means certain. Some commentators even suppose him, though apparently upon very slight grounds, to have been the Obadiah, governor of Ahab's house, spoken of in 1. Kings xviii, as a servant (but not a prophet) of the Lord. But this is of little. consequence, and the less, inasmuch as his very short prophecy, does not appear to have any reference to Christ. Only the temporal deliverance of the Israelites, seems to be foretold; and if the salvation of Christ, be at all alluded to in it, it is eertainly in so dark a manner, as not to add much strength to the general expectation of him.

The prophet Jonah, who is next in the Bible order, lived nearly about the same time, with those who have already been mentioned. In the opinion of Blair how◄ ever, and some other eminent chronologers, he was the first of them; but the expression in the second verse of the first chapter of Hosea, The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, makes it more probable, that Hosea was the first of the series

of

of prophets, who flourished in the decline of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Those words however, are capable of a different construction, and the exact date is of little consequence. The book of Jonah is supposed, apparently upon strong internal evidence, not to have been written by himself, but to be a narrative of his mission by another, but unknown person. His prophecy had no reference to our Saviour, and his character was far from being good or amiable*; yet he was a type of Christ, and in that sense only it is necessary to consider him here. This is certain from our Lord's own words, Matt. xii. S9, &c, an evil and adulterous generation, seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given

* A singular circumstance attending him, is pointed out by Mr. Bryant. When he fled from the presence of the Lord, he went to Joppa a town belonging to the Philistines, where the object of worship was Dagon, under the form of an immense fish, and in this worship he is supposed to have joined. If so, his punishment was peculiarly ap propriate. This town was also the scene of the classic fable of Andromeda. Fuller's Pisgah.

to

to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For ds Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly: so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

In this sense then, Jonah was a type of our Lord; though as usual, this could not be understood, till Christ, his antitype appeared. But our Lord's argument went much farther, and was indeed a very powerful one against the Jews, who still refused to believe his divine mission. For as the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, who had worked no miracles to support his mission, the Jews were greatly more inexcusable in not believing Jesus, who had performed so many. But the sign of the prophet Jonas, was not completed, till our Saviour was risen again from the dead, after he had lain in the grave, as long as Jonah had done in the whale's belly and then this was indeed a sign to the Jews, that Jesus was the Christ, since he himself had put it to that test, and asserted an acknowledged fact in the

life of one of their own prophets, to be typical of himself*.

That such was really the design of this, and other remarkable events, in the lives of the prophets, appears from the words of God himself by Hosea. I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets; Hosea xii. 10. And the Jews themselves at the time, understood them to refer to a distant period. Wilt thou not tell us, said they, Ezek. xxiv. 19, what these things are to us, that thou doest so? And they would not believe, that the prophets foretold events near at hand, whatever pains

* Some commentators, especially within these few years Rosemuller, assert that the New Testament is of no authority in determining the sense of passages in the prophets supposed to relate to the Messiah. My persuasion is directly the reverse; and I think there can be no doubt that wherever a prophecy or type is cited by our Lord and his Apostles, as such, and the attention of the hearers called to the present accomplishment of it, that prophecy or type must be supposed to be completed by that event, and at that time. And I consider such citation, as the strongest proof of the divine origin, as well as of the fulfilling, of either type or prophecy.

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they

they took to convince them of it, when this really was the case, as it sometimes was. Behold they of the house of Israel say, the vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. Ezek. xii. 27. And therefore that prophet, despairing of being understood or believed, exclaimed, Ah Lord God, they say of me, doth he not speak parables? Ezek. xx. 49. And this was also the opinion of the later Jewish commentators *.

About twenty or thirty years after the before-mentioned prophets, Micah began to prophecy; and he is spoken of here, in order to continue the series of the minor prophets, as far as the captivity, though Isaiah is thought to have begun to prophecy before his time.

The principal part of the writings of Micah, consists of threats against the Jews

* See Kimchi, Israeli, and Maimonides, as quoted by Chandler, Chap. 3. Sect. 1.

+ These are called the twelve minor prophets, not because their writings are less authentic or valuable, than those of the four greater prophets, but because they are so much less in quantity.

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