perity against the Syrians at Ramoth Gilead, vulgarly to represent to him the fuccefs he fhould have against his enemies. But, in all this business, the mode of Jeremiah's language infinuates a literal fenfe, by speaking altogether in the third perfon, as if the relation concerned fomebody elfe, and not himfelf; 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 expreflion which is there obfervable.

But other times we meet with things graphically described with all the circumftantial pomp of the bufinefs, when yet it could be nothing elfe, 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 ftory told, ch. xxx. 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 afles. 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 vifion, for the nature of the thing would not permit any real performance thereof.

The like we muft fay of Ezekiel's. "res gefte," his eating a roll given him of God, ch. iii. and ch. iv. It is especially 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 underficed, as if they were to obferve in fuch real actions in a fenfible way what their own fates should be; for 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 thould eat all this while with dung, &c.

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

midft 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 most 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 himself was a prieft, is manifeft from ch. i. ver. 3. Upon thefe paffages of Ezekiel, Maimonides hath thus foberly given his judgement," More Nevochim," Par. II. c. 46. " Abfit ut Deus prophetas fuos ftultis vel ebriis fimiles reddat, eòfque 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 prefcribe "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 thefe 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 Ægypt 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 houfhold-ftuff 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 houfe of Ifrael ;" and ver. 9. "Son of man, "hath not the house of Ifrael, the rebellious houfe, faid unto thee,

what docft thou?" As if all this had been done really; which indeed feems to be nothing elfe 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 commentator, follows, with the others mentioned. And, it may be, according 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 fhall 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 underftand any thing elfe 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 à way of fenfible appearance, to determine it to have been any fenfis ble thing.

CHAP.

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 frictly fo called, and from the Spirit of holiness in purified fouls. What books of the Old Teftament were afcribed by the Jews to Ruach hakkodefh. Of the Urim and Thummim.

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THUS we have done with that part of divine infpiration which was more technically and properly by the Jews called Prophecy. We shall 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 wholesome 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 fet down

יפתח לאיש טה מער אחר שלא ישער the other degrees fuperior to it Now to explain to - בו האדם מעד טבעו יידבר בדברי מחמה ובו

"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 wifdom, or fong, or divine praife, in pure and elegant

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language, befides his wont: fo that every one that knows him "admires him for this excellent knowledge and compofure of words; but yet he himself knows not from whence this faculty 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 shall render thefe definitions of our former Jewith doctors in the words of Proclus, who hath very happily fet forth the nature of this piece of divine infpiration, according to their mind, in these words, lib. V, in “ Plat. Tim.” Ὁ δὲ χαρακτήρ ἐνθεσιαςικές, δια λάμπων ταῖς νοεραῖς ἐπιβολαῖς, καθαρός τι καὶ (εμνός, ὡς ἀπὸ παρὸς τελειό μα τῶν Θεῶν, ἐξηλλαγμοίς τε καὶ ὑπερέχων τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἐννοιῶν, αθρὸς δὲ ὑμῖ καὶ καταπληκτικὸς, καὶ χαρίτων ἀνέμεσις, κάλλος τε πλήρης,

2

καὶ

4

καὶ (ιώτομο ἅμα καὶ ἀπηκριβωμλίΘ. “ This degree or enthufaftical character, fhining fo bright with the intellectual influences, is pure and venerable, receiving its perfection from the father of the Gods, being diftinct from human conceptions, and far tranfcending them, always conjoined with delightfulness and * amazement, full of beauty and comelinefs, concife, yet withall exceeding accurate."

This kind therefore of divine infpiration was always more pacate and ferene then the other of prophecy, neither did it fo much fatigate and act upon the imagination. For though thefe Hagiographi, or holy writers, ordinarily expreffed themfelves in parables and fimilitudes, which is the proper work of fancy; yet they feem only to have made ufe of fuch a diefs of language to fet off their own fense of divine things, which in itself was more naked and fimple, the more advantageoufly, as we fee commonly in all other kind of writings. And feeing there was no labour of the imagination in this way of Revelation, therefore it was not communicated to themi by any dreams or vifions, but while they were waking, and their fenfes were in their full vigour, their minds calm; it breathing upon them, Enn. vi. lib. 9. c. 11. as iv yard, as Plotinus de Icribes his pious enthufiaft, Αρπαθὲς ἢ ἐνθεσιάσας ἡσυχῆ ἐν ἐρήμῳ καταςάσει γεγένηται, ατρεμεί τῇ αὐτῇ ἐσία εδαμε αποκλίνων. For indeed this enthufiaftical fpirit feated itfelf principally in the higher and purer faculties of the foul, which were ὥσπερ απαύγεια πρὸς αὐγὴν, that I may allude to the ancient opinion of Empedocles, who held there were two funs, the one archetypal; which was always in the inconfpicable hemifphere of the world, but the beams thereof thining upon this world's fun were reflected to us, and so further enlightened us..

Now this kind of infpiration, as it always acted pious fouls into ftrains of devotion, or moved them ftrongly to dictate matters of true piety and goodness, did manifeft itfelf to be of a divine nature; and as it came in abruptly upon the minds of those holy men without courting their private thoughts, but transported them from that temper of mind they were in before, fo that they perceived themselves captivated by the power of fome higher light than that which their own underftanding commonly poured out upon them, they might know it to be more immediately from God.

For indeed that feems to be the main thing wherein this Holy Spirit differed from that conftant fpirit and frame of holiness and goodness dwelling in hallowed minds, that it was too quick, potent, and tranfporting a thing, and was a kind of vital form to that light of divine reafon which they were perpetually poffeffed of. And therefore fometimes it runs out into a forefight or prediction of things to come, though it may be thofe previfions were lefs underfood by the prophet himself; as (if it were needful) we might inftance in fome of David's prophecies, which feem to have been revealed to him not fo much for himfelf (as the apoftle fpeaks) as

for

for us. But it did not always fpend itfelf in ftrains of devotion or dictates of virtue, wifdom and prudence; and therefore (if I may take leave here to exprefs my conjecture) I fhould think the ancient Jews called this degree "Spiritus Sanctus," not because it flows from the third perfon in the Trinity (which I doubt they thought not of in this bufinefs), but because of the near affinity and alliance it hath with that fpirit of holinefs and true goodnefs that always lodgeth in the breafts of good men. And this feems to be infinuated in an old proverbial fpeech of the Jewith mafters, quoted by Maimonides in the fore-quoted place, "Majeftas divina habitat

fuper eum, & loquitur per Spiritum San&tum," Though fome think it might be fo called as being the loweft degree of divine infpiration for fometimes the ancienteft monuments of Jewith learning call all prophecy by the name of " Spiritus Sanctus." So in Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 39. "R. Phineas inquit, requievit Spritus Sanctus fuper Jofephum ab ipfius juventute ufque ad diem obitûs ejus, atque direxit eum in omnem fapientiam, &c. The Holy Spirit refted upon Jofeph from his youth till the day of his death, and guided him into all wifdom, &c." Though it may be all that might be but an hagiographical fpirit; for indeed the Jews are wont, as we fhewed before, to diftinguish Jofeph's dreams from prophetical. But this "Spiritus Sanctus" in the fame chapter (to put all out of doubt) is attributed to Efaiah and Ezekiel, which were known prophets; and chap. xxxiii. "R Phineas ait, poftquam omnes illi interfecti fuerant, viginti annis in Babel requievit Spiritus Sanctus fuper Ezekielem, & eduxit eum ex con* valle dora, & oftendit ei multa offa, &c." And among thofe five things that the Jews always fuppofed the fecond temple to be inferior to the firft in, one was the want of the pm m "Spiritus "Sanctus," or fpirit of prophecy.

But we are here to confider this "Spiritus Sanctus" more ftrictly, and as we have formerly defined it out of Jewish antiquity. And here we fhall first fhew what books of the Old Teftament were afcribed to this degree by the Jews. The Old Teftament was by

the law, the » תירה נביאים וכתובים the Jews divided into

prophets, and the ayoyapa." And this divifion is infinuated in Luke xxiv. 44. "And Jefus faid unto them, Thefe are the

words which I fpake unto you while I was yet with you, that "all things must be fulfilled which were written concerning me "in the law of Mofes, and in the Prophets, and in the Pfalms ;" where by the Pfalms may feem to be meant the Hagiographa; for the writers of thefe Hagiographa might be termed Pfalinodifts, for fome reasons which we fhall touch upon hereafter in this difcourfe. But to return; the Old Teftament being anciently divided into these parts, it may not be amifs to confider the order of these parts as it is laid down by the Talmudical doctors in "Gemara Bava Bathra,'

"

Our doctors תנו רבנן סדרן של נביאין ובו,c. 1. towards the end

have delivered unto us this order of the prophets, Jofhua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ifaiah, and the twelve Prophets,

the