mh_parser/scraps/Isaiah.html

<p class="tab-1">Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, though, in the eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with it appeared very mean. A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great interest there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for all divine revelation (<a class="bibleref" title="2Pet.1.20,2Pet.1.21" href="/passage/?search=2Pet.1.20,2Pet.1.21"><span class="bibleref" title="2Pet.1.20">2 Pet. 1:20</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="2Pet.1.21">21</span></a>), because that was most commonly by dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the children of men, <a class="bibleref" title="Num.12.6" href="/passage/?search=Num.12.6">Num. 12:6</a>. Once indeed God himself spoke to all the thousands of Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so intolerably dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to them as he had done before, by men like themselves, <i>whose terror should not make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Job.33.7" href="/passage/?search=Job.33.7">Job 33:7</a>. God approved the motion (<i>they have well said</i>, says he, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.5.27,Deut.5.28" href="/passage/?search=Deut.5.27,Deut.5.28"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.5.27">Deut. 5:27</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.5.28">28</span></a>), and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we must never expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God, with a charge to deliver them to his church. Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel among the prophets, <a class="bibleref" title="Matt.23.31,Matt.23.35" href="/passage/?search=Matt.23.31,Matt.23.35"><span class="bibleref" title="Matt.23.31">Matt. 23:31</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Matt.23.35">35</span></a>. Enoch was a prophet; and by him <i>that</i> was first in prediction which is to be last in execution—the judgment of the great day. <a class="bibleref" title="Jude.1.14" href="/passage/?search=Jude.1.14">Jude 1:14</a>; <i>Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads</i>. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He <i>is a prophet</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.20.7" href="/passage/?search=Gen.20.7">Gen. 20:7</a>. Jacob foretold things to come, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.49.1" href="/passage/?search=Gen.49.1">Gen. 49:1</a>. Nay, all the patriarchs are called <i>prophets</i>. <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.105.15" href="/passage/?search=Ps.105.15">Ps. 105:15</a>; <i>Do my prophets no harm</i>. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most illustrious of all the Old-Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spoke <i>face to face</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.34.10" href="/passage/?search=Deut.34.10">Deut. 34:10</a>. He was the first writing prophet, and by his hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called to be his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, <a class="bibleref" title="Num.11.25" href="/passage/?search=Num.11.25">Num. 11:25</a>. But after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit than as a spirit of prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking. I mean in the time of the judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not with their pens. Messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the people, <a class="bibleref" title="Judg.2.1" href="/passage/?search=Judg.2.1">Jdg. 2:1</a>. In all the book of judges there is never once mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then the word
<p class="tab-1">I. Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the tradition of the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah’s time, as we find in his story, to which many think it is owing that his style is more curious and polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some places, exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his own purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking trumpets, <i>through</i> which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, <i>by</i> whom the Spirit spoke, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame, and advancing them above themselves.</p>
<p class="tab-1">II. Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful; it was so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them, that by Sennacherib’s invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; and in the supports and encouragements laid up for each of these times of need we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There are not so many quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all, the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his being born of a virgin (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.7.1-Isa.7.25" href="/passage/?search=Isa.7.1-Isa.7.25">Isa. 7:1-25</a>) and that of his sufferings, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.53.1-Isa.53.12" href="/passage/?search=Isa.53.1-Isa.53.12">Isa. 53:1-12</a>. The beginning of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin and threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is full of wood words and comfortable words. This method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the prophets and does still, first to convince and then to comfort; and those that would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the convictions. Doubtless Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages to the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and probably these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they are here related, but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey to us <i>on whom the ends of the world have come</i>; and these prophecies, as well as the histories of Christ, are written <i>that we might believe on the name of the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to us is the gospel here preached as well as unto those</i> that lived then, and more clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!</p>