PROPHET, PROPHECY.
Christ is the great prophet of his church. John calls him, and very properly so, the Lord God of the prophets, (Revelation 22:6) And the apostle Paul draws a line of everlasting distinction between him and all his servants when, in the opening of his Epistle to the Hebrews, he saith, "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom he made the world?" (Hebrews 1:1-2)
Concerning the Spirit of prophecy, the Holy Ghost hath taught the church that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21) A plain proof of the agency of the Holy Ghost in the old church, as hath been manifested in a more open display, since the ascension of Christ, under the new. But between Jesus and his servants an everlasting difference marks their different characters as prophets. The servants of the Lord who ministered to the church in his name as prophets, had the gifts and anointings of the Holy Ghost; but this, it should seem, not always, but as occasion required. Hence we read that the Spirit of the Lord came upon them; to every one was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. But to Christ himself the anointings were always. "He, saith John, whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not to the Spirit by measure unto him: in him dwelt all the fulness of the GODHEAD bodily." The influences of the Holy Ghost were never in any mere man, yea, even the highest prophet, but as water in a vessel; but in Christ, he himself was the fountain, in whom was all fulness. So that between the highest servant and the master there was this everlasting and essential difference. Moses, the man of God, of whom we are told, "there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom JEHOVAH knew face to face," (Deuteronomy 34:10) yet of this great man the Holy Ghost tells the church by Paul, though "he was faithful in all the Lord's house as a servant"yet of Christ he bears witness that he was "as a Son over his own house." (Hebrews 3:1-6) And so again of John the Baptist, who came in the Spirit and power of Elias, and by the lip of truth itself was declared to be "the greatest prophet born among women;" yet when compared to Christ, his Lord, he was but a voice, which witnessed to Jesus and then died away, the "very latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy to stoop down and unloose." (Matthew 11:11; John 1:23-27)
Concerning the prophets of the Old Testament, they were sometimes called seers; but before the drays of Samuel we do not meet with the name. (See 1 Samuel 9:9) Hence afterwards we read of Gad, David's seer, 1 Chronicles 21:9. So again Heman, the king's seer, 1 Chronicles 25:5. The difference, it should seem, between the prophet and the seer lay in this, the prophets were inspired persons, to predict to the church the will of JEHOVAH either by word of mouth, or writing; the seer committed to writing the records of the church. Hence we read concerning the acts of Manasseh, that they were written among the sayings of the Seers, (2 Chronicles 33:19)
It were unnecessary to remark, what every reader of the Bible is supposed to know, that we have recorded, from the grace of God the Holy Spirit, the writings of four of what, by way of distinction, are called the greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and the Writings of the twelve of lesser prophets, as they are named, Hoses, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. I do not apprehend that these distinctions of greater and lesser prophets is given to them from the most distant idea that the writings of the lesser prophets are less important than those of the greater, but wholly on account of their bulk. All are alike given by inspiration of God, and all alike give witness to Jesus; for "the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." (Revelation 19:10)
I have elsewhere, in my Poor Man's Commentary on the Bible, when giving a statement of the order of the books of Scripture, marked down (and I hope with tolerable accuracy.) the particular date in which each of those holy men of old ministered in the church. I rather, therefore, refer to that statement, which the reader will find immediately after the title-page and preface, than swell the balk of these sheets with reciting it again. It will be sufficient in this place to observe, that all these servants of God ministered in their day and generation to one and the same cause, namely, to bring forward the church's attention to the coming of Christ; and when the Holy Ghost was pleased to suspend their ministry, it was only done by way of causing the minds of the faithful to pause over their sacred records, and to wait by faith and hope to behold the fulfilment of their prophecies in the advent of Jesus. From the close of Malachi's prophecy to the opening of the mouth of Zacharias, (Luke 1:67) there passed an intervening period of near three hundred and fifty years; but this dark season only indicated a brighter day that was coming on. The evening of the prophets only testified the approach of the morning of the evangelists. The day-dawn and the day-star were hastening to arise, when Jesus the Son of Righteousness, should appear, to go down no more, but to be the everlasting light of his people, their God, and their glory!