During the government of the Judges, there was a pouring out of the Spirit, but more as a Spirit of conduct and courage for war, than as a Spirit of prophecy. Deborah is indeed called a prophetess, because of her extraordinary qualifications for judging Israel; but that is the only mention of prophecy, that I remember, in all the book of Judges. Extraordinary messages were sent by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah; and it is expressly said, that before the word of the Lord came to Samuel, (1 Sam. iii. 1.) it was precious, it was very scarce, there was no open vision. And it was therefore with more than ordinary solemnity that the word of the Lord came first to Samuel; and by degrees notice and assurance were given to all Israel, that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord, v. 20.
In Samuel's time, and by him, the schools of the prophets were erected, by which prophecy was dignified, and provision made for a succession of prophets; for it should seem, that, in those colleges, hopeful young men were bred up in devotion, in a constant attendance upon the instruction the prophets gave from God, and under a strict discipline, as candidates, or probationers, for prophecy, who were called the sons of the prophets; and their religious exercises of prayer, conference, and psalmody especially, are called prophecyings; and their prefect, or president, is called their father, 1 Sam. x. 12. Out of these, God, ordinarily, chose the prophets he sent; yet not always: Amos was no prophet, or prophet's son, (Amos vii. 14.) had not his education in the schools of the prophets, and yet was commissioned to go on God's errands, and (which is observable) though he had not an academical education himself, yet he seems to speak of it with great respect, when he reckons it among the favours God had bestowed upon Israel, that he raised up of their sons for prophets, and of their young men for Nazarites, Amos ii. 11.
It is worth noting, that when the glory of the priesthood was eclipsed by the iniquity of the house of Eli, the desolations of Shiloh, and the obscurity of the ark, there was then a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit of prophecy than had been before; a standing ministry of another kind was thereby erected, and a succession of it kept up. And thus afterwards, in the kingdom of the ten tribes, where there was no legal priesthood at all, yet there were prophets and prophets' sons; in Ahab's time, we meet with a hundred of them, whom Obadiah hid by fifty in a cave, 1 Kings xviii. 4. When the people of God, who desired to know his mind, wanted one way of instruction, God furnished them with another, and a less ceremonious one; for he left not himself without witness, nor them without a guide. And when they had no temple or altar, that they could attend upon with any safety or satisfaction, they had private meetings at the prophets' houses, to which the devout faithful worshippers of God resorted, (as we find the good Shunamite did, 2 Kings iv. 23.) and where they kept their new-moons, and their sabbaths, comfortably, and to their edification.
David was himself a prophet; so St. Peter calls him; (Acts ii. 30.) and though we read not of God's speaking to him by dreams and visions, yet we are sure that the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, and his word was in his tongue; (2 Sam. xxiii. 2.) and he had those about him, that were seers, that were his seers, as Gad and Iddo, that brought him messages from God, and wrote the history of his times. And now the productions of the Spirit of prophecy were translated into the service of the temple, not only in the model of the house which the Lord made David understand in writing by his hand upon him, (1 Chron. xxviii. 19.) but in the worship performed there; for there we find Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, prophesying with harps and other musical instruments, according to the order of the king, not to foretell things to come, but to give thanks, and to praise the Lord; (1 Chron. xxv. 1 — 3.) yet, in their psalms, they spake much of Christ and his kingdom, and the glory to be revealed.
In the succeeding reigns,both of Judah and Israel, we frequently meet with prophets sent on particular errands to Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Asa, and other kings, who, it is probable, instructed the people in the things of God at other times, though it is not recorded. But prophecy growing into contempt with many, God revived the honour of it, and put a new lustre upon it, in the power given to Elijah and Elisha to work miracles, and the great things that God did by them, for the confirming of the people's faith in it, and the awakening of their regard to it, 2 Kings ii. 3.—iv. 1, 38.—v. 22.—vi. 1. In their time, and by their agency, it should seem, the schools of the prophets were revived, and we find the sons of the prophets, fellows of those sacred colleges, employed in carrying messages to the great men, as to Ahab, (1 Kings xx. 35.) and to Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 1.
Hitherto, the prophets of the Lord delivered their messages by word of mouth; only we read of one writing which came from Elijah the prophet to Jehoram king of Israel, 2 Chron. xxi. 12. The histories of those times, which are left us, were compiled by prophets, under a divine direction; and when the Old Testament is divided into the Law and the Prophets, the historical books are, for that reason, reckoned among the prophets. But, in the latter times of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, some of the prophets were divinely inspired to write their prophecies, or abstracts of them, and to leave them upon record, for the benefit of after ages, that the children which should be born might praise the Lord for them, and, by comparing the event with the prediction, might have their faith confirmed. And, probably, those later prophets spake more fully and plainly of the Messiah and his kingdom than their predecessors had done, and for that reason their prophecies were put in writing, not only for the encouragement of the pious Jews that looked for the consolation of Israel, but for the use of us Christians, upon whom the ends of the world are come, as David's psalms had been for the same reason, that the Old Testament and the New might mutually give light and lustre to each other. Many other faithful prophets there were at the same time, who spake in God's name, who did not commit their prophecies to writing, but were of those whom God sent, rising up betimes, and sending them; the contempt of whom, and of their messages, brought ruin without remedy upon that sottish people, that knew not the day of their visitation.
In their captivity, they had some prophets, some to show them how long; and though it was not by a prophet, like Moses, that they were brought up out of Babylon, as they had been out of Egypt, but by Joshua the High Priest first, and afterward by Ezra the scribe, to show that God can do his work by ordinary means when he pleases; yet, soon after their return, the Spirit of prophecy was poured out plentifully, and continued (according to the Jews' computation) forty years in the second temple, but ceased in Malachi. Then (say the Rabbins) the Holy Spirit was taken from Israel, and they had the benefit only of the Bathkôl, the daughter of a voice, a voice from heaven, which they look upon to be the lowest degree of divine revelation. Now herein they are witnesses against themselves for rejecting the true Messiah; for our Lord Jesus, and he only, was spoken to by a voice from heaven at his baptism, his transfiguration, and his entrance on his sufferings.
In John the Baptist prophecy revived, and therefore in him the gospel is said to begin, when the church
