufta fontis arcani aquâ, ignarus plerumque literarum et carminum, edit refponfa verfibus, etc.

When the Prophets of God fpake in his name, they talked and acted like men who knew that they were prophefying. In fome of the Pagan Oracles, the God is fuppofed to use the organs of the man, and the man is fuppofed to know nothing of the difcourfe. This appears to have been the cafe of fome Dæmoniacs in the New Testament, in whom the evil Spirit was the speaker. The Pagan prophets therefore either were, or pretended to be out of their fenses; and by this argument fome fly or credulous people impofed upon Juftin Martyr (if he wrote the Cohortatio) and made an excufe for the nonsense and the faults against metre in the Sibylline Oracles. The Sibyl, faid they, uttered verfes when he was infpired; when the inspiration ceafed, the remembered nothing that she had faid. They who attended her and wrote down her prophecies, being often unfkilful and illiterate people, made frequent mistakes, and gave us lame verfes and falfe quantities. Cohort. ad Græc. 38. See what is faid above, p. 12. See also Smith on Prophecy, who has collected paffages from Plat and others, to fhew that the Pagan prophets were in a fort of phrenfy and delirium. ch. iv.

This is the very fame excufe which the Pagans made for the bad ftyle and other defects of their Oracles. Van Dale De Orac. p. 162.

Since no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation, that is, the meaning of prophecies is not what perhaps the prophet himself“ might imagine in his private judgment of the ftate of things then present, but holy men fpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft; there may therefore very poffibly, and very reasonably be fuppofed to be many prophecies, which, though they may have a prior and immediate reference to Some nearer event, yet by the Spirit of God (whom thofe prophecies which are exprefs, fhew to have had a further view) may have been directed to be uttered in fuch words, as may even more properly and more justly be applied to the great event which Providence had in view, than to the intermediate event which God defigned only as a pledge or earnest of the other, etc. Clarke's Evid. of Nat. and Rev. Rel.

Of omens, to which Pagan fuperftition paid great regard from the time of Homer, there were feveral, where the words of the omen had one fenfe, and the event, as they fay, verified it in another fenfe. Here is a remarkable inftance: Cecilia Metelli, dum fororis filiæ, adulta ætatis virgini, more prifco, nocte concubia, nupti alia petit, omen ipfa fecit. Nam cum in facello quodam, ejus rei gratia, aliquamdiu persedisset, nec ulla vox propofito congruens effet audita; fella longa ftandi mora puella rogavit materteram, ut fibi paulifper locum refidendi accommodaret; tui

illa,

illa, Ego vero, inquit, tibi mea fede cedo. Quod dictum ab indulgentia profectum, ad certi ominis proceffit eventum: quoniam Metellus non ita multo poft, mortua Cæcilia, virginem de qua loquor, in matrimonium duxit. Val. Maximus, i. v. 4. The fame story is related by Cicero, de Divin. i. 46. Plutarch, in the life of Alexander, fays: βουλόμμα ἢ τῷ Θεῷ χρήσας πειρατείας, ἦλθεν εἰς Δελφές· καὶ καλὰ τύχαν ἡμερῶν ἀποφράδων ἐτῶν. ἐν ὡς & νενόμισαι θεμιςεύειν, πρῶτον μπὺ ἔπεμπεν παρα καλῶν τὴν πρόμαντιν· ὡς ἢ ἀρνουμθύης και προϊχομένης τὸν νόμον, αὐτὸς ἀναβὰς βία πρὸς τὸν ναὸν εἷλκεν αὐτώ. ἡ 5, ὥσπερ ἐξητημένη τ' ἀπεδῆς, εἶπεν, ̓Ανίκη@ εἶ, ὦ παι. τοῦτο ακούσας ̓Αλέξανδρο», ἐκ ἔτι ἔφη χρήζειν ἑτέρα μανομαι, ἀλλὰ ἔχειν ἓν ἐβέλειο παρ' αὐτῆς χρησμόν. xenoμóv. Delphos ad Deum de bello confulendum profectus, quod forte dies nefafti effent, quibus non erat folenne oracula edere, primo mifit certos, qui vatem orarent ut veniret. Recufante illa, et legem cauffante, afcendit ipfe, et vi traxit eam ad templum. Quæ illius contentione expugnata ait, Invictus es, fili. Id audiens Alexander, negavit fe alias fortes quærere, fed jam habere quod pe

~

tierat ab ea oraculum.

If the words of Caiaphas will admit two senses, it follows not that they will admit ten, or as many as the teeming imagination of a fanatic can fuggeft; and prophecies of double fenfes, if fuch prophecies there be, may have meanings as determinate and fixed, as if they had only one fenfe. The fame is true of allegorical writings. Horace Carm. I. xiv. fays,

O navis, referent in mare te novi, etc.

The

The Commentators on this poem are divided; one part contend for the literal fenfe, and the other for the allegorical: but the ode has a double fenfe. The Poet addreffes himself to a real ship, and yet intended, under that image or emblem, to diffuade the Romans from expofing themselves again to a civil war. This will remove fome difficulties raised by writers on both fides of the question.

Mr. Warburton made the fame remark, and to him I refign it, as unto the first occupier, unless he will let me claim a part of it upon the privilege of friendship, and as nowa Ta pixov. Indeed the interpretation is fo unforced and obvious, that I wonder it came not into the mind of many perfons.

Mofes faid of the Pafchal lamb, Neither fhall ye break a bone thereof. St. John fays that this was fulfilled in Chrift; whence it has been not unreasonably inferred, that those words had, with the most obvious fenfe, a prophetical, that is, a double fenfe.

David feems to fpeak concerning himself when he fays, Thou shalt not leave my foul in bell, nor fuffer thy holy one to fee corruption. He intended perhaps no more than this, Thou fhalt not fuffer me to come to an untimely end, to be killed by mine enemies and caft into the grave: but then the divine impulse which was upon him, made him ufe words which fhould fuit exactly to Chrift, and to himself only in a loofe and figurative fenfe. Of this the prophet himself might be fenfible, and might know VOL. I.

K

that

that his words had another import, and that they should be fulfilled twice, both in the fenfe which he intended, and in the fublimer fenfe of the holy Spirit. By thefe means a shade was caft over the prophecy, and the sense of the Spirit was concealed till the event unfolded it and made it confpicuous; which obscurity feems to have been fometimes neceffary, that the perfons concerned in bringing about the accomplishment might not know what was predicted concerning them and their actions.

w

In Deuteronomy xviii. 18, 19. it is faid; I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall fpeak unto them all that I fhall command him. And it fhall come to pass, that whofoever will not hearken unto my words which he Shall fpeak in my name, I will require it of him. And ver. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet in the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.

1. The intention of Mofes feems to have been to administer fome confolation to the people who would foon be deprived of him, and in him, of the best friend and ruler, that any

It is proper that men fhould be treated as free agents: and men are free; at leaft, they think fo, and few of them will give up this perfuafion, and fuffer themselves to be quibbled out of their fenfes and experience. Truth and general utility will be found always to coincide; and one would be glad to know what useful purposes can be served from the doctrine of fatalifm. The fatalift will fay; It will make a man humble. It is as likely to make him a mathematician, or a poct.