The same prophets were nevertheless said to speak by the spirit;as where the prophet,speaking of the Jews,saith,"They made their hearts hard as adamant,lest they should hear the law,and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets."By which it is manifest that speaking by the spirit or inspiration was not a particular manner of God's speaking,different from vision,when they that were said to speak by the Spirit were extraordinary prophets,such as for every new message were to have a particular commission or,which is all one,a new dream or vision.
Of prophets that were so by a perpetual calling in the Old Testament,some were supreme and some subordinate:supreme were first Moses,and after him the high priests,every one for his time,as long the priesthood was royal;and after the people of the Jews had rejected God,that He should no more reign over them,those kings which submitted themselves to God's government were also his chief prophets;and the high priest's office became ministerial.And when God was to be consulted,they put on the holy vestments,and enquired of the Lord as the king commanded them,and were deprived of their office when the king thought fit.For King Saul commanded the burnt offering to be brought;and he commands the priest to bring the Ark near him;and,again,to let it alone,because he saw an advantage upon his enemies.And in the same chapter Saul asketh counsel of God.In like manner King David,after his being anointed,though before he had possession of the kingdom,is said to "enquire of the Lord"whether he should fight against the Philistines at Keilah;and David commandeth the priest to bring him the ephod,to enquire whether he should stay in Keilah or not.And King Solomon took the priesthood from Abiathar,and gave it to Zadok.Therefore Moses,and the high priests,and the pious kings,who enquired of God on all extraordinary occasions how they were to carry themselves,or what event they were to have,were all sovereign prophets.But in what manner God spake unto them is not manifest.To say that when Moses went up to God in Mount Sinai it was a dream,or vision,such as other prophets had,is contrary to that distinction which God made between Moses and other prophets.To say God spake or appeared as He is in His own nature is to deny His infiniteness,invisibility,incomprehensibility.
To say he spake by inspiration,or infusion of the Holy Spirit,as the Holy Spirit signifieth the Deity,is to make Moses equal with Christ,in whom only the Godhead,as St.Paul speaketh,dwelleth bodily.And lastly,to say he spake by the Holy Spirit,as it signifieth the graces or gifts of the Holy Spirit,is to attribute nothing to him supernatural.For God disposeth men to piety,justice,mercy,truth,faith,and all manner of virtue,both moral and intellectual,by doctrine,example,and by several occasions,natural and ordinary.
And as these ways cannot be applied to God,in His speaking to Moses at Mount Sinai;so also they cannot be applied to Him in His speaking to the high priests from the mercy-seat.Therefore in what manner God spake to those sovereign prophets of the Old Testament,whose office it was to enquire of Him,is not intelligible.In the time of the New Testament there was no sovereign prophet but our Saviour,who was both God that spake,and the prophet to whom He spake.
To subordinate prophets of perpetual calling,I find not any place that proveth God spake to them supernaturally,but only in such manner as naturally He inclineth men to piety,to belief,to righteousness,and to other virtues all other Christian men.Which way,though it consist in constitution,instruction,education,and the occasions and invitements men have to Christian virtues,yet it is truly attributed to the operation of the Spirit of God,or Holy Spirit,which we in our language call the Holy Ghost:for there is no good inclination that is not of the operation of God.But these operations are not always supernatural.When therefore a prophet is said to speak in the spirit,or by the Spirit of God,we are to understand no more but that he speaks according to God's will,declared by the supreme prophet.For the most common acceptation of the word spirit is in the signification of a man's intention,mind,or disposition.
In the time of Moses,there were seventy men besides himself that prophesied in the camp of the Israelites.In what manner God spake to them is declared in the eleventh Chapter of Numbers,verse 25:"The Lord came down in a cloud,and spake unto Moses,and took of the spirit that was upon him,and gave it to the seventy elders.And it came to pass,when the spirit rested upon them,they prophesied,and did not cease."By which it is manifest,first,that their prophesying to the people was subservient and subordinate to the prophesying of Moses;for that God took of the spirit of Moses put upon them;so that they prophesied as Moses would have them:otherwise they had not been suffered to prophesy at all.For there was a complaint made against them to Moses;and Joshua would have Moses to have forbidden them;which he did not,but said to Joshua "Be not jealous in my behalf."Secondly,that the Spirit of God in that place signifieth nothing but the mind and disposition to obey and assist Moses in the administration of the government.For if it were meant they had the substantial Spirit of God;that is,the divine nature,inspired into them,then they had it in no less manner than Christ himself,in whom only the Spirit of God dwelt bodily.It is meant therefore of the gift and grace of God,that guided them to co-operate with Moses,from whom their spirit was derived.And it appeareth that they were such as Moses himself should appoint for elders and officers of the people:for the words are."
