Title page of the 1713 edition

of ‘The General Delusion of Christians’.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA is an excerpt from ‘The General Delusion of Christians, Touching the Ways of God’s revealing Himself, To, and by the Prophets evinced from Scripture and Primitive Antiquity’, commonly attributed to John Lacy. It is a treatise in four parts, printed by Samuel Keimer and sold by S. Noble, T. Harrison, and Jos. Archer in London, in the year 1713.

Our excerpt is from part I, ‘The Spirit of Prophecy defended from Scripture & Primitive Antiquity‘, chapter VI and is titled: ‘Touching Prophecy proper, or Inspiration Prophetic‘, or when the physical senses are aroused by the Spirit. From page 74 to 81.

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Before we enter upon that way of Divine communication which I believe will be found the most generally used by Him whose messenger to the world the Prophet always was, and wherein what he delivered was the  word of the Lord, I shall take notice very briefly of some other very extraordinary methods of the Holy Spirit’s operation which do not usually come under this head.

§ 1. When Ezekiel had seen in vision, a roll written within and without, the Spirit said to him, ‘Son of Man, eat this roll’, (Ezek. iii. 1, 3), and so caused him to eat it, and fill his bowels with it; and it was in his mouth as honey for sweetness ; and then the Spirit said, ‘Go, speak with my words unto them‘. After a like manner, St. John was commanded to take a little book from an angel (Rev. x. 9, 11), and ‘he took it out of the hands of the angel, and eat it up ; and it was in his mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as he had eaten it his belly was bitter‘; whereupon the angel said to him, ‘Thou must prophesy again, before many peoples‘. Parallel to these two patterns, Jeremiah says (xv. 16 — 18), ‘Thy words were found, and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart‘.

But in correspondence to the bitterness in St. John, he immediately adds, ‘I sat alone because of thy hand ; for thou hast filled me with indignation: why is my pain perpetual ; and my wound incurable ? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail ?‘ From all which collated texts, there appears to have been a supernatural impression on the sense of TASTING, and that so delightful as may well be construed figurative of the joy that the Spirit of prophecy carries usually with it in its first infusion, though in the process it produces the bitterness of affliction, as above-mentioned, to the affected person; both the one and the other eventually to the benefit of the Prophet,— for at the Resurrection of the Just, ‘one star will differ from another in glory’.

§ 2. But whatever be the bitterness; it is rationally ‘impossible for those who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have TASTED the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance’ (Heb. vi. 4 — 6); because the same must necessarily be a most powerful Means of Grace, when heeded. Wherefore Ezekiel, before eating the roll, has a charge given him not to be rebellious, as the impudent and hard-hearted and rebellious house of Israel (the then church) was ; and after that just now cited petulant complaint of Jeremiah, the Lord said to him, ‘If thou return‘ (from it, and dost not wholly fall away), ‘then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me‘ (in the prophetic office), ‘and thou shalt be as my mouth : return not thou to the assembly of the mockers; for I will save thee, and deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked‘.

Thus Jeremiah was set as a Brazen Wall, against which the terrible ones should not prevail. And however it was better with Samuel in that respect of the world’s contempt, his danger was no less from its smiles in being universally known to be a prophet; yet as to his being ‘ESTABLISHED to be a prophet of the Lord‘ (1 Sam. iii. 20), I know of no such word as ‘established’ in the text; for the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee and Vulgate Latin have it expressly, ‘faithful‘; the Chaldee renders the sentence, ‘he was faithful in the prophetical words of the Lord’; which it becomes every one to be, who standeth before the Lord in the Prophetic Office, to receive and obey his Commands without Reserve, who is able to save and deliver from Men; as was promised Jeremiah and Isaiah, or (which is better) to give him a Reward peculiar in the resurrection of the Just.

But because, from that word ESTABLISHED, some pretend that the Prophet’s Commission stands in Need of the Acknowledgment (and Verification as it were) of the existent church, as that of Samuel universally had; I have taken the more Freedom, in the cause of Divine truth, to shew, that such a Claim is as little warrantable by that text alleged to maintain it, as it is condemned by the whole tenor of Scripture throughout.

§ 3. After this digression, which arose upon the supernatural Impression, on the Sense of TASTING, emblematical of the sweetness of the prophetical word; even as that of manna is described most grateful, being also figurative of Christ, the true manna from heaven; —in concurrence with this observation, St. John tells us, that when ‘the Lamb took the sealed book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, the twenty-four elders fell down before the throne, having every one of them golden vials full of odors‘ (Rev. v. 8); —we therefore conceive it is rational to think from thence, that there was to the Apostle a supernatural impression on the sense of SMELL; nor can such a construction be any ways injurious, seeing St. Paul mentions, more than once, the ‘being a sweet savour unto God‘; and St. John figures the gifts of the Spirit by the emblem of anointing, which implies odors. Moreover, the Holy Spirit of prophecy, in setting forth the glory of the great High Priest and Bridegroom of his beloved, uses the like metaphorical expressions of odoriferous ointment, myrrh, aloes, and cassia, to figure out to us his blessed effusions.

And however this supernatural impression on the SMELL be now a common subject of Mockery (as is also that of Tasting), we shall find, in the sequel of this treatise, it was not so among the primitive Christians. But referring it for the present to that proof in the case of Polycarp, and the martyrs of Lyons, I now proceed to some others, of the more extraordinary operations of the Spirit.

§ 4. The Spirit of the Lord endowed Samson with marvelous Strength of body ; and yet not inherently, after the Manner of the Natural, but when the Spirit came upon him, even the very same Spirit that was upon the prophets: wherefore Josephus styles him ‘a prophet‘, which in the larger sense comprehends all those who receive any Divine revelation, or the Spirit of God extraordinarily: and thus St. Paul, among the catalogue of those whose faith in Divine revelation (made to themselves mostly) was renowned, puts him with Gideon, and Barak, and Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and the rest of the Prophets; for so the Syriac, Ethiopic, and some ancient Fathers write the text; and the annotators say it ought to be therein understood, even though not expressed. But Samson is not the sole instance of BODILY STRENGTH (and therefore TOUCH) given extraordinarily to the prophet; for Elijah‘s travelling forty days and forty nights without eating argues the same: so David also acknowledges that God enabled his arms to break even a bow of steel, and made him, when but a stripling, to overcome a lion and a bear. And certainly the restoration of youthful vigor to Abraham, for many years after his body was as good as dead, is without any precedent in a natural way, at least that we know of.

Yet more marvelous is that of Moses, who in the Ninetieth Psalm says, that, if the strength of man attained to the age of eighty years, yet his very strength was, even then, labor and sorrow: nevertheless, it is recorded of Moses himself, Deut. xxxiv. 7, that ‘he was an hundred and twenty years old when he died, and yet his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated‘; in which text the Hebrew word, rendered ‘natural force‘ is so particular and emphatical, that, in the want of ability significantly to express it, the Vulgate Latin says, ‘his teeth were not loose‘; the Greek, ‘his gums were not wasted‘; Chaldee, ‘the clearness of the beauty of his countenance was not altered’; Syriac, ‘his cheeks had no wrinkles’; Arabic, ‘his moisture was not abated’; Hebrew & Samaritan, ‘his green-ness (namely, of youth) was not faded.’

§ 5. Touching these more extraordinary influences, let us add, that Solomon had from the same Spirit an understanding of the secrets of nature; for he spake of trees, ‘from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop sprouting out of the wall‘. He spake also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes; so that in natural philosophy he was wiser than all men. Thus also political wisdom was a fruit of the same Spirit, to Joshua, Saul, Solomon, and divers of the Judges; in particular, Othniel, on whom ‘the Spirit of the Lord came’, Judg. iii. 10 (Chaldee, ‘the Spirit of prophecy from the presence of the Lord rested on him‘). Thus, in another very different way of administration, Bezaleel (Exod. xxxi. 3) was ‘filled with the Spirit of God‘ (Greek, ‘The Divine Spirit’; Chaldee, ‘the prophetic Spirit from before the Lord‘), for workmanship in gold and silver for the use of the tabernacle: afterwards David had also from the Spirit (1 Chron. xxviii. 12—19) a pattern for building the temple, and direction for the services thereof. Moreover, as the sweet Psalmist of Israel tells us, Psal. xlix. 4, ‘he would open his dark saying upon the harp‘; so Asaph, Judathan, and Heman (whose inspired hymns we have to this day), being all Prophets, are said to prophesy with Harps and other Music, 1 Chron, xxv. 1 — 5. From whence it may be no easy question to solve, whether the music itself were not commanded, or even influenced, by the Spirit, as well as the subject of their song.

§ 6. Moreover, what one Evangelist writes of our Savior, that He by the finger of God cast out devils, being by another related, that he by the Spirit of God did it, serves to explain to us what is meant, Exod. xxxi. 18, by the two tables of stone written with the finger of God : and this being the first mention of writing, what the Spirit or an angel did then he afterwards inspired others to do. Thus concerning the building and services of the temple, David says, ‘ The Lord made me to understand in writing by his hand upon me’ (1 Chron. xxviii. 19). And to king Jehoram, ‘there came a writing from the prophet Elijah‘ (2 Chron. xxi. 12—15). Thus when Ezra is termed a ready scribe, he is believed inspired to it, because it is said, ‘the wisdom of God was in his hand, and the hand of the Lord his God was upon him‘. It is certain that Isaiah had a Divine command to take him a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen a prophecy received (Isai. viii. 1); and in another place, namely, chap. xxx. 8, to write on a table, and note in a book (a remarkable prediction), that it might be for the latter days, even for eyer and ever. So likewise to Jeremiah came the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book’, as may be seen in the XXXVth chapter at large. The like order to write may be observed in Habakkuk  and in the Revelations of St. John; a gift peculiar, as I conceive, attending the order, and not always pertinent to prophesying.

§ 7. Having thus in brief touched upon several of the more extraordinary ways of the Spirit of God, we come now to inquire into the most usual and general signification of prophecy, or PROPHETIC INSPIRATION, as it is defined and laid before us in the sense of Scripture. And here, because by the word Prophet the most of men are willing now-a-days to understand no more meant, than of a foreteller, diviner, or prognosticator; and in consequence, that prophecy is the same in sense as, and no other than, divination or prognostication; it is necessary to observe, that the Hebrew uses three words to express what we write ‘prophet‘; which are, Roeh, Chozek, and Nabi. Thus, in I Chron. xxix. 29, Samuel is termed Roeh; Gad, Chozeh; and Nathan, Nabi. And yet in 1 Sam. iii. 26, xxii. 5, both Samuel and Gad are termed Nabi; so that by the indistinct and promiscuous use of these words indifferently, it would seem as if they bore one and the same signification.

Now, as to the two former, that is, Roeh & Chozeh, they give so distinct and certain a sound of their signification, that, by the consent of all etymologists in the Hebrew, they express the word SEEER, or, in the modern phrase, a VISIONAIRE, one who perceives something supernaturally BY THE EYE: but the word Nabi is hardly to be traced to any certain root in the Hebrew, and thence it comes that there are many different guesses at it, and what proper signification it ought to bear. Wherefore the uncertainty of this word’s propriety or distinct signification, and the use of it in the text indifferently, and undistinguishably from Roeh & Chozeh, is a strong presumption that there was no considerable difference, and therefore that it bore a parallel sense with Roeh & Chozeh, which uncontrovertedly mean a Seeer or Visionaire: thus Buxtorf’s ‘Lexicon’ says, the word ‘Nabi‘ properly means ‘a man to whom God revealeth secrets‘; which definition, by one of the greatest masters of the Hebrew, plainly manifests that there is no proper signification of it to be traced out: and therefore we must sit down content, either not to know what it means, or else conclude, from what is said above, that it was synonymous with Roeh & Chozeh.

§ 8. From what has been said touching the words used by the inspired Hebrew text for prophet, thus much is certain, that two of them express clearly Seeer ; and the third gives only (to us at this distance) a general sound, without any proper signification. However, this is very remarkable, that among the various interpretations of the word Nabi by the learned, there is none of them that affix to it the Sense of a Foreteller,  Diviner, or Prognosticator; that is, one that predicts things to come: so that from the negative generally allowed touching the word Nabi, and from the positive clear sense of the words Roeh and Chozeh we may conclusively determine, that the common acceptation of the word Prophet (to mean a Foreteller or Predicier) has not the least shadow of foundation, from the Old-Testament inspired text. Nevertheless, the explication of the word Nabi given in Buxtorf, that is, ‘a man to whom God revealeth secret’, is therefore worthy consideration, because it is a definition agree- able to the sense of Scripture throughout, which we entirely appeal to, and ought to acquiesce in, for the defining ‘a Prophet‘: ‘whether it be by Voice, or Dream, or Vision, or Inspiration, he to whom God revealeth secrets is a Prophet ; and any manner of such revelation does formally constitute him so.

§ 9. Having thus evinced from the three Hebrew words, signifying ‘Prophet‘, that there is not the least shadow from thence to fix upon it the definition of a person that FORETELLS; it must be acknowledged at the same time, that the Greek (which bears the next authority to the Hebrew, for the sense of the Old Testament) expresses the word ‘Prophet‘ by one that means in the obvious sense to foretell: and this, no doubt, has given occasion to the common acceptation of it in that sense. Wherefore, to reconcile this disagreement between the Hebrew and Greek terms, we are driven of necessity to have recourse to the Scripture sense annexed, and conjoined with the word ‘Prophet‘: And as this will appear from the subject at large of this treatise, we shall for the present here only take notice, that the Hebrew word Nabi, and the Greek, Prophet, are not absolutely so wide or distant in their signification, but they may both be reconciled so as easily to comport one with another without disagreement.

Taking it therefore for granted, that the Hebrew word properly means ‘one to whom God revealeth secrets‘, then it follows, that every man to whom God reveals himself, by what way so-ever, is a Prophet in the large and more extended sense of that word.

Now the Greek word προφητης (profitis), though in its usual and common acceptation it means a Foreteller, yet it does admit of another sense also; for proof whereof I appeal to the explication given us of that term in Pool‘s ‘Synopsis’, where, on Luke i. 67, the acceptation of that word by the critics is delivered thus;  στην προφητεία,  stin profiteia, in prophesy, is properly To SPEAK FOR or in the stead of another, as a Pro-consul stood in the place of the Consul, or a Vice-chancellor represents the Chancellor. In this sense, the Poets are called ‘Prophets of the Muses‘; that is, they speak by inspiration of the muses. Thus, to make known the will of God by revelation or mission from him, is to prophesy; in which sense Christ is a Prophet, and others.’

And in like manner was Aaron the prophet of Moses, Exod. iv. 16, vii. 1, where the words of God to Moses are, ‘Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet; he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people’. If, then, by this explication, Poets are called Prophets (confirmed by Titus i. 12), because speaking by inspiration of the Muses, and Aaron because speaking for and by direction of Moses; and others, even Christ himself, as speaking in the place and stead of God ; then the word ‘Prophet‘, by the Greek, means one that speaks by inspiration, or revelation from God; and how does this disagree with the Hebrew Nabi, ‘one to whom God revealeth‘ somewhat ?’ Only in this, that the Hebrew word expresses the prophet in his passive relation, wherein he receiveth a revelation from God ; the Greek in his active, wherein he yields himself instrumentally to utter it to men.

(To be continued)

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Appendix

The Tetractys of the physical senses

according to Robert Ambelain

Bottom row: Taste, Smell, Sight and Touch.

Second row: Imagination, Memory and Hearing

(notice Hearing-the fifth physical sense-is on the second row,

not with the other 4 physical senses)

Third row up: Clairvoyance & Clairaudience.

Fourth and final top row: Illumination.

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