XL

Moses ( Numb. 11:16), “Gather to me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people.” To these God imparted His spirit; but it was not a different spirit from that of Moses; for it is said (verse 25), “God came down in a cloud, and took of the spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the seventy elders.” But as I have shown before ( chap. XXXVI ) by “spirit” is understood the “mind”; so that the sense of the place is no other than this, that God endued them with a mind conformable and subordinate to that of Moses, that they might prophesy, that is to say, speak to the people in God’s name, in such manner, as to set forward, as ministers of Moses and by his authority, such doctrine as was agreeable to Moses his doctrine. For they were but ministers; and when two of them prophesied in the camp, it was thought a new and unlawful thing; and as it is in verses 27 and 28 of the same chapter, they were accused of it, and Joshua advised Moses to forbid them, as not knowing that it was by Moses his spirit that they prophesied. By which it is manifest that no subject ought to pretend to prophesy, or to the spirit, in opposition to the