DISCOURSE,

TREATING OF

The Nature of Prophecy.

The different Degrees of the Prophetic Spirit. The Difference of Prophetic Dreams from all other Dreams recorded in Scripture. The Difference of the True' Prophetic Spirit from Enthusiastic Imposture. What the Meaning of those Actions is that are frequently, in Scripture, attributed to the Prophets. The Schools of the Prophets. The Sons, or Disciples of the Prophets. The Dispositions preparatory to Prophecy. The Time when the Prophetic Spirit ceased in the Jewish and Christian Churches

WITH

RULES FOR THE BETTER UNDERSTANDING

PROPHETIC WRIT.

That Prophecy is the Way whereby revealed Truth is dispensed to us. Man's Mind capable of being acquainted as well with revealed as natural Truth. Truths of natural Inscription may be excited in us, and cleared to us, by means of prophetical Influence. That the Scripture frequently accommodates itself to vulgar apprehension.

HAVING spoken to those principles of natural theology which have the most proper influence on life and practice, we come now to consider those revealed truths which tend most to cherish real piety. But before we fall into any strict inquiry concerning them, it may not be amiss to examine” How this kind of truth, which depends solely upon the free will of God, is manifested to mankind;” and so treat a little concerning prophecy, the only way whereby this kind of truth can be dispensed to us. For though our own reason and understanding carry all natural truth necessary for practice, engraven upon themselves, and folded up in their own essences yet positive truth can only be made known to us by a free influx of the Divine mind upon our minds and understandings. And as it arises out of nothing else but the free pleasure of the Divinity, so, without any natural determination it freely shines, upon the souls of men where and when it listed, hiding its light from them, or displaying it upon them, as it pleases.

Yet the souls of men are as capable of conversing with it, as with any sensible and external objects. And as our sensations carry the notions of material things to our understandings, which before were unacquainted with them; so there is a way whereby the knowledge of Divine truth may also be revealed to us. God having so contrived the nature of our souls, that we may converse one with another, and inform one another of things we knew not before, would not make us so deaf to his voice that breaks the rocks, and rends the mountains; he would not make us so undisciplinable in Divine things, as that we should not be capable of receiving any impressions from himself of those things which we were before unacquainted with. And this way of communicating truth. to the souls of men is originally nothing else but prophetical or enthusiastical; and so we may take notice of the general nature of prophecy.

I would not be mistaken, as if I thought no natural truth might by prophetic influence be awakened within us, and cleared up to us, for indeed one main end of the prophetical spirit seems. to have been the quickening our minds to a more lively converse with those eternal truths of reason, which commonly lie buried in so much fleshly obscurity within us, that we discern them not. And therefore the Scripture treats not only of those truths which are the results of God's free counsels, but also of those which are most allied to our own understandings, and that in the greatest way of condescension that it may be, speaking to the weakest sort of men in the most vulgar dialect.

Divine truth has its humiliation as well as exaltation. Divine truth becomes many times in Scripture incarnate, debasing itself to assume our rude conceptions, that so it might converse more freely with us, and infuse, its own Divinity into us. God having been so pleased herein to manifest himself not more jealous of his own glory, than zealous of our good. * If he should speak in the language of eternity, who could understand him, or interpret his meaning Or if he should have declared his truth to us only in a way of the purest abstraction that human souls are capable of, how should then the more rude and illiterate sort of men have been able to apprehend it Truth is content, when it comes into the world, to wear our mantles, to learn our language, to conform, itself as it were to our dress and fashions. It affects not state, but becomes all things to all men, as every son of truth should do, for their good. Which was well observed in that old axiom among the Jews, *. And therefore the best way to understand the “true sense of the Scripture is not rigidly to examine it upon philosophical interrogatories, or to bring it under the scrutiny of school-definitions and distinctions. It speaks not to us so much in the tongue of the learned, as in the plainest and most vulgar dialect. Which the Jews constantly observed, and therefore it was a common rule among them for a true understanding of the. Scripture, the law speaks “with the tongue of the sons of men. And therefore we find almost all corporeal properties attributed to God in Scripture. But such of them as sound imperfection in vulgar ears, as eating, drinking, and the like, these the Scripture no where attributes to him. The reason of this plain style of Scripture may be worth our farther taking notice of, as it is laid down by Maimonides.” For this reason the law speaks according to the language of the sons of men, because it is the most easy way of teaching children, women, and common people, who have not ability to apprehend things according to the very nature and essence of them.”

The Scripture was not written only for sagacious and abstracted minds, or philosophical heads; for then how few are there that should have been taught the true knowledge of God thereby F We must not think that it always gives us formal definitions of things, for it speaks commonly according to vulgar apprehension: as when it tells of” the ends of the heaven,” which now almost every idiot knows. has no ends at all. So when it tells us, Gen. 2: 7, that `4 God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul;” the expression seems to comply with that vulgar conceit,, that the soul of man is a kind of vital breath or air and yet the immortality thereof is evidently insinuated, in setting forth a double original of the two parts of man, his body and his soul; the one of which is brought in as arising out of the dust of the earth, the other as proceeding from the breath of God himself.

So we find vulgar expressions concerning God himself, besides those which attribute sensation and motion to him, as when he is set forth as ”riding upon the wings of the wind, riding upon the clouds, sitting in heaven,” and the like, which seem to determine his omnipresence to some particular place. Whereas, indeed, such passages can be fetched from nothing else but those apprehensions which the generality of men have of God, as being most there, from whence the objects of dread and admiration most insinuate themselves into their senses, as they do from the air, clouds, winds, or heaven. So again, when the Scripture would insinuate God's seriousness and reality in any thing, it brings him in as ordering it a great while ago before the foundation of the world was laid, as if he more regarded that than the building of the world.

I might instance in many more things of this nature, but I shall leave this argument, and now come to consider the nature of prophecy, by which God flows in upon the minds of men extrinsically to their own operations, and conveys truth immediately from himself into them.

CHAP. 2:

That the Prophetic Spirit did not always manifest itself with the same Clearness and Evidence. Of the four Degrees of Prophecy. The Difference between a Vision and a Dream.

But before we do this, we shall briefly premise something concerning that gradual variety whereby these Divine enthusiasms were discovered to the prophets of old. The prophetical Spirit did not always manifest. itself with the same clearness and evidence: but sometimes that light was more strong and vivid, sometimes more wan and obscure. So we find an evident difference of prophetic illumination asserted in Scripture between Moses and “the rest of the prophets, Deut. xxxiv. 10.” And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face:” which words have a manifest reference to that which God himself in a more open way declared concerning Moses, upon occasion of some arrogant speeches of Aaron and Miriam, who would equal their own degree of prophecy to that of Moses. Num. 12: 5-S,” And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear my words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream: my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses” In which words that degree of Divine illumination, whereby God made himself known to Moses, is set forth as transcendent to the prophetical illumination: and so the phrase of the New Testament is wont to distinguish between Moses and tbp~ prophets, as if Moses had been greater than any prophet.

Having briefly premised this, we shall first inquire into the nature of that which is peculiarly amongst the Jews called prophetical. And this is thus defined to us by Maimonides in Par. 2, c. 36, of his More Nevochim,” The true essence of prophecy is nothing else but an influence from the Deity upon the rational first, and afterwards the imaginative faculty.” Which definition belongs to prophecy, distinguished by Maimonides, both from that degree of Divine-illumination which was above it, which the matters constantly attribute to Moses, and front that other degree inferior to it.

But Rabbi Joseph Albo in Maam. 3, c. 8, De fundamentis fidei, hath given us a more large description,” Prophecy is an influence from God upon the rational, faculty, either by the mediation of the fancy or otherwise. And this influence, whether by the ministry of an angel or otherwise, makes a man to know such things as by his natural abilities he could not attain to the knowledge of.”

The main thing we shall observe in this description is, that power of the soul upon which these extraordinary impressions of Divine influence are made; which, in all proper prophecy, is both the rational and imaginative power. For in this case they supposed the imaginative power to be set forth as a stage upon which certain things were represented to their understandings, just as they are in dreams; only that the understandings of the prophets were always kept awake and strongly acted by God in the midst of these apparitions, to see the intelligible mysteries in them, and so in these types and shadows, to behold the antitypes. But in case the imagination be not thus set forth as the scene of prophetic illumination, but the impressions of things nakedly without any schemes. or pictures be made immediately upon the understanding itself, then is it reckoned to be the Mosaic degree, wherein God speaks as it were face to face.

Accordingly R. Albo hath distinguished prophecy into these four degrees. The first and lowest of all is, when the imaginative power is most predominant, so that the impressions made upon it are too busy, and the scene becomes too turbulent for the rational faculty to discern the mystical sense of them clearly; and in this case the enthusiasms spend themselves extremely in parables, similitudes, and allegories, in a dark and obscure manner, as is manifest in Zechariah and many of Ezekiel's prophecies.

This declining state of prophecy the Jews supposed then principally to have been, and this Divine illumination to have been then setting in the Jewish church when they were carried captive into Babylon. Thus., according to the general opinion of the Jewish masters, after the captivity, in the twilight of prophecy, Ezekiel began to speak altogether in riddles and parables; and so he himself complains to God,” Ali, Lord God, they say of me, Doth he not speak parables”

The second degree of prophecy is, when the strength of the imaginative and rational powers equally balance one another.

The third is, when the rational power is most predominant; in which case the mind of the prophet is able to strip those things that are represented to it in the glass of fancy of their sensible nature, and apprehend them distinctly in their own naked essence.

The-last and highest is the Mosaic degree, in which all - imagination ceaseth, and the representation of truth descends not so low as the imagination, but is made in the highest stage of understanding.

Seeing then generally all prophecy lies in.the joint impressions and operations of both these faculties, the Jews were wont to understand that place, Num. 12: 6, &c. as generally deciphering that degree of prophecy by which God would discover himself to all those prophets that ever should arise up amongst them, or ever had been, except Moses and the Messiah. And these are only these two ways declared whereby God would reveal himself to every other prophet, either in a vision or a dream.

The difference of these two, a dream and a vision, seems rather to lie in circumstantial than in any thing essential; in a dream a voice was frequently heard, which was not usual in a vision. But the representation of Divine things by some sensible images must needs be in both. Yet the Jews make a vision superior to a dream, as representing things more to the life, which indeed seizes upon the prophet while he is awake, but it no sooner surprises him than all his external senses are bound; and so it often declines into a true dream, as appears by the example of Abraham, Gen. 15: 12, where the vision in which God had appeared to him, (as it is related ver. 1,) passed into a sleep. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo an horror of great darkness fell upon him.” Which words seem to be nothing else but a description of that passage which he had by sleep out of his vision into a dream.

CHAP. 3: How the Prophetic Dreams differed front all other.

We have now taken a general survey of the nature of prophecy, which is always attended (as we have skewed) with a vision or a dream, though indeed there is no dream properly without a vision. And here before we pass from hence, it will be necessary to take notice of a main distinction the Hebrew doctors make, lest we mistake all those dreams which we meet with in Scripture for prophetical, whereas many of them were not such. For though they were all sent by God, yet many were sent as monitions and instructions, and had not the true force of prophetical dreams in them; and so they are wont commonly to distinguish, 11 When it is said in Holy Writ, that God came to such a man in a dream of the night, that cannot be called a prophecy, nor such a man a prophet; for the meaning is no more than this, that some admonition or instruction was given by God to such a man, and that it was in a dream.” Of this sort he and the rest of the Hebrew writers hold those dreams to be which were sent to Pharaoh,, Nebuchadnezzar, Abimelech, and Laban.

But the main difference between these two -sorts of dreams seems to consist in this, that such as were not prophetical were much weaker in their energy upon the imagination than the other were, so that they wanted the force of a Divine evidence, to give a plenary as of their Divine original; as we see in those dreams of assurance Solomon, 1 Kings 3: 5, 15, and chap. 9: 2, where it is said a Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream:” as if he had not been effectually confirmed from the energy of the dream itself, that it was a true prophetical influx.

But there is yet another difference they are wont to make between them, which is, that these monitory dreams ordinarily contained in them something that was void of reality: as in that dream of Joseph concerning the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowing down to him;” whereas his mother, which should there have been signified by the moon, was dead and buried before, and so incapable of performing that respect to him which the other at last did.

The general difference between prophetical dreams and those that are merely monitory, and all else which we find recorded in Scripture, Philo Judus has at large laid down. The proper character of those that were prophetical he clearly insinuates to be that ecstatical rapture whereby in all prophetical dreams, God, acting upon the mind and imagination of the prophets, snatched them from themselves, and so left more potent and evident impressions upon them.

A large Account of the Difference between the true prophetic Spirit, and enthusiastic Impostures. An Account of those Fears and Consternations which often seized upon the Prophets. How the Prophets perceived when the prophetic Iyfiux seized upon them. The different Evidence and Energy of the true and false' prophetic Spirit.

From what we have formerly discoursed concerning the stage of imagination upon which those things presented themselves to the mind of the prophet, it may be easily apprehended how easy it might be for the devil's prophets to counterfeit the true prophets of God. For indeed herein the prophetic influx seems to agree with a mistaken enthusiasm, that both of them make strong impressions upon the imagination.

It will not be therefore any great digression here,” to examine the nature of this false light which pretends to prophecy, but is not;” as being seated only in the imaginative power, from whence the first occasion of this delusion arises, seeing that power is also the seat of all prophetical vision. For this purpose it will not be amiss to premise that three-fold degree of influence pointed out by Maimonides. The first is wholly intellectual, descending only into the rational faculty, by which that is extremely strengthened in the distinct apprehension of truth. The second is jointly into the rational and imaginative faculty. The third into the imagination only.

We shall copy out of him a character of some of this third sort, the rather because it so exactly delineates many enthusiastic impostors of our age. His words are these, “There are some of this third sort who have sometimes such strange fancies, dreams, and ecstasies, that they take themselves for prophets. And hence it is t.t they fall into great confusions in many matters of no small moment, and so mix true notions with imaginary, as if heaven and earth were jumbled together. All which proceeds from the too great force of the imagination, and the imbecility of reason.” This delusion then in his sense, ariseth from hence, that all this foreign force that is upon them serves only to impregnate their imaginations, but does not inform their reasons; and therefore they can so easily embrace things absurd to all true and sober reason: whereas the prophetical spirit acting principally upon the reason of the prophets, guided them consistently and intelligibly into the understanding of things.

From what has been said arises one main distinction between the prophetical and pseudo-prophetical spirit, viz. That the prophetical Spirit doth never alienate the mind, but always maintains a consistency and clearness of reason, strength, and solidity of judgment, where it comes; it doth not ravish the mind, but inform and enlighten it. But the pseudo-prophetical spirit, if it enters into any, because it can rise no higher in man than his fancy, there dwells as in storms and tempests, and is conjoined with alienation of mind. For whensoever the phantasms come to be disordered and presented tumultuously to the soul, as it is in a fury, or melancholy, or else by the energy of this spirit of divination, the mind can pass no true judgment upon them; but its light and influence become eclipsed. Thus the Pythian prophetess is described by Lucian, lib. 3, as filled with inward fury, while she was inspired by the fatidical spirit, and uttering her oracles in a strange disguise, with many antic gestures, her hair torn, and foaming at the mouth. As also Cassandra is brought in prophesying in the like manner by Lycophron.

Chrysostom has very fully and excellently laid down this difference between the true and false prophets, Hom. 29, on the first epistle to the Corinthians.” It is, the property of a diviner to be ecstatical, to undergo some violence, to be tossed and hurried about like a madman it is otherwise with a prophet, whose understanding is awake, and his mind in a sober and orderly temper, and he knows every thing he says.

But here we must not mistake, as if there were nothing but the most absolute clearness and serenity of thoughts in the soul of the prophet amidst all his visions. And therefore we shall take notice of that observation of the Jews, concerning those panic fears, consternations, and tremblings, which frequently seized upon them together with the prophetical influx. Arid indeed by how much stronger and more vehement those impressions were which were made upon their imagination, by so much the greater was this perturbation and trouble: and the more the prophet's imagination was exercised, the more were his natural strength and spirits exhausted. Therefore Daniel being wearied with the toilsome work of his fancy about those visions that were presented to him, chap. 10: 8, &c. complains that” there was no strength left in him; that his comeliness was turned into corruption, and he retained no strength;” that “when he heard the voice, he was in a deep sleep, and his face toward the ground;” that” his sorrows were turned upon him, and no breath was left in him.” So Gen. 15: 12, when the vision presented to Abraham passed into a prophetical dream, it is said,” A deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and a horror of great darkness fell upon him.”

From this notion, perhaps, we may borrow some light for the clearing of Jeremiah 23: 9,” All my bones shake: I am like a drunken man, (and like a man whom wine has overcome,) because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness.” The energy of prophetical vision wrought thus potently upon his animal part. And thus I suppose is also that passage in Ezekiel 3: 14, to be expounded, where the prophet describes the energy which the prophetical Spirit had over him, when, in a prophetical vision, he was carried to those of the captivity that dwelt by the river Chebar:”The Spirit of the Lord lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, and in the heat (or hot chafing and anger,) of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.” So Habak. 3: 2, u O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid;- that is, the prophetical voice heard by him, and represented in his imagination, was so strong that it struck a panic fear into him. And it may be, the same thing is meant Isaiah 21: 3, where the prophet describes that inward conturbation and consternation that his vision of Babylon's ruin was accompanied with. “Therefore are my loins filled with pain, pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travails: I was bowed down at the hearing of it, I was dismayed at the seeing of it.”

But how did the prophets perceive when the prophetical inspiration first seized upon them There may be such dreams and visions which are merely delusive, and such as the false prophets were often partakers of; and the true prophets might have often such dreams as were merely true dreams, but not prophetical.

The Hebrew masters here tell us, that in the beginning of prophetical inspiration, the. prophets used to have some apparition, or image of a man or angel, presenting itself to their imagination. Sometimes it began with a voice, and that either strong and vehement, or else soft and familiar. And so God is said first of all to appear to Samuel, 1 Sam. 3: 7, who is said not yet to have known the Lord; that is, as Maimonides expounds it, *. He knew not the manner of that voice by which the prophetic Spirit was wont to awaken the attention of the prophets.

Those impressions, by which the prophets were made partakers of Divine inspiration, carried a strong evidence of their Original with them, whereby they might be able to distinguish them from any mistake, as also from their own true dreams, which might be sent by God, but not prophetical; which yet I think is more universally unfolded, Jeremiah 23: where the difference between true Divine inspiration and such false dreams and visions as sometimes a lying spirit breathed into the false prophets,

is on set purpose described to us from their different evidence and energy. The pseudo-prophetical spirit being but chaff, as vain as vanity itself, subject to every wind the matter itself which was suggested tending to nourish immorality and profaneness; and besides for the manner of inspiration, it was more dilute and languid. Whereas true prophecy entered upon the mind” as a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces:” and therefore the true prophets might know themselves to have received command from heaven, when the false might, if they would have laid aside their own fond self-conceit, have known as easily that God sent them not. So Maimonides:” All prophecy makes itself known to the prophet that it is prophecy indeed.” Which Abarbanel explains thus,” A prophet, when he is asleep, may distinguish between a prophetical dream and that which is not such, by the vigour and liveliness of the perception whereby he apprehends the things propounded, or else by the weakness thereof.” And this he concludes to be the true meaning of Jer. 23: 29,” Is not my word like a fire, says the Lord,, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces” Which he thus glosses upon” Such a thing is the prophetical spirit, by reason of the strength of its impression and the forcibleness of its operation upon the heart of the prophet; it is even like a thing that burns and tears him. And this happens to him either amidst the dream itself, or afterwards when he is fully awake. But those dreams which are not prophetical, although they be true, are weak and languid things, easily blasted as it were with the East wind.” We have yet another evident demonstration of this notion which may not be omitted, which is Jer. 20: 9,” Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: but his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up within my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and “I could not stay.” And, ver. 11, 11 The Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One.”

CHAP. 5:

That these Representations were generally made in the Prophet's Fancy by some Angel.

Before I conclude this discourse of prophecy, properly so called, I think it may be useful to treat a little of two things more that commonly are considered in this degree of Divine inspiration. First,” Who was the immediate efficient that represented the prophetical visions to the fancy of the prophets.” Secondly,” What those actions were that are frequently attributed to the prophets,. whether they were real, or only imaginary.”

I shall first inquire,” By whom these representations were made in the prophet's imagination.” For though there be no question but that it was God himself by whom the whole frame of prophecy was disposed, seeing the scope thereof was to reveal his will; yet the immediate efficient seems not to be. God himself, but an angel: so all the Jewish writers determine. Maimgnides's sense is full for this purpose.

The first scripture which lie brings for the confirmation of it, is that of Gen. 18: 1. But that which is more for his purpose is Gen. xxxii. 24, where” Jacob wrestled all night with the angel,” for so that man was, as Hosea tells us; and ver. 1,” The angels of God met Jacob.” Neither doth his interpretation of this wrestling to have been only in a prophetical vision, at all prejudice the historical truth of that event of it, which was Jacob's halting upon his thigh. Another place is Josh. 5: 13,” Joshua lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold a man stood over-against him.” Again, Judg. 5: 23, Deborah attributes the command she had to curse Meroz to an angel.” Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord.” In the first book of Kings, ch. xix. ver. 11, 12, we have a large description of this imaginary appearance of angels in the several modes of it;” Behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and, brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire,” &c. All which appearances Jonathan the Targumist expounds by armies of angels, which were attended with those terrible phenomena. And the still voice in which the Lord was, he renders answerable to the rest, by” the voice of angels praising God in a gentle kind of harmony.” For though it be there said that the Lord was in the soft voice, yet that paraphrast seems to understand it only of his ambassador. Which in other places of Scripture is manifest; as in 2 Kings 1: 3, 15, 16, where ver. 3, we find the angel delivered to Elijah the message to Ahaziah, king of Israel, who sent to Baalzcbub, the god of Ekron, to inquire about his disease; But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub.” And ver. 16, we have all this message attributed to God himself by the prophet, as if he had received the dictate immediately from God himself. Arid in Daniel, the Apocalypse, and Zachariah, we find all things perpetually represented and interpreted by angels. In the general, that the prophetical scene was perpetually ordered by some angel, I think is evident from what hath been already said; which I might further confirm from Ezekiel, all whose prophecies about the temple are expressly attributed to a man as the actor of them, that is indeed an angel; for so they used constantly to appear to the prophets in an human shape.

We might add to all this those visions which we meet with in the New Testament, which, as a thing vulgarly known, were- attributed to angels. So Acts 27: 23,” There stood by me the angel of God this night;” that is, in a prophetical dream. And Acts 12: when the angel of God did really appear to Peter, and bring him out of prison, he could scarcely be persuaded of a long time but that all this was a vision, this being the common manner of all prophetical visions. And Acts 23: when the Pharisees would describe St. Paul as a prophet that had received some vision or revelation from heaven, they phrase it by” the speaking of an angel or spirit unto him,” ver. 9.” We find no evil in this man; but if an angel or spirit hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”

CHAP. 6:

Whether those fictions that are frequently attributed to the Prophets were real, or only imaginary. What we are to think of several fictions recorded of Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, in their Prophecies.

There are many times in the midst of prophetical narrations some things related to be done by the prophets themselves upon the command of the prophetic voice, which have been generally conceived to have been acted really, the grossest of all not excepted, as Hosea's taking a harlot for his wife and begetting children. But we shall not here doubt to conclude both of that and all other actions of the prophets which they were enjoined upon the stage of prophecy, that they were only scenical and imaginary; except indeed they were such as of their own nature must have an historical meaning. For this purpose it may be worth while to take notice of what Maimonides hath determined in this case, More A7ev. Part 2, cap. 46,” Know therefore, that as it is in a. dream, a man thinks he hath been in this or that country, that he has married a wife there, and continued there for some time, that by this wife he has had a son of such a name, such a disposition, and the like: so it is with the prophetical parables as to what the prophets see or do in a prophetical vision. For whatsoever those parables inform us concerning any action the prophet doth, or concerning the space of time between one action and another, or going from one place to another; all this is in a prophetical vision. Neither are these actions real, although some particularities may be precisely reckoned in the writings of the prophets.

For because it was well known that it was all done in a prophetical vision; it was not necessary in rehearsing every particularity to reiterate that it was in a prophetical vision; as it was also needless to inculcate that it was in a dream. But the vulgar think all such actions were really performed, and not in a prophetical vision. And therefore I have an intention to make plain this business, and shall bring such things as no man shall be able to doubt of; adding thereunto some examples by which you may be able to judge of the rest, which I shall not for the present mention.” Thus we see how Maimonides counts it a vulgar error to conceive that those actions which are commonly attributed to the prophets in the current of their prophecy, their traveling from place to place, their propounding questions, and receiving answers, &c. were real things, whereas they were only imaginary.

For a more distinct understanding of this, we must remember, That the prophetical scene or stage upon which all apparitions were made to the prophet, was his imagination; and that there all those things which God would have revealed unto him were acted over symbolically, as in a mask, in which divers persons are brought in, amongst which the prophet himself bears a part. And therefore he, according to the exigency of this dramatical apparatus, must, as the other actors, perform his part, sometimes by speaking and reciting things done, sometimes by acting that part which he was appointed to act by some others; and so not only by speaking, but by gestures and actions comes in in his due place among the rest. And therefore it is no wonder to hear of those things done, which indeed have no historical or real variety; the scope of all being to represent something strongly to the prophet's understanding,. and sufficiently to inform it in the substance of those things which he was to instruct-that people in, to whom he was sent. And so sometimes we have only the intelligible matter of prophecies delivered to us nakedly without the imaginary -ceremonies or solemnities. And as this notion of those actions of the prophet that are interweaved with their prophecies is most genuine and agreeable to the genuine nature of prophecy, so we shall further clear and confirm it in some particulars.

We shall begin with that of Hosea's marrying Gomer, a common harlot, and taking to himself children of whoredoms, which lie is said to do a first and second time, chap. 1: and chap. 3: Which kind of action, however it might be void of vice, yet it would not have been void of offence, for a prophet to have thus unequally yoked himself (to use St. Paul's expression) with any such infamous persons, if it had been done really.

And therefore in these recitals of prophetical visions, we find many things less coherent than can agree with a true history; as in the narrative of Abraham's vision, Gen. 15: (for the Rabbins expound that whole chapter to be nothing else) we find, ver. 1, that God appeared to Abraham in a vision, and ver. 5, God brings him into a field, as if it were after the shutting up of the evening, and shows him the stars of heaven: and yet for all this, ver. 12, it was yet day-time, and the sun not gone down”And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham;” and ver. 17, cc And it came to pass that. when the sun went clown, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” From whence it is manifest that Abraham's going out into the field before, to take a view of the stars of heaven, and his ordering of those several living creatures, ver. 9, 10, for a sacrifice, was all performed in a prophetical vision. It being no strange thing to have incoherent junctures of time made in such a way.

So Jeremiah 13: we have a very precise narrative of Jeremiah's getting a linen girdle, and putting it upon his loins; and after a while he must needs take a long journey to Euphrates, to hide it there in a hole of the rock; and then returning, after many days, makes another weary journey to the same place to take it out again after it was all corrupted: all which could manifestly be nothing else but merely imaginary; the scope thereof being to imprint this more deeply upon the understanding of the prophet, that the house of Judah and Israel, which was so nearly knit and united to God, should be destroyed.

The same prophet, chap. xviii, is brought in going to the house of a potter, to take notice how he wrought a piece of work upon the wheel; and when the vessel he intended was all marred, then he made of his clay another vessel. And chap. xix. he is brought in as taking the ancients of the people, and the ancients of the priests along with him into the valley of the son of Hinnom, with a potter's earthen bottle under his arm, and there breaking it in pieces in the midst of them.

In this last chapter it is very observable how the scheme of speech is altered, when the prophet relates a real history concerning himself, ver. 14, speaking of himself in the third person, as if now he were to speak of somebody else, and not of a prophet or his actions; for so we read, ver. 14,”Then came Jeremiah from Tophet,” &c.

But other times we meet with things described with all the circumstantial pomp of the business, when yet it could be nothing else but a dramatical thing; as ch. xxxv. where the prophet goes and finds out the chief of the Rechabites, and brings them into such a particular chamber, and there sets pots and cups full of wine before them, and bids them drink wine. Just in the same mode with this we have another story told, chap. 25: 15, and 17, &c. of his taking a wine-cup from God, and carrying it up and down to all nations far and near, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and the kings and princes thereof; to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, princes, people; to all the Arabians, and kings of the land of Uz; to the kings of the land of the Philistines, Edom, Moab, Ammon; the kings of Tyre and Sidon, and of the isles beyond the -sea, Dedan, Tema, Buz; the kings of Zimri, of the Medes and Persians, and all the kings of the north and all these he said he made to drink of this cup. And in this fashion, chap. 27: he is sent up and down with yokes, to put upon the necks of several kings: all which can have no other sense than. that which is merely iniaginary, though we be not told that all this was acted only in a vision, for the nature of the thing would not permit any real performance thereof.

The, like we must say of Ezekiel's eating a roll given him of God, chap. 3: And chap. iv it is especially remarkable how ceremoniously all things are related concerning his taking a tile, and portraying the city of Jerusalem upon it, his laying siege to it; all which will be evident to have been merely dramatical, if we carefully examine all things in it. For he is here commanded to lie continually before a tile 390 days, which is full 13 months, upon his left side, and after that 40 more upon his right, and to bake his bread that he should eat all this while with dung.

So, chap. 5: he is commanded to take a barber's razor, and to shave his head and beard, then to weigh his hair in a pair of scales, and divide it into three parts; and after the days of his siege should be fulfilled, spoken of before, then to burn a third part of it in the midst of the city, and to smite about the other third with a knife, and to scatter the other third to the wind. All which, as it is most unlikely in itself ever to have been really done, so was it against the law of the priests. But that Ezekiel himself was a priest, is manifest from chap. 1: ver. 3. Upon these passages of Ezekiel, Maimonides hath thus soberly given his judgment:” Far be it from God to render his prophets like to fools and drunken men; and to prescribe them the actions of fools and madmen: besides that, this last injunction would have been inconsistent with the law; for Ezekiel was a great priest, and therefore obliged to the observation of those two negative precepts, viz. of not shaving the corners of his head and the corners of his beard: and therefore this was done only in a prophetical vision.” The same sentence likewise lie passes upon that story of Isaiah, chap. 20: 3, his walking naked and barefoot, wherein Isaiah was no otherwise a sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, or rather Arabia, where he dwelt not, and so could not more literally be a type herein, than Ezekiel was here to the Jews.

Again, chap. 12: we read of Ezekiel's removing his household stuff in the night, as a type of the captivity, and of his digging with his hands through the wall of his house, and of the people's coming to take notice of this strange action, with many other uncouth ceremonies of the whole business which carry no shew of probability. And yet, ver. 6, God declares upon this to him,” I have set thee for a sign to the house of Israel;” and ver. 9,” Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou” As if. all this bad been done really;=“ which indeed seems to be nothing but a prophetical scene. Neither was the prophet any real sign, but only imaginary, as having the type of all those fates symbolically represented in his fancy which were to befall the Jews.

But we shall proceed no farther in this argument, which I hope is by this time sufficiently cleared, that we are not in any prophetic narratives of this kind to understand any thing else but the history of the visions themselves which appeared to them, except we be led by some farther argument to determine it to have been any sensible thing.

CHAP. 8:

Of that Degree of Divine Inspiration properly called Ruach hakkodesh, 1: e. The Holy Spirit. The Nature of it described out of the Jewish Antiquities. Of the Urinz and Thumminz.

Thus we have done with that part of Divine inspiration which was properly by the Jews called prophecy. We shall now search a little into that which is hagiographical, or as they call it, “The Dictate of the Holy Spirit;” in which the book of Psalms, Job, the works of Solomon, and others, are comprised. This we find thus defined by Maimonides,”When a man perceives some power to arise within him, and rest upon him, which urgeth him to speak, so that he utters psalms or hymns, or profitable and wholesome rules of good living, or matters political and civil, or such as are Divine; and that whilst he is waking and has the ordinary use of his senses; this is such a one as speaks by the Holy Spirit.” In like manner we find this degree of inspiration described by R. Albo, Maam. 3, c. 10.” Now to explain to you what is that other door of Divine influx, through which none can enter by his own natural ability; it is when a man utters words of wisdom, or song, and Divine praise, in pure and elegant language: so that every one that knows him admires him for this excellent knowledge and composure of words; but yet he himself knows not from whence this faculty came to him, but is as a child that learns a tongue, and knows not from whence he had this faculty. Now the excellence of this degree of Divine inspiration is well known to all, for it is the same with that which is called the Holy Spirit.

This kind therefore of Divine inspiration was always more pacate and serene than the other of prophecy, neither did it so much fatigue the imagination. For though these Hagiographi, or holy writers, ordinarily expressed themselves in parables and similitudes, yet they seem only to have made use of such language to set off their sense of Divine things the more advantageously. And seeing there was no labor of the imagination in this way of revelation, therefore it was not communicated to them by any dreams or visions, but while they were waking, and their senses were in their full vigor, their minds calm.

This kind of inspiration, as it always acted pious souls. into strains of devotion, or moved them strongly to dictate matters of true goodness, did manifest itself to be of a Divine nature. _ And as it came in abruptly upon the minds of those holy men without courting their private thoughts, but transported them from that temper of mind they were in before, so that they; perceived themselves captivated by the power of some higher light than that which their own understanding poured upon them, they might know it to be more immediately front God.

Indeed that seems to be the main thing wherein this Holy Spirit differed from that constant spirit and frame of holiness dwelling in hallowed minds, that it was too quick, potent, and transporting a thing, and was a kind of vital form to that light of Divine reason which they were perpetually possessed of. And therefore sometimes it runs out into a prediction of things to come, though it may he those previsions were less understood by the prophet himself; as,, (if it were needful) we might instance in some of David's prophecies, which seem to have been revealed to him not so much for himself (as the apostle speaks) as for us.

But we are here to consider this Holy Spirit more strictly, and as we have formerly defined it out of Jewish antiquity. And here we shall first show what books of the Old Testament were ascribed to this by the Jews. The Old Testament was by the Jews divided into the law, the prophets, and the Holy Writings. And this division is insinuated in Luke 24: 44,” And Jesus said unto them, These are the words that I spoke unto you while I was yet, with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written concerning me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms:” where, by the Psalms, seem to be meant the Hagiographa; for the writers of these Hagiographa_might be termed Psalmodists, for some reasons which we shall touch upon hereafter in this discourse.-But to return; the Old Testament being anciently divided into these parts, it may not be amiss to consider the order of these parts as it is laid down by the talmudical doctors.” Our doctors have delivered unto us this order of the prophets, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve prophets, the first of which is Hosea.” They go on to lay down the order of the ayioygapa thus; Ruth, the book of Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, the Chronicles: and these the Jews did ascribe to the Ruach Iaakkodesh. But why Daniel should not be reckoned among the prophets, I can see no reason, seeing the strain of it wholly argues, the. nature of a prophetical degree spending itself in dreams and visions, though these were joined with more obscurity than in the other prophets. I think it to have been first of all some fortuitous thing which gave an occasion to this mistake.

But besides those books mentioned, there were some things among the Jews usually attributed to this spirit. And so Maimonides tells us that Eldad and Medad,

and all the high priests who asked counsel by Urim and Thummim, spoke by the Holy Spirit, whereby they gave judicial answers, by looking upon the stones of the high priest's breast-plate, to those that came to inquire of God by them. It will not be amiss to shew what this Urim and Thummim was: and we may take it from the best of the Jewish writers. It was done in this manner the high priest stood before the ark, and he that came to inquire of the Urim and Thummim stood behind him, inquiring with a submissive voice, as if he had been at his private prayers, Shall I do so, or so” Then the high priest looked upon the letters which were engraven upon the stones of the breast-plate, and by the Concurrence of a spirit of divination, with some modes whereby those letters appeared, he shaped out his answer. But for those that were allowed to inquire at this oracle, they were none else but either the king or the whole congregation.

We must farther know that the Jews were wont to impute to the Holy Spirit all those psalms or songs which we any where meet with in the Old Testament. So Abarbanel:” Every song that is found in the writings of the prophets, was ordered or dictated by the penmen themselves, together with the superintendency of the Holy Spirit: forasmuch as they received them not in the higher way which is called prophecy, as all visions were received, for all visions were perfect prophecy.” The author goes on further to declare the common opinion, concerning any such song, that it was not the proper work of God himself, but the work of the prophet's own spirit. Yet we must suppose the prophet's spirit was enabled by the conjunction of Divine “help with it, as he puts in the caution,” the Spirit of God and his Divine assistance did still cleave unto the prophet, and was present with him.” For, as he tells us, the prophets, being so much accustomed to Divine visions, might be able sometimes, without any prophetical vision, to speak excellently by the Holy Ghost, with very elegant language, and admirable similitudes. So all those Psalms, which are supposed to have been composed by David, are perpetually ascribed unto him, and the rest of them that were composed by others are, in like manner, ascribed unto them; whereas the prophetic strain is very different, always entitling God to it, and so is brought in with such kind of prologues, [The Word of the Lord,] or [The Hand of the Lord.]

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Dispositions antecedent and preparatory to Prophecy. What is meant by Saul's evil Spirit.

OUR next business is to discourse of those several qualifications that were to render a man fit for the spirit of prophecy.

The qualifications which the Jewish doctors supposed necessarily antecedent, were true probity and piety; and this was the constant opinion of all of them, not excluding the vulgar themselves. Thus Maimonides: “God may choose of men whom he pleases, and send him, it matters not whether he be wise and learned, or unlearned and unskillful, old or young; only this is required, that he be a virtuous, good, and honest man. For hitherto there was never any that could say that God did cause the Divine majesty to dwell in a vicious person, unless he had first reformed himself.”

Indeed common reason will teach us, that it is not likely God would extraordinarily inspire any men, and send them thus specially authorized by himself to declare his truth, who were vicious and of unhallowed lives; and so the apostle Peter, 2 Epist ch. 1: tells us plainly, they were “holy men of God,, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Neither is it probable that those, who were any way of crazed minds, or who were inwardly of inconsistent tempers by reason of any perturbation, could be very fit for these serene impressions. And therefore the Hebrew doctors universally agree in this rule, a That the Spirit of prophecy never rests upon any but a holy and wise man, one whose passions are allayed.” That temper of mind principally required by them is a free cheerfulness, in opposition to grief, anger, or any other sad and melancholy passions. So Gem. Pesac. cap. 6,”Every man, when he is in a passion, if he be a wise man, his wisdom is taken from him; if a prophet, his prophecy.”

The first part of this aphorism they there declare by the example of Moses, who, they say, prophesied not in the wilderness after the return of the spies that brought an ill report of the land of Canaan, by reason of his indignation against them. And the last part from the example of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings 3: 15. 1 will not here dispute the punctualness of the traditions concerning Moses, though I doubt not that the main scope is true, viz. that the Spirit of prophecy used not to reside with any black or melancholy passions, but required a serene and pacate temper of mind, being itself of a mild and gentle nature.

Now as this Divine Spirit thus actuated free and cheerful souls, so the evil spirit actuated sad, melancholy minds, as we heard before, and as we may see in the example of Saul. And indeed that evil spirit which is said to have possessed him, seems to be nothing else originally but anguish and grief of mind, however wrought upon by some insinuations of an evil spirit. And this sometime instigated him to prophesy after the fashion of such melancholy fury, 1 Sam. 18: 10,” And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God carne upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house;” which Jonathan renders by,” He talked madly.” R. Solomon upon the place, expounds it to the same purpose.

So that, according to the strain of all the Jewish scholiasts, by this evil spirit of Saul is here meant a melancholy kind of madness, which made him prophesy or speak distractedly and inconsistently. To these we may add R. L. B. Gersom,” He spoke in the midst of the house very confusedly, by reason of that evil spirit.” The proper cure of it was the harmony and melody of David's music, which was therefore made use of to compose his mind, “and to allay these turbulent passions. And that was the reason why music was so frequently used, viz to compose the animal part, that all kind of perturbations being dispelled, and a gentle tranquility ushered in, the soul might be the better disposed for the. Divine breathings of the prophetical Spirit.

CHAP. 9:

Of the Sons or Disciples of the Prophets. An Account of several Schools of prophetical -Education.

AND therefore we find frequently such passages in Scripture as strongly insinuate that, anciently, many were trained up in a way of school discipline, that they might be probationers to these degrees, which none but God himself could confer upon them. Yet while they heard others prophesy, there was sometimes an afflatus upon them also, their souls as it were sympathizing (like unisons in music) with the souls of those- which were touched by the Spirit. And this seems to be the meaning of that story, 1 Sam. xix. where all Saul's messengers sent to Naioth in Rama to apprehend David, (and at last he himself,) are said to fall a prophesying.

Arid this is clearly suggested by the Jewish writers, who tell us that this Naioth in Rama was a school of prophetical education; that Samuel was the president of this school or college, disciplining those young scholars, and training them up to those preparatory qualifications which might dispose them for prophecy. So we find it ver. 20,”And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing, as appointed, over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.”

These disciples of the prophets are called sons of the prophets: and these are they which are meant 1 Sam. 10: 5, in those words,” a company of the prophets;” or, if you please, in Kimchi''s'`' language,” A company of scribes, that is, scholars: for the scholars of the wise men were called scribes: for they were the scholars of the greater prophets, and these scholars were called the sons of the prophets. Now the greater prophets, which lived in the time from Eli to David, were Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun.

And thus we must understand the meaning of that question, ver. 12,”Who is their father” Which gave occasion to that proverbial speech afterwards used commonly among the Jews,” Is Saul also among the prophets” of one that was suddenly raised up to sonic dignity which, by his education, he was not fitted for. To which we may add the testimony of R. Levi B. Gersom, that the prophets here spoken of were the scholars of Samuel, who trained them up to a degree of prophetical perfection, and so is called their father.

Of these disciples we find frequent mention in Scripture: so 2 Kings 4: 38, we read of the sons or disciples” of the prophets in Gilgal.” And, chap. 6: Elisha is there brought in as their master, at whose command they were, and therefore they ask leave to enlarge their dwellings. And Elisha himself was trained up by Elijah as his disciple; and therefore in 2 Kings 3: 11, it was thought enough to prove that, he was a prophet, for that he had been Elijah's disciple, and “poured water upon hishands.” And 2 Kings 9: 1, Elisha sends one of these his ministering disciples to anointJehu to be king of Israel. And 1 Kingsxx.35, the young prophet there sent to reprove Ahab for sparing Benhadad,king of Syria,is called by the Chaldee paraphrast,” One of the sons” the disciples,”of the prophets.” And hence it was that Amos urges the extraordinariness of his commission front God, clh. 8: 14,” I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet's son. He was not prepared for prophecy, or trained up so as to be fitted for a prophetical function by his discipleship,” as Abarbanel glosses upon the place. And therefore Divine inspiration found him out of the ordinary road of prophets among his herds of cattle, and in an extraordinary way moved him to go to Bethel, there to declare God's judgments against the king and people, even in the king's chapel. To conclude, in the New Testament, when John Baptist and our Savior called disciples to attend upon them, and to learn Divine oracles from them, it seems to have been no new thing, but that which was the common custom of the old prophets.

O These prophets there were several schools or colleges, in several cities, according as occasion was to employ them. So we read of a college in Jerusalem, 2 Kings 22: 14, where Huldah the prophetess lived, which is called -11wn in the original, and translated by Kimchi nm3, a school. So 2 Kings, ch. 2: and 4: we meet with divers places set down, as those where the residence of those young prophets was, as Bethel, and Jericho, and Gilgal. So Kimchi observes upon the place,”As the sons of the prophets were in Bethel and Jericho, so were there also of them in several other places. And the main reason why they were thus dispersed in many of the cities of Israel was this, that they might reprove the Israelites that were there. And their prophecy was wholly according to the exigency of those times; and therefore it was that their prophecy was not committed to writing.” From hence some of the Jewish writers tell us of a certain succession of prophecy, one continually like an evening-star shining upon the hemisphere, when another was set. Kimchi tells us of this mystical gloss upon those words, 1 Sam. 3: 3, `Ere the- lamp of God went out.'“ This is spoken mystically concerning the light of prophecy, according to that saying amongst our doctors, [the sun riseth and the sun sets], that is, Ere God makes the sun of one righteous man to set, be makes the sun of another righteous man to rise.”

CHAP. X

Of Hath Kol: that it succeeded in the room of Prophecy: that it was by the Jews counted the lowest degree of Revelation.

BEFORE we speak of the highest, it may not be amiss to take notice of the lowest degree of revelation among the Jews, which was inferior to all which they call by the name of prophecy; and this was their $ip nz, Hath Kol, the daughter of a voice: which was nothing but a voice which was heard as descending from heaven, directing them in any affair: which kind of revelation might be to one (as Maimonides tells us,) that was no way prepared for prophecy.

Of this we have mention made in one of the most ancient monuments of Jewish learning, which is P. R. Eliezer, cap. 44, and otherwise very frequently among the Jewish writers, as that which was a frequent thing after the ceasing of prophecy among the Jews. Josephus tells a story of Hircanus, the high priest, how he heard this voice from heaven, which told him of the victory which his sons had got at Cyzicum against Antiochus the same day the battle was fought; and thus, (he says,) while be was offering up incense in the temple, he was made partaker of a vocal converse with God.

This R. Isaac Angarensis urgeth against the Karoei, (a sort of Jews that reject all talmudical traditions,) that the grand doctors of the Jews received such traditions from the LXXII senators, who were guided either by Hath Kol, or something answerable to it, in the truth of things, after all prophecy was ceased:” There is a tradition that the men of the great Sanhedrim were bound to be skilled in the knowledge of all sciences, and therefore it is much more necessary that prophecy should not be taken from them, or that which should supply its room, viz. the daughter of voice, and the like.”

But we shall here leave our author to his Judaical superstition, and take notice of two or three places in the New Testament that seem to be understood of this, which the constant tradition of the Jews assures us to have succeeded in the room of prophecy. The first is John 12: where this heavenly voice was conveyed to our Savior, as if it had been the noise of thunder, but was not well understood by those that stood by, who therefore thought that either it thundered, or that it was a mighty voice of some angel that spoke to him: ver. 28, 29,” Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified my name, and will glorify it again. The people therefore that stood by and heard it, said it thundered; others said that an angel spoke to him.” So Matt. 3: 17, after our Savior’s baptism, upon his coming out of the water, the evangelist tells us that,” the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon him in the shape of a dove, and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And last of all, we meet with this kind of voice upon our Savior’s transfiguration, Matt. 17: 5, 6, which is there so described as coming out of a cloud, as if it had been loud like the noise of thunder,” Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them,, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased:” which voice, it is said, the three disciples that were with him in the mount heard, as we are told in the following verse, and also 2 Pet. 1: 17, 18. From whence we are informed that it was this daughter of a voice which came for the apostles' sakes that were with him, as a testimony of that glory and honour with which God magnified his Son; which apostles were not yet raised to the degree of prophecy, but only made partakers of a voice inferior to it. The words are these, “He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there carne such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.”

CHAP. 11:

Of the highest Degree of Divine Inspiration, viz. the Mosaical. Four Differences between the Divine Revelations made to Moses and to the rest of the Prophets. How the Doctrine of Men prophetically inspired is to approve itself by Miracles, or by its Reasonableness. The Sympathy between a holy Mind and Divine Truth.

WE now come briefly to inquire into the highest degree of Divine inspiration, which was the Mosaical, that by which the law was given; and this we may best do by searching out the differences of Moses’ inspiration from that which was properly called prophecy. And these we shall take out of. Maimonides de Fund Legis, cap. 7, where they are fully described.

The first is, that Moses was made partaker of these Divine revelations when awake; whereas God manifested himself to all the other prophets in a dream or vision. “What is the difference between the prophecy' of Moses and the prophecy of all other prophets All other prophets did prophesy in a dream or vision; but Moses, our master,when he was waking and standing, according to what is written, (Num. 8: 89,) `And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, (i. e. God,) then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him.”

The second difference is, that Moses prophesied without the mediation of any angelical power, by an influence derived immediately from God; whereas in all other prophecies some angel appeared to the prophet:” All prophets did prophesy by the help or ministry of an angel, and therefore they did see that which they saw in parables

or under some dark representation; but Moses prophesied without the ministry of an angel.” This he proves from Num. 12: 8, where God says of Moses, 911 will speak to him mouth to mouth;” and so Exod. xxxiii. 11,”The Lord spoke to Moses face to face.”

But we must not here so much adhere to Maimonides as to forget what we are told in the New Testament concerning the ministry of angels which God used in giving the law itself: so St. Stephen discourseth of it, Acts 8: 53, and St. Paul to the Galatians tells us,” the law was given by the disposition of angels in the hand of a Mediator,” that is, Moses, the Mediator then between God and the people. And therefore I should rather think the meaning of those words, a face to face,” to import the clearness and evidence of the intellectual light wherein God appeared to Moses, which was greater than any of the prophets were made partakers of.

But there may be yet a farther meaning of those words, ”face to face,” and that is the friendly and amicable way whereby all Divine revelations were made to Moses; for so it is added in the text,” As a man speaks unto his friend.”

And this is the third difference which Maimonides assigns,” All the other prophets were -afraid;., and troubled, and fainted; but Moses was not so: for the Scripture says,'‘ God spoke to him as a man speaks to his friend;' that is, as a man is not afraid to hear the words of his friend, so was Moses able to understand the words of prophecy without any disturbance and astonishment of mind.”

The fourth and last difference is the liberty of Moses’ spirit to prophesy at all times, as we heard before out of Num. 8: 89. He might have recourse at any time to the sacred oracle (in the tabernacle,) which spoke from between the cherubim and so Maimonides lays down this difference,” None of the prophets did prophesy at what time they would, save Moses, who was clothed with the Holy Spirit when he would, and the spirit of prophecy did abide upon him.. Neither had he need to prepare himself for it, for he was always disposed and in readiness as a ministering angel:., and therefore could lie prophesy at what time he would,. according to that which is spoken in Num. 9: 8, `Tarry you here a little, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”

We have now seen what is this Mosaic degree, which it was necessary should be transcendent and extraordinary, because it was the basis of all future prophecy among the Jews.. For all the prophets mainly aim to establish the law of Moses,. as to the practical observation of it; and therefore it was so strongly manifested to the Israelites by signs and miracles done in the sight of all the people, and his familiarity and acquaintance with heaven testified to them all, the Divine voice being heard by them all at mount Sinai; which dispensation amounted at least to as much as a Hath Kol to the very lowest of the people. What that voice was which they heard, the later Jews are scarcely well agreed'. But Maimonides, according to the most received opinion, tells that they only heard those first words of the law distinctly, viz.” I am the Lord thy God,” and, ”Thou shalt have none other gods,” and only the sound of all the rest of the words in which the remainder of the law was given.

And here;. by the way, we may take notice., that that Divine inspiration, which is conveyed to any one man, primarily benefits none but himself; and therefore many times it rested in this private use, not profiting any but those to whom it came. And the reason of this is manifest, for that an inspiration, abstractedly considered, can only satisfy the mind of him to whom it is made, of its own authority. And therefore that one man may know that another hath a doctrine revealed to him by a prophetical spirit, he must also either be inspired or be confirmed in the belief of it by some miracle, whereby it may appear that God hath committed his truth to such an one; which course our Saviour himself and his disciples took to confirm the truth of the gospel. Or else there must be so much reasonableness in the thing itself, that, by moral arguments, it may be sufficient to beget a belief in the minds of sober men.

I wish this last way of becoming acquainted with Divine truth were better known amongst us. For when we have once attained to a true, sanctified frame of mind, we have then attained the end of all prophecy, and see all Divine truth that tends to the salvation of our souls in the Divine light, which always shines in the purity and holiness of a new creature, and so needs no farther miracle to confirm us in it. And indeed that god-like glory and majesty which appear in the naked simplicity of true goodness, will, by its own sympathy, with all saving truth, friendly entertain and embrace it.

CHAP. 12:

When the prophetical Spirit ceased in the Jewish Church. The restoring of the prophetical Spirit by Christ. When the prophetical Spirit ceased in the Christian

Church.

HAVING now done with all those sorts of prophecy which we find any mention of: we shall inquire a little” what period of time it was in which this prophetical spirit ceased both in the Jewish and Christian churches.”

And, first, for the period of time when it ceased in the Jewish, I find our Christian writers differing. Justin Martyr would needs persuade us that it was not till the time of Christ. This he inculcates often in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew. But Clemens Alexandrinus hath more truly, with the consent of all Jewish antiquity, resolved us, that all prophecy determined in Malachi. And the Jewish doctors tell us, that from the time in which the prophets expired, the Urim and Thumminl ceased. Yea, all prophecy expired, and there was left only a Hath Idol to succeed some time ’in the room of it.

This cessation of prophecy determined as it were that old dispensation wherein God manifested himself to the Jews under the law, that so, that growing old, and thus wearing away, they might expect that new dispensation of the Messiah, which had been promised long before, and which should again restore this prophetical Spirit more abundantly. And this interval is insinuated by Joel 2: in those words concerning the later times;” In those days shall your sons and daughters prophesy.” And so St. Peter makes use of the place to take off that admiration which the Jews were possessed with to ’see so plentiful an effusion of-the prophetic Spirit again: and therefore this Spirit of prophecy is called the testimony of Jesus, Apoc. ch. xix.

We come now to the second inquiry,” What time the. Spirit of prophecy, which was restored by our Savior, ceased in the Christian church.” It may be thought that St. John was the last of Christian prophets, for that the Apocalypse is the latest dated of any book which is received into the canon of the New Testament. But I know no place of Scripture that intimates any such thing, as if the Spirit of prophecy was so soon to expire. And indeed if we may believe the primitive fathers, it did not; though it over-lived St. John's time but a little. Eusebius tells us of one Quadratus,” who, together with the daughters of Philip, had the gift of prophecy.” This Quadratus, as he tells us, lived in Trajan's time, which was but in the beginning of the second century. And a little after, speaking of good men in that age, he adds,” Many strange and admirable virtues of the Divine Spirit as yet shewed forth themselves by them.” And the same author, lib. 4, 18, tells us out of Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century, and then wrote his Apology for the Christians, that the gift of prophecy was still to be seen in the church. Yet, not long afterward, there is little or no remembrance of the prophetical Spirit remaining in the church.

To conclude. There is indeed in antiquity, frequent mention. of some miracles wrought in the name of Christ; but less is said concerning the prophetical virtue after the second century. It was rare, and to be seen but sometimes, and more obscurely in some few Christians only.

CHAP. 13:

Some Rules and Observations concerning prophetic Writ in general.

WE should now shut up all the discourse about prophecy; only, before we conclude, it may not be amiss to add a few rules for the better understanding prophetical writing in general.

1. The first is concerning the style of prophecy; whether that was not peculiarly the work of the prophet. himself; whether it does not seem -that the; prophetical spirit dictated the matter, only or principally, and left the words to the prophet himself. It may be considered that God made, not use of idiots or fools to reveal his will by; and that he imprinted such a clear copy of his truth upon them, as that it became their own sense, being digested fully in their understandings; so as they were able to deliver and represent it to others as truly as, any can paint forth his own thoughts. Therefore, I think, to doubt whether the prophets might not.mistake in representing the mind of God in their prophetical inspirations, except all their words had been dictated to them, is to question whether they could speak sense as wise men, and tell their own thoughts and experiences truly or not. And indeed it seems most agreeable to the nature of all these prophetical visions and dreams, wherein the nature of the enthusiasm consisted in a symbolical and shaping forth of intelligible things in their imaginations, and enlightening the understanding to discern the scope and meaning of them; that those words and phrases in which they were expressed to the hearers afterwards, should be the prophet's own. For the matter was not, (as seems evident from what hath been said,) represented always by words, but by things. Though I know that sometimes in these visions they had a voice speaking to them; yet it is not likely that voice should so dilate and comment upon things, as it was fit the prophet should do when he repeated the same things to vulgar ears.

It may also further be considered, that our Savior and his apostles generally quote passages out of the Old Testament as they were translated by the LXX, and that where the LXX have much varied the manner of phrasing things from the original. Which it is not likely they would have done, had the original words been the very dictate of the Spirit; for certainly that would riot need any such periphrastically variations, as being of themselves full and clear enough; besides, herein they might seem to weaken the authenticity of the Divine Oracles.

Besides, we find the prophets speaking every one of them in his own dialect; and such a variety of style appears in their writings, as may argue them to have spoken according to their own genius. Which is observed by the Jews themselves in all the prophets, except Moses, and that part of Moses only which contains the decalogue. Abarbanel gives us a full account of this, upon occasion of some phrases in Jeremiah concerning Edom, ”The prophets did not prophesy in the same manner as Moses did: for he prophesied from God immediately, from whom he received not only the prophecy, but also the very words and phrases; and accordingly as he heard them, so he wrote them in the book of the law, in the very same words which he heard from God. But, as for the rest of the prophets, they beheld in their visions the things themselves which God made known to them, and both declared and expressed them in their own phraseology.”

Thus we see he ascribes the phrase and style everywhere to the prophet himself, except only in the law, which he supposes to have been dictated totidem verbis which is probable enough, if he mean the law strictly so taken, viz. for the decalogue, as is most likely he doth. Yet God did so far superintend in their copying forth his truth, as not to suffer them to swerve from his meaning.

2. In the next place, for the better understanding prophetic writing, we must observe, that there is sometimes a seeming inconsistency in things spoken, if we examine them by the strict, logical rules of method. We must not, therefore, in any prophetical vision, look for a constant methodical contexture of things carried on in a perpetual coherence. The prophetic Spirit doth not tie itself to these-rules of art, or thus knit up its dictates systematically. This would rather argue a human and artificial contrivance than any inspiration. And therefore Tully,judiciously excepts against the authenticity of those verses of the Sibyls which he met with in his time, (and which were the same perhaps with those we now have,) because,of those acrostics, and some other things, which argued -an elaborate artifice, and an affected diligence of the writer. We must not seek for any methodical concatenation of things in the law, or indeed in any other part of prophetical writ; it being an usual thing with them many times to knit the beginning and end •of time together. We do not often find curious transitions, nor exact dependence of one thing upon another; but frequently things of very different natures, and that were cast into periods of time secluded one from another by vast intervals, all couched together in the same vision; as Jerome hath observed in many places. And thus he.takes notice in Daniel 11: 2; that whereas there were thirteen kings between Cyrus and Alexander the Great, the prophet speaks of but four, skipping over the rest, as.if the other nine had filled up no part of the interval. The like he observes upon Jeremiah 21: 1, and otherwhere; as likewise sudden and abrupt introductions of persons, mutations of persons, (exits and intrats upon this prophetical stage being made as it were in an invisible manner,) and transitions from the voice of one person to another. The prophetical Spirit, though it make no noise and tumult in its motions, yet it is most quick, spanning as it were from the centre to the circumference; it moves most swiftly, though most gently.

3. The last rule we shall observe is, that no prophecy is to be understood of the state of the world to come. For indeed it is altogether impossible to describe that, or to comprehend it in this life. Therefore all Divine revelation in Scripture must concern some state in this world. And so we must understand all those places that treat of a new* heaven and a new earth.” So we must understand the New Jerusalem mentioned in the New Testament, in that prophetical book of the Apocalypse. And thus the Jews were wont universally to understand them, according to that maxim ascribed to R. Jochanan, ”All the prophets prophosied to the days of the Messiah; but as for the world to come, eye, hath not seen it.” So they constantly expound that passage in Isaiah lxiv. 4,” Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, 0 God, besides thee, what he has prepared for him that waiteth for him.” And according to this aphorism our Savior seems to speak, when he says, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John,” Matt. 11: 13, *, 1: e. they prophesied to or for that dispensation which was to begin with John, who lived in the time of the twilight, as it were, between the law and the he gospel. They prophesied of those things which should be accomplished within the period of the gospel-dispensation which was ushered in by John.

As for the state of blessedness in' heaven, it is too great for the mind of man to comprehend now.