them as mean, abfurd and fanatical, and expofing the prophet to contempt. But what is it they gain by this expedient? the charge of abfurdity and fanaticifm will follow the prophet in his vifions, when they have removed it from his waking actions: for if these actions were abfurd and fanatical in the real representation, they must needs be fo in the imaginary; the fame turn of mind operating both asleep and awake. The judicious reader therefore can

z-Quemadmodum autem vidit in vifionibus [Propheta] quod juffus fuerit [EZECH. cap. viii.] fodere in pariete, ut intrare & videre poffet, quid intùs faciant, quod foderit, per foramen ingreffus fuerit, & viderit id quod vidit; ita quoque id quod dictum eft ad eum, Et tu fume tibi laterem, &c. [EZECH. cap. iv.] quod item alibi ei dictum legitur, Novaculam hanc tonloriam cape tibi, [EZECH. cap. v.] ita, inquam, ifta omnia in vifione prophetiæ facta funt, ac vidit, vel vifum fuit ipfi, fe ifta opera facere, quæ ipfi præcipiebantur. Abfit enim ut deus prophetas fuos ftultis vel ebriis fimiles reddat, eofque ftultorum aut furioforum actiones facere jubeat. More Nev. P. ii. cap. 46. But here the author's reafoning is defective, because what Ezekiel faw in the chambers of imagery in his eighth chapter was in vifion, therefore his delineation of the plan of the fiege, and the having bis beard, in the fourth and fifth chapters, were likewife in vifion. But to make this illation logical, it is neceffary that the circumftance in the eighth, and the circumftances in the fourth and fifth be fhewn to be fpecifically the fame; but examine them, and we fhall find them very different; that in the eighth was to fhew the Prophet the exceflive idolatry of Jerufalem, by a fight of the very idolatry itself; thofe in the fourth and fifth, were to convey the will of God, by the Prophet to the people, in a fymbolic action. Now in the firft cafe, as we have fhewn above, the information was properly by vifion, and fully anfwer'd the purpose, namely the Prophet's information; but, in the latter, a vifion had beer improper; for a vifion to the prophet was of itself, no information to the people.

a

á

Prophetic dreams and vifions were fo very lively (fays a learned writer) and affected the imagination with fuch force, "that the prophet himself could not at the time diflinguish fuch vifions from realities. Something of this kind we experience in our dreams and reveries."-See Diff. on Balaam, p.193.

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not

not but obferve that the reasonable and true defence® of the prophetic writings is what is here offered i where we fhew, that information by action was, at this time, and place, a very familiar mode of converfation. This once feen, all charge of abfurdity, and fufpicion of fanaticism, vanish of themfelves: the abfurdity of an action confifts in its being extravagant and infignificative; but ufe and a fixed application made thefe in queftion both fober and pertinent: The fanaticifm of an action confifts in a fondness for unufual actions and foreign modes of fpeech; but thofe in queftion were idiomatic and familiar. To illuftrate this laft obfervation by a domestic example: when the facred writers taik of being born after the fpirit, of being fed with the fincere milk of the word, of putting their tears into a bottle, of bearing teftimony against lying vanities, of taking the veil from mens hearts, and of building up one another; they speak the common, yet proper and pertinent phrafeology of their country; and not the leaft imputation of fanaticism can ftick upon these original expreffions. But when we fee our own countrymen reprobate their native idiom, and affect to employ only fcripture phrases in their whole converfation, as if fome inherent fanctity refided in the eastern modes of expreffion, we cannot chufe but fufpect fuch men far gone in the delufions of a heated imagination. The fame may be faid of fignificative actions".

But it is not only in facred story that we meet with the mode of speaking by action. Profane antiquity is full of thefe examples; and it is not unlikely but, in the course of our enquiry, we shall

See Clem. Walker's story of the fanatic foldier with his five fights. Hift. Indep. part II. p. 152.

have occafion to produce fome of them: the early Oracles in particular, frequently employed it, as we learn from an old faying of Heraclitus: That the king whofe Oracle is at Delphi, neither speaks nor keeps filent, but reveals by SIGNS.

Now this way of expreffing the thoughts by ACTION perfectly coincided with that, of recording them by PICTURE. There is a remarkable cafe in ancient ftory, which fhews the relation between Speaking by action and writing by picture, fo ftrongly, that we shall need no other proof of the fimilar nature of these two forms. It is told by Clemens Alexandrinus: They fay, that Idanthura, a king of the Scythians, (as Pherecydes Syrius relates the ftory) when ready to oppofe Darius, who had paffed the Ifter, fent the Perfian a fymbol instead of letters, namely, a mouse, a frog, a bird, a dart, and a plow. Thus this meffage being to supply both fpeech and writing, the purport of it was, we fee, expreffed by a compofition of action and picture.

II. As fpeech became more cultivated, this rude manner of speaking by action was fmoothed and polished into an APOLOGUE or fable; where the fpeaker, to inforce his purpose, by a fuitable impreffion, told a familiar tale of his own invention,

• Οὔτε λίγει, ἔτε κρύπτει, ἀλλὰ σημαίνει. Plut. περὶ τὸ μὴ χρον uga, p. 962. which being a lefs precife and more equivocal mode of information excellently well fitted the trade of oracles. The Lacedemonians [See Herodotus in Thalia] preferred it to fpeech for another reafon, viz. to hinder their being misled by the illufions of oratory.

Η Φασὶ γῆν καὶ Ἰδάνθεραν τῶν Σκυθῶν βασιλέα, ὡς ἱσορεῖ Φερεκύδης • Σύριοι, Δαρείῳ διαβάντι τὸν Ἴσρον πόλεμον ἀπειλῆντα πέμψα σύμβολον ἀντὶ τῶν γραμμάτων, μῦν, βάτραχον, ὄρνιθα, οἰτὸν, ἄβολβον, Strom. lib. v. p. 567.

I

accompanied with fuch circumstances as made his defign evident and perfuafive: for language was yet too narrow, and the minds of men too undifciplin'd, to 'fupport only abstract reafoning and a direct addrefs. We have a noble example of this form of inftruction in the fpeech of Jotham to the men of Shechem; in which he upbraids their folly, and foretells their ruin, in chufing Abimelech for their king. As this is not only the oldeft, but the most beautiful apologue

of

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of antiquity, I shall need no excufe for transcribing it: "The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they faid unto the olive"tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive-tree "faid unto them, Should I leave my fatnefs, "wherewith, by me, they honour God and man, "and go to be promoted over the trees? And the "trees faid to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign r over us. But the fig-tree faid unto them, "Should I forfake my sweetness, and my good "fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? "Then faid the trees unto the vine, Come thou, "and reign over us. And the vine faid unto "them, Should I leave my wine, which cheareth "God and man, and go to be promoted over the "trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, "Come thou and reign over us. And the bramble "faid unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me

king over you, then come and put your trust "in my fhadow: and if not, let fire come "out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of "Lebanon f."

• How

abounding with them; and infinuates to the Shechemites the vanity and pitiful original of their idolatrous gods, who were thought to be, or really had been, refreshed with wine. Hefiod tells us, in a fimilar expreffion, that the vengeance of the fates purfued the crimes of gods and men:

Αἴτ ̓ ΑΝΔΡΩΝ τε ΘΕΩΝ τε παραιβασίας ἐφέπεσαι,
Οὐδέποτε λήγεσι θεαὶ δεινοῖο χόλοιο,

Πριν γ' ἀπὸ τῷ δώωσι κακὴν ὅπιν όςις ἁμάρτη.

OEOT. ver. 220.

f JUDGES ix. 7. COLLINS, the author of the Scheme of literal prophecy confidered, speaking of Dean Sherlock's interpretatation of GEN. iii. 15. fays,-" What the Dean juft now faid is "nothing but an argument from the pretended abfurdity of the literal fenfe, that fuppofes the moft plain matter of fact to be

"fable,