VISION. This is said of the several ways by which God manifested himself to the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the other Saints. He sent them prophetick Angels, he appeared to them by Night in Dreams, he illuminated their Minds, he made his Voice to be heard by them, he sent them Ecstasies, and transported them beyond themselves, and made them hear things that Eye had not seen, nor Ear heard, nor had it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive. The Lord shews himself to Moses, and speaks to him when he was at the Mouth of the Cave. Jesus Christ manifests himself to his Apostles, in his Transfiguration upon Tabor, and on several other Occasions, after his Resurrection. God appeared to Abraham under the Form of three Travellers; he shewed himself to Esaias and to Ezekiel, in the Splendor of his Glory. And all this, in Scripture-style, goes by the Name of Vision.
The Lord appeared to Abraham in a Gen. xv. 1, 2, 5. Gen. xlvi. 2.Vision, and said to him, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. This happened in the Night, for he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. The Lord also appeared to Jacob by Night, and spoke to him; Audivit eum per visionem noctis vocantem se, &c. He told him, he need not scruple to go down into Egypt. When Moses perceived the Bush burnburn without being consumed, he said, I Exod. iii. 3. Numb. xii. 6, 7, 8.will now turn aside, and see this great sight, [or Vision] why the bush is not burnt. When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses, the Lord said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house: With him will I speak, mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. The false Prophet Balaam, whose Heart was so perverse, saith of himself, that he sees the Numb. xxiv. 14, 16.Visions of the Almighty: Qui visionem altissimi intuitus est. And indeed, God caused his Angel to appear to him, to stop him in his way, and to put in his Mouth several excellent Prophecies concerning the Coming of our Saviour. In the time of the 1 Sam. iii. 1. Luke i. 48. 1 Sam. ii. 21.High-Priest Eli, The Word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision: There was no acknowledged Prophet. And this may suffice to give a just Notion of what in Scripture is understood by Vision.
Visions are used for the Prophecies written by the Prophets. The Visions of Obadiah. Liber visionis Nahum, Visio Isaiæ filii Amos. Scriptum est in visione Addo videntis, &c.
Vision is also put for the Instructions or Maxims of Wisdom, contained in the thirtieth and thirty-first Book of the Proverbs. The first is ascribed to Agur, and the second to Lemuel. Verba congregantis (Heb. Agur.) filii vomentis, visio Prov. xxx. 1. xxxi. 1.quam locutus est vir cum quo est Deus. And Chap. xxxi. 1. Verba Lamuelis Regis, visio quâ erudivit eum mater sua.
Visio often signifies the bare Appearance of an Object, or what is seen by the Eyes. The Messiah will not judge according to Isai. xi. 3.Appearances: Non secundam visionem, oculorum judicabit. Ezekiel, describing the Throne of God, says, that the Wheels upon which it moved, resembled the Sea: Ezek. i. 16.Opus earum quasi visio maris. And elsewhere he says, that the Majesty of God appeared to him from the Back to the Feet, Ezek. viii. 2. Rev. iv. 3.as a Metal all in Fusion: Quasi visio electri. St. John, in his Revelations, says, that he saw about the Lord as it were a Rainbow, of the Colour of an Emerald: Similis visioni smaragdinæ.
Vision sometimes stands for the vain Prophecies of visionary People. The false Prophets had only deceitful Visions: Visionem Jerem. xxiii. 16. Mic. iii. 7.mendacem loquentur. Those that see Visions, or the Visionary, shall be confounded.
In some Passages Visions stand for the Spectres and Phantoms, that sometimes appear and frighten the Wicked. Moses Gen. xxi. 1. Deut. iv. 34.seems to hint at the dreadful Visions of this Nature which the Egyptians had, while their Country was involved in Darkness: Horribiles visiones juxta omnia quæ fecit Dominus in Ægypto. The Author Job iv. 13, &c.of the Book of Wisdom speaks plainly of them, Wisd. xvii. 9, 10. xviii. 19. Visiones enim quæ illos turbaverunt, hæc præmonebant, ne inscii quare mala patiebantur perirent. Eliphaz, in Job, describes the Fear with which he was seized, when the Spirit spoke to him in the Night. “In Thoughts “from the Visions of the Night, when “deep Sleep falleth upon Men; Fear “came upon me, and Trembling, which “made all my Bones to shake. Then a “Spirit passed before my Face, the Hair “of my Flesh stood up. It stood still, “but I could not discern the Form thereof; an Image was before mine Eyes, “there was Silence, and I heard a Voice.” See also JOB vii. 14.