That is to say,it was in the purpose of God the Father to send God the Son into the world to enlighten men in the way of eternal life;but it was not till then put in execution,and actually incarnate;so that our Saviour is there called the Word,not because he was the promise,but the thing promised.They that taking occasion from this place do commonly call him the Verb of God do but render the text more obscure.They might as well term him the Noun of God:for as by noun,so also by verb,men understand nothing but a part of speech,a voice,a sound,that neither affirms,nor denies,nor commands,nor promiseth,nor is any substance corporeal or spiritual;and therefore it cannot be said to be either God or man;whereas our Saviour is both.And this Word which St.John in his Gospel saith was with God is,in his first Epistle,called the "Word of life";and "the Eternal Life,which was with the Father":so that he can be in no other sense called the Word than in that wherein He is called Eternal Life;that is,he that hath procured us eternal life by his coming in the flesh.So also the Apostle,speaking of Christ clothed in a garment dipped in blood,saith his name is "the Word of God,"which is to be understood as if he had said his name had been "He that was come according to the purpose of God from the beginning,and according to His word and promises delivered by the prophets."So that there is nothing here of the incarnation of a word,but of the incarnation of God the Son,therefore called the Word,because his incarnation was the performance of the promise;in like manner as the Holy Ghost is called the Promise.
There are also places of the Scripture where by the Word of God is signified such words as are consonant to reason and equity,though spoken sometimes neither by prophet nor by a holy man.For Pharaoh Necho was an idolater,yet his words to the good King Josiah,in which he advised him by messengers not to oppose him in his march against Carchemish,are said to have proceeded from the mouth of God;and that Josiah,not hearkening to them,was slain in the battle;as is to be read II Chronicles,35.21,22,23.It is true that as the same history is related in the first Book of Esdras,not Pharaoh,but Jeremiah,spake these words to Josiah from the mouth of the Lord.
But we are to give credit to the canonical Scripture whatsoever be written in the Apocrypha.
The Word of God is then also to be taken for the dictates of reason and equity,when the same is said in the Scriptures to be written in man's heart;as Psalms,37.31;Jeremiah,31.33;Deuteronomy,30.11,14,and many other like places.
The name of prophet signifieth in Scripture sometimes prolocutor;that is,he that speaketh from God to man,or from man to God:and sometimes predictor,or a foreteller of things to come:and sometimes one that speaketh incoherently,as men that are distracted.It is most frequently used in the sense speaking from God to the people.So Moses,Samuel,Elijah,Isaiah,Jeremiah,and others were prophets.And in this sense the high priest was a prophet,for he only went into the sanctum sanctorum to enquire of God,and was to declare his answer to the people.And therefore when Caiaphas said it was expedient that one man should die for the people,St.John saith that "He spake not this of himself,but being high priest that year,he prophesied that one man should die for the nation."Also they that in Christian congregations taught the people are said to prophesy.In the like sense it is that God saith to Moses concerning Aaron,"He shall be thy spokesman to the people;and he shall be to thee a mouth,and thou shalt be to him instead of God":that which here is spokesman is,Exodus,7.1,interpreted prophet:"See,"saith God,"I have made thee a god to Pharaoh,and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet."In the sense of speaking from man to God,Abraham is called a prophet where God in a dream speaketh to Abimelech in this manner,"Now therefore restore the man his wife,for he is a prophet,and shall pray for thee";whereby may be also gathered that the name of prophet may be given not unproperly to them that in Christian churches have a calling to say public prayers for the congregation.In the same sense,the prophets that came down from the high place,or hill of god,with a psaltery,and a tabret,and a pipe,and a harp,Saul amongst them,are said to prophesy,in that they praised God in that manner publicly.In the like sense is Miriam called a prophetess.So is it also to be taken where St.Paul saith,"Every man that prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered,"etc.,and every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered":for prophecy in that place signifieth no more but praising God in psalms and holy songs,which women might do in the church,though it were not lawful for them to speak to the congregation.And in this signification it is that the poets of the heathen,that composed hymns and other sorts of poems in the honor of their gods,were called vates,prophets,as is well enough known by all that are versed in the books of the Gentiles,and as is evident where St.Paul saith of the Cretans that a prophet of their own said they were liars;not that St.Paul held their poets for poets for prophets,but acknowledgeth that the word prophet was commonly used to signify them that celebrated the honour of God in verse.
When by prophecy is meant prediction,or foretelling of future contingents,not only they were prophets who were God's spokesmen,and foretold those things to others which God had foretold to them;but also all those impostors that pretend by the help familiar spirits,or by superstitious divination of events past,from false causes,to foretell the like events in time to come:of which (as I have declared already in the twelfth Chapter of this discourse)there be many kinds who gain in the opinion of the common sort of men a greater reputation of prophecy by one casual event that may be but wrested to their purpose,than can be lost again by never so many failings.