nearer event, yet by the Spirit of God (whom those prophecies which are express, shew to have had a farther view) may have been directed to be uttered in such 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 designed only as a pledge or earnest of the other, &c. Clarke's Evid. of Nat. and Rev. Rel. Here Of omens, to which Pagan superstition paid great regard from the time of Homer, there were several, where the words of the omen had one sense, and the event, as they say, verified it in another sense. is a remarkable instance: Cæcilia Metelli, dum sororis filice, adulte ætatis virgini, more prisco, nocte concubia, nuptialia petit, omen ipsa fecit. Nam cum in sacello quodam, ejus rei gratia, aliquamdiu persedisset, nec ulla vox proposito congruens esset audita; fessa longa standi mora puella rogavit materteram, ut sibi paulisper locum residendi accommodaret; cui illa, Ego vero, inquit, tibi mea sede cedo. Quod dictum ab indulgentia profectum, ad certi ominis processit eventum : quoniam Metellus non ita multo post, mortua Cæcilia, virginem de qua loquor, in matrimonium duxit. Val. Maximus, i. v. 4. The same story is related by Cicero, de Divin. i. 46. Plutarch, in the life of Alexander, says: Bounómeros de TW Θεῷ χρήσασθαι περὶ τῆς τρατείας, ἦλθεν εἰς Δελφάς· καὶ κατὰ τύχην ἡμερῶν ἀποφράδων ἐσῶν, ἐν αἷς & νενόμισαι θεμιςεύειν, πρῶτον μὲν ἔπεμπεν παρακαλῶν τὴν πρόμαντιν ὡς δὲ ἀρνουμένης και προϊσχομέ νης τὸν νόμον, αὐτος ἀναβὰς βίᾳ πρὸς τὸν ναὸν εἶλκεν αὐτήν. ἡ δὲ, ὥσπερ ἐξητημένη τῆς σπεδῆς, εἶπεν, ̓Ανίκητος εἶ, ὦ παῖ. τοῦτο ακούσας ̓Αλέξανδρος, ἐκ ἔτι ἔφη χρήζειν ἑτέρα μαντεύματος, ἀλλὰ ἔχειν ὃν ἔβέλειο παρ' αὐτῆς χρησμόν. Delphos ad Deum de bello consulendum profectus, quod forte dies nefasti essent, quibus non erat solenne oracula edere, primo misit certos, qui zatem orarent ut veniret. Recusante illa, et legem caussante, ascendit ipse, et vi traxit eam ad templum. Qure illius contentione expugnata ait, Invictus es, fili. Id audiens Alexander, negavit se alias sortes querere, sed jam habere quod petierat 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 suggest; and prophecies of double senses, if such prophecies there be, may have meanings as determinate and fixed, as if they had only one sense. The same is true of allego, rical writings. Horace Carm. I. xiv. says, O navis, referent in mare te novi, &c. The commentators on this poem are divided; one part contend for the literal sense, and the other for the allegorical but the ode has a double sense. The poet addresses himself to a real ship, and yet intended, under that image or emblem, to dissuade the Romans from exposing themselves again to a civil war. This will remove some difficulties raised by writers on both sides of the question. Mr Warburton made the same remark, and to him I resign it, as unto the first occupier, unless he will let me claim a part of it upon the privilege of friendship, and as κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων. Indeed the interpretation is so unforced and obvious, that I wonder it came not into the mind of many persons. Moses said of the paschal lamb, Neither shall ye break a bone thereof. St John says that this was fulfilled in Christ; whence it has been not unreasonably inferred, that those words had, with the most obvious sense, a prophetical, that is, a double sense. David seems to speak concerning himself when he says, Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption. He intended perhaps. no more than this, Thou shalt not suffer me to come to an untimely end, to be killed by mine enemies and cast into the grave: but then the divine impulse which was upon him, made him use words which should suit exactly to Christ, and to himself only in a loose and figurative sense. Of this the prophet himself might be sensible, and might know that his words had another import, and that they should be fulfilled twice, both in the sense which he intended, and in the sublimer sense of the Holy Spirit. By these means a shade was cast over the prophecy, and the sense of the Spirit was concealed till the event unfolded it, and made it conspicuous; which obscurity seems to have been sometimes necessary, that the persons concerned in bringing about the accomplishment might not know what was predicted concerning them and their actions *. In Deuteronomy, xviii. 18, 19. it is said; 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 speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak 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 Moses seems to have been to ad minister *It is proper that men should be treated as free agents and men are free; at least they think so, and few of them will give up this persuasion, and suffer themselves to be quibbled out of their senses 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 fatalism. The fatalist will say ; It will make a man humble. It is as likely to make him a mathematician, or a poet, |