ii. Another thing which might modify fulfil- ment was this : the prophecies were designed to iiitliience the conduct ol the people; they were moral teaching, of the nature of threats or pro- mises, which might be revoked or fuUilled accord- ing to the demeanour of those to whom they were addressed. Thus Jer 2(5'- says, ' The Loril sent me to prophesy against this city all the words which ye have heard. Now therefore amend your ways, and obey the voice of the Lord your tlod ; and the Lord will re]'eiit him of the evil which he hath pronounced against you.' Prophecy was to such an extent moral, and meant to influence men's conduct, that threatenings of evil were rarely absolute. Jonah predicted in what seemed an absolute manner the destruction of Nineveh in forty days; but on the repentance of the people the threatened evil was averted. Jer 18 expressly formulates the moral and contingent character of prophecy, s.aying, in the words of J", ' At what time I shall speak concerning a nation, to phiek u]) and destroy it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil which I sought to do unto them. And at what instant I speak coucerning a nation to build and plant it; if it do evil in mj' sight, I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benelit them. Now therefore go, speak to the men of Judah, Behold, I frame evil against you : return ye now every one from his evil way.' This moral character of prophecy was well understood in Israel, as appears from the intervention of the elders in behalf of Jeremiah: 'Then ro.se up certain of the elders, and said, Micah the Morash- tite prophesied in the days of Hezekiali, sayinc, Ziim shall he plowed like a field ! Did Hezekiali and all Judah put him to death? Did they not
•'Two Semioiw on the Interpretation of Prophecy' in Sennon9, vol. t. p. 373, London, 1S45.
126 PROPHECY AND PROPHETS
PROPHECY AND PROPHEL'S
fear the Lord, and entreat his favour, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them ?' (Jer 26'"). The princijile was also well understood in the early Church, for Jerome remarks that many of the prophecies were given, 'not thrit lliey should, but that they should not, he fullilled.' Tliey were threatenings of evil designed to influence conduct and avert the very evils tlireatened. Tiiere were, no doubt, pro])hccics which were absolute. The promises of tiod were so ; those that contained statements of His grace, as that the house of David should for ever bear rule in His kingdom, and many others wliich de- pended on His will alone. Kven some of tliese contained an element of contingency in them, to this extent, that the conduct of men might retard although not invalidate tiieir fulhlment ; while on the other hand threatenings, though long delayed, might eventually be fulfilled because men perse- vered in their evil ways or returned to them.
Moreover, another thing is evident : moral threats or promises could be made only to a subject also considered moral. The predictions of the prophets against foreign nations, though often having the form of threats against their capital city or their land, are really not directed against these material things, but against what might be called the national personality, the moral subject which the nation was, with its spjit and influence in the world of the i)rophet'8 day. The prophets deal only with moral forces ; to them there are no other forces. The world is a moral constitution, and States are moral personalities. Ezekiel conceives them as exi.sting after their disappearance from the world, just as individual persons do after death. It is this national personality that prophecy threatens with destruction ; and when Babylon, for example, came under the power of the Persians, the prophecies against it were fullilled, although not a brick was thrown down from its walls nor a bar broken in one of its brazen gates. These material things, no doubt, embodied and expressed the spirit of Uabjdon ; but they were nothing in themselves, and might equally embody and express the wholly difl'erent moral personality of the Persians.* In point of fact, the material details of tliu prophecies against the nations were in many instances not verifled. Is 17' says, ' Behold, Dam.ascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap'; but Damascus has probably never ceased to be a city. Here again, no doubt, interesting questions have been raised. Micab's prophecy about Jerusalem was eventually fullilled ; Babylon is at this daj' a desolation. Anil Bacon suggested the idea of what he called a 'germinant' fulfilment, i.e. one going on through time. At any rate, in the first place the prophetic threat must be held to have been directed against the national personality, and to have been ful- filled in the main in its destruction ; and secondly, in endeavouring to reach a conclusion in regard to the material details, the instances in which they have not been verified must he considered, as well as those in which tlioy seem to have received verification. Apart from the uncertainty incident to such historical investigations, it is to mis- apprehend the nature of projjhecy to treat these material details as having great evidential value. Prophecy concerns itself with the world as moral. The evidence of proidiecy rather lies in the broad general nunement of religious thought which it jiresents, showing that a divine power had laid Iiold of the whole mind of man, creating in it lofty religious ideals, quickening its aspirations, gii ing it an onward and forward look towards a religious jierfeclion, stirring up the heart of the creature to