a
prophet but a seer, [I know not what is the Hebrew word that corresponds
to the word seer in English; but I observe it is translated into French
by Le Voyant, from the verb voir to see, and which means the person who
sees, or the seer.--Author.]

[The Hebrew word for Seer, in 1 Samuel ix., transliterated, is
chozeh, the gazer, it is translated in Is. xlvii. 13, "the
stargazers."--Editor.] (i Sam, ix. 9;) and it was not till after the
word seer went out of use (which most probably was when Saul banished
those he called wizards) that the profession of the seer, or the art of
seeing, became incorporated into the word prophet.

According to the modern meaning of the word prophet and prophesying, it
signifies foretelling events to a great distance of time; and it became
necessary to the inventors of the gospel to give it this latitude of
meaning, in order to apply or to stretch what they call the prophecies
of the Old Testament, to the times of the New. But according to the Old
Testament, the prophesying of the seer, and afterwards of the prophet,
so far as the meaning of the word "seer" was incorporated into that of
prophet, had reference only to things of the time then passing, or very
closely connected with it; such as the event of a battle they were going
to engage in, or of a journey, or of any enterprise they were going to
undertake, or of any circumstance then pending, or of any difficulty
they were then in; all of which had immediate reference to themselves
(as in the case already mentioned of Ahaz and Isaiah with respect to the
expression, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,) and not
to any distant future time. It was that kind of prophesying that
corresponds to what we call fortune-telling; such as casting nativities,
predicting riches, fortunate or unfortunate marriages, conjuring for
lost goods, etc.; and it is the fraud of the Christian church, not that
of the Jews, and the ignorance and the superstition of modern, not that
of ancient times, that elevated those poetical, musical, conjuring,
dreaming, strolling gentry, into the rank they have since had.

But, besides this general character of all the prophets, they had also
a particular character. They were in parties, and they prophesied for
or against, according to the party they were with; as the poetical and
political writers of the present day write in defence of the party they
associate with against the other.

After the Jews were divided i