(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spoke, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was formerly called a Seer.)
Read Chapter 9
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
I wonder how that opinion could have arisen whereby sight is thought to belong to bodies only. But, from whatever habit of speech that opinion may have come, the holy Scriptures are not accustomed to speak thus; they attribute vision not only to the body but also to the spirit, and more to the spirit than to the body. Otherwise they would not have been right in giving the name seers to the prophets who saw the future not by bodily but by spiritual sight. - "Letter 147.50"
For with what reason should the prophet be called a prophet, unless he in spirit foresaw the future? For if the prophet spoke of any chance event, he would not be a prophet then in speaking of things which were under the eye of all. But one who sets forth in detail things yet to be, was rightly judged a prophet. Wherefore prophets were with good reason called from the very first “seers.” - "On the Antichrist 2"
The church has real eyes: manifestly its churchmen and teachers who see in holy Writ the mysteries of God, and to them applies the scriptural appellation of “seer.” It is correct, then, to call these seers the eyes of the church. - "Homilies on Matthew 85"
In him [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He also who was hidden in a mystery is the same that was foreordained before the world. Now it was in the law and in the prophets that he was foreordained and prefigured. For this reason too the prophets were called seers, because they saw him whom others did not see. - "Letter 53.4"