trance, or ecstasy, as a condition in whicl instrument occasioiiallv received the divine communi
PROPHET
647
PROPHET
"visions and dreams" (Numb, xii, 8). It is true that in this last-quoted passage " visions and dreams" alone appear to be attributed to the prophet, while " speaking mouth to mouth" is reserved for Moses. But when Moses was dead, the cause of this difference would cease. During the rera of prophecy there were none nearer to God, none with whom he would, we may sup- pose, communicate more openly than the prophets. We should expect, then, that they would be the recipients, not only of visions in the state of dream or ecstasy, but also of the direct revelations which are called speaking mouth to mouth. The greater part of the divine com- munications we may suppose to have been thus made to the prophets in their waking and ordinary state, while the visions were exhibited to them either in the state of sleep or in the state of ecstasy. " The more ordinary mode through which the wonl of the Lord, as far as we can trace, came, was through a divine impulse given to the prophet's own thoughts" (Stanley, p. 426). Hence it follows that, while the fathers in their opposi- tion to Montanism and pavia were pushed somewhat too far in their denial of the ecstatic state, they were yet perfectly exact in their descriptions of the condition under which the greater part of the prophetic revela- tions were received and promulgated. No truer de- scription has been given of them than that of Hippoly- tus and that of St. Basil : Oil ydp t'£ iSiac Cvvdpuoq i<p$ityyovTO, oi'iCt ilirtp auroi tfioiXovTO ravra tici)- pvTTOv, dXkd irpCurov p'tv Old tov Aoyoii iaotyi'CovTO dpSwe., Eirura oV opapdnov -rrpotc<ied<jKovTO ra piK- \ovra kciKwq' tlj' o'vtoj Triiruapivoi tXtyov tclvto. iiirtp avTOiQ ryv pdvoiq and tov Otov cnroKEKpvfiutva (Hippol. l>e Antichristo, c. ii). YIwq irpot<pi)Ttvov ai KaStapai iced fiiavysig ipv\ai; o'tovti KciroTfrpa yivopi- va TijQ &tiag tvepyttac, T))v 'iptyamv pcn»)v kcu davy- yvrov kcii ovSev iTriSo\ovp£i>r]v ik tHiu TtaSiov tjjq aapKog smfieiicvvvTO' nuai p'tv yap Trdpiart To'Ayiov Hvtvpa (St. Basil, Comm. in Esai. Procem."). The state of ecstasy, though ranking high above the ordinary sensual existence, is still not the highest, as appears from Numb, xii, and the example of Christ, whom we never find in an ecstatical state. To the prophets, how- ever, it was indispensable, on account of the frailty of themselves and the people. The forcible working upon them by the Spirit of God would not have been re- quired, if their general life had already been altogether holy; for which reason we also find ecstasy to manifest itself the stronger the more the general life was ungod- ly; as, for instance, in Balaam, when the Spirit of God came upon him (Numb, xxiv, 4, 1G), and in Said, who throws himself on the ground, tearing his clothes from his body. With a prophet whose spiritual attainments were those of an Isaiah, such results are not to be ex- pected. As regards the people, their spiritual obtuse- ness must be considered as very great to have rendered necessary such vehement excitations as the addresses of the prophets caused.
Had the prophets a full knowledge of that which they predicted? It follows from what we have already said that in many cases they had not, and could not have. They were the " spokesmen" of God (Exod. vii, 1), the "mouth" by which his words were uttered, or they were enabled to view, and empowered to describe, pictures presented to their spiritual intuition ; but there are no grounds for believing that, contemporaneously with this miracle, there was wrought another miracle enlarging the understanding of the prophet so as to grasp the whole of the divine counsels which he was gazing into, or which he was the instrument of enun- ciating. We should not expect it beforehand ; and we have the testimony of the prophets themselves (Dan. xii, 8; Zech. iv, 5)", and of St. Peter (I Pet. i, 10) to the fact that they frequently did not fully comprehend them. The passage in Peter's epistle is very instruc- tive: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that, should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy (ihost sent down from heaven." It is here declared (1) that the Holy Ghost through the prophet, or the prophet by the Holy Ghost, testified of Christ's sufferings and ascension, and of the institution of Christianity ; (2) that after having uttered predic- tions on those subjects, the minds of the prophets occu- pied themselves in searching into the full meaning of the words that they had uttered; (3) that they were then divinely informed that their predictions were not to find their completion until the last days, and that, they themselves were instruments for declaring good things that should come not to their own but to a fut- ure generation. This is exactly what the prophetic state above described would lead us to expect. While the divine communication is received, the human in- strument is simply passive. He sees or hears by his spiritual intuition or perception, and declares what he has seen or heard. Then the reflective faculty, which had been quiescent but never so overpowered as to be destroyed, awakens to the consideration of the message or vision received, and it strives earnestly to understand