The same Saul having consulted the Lord on another occasion, to know whether he must pursue the Philistines whom he had just defeated, God refused also to reply to him,[189] because his son Jonathan had tasted some honey, not knowing that the king had forbidden his army to taste anything whatever before his enemies were entirely overthrown. The silence of the Lord on certain occasions, and his refusal to answer sometimes when He was consulted, are an evident proof that He usually replied, and that they were certain of receiving instructions from Him, unless they raised an obstacle to it by some action which was displeasing to Him. Footnotes: [180] Plin. lib. viii. c. 48. [181] Herodot. lib. ix. [182] _Vide_ Joan. Marsham, Saec. iv. pp. 62, 63. [183] Pausan. lib. vii. p. 141. [184] Homer, Iliad, xii. 2, 235. [185] Herodot. lib. ii. c. 52, 55. [186] Exod. xxv. 22. [187] Deut. xviii. 13. [188] 2 Kings i. 2, 3, 16, &c. [189] 1 Sam. xiv. 24. CHAPTER XVI. THE CERTAINTY OF THE EVENT PREDICTED IS NOT ALWAYS A PROOF THAT THE PREDICTION COMES FROM GOD. Moses had foreseen that so untractable and superstitious a people as the Israelites would not rest satisfied with the reasonable, pious, and supernatural means which he had procured them for discovering future events, by giving them prophets and the oracle of the high-priest. He knew that there would arise among them false prophets and seducers, who would endeavor by their illusions and magical secrets to mislead them into error; whence it was that he said to them:[190] "If there should arise among you a prophet, or any one who boasts of having had a dream, and he foretells a wonder, or anything which surpasses the ordinary power of man, and what he predicts shall happen; and after that he shall say unto you, Come, let us go and serve the strange gods, which you have not known; you shall not hearken unto him, because the Lord your God will prove you, to see whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul." Certainly, nothing is more likely to mislead us than to see what has been foretold by any one come to pass. "Show the things that are to come," says Isaiah,[191] "that we may know that ye are gods. Let them come, let them foretell what is to happen, and what has been done of old, and we will believe in them," &c. _Idoneum testimonium divinationis_, says Turtullian,[192] _veritas divinationis_. And St. Jerome,[193] _Confitentur magi, confitentur arioli, et omnis scientia saecularis litteraturae, praeescientiam futurorum non esse hominum, sed Dei_.