[182] Isaiah x. 15; xi. 1; Zeph. iii. 12.
[183] Hosea xi. 1.
[184] Amos ix. 7.
[185] Ezekiel xvi. 3.
[186] It is interesting to note that, according to the record preserved by Israel of their own history, that which Kuenen says of later time,—that 'at each turning-point of the history stands a man who claims to bring a word from God.'—is exactly true of the older history too; Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, are all in this sense prophets. Yet there is no appearance of a later age forming a past in its own likeness. The prophets do not imagine an earlier row of prophets like themselves, put in like the portraits of the early Scottish kings at Holyrood, to fill the blanks of history. The early figures are not cut to prophetic pattern; they have each their distinct individuality of character and office, only they have a unity of Divine commission and service.
[187] Pensées, ii, 7 § 2.
[188] S. Matt. xii 45. It should be observed that the words were spoken of 'this wicked generation.'
[189] 1 Cor. i. 22.
[190] S. John iv. 25.
[191] S. Luke xvii. 20.