ry for the prophet to have expressly marked it
as such. But precisely the reverse of all this is the case. The most
obvious supposition [Pg 186] is, that the symbolical action took place
in vision. If _certain_ actions of the prophets, especially seeing,
hearing, and their speaking to the Lord, etc., must be conceived of as
having taken place inwardly, unless there be distinct indications of
the opposite, why not the remainder also? For the former presupposes
that the world in which the prophets move, is altogether different from
the ordinary one; that it is not the outward, but the spiritual world.
It is certainly not a matter of chance, that the _seeing_ in the case
of the prophets must be understood spiritually; and if there be a
reason for this, the same reason entitles us to assert that the
walking, etc., also took place inwardly only. By what right could we
make any difference between the actions of others, described by the
prophet, and his own? Vision and symbolical action are not opposed to
each other; the former is only the _genus_ comprehending the latter as
a _species_. By this we do not at all mean to assert, that _all_ the
symbolical actions of the prophets took place in inward vision only. An
inward transaction always lay at the foundation; but sometimes, and
when it was appropriate, they embodied it in an outward representation
also (1 Kings xx. 35 seq., xxii. 11; Jer. xix. xxviii.; and a similar
remarkable instance from modern times, in _Croesi Hist. Quakeriana_, p.
13). For this very reason, however, this argument cannot be altogether
decisive by itself; but it furnishes, at least, a presumptive proof,
and that by no means unimportant. If regularly and naturally the
transaction be internal only, then the opposite requires to be proved
in this case. If this had been admitted, no attempt would have been
made elsewhere also, _e.g._, Is. xx., by false and forced
interpretations to explain away the supposition of a merely internal
transaction.

2. No one will certainly venture to assert that a merely internal
transaction would have missed its aim, since there exists a multitude
of symbolical actions, in regard to which it is undeniable, and
universally admitted, that they took place internally only. For the
inward action, being narrated and committed to writing, retained the
advantage of vividness and impressiveness over the naked representation
of the same truth. Sometimes, in the case of actions concentrat