PROPHECY. The principal considerations involved in this important subject may be ar ranged under the following heads :— I. The nature of Prophecy, tend its position in the economy of the 0. T.—The view commonly taken of the prophets is, that they were mere predictors of future events ; but this view is one sided and too narrow, though, on the other hand, we must beware of expanding too much the accep tation of the term prophet. Not to mention those who, like Hendewerk, in me introduction to his Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah, identify the notion of a prophet with that of an honest and pious man, the conception of those is likewise too wide who place the essential feature of a prophet in his divine inspiration. That this does not meet the whole subject, appears from Num. xii. 6, sty., where Moses, who enjoyed divine inspiration in its highest grade, is represented as differing from those called prophets in a stricter sense, and as standing in contrast with them. Divine inspiration is only the general basis of the prophetic office, to which two more elements must be added : I. Inspiration was imparted to the prophets in a peculiar form. This appears decisively from the passage in Numbers above cited, which states it as characteristic of the prophet, that he obtained divine inspiration in visions and dreams, conse quently in a state extraordinary and distinguished from the general one. This mode was different from that in which inspirations were conveyed to Moses and the apostles. The same thing is shown by the names usually given to the prophets, viz., cm, and r;411-1, seers, and from this that all prophecies which have come down to us have a poetical character, which points to an intimate affinity between prophecy and poetry ; a subject further illustrated by Steinberk, in his work, Der Dichter, ein Seher, Leipzig 1836 ; though the materials which he gives are not sufficiently digested. The prophetical style differs from that of books pro perly called poetical, whose sublimity it all but outvies, only in being less restrained by those ex ternal forms which distinguish poetical language from prose, and in introducing more frequently than prose does plays upon words and thoughts. This peculiarity may be explained by the practical tendency of prophetical addresses, which avoid all that is unintelligible, and studiously introduce what is best calculated for the moment to strike the hearers. The same appears from many other circumstances, ex. gr., the union of music with prophesying, the demeanour of Saul when among the prophets (t Sam. x. 5), Balsam's description of himself (Num. xxiv. 3) as a man whose eyes
were opened, who saw the vision of the Almighty, and heard the words of God, the established phrase ology to denote the inspiring impulse, viz., ' the hand of the Lord was strong upon him' (Ezek. 14 : comp. Is. viii. r1 ; 2 Kings iii. 15), etc. All these facts prove that there essentially belonged to prophecy a state of mind worked up—a state of being beside One's self—an ecstatic transport, in which ideas were immediately imparted fwm heaven. Acute remarks on the subject will he found in the works of Novalis (vol. H. p. 472, sty. ), from which we give the following passage : It is a most arbitrary prejudice to suppose that to man is denied the power of going out of himself, of being endued with a consciousness beyond the sphere of sense : he may at any moment be a supersensuous being (ein tibersinnliches Wesen seyn), else he would be a mere brute, not a rational free man of the universe. There are, indeed, degrees in the aptitude for revelations ; one is more quali fied for them than another, and certain dispositions are particularly capable of receiving such reve lations ; besides, on account of the pressure of sensible objects on the mind, it is in this state difficult to preserve self-possession. Nevertheless there are such states of mind, in which its powers are strengthened, and, so to speak, armed.' The state of ecstasy, though ranking high above the ordinary sensual existence, is still not the highest, as appears from Num. xii., and the example of Christ, whom we never find in an ecstatical state. To the prophets, however, it was indispensable, on account of the frailty of themselves and the people. The forcible working upon them by the Spirit of God, would not have been required if their general life had already been altogether holy ; for which reason we also find ecstasy to manifest itself the stronger the more the general life was ungodly ; as, for instance, in Balaam, when the spirit of God came upon him (Num. xxiv. 4, 16), and in Saul, who throws himself on the ground, tearing his clothes from his body. With a prophet whose spiritual attainments were those of an Isaiah, such results are not to be expected. As regards the people, their spiritual obtuseness must be sidered as very great, to have rendered necessary such vehement excitations as the addresses of the prophets caused. Thus it appears that prophecy has a predominant place in the 0. T. Under the N. T. it could take only a subordinate place ; although even then it could not be dispensed with,