18 
ISRAEL. 
restoration; of declaring the Divine judgments against the haughtiness of kings and people, 
and administering the hopes of mercy by an authority altogether above the diadem; a race 
of men were summoned, to whom none similar had existed in the history of the Gentile 
world, or even of Judaism. In the earlier ages, the prophetic spirit had been given only to 
individuals holding a memorable rank, and on memorable occasions: thus Jacob, on his 
death-bed, prophesied the fortunes of the twelve tribes; and thus Moses, within sight of 
death, prophesied the fortunes of the nation. But the inspired power was now to take a 
new form and a new extension. The prophets of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were 
to be called from every rank of life: some from the royal household, some from the schools 
of the prophets, and some even from the sheepfold and the plough. Their appeals were to 
be as varied as their origin, yet all eloquent and glowing; some pouring out the sternest 
strains of scorn and condemnation; some pathetic and solemn, soliciting “Judah to be 
saved,” and Israel to return to its King and its Father: all uttering a language which 
mankind had never heard before, which has never since been heard, but from inspiration, 
and which, in all ages, by its boldness, its majesty, and its truth, has vindicated the lips 
which spoke it, as touched with fire from heaven. 
Among all the conceptions which human pride has laboured to form of human capability, 
nothing has ever equalled the character of the Jewish prophet. The lofty fortitude, that 
devoted itself to the peril of arraigning the passions of monarchs and resisting the prejudices 
of nations; the not less lofty self-denial, that made his life a continual pilgrimage, untainted 
by the national corruption; the solemn sincerity with which he declared the whole counsel 
of the Almighty; and the magnificent elevation of heart and understanding, the ardour of 
feeling and the blaze of knowledge, which must have made his solitary hours glorious, form 
a character altogether above the stature of the world. In the Jewish prophet, we see the 
noblest gifts of our nature still more ennobled by their employment; man the immediate 
agent of Omnipotence; in his spirit and his life, exhibiting the humility of virtue; in his 
powers and his labours, making the nearest approach to those splendid beings, who are “ as 
the whirlwind and the flame of fire.” 
]j (i From the period of the Division, we see the prophets, without popular rank or royal 
commission, exercising, by the sole influence of their inspiration, the highest authority in 
the leading transactions of Judah and Israel; arbiters of peace and war; uttering the most 
fearless defiances in the face of a succession of monarchs frenzied with personal profligacy 
and the sense of unrestrained power: and asserting the majesty of Jehovah in the midst of 
altars flaming to idols, and nations pampered with every vice of heathenism. 
Even in the reign of Solomon, then in the pride of a long life of sovereignty, and the 
most splendid monarch of the world, Abijah the prophet came, to denounce the sins of 
king and people; to declare the division of the kingdom, the alienation of the ten tribes 
to a subject, and the reduction of the throne of David to a diminished and struggling 
sovereignty. 
