* See remarks on Ezekiet's prophecy against Tyre, EzekUi, p. lW(Caisb Bible).
cry after Him who created it, and long for Hia perfect revelation ui)on the eartb (Jn 14""-).
iii. The above remarks refer mainly to prophecies that have already been fuUilled ; but the same principles apply to prophecies still awaiting fulfil- ment, i.e. prophecies regarding the final condition of the people of God. The moral and religious element was the essential part of the prophecy, the form in which the principle was to verify itself was secondary. The form was of the nature of an embodiment, a projection or construction, and the materials of which the fabric is reared are those lying to the hand of the prophet in each successive age. The imagination of the prophet operates largely in these constructions. Still it is chiefly the moral imagination. When, for example, all the evils existing in the prophet's day are banished and every desirable good introduced (Am 9'*, J I 3'*, Ps 72'°), this is not due to the desire for sensuous pleasures, it is rather the expression of the writer's general view of the universe. The world «as to his view a moral constitution, the physical being nothing but a mode of expressing or a medium for transmitting the moral and spiritual ; the miseries of men and all the outward evils of life were the result of moral disorder ; and simultaneously with thfe disappearance of moral evil physical evil would also cease ; and with the perfection of the people of God the external world would be transfigured, and be the perfect minister to the needs of mankind. Thus, while the moral and the spiritual in the pro- phetic constructions of the future are absolute and permanent, the constructions which embody them are perishable and change. Just as some temple of God embodies and expresses spiritual coni^ep- tions, but is constructed out of materials at the architect's disposal in his own day, which materials decay, and in a later age have to be replaced by materials of that age, leaving, however, the spiritual ideas still visibly embodied ; so tlie pro- jections of one prophet, constructed out of the state of the world, and of the nations in his day, decay with the changes of the world, and have to be replaced V)j' a later prophet with materials from the world of his daj'. In Is 7 fl". the prince of peace is born and grows up amidst the desolations of the Assyrian invasion, and sitting on the throne of David establishes a reign of rigliteousness and peace without end (Is 9'); while in Is 40 ft', the everlasting kingdom of God is introduced by the destruction of Babylon, the idolatious world, and the restoration of Israel, the Servant of the Lord, who shall be the light of the nations (Is 60). The construction of the former is that of a moral poli- tician ; the construction of the latter, that of a religious thinker, almost a theologian. Thus prophecy, while maintaining its spiritual princi- ples unchanged from age to age, by substituting one embodiment of these principles for another age after age, seems itself to instruct us how to regard these embodiments or constructions. They are provisional and transient. Tliey sustain the faith and satisfy tlie religious outlook of their day, but they have no lin.-ility. Even the prophets of the NT are probably no more final in their construc- tions than those of the UT, e.g. in the Apocalyii.se and Uo 11. They rear their fabrics out of the materials of their own day, as the OT prophets did (cf. vol. i. p. 737).
Thus we have to distinguish between Prophecy and I'ulfilment. Prophecy is what the prophet in his age and circumstances and dispensation meant; fulfilment is the form in which his great religious conceptions will gain validity in other ages, in dill'erent circumstances, and under another dis- pensation. Certain elements, therefore, of the relative, the circumstantial, and the dispensational must be stripped away, and not expected to gc
PKOPHECY ^VXD PROPHETS
PROPHET IX NT
127
into fulfilment. Every proi)liet speaks of the per- fection of the kinfjdora of GoU, looks for it, and constructs an ideal of it. We are still looking for it. Tlie fundamental conceptions in these con- structions are always the same, — the presence of God with men, righteousness, peace, and the like, — but the fabrics reared bj' dillercnt prophets diller. They ditt'er because each prophet, seein" the perfect future issue out of the movements and conditions of his own time, constructs his ideal of the new world out of the materials lying around him : the state of his people ; the conditions of the heathen world in his day (Mic 5^', Is 60*") ; such facts as that Israel was the people of God, that the kingdom of God had the form of a State, and that the seat of Jehovah's rule was Zion. Tliese rela- tive elements are not to be called figurative, tliey are essential parts of the propliet's conceptions, and are all to be understood literally. Israel was not a symbol to him meaning the peojile of God or Church, neither was it to him a t3'pe of this. Israel icas the people of God. Neither were Moab, Edom, Babylon, or Egypt symbols of the foe of the people of God nor types of the hostile world. Each of tliem to the propliet wa-f such a foe. But in all cases the names are used literally, though along with their reli"ious connotation. And what the propliet was able to say of the partial and relative of his day may, of course, be applied to the universal and absolute now — to the Cliuich of God on the one hand, and the hostile world on the other. With the coming of Christ the national, relative and imperfect stage of religion, as it was in OT, pa.ssed away ; religion became universal, absolute, and perfect. The Apostolic principles of interpre- tation seem something like these : (1) They a.ssume that in Christ and Christianity religion has become final and perfect ; the development has reached the end in view. And their arguments from OT are verj' much the analysis of this general assumption. (2) God is the author of Scripture ; the OT is the word of God. (3) The Divine consciousness is one, embracing the end and the beginning alike : in sjieaking any word God had always the Christian consummation in view. Truth is also one ; when a truth is seen in any aspect it is that truth tliat is seen. (4) Scripture being the word of God, its whole meaning is religious and spiritual. The circumstances amidst which it was spoken, and the person of whom or to whom, are of no importance. It is the s|iiritual nieaiiin<; alone of the words that is the word of God. Historical exegesis accepts these principles, and merely adds another. It assumes that the OT writer h.ad in every passage which he wrote a meaning in his own mind, and that he desired to convej- this meaning to his contemporaries ; an<l it asks, what did the Hebrew writer mean? What would the people of his day understand from his words ?