Po Rete cA eG Te
HE prophets I havé undertake an Expofition of, are thofe, whom the Fews call, the /atter prophets, taking the hint from Zech. i. 4. The former prophets with them, are, the writers of Fo/bua, Fudges, the two books of Samuel, and the two books of
Kings; which are fo called by them, as Huetius * obferves, becaufe, tho’ they are hiftories; yet contain fignifications and figures of things future. They are not indeed all agreed in this matter; for fome fay *, David, and Samuel, and Solomon, were the former prophets; and even fome “ diftinguifh the latter prophets, into former and latter; and make the former prophets to be all, excepting Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, to whom they give the name of the latter prophets; but generally in the Hebrew copies of the Bible, the latter prophets begin with Yaiah, and end with Malachi; and thefé are divided into the greater and leffer prophets. The greater prophets are [aiah, Feremiah, and Ezekiel; to which we chriftians add Daniel; but he ftands excluded from the clafs of prophets by the Hews, for a reafon that is eafily difcerned; not being willing to own the famous prophécy in him concerning the coming of the Meffiah, They unanimoufly agree, as Maimonides affirms “, to put him améng the Cetubim or Hagiograpba, the holy writings, but not among the prophets; they allow his book was written by the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft, but not by the fpirit of prophecy;. wrongly diftinguifhing between the one and the other; nor fhould fuch a diftinction of the facred writings, as of prophets and Hagiographa, be admitted; fince ai! the infpired writings are yexPas ayo; and fo the fcriptures are called, Rom.i. 2. and xvi.26. The latter prophets are the twelve, which begin with Ho/eah, and end with Malachi; and with the greater, are in all fixteen. Of tliefe I fhall not fay any thing in particular here; as who they were; what time they prophefied; what, or to whom, of of hee they prophefied; or of their ftile and manner of writing; for which, with other things, I refer the reader to the arguments and titles of the feveral books but fhall pbitrve fome ann concerning prophets and prophecy in general.
THE orbit NI) a prophet, cories from m3, which, in the Arabic language, primarily fignifies to be liftéd up on high, to be in an eminence ‘; hence there is a mountain called Nedo, from its height and eminence, where Mo/es died, and from whence he had a view of the land of Canaan, Deut. xxxii. 49, 50. and xxxiv. 1. and the Chaldeans had an idol of this name, which, Hillerus ‘ thinks,. was fo called from its height and diftance, J/ xlvi. 1. and it may be, prophets had their name from hence; either becaufe they fometimes ftood on an efiinence, when they delivered their prophecies, that they might be, the better heard; and when they cried aloud, and lift up their voice like a trumpet: or rather becaufe they Were raifed to great dignity, and invefted with an high and honourable office;
and indeed the higheft office in the church, under the Old Teftament, unlefs that of priefts, and particularly of the high-prieft, can be thought to be above it, and fo under the New Teftament, prophets are fet in the fecond place in the church, next to the apoftles,’ 1 Cor. xii. 28. pb. iv. 11. This word alfo in the fame language fignifies to fhew, declare, publifh, and proclaim any thing; or deliver a meffage *, which was one part of the bufinefs of the prophets, not only to predic& things future, but to declare the will of God, whether it refpected things prefent, or to come; their work ‘Jay very much in fhewing the people, to whom they weré fent, their fins and tranfgreffions 5 to con- iV PUR Rage 9G ee vince them of them; to reprove them for them; to call them to repentance and reformation;. or otherwife to tell them they would iffue in their ruin; and much of this kind may be obferved in the writings of the prophets we are about to explain; and with this fenfe of the word agrees Farchi’s derivation of the word-for prophet; which, whether juft, or no, I will not fay. He derives it from 3%, ‘which fignifies to bud, to bring forth fruit; and metaphorically to fpeak, or utter any thing, as in Prov. x. 13. the mouth of the jut 39 bringeth forth, or uttercth wifdom;, hence fpeech is called mrnoy 3°) the fruit of the lips, If. \vii. 19. and fo, atcording to him, a prophet is a man that proclaims and caufes people to hear the words of reproof; and who, in common fpeech, is called prediger*, or a preacher. So Pifcator ' takes the word to be a-kin to ya), and to have much the fame meaning; which fignifies to pour, or throw out, as water out of a fountain; “and fo defi igns fuch perfons, who, with great force and energy, and in great plenty, pour out in their miniftry things fecret _ and divine, revealed unto them, which appertain to the glory of God, and the good of his church. The prophets were faithful publifhers of the mind and will of God, made known unto them; they were, as Kimchi calls them, an eccho to the voice. of God}, they faid nothing, but what they heard and received from God, and that they fully and freely declared to the people:s; they were interpreters of the word of God, and taught the people both dogtrine and duty.’.. Thus the Lord faid to Mojfes, Exod. vii. 1. Aaron thy brother foall be thy prophet. The Targum of Oxkelos renders it; s2o¢IND yy? foall be thine interpreter; his {pokefman, inftead of a mouth to him; rehearfe what he faid, and explain it when not fo well underftood; Aaron being one that could: fpeak. well, plainly, and clearly’; when Mofes had fome difficulty in his. fpeech; rs ch. iv. 10, 14, 16. and prophets in Fer xxix. 1. are explained, in the Targum of Fonathan, by yD9%9 doctors or teachers; and by fcribes, in-x Sam: x. ro. all which agrees with the meaning of the words prophets and prophefying, as they are ufed in the New Teftament; where they. fignify fuch as had gifts for the public miniftry of the word, for the preaching of the gofpel, and exercifed them, 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 4, 5, 6, 225 24,295 31, 32. for, as the apoftle fays, ¥. 3. be that prophefieth [peaketh unto men, to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, yea praying and praifing are called prophefying, 1 Cor. xi. 4. agreeable to the ufe of the word in the Old Teftament. So the Lord faid to Abimelech concerning yh ae, he is a prophet, and he foall pray for thee, Gen. xx. 7. prayer for others being one part of a prophet’s work, which the prophet Yeremiab was fometimes forbid to do; fee Yer. vii. 16. and xi. 14. and xiy. 11. and alfo the fons of d/aph, and.
others, are faid to prophefy with the harp, to give thanks and to praife the Lord, 1 Chron: xxy. 2, 2, 3. and the company of the prophets prophefying in 1 Sam. xix. 20. are by the Targum interpreted, @ company of fcribes praifing, and it was no uncommon thing with perfons of this character to ufe in- ° ftruments of mufic,; and which have been thought to have been of feryice, to difpofe their minds for the prophetic influence; fee Exod. xv. 20. 1 Sam. x. 5, 6. but, after all, the word is frequently ufed of foretelling things to come, or however of declaring things, whether paft, prefent, or to come, which were fo fecret, as could never be known nor publifhed without a divine revelations an from hence it is, that perfons fo extraordinarily gifted, are called prophets; and fuch were thofe whofe writings are under our prefent confideration; for it is eafy to obferve, that befides ordinary inftru@tions and teachings, whether with refpect to do¢trine or practice, there are in them all, predictions of future events, which have had, for the moft part, their certain accomplifhment already; and which is a proof of their being the true prophets of the Lord.
THE firft time we meet with the word prophet in ISTE is in Gen. xx. 7. where Abraham is - called a prophet, as before obferved. The learned Wit/us * thinks, by it is meant no more than his being a friend of God, as he is elfewhere called, J/ xli. 8. Fam. ii. 23. one that was familiar with him; a favourite of his, whom he would not fuffer to be wronged; and to which the Pfalmijt feems to allude, when fpeaking of his pofterity in ftrange kingdoms, who were alfo much in the favour and friendfhip of God, fays, that he reproved kings for their fakes; /aying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm, Pf. cv. 1g. but, tho” this was true of Abraham and his feed, as it is of all other true prophets of the Lord, whom he ufes as his intimate friends, and therefore difclofes his fecrets to them, as he did to 4draham, Gen. xviii. 17. for the Lord does nothing, but he reveals his fecrets to his fervants the prophets, mos iii. 7, yet he might be called a prophet from his knowledge of future © events, revealed to him by the Lord, which he no doubt fpoke of to others; as of the deftruétion of
Sodom and Gomorrha, of the-Meftiah fpringing from his feed, whofe day he is faid to have feen, and rejoiced at; and of his offspring fuffering affi@tion in a land not theirs; and of their continuance there, and their deliverance from thence at a certain time; all which had their exaét accomplifhment; -, fee.;
fee Gen. xviii. 22, 23. and xxii. 18. and xv. 13, 14, 16, but tho’ the word prophet is riot éxprefsly uted of any before Abraham, yet it is a clear cafe there were prophets before his time. Noah was a prophet; for he was warned of God of things not feen as yet, as the author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews fays, ch. xi. 7. and by deeds, in preparing the ark, as well as by words, being a preacher of righteoufnefs, foretold the deftruction of the world, by a flood; likewife the curfé that fhould come on his grandfon Canaan, and his pofterity; the enlargement of aphet and his offspring, and their dwelling in the tents of Shem, Gen. ix. 25,26, 27. and Lamech his father prophefied of him, that he fhould comfort them, concerning their work, and the toil of their hands, Gen. v. 2g. and Enoch the feventh from Adam, prophefied of the mockers and {coffers in the laft days; and of the general judgment, as Fude exprefsly fays, ¥. 14, 15. yea Adam the firft man was a prophet; who, upon £ve’s being brought unto him, not only knew her, and for what end fhe was prefented to him; but foretold that for the futuré a man would leave bis father and mother, and cleave to bis wife, and they fhould become one flefh, Gen. ii. 24. a prophecy that has been always fulfilling ever fince; and after the times of érabam, quite down to thofe, whofe books of prophecies are extant, and before us, there were many prophets. ‘/acod on his death-bed foretold what would befal the feveral tribes in future times, and even in the laft days. Mo/es was the chief of all the prophets; the Yews give high encomiums of him as fuch; and indeed it is exprefsly faid of him, that there arofe not fince fuch a prophet in J/rae/, with whom God fpake face to face; and to whom the Meffiah, the great prophet of all, was to be like, Deut. xxxiv. 10, and xviii. 15. in whofe time the feventy elders, and E/ded and Medad prophefied, Numb. xi. 25,26. Fob, tho not of the J/raeliti/h nation, yet had a fpirit of prophecy, and foretold the appearance of Chrift on earth, and the refurreétion of the dead, ch. xix. 25, 26,27. Samuel is placed at the head of the prophets that followed him, és ili. 24. and David is exprefsly called a prophet, és ii. 30. in whofe days alfo Nathan the prophet lived, 2 Sam. vii. 2. and after his times there were Abijabh “the Shilonite, Elijab and Elifba, and many in their days, of whom we fhall take notice hereafter; but thefe delivered their prophecies by word of mouth; there are no prophetic writings of theirs extant, only of thofe fixteen before-mentioned; and who are eminently called the propets, and are always meant in the New Teftament, when the prophets are appealed unto; or any thing quoted from them; or any thing faid to be fulfilled that was written in them.
N OW prophecy, from whence thefe men are chiefly denominated prophets, is, by the celebrated Witfius’, traly defined, “* a knowledge and manifeftation of fecret things, which a man knows, not “* from his own fagacity, nor from the relation of others, but by an extraordinary revelation of God “© from heaven.” It is called knowledge, with refpect to the prophet himfelf; and a manifeftation or difcovery, with refpect to others, to whom it is made known. The things it is concerned with are fecrets, whether they are things paft, or prefent, or to come ™; for a man may be denominated a prophet, from his knowlédge and difcovery of the one, as of the other; when they are fuch things as his own fagacity, and that of others, could never fuggeft to him; or he’ could never attain to by any means, bue-by a revelation from God himfelf: it was in this way that Mo/es became acquainted with the creation of the world, and the order of it; the fall of our firft parents, and the means of it; the univerfal deluge, and the repeopling of the world, with other things that were paft; which no man could have given that regular and orderly account of from himfelf, or the relation of others, had not God made it known unto him. Daniel fhewed himfelf a prophet, by telling Nebuchadnezzar his dream, that was paft; as well as by the interpretation of it; fhewing what would be the fate of the four monarchies: and the woman of Samaria perceived that Chrift was a prophet, by his being able to give an account of her paft life and behaviour. It was by a prophetic fpirit that Eija_ knew that Gebazi his fervant took gifts of Naaman the Syrian; fo that things paft and prefent are the. fubject of prophecy, as well as things to come; and thofe that are future, are fuch as are not to be known by any fettled laws and courfe of nature; fuch as the revolutions of day and night; of fummer and winter; the ebbing and flowing of the tide; the eclipfes of the luminaries, and the return of comets at certain pericds; the knowledge and difcovery of thefe is not prophecy; but it is the knowledge and difcovery of things in themfelves, and with refpeét to fecond caufes, which are contingent and free; as the birth of perfons; the names they fhall be called by; and the actions they fhall perform; fuch as thefe have been declared in prophecy, and have exactly come to pafs, as in the inftances of ‘fefiah, Cyrus, and others.
x ——Novit namque omnia vates