which the prophet himself bears a part; and therefore he, according to the exigency of this dramatical apparatus, muft, as the other actors, perform his part, fometimes by fpeaking and reciting things done, propounding queftions, fometimes by acting that part which in the drama he was appointed to act by fome others; and fo not. only by fpeaking, but by geftures and actions come in his due place among the reft; as it is in our ordinary dreams, to ufe Maimonides's expreffion of it. And therefore it is no wonder to hear of those things done, which indeed have no historical or real verity; the fcope of all being to represent something strongly to the prophet's understanding, and fufficiently to inform it in the fubftance of those things which he was to inftruct that people in to whom he was fent. And fo fometimes we have only the intelligi ble matter of prophecies delivered to us nakedly without the imaginary ceremonies or folemnities. And as this notion of those actions of the prophet that are interweaved with their prophecies is moft genuine and agreeable to the general nature of prophecy, fo we fhall further clear and confirm it in fome particulars.

We fhall begin with that of Hofea's marrying of Gomer a common harlot, and taking to himfelf children of whoredoms, which he is faid to do a first and fecond time, chap. i. and chap. iii, which kind of action, however it might be void of true vice, yet it would not have been void of all offence, for a prophet to have thus unequally yoaked himfelf (to ufe St. Paul's expreffion) with any fuch infamous perfons, though by way of lawful wedlock, if it had been done really. I know that this way of interpreting both this and other prophetical actions difpleaseth Abarbanel, who thinks the literal fenfe and hiftorical verity of all ought to be entertained, except it be plus, expreffed to have been done in a vifion; and the general current of our Chriftian writers till Calvin's time have gone the fame way. And to make the literal interpretation here good, R. Solomon and our former Author both tell us, that the ancient Rabbins have determined thofe prophetical narrations of Hofea to be understood rowna literally. The place they refer to is Gem. Pefac. cap. 8. where yet I find no fuch thing pofitively concluded by the Talmudifts. Indeed they there, after their fafhion, expound the place, by inferting a long dialogue between God and the prophet about this matter, but fo as that without R. Sol, or Abarbanel's glofs we could no more think their fcope was to establish the literal fenfe, than I think that the prophet himself intended to infinuate the fame to us. We fhall therefore chufe to follow Abenezra as a more genuine commentator, who in this place and others of the like nature follows Maimonides xalà és, making all thofe tranfactions to have been only imaginary. For though it be not always pofitively laid down in thefe narrations, that the "res gefta" was in a vifion; yet the nature and scope of prophecy fo requiring that things fhould thus be acted in imagination, we fhould rather expect fome pofitive declaration to affure us that they were performed in the hiftory, if indeed it were fo.

And

And therefore in thefe recitals of prophetical vifions we find many times things les coherent than can agree to a true history, as in the narrative of Abraham's vifion, Gen. xv. (for fo the Rabbins in Pirke R. Eliezer expound that whole chapter to be nothing elfe) we find ver. 1. that God appeared to Abraham in a vifion, and ver. 5. God brings him into the field as if it were after the fhutting up of evening, and shews him the ftars of heaven; and yet for all this, ver. 12. it was yet day-time, and the fun not gone down; "And when the fun was going down, a deep fleep fell upon "Abraham;" and ver. 17. "And it came to pafs that when the « fun went down and it was dark, behold a fmoaking furnace, and "a burning lamp that paffed between thofe pieces." From whence it is manifeft that Abraham's going out in the field before to take a view of the ftars of heaven, and hidering of thofe feveral living creatures, ver. 9, 10. for a f ice, was all performed in a prophetical viion, and upon th e of his imagination: it being no ftrange thing to have. erent junctures of time made in such

a way.

So Jeremy xii. we have there a very precife narrative of Jeremiah's getting a linen girdle, and putting it upon his loins; and after a while he must needs take a long journey to Euphrates, to hide it there in a hole of the rock; and then returning, after many days, makes another weary journey to the fame place, to take it out again after it was all corrupted: all which could manifeftly be nothing else but merely imaginary; the fcope thereof being to imprint this more deeply upon the understanding of the prophet, that the houfe of Judah and Ifrael, which was nearly knit and united to God, fhould be deftroyed and ruined.

The fame prophet, ch. xviii. is brought in, going to the house of a potter, to take notice how he wrought a piece of work upon the wheel; and when the veffel he intended was all marred, that then he made of his clay another veffel. And ch. xix. he is brought in as taking the ancients of the people and the ancients of the priests along with him into the valley of the fon of Hinnom, with a potter's earthen bottle under his arm, and there breaking it in pieces in the midst of them.

In this laft chapter it is very obfervable how the fcheme of speech is altered, when the prophet relates a real hiftory concerning himfelf, ver. 14. fpeaking of himself in the third perfon, as if now he were to speak of fomebody elfe, and not of a prophet or his actions; for fo we read, ver. 14. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, &c." The like change of the perfon we find ch. xxviii. ver. 10. where a formal ftory is told of fome things that paffed between Jeremiah and Hananiah the falfe prophet, who, in the prefence of all the people, broke Jeremiah's yoke from off his neck: for it seems to have been a wonted thing for the prophets by bonds and yokes to type out unto the people victory or captivity in war. Not unlike is that we read of Zedekiah the falfe prophet, 1 Kings xxii, who made himfelf horns of iron, when he prophefied to Ahab his prof

4

perity

perity against the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead, vulgarly to represent to him the fuccefs he fhould have against his enemies. But, in all this bufinefs, the mode of Jeremiah's language infinuates a literal sense, by speaking altogether in the third perfon, as if the relation concerned fomebody elfe, and not himself; and fo must be of fome real thing, and that which to fenfe and obfervation had its reality, and not only a reality in apprehenfion or imagination. So ch. xxxii. we seem to have an infinuation of a real hiftory in Jeremiah's purchase of a field of Hanameel his uncle's fon, from the mode of expreffion which is there obfervable.

But other times we meet with things graphically defcribed with all the circumftantial pomp of the bufinefs, when yet it could be nothing else but a dramatical thing; as ch. xxxv. where the prophet goes and finds out the chief of the Rechabites particularly defcribed, and brings them into fuch a particular chamber as is there fet forth by all its bounds, and there fets pots and cups full of wine before them, and bids them drink wine. Juft in the fame mode with this we have another story told, ch. xxv. 15. and 17, &c. of his taking a wine-cup from God, and his carrying it up and down to all nations far and near, Jerufalem and the cities of Judah, and the kings and princes thereof; to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his fervants, princes, people; to all the Arabians, and kings of the land of Uz; to the kings of the land of the Philiftines, Edom, Moab, Ammon; the Kings of Tyre and Sidon, and of the ifles beyond the fea, Dedan, Tema, Buz; the kings of Zimri, of the Medes and Perfians, and all the kings of the North: and all thefe, he faid, he made to drink of this cup. And in this fashion, ch. xxvii. he is fent up and down with yokes, to put upon the necks of feveral kings: all which can have no other fenfe than that which is merely imaginary, though we be not told that all this was acted only in a vilion, for the nature of the thing would not permit any real performance thereof.

The like we may fay of Ezekiel's " res gefta," his eating a roll given him of God, ch. iii. and ch. iv. It is efpecially remarkable how ceremoniously all things are related concerning his taking a tile, and pourtraying the city of Jerufalem upon it, his laying fiege to it; all which I fuppofe will be evident to have been merely dramatical, if we carefully examine all things in it, notwithstanding that God tells him he fhould in all this be a fign to the people, Which is not fo to be understood, as if they were to obferve in fuch real actions in a fenfible way what their own fates should be; he is here commanded to lie continually before a tile 390 days, which is full 13 months, upon his left fide, and after that 40 more upon his right, and to bake his bread that he fhould eat all this while with dung, &c.

for

So ch. v. he is commanded to take a barber's razor, and to fhave his head and beard, then to weigh his hair in a pair of fcales, and divide it into three parts; and after the days of his fiege fhould be fulfilled, fpoken of before, then to burn a third part of it in the

midst of the city, and to fmite about the other third with a knife, and to scatter the other third to the wind. All which as it is moft unlikely in itself ever to have been really done, fo was it against the law of the priests to fhave the corners of their heads and the corners of their beards, as Maimonides obferves. But that Ezekiel himfelf was a priest, is manifeft from ch. i. ver. 3. Upon these paffages of Ezekiel, Maimonides hath thus foberly given his judgement, "More Nevochim," Par. II. c. 46. " Abfit ut Deus pro"phetas fuos ftultis vel ebriis fimiles reddat, eofque ftultorum aut "furioforum actiones facere jubeat: præterquam quòd præceptum

illud ultimum legi repugnaffet, &c. Far be it from God to render "his prophets like to fools and drunken men, and to prescribe "them the actions of fools and mad men; befides that this laft "injunction would have been inconfiftent with the law; for Eze"kiel was a great prieft, and therefore obliged to the observation "of these two negative precepts, viz. of not having the corners "of his head and corners of his beard; and therefore this was "done only in a prophetical vifion." The fame fentence likewife he paffeth upon that ftory of Efaiah, ch. xx. 3. his walking naked and bare-foot, wherein Efaiah was no otherwife a fign to Egypt and Ethiopia, or rather Arabia, where he dwelt not, and fo could not more literally be a type therein, than Ezekiel was here to the Jews.

Again, ch. xii. we read of Ezekiel's removing his houshold-stuff in the night, as a type of the captivity, and of his digging with his hands through the wall of his houfe, and of the people's coming to take notice of this ftrange action, with many other uncouth ceremonies of the whole bufinefs, which carry no fhew of probability; and yet, ver. 6. God declares upon this to him, "I have fet thee "for a fign to the house of Ifrael;" and ver. 9. "Son of man,

hath not the house of Ifrael, the rebellious houfe, faid unto thee, "what doeft thou?" As if all this had been done really; which indeed seems to be nothing else but a prophetical scheme. Neither was the prophet any real fign, but only imaginary, as having the type of all thofe fates fymbolically reprefented in his phancy which were to befall the Jews; which fenfe Kimchi, a genuine commen tator, follows, with the others mentioned. And, it may be, accord ing to this fame notion is that in ch, xxiv, to be understood of the death of the prophet's wife, with the manner of thofe funeral folemnities and obfequies which he performed for her,

But we shall proceed no further in this argument, which I hope is by this time fufficiently cleared, that we are not in any prophetical narratives of this kind to understand any thing else but the hiftory of the vifions themfelves which appeared to them, except we be led, by fome farther argument of the reality of the thing in a way of fenfible appearance, to determine it to have been any fenfible thing.

СНАР,

CHAP. VII.

Of that degree of divine infpiration properly called Ruach hakkodesh, i. e. The Holy Spirit. The nature of it defcribed out of Jewish antiquities. Wherein this Spiritus Sanctus differed from prophecy firictly fo called, and from the fpirit of holiness in purified fouls. What books of the Old Teftament were afcribed by the Jews to Ruach hakkodefh. Of the Urim and Thummim.

THUS we have done with that part of divine infpiration which was more technically and properly by the Jews called Prophecy. We fhall now a little fearch into that which is hagiographical, or, as they call it, "The dictate of the Holy Spirit," in which the book of Pfalms, Job, the works of Solomon and others, are comprifed. This we find very appofitely thus defined by Maimonides, More Nevochim, Par. II. c. 45. "Cùm homo in fe fentit rem vel "facultatem quampiam exoriri, & fuper fe quiefcere, quæ eum << impellit ad loquendum, &c. When a man perceives fome power "to arife within him, and reft upon him, which urgeth him to "fpeak, fo that he difcourfe concerning the fciences or arts, and "utter pfalms or hymns, or profitable and wholefome rules of "good living, or matters political and civil, or fuch as are divine; "and that, whilft he is waking, and hath the ordinary vigour and "ufe of his fenfes, this is fuch a one of whom it is faid, that he "fpeaks by the Holy Spirit." In this definition we may seem to have the ftrain of the book of Pfalms, Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes fully decyphered to us. In like manner we find this degree of infpiration defcribed by R. Albo. Maam. III. c. 10. after he had set down

ཏཱ

פתה לאיש טה טעד אחד שלא ושעד ,the other degrees fuperior to it

בו האדם מער טבעו יירבר ברברי מחמה ובו

"Now to explain to

you what is that other door of divine influx, through which none can enter by his own natural ability; it is when a man utters "words of wildom, or fong, or divine praife, in pure and elegant "language, befides his wont; fo that every one that knows him "admires him for this excellent knowledge and compofure of "words; but yet he himfelf knows not from whence this faculty CC came to him, but is as a child that learns a tongue, and knows "not from whence he had this faculty. Now the excellence of this "degree of divine infpiration is well known to all, for it is the "fame with that which is called the Holy Spirit." Or, if you pleafe, we fhall render thefe definitions of our former Jewish doctors in the words of Proclus, who hath very happily set forth the nature of this piece of divine inspiration, according to their mind, in these words, lib. V. in « Plat. Tim.” Ὁ δὲ χαρακτὴς ἐνθεσιαςικὸς, δια · λάμπων ταῖς νοεραῖς ἐπιβολαῖς, καθαρός τι καὶ ξεμνός, ὡς ἀπὸ παρὸς τελειές μεν 3ο τῶν Θεῶν, ἐξηλλαγμένα τε καὶ ὑπερέχων τῶν ανθρωπίνων ἐντοιῶν ἀδρος δὲ ὑμῶν καὶ καταπληκτικός, και χαρίτων ανάμεσος, κάλλος το πλήρης, વા

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