But that which by many has beep supposed to be the distinctive character of prophecy, and the special function of the prophets, remains to be noticed. According to the general view of theologians iu modern times, prophecy is peculiarly predictive, and the essential characteristic of the prophet is supposed to be the power of foretelling future events. This view is not warranted, we have seen, either by the etymology of the word, or a comprehensive survey of the facts; but it is, nevertheless, undeniable that the Hebrew prophets directed their attention especially to the future, and "made predic tions concerning the fortunes of their own and other countries which were unquestion ably fulfilled." "There can he no reasonable doubt, for example," writes one of the most liberal of modern theologians, " that Amos foretold the captivity and return of Israel, and Micah the fall of Samaria, and Ezekiel the fall of Jerusalem, and Isaiah the fall of Tyre, and Jeremiah the limits of the captivity. It was the distinguishing mark of the Jewish people," adds the same writer, " that their golden age was not in the past, but in the future; that their greatest hero (as they deemed him to be) was not their founder, but their founder's latest descendant. Their traditions, their fancies, their glories, gathered round the bead, not of a chief, or warrior, or sage that had been, but of a king, a deliverer, a prophet, who was to come. Of this singular expectation, the prophets were, if not the chief authors, at least the chief exponents."* The reality of a succession of Messianic predictions is admitted by even very advanced theologians; and the more usual opinion, it is well known, regards these predictions from the time of Moses to the time of Malachi as admitting of no question, from the supposed clearness, fullness, and particularity with which they announce a deliverer, and describe his func tions. "That salvation should come through the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David; that at the time of the final absorption of Jewish power, Shiloh (the tranquilizer) should gather the nations under his rule; that there should be a great prophet typified by Moses, a king descended from David, a priest forever typified by Melchizedek; that there should be born into the world a child, to be called Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace; that there should be a righteous servant of God on whom the Lord should lay the iniquity of us all; that Messiah, the Prince, should be cut off, but not for himself; that an everlasting kingdom should be given by the Ancient of Days to one like the Son of Man. It seems impossible to harmonize so many apparent contradictions. Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact, that at the time seemingly pointed out by one or more of these predictions, thero was horn into the world a child of the house of David, and therefore of the family of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, who claimed to be the object of these and other predictions; who is acknowledged as Prophet, Priest, and King, as Mighty God, and yet as God's righteous servant, who bears the iniquity of all; who was cut off, and whose death is acknowledged not to have been for his own, but for others' good; who has instituted a spiritual kingdom on earth, which kingdom is of a nature to continue forever, and in whose doings and sufferings on earth a number of specific predictions were fulfilled. Then we may say that we have
here a series of prophecies which are so applicable to the person and earthly life of Jesus Christ, as to be thereby shown to have been designed to apply to him; and if they were designed to apply to him, prophetical prediction is proved. —Smith's Dictionary of Bible, art. Prophecy.
Such is the common view of prophecy. It has, indeed, been maintained by certain writers that literal prediction has no place in prophecy; that Isaiah did not foretell the Babylonian captivity, or the fall of Tyre, nor Jeremiah the seventy years' captivity, nor Nahum the ruin of Nineveh; and that the Messianic prophecies were merely "ardent hopes and poetical descriptions" of a glorious future, into which the prophetic mind naturally projected itself. Such delineations were "in essence nothing but forebodings -efforts of the spiritual eye to bring up before itself the distinct form of the future: to make such presentiments into historical declarations is to mistake their character."- Davidson's Introduction, vol. iv. But this is not the ordinary theory of prophecy, either among Jews or Christians. Both alike recognize the reality of the predictive element, however differently they may interpret and apply the prediction. They contend not only for a special spiritual elevation in the prophet—an intenser degree of the same divine intuition which God gives to all who worship him in love and reverence—but for a gift of light vouchsafed to him different from any ordinary endowment. Prophecy is not merely the effluence of the divine Spirit enriching and exalting all the natural facul ties, but it is the direct communication of God himself, to the prophet unveiling the future for the guidance of his church, and the glory of Ins name.
The further study of the subject may lie pursued by readers in numerous volumes,. among which the following may be recommended: John Smith, Select Discourses on Prophecy; Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebtworum; Davison, Discourses on Prophecy; Butler, Analogy of Religion; Horne, Introduction to holy Scripture; Elehhorn, Die Hebriiiscken Propheten; Ewald. Die Propheten des Alto?. Bundes; Hengstenberg, Chthtology of the Old Testament; Fairbairn, Prophecy; Davidson, introduction to the Old Testament; Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church.