Exposition of Ezekiel 1-5, Commentary on Ezechiel · Chapter 2 · Verse 9
VER. 9.
And when I looked, behold, a hand was ſent unto mee, and lo, a roul of a book was therein.
HEre wee have the efficient inſtrumentall and materiall cauſe to treat of: A hand was ſent unto mee; ſent from Chriſt; there could not be a hand without ſome Author, hee that ſate upon the Throne, and made all, he made, he ſent this hand; no mention is made of any arm or body; a hand might write it, and reach it forth; Dan. 5.5. there was in Belſhazzars ſad viſion; the fingers of a hand came forth, and wrote upon the plaiſter of the wall, nothing but a hand appeared; had there been no hand, the Prophet might have doubted whence it came, taken it for ſome caſuall thing; but being reached out by a hand, it was evident to him, it came from heaven, even him that he ſaw ſo glorious, fell down before, and was comforted by.
The materiall cauſe is, A roul of a book, Megillath Sepher: the Ancients at firſt writ in barks of trees, afterwards in skins of beaſts, which they call Pergamena, vellum, or parchment, ſuppoſing them to be invented at Pergamus, by King Attalus, where was a famous Library of parchments and manuſcripts, but rouls of vellume or parchment were before that time. Ezekiels viſion was long before the Roman Monarchie; Attalus lived when that flouriſhed, and having no iſſue, made the Roman State heir to his crown; but rouls were in Iſaiah's dayes, Chapt. 8.1. Take thee a great roul; yea, in Davids dayes, Pſal. 40.8. In the volume of thy book, Bimgillath Sepher, in the roul of thy book. They are very ancient, and call'd rouls from the rouling them up about Cedar, or ſome precious wood, that they might be the better preſerved. The Law and Prophets were written in ſuch rouls, and when they unrouled them, the Jewiſh Doctors uſed to expound them,Nihil eſt vetuſtum in principum Archivis quod non ſit ſcriptum in voluminibus, Calv. as is gathered from that place, Luke 4.17. Theſe rouls are in practiſe to this day in the Jewiſh Synagogue, and they have their Thorah or Law written in one volume, and rouled up, as Paraeus obſerves on the 5th of the Revel. Kings have their Courts of Rouls. And there is nothing antient in the Courts and Libraries of Princes, in their Treaſury of Monuments, but is written in rouls or volumes.
For the ſignification of this Roul, ſome make it to ſignifie the ſecret counſells of God; it's true, they were written in it, but not ſignified by it. The Roul here, is ſymbolum Prophetiae, a typicall ſign of the gift of prophecie to be given to the Prophet, and in that ſenſe wee are to take it.
Obſerv. 1. That the Lord Chriſt doth at his pleaſure put forth creative and infinite vertue to effect what hee ſpeaks: Eat what I give thee, and preſently a Hand is created, a Roul is preſented unto the Prophet, which none could have done, being deſtitute of divine power. Chriſt hath a Hand in readineſſe alwayes to do what he will have done; he hath ſometimes a viſible hand to do it, as here; ſometime an inviſible, when hee call'd Lazarus forth of the grave, he had an hand inviſible to effect it, when he bid the dead to heare, the dumb to ſpeak, the lame to walk, Devils to depart their habitation, hee had an inviſible hand that effected thoſe things; ſo in Acts 11.20, 21. when ſome of the Brethren had preached the Lord Chriſt, and faith in him, it's ſaid preſently the hand of the Lord was with him, and a great number believed; there was a ſecret hand of divine power effecting that in their hearts, which the Diſciples preached in their ears: And Acts 4.30. Chriſt hath a hand to ſtretch forth, and to heal, to heal ſoul diſeaſes, and bodily too, to heal State and Church diſeaſes, Mat. 8.2, 3. The Leper ſaid to Chriſt, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canſt make me clean, and Jeſus put forth his hand, and touched him, ſaying: I will, be thou clean; and immediatly his Leproſie was cleanſed; if wee would look to Chriſt as this Leper did, wee might find and feel the hand of Chriſt.
2. That the Lord doth often times extraordinary things for the incouragement and confirmation of his ſervants in their Function; Here is a Hand and a Roul reached out to Ezekiel. Jeremiah is fearefull and backward to the work of God, and God to incourage and eſtabliſh him, puts forth his hand,Exod. 4. and toucheth his mouth, Jer. 1.9. Moſes hee is doubting, and pleading with God to diſmiſſe him, but by the miracles of the ſerpentined and unſerpentined rod, of the leprozed and unleprozed hand, he confirms in his call to that great and hard ſervice; Iſaiahs lips are touched with a coal from the Altar in the hand of a Seraphim, his iniquity is purged, and ſo hee is heartened to his work, Iſa. 6. Chriſt breathed upon his Apoſtles, and ſaid Receive the Holy Ghoſt, Joh. 20.22. By theſe extraordinary things they were conſecrated to, and confirmed in their offices.
3. That there is a neere conjunction, and ſweet Analogie between the ſymbols the Lord Chriſt uſeth, and the things intended; Chriſt intends here the gift of Prophecie to confirm that upon Ezekiel; Now what is the externall ſign or ſymbol? it's a book written full of propheticall things, and ſo did fitly reſemble the thing intended: in all the ſymbols that God had uſed in the old and new Teſtament in a ſacramentall way, there have been fit Analogies between them and the thing ſignified and intended by them; Circumciſion, the Paſchall Lamb, water in Baptiſme, Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord, do ſet out the manifold wiſdome of God and Chriſt in accommodating ſymbols ſo neer to the truth, and holding it forth ſo livelily; and the wiſdome of Chriſt appeared in conveying the gift of prophecie by a Roul of a book. From this example of Chriſt, giving a Roul to Ezekiel, ſome conceive, ſprings that cuſtome in the Univerſities, at the creation of Doctors, it's done by reaching them out a Book, but how warrantable, I leave to judgement; they do it, may give them volumen, but not rem voluminis; if they had given them the gift of prophecie, wee ſhould never had ſo many unpreaching Doctors and Prelates.
4. That the gift of Prophecie is from Chriſt; hee reached out a Hand, and gave the roul of a Book; hee is the great Prophet, and hath all Prophecie and propheticall power in himſelf, and whom he pleaſeth, hee can make a Prophet, and inſpire with propheticall vertue, and where hee pleaſes, even in Babylon as well as in Canaan.