we find that Saul, being troubled with an evil fpirit, was refreshed by David's playing on a harp before him. Therefore, when the prophet Elifha was moved with anger against wicked Jehoram, king of Ifrael, yet being willing to affift and direct Jehoshaphat, the good king of Judah, he called for a minstrel, or musician, to recover himself out of the diforder into which Jehoram's prefence had put him, and to render his mind the more fedate and calm, and fo the more fit to be infpired with the fpirit of prophecy: And the effect was accordingly, for it came to pass when the minstrel played, that the hand, or spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he prophefied rain and a victory. It seems alfo that prophesying itself, is used for finging praifes to God in fome extraor dinary manner; which may be understood of the meffengers of Saul, and of Saul alfo himself '.

Remark VII. The prophets not only prophe fied by word or writing, but alfo by fymbolical actions or figns, or myfterious reprefentations, according to the cuftom of the eastern people, who were wont to exprefs themfelves by figns and actions, as well as words ", to ftrike the more forcibly on the imagination. Thus Ifaiah's going without his ufual habit, was a fign of fpoiling the Egyptians and Ethiopians ". And Jeremiah's getting an earthen bottle, and breaking it, was a fign of the people's being broken and ruined. And the bonds and yokes about his neck were figns of the neighbouring kingdoms being fubdued by Nebuchadnezzar P. And Ezekiel's reprefen

tation of a fiege, and his miraculous lying on his fide a long time, is faid to be a fign to the house of Ifrael 9. It is obferved further, that several things which were fet down as matters of fact in the prophets, might not be actually done; but either inwardly fet before the prophets in a prophetical vifion by the fpirit, as fome are of opinion, both Jews and Chriftians; or reprefented by the prophets in a parable, to make the greater impreffion on the hearers; as Ezekiel's being commanded to fet on a pot, and to make it boil, &c. which is exprefly called a parable. Both which conftructions feem favoured in Hofea ", I have alfa fpoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied vifions, (or forms deeply impreffed on the imagination,) and used fimilitudes (or parables) by the miniStry of the prophets. And thus we may interpret other places, as Jeremiah's girdle being commanded to be long hid in a hole of a rock by Euphrates, (too long a journey to be actually gone by the prophet) reprefented, that the Jewith nation fhould be like that girdle, fpoiled and utterly ruined. So alfo Hofea's marrying an adultrefs to make the people fenfible of their fpiritual fornication, and going, as it were a whoring after ftrange gods: Not as if either Jeremiah or Hofea really outwardly acted in fuch manner, but that either fuch action was fet before the prophets in a vifion; or that they reprefented it to the hearers in a parable; as it was common to do among the Tt 2 eaftern

V

W

* Mai

Chap. iv. 3, &c. See Ezek. xii. 18, 19. and chap. xxi. 6, 7. 2 Kings xiii. 15-20. Acts xxi. 11. mon. Mor. par. ii. chap 6. page 332. & Hieronym. prooemium in Hofea. See the eleventh remark on the gofpels,

Chap. xxiv. 3.

" Chap. xii.

w Hofca. i.

eaftern people, and the Jews efpecially, and whereby matters were wont to be fet down, as in an hiftory of things done, even with the circumstances of names and places, as in the parable of Aholah, and Aholibah, and in Chrift's parable of Dives and Lazarus ".

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Remark VIII. The prophets often mention things to come, as if prefent or paft, because they were forefeen and pre-ordained of God, and as certain as if actually prefent; as Pfal. xxii. in which the paffion and crucifixion of Chrift is fet forth, as if then actually prefent, or paft long before: So the birth of Chrift ", and his fufferings and death ". Frequent examples of this occur in the prophets. And not only did the prophets foretel many things which were really then to come, and in a manner as if they had been already past, (by reason of the certainty of them, as fore-ordained by God;) but becaufe being exhibited, or fet before the prophets, by God in a vifionary dream, and often with divers circumftances, before their revealing them to men, fuch things were in fome regard to the prophets, as things already past ".

Remark IX. When the prophets are speaking. of other matters, they are on a fudden, as it were in an extafy, carried on from their first fubject to prophefy of Christ the Meffiah: Thus David, being transported with an extraordinary joy °, celebrated the glory and profperity of his fon Solomon, which he carried on in fo high a ftrain, that the words had not a full accomplishment in Solo

* Ezek. xxiii. in Hofea i. 2.

y Luke xvi.

* Ifa. ix. 6.

mon,

See at large Dr. Pocock 2 Chap. liii. b Vid Glaff.

a

Philolog. Sacr. lib. i. tract. 4. de Stylo prophetico, canon. 4.

Pfalm lxxii.

1

h

k

mon, or any other, but Chrift the Meffiah d. In like manner, as he celebrated his own establishment, he utters the famous prophecies of Chrift's glorious kingdom f. So alfo Ifaiah is preaching to the Jews concerning their fin and punishment; and then prefently he turns to the coming and spiritual kingdom of Christ. So alfo when he was speaking of the fiege of Jerufalem, and God's deliverance from it, presently he prophefies that Chrift should be born of a virgin. So in Jeremiah there is a prophecy of the difperfion of the Jews, and their return; and then " of the coming of the Meffiah of the feed of David. These tranfitions are frequent in the prophets. However, they do not argue, that their prophecies were not understood by themselves: This our Lord confuted, by faying, that many prophets had defired to fee and hear thofe things which the Jews in his time did hear and fee: But they could not defire what they were utterly ignorant of. But thus much we learn from this manner of the prophets, viz. that the foretelling the Meffiah was the great defign of them.

Remark X. It is evident, that the ancient idolaters did not fet up their images as final objects of their worship, or as being gods in themselves ", but as places of divine refidence, wherein the Genii, or spirits of the gods, were faid to dwell, and afford their special prefence, or as reprefentatives of their gods, however the most ignorant and fottifh of the people might otherwise conceive:

But

f Verse 7, 82 i Chap. vii. 1, &c.

m Ver. 5.

Num. 7.

n See

But then it may be objected, that the prophets feem to upbraid the idolatrous Jews and Gentiles, in general, as worshippers of the very images and ftatues themfelves, without further reference to any god or fpirit that might influence them. They mocked them as worshippers of idols which had eyes and faw not, which their own hands had made and formed, and which could neither in themfelves, nor from any fupreme caufe, have or dispense any virtue or affiftance. One would be apt to conclude, from fuch fcoffs of the prophets, that the idolaters made the very images themselves their ultimate or real gods. To this it may be answered, that however the idolaters conceived through rafh nefs, in believing whatever the idol priests, or others, might fuggeft to them, concerning the vir tues and powers pretended to be in idols; yet if they would fhew themfelves men, if they would not have fuffered their fancies to impofe upon their understandings, but have confidered in their heart, or would have examined matters of fact with dili gence and impartiality, they might have known that their images had no fuch divine virtue in them, but were, as they appeared to be, fenfeless matter, wood and ftone; So that for want of examination, they did by interpretations make gold, filver, and ftone their gods; and therefore the prophets might justly upbraid them for fo doing ".

Remark XI. The prophets defcribe the Jewish people by feveral particular names, by reafon of the diviñon of their kingdom, after the reign of Solomon. Thus the ten tribes being diftinct from the other two, and under a different king, to the time

• See Ifa. xliv. 9, &c. chap xlvi. 5—9. Tenifon on Idolatry, chap. v. par. 8.

P Archbishop