That it may have originated with him is certainly LECT. I. not impossible; yet if it be found in heathen writers who flourished in or shortly after his time, and who cannot, with any degree of probability, be supposed to have had any knowledge of his writings, it would seem more natural to conclude that it was employed by them in common, as already existing in the language. Now it does occur in Phocylides, or rather in the poet who wrote under his name in the reign of the Emperor Adrian, when describing the superior wisdom communicated by the gods, with which that which was merely human was not for a moment to be compared.* Plutarch also, who wrote much about the same time, speaks of 0εoπνέυστοι ὀνείροι, or such dreams as were obviously of supernatural origin; such as were so very extraordinary in their character, that they could not be referred to the class of common oneiric phenomena with which we are more or less familiar, but must be attributed to Divine influence. But though this identical term does not appear to have been in use among the earlier Greeks, their language teems with others similarly compounded, which are, in like manner, expressive of an action or influence of the Divinity on the human mind, corresponding analogically to that exerted on material objects

λόγος ἔρυμ' ἀνθρώπων

Τῆς δὲ ΘΕΟΠΝΕΥΣΤΟΥ σοφίης λόγος ἐστι ἄριστος.

LECT. 1. by the wind, particularly on vessels impelled before it at sea,-a Divine energy or afflatus, which the recipient or passive subject could not withstand, which took possession of him, filled him, excited him, bore him along, taught him, and enabled him to deliver doctrines, and perform actions, which transcended the limits of his ordinary powers and modes of operation.* Nor can it be doubted that it is in accommodation to the phraseology which he found in the Platonic philosophers, that Philo employs the participle KаTαπVevo@ev in reference to the noble endowments of Abraham, which he ascribes to the inhabitation of the Divine Spirit, whose influence had descended from above, and produced a complete change in his character.t

It is with similar reference, as significant of the supernatural gifts with which the Apostles were to be inspired, that our Lord is said to have "breathed upon them, évedúonoe”.

* Of these the following are a specimen: Oεodidakтos, Θεοφόρος, θεοφόρητος, θεοφορούμενος, θεοκίνητος, θεόληπτος, θεοφράδμων, θεοπρόπος, θεοδέγμων, θεόμαντις. Το express the same thing, the Greeks made use of the terms év0ɛoç, ¿πíπνοος, ἐπιπνευσθεν, πνευματοφόρος, ἐνθουσιῶν, ἐνθουσιασμένος, ἐνθουσιαστῆς, πεπνυμένος, ἀποδαιμονιζῶν, μαινομένος, μαινόλης,

&c.

† Οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁμιλίαις ἐχρῆτο ταῖς αὐταῖς, ἀλλ ̓ ἐπιθειάζων τὰ πολλὰ, σεμνοτέραις. Οπότε γοῦν κατασχεθείη, μετέβαλλε πάντα πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον, τὰς ὄψεις, τὴν χροιάν, τὸ μέγεθος, τὰς σχέσεις, τὰς κινήσεις, τὴν φωνήν· τοῦ θείου πνέυματος, ὅπερ ἄνωθεν και ταπνευσθὲν εἰσωκήσατο τῇ ψυχῇ. De Nobilitate, vol. ii. p. 442. Edit. Mangey.

accompanying the symbolical act with words of LECT. 1. corresponding import: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," πveûμa ayiov. (John xx. 22.) And when the important promise, thus solemnly made, was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, by the actual impartation of the extraordinary influences of that Divine agent, among other features of the wonderful phenomenon is enumerated " a sound "from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind,

1

ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας, which filled all "the house where" the disciples "were sitting." (Acts ii. 2.) It is true the term employed in this latter passage is not precisely that by which wind and spirit are expressed in common; but it is a derivative from the same theme, and seems to be used here with singular propriety in restriction to the symbol, in order to distinguish it from the thing signified, viz. the influence of the Holy Spirit with which the Apostles were then endued in so remarkable a degree, and from which effects of the most amazing character were to result.

On the same principle of analogy the Spirit of God is said in Scripture, n, to come or fall powerfully on those who were the subjects of miraculous agency, Judges xiv. 19; 1 Sam. x. 10; ÉTÉTEσe, Acts x. 44;, to rest or continue upon them, Num. xi. 26; 2 Kings ii. 15; ≥, to cover or invest them, Judges vi. 34; 1 Chron. xii. 18; (comp. évdúonole, Luke xxiv. 49;)

into them, Ezek. ii. 2; iii. 24;

Niz, to enter

h, to fill or

LECT. I. replenish them, Exod. xxviii. 3; xxxi. 3, (comp. ἐπλήσθησαν, Acts ii. 4; πλησθεῖς, iv. 8;) πης,

η,

to take them up, or bear them away, Ezek. iii. 12, 14;—all which sensible modes of expression are designed to teach us the divine origin, completeness, permanence, energy, and efficiency of the gifts with which the persons spoken of were endowed; just as the wind descends upon the earth, surrounds or fills the objects with which it is brought into contact, and imparts to them an impetus by which they are removed from their ordinary position, and impelled forward in the direction in which it blows. And it is in reference to the same physical action, or in terms borrowed from it, that the prophets are described as having made their communications, as they were moved or borne along by the Holy Ghost, ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι, 2 Pet. i. 21.

The exertion of this Divine influence is further spoken of under the idea of a hand falling or

,יַד יְהוָה נָפְלָה הָיְתָה עַל פ' ,being upon any one

case.

in which Hebrew usage there is the same metaphorical accommodation to physical conceptions or impressions which we have traced in the former Thus we read that the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel by the river Chebar, (ch. i. 3,) and that when the Spirit lifted him up and carried him away, and he went in bitterness in the heat of his spirit, the hand of the Lord was strong upon him, (iii. 14.) Similar language is employed by Isaiah when describing the powerful

impulse by which he was actuated on being LECT. I. supernaturally instructed respecting the manner

in which he was to discharge the duties of his office: "For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand," (ch. viii. 11.) We read also, 2 Kings iii. 15, "It came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon" Elisha, who, in consequence, immediately delivered a prophecy. The hand being the seat of power, or that member of the human body by which its strength is most efficiently exerted, it came to be regarded as the emblem of that quality; and in the oriental languages the term is frequently used in this tropical or metaphorical sense; so that by the phraseology which we have just quoted from the Old Testament, we are obviously to understand that the prophets became the subjects of a sudden and powerful impulse, by the influence of which their minds were prepared to receive, and strengthened and prompted to communicate, those revelations of the Divine will with which they were favoured.

The exertion of this extraordinary impulse was not, however, confined to those who were selected to be interpreters of the will of God; it was also vouchsafed to such as were raised up for the achievement of supernatural deeds in defence of the cause of the Most High. (Judges iii. 10; vi. 34.) Of this we have a remarkable instance in the case of Samson, in reference to whom we read, that "the Spirit of the Lord