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Honour of God, might always be provided SER M, with fuitable Forms of Adoration and Praise, for his Worship and Service. Not but that this Practice (like other Duties of Religion) had a natural Tendency to facilitate and pro mote a Progress in their Studies. For by fuch a conftant and daily Ufe of Pfalmody, they kept themselves continually in fuch due Temper of Mind, as might the better fit them for the Divine Breathings of the Prophetick Spirit, which being of a mild, and free, and gentle, Nature, would not confort with Sadness, or melancholy and turbulent Paffions, but always chofe an easy, calm, and chearful, Difpofition *, Of this we have à remarkable Inftance in Elifba, 2 Kings ii. 915, who, though he poffeffed a double Portion of this Spirit, yet could 'not exert it whilft his Paffions were difordered, but was forced to wait till he was calm and easy: For fo we read, that upon fome Indignation that he had conceived against the King of Ifrael, he could not prophesy unto the King of Judab,

* See Smith on Prophecy, in his Sele& Difcourfes, p. 245π 250. The Chevalier Ramsay also observes from Strabo lib. 17. That the Schools of the Magi amongst the Perfians looked upon Mufick as fomething heavenly, and proper to calm the Paffions, and to put the Soul into a Serenity fit for Meditation : For which Reason they always began and concluded the Day by Concerts. Travels of Cyrus. Vol. I. p. 78, 79. Edit. 4. 1730. till

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SER M. till he was foothed again and quieted by the Help of a Minstrel. As the LORD of Hofts liveth (faith he) before whom I ftand; furely were it not that Iregard the Prefence of feboshaphat the King of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor fee thee: But now bring me a Minstrel And it came to pass, when the Minstrel played, that the Hand of the LORD, i. e. the Spirit of Prophecy, came upon him, chap. iii. 14, 15.C

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hOne End therefore, we may fuppofe, of their applying themselves fo diligently to the Ufe of Pfalmody and Mufick, was to keep themselves ferene, and void of fuch Diftur. bances, as might be a Let or Hindrance to this peaceable Spirit. Over and above which, it is likewife reafonable to believe, that it alfo conduced to the communicating of this Influence from the Prophet to the Hearers: wiz.: by working up the Thoughts and Imaginations of their Difciples to a Sympathy with their own; by which means their InAtruction and Principles would be more eafily instilled, and the Spirit itself more readily conveyed. The Cafe of Saul is a very remarkable Inftance of this: Who coming to the Hill of God, and there hearing the Prophets prophefying in the manner described above,

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was turned directly into another Man, bis HeartS ERM. being changed, and be prophefying among ft. them, 1 Sam. x. 9, 10. The very fame Event which happened first to his Meffengers, and then again to himself, fome time afterwards, when he would have fetched David by Force from among the Prophets at Naioth, ch. xix. 2024. From this powerful Influence upon fuch as oppofed themselves as Enemies to the Holy Spirit of GOD; we may guess what Energy and Force it must have upon those who were predisposed to receive it. And indeed that fuch a Method must be very inftrumental to raise an Agreement and Sympathy of Mind; we may partly judge from those fmall Refemblances of it which we ourselves have fometimes felt, when from a chearful and free overflowing of Reafon in an intelligible, but yet unexpected, way, in a Perfon who has difcourfed to us upon a Subject perhaps unknown to us before; we have perceived, even without these extraordinary Helps, like Thoughts and Sentiments to arife in ourselves.

But I need not inlarge any further upon this: My principal Defign in it being only to fhew, that even the Methods of Education, that appear to have been used in the. Prophe

SER M. tick Schools, are a fufficient Proof that the

II. previous Difpofitions and Qualifications for Prophecy were what the Sons of the Prophets were inftructed in, and trained up to, by Dif cipline and Ufe.

It will be neceffary however to proceed a little further to fhew that the other Parts of the Prophetick Office, as well as this which I have now been mentioning, were what the Difciples or Sons of the Prophets were inftructed in and practifed. This may partly be inferred from the Duties they were put upon, whilft they were only Probationers under the Tuition of their Governors or Guides: By which it seems they were often employed as their Deputies or Proxies to execute their Orders, and to do fome leffer Of fices in their stead: which, be fure, was done, not fo much to fpare the Labour of the Prophet, as to teach their Scholars the Business, to which they themselves might hope to be one Day or other called. Thus, for instance, we find one of the Children of the Prophets employed by Elifba to anoint Jebu the Son of Jehoshaphat to be King over Ifrael, 2 Kings ix. Though the principal Business to which thefe Students applied themselves was undoubtedly the Study of the Law of God, in

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order to teach and explain it to the People, SERM, For that this was an Office which the Prophets performed we may learn from the Queftion which the good Shunammite was asked by her Husband, when the was going to Elisha to implore his Affiftance for the raifing of her Child: Wherefore (faith he) wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither New-Moon nor Sabbath, 2 Kings iv. 25. which evidently alludes to a Refort of the People to the Prophet at those folemn Times, for the instructing and directing them in the Will of God. And it is fuppofed to have been in right of this Part of his Function, that the Man from Baarfhalifha, ver. 42. mentioned a little lower, brought to him the Offering of the First Fruits of bis Corn, Numb. xviii. 12. For the First Fruits, by the Law, were to be given to the Priests. But the Priests having been driven away from the Ten Tribes ever fince Jeroboam's fetting up his Calves at Be thel and Dan, 2 Chron. xi. 14. it is not improbable but that the Maintenance that was used to be given to them, might be now brought to the Prophets, who took the Care of instructing the People in their ftead.

And indeed Preaching and declaring the Duties of Religion is fo very proper to the Business