Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/15

Rh had had no prophets for above 300 years. We have not only the vox populi—the voice of the people, to prove John a prophet, for all the people counted him so, but vox Dei—the voice of God too; for Christ calls him a prophet, Matth. xi. 9, 10. He had an extraordinary commission from God to call people to repentance, was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, and was therefore called the prophet of the Highest, because he went before the face of the Lord, to prepare his way; (Luke i. 15, 16.) and though he did no miracle, nor gave any sign or wonder, yet this proved him a true prophet, that all he said of Christ was true, John x. 41. Nay; and this proved him more than a prophet, than any of the other prophets, that whereas by other prophets Christ was discovered as at a great distance, by him he was discovered as already come, and he was enabled to say, Behold the Lamb of God.

But after the ascension of our Lord Jesus there was a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of prophecy than ever before; then was the promise fulfilled, that God would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, (and not as hitherto upon the Jews only,) and their sons and their daughters should prophesy, Acts ii. 16, &c. The gift of tongues was one new product of the Spirit of prophecy, and given for a particular reason, that the Jewish pale being taken down, all nations might be brought into the church. These and other gifts of prophecy, being for a sign, are long since ceased, and laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast, 2 Pet. i. 19. All God's spiritual Israel know that they are established to be the oracles of God, (1 Sam. iii. 20.) and if any add to, or take from, the book of that prophecy, they may read their doom in the close of it; God shall take blessings from them, and add curses to them, Rev. xxii. 18, 19.

Now concerning the prophets of the Old Testament, whose writings are before us; observe,

I. That they were all holy men; we are assured by the apostle, that the prophecy came in old time by holy men of God, (and men of God they were commonly called, because they were devoted to him,) who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were men, subject to like passions as we are, (so Elijah, one of the greatest of them, is said to have been, Jam. v. 17.) but they were holy men, men that in the temper of their minds, and the tenour of their lives, were examples of serious piety. Though there were many pretenders, that, without warrant, said, Thus saith the Lord, when he sent them not; and some that prophesied in Christ's name, but he never knew them, and they indeed were workers of iniquity; (Matth. vii. 22, 23.) and though the cursing, blaspheming lips of Balaam and Caiaphas, even then when they actually designed mischief, were overruled to speak oracles; yet none were employed and commissioned to speak as prophets, but those that had received the Spirit of grace and sanctification; for holiness becomes God's house.

The Jewish doctors universally agree in this rule, That the Spirit of prophecy never rests upon any but a holy and wise man, and one whose passions are allayed;* or, as others express it, an humble man, and a man of fortitude; one that has power to keep his sensual, animal part in due subjection to religion and right reason. And some of them† give this rule; That the Spirit of prophecy does not reside where there are either, on the one hand, grief and melancholy, or, on the other hand, laughter and lightness of behaviour, and impertinent, idle talk: and it is commonly observed by them, both from the musical instruments used in the schools of the prophets in Samuel's time, and from the instance of Elisha's calling for a minstrel, (2 Kings iii. 15.) that the divine presence does not reside with sadness, but with cheerfulness; and Elisha, they say, had not yet recovered himself from the sorrow he conceived at parting with Elijah. They have also a tradition, (but I know no ground for it,) that all the while Jacob mourned for Joseph, the Shechinah, or Holy Spirit, withdrew from him. Yet I believe, when David intimates that by his sin in the matter of Uriah he had lost the right Spirit, and the free Spirit, Ps. li. 10, 12. (which therefore he begs might be renewed in him, and restored to him,) it was not because he was under grief, but because he was under guilt. And therefore, in order to the return of that right and free Spirit, he prays that God would create in him a clean heart.

II. That they had all a full assurance in themselves of their divine mission; and (though they could not always prevail to satisfy others) they were abundantly satisfied themselves, that what they delivered as from God, and in his name, was indeed from him; and with the same assurance did the apostles speak of the word of life, as that which they had heard, and seen, and looked on, and which their hands had handled, 1 John i. 1. Nathan spake from himself, when he encouraged David to build the temple, but afterward knew he spake from God, when, in his name, he forbade him to do it.

God had various ways of making known to his prophets the messages they were to deliver to his people; it should seem, ordinarily, to have been by the ministry of angels. In the Apocalypse, Christ is expressly said to have signified by his angel to his servant John, Rev. i. 1. It was sometimes done in a vision, when the prophet was awake; sometimes in a dream, when the prophet was asleep; and sometimes by a secret but strong impression upon the mind of the prophet. But Maimonides has laid down, as a maxim, That all prophecy makes itself known to the prophet that it is prophecy indeed; that is, says another of the Rabbins, By the vigour and liveliness of the perception, whereby he apprehends the thing propounded; (which Jeremiah intimates when he says, The word of the Lord was as a fire in my bones, Jer. xx. 9.) and therefore they always spake with great assurance, knowing they should be justified. Isa. 1. 7.

III. That in their prophesying, both in receiving their message from God, and in delivering it to the people, they always kept possession of their own souls, Dan. x. 8. Though sometimes their bodily strength was overpowered by the abundance of the revelations, and their eyes dazzled with the visionary light, as in the instances of Daniel and John,(Rev. i. 17.) yet still their understanding remained with them, and the free exercise of their reason. This is excellently well expressed by a learned writer of our own;‡ "The prophetical Spirit, seating itself in the rational powers, as well as in the imagination, did never alienate the mind, but inform and enlighten it; and they that were actuated by it, always maintained a clearness and consistency of reason, with strength and solidity of judgment. For," (says he afterwards,§ ) "God did not make use of idiots or fools to reveal his will by, but such whose intellectuals were entire and perfect; and he imprinted such a clear copy of his truth upon them, as that it became their own sense, being digested fully into their understandings, so that they were able to deliver and represent it to others, as truly as any can point forth his own thoughts." God's messengers were speaking men, not speaking trumpets. — B