The Grounds of the Christian Faith, Book 2 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. The fidelity of the Prophets succeeding Moses.
In order of Prophets to succeed Moses, by Gods own appointment in the Law of Moses. The Schools of the Prophets, the original and institution of them. The Cities of the Levites. The occasion of their first institution. The places of the Schools of the Prophets, and the tendency of the institution there to a prophetical office. Of the Musick used in the Schools of the Prophets. The Roman Assamenta, and the Greek Hymns in their solemn worship. The two sorts of Prophets among the Jews, Lieger and extraordinary. Ordinary Prophets taken out of the Schools, proved by Amos and Saul.
BUt although now under the Gospel (the revelation of Gods will being compleated by Christ and his Apostles) Sect. 1.we have no reason either to expect new Revelations, or new miracles for confirming the old; yet under the Law, God training up his people by degrees till the comming of Christ, there was a necessity of a new supply of Divine Messengers (called Prophets) to prepare the people, and make way for the comming of Christ. As to whom these two things are considerable.
First, Those Prophets whose work was to inform the people of their duties, or to reprove them for their sins, or to prepare them for the comming of the Messias (which were their chief tasks) had no need to confirm the truth of their doctrine or commission from heaven by the working of miracles among them. And that on these two accounts.
First, Because God did not consummate the revelation of his mind and will to the Jews by the Ministry of Moses, but appointed a succession of Prophets to be among them, to make known his mind unto them. Now in this case, when the prophetical …ffice was established among them, what necessity was there tha… every one that came to them upon an errand from God, should prove his testimony to be true by miracles, when in the discharge of his office he delivered nothing dissonant from the Law of Moses? It is one argument God intended a succession of Prophets, when he laid down such rules in his Law for t…e judging of them, and to know whether they were truly inspired or no, Deut. 15. 21, 22. And in that same place God doth promise a succession of Prophets, Deut. 18. 15, 18. A Prophet will the Lord God raise up unto thee like unto me; to him shall ye hearken. Which words, though in their full and compleat sense they do relate to Christ (who is the great Prophet of the Church) yet whoever attends to the full scope of the words, will easily perceive that the immediate sense of them doth relate to an order of Prophets which should succeed Moses among the Iewes; between whom and Moses there would be a great similitude as to their Birth, Calling, and Doctrine, though not a just equality, which is excluded, Deut. 34. 10, 11. and the chief reason why it is said there that the other Prophets fell so much short of Moses, is, in regard of the signs and wonders which he wrought, as is there largely expressed. Nor may it seem strange, that by a Prophet should be understood an order or succession of Prophets, when it is acknowledged by most Protestants, that by foreign, the Antichrist, is understood a rank and succession of several persons in the same name & function: And that it is to be understood in those words concerning a succession of Prophets, will appear by the occasion of their being brought in; for verse 14. God prohibits them to hearken after the manner of their neighbour-nations, to observers of times and Diviners, and then brings in the following words, v. 15. as to the reason of that prohibiteon, that God would raise up a Prophet among themselves like unto Moses, and to him should they hearken. Now let any rational man judge whether V. Arabic. vers. & Calv. in loc. P. Fagium, P. Martyr. Loc. Com. Class. 1. cap. 3. Sect. 12. C. Celsum l. 1.it were so probable an argument to keep them from hearkening to Diviners of other Nations, that there should a Prophet arise 2000 years after like unto Moses, as that he would raise up a continued succession of Prophets among themselves, to whom they should hearken. Thus Origen in his excellent books against Celsus, shews the necessity of the prophetical office among the Iews from hence; for, saith he, it being written in their Law that the Gentiles hearkend unto Oracles and Divinations; but God would not suffer Deu. 18. 14.it to be so among them, it presently follows, A Prophet will the Lord God raise up in the midst of thee, &c. Therefore, saith he, when the Nations round about them had ther Oracles, and several wayes of divination, all which were strictly prohibited among the Iews, if the Iews had no way of foreknowing things to come, it had been almost impossible, considering the great curiosity of humane nature, to have kept them from despising the Law of Moses, or apostatizing to the heathen Oracles, or setting up something like them among themselves. Which interpretation of his seems to have a great deal of reason, not only from the coherence of the words here, but from the Analogy of many other precepts of the Law of Moses, which it is most certain have a respect to the customs of the Idolatrous Nations round about them. Another reason why it is most probable, that by this is understood a succession of Prophets, is the change which follows against false Prophets, and the rules to discover them, v. 20, 21, 22. which had not been so pertinent and coherent if the opposition did not lie between the order of true Prophets among the Iewes, and the false Prophets which should rise up in the midst of them. And that which yet further justifies this interpretation, is, that there is no other place in the whole Pentateuch which doth expresly speak of a su…cession of Prophets, if this be not understood of it; and is it any ways probabe a matter of so great moment and consequence should be wholly pretermitted? Especially when we find it so exactly performed in the succeeding ages of the Iewish Commonwealth; their immediate Rulers like Dictators at Rome, after Moses death, being most raised up by immediate incitation and impulse from God, and many of them inspired with a spirit of prophecie. How should the Iews have expected these, or obeyed them when they appeared, had not God foretold it to them, and provided them for it by the Law of Moses?
Neither did these Prophets arise singly among them, like blazing Stars, one in an age to portend future events, but whole Constellations of them sometimes appeared together; yea, so many smaller Prophets were sometimes united together, as made up a perfect Galaxy, when they were entred into Societies, and became Schools of the Prophets; for such we frequently read of in Scripture. The original and institution of which may cast a further light into our present design, and shew us the little reason the Iews could have to expect miracles from them to confirm their doctrine, who were brought up in the knowledge of their Law, and were called out from their several societies into the prophetical office by the immediate incitation of God himself. Which being so commonly known among them, there needed no such extraordinary proofs to manifest the Divine authority by which they were employed. Two things then we shall endeavour to clear; First, the original and institution of these Schools of the Prophets; and secondly, that it was the erdinary course for the Prophets by employment to be taken forth of these societies wherein they were educated. First, for the original and institution of these Schools of the Prophets. The first Seminaries, or places of institution among the Iews, were the Cities of the Levites, which were dispersed up and down in the several Tribes of Israel; God thereby turning that into a blessing, which was pronounced as a curse upon Levi by his Father Iacob, viz. that he should be divided in Iacob, and scattered in Israel. But though the fulfilling of that Gen. 49. 7.prophecie might be the primary ground o… that scattering, yet it is evident that God aimed at some further good in it, both in reference to the Levites and the Israelites. Lyra undertakes to assign four reasons of this distribution of the Cities of the Levites among the Tribes. (1) because if they Josh. 21.had lived but in one Tribe, the worship of God would have seemed to have been confined to that Tribe. (2) because they would have been a burden to that Tribe they had their habitations in. (3) from the equity of being maintained by all, who served for all. (4) because it was their office to teach the people, and therefore it was necessary they should live among them. These reasons are most of them opposed by Abul. in Josh. 21. c. 7, & 8. V. Sherlog. Antiq. Hebr. l. 2. c. 3. s. 4. Masius in Josh. c. 14.Abulensis, but defended by others. The last is that which most insist on, it being the peculiar office of the Levites to teach the people; so 2 Chron. 35. 4. And said unto the Levites, qui erudiebant omnem Israelem, as Vatablus renders it, who taught all Israel; and Masius insists on that as the great reason of their dispersion, to be ready to teach the Law among the Israelites. But yet all those who are agreed that teaching the Law was the duty of the Levites, are not yet agreed of the manner of that teaching; for there being two parts of their Law, the one ceremonial and judicial, and the other moral and spiritual, the question is, whether of these two did belong to, or was performed by the Priests and Levites. There are many who understand all that Office of teaching which belonged to the Priests and Levites, to be meerly concerning the ceremonial part of the Law, i. e. deciding all cases of controversie which should arise concerning their ceremonial worship, which in Levit. 10. 10. is called putting a difference between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean. But it seems somewhat strange that God should take so great care about the shell and outside of his worship, and none at all for the moral and spiritual part of it, especially when he had set apart a whole Tribe meerly for his own service, and freed them from all other employments, that they might have a greater liberty to attend upon the things relating to his service; especially when it is mentioned as the duty of the Priests and Levites Lev. 10. 10. Deut. 3…. 10.to teach all the statutes which the Lord had spoken to them by the hand of Moses, and that they shall teach Iacob thy statutes, and Israel thy Law. Which notwithstanding what Abarbinel and others say, must certainly comprehend as well the moral as the ceremonial part of Moses his Law. And the Priests lips are said to preserve knowledge; and God saith they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Mal. 2. 7.Lord of Hosts. Do these things import no more then meer deciding the cases of the ceremonial Law? But whatever Gods intention in the institution of the Levites was, we find not much in Scripture of what they did for the promoting the moral and spiritual part of divine worship; but it is no news to hear that Societies instituted for good and pious ends, should degenerate from the first intention of the Founders of them; and thus it is probable it was with the Levites, who finding the most of their benefit and advantage to come in by the ceremonial cases, might grow more negligent of the moral part of divine service, which brought no secular emolument to them.
And thence we read not of these Schools of the Prophets, which were Societies in order to spiritual in struction, till Sect. 3.about the time of Samuel; and many think him to have been the first Author of them. For it is evident, that about his time the Priesthood was grown to a great degeneracy, and men thereby estranged from the worship of God, so that there seemed almost a necessity then of restoring some Societies, 1 Sam. 3. 1.who might have a special eye to the spiritual part of Gods worship and service. The occasion of the in…titution of them, seems to have been from the resort which the people had to the high places for sacrificing, during the captivity or uncertain abode of the Ark of God, after the desolation of Shiloh: now the people resorting to these places to perform their solemnities, it was so ordered, that a company of Prophets should be there resident to bless the sacrifices, and 1 Sam. 9. 12, 13.instruct the people. Two of these places with these Societies in them we finde mentioned in the time of Samuel. The first mentioned, 1 Sam. 10. 5, 10, which cannot be the same with Ramah, although the Syriack and Arabick versions so render it. For Samuel had his own residence in Ramah whither Saul went to him, 1 Sam. 9. 18, 19. but in this chapter we finde Samuel sending Saul on a journey from him beyond Bethel and the plain of Tabor, and there tells him he should meet with the company of Prophets upon. the hill of God, ver. 5; Some think it was called the Hill of God, because of its height, as the Cedars of God, and the mountains of God for the highest; so Tirinus understands it, but Menochius far more probably, quia in ea erat caetus & veluti schola prophetarum. The Chaldee Paraphrast renders it, ad collem in quo arca Domini: R. Solomon makes this hill to be 1 Sam. 7. 1.Kirjath-jearim, and therefore called the hill of God, because the Ark was there in the house of Abinadab in the hill. But Lyra thinks he hath proved, that before this time the Ark was removed from Kirjath-jearim to Mizpah; but Abulensis more probably conceives it was never removed thither, and withal thinks this hill of God to be no other then Gibea of Benjamin, where Saul inhabited; and thence the V. J…. in l.wonder was the greater, to see him Prophecy among those who had known his former life and education. The other place is Naioth in Ramah, where was a high place whither 1 Sam. 19. 18, 20.the people came to sacrifice; this Ramah seems to have been the place of Samuels nativity, called Ramathaim Sophim, 1 Sam. 1. 1.which the Syriack version renders collis specularum (some who would be ready to improve every thing for their purpose, would think it was so called in allusion to the imployment of the young Students there. So Heinsius conceives foreign to be understood, Numb. 23. 14. the place of Exercit. Sacrae l. x. c. 2.watchmen, from which word saith he, without doubt the Greeks derived their foreign, who were wont in such high places to observe the course and motions of the heavens; But to pass by such frivolous conjectures.) It seems a great deal more probable, that this Ramah which the Septuagint by a light mutation of the initial letters calls foreign, was the same with Arimathaea, the Town of Ioseph mentioned in the Gospel. But the place where the school of the Prophets was, seems to have been, with greatest conveniency, for a place of education, at some distance from the Town. Vatablus conceives it was built in the fields of Ramah, and the word Naioth, saith Pet. Martyr properly signifies pastures, and some remote places; quae fere sunt studiis aptissima. The Chaldee Paraphrast renders Naioth by foreign a Colledge or School of prophetical education: over this Colledge Samuel himself was President, as most understand that place, 1 Sam. 19. 20. And when they saw the company of Prophets prophecying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them; Ionathan renders it, & Semuelem stantem docentem super eos. To which we may well apply the words of Philo, speaking of the Iewish manner of instruction, foreign. Philo de v. Mos. l. 3.The President going before and teaching, the rest increasing in goodness, and improving in life and manners.
Neither can we think so good and useful an institution should presently degenerate or be turned into another channel; Sect. 4.and therefore some conceive that the most noted Prophets to the time of David were the Presidents of these Colledges; such as besides Samuel were H…lcana, Gad, Nathan, Heman, and Ieduthun; and that they selected out the choycest and most hopeful of the young Levites, and here educated them, together with the Nazarites which came out of other tribes. And it seems very probable, that in all the most noted high places whether they went to sacrifice, there were such Schools erected after the first institution of them. Thence we read of such multitudes of the Prophets together in the time of Ahab, 1 Kings 18. 4. for when Iezabel cut off the Prophets of the Lord, Obadia… took an hundred and hid them in caves; certainly their number was very great, when an hundred might be saved without missing. The chief places where they resided, seem to have been Bethel, 2 Kings 2. 3. and Iericho, which was a large Colledge; for therein we read of fifty sons of the Prophets standing together out of their number, 2 Kings 2. 5, 7, 15. and Gilgal, which had been a place of Religion from the first entrance into Canaan, there we finde the sons of the Prophets sitting before Elisha, 2 Kings 4. 38. It seems most probable, that the purity of Gods worship among the ten tribes after the defection in the time of Ieroboam was preserved by the Prophets in their several Schools and places of habitation, which hath sufficient foundation in that place, 2 Kings 4. 23. where the Shunamites husband asks her wherefore she would go to the man of God that day, seeing it was neither new-moon nor Sabbath. Whereby it is both evident, that the Prophets did undertake the office of instructing the people on their solemn Festivals, and that it was their custom to resort to them for that end. Thus we see what care God took for V. Manass. Ben. Israel. Concil. in Exod. 9. 35.the instruction of his people in a time of so general an Apostacy as that of the ten tribes was, when the Church of God could not be known by that constant visibility and o…tward glory which some speak so much of, but was then clouded in obscurity, and shrouded it self under the mantl…s of some Prophets which God continued among them, and that not by any lineal succession neither, though the Iews would fain make the gift of Prophecy to be a kind of Cabala too, and conveyed in a constant succession from one Prophet to another. Neither were these Schools of the Prophets only in Israel, but in Iudah likewise was God known, and his Name was great among these Schools there. In Ierusalem it self there was a Colledge where Huldah the Prophetess lived, 2 Kings 22. 14. some render Mishna in secunda urbis parte; for Ierusalem was divided into the upper and nether part of the City. Abulensis and Lyra will have it refer to the three walls of the City in which the three chief parts of it were comprized; in the first, the Temple and the Kings P…lace; in the second, the Nobles and the Prophets houses; and in the third, the common people. Iosephus seems to favour the devision of the City into three parts, but Pineda Jos. de b…ll. Jud. l. 6. c. 6. Pineda de rebus Sol. l. 3. c. 28.thinks the second part of the City was most inhabited by Artificers, and that the Prophets, and the wise men, and such as frequented the Temple, most dwelt in the City of David within the first wall; and therefore he conjectures that the Colledge was upon Mount Sion, (and so properly called Sion Colledge) and he explains that house which wisdom is said to have built and hewn out her seven pillars, Prov. 9. 1. by this Colledge which he supposeth was built by Solomon in Mount Sion, and thence ver. 3. she is said to cry upon the highest places of the City. Thus much may serve concerning the original and institution of these Schools of the Prophets.
I now come to the second thing promised concerning the Schools of the Prophets, which is, that it was Gods ordinary Sect …method to call those persons out of these Schools, whom he did employ in the discharge of the prophetical office. Two things will be necessary for the clearing of this: First, what tendency their education in those Schools had towards the fitting them for their prophetical office. Secondly, what evidence the Scripture gives us that God called the Prophets out from these Colledges. The first of these is very requisite to be cleared, because the prophetical office depending upon immediate inspiration, it is hard to conceive what influence any antecedent and preparatory dispositions can have upon receiving the prophetical spirit. It is commonly known how much the generality of Iewish Writers do insist on the necessity of these qualifications antecedent to a spirit of prophecie. 1. An excellent natural temper. 2. Good accomplishments both of with and fortunes. 3. Separation from the world. 4. Congruity of place (which they make proper to Iudaea) 5. Opportunity of time. 6. And divine inspiration. These are so largely discoursed of by many learned men from Iewish Writers, that V. G. …or. in M…im fundam. leg. c. 7. Sect. 1. Mr. Smith of Prophecy ch. 8.it will be both tedious and impertinent to recite much of their opinions concerning them; who, since they have lost the gift of prophecie, seem to have lost too that wisdom and natural understanding, which they make one of the most necessary qualifications of a Prophet. It is not easie to imagine what subserviency riches could have to a prophetical spirit, unless the Iews be of Simon Magus his opinion, that these gifts of the Holy Ghost may be purchased with money; and if so, they think themselves in as likely a way to bid fair for a prophetical spirit as any people in the world. Or is it that they thi…k it impossible any without them should have that f…ee, cheerful, and generous spirit, which they make so necessary to a prophetick spirit, that it is an axiome of great authority with them, Spiritus sanctus non residet super hominem moestum; and they think Elisha his fit of passion did excuss his prophetick spirit from him, which he was fain to retrive again with a fit of Musick. There are only two sorts of those antecedent dispositions which seem to bear any affinity with the prophetick spirit: And those are such as tended to the improvement of their natural faculties, and such as tended to their advancement in piety, and consequently to the subduing all irregular motions in their souls: Not that either of these did concur by way of efficiency to the production of a spirit of prophecie (which is an opinion Maimonides seems very favourable to) but that God might More Nevoch. l. 2. c. 36.make choise particularly of such persons, to remove all prejudices against them in those they were sent unto. For nothing could possibly dissatisfie them more concerning divine inspiration, then if the person who pretended to it were of very weak and shallow intellectuals, or known to be of an irregular conversation. In order therefore to the fuller satisfaction of men concerning these two qualisications, this Institution of them in the Schools of the Prophets was of great subserviency, because therein their only imployment was to improve in knowledge, and especially in true piety. This latter being the most necessary disposition, since the Apostle hath told us that the Prophets were Holy men, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And in order to this, the greatest part we can find of the exercises of those who 2 Pet. 1. 21.were educated in these Schools of the Prophets, were instructions in the Law, and the solemn celebration of the praises of God: Which appears in Scripture to have been their chief employment as Prophets, and by which they are said to prophecie: So at Gibeah at the Oratory there, we find a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery, 1 Sam. 10. 5.a Tabret and pipe, and a Harp before them, and prophecying.
It may seem somewhat strange to consider what relation these Musical instruments had to the prophecying here Sect. 6.mentioned. Are Musical notes like some seeds Naturalists speak of, which will help to excite a prophetick spirit? Or do they tend to elevate the spirits of men, and so put them into a greater capacity of Enthusiasm? Or is it because Musick is so excellent for allaying the tumults of inward passions, and so fitting the soul for the better entertainment of the Divine Spirit? Or was all this prophecying here spoken of nothing else but vocal and instrumental Musick? So some indeed understand it, that it was only the praising God with spiritual songs and melody; wherein one as the Praecentor began a hymn, which the rest took from him and carried on. I confess it carries the fairest probability with it, that this prophecying with Musical instruments was at their places and times of sacrifice, an adjnuct, if not a part of the solemn service of God: which was managed chiefly by the Quire of the Sons of the Prophets which were resident there, and were trained up in all exercises of piety and devotion. But yet I cannot see any reason to think that all this prophecying was meerly singing of Hymns, and playing upon their Musical instruments to them, as some imagine, because there seems to be implyed some immediate impulses of a prophetick spirit, by what Samuel said to Saul, that when he came among the Prophets, the spirit of the Lord would come upon him, and he should prophecy with them, and he should become 1 Sam. 10. 6.another man, What strange impulse and wonderful transformation was this meerly for Saul to joyn with the Prophets in their praises of God? And this needed not so much admiration as followed there upon this action of Sauls, that it should become a Proverb, Is Saul also among the Prophets? Certainly Saul was a very great hater of all spiritual 1 Sam 10. 12.Musick before, if it became a Proverb meerly for his being present at, or joyning with this company in singing their Hymns. Therefore others think that those who are said particularly to prophecie at these Musick-meetings, were some persons as chief among the rest, who having their spirits elevated by the Musick, did compose Hymns upon the place by a Divine Energy inwardly moving their minds. So that there were properly divine raptures in some of them, which transported them beyond the ordinary power of fancy or imagination, in dictating such Hymns as might be suitable for the design of celebrating the honour of God.
Neither may it seem strange that such an Enthusiastick Spirit should seize on them only at such selemn times, since Sect. 7.we read in the New Testament of a like exercise of such gifts in the Church of Corinth, 1 Cor. 14. 26. where we see in coming together every one had a Psalm, a Doctrine, a Tongue, a Revelation, &c. Whereby it appears that they were inspired upon the place; etiam extemporales Hymni saepe ab afflatuerant, as Grotius there observes; as we see it in frequent instances in Scripture of Simeon and Anna, Moses and Miriam, Deborah, and Isaiah; and in the Christian Church after that Landslood of inspired gifts was much abated in the Church, they kept up a custome much like to these extemporal hymns, as appears evidently by Tertullian, post Apol. c. 39aquam manualem & lumina ut quis que de Scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere; After they had ended their Love-feasts, they begun their Hymns, which were either taken from the Scriptures, or of their own composition. Which Pliny takes notice of as a great part of the Christians worship, that they did secum Ep. l. 10. Ep. 97.invicem carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere, they joyned in singing hymns to Christ as God. Nay, we find something very parallel to this preserved among the ruins of the Heathen worship; such were the Assamenta among the old Romans, which were peculiarly sung to the honour of some particular God; thence the Assamenta Ianualia, Iunonia, Minervia, which were priva poemata & carmina in singulos eos Deos Conject. in Varr. p. 121conscripta, as the learned Ioseph Scaliger observes. So likewise the old Greeks had their solemn hymns to their Gods, some to the propitious Gods, which they called foreign, and the Latins properly Indigitamenta, and carmen calatorium; others they had to their Vejoves, or laeva numina, which they called foreign; the Latins Carmen Averruncale; but besides these, they had some peculiar to the several Deities, as foreign to Diana, foreign to Apollo, foreign to Ceres, Dithyrambus to Bacchus, Adonidia to Adonis, as Proclus tells us in his Chresto…athia. And it is withall evident, that the Heathens thought some of their Priest… inspired Ap…d Phot. bibl. Cod. 239.while they were performing these solemn devotions to the Gods (which probably was by Satan, as many other things in Heathen worship taken up in imitation of these inspired hymns, and Musick used by the sons of the Prophets) but their hymns were so composed, as to be fit rather to transport men beyond the power of their reason, then to compose and sweeeten it, which was suitable to the fanatick Enthusiasm, which was so common among them. So Proclus tells us that the Io-Bacche was foreign, full of noise and din; and the Dithyrambus was foreign, a kind of extatick Moricedance, and their Priests were apprehended by them to be under a real Enthusiasm at these Solemnities. So the Corybantes are described rather like mad men then meer Enthusiasts by Strabo; they were foreign, as he describes them, dancing about with their cymbals and drums, and arms and pipes (as though a Bedlam had been broke loose among them) yet this was in high esteem among them; for as Strabo after saith, foreign, this Enthusiasm Geogr. l. 10.seemed to have a divine touch with it, and to come very near to a prophetick spirit.
But though the prophecying with Musick among the sons of the Prophets, might be by some extemporary hymns immediately dictated by the praecentor of the Chorus; yet we are not to imagine any such frantick actions among them as were among the Curetes and Corybantes, it being always the Devils temper to overdo, when he strives to imitate, and in stead of solemn and set devotions to carry men beyond all sense and reason. The Spirit of God did never dictate any Io-Bacche's or Dithyrambs to transport and amuse the spirits of men; but those sweet airs which might both compose and elevate the spirits of all that heard them. For in probability the spirits of all these Prophets were as Lutes tuned to the same height, that when the Spirit of God did strike upon one of them, the rest presently answered to it, and so made up an entire Consort among them. So Menochius thinks the Spirit of God not only moved the spirit of him who was the praecentor, but the rest likewise who joyned with him; and they are said to prophecy, saith Torniellus, Annal. ad A. M. 2945. Sect. 14.fortè quod non quascun que sed Propheticas duntaxat cantiones praecinerent; but from hence we clearly see what the great employment was in these Schools of the Prophets, which, as the same Author expresseth, it was statis horis de rebus divinis disserere & divinis laudibus vacare; and thereby we understand what reference this institution had in order to the prophetical office, because the Spirit of God did much appear among them, and all their exercises tended to piety, and so did remove all prejudices from their persons, when God did send them abroad afterwards.
And so it is evident he frequently did, not to say always, for that were to put too great a restraint upon the boundless Sect. 9.spirit of God: For sometimes, as will appear afterwards, God sent the Prophets upon extraordinary messages, and then furnished them with sufficient evidence of their Divine commission without being beholding to the Testimonials of the Schools of the Prophets. But besides these, God had a kind of Leiger-Prophets among his people; such were the most of those whom we read of in Scripture, which were no pen-men of the sacred Scripture; such in Davids time we may conceive Gad and Nathan, and afterwards we read of many other Prophets and Seers among them, to whom the people made their resort: Now these in probability were such as had been trained up in the Prophetick Schools, wherein the spirit of God did appear, but in a more fixed and setled way then in the extraordinary Prophets whom God did call out on some more signal occasions, such as Isaiah and Ieremiah were. We have a clear foundation for such a distinction of Prophets in those words of Amos to Amaziah, Amos 7. 14, 15. I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of Sycamore fruits: And the Lord took me as I followed the stock; and the Lord said unto me, Go prophecie to my people Israel. Some understand the first words. I was not a Prophet, that he was not born a Prophet as Ieremiah was, not designed and set apart to it from his mothers womb; but I rather think by his not being a Prophet, he means he was none of those resident Prophets in the Colledges or Schools of them, not any of those who had led a prophetick life, and withdrawn themselves from converse with the world; nor was I (saith he) the son of a Prophet, i. e. not brought up in discipleship under those Prophets, and thereby trained up in order to the prophetick function. Non didici inter discipulos Prophetarum, as Pellican renders it; nec institutione qua filii Prophetarum quasi ad donum Pr…phetiae à parentibus praeparabantur, saith Estius. Non à puero educatus in Schol is Propheticis; so Calvin and most other modern Interpreters understand it as well as Abarbinel and the Jewish Writers: Whereby it is evident that Gods ordinary way for the Prophets, was to take such as had been trained up and educated in order to that end, although God did not tye up hmself to this method, but sometimes called one from the Court, as he did Isaiah; sometimes one from the herds, as here he did Amos, and bid them go prophecie to the house of Israel. There was then a kind of a standing Colledge of Prophets among the Israelites, who shined as fixed Stars in the Firmament; and there were others who had a more planetary motion, and withall a more lively and resplendent illumination from the fountain of prophetick light. And further it seems that the spirit of prophecie did not ordinarily seize on any, but such whose institution was in order to that end, by the great admiration which was caused among the people at Sauls so sudden prophecying, 1 Sau…. 10. 12, 19, 24.that it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the Prophets? which had not given the least foundation for an adage for a strange and unwonted thing, unless the most common appearances of the spirit of Prophecie had been among those who were trained up in order to it. Thus I suppose we have fully cleared the first reason why there was no necessity for the ordinary Prophets, whose chief office was instruction of the people, to prove their commission by miracles, because God had promised a succession of Prophets by Moses, and these were brought up ordinarily to that end among them; so that all prejudices were sufficiently removed from their persons without any such extraordinary power as that of miracles.