This angel, then, was a human prophet. Prophets are often called angels, even before their decease. See Part I. chap. ii. fect. ii. fubd. 2.

Even the very names of fome men who appeared after their departure from this life, as meffengers of the Most High to the human race, are mentioned, and the identity of their perfons recognized by a fufficient number of credible witneffes.

12.

The first inftance of this kind which occurs in fcripture, is the appearance of Samuel to Saul: 1 Sam. xxviii. 11, &c. King Saul went to a woman who had a familiar fpirit, and defired her to bring up Samuel to him, in order to afk his advice refpecting the Philistines, who were bringing their armies against him. Immediately upon his mentioning whom he wanted to fee, before the woman had time to try any of her magical arts, fhe faw Samuel, ver. Her enchantments, therefore, did not raise him up. Some other power caufed Samuel to appear. Knowing that it was him, fhe concluded that it was Saul who defired her to raise him. With a mixture of furprize and terror on feeing him at all, and fo foon and diftinctly; and fearing the rage and vengeance of Saul, who the now probably thought came to witness her forceries, and to punish her; (fee ver. 9,) fhe cried out with a loud voice, and afked the king why he had deceived her, by pretending to be fome other perfon. Saul bade her not be afraid, and afked what fhe faw? She replied, I faw afcending out of the earth;

ver. 13, 14•

The Latin tranflation of the Chaldee is, " angelum Domini," a meffenger of the Lord. This is the true meaning. Saul's inquiry, what is his form? and the woman's anfwer to it, manifest that both the king and the clearly understood the term Elohim to mean only one perfon. The woman's terror might engage her to use first a word of dubious fignification, both respecting the nature, and number, of what fhe faw. In Gen. xlviii. 15, 16, Elohim, and maleak, angel or meffenger, are applied to the fame perfon; and xvi. 7, the angel or meffenger of Jehovah is, in ver. 13, called 8, and 7. The term Elohim, and the other names of God, are in feveral inftances applied to a meffenger of God, and even when fuch meffenger is called a man. See ch. iv. obj. 1. and anfw.

Saul asked, what is his form? The woman re plied, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. See ch. xv. 27 to 29. Saul then knew VT, that it was Samuel himfelf; N, ipfe, as it is in the Latin verfion of the Chaldee; in the Sept. it is aulos. Jefus, after his refurrection, fays to his Apostles, Luke xxiv. 39, fee my hands and my feet, οτι αυτος εγω ειμι, OTI autos εyw api, that it is I myself. Exod. xxxiii. 14, Jehovah says, alos пgоπоgevσoμα: 08, I myself

will

go with thee; comp. ver. 2, 3, 13; and 2 Sam. xvii. 11; that thy face or prefence go to battle. See Hebr. and Greek. Saul therefore muft himself have feen Samuel. For the woman's defcription, that she faw an old man covered with a mantle, did not dis tinguish Samuel from any other old man.

F F

And Saul stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself; ver. 14. A ufual mode of paying respect in that country to fuperiors, into whose presence they came; but not to persons who were in another room or apartment, and hidden from them. See 2 Sam. i. 2.

From ver. 15 to 20, follows a dialogue between Samuel and Saul, in which the king asks his advice in his present difficulty. Upon which Samuel rebukes Saul for a repetition and aggravation of his former impiety and rebellion against the commands of Jehovah, by asking information concerning future events of him who was a deceased prophet, when he confeffed that God had departed from him, and was become his enemy; ver. 15, 16; Deut. xviii. 10 to 12; 1 Sam. xv. 23. He alfo reminds the king of the denunciation which he uttered against him while he was living; folemnly and forcibly repeats this, as well as the reafon for it; and as an addition to his punishment, correfponding to his present additional impiety, in applying to the witch contrary to the divine injunction, Levit. xix. 31, xx. 6, he foretells that Jehovah will deliver Ifrael to the Philistines, and that to-morrow he himself and his fons would be among the dead. At this Saul was fo terrified, as that he fell immediately all along upon the earth.

That Samuel appeared upon this occafion by the appointment of God, is manifeft from the fulfilment of the feveral predictions uttered by him, in ver. 17, 18, 19; two of which he mentions that God had

Since

before spoken by him; fee 1 Sam. xv. 28. it appears from the remaining part of ch. xxviii. that Saul did not leave the woman's houfe till the night following the next day after the predictions were uttered, the expreffions" this day," in the 18th verfe, and "to-morrow," in the 19th, muft denote the certainty of the events, not the precife time when they would take place. Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 28; Gen. ii. 17, with iii. 19, and v. 3 to 5; Rev. i. 1; xxii. 20; John xvi. 32. An account of the actual accomplishment of the prophecies is given, 1 Sam. xxxi. Now the fulfilment of a prediction is the test of a true prophet, and of his divine commiffion; Deut. xviii. 21, 22; Jer. xxvii. 9, 10, 14, 15; xxix. 8, 9.

There does not seem to have been any fufficient motive to engage the hiftorian to have given this parrative, if there had not been fatisfactory proof of the reality of the tranfaction. And the history is circumftantial and confiftent.

Any woman who pretended to raise the dead by enchantments, and who fabricated a discourse for the phantom, or the feigned apparition, would only have faid as briefly as fhe could, what corresponded with the character of the perfon whom fhe affected to conjure up; especially in fuch a cafe as the present, lest, by enlarging too much, fhe might hazard her veracity, and endanger her life. The first part of Samuel's answer to Saul, namely, the mere repetition of the prophecy, which he made while living, toge

ther with the reafon for it, would have been fufficient to fupport his prophetic character at this interview. She, therefore, would not have ventured upon mentioning the additional event of Ifrael being foon delivered into the hands of the Philistines. Efpecially would fhe not have added the more personal and impreffive predictions of the fpeedy death of Saul himself, and of his fons, which were fo likely to incur the fudden rage and vengeance of Saul, whofe attending fervants might have inftantly executed the dictates of his wrath, before it had time to be cooled by the recollection of his promife to maintain her fafety. Besides which, if the death of Saul and of his fons had not all taken place, this failure in the fulfilment of the prophecies would have incurred the greatest hazard of Saul's, or of his furviving fon's refentment. The well-known character of Saul for difobedience to the law of God, and his particular and prefumptuous rebellion against Jehovah, by confulting this witch, would render it highly probable that he would not have fcrupled to have broken his promife to her, after fhe had deceived him.

Even the witch's afcribing the appearance of Samuel to her own art, ver. 21, accords with the falfe pretenfions of forcerers, as well as with her fear of Saul's anger, which he endeavoured to avert, by affecting to have done all that he commanded her to do; though the hiftory fhews that fhe did nothing. But if this be fuppofed to be an account merely of the manner in which the woman deceived Saul into