^■Vi f.l p ^ i ; 1 T ?/ !=■■; f ^- ■^^ ■-^^\IJ 1 1 ^^ LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. I Accessions No. :>-y ^C -2^ Shelf No. t^ ; THE #(neral )3eltt0ton of €'bvi^tmm. TOUCHING THE WAYS OF GOD'S REVEALING HIMSELF TO AND LETS, scRiFTim^^af^WfO^^ ; AND MANY PRINCIPLES OP SCOFFERS, ATHEISTS, SADDUCEES, AND WILD ENTHUSIASTS, REFUTED. _•: - r/ ,' r/ J -jrj,r. — -tr^-- ' C|)e to]^oU atl^tetr, ajl mv^ ais pojiKible, to ^z tmamieit tapafitj. IN FOUR PARTS. Prophecy came not [« h^y^-A^ was not, or is brought] at any time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake [ij>£f(Jyu«vo/], being violently moved by [uW under] the Holy Spirit. LONDON: PRINTED MDCCXIII. REPUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE ; AND SOLD BY L. B. SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET STREET. MDCCCXXXII. 7fo ELLERTON AND HENDERSON, PRINTERS, GOUGH SQUARE, LONDON. CONTENTS PREFACE .•••..•••••.•••.•••«•.•••«••**•••••••• •«• »page iz PART I. A minute Inquiry into the Scripture^ touching the several Ways used of God in revealing himself; namely j the Apparition of Angels, Divine Dreams, Prophetic Visions, Voices heard, and Inspiration. Wherein the original Text is carefully heeded, and illustrated from the most ancient and universally esteemed Versions of it, and explained also from the most learned Annotators thereon. CHAP. I. Introduction. — Our Knowledge of God is imperfect by Revelation, and much more by natural Reason page 1 There was something unaccountable for, by natural Reason, in the Way and Manner of revealing; proved from the opposition and contempt of it by those who were most distinguished for human wisdom .... 6 Natural Reason is perverted, when constituted alone as a judge decisive of Revelation ; because its innate and accidental infirmities do inca- pacitate for such a seat of tribunal 12 CHAP. II. We are bound to believe the invisible agency of Angels, asserted in Scripture, to be continually over us : therefore to disbelieve the same when visible is inconsistent • 24 Neither is bodily hurt received upon the appearance of an Angel, nor every familiarity on his part to man, inconsisting with the minis- tration of a celestial one 28 Angels have often assumed the style of the Deity 32 CHAP. III. Disquietude of Mind upon a Vision or Dream no argument against its Divinity .•••••! 38 Many peculiar Honours stamped upon the manifestation by Dream . . 39 Divine Dreams and Visions not always understood at the time of receiving them 4:5 CHAP. IV. Sounds of Terror formed by the Spirit of God 48 Voices angelical or Divine, very terrible sometimes 49 Dark Speeches usual to the Spirit of Prophecy 50 The most bright Communication Divine to Moses was through the ministry of an Angel ib. IV CONTENTS. CHAP. V. The word Visionair^ or Seer, of equal authority with that of Prophet, throughout the Old Testament page 56 Some miraculous Variations of Natural Objects in their Appearance. . 58 Thick Darkness, in a Prophetic Manifestation, consistent with the SpiritofGod 59 Visions often seen without Ecstasy attending ;••*.•• ^^ The Worship of God, as revealed, was built upon Vision primarily after the Flood 62 God has revealed himself to Persons the most Unholy 64 Visions not seen with the Natural Eye 65 The Meanness of Things represented by Vision does not make it less from God 66 Angels do appear in several Forms different from the human 70 CHAP. VI. A Supernatural Impression on the Senses of Taste and Smell 74 The Scripture sense of the word Prophet is not specifical of predicting 80 Revelation under the Gospel communicated with Terror 83 Prophetical Ecstasies in the Old and New Testament largely explained to evince a Spirit on the Prophet 85 Prophesying by Signs in the Scriptures largely treated on ; proving also a Spirit superior on him 91 The Prophet in Scripture was visibly moved or agitated by a Spirit, both in the New and in the Old Testament 96 Inspiration Prophetic might be, either under the New or Old Testa- ment, by the Hand or Influence of an Angel 99 The Utterance and Words were often inspired to the Prophet as well as the Sense . c 128 PART II. Extract from most of the Writers now extant unto the Time of Constantine ; shewing from them that the Spirit of Prophecy continued to be publicly acknowledged existing for three hundred Years at least. CHAP. I. All Preachers in Christian Assemblies not prophetically inspired during the Apostolic Age 'page 132 There were many called Apostles besides the Twelve named by our . Lord 133 CHAP. II. The full and clear sense of the word Paraclete, rendered the Com- forter, promised to the church by our Lord 140 The Bishop of Lincoln's Testimony, that the Gifts prophetical, to women as well as men, continued in the church after the age of the Apostles 143 The Tracts of Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, enrolled in the New Testament for four hundred years .. ,,, J45 CONTENTS. V The Volume of the New- Testament Scriptures not limited to the number of Tracts now in it until a.d. 500 page 147 The Manner and Ways of the Spirit of Prophecy, exhibited from the Tracts of Barnabas, Clement, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp .... 148 CHAP. III. N.B. By the quotations preceding in this Part, and from all those hereunder following, not only the Spirit of prophecy is acknowledged publicly ex- istent for more than three hundred years in the Christian church, but several things in the manner and privileges thereof (not here observed) are more particularly described. Prophets mentioned by Eusebius, who, with those in the preceding article, do prove prophecy existing unto a.d. 150 -page 160 Different Degrees in the Gift of Prophecying, from Mr. Dodwell .... 165 Diversity in the very Gifts of Prophecy, from Dr. Hicks 167 Justin Martyr declares the Gift of Prophecy publicly refulgent unto A.D. 170 169 About A.D. 180, Athenagoras, and the Churches of Lyons and Vienne, declare to the same effect 171 That the Gift of Prophecy abounded in Christian churches unto a.d, 200, appears from Irenaeus 172 CHAP. IV. Of the Pre-eminences and some possible Defects of the Spirit of prophecy, by Mr. Dodwell 175 Several Marks and Privileges of the prophetic Spirit in the second and third centuries, by Mr. Dodwell ,.,. 177 Several Uses, Ends, and Ways of the prophetical Spirit in the churches of the same time, by Dr. Whitby 182 The first apparent Decrease of the extraordinary Gifts was between the years 220 and 250 184 After the year 200, many Evangelists mentioned by Eusebius r 185 The Martyrology of Perpetua and others acknowledges new Visions and Prophecyings unto a.d. 220 186 Natalius and Potamiana, and other public Testimonies of Vision in Eusebius about the same time 187 A great number of Witnesses to Vision, for edification of the churches at Rome and Jerusalem, about A..D. 240 - 188 Several Testimonies of Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, to the Spirit of Prophecy, about a.d. 260 190 Some Manifestations of a Visionary Light frequent in these times. . . . 193 Tertullian, who lived to a.d. 230, testifies the Gifts of the Spirit public in his time 194 Theophilus and Minutius Felix are authors witnessing to the like to a.d. 240 196 The Gifts of Prophecy publicly exercised in the age of Origen, namely, unto a.d. 255 198 Large Evidences of Revelation given by St. Cyprian in his time .... 201 Rigaltius's Observations upon the Ecstasies and Dreams in Cyprian's time 209 Arnobius, Lactantius, and Julius Firmicus, with others, prove the extraordinary Gifts subsisting unto the year 300, and afterwards. . . . 211 Towards the latter end of this period. Christians became generally scoffers at revelation and the ways of the prophetic Spirit 213 Vt CONTENTS. PART III. Imports that the Spirit which was condemned by some Churches^ during the said Ages, under the Name of Montanism,for diabolical^ was probably, hy all that appears of it upon any good Authority, the true Spirit of Prophecy. CHAP. I. The second and third centuries did acknowledge that there were out- ward visible signs of a Spirit moving the prophets, among Christians page 219 Several Functions of the then Prophets in the churches or public assemblies 224 The falling away, 2 Thess. ii. 3, explained 226 The falling away or apostasy in the Christian church went on increasing from the Apostolic age 227 A summary Account of the Inspired, nick-named Montanists, by Dr. Hicks 232 The Christian prophet spake in the name and person of God 238 An Account of the Prophets nick-named Montanists, by Godfrey Arnold, a Lutheran Minister 240 The Spirit of Prophecy properly a Reprover 241 CHAP. 1 1. The Fourteen Articles, whereon the Spirit of Montanus, and others, was condemned • 248 That a prophet is false who is not owned by the existing church, dis- proved • 249 The Spirit of Montanus, &c. not condemned by the churches generally 251 That the Spirit of Prophecy must be communicated from men, disproved 260 The Montanists falsely accused to have pretended to greater prero- gatives than the Apostles 262 The Spirit of Montanus, &c. owned to have had most, if not all the properties of the Divine Spirit; and yet taxed inconsistently with having no demonstration at all 265 The Spirit of Montanus groundlessly charged with enforcing of Legal Observances «• • • • 268 The same Spirit charged for diabolical, because it pretended to eminent holiness 269 The Montanists falsely charged with scandalous Vices 270 The Montanists falsely taxed with taking of Bribes 271 That the Scripture forbids a prophet to receive gifts or money, proved false 274 The Montanists wrongfully charged again in Article IX. . . . • -^ ' 275 The Spirit of these prophets Nyrongfully charged with avoiding sufferings 276 The persecutors of Montanus manifestly aimed to suppress prophecy in general - 278 Some outward manifestation of a Spirit on the prophets owned then even by their accusers 280 Whether the Divine Spirit may not suppress for a time the exercise of reason and the sense, discussed 284 "Whether by the Scripture a prediction of the Spirit may not fail of accomplishment, discussed ..••••.... 287 The Montanists falsely accused for setting up a new order of discipline inthechurch 292 CONTENTS. CHAP. III. Clear Proofs enumerated of the conderaners of Montanus, their being vilifiers and quenchers of the Spirit page 299 The great Guilt of rejecting, despising, or quenching the Spirit of Pro- phecy 305 CHAP. IV. Some lesser Reasons of condemning the Montanists, examined 323 The Opposers of the Spirit expunged the Revelations of St. John out of their New Testament - 327 The Opposers of the Spirit then were erroneous in Doctrine 328 These Opposers wrongfully disannulled the Baptism of the Montanists 332 These Opposers were Scoffers of Sacred Things, under the Cloak of vain Philosophy 334 These Opposers turned Persecutors under the Reign of Constantine . . 339 The final Extinguishing of Prophecyings by a General Council, examined 34<3 These Ages (so quenching of Prophecy) did alter and corrupt the Text of Scripture 348 PART IV. Gives an Account of many now-a-days prevailing PrincipleSy touching the Spirit of Prophecy, which are proved to be antiscriptural, and which nevertheless are taken to be decisive, in the Trial of Spirits. CHAP. I. The Scriptures a perfect Standard to measure and judge of Prophecy 352 No Man ought to judge for or against Prophecy by any other Rule, and ought to be determined by that 358 The Danger in our Age of Infidelity in Revelation 365 CHAP. II. The Church of England does not hold Prophetic Inspiration to be ceased for ever 366 The Gift of Prophecy was not appointed for any time limited 370 New Prophecying does not undermine or supersede the Scriptures. . . . 372 That there be many Promises in the New Testament of the Spirit, in- definite for time 373 To say. There is no need of Prophets, is an Arrogancy, and an un- scriptural Usurpation on God 380 To say, God will not send them, because we should not receive them, is unscriptural 382 That no VVoman can be authorized to Prophecy, is a doctrine anti- scriptural 383 That God never revealed Himself to Children, disproved by Scripture 385 That an Holy Spirit cannot make a Quotation from an Heathen Author, refuted in Doctrine IX 387 To inveigh against the Clergy, proves a Man not to be acted by the Divine Spirit, disproved • ib. Improprieties in any Language prove it not to be from God, confuted 388 The Holy Spirit never would speak in a Language unknown to the Hearers, confuted 390 No sort of Impressions inward or outward, by Vision, Voice, &c., can Vlil CONTENTS. have any certainty, is a doctrine wholly infidel, and overthrows the authority of Scripture page 391 Whenever God sent Prophets, He always gave them power to work Signs and Wonders, disproved • 397 Every Prophet is bound to prove his Inspirations by Miracles, or we are bound to reject him, though he be really inspired, is a doctrine merely human and unscriptural 401 No Man is to be believed a Prophet without the brightest holiness, confuted ••• 405 Actions that become not a Man of Gravity, cannot come from the Spirit of God, answered 409 Prophets are to be subject in their prophesying to Human Order, re- futed 413 Visions of difficult Explication are to be rejected, disproved ..... . . . 415 Threatening of Judgments upon Opposers cannot be of God, antiscrip- tural , 4J8 Great part of the Scripture was composed with Human Care and Study, answered 419 The Claim of Inspiration is an Affectation of Tyranny over the Under- standings of Men, answered 421 Using of the written Word is inconsistent with Inspiration, refuted . . 425 The Knowledge of Men's Thoughts does not prove a Spirit to be Divine, answered ^ ib. CHAP. III. Recapitulation of the General Scheme ■= 429 Reverence to the Prophetic Voice proved a New- Testament Duty. . . . 431 Protestants, as such, are bound to practise this Duty 438 Several Uses and Benefits of the Spirit of Prophecy to the Church. . . . 445 Sadducism, the principal Delusion of this Age, by Benjamin Camfield, Minister 450 The said Delusion more and more daily increasing 457 CHAP. IV. The Conclusion. — A Citation from Mr. Locke, touching the due use of Reason 458 Another of like kind from Sir Charles Wolsely, in respect to Revelation 461 The regular way of inquiring into, and judging of Revelation, by Dr. Goodman 463 A Summary Recollection of the Scope of this Treatise 466 Seventy Unwarrantable Opinions commonly received, touching the Ways of God revealing 475 Mr. Le Clerc's, and others, Objections to the Inspiration of many parts of Scripture 479 Two Citations from Mr. John Hales, of Eaton College 482 Many peculiar Prejudices of the Clergy to the Spirit of Prophecy, in- stanced ^ 488 Every Man ought therefore to judge for himself 491 PREFACE. Although the style of the following treatise is diffuse, it was considered better to reprint it without abridgment. It was written in answer to a volume consisting of three parts ; the first entitled " The Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised," by Dr. Hickes; the second, " an History of Montanism," by a Lay Gentleman, said to be Mr. Lee ; the third, " The new Pretenders to Prophecy examined," by Mr. Spinkes. Both this volume, and the answer to it now reprinted, arose out of the celebrity which the persons, commonly called " French Prophets," had attained at the beginning of the last century. It would be foreign to the purpose in hand to enter into a more detailed account of those un- happy fanatics, or of the arguments by which their preten- sions were supported, or opposed : but it is not unworthy of remark to any who should be tempted to waste their time in examining into the subject, that there was scarcely any reference made to Scripture by the disputants on either side ; and it is hard to say whether the reasons adduced for them, or against them, are the more unsatisfactory. The most probable solution of the history is, that God did vouchsafe to afford supernatural support of various kinds to several of His servants who were witnessing to His truth against the abominations of the Papacy in the moun- tains of the Cevennes, to which they had fled at the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantz ; that some of the indivi- duals so honoured did abuse their gifts, like the Corin- thians of old ; that others affected, by enthusiasm or excitement, to possess similar powers ; that Satan enabled certain of his servants to imitate the servants of God, and to do wonders also ; and thus the work considered as a whole presented such confusion and predominance of positive evil, that it is impossible now to separate the gold from the dross, or scarcely to recognise any of the precious metal. It appears that, when the Refugees from that per- secution came to England, some of these pretenders to the prophetic gift arrived also ; and possibly one or two of those who at the commencement were really moved by the Holy X PREFACE. Spirit, came with theai. Their fruits soon proved the nature of the stock on which they grew : but while the French Prophets themselves are not to be defended for a moment, it must not be denied that most of the grounds on which they were attacked were untenable. The short and sufficient answer to them would have been, that their doctrine was contrary to the written word, and that their conduct was immoral : instead of which, they were assailed by arguments that would have been equally efficacious, if valid at all, against many facts recorded in Scripture. At the same time the calm spirit, tone, and manner in which this imposture was treated a century ago, when there was not the vain boasting of religion, and of the profession of Christian love that prevails now, forms a striking contrast with the flippancy, misrepresentation, and malevolence that has marked the attacks recently levelled against the claims to supernatural power at present put forth. It was to reply to these anti-scriptural arguments, and not to defend any particular manifestations, that the following treatise was written : and it is equally applicable to these days, because arguments equally anti-scriptural are daily broached by those who arraign the manifestations of super- natural power now seen in various parts of Great Bri- \ tain ; and whatever may be the validity of any particular claim, anti-scriptural reasonings must be prejudicial to every branch of revealed truth. — The writer sometimes pushes his arguments too far, and occasionally presses into his service authorities which hardly bear him out. Nevertheless it is well adapted to the present time, when it is particu- larly necessary to disabuse men's minds of their prejudices concerning God's ways of revealing himself, and when the 1 church has become insensible, beyond all former example, to any actual converse with the invisible world. That this last assertion may be perceived not to be the groundless regret of an ordinary laudator temporis acti it is only necessary to reflect, that this age is admitted by all to be peculiarly the reverse of credulous : the philosophers ob- serve it with exultation ; and the w^hole course of training which is given to youth is considered perfect, in proportion as it reduces all things to the level of the reasoning of a child. Whatever is the prevailing characteristic of the world at any period, an infusion of similar principles is also the be- setting sin of the church at that time ; whether sensuality. PREFACE. XI superstition, or intellectual pride, in opposition to humble faith. If then, as the French philosopher remarks, ce siede si philosophe, si raisonneur, si peu dispose aux mcr- veilles; if, as Dr. Bell observes in his Inaugural Lec- ture, there is a necessary tendency in scientific pursuits to generate scepticism on all subjects that cannot be made objects of personal experiment ; and if want of faith is to be the peculiar characteristic of the church at the time of the Lord's return to the earth, we can have no doubt that the besetting sin of Christians at the present day is to reject every thing in religion which is not in- telligible to their reason, — thatis, in fact, to believe nothing upon the bare unsupported testimony of God — to believe as much of the Bible as history can vouch for, and no more. The polytheism of the ancient heathen invested every department of nature with its attendant deities : the mountains and the valleys, the hills and the plains, the trees and the flowers, the sea and the rivers, were all peopled with spiritual beings. The Jews had their good and bad angels for constant attendants, sorcerers, necro- mancers, magicians, and familiar spirits : the Rosicrucian philosophy filled all places with gnomes and sylphs : the Christian legends abound with paynims, giants, fairies, and witches : these, and such as these, were the stock subjects of conversation in every nursery, and in every school from the days of Noah until the beginning of the present century. Miss H. More, Mr. Babington, and Miss Edgeworth first effected a complete revolution in the educa- tion of children ; and without discussing the comparative merits or demerits of the change, it is enough to state the indisputable fact, that the Arabian Nights have been sup- planted by Joyce's Scientific Dialogues, and the Castle of Otranto by Conversations on Chemistry, Botany, and Po- litical Economy. The poetry of the day is entirely void of any spiritual machinery, such as abounds in Shakespear, Spencer, or Milton : the most popular writer. Sir Walter Scott, is not only a very matter-of-fact person in his own productions, but has also written expressly to shew that all the stories of demonology and witchcraft are to be re- solved into organic diseases of the brain, the eye, or the ear. In rehgious writings, the influences of the Spirit are mentioned a hundred times for once that we hear of the Person of the Holy Ghost dwelling in men. In like manner, of the evil suggestions of the devil we hear often, but ^_ /y^ XU PREFACE. scarcely ever of a personal spirit actually residing in many individuals. Thus all idea of any connexion between an invisible vi^orld of many millions of spirits, and this world containing many millions of men liable to be possessed, suct coured, or harassed by them, has died out of the minds of mankind as completely as the worship of Jupiter and Saturn ; and they will consent to God being supreme in the world of spirits, only upon condition that He does not interfere with, but leaves them to govern as they please, the world that is seen. The climax of the system is found in the religious works of greatest repute in these days, where arguments are stated and defended which were never found before in the writings of any but professed infidels ; such as, that we ought to look for " any solution of a miracle" rather than believe that God has answered prayer for the recovery of disease offered up through his Son. — See a chapter on miracles in Eruvin. The church has long been without the gifts of the Spirit, and she has ceased to desire them. She is so conceited as to suppose that they might be necessary for the poor be- nighted people that had only the teaching of the ignorant fishermen who were thus endowed to be apostles, but that now she is so learned as no longer to require them. This is a sorry excuse, with which she may blind her own eyes ; but she cannot blind the eyes of impartial judges. The fact is, that she is an adultress, and dreads the return of her Lord. She is enamoured of the beast and of the false pro- phet. The servants in the house have been wasting their Master's goods, and trading with His talents for their own profit and fame, and not for His ; and they dread His coming into His own house again. On a report being noised abroad, that the Holy Ghost had once more made His appearance among men, they said it was impossible : when the possibility was proved, they listened with avidity and delight to every rumour which contradicted it, and waxed angry with every reporter who affirmed it : whenever they thought they obtained satisfactory information that it was not really their Master, but an impostor who had come in his name, they greatly rejoiced, and congratulated one another as if they had obtained a precious prize. Having ceased to desire, there is no marvel that they have ceased to know how to use, the gifts of which they think they have no need, and thus confusion upon confusion is made whenever they attempt by their igno- PREFACE. Xm ranee to calumniate any gifts which are reported to be restored. If the gifts of the Spirit were now to be restored, the first effects would be the re-establishment of churches upon the same plan as that in which they existed in the apo- stolic times. Those churches, now in existence, which would not allow of the gifts being exercised, would neces- sarily expel their gifted members, alleging that they were possessed of devils. It is nearly certain that the priesthood of every church, Established and Dissenting, would rise as one man against the manifestation of the Spirit in the gifted persons. The first evil which grew out of the subsidence of the gifts was, the separation of the clergy into a distinct class from the laity ; and this evil adheres to every ordained ^ minister, with the exception of those in a few very incon- siderable churches : for the office of pastor being placed in Scripture after that of the prophet, the ministers who now exercise the former office alone will never submit to sink down into their proper place ; they will be lords over God's house, instead of servants in it, and will resist the right of the Master to elect whom he will among the household to be the bearer of his message to the rest. We are told, that " God hath set some in the church, first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that miracles; then giftsofhealing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. xii.28); and, in the Epistle to the Ephesians it is said, that at his ascension our blessed Lord " received gifts for men : " and *' he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists ; and some pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (iv. 11 — 13). These offices are all necessary for the church, until the whole mystical body of Christ in all His members is complete ; and there is great beauty, order, and regula- rity in them. The Apostles were endowed with all the gifts of the Spirit, and could confer them by the laying on of hands; and it is probable that if any Bishop, or the pastors who compose a Presbytery, or Congregational Board, were now possessed of these gifts, they too would be enabled to confer them, as they pretend still to do when they per- form the office of ordination for the ministry. The evan- XIV PREFACE. gelists were persons who went about preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, telHng men of God's love to them, and of all the proofs of it : when they had delivered their mes- sage, they passed on to another place. Their special qua- lification was a peculiar faith in God's particular provi- dence; that he would feed them as he does the ravens; and therefore they had no need for two coats, scrip, nor purse. They must also have power to cure diseases, or work mi- racles over inanimate nature, in order to prove that God was in them of a truth ; that they might work, not by fine sermons, but " by the demonstration of the Spirit" shew, as well as talk about, the nature of the kingdom promised (Luke viii. 1 ; Matt. x. 1, 7, 8). When any band of persons had separated themselves from the world to the worship of the true God, the oflSce of the apostle was to visit them, ordain one of their number, elected by themselves, to be their pastor, and confer upon some other of them the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and especially the gift of prophecy. These gifts were bestowed upon different members of the churches, irrespective of either sex or age. The very essence of them consists in there being so; for they are the earnest in some members of that fulness of power which all the members shall possess in the dispensation to come, where there is no distinction either of sex or of age. The voice of the living God, speaking through the organs of the prophets, directed the subsequent choice of their pastors; and none could be or- dained, even after he had been elected by the rest, until his election was approved by God, testified through some person, oftentimes a woman, or a child, speaking by the Spirit, or revealed in dream or vision. The office of the prophet was most important in the permanent establish- ment of a church, since it was by his mouth alone that the body could be edified with the words of the living God. The pastor indeed generally, if not always, was endowed with some special gift ; for it is not probable that any one would have been elected to the office of pastor, unless he had possessed some gift ; but still the offices are distinct, although one person may have exercised them both. Where- fore in the Apostohcal Constitutions, which, though for- geries, are yet good evidence of the practices of antiquity, it is said in the prayer appointed for the ordination of pres- byters, " .... grant .... that this person, being Jil led with the gifts of healing, and the word of teaching, may in meek- PREFACE. ;XV ness instruct the people," 8cc. &c. So again, in that for readers or teachers, *' do thou also now look down upon thy servant who is to be entrusted to read to thy people, and give him thy Holy Spirit, the prophetic spirit J^ &c. So again, " he who has received the gift of healing, is declared by revelation from God : but if there be occasion for him, he is to be ordained a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon." In hke manner, a pastor who presided over the flock on the Lord's day might have employed himself as an Evangelist during the other days of the week ; but still the two offices were distinct. Again, the same indi- vidual might have been pastor over a church, and also gone out to ordain elders or pastors over other churches, which had been formed by the labour of the evangelist ; and yet the episcopal charge was distinct from that which he had in particular over a single church. Nevertheless the authority of the pastor was supreme in the church over which he presided. He alone was ruler, and responsible for the orderly governance of the house. It was his pro- vince to determine the solidity of the claim of those who '. / assumed to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost: and to take care, on the one hand, that he did not cause the Spirit of the living God to be quenched; and, on the other, that he did not encourage fanatics, or persons possessed of evil spirits, to harass the flocks. Thus the body of the faith- ful was edified, not only by the preached word from the mouth of the pastor, but also by the voice of the Spirit confirming the doctrine which he declared. The most ne- cessary gift for the pastor was that of wisdom and know- ledge ; and the expression of his own carnal reasoning could produce no bad effect, while the people would receive only ^ / so much of the doctrine he delivered, as was confirmed by - ^ the mouths of the prophets, as well as proved to be in bar- - ^>^^w mony with the written word . Thus too the pastors were kept humble ; and checked in their temptations to display their own learning and eloquence, relying on the teaching of God's Spirit, and not upon their own uninspired powers. The Apostolical Constitutions (Whiston's Translation, /"Jl^ viii.4, sect. Ixvi.) are very clear on the subject of the pastor's being elected by the people. ** A bishop to be ordained, is to be unblameable in all things, a select per- son chosen by the whole people ; who when he is named and approved, let the people assemble^ with the presbytery and bishops that are present, on the Lord's day, and let XVI PREFACE. them give their consent ; and let the principal of the bishops ask the presbytery and people, whether this be the person whom they desire for their ruler? and if they give their consent, let him ask further whether he has a good testi- mony from all men, as to his worthiness for so great and glorious an authority? whether all things relating to his piety towards God be right? whether justice towards men has been observed by him? whether the affairs of his fa- mily have been well ordered by him? whether he has been unblameable in the course of his life? And if all the as- sembly together do, according to truth, and not according to prejudice, witness that he is such an one, let them, the third time, as before God the Judge, and Christ, the Holy Ghost being also present, as well as all the holy and mini- stering spirits, ask again whether he be truly worthy of this ministry ? that so in the mouth of two or three wit- nesses every word may be established," &c. &c. The word clergy is derived from the fact of their being elected ; and election by the people is quite as indispeiisable as ordina- tion by superiors. Indeed there is a sort of mockery of it in the Church of England, on an incumbent first entering on his charge; and the practice of the bishops not to ordain except to a cure seems to confirm this position, all other ordination being rather to the work of the Evangelist than to that of the pastor. That such is not the motive of the modern Episcopal regulation, does not weaken this cor- roboration ; and the want of election by the people is suf- ficient of itself to invalidate the claim of any one to the full rights of the pastoral office. It is remarkable how the violation of God's institutions has brought its own punish- ment ; for to nearly all the Lectureships which are elective, clergymen are chosen by the people who hold the essentials of Divine truth, while the mass of false doctrine is chiefly found amongst those clergymen who are invested with their office by private power. The gifts ceased to be esteemed by the pastors as soon as the churches began to have wealth attached to their office ; and from that moment, instead of waiting to have their election by the people confirmed by the mouth of one of the prophets, and instead of fearing to undertake so weighty a charge as that of ruler over the house of God, the office of pastor was one greedily desired, and the cry of nolo episcopariy formerly made with unfeigned humility and alarm, became the lying hypocrisy it is to this day. PREFACE. XVU The office of bishop soon came to be more lucrative than the charge of a single church. The work of an Evangelist was undertaken in a self-righteous spirit, as amongst the Papists; or became a trade, and matter of bargain for fixed stipend, as it has been among Protestants, but never to so disgusting an excess as in the present days. The gift of working miracles has been continually asserted by the Popisli church, she thereby bearing true witness that the church of Christ ought ever to possess it. The power of casting out devils is still claimed by the Church of England, in her Canons; and was so in her Baptismal Ser- vice till the time of Anne ; and she continues to pray for all the singular gifts of the Holy Ghost : and with what hy- pocrisy her prayers have been offered, let her destitute condition say ; for assuredly God would have heard and answered them, if offered with sincerity and fervour. The Papists have likewise testified, that the voice of the pro- phet ought to be heard in their assumption to have a living infallible expositor of Scripture, constantly resident in the church. This precious truth has been denied by mo- dern Protestants, instead of being reduced to its proper level, in which, as well as in many other instances, they have exhibited less of the whole counsel of God than the apostate Papacy. Feeling the impossibility of leaving the word of God to be its own interpreter, the work that ought to have been executed by the prophet has been attempted to be performed by all that army of commentators and sys- tematic divines who have contributed to split the church of Christ into a multitude of fragments, whereby, instead of exhibiting that true unity which it ought to present, and for which truth also the Papacy has ever borne witness, it is now a mass of confusion, a city of Babel, shewing to the world no one appearance that it did when first establish- ed by the Apostles of our Lord. Ceremonies often survive their origin, and bear witness to facts more decidedly than any record. The sacraments of the Christian church are evidence of the circumstances they record. The childish anniversary of the burning of Guy Fawkes is proof of his conspiracy on the 5th of No- vember. Customs are transmitted, of which few are aware, by Jack of the Green on May day, as also by the adorn- ing of our halls at Christmas with holly and misletoe. In like manner, the elections of Popes, Cardinals, and Bi- shops are proofs that such was the ancient constitution of XVIU PREFACE. the churches with respect to these offices, and the Conge d'Elire in England, though one of the most sacrilegious desecrations that can be committed, is still an evidence of the same original custom. The injunction to women to prophecy only with their heads covered, is the reason why to this day they sit so attired in churches alone, where they all ought to be so gifted ; while at the court, at the theatre, and at every other place of public resort, they often go with- out any head-dress at all. At all times the Quakers and the Methodists have borne witness to the right of the Spirit speaking in women to be heard in the church ; and have ad- mitted the sound distinction between a woman teaching, and the Spirit in a woman speaking, not the woman's mind, but God 's. Some Scotch sects, too, have acted upon the principle that all their members were spiritual persons, and alwayslook for gifted ones among them, without perhaps making the due distinction between what is the operation merely of natural reason, and what is the special working of the Holy Spirit: the members, likewise, are expected to exhort one another, not only in their weekly services, but also on theLord's-Day. Church discipline expired with the spiritual gifts ; and, as human wisdom was brought in to supply the place of pro- phecy, so secular power was invoked for the punishment of offences against God. When the elders of the church could no longer deliver a member from Satanic possession, they consigned over the unhappy sufferer to cruel tormentors, who burned, as a sorcerer or witch, the brother who should have claimed the greatest exertion of their faith, their piety, and their love. The severity of punishment that was safely and wisely executed by the Holy Spirit in striking Ananias and Sapphira dead, and in delivering the incestuous Corinthian over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, become nothing but cruelty when imitated and exercised by earthly and sensual men. The discernment of spirits, which detected impostors, prevented many from uniting with the early church ; and the consciousness that the return of the same power would force a holiness of life and heart which few modern professors would endure, causes much of the clamour that is now raised against such an event; for even without the existence of open immorality, the sense of a present and speaking God is too appalling to any who do not love Him. If the gifts of the Spirit were to return in their former plenitude, there would be one grand simultaneous rising of PREFACE. XIX the whole Christian church against them, as there was a universal confederacy of Sadducee and Pharisee against the Messiah, whom they were all professing to expect. The mere word of prophecy informs us, that all the king- doms and churches of Christendom are to be overthrown by violence; and therefore the restoration of the gifts could not be for the re-construction of churches upon the Apo- stolic model: and if they were so re-constructed, the mem- bers who frequented them would quickly be subjected to calumnies as horrid and as false, to persecutions and tor- ments as cruel, as those which devastated Christian com- munities in the first three centuries. The re-introduction of the gifts into the church, therefore, could only be as a witness against it, that the accumulated sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which has been the specific crime of this dispensation, might be all gathered upon this gene- ration, which resists its last pleadings. The analogy in this, and in many other particulars, between the com- mencement and the close of the Gentile dispensation, is worthy of consideration. Our Lord tells us, that John the Baptist was the Elias " who was for to come," foretold by Malachi, as to appear *' before the great and dreadful day of the Lord;'' yet he was not Elias in person, but another " in the power and spirit of Elias." The same in- fallible authority also said, after the death of the Baptist, " Elias indeed shall come and restore all things : " where- fore we are led to look again, as before, for some one or more persons in the spirit and power of Elias, rather than for the person of Elias himself. The essential difference be- tween John and other prophets, which constituted him greater than they all, although he predicted nothing, and worked no miracle, lay in his pointing to the literal person of Messiah, whom the preceding prophets only spoke of in figure and in type. The same Spirit seems to have re- turned into the church when it excited so many servants of the Lord to contend for, and to inculcate, the literal fulfil- ment of God's promises, and to rescue them out of the hands of those who, by a process of spirituahzing, had mystified and destroyed the plain meaning of the simplest words. By these means the rough places were made smooth, and the hills were levelled, and the valleys filled up; and a highway in the desert was prepared for our God, by which His Spirit could travel, and return into His temple, as in the days of old. Angels on Mount Sinai ushered in *X PREFACE. the Law of Moses, and angels on Bethlehem proclaimed its close when they ushered in Him who came to fulfil and abolish it ; so a manifestation of the Holy Ghost at Pen- tecost ushered in the law of grace and truth, and a mani- festation similar in kind, if not in degree, may be expected to announce its termination, and usher in the dispensa- tion of Power and Glory. At the commencement and close of his personal ministry, our Lord cleansed the temple and drove out the money-changers, declaring that they had made his Father's house a den of thieves : yet they who sold doves, and lambs, and oxen, did only that which was con- venient to all, and necessary to some, of the worshippers therein. In like manner his mystical temple was cleansed of all sordid schemesatthefirstestablishaientof Christianity, by the fulness of his Spirit of holiness casting out avarice, the love of money, and all unworthy motives in the office- bearers of his church : and so is He now, at the close of the dispensation, ** searching Jerusalem with candles, and punishing the men that are settled on their lees, who say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil ; therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation" (Zeph. i. 12) ; and he is driving out of his temple all the money-changers, all who have served him for hire, and all who have trafficked in ecclesiastical matters, although by such means alone could the service of the church be carried on. The two figures of which our Lord makes use,illustrativeof the same truth, are beautifully clear. The whole dispensation is compared to a field sown with corn : the only two periods when rain from heaven is essential to the crop are immediately after it is sown, in order to make it vegetate; and again, just before the harvest, in order to enlarge and perfect the ear: during the whole intervening period, rain is of little importance. In like manner did he water His church with the dews of His Spirit immediately after He had planted it; and now again, after a long season of drought, when the heavens have been shut, and the ground has been chapt. He is refreshing His inhe- ritance previous to gathering it into His garner. The seed that was sown by the Husbandman has been in the stalk indeed, but concealed by the spathe of the plant ; and now that the ear is ripening, the seeds appear once more. The other figure is that of the vine, the stock of which is He Himself. The only two periods of the year when the vine requires pruning are, first, just as the buds are putting forth : PEEFACE, XXL dnring the whole summer it is allowed to grow as it pleases ; but when the fruit is beginning to be fit to be gathered, the useless branches, and leaves, and tendrils, which have been harmless, and perhaps useful, and certainly ornamental during the whole summer, are cut off with an unsparing hand : so severe was the pruning at the commencement of the dispensation that when He left the earth about one hun- dred and twenty persons were ail that the church could boast, out of the thousands that had been fed by him, seen his miracles, and believed on him. It is fearful to complete the parallel. Of the whole period of the labour of the Man of Sorrows, the last week was the most severe, and one of the chosen twelve, who had been with him from the beginning, was found to possess a devil : in the act of the betrayal of his Master, the traitor used no unkind invective, but professed more reverence and love than all the rest, saying to him. Hail, Master, and kissing him : in like man- ner, many who have been counted the closest followers of our Lord are now professing more honour and love than others in saying they cannot think so degradingly of Christ as to suppose that his human nature was no better than ours, or that his kingdom was to be on this material and cursed globe : no ; their Messiah appeared in a nature far superior to ours, in one newly created expressly for him ; and his kingdom is above the clouds, somewhere, though they know not where. The commencement of the dispen- sation was marked by two grand heresies respecting the person of Christ : the first denied his Godhead, the second, his humanity : the first carried away nearly all Christen- dom ; the latter, of small extent. In like manner, the same two heresies are now adopted by the Christian church in England, with the difference that the former has the smaller number of partizans ; the rehgious world has decided, after grave debate and consideration, that those who affirm that Jesus, " God over all blessed for ever," was a mere creature, are still a denomination of Christians : on the other point, the former heretics declared that Christ was not of the virgin's substance, and therefore his life and sufferings were but a phantasma. The modern heretics assert in words the verity of his life and sufferings, but still deny his consub^ stantiality with the virgin, which alone make the sufferings real : its similarity to the Arian heresy is seen in this, that the Ariansonly contended for an inferiority of his Godhead in an indefinably minute degree, plausibly alleging that the XXll PREFACE. term Son involved the idea of sequence in time, and thus founded their heresy on the acknowledged incomprehensi- bleness of generation as applied to God : the modern here- tics contend for a new creation in the womb of the virgin arising out of the acknowledged mysteriousness of her immaculate conception. But just by as much as the one would make him inferior to essential Godhead, by so much would the other make him superior to essential manhood : both are equal heresies ; the necessary truth of all truths being, God in our nature, not in a better nature, very God and very man ; a holy God manifested in sinful humanity, a sinless Christ. Moreover, if churches were to be reconstituted on the Apostolic model, it would be necessary that the whole of the gifts of the Spirit should be restored, in order to effect that end. But if the object of the latter rain of the Spirit on the Gentile dispensation be for another end, then it does not follow that all the gifts should be necessarily restored. Human reason has been brought into the church to do the work which it was the office of the Spirit to perform. It is not the living voice of the Spirit to which men look for giving the interpretation of mysterious passages, but to the most learned commentators. It is not to the anointing of the Holy One to which they turn for enabling the mission- ary to go upon his errand of mercy, but to the eloquence of some babbler to procure money for his expenses. It is not to the prayer of faith that we trust for the healing of the sick ; for the most accredited exponents of the religious opinions of the age declare, that we must take any solution of a cure rather than that God has interrupted the ordi- nary course of his dealings by answering the prayers of his afflicted servants. If, then, the object of the Spirit's return be to ** stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into con- tempt all the honourable of the earth," it is essential that He should be personally manifested in individuals of no reputation for learning, eloquence, or skill. Moreover, it is necessary that He should be manifested in such a form as is not cognizable to mere intellect. This would not be the case if he came in the form of a doctrine, for all the doctrines of religion are capable of syllogistic demonstration. Any accurate reasoner can state every revealed truth in such a form as that no honest intellect can refuse its assent to it. Hence it is that doctrinal error is easily corrected ; and hence it is also that, in an intellectual, moral, highly civi- PREFACE. XXm lized age, like the present, there is so great apparent spread of religion, many sound books of divinity, and many elo- quent and powerful preachers. But these are all works of the flesh, all attainable by mere human power, and all easily counterfeited by Satan. So likewise are all the utter- ances of prophetic inspiration. Satan can inspire men to speak either known or unknown languages, to preach the Gospel, to warn men against himself, to proclaim the speedy coming of the Lord to judgment, to exhort men to wash in the blood of Christ ; and consequently no intel- lectual guards,no forms of speech or reason which are cog- nizable by the intellect, are suflacient against his devices. Every one therefore who relies upon the correctness of his theology, the soundness of his creed, and the strength of his faith, is already fitted to be taken captive by him. Nothing but the indwelling Person of the Koly Ghost can be adequate security against him. It cannot concern any but the members of the church in which persons are pro- phesying, whether they do so by the power of Satan or of God. If they do so by the Holy Spirit, all others, who are partakers of the same Spirit also, will sympathize with those who speak : they will experience this sympathy not so much by the verbal identity of the things uttered with the written word, although unless they be in such accord ance the spirit which dictates them cannot be Divine, as by that secret unction of the Holy One by which they dis- cern all things, and know the voice of the True, from the voice of the false. Shepherd. Thus the testimony to their own souls will be independent and irrespective of any forms of the intellect; and hence too the greatest latitude is given for the entrance of impostors, and of seducing spirits. The maxim, that miracles confirm the truth of a doctrine, in- stead of doctrine confirming the source of the miracle, is one which will render the church an easy prey to Satan ; since he has only to empower some men to work a miracle, and to speak a foreign language which the speaker has not acquired by ordinary study, and then the whole professing church is ready to receive and willing to believe any doc- trine he may inculcate. Since the Spirit by which a prophet speaks cannot con- cern any other persons than the members of the church in which that gift is exercised, the claim of such pretender is not a subject fit to be discussed elsewhere, nor capable of being proved to the judgment of another. But there are Xxiv PREFACE. some characteristics of a general nature which, being ana- logous to the reception which the Spirit of God has ever met with in the world, are capable of comparison, and afford useful matter for serious reflection . I have seen some, who are in these days asserting that they are supernatur- ally moved to speak in the name of God, assembling,during many months, at half-past six o'clock every morning, in all weathers, fine or inclement, for social prayer; subsequently meeting together, sometimes as often as four times a day, always twice, and generally more than twice, for the same purpose; fulfilling in the intervals all the ordinary duties of life, and walking blameless in all the ordinances of God and man. I have heard them at these meetings speak in the Spirit according to the oracles of God ; exalting the name of Jesus alone, to the glory of God the Father; laying the pride of man in the dust ; glorifying the Saviour ; consoling the broken-hearted sinner ; rebuking the self- confident; revealing the thoughts, piercing the joints and marrow of the spirit, and discerning the intents of the heart ; and, when they speak their own words, beseeching their Heavenly Father that the whole church of Christ on earth may be filled with His Spirit, that the church may be thereby more completely weaned from the world, into which she has now sunk down, in order to exhibit a more faithful witness, and bear a purer testimony for God : and that the holiness of the Spirit may be manifested in His graces, and His power in His gifts ; that they themselves may be preserved from all delusions of Satan, and enabled to shew forth the power of the name of Jesus of Nazareth, in healing the sick, prophesying, speaking with tongues, discerning of spirits, &c. ; that the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge may be vouchsafed to all the pastors of the church ; that God would pardon all who have mocked and scoffed, and spoken evil of them falsely; that He would preserve the country from pestilence and civil war ; and that they may be preserved from giving occasion, by any conduct of theirs, for the truth of God to be evil spoken of. All this I have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears ; and I have seen the circumstance, in all its bearings, watched by others with cautious and scrupulous jealousy for many months. On the other side, I see one universal torrent of falsehood, mockery, railing, scoffing, ridicule, and blasphemy from every quarter, without one solitary exception. The Rotunda, where the solemn scenes of Cal- PREFACE. XXV vary and the day of Pentecost are acted in derision, finds upon this subject kindred sentiments in the Record news- paper, estabhshed for the express purpose of being the mouth- piece of the EvangeUcal religion of the land. The Times, the Morning Chronicle, the Theatres, the Caricature Prints, the Christian Observer, the Evangelical Magazine ; divines, of every Calvinistic and every Arminian hue; churchmen and schismatics ; all, all are actuated by one and the same spirit on this point, and all are agreed that the assertion of the Holy Ghost manifesting himself in the world is not to be listened to nor inquired into, but to be put down by defamation, slander, and turmoil. Sadducee, Pharisee, and Pubhcan, Priest and Scribe, Herod and Pilate, Jew and Roman, all ao^reed in like manner aoainst the manifested God in days of old : the universality of the agreement is not more suspicious than the community of spirit which is pourtrayed by them all. It might have been thought that some of the Evangelical body, claiming to be more full of love and charity than others, on hearing that so fearful a visitation as to be seduced by evil spirits had befallen any with whom they had previously gone in and out as Christian brethren, would have endeavoured to cast these spirits out of the possessed ; and at least would have offered up prayers in the churches to God for their deliver- ance, if they thought it a subject sufficiently serious to take notice of at all. But no; they contented themselves with uniting with Taylor, who styles himself the Devil's Chaplain, and with Carlile, the vender of Atheism, whose public mockery at the Christian's God is blazoned in his shop-windows ; in repeating the very arguments, in reiterat- ing the sneers, and in echoing the mockery, which open deniers of the God and Saviour of mankind had put forth. The unity of intention and the unity of method is not less instructive than awful. If the supernatural power which is now exercised by some of the holiest of the servants of God be not that of the Holy Spirit, it is truly a circum- stance more beyond the course of ordinary occurrences than most miracles upon record, that professed infidels, avowed blasphemers, ungodly livers, sectarians of every grade, newspapers of all characters, and preachers of all doctrines, should have possessed the community of tact, the unity of internal perception, the unanimity of spiritual apprehension, to detect this work of Satan by intuition, without examination, without inquiry, and without any d XXVI PREFACE. one endeavour to which the same men are obliged on other subjects to have recourse, before they are able to arrive at just conclusions. Never before was zeal for God's glory clad in so parti-coloured a coat. If the work be not of God, it has excited in those who have received it as such a closer conformity in heart and deportment to the mind and conduct of the Lord Jesus Christ; so that they cannot have been injured by it, and never can be in future, so long as they adhere strictly to the written word ; while, on the other hand, if it be of God, a tremendous mass of hy- pocrisy has been unveiled, and some of the men most famed as demagogues among the religious world are exhi- bited as abettors of the confederacy of Antichrist. Whether the claims now made be true or false, the spirit of opposition which has been shewn towards them ; the anxiety to prove them delusions which has been manifested in every quarter ; the rejoicing and eagerness with which every scandal tending to their dishonour, and to the proof of their being from Satan, has been received, abundantly declare the deep-rooted antipathy that exists in the church at large to the return of the Holy Ghost into His own temple, the bodies of the elect. This oneness of spirit, which is thus seen pervading every church. Established or Dissenting, knits them altogether into one community, which their schismatic and discordant principles on every other point of doctrine and of disciphne had divided into a thousand sects, and had hitherto rendered them irrecon- cileable with each other. To unite to glorify, and to re- joice in the hope of the return of the Spirit was impossible; to unite to vilify and reject it was easy. In either case, therefore, the mere claim has served as a sufficient test to demonstrate the real amount of spirituality which exists in the professing church, and to justify God in the sight of the assembled universe, in destroying such a mass of for- mality and hypocrisy. If, therefore, the sole end of the restoration of the gifts of the Spirit, at any time during this dispensation, would be to manifest the mode in which the church would reject and blaspheme them, that end has been already sufficiently attained. If, on the other hand, the object should be to re-constitute churches on God's own model, in order that He may have a true witness on the earth at the time that He is destroying all churches supported by earthly potentates, this end will not be effected but by the complete conversion from their present snares PREFACE* XXVll of the pastors who now bear rule, or by the spiritual ordi- nation of a new and different set of pastors altogether. If the manifestation of supernatural power by the in- dwelling of the Holy Ghost in the church be considered simply as an abstract doctrine, it matters nothing whether it be received or rejected. Its importance and value de- pends to each individual upon the use that is made of it. Heaven and happiness consist of perfect holiness : " Be ye holy, for I am holy," is the command which cannot be abrogated or mitigated ; and whosoever will pervert the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, so far as to depend upon a vicarious sanctification and holiness also, must be content with a vicarious heaven and happiness likewise. But God is not a hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and demands nothing of man which he has not provided the means of man's performing. The Father has given the Holy Ghost to his well-beloved Son, whose procession from the risen God-man was shewn by his breathing on the disciples after his resurrection, and the co-equal Spirit has condescended to become subordinate to human nature, raised in the person of Jesus to the right hand of the Majesty on high ; to unite by community of circulation, all the members of Christ to their Almighty Head ; and to perfect in every member that holiness which has been al- ready perfected in the Head. Thus, every child of God by faith in Jesus is invested with the endowment of the Holy and Omnipotent Spirit, by whose aid he may perfect holi- ness in the fear of the Lord, and work out his salvation in fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works within him to do his holy will and pleasure : he is respon- sible for perfect holiness, and he is responsible for the Holy Ghost which has been given him for that end ; and since men no longer desire the power of the Spirit, it is a proof that they desire not the holiness which they cannot have by any other means. When the Spirit is pleased to make known His presence in the members of Christ, by causing any of those members to speak supernatural sounds, to hear supernatural voices, or to do supernatural deeds, all such manifestations are for the glorifying of the Word to whom He is ever subordinate ; and for stirring up the mem- bers of Christ who are flagging in their race. The Word must have the pre-eminence throughout the whole range of created being : the Word was with God before all worlds; the Word is with God, baptizing his members XXVlll PREFACE. with the Holy Ghost for a witness of his love to men, and of the power with which he is invested, and which his saints shall exercise in his kingdom ; and when he comes again to rule the world, the name which he bears upon his thigh is still The Word of God. The Holy Spirit can do nothing contrary, but all things conformable, to the Word ; and the evil spirit can do nothing conformable, but all things contrary, to that same Word : yet the evil spirit can say, *' It is written ;'' and therefore it is not the letter but the spirit of the utterances which must be weighed, in order to prove whether the Spirit speaking be of God or of Satan. The letter ever killeth ; and the forms of reason, which are conversant only with it, are snared and taken, while the simple and unlearned discern by the Spirit, and receive life from that which is hid from the wise. In this manner is seen how every supernatural manifestation can only tend to edification, so long as it is kept in subordination to the Word of God, and the provision which the Lord has made for preventing Satan from injuring the souls of His servants, even if he should assume the form of an angel of light, and preach the Gospel through hypocrisy for a little season, in order to draw them off their guard. There must be something peculiar in the state of the church at the time when *' the Lord arises to shake ter- ribly the earth," and to " turn it upside down," which causes Him to caution men against the whole body of pastors collectively, without limitation or exception. One ground of their offence seems to be, that they have arro- gated to their persons that which belongs to their office ; and another, that they serve the altar with unhallowed incense and counterfeit oil. We are warned, that they ** who rule the people, cause them to err;" that '' they stagger like drunken men;" and that they are ** drunk not with wine," but with having *' the fear of God taught by the precepts of men :" that they lean upon the things for carrying on God's work, which the world leans upon for carrying on its work ; such as human wisdom, argu- mentation, eloquence, learning, and all the natural power of the flesh ; by which means the flock is poisoned, and wherefore the several woes are denounced against the shepherds. When the church has got into this state, the last expedient of God's ingenious benevolence is put forth in speaking Himself in a tongue unknown to men, as a sign of some other than the man's own spirit inhabiting PREFACE. XXIX the speaker (Isaiah xxviii. ; 1 Cor. xiv. 21). At this we are forewarned that the religious rulers and guides will mock, and the consequence on them is, that ** their bands are made strong ; " and the only safety of men is declared to consist in fleeing out of the Babel of human systems, and in confiding on the Holy Ghost alone, giving up our- selves in all simplicity of trust to His guidance, notwith- standing the dishonouring insinuations of the pastors that there is danger in so doing ; which is no other than to say that God will deceive us, give us a satanic spirit instead of his own, and that they themselves are our safest con- ductors. God will not destroy His own ordinance, but he will destroy them that abuse it. He will not force the manifestation of his Spirit into his church, in defiance of the pastors, whose dignity he constituted to rule it in his name, because that would be to encourage rebellion, — to become the author of confusion, and not of peace ; but he will destroy the wicked servants who do not reverence his Son ; who say their Master is not returning ; and who smite their more faithful fellow-servants that joyfully hail his approach. The ordinance of ruler must not be set at nought, and therefore they who abuse it must be broken down. While the Jewish temple yet stood on Mount Zion; while the priests in their four-and-twenty courses still con- stantly attended to its service ; while an equal number of singers chanted at all their feasts the songs of the royal prophet ; while the gift of prophecy, and of healing, still remained with the office of high priest (John v. 4 ; xi. 51) ; the Apostle did nevertheless point with exulting comparison to a Christian church, with its Evangelists, and Prophets, and Pastors, and various members, all filled with, and shewing forth, some supernatural power of the God who dwelt within them, and did assert as an undeniable fact, that the glory of the temple, still unsubverted, was as nothing beside the little community of believers at Corinth. Alas ! who can now enter a Christian church, and make any such boast ? We are not only fallen short of Corinth, but we are fallen even below the beggarly elements of Je- rusalem. Instead of a ministration of the Spirit, there is nothing, in the very best of our assemblies, but a ministra- tion of doctrines, and of arguments, and of fleshly wisdom, which the Apostle laboured hard expressly to avoid (1 Cor. ii. 4) : even the few pastors who can describe the promised XXX PREFACE. inheritance, have none of the grapes of Eshcol to shew as its fruits : instead of the glory of the living voice of pro- phecy, there is nothing but the dead monotony of lifeless formality ; instead of the singing in the Spirit, and each member edifying the whole body with a revelation, or with the unfolding of a mystery, all speech is confined to that of one uninspired man, sent as a stranger, and lord over the people, without their choice or concurrence, and who seems rather the substitute for, than a common sharer of, the worship of the church. The glory is indeed departed, and few either feel or lament it ; and now that it is coming up again, although in weakness, while all true-hearted Davids are dancing and singing before it, the false-hearted and adulterous Michals are despising them in their hearts, and shall be smitten with a curse of barrenness, and bring forth no spiritual seed. When the glory had departed from the church of old, the faithful priest fell back and died ; and the tender mother found no joy in the birth of her son, but expired in her anguish at the dishonour that had befallen her people : the modern Elis are breaking their hearts, because they hear that the glory of the Christian church is coming back to her ; and the Hophnis and Phinehases, the priesthood which has been enamoured of and embraced the meretricious maxims of the world, will be destroyed for profaning and despising the true holiness and glory of the Christian temple. — -The rulers of our Zion, however, in these days are not the Hierarchy of the Church of England, nor the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, nor the Associated Synods, or Boards of any other denomination of Christians. For all these the pastors themselves feel little deference, and set at nought such guidance. The real masters of the Protestant priesthood are the commentators, anonymous magazines, and religious journals ; of which each sect has its own, proper to itself, and which is assidu- ously read by the pastors of the same : they preach what- ever the magazine of their party preaches ; deny whatever it is ignorant of; denounce whatever it denounces : thus while the pastors refuse the controul which is more legiti- mate over them, they are willingly hoodwinked, and led captive with unhesitating subserviency to the rabble of editors, who pander to the vicious taste, and ignorance of a religious mob, for whose patronage they write ; whose applause they court ; and whose censure they dread : ** How can they beheve which receive honour one of another, and FREFACE. XXXI seek not the honour that cometh from God only ?" The sovereignty of the people has not more completely sup- planted the right of Christ in the state than it has assumed His prerogative in His church also ; and an appeal to the public is the resort of every man, reckless of duty to God in the church as it is in the state, instead of a standing up for, and a leaning alone upon, God against the mob, the only tyrant to be feared in ecclesiastical as well as in politi- cal matters. Some of the pastors fear no evil, because the standards of Protestantism are still unpolluted. This confidence is futile; forJudah too was pure in her worship to the last, though called Sodom and Gomorrah by the prophet; yet vainboasting Aholibah is pronounced worse than apostate Aholah : " Thus saith the Lord," to Protest- antism, " Thou shall drink of thy sister's cup deep and large ; thou shall be laughed to scorn, and had in derision ; it containeth much : thou shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister" Popery. Protestantism has not taken warning by the fate of Popery, and therefore a worse doom awaits it. There is little doubt that God has never left himself with- out witness by his Spirit at any period of this dispensation, but that He has from time to time pleaded in different indi- viduals of the Christian church. For lack of discretion, how- ever, in the pastors to guide the gifted persons, these plead- ings have become fruitless. It is probable that many pastors themselves have at times spoken by supernatural power from their pulpits ; and that, if they had been deli- cately alive to the motions of the Spirit, anxious that God Himself should speak in them, though His so doing would cause them to be counted fools and madmen, and had given Him the glory instead of taking it to themselves, His power would have been manifested in them more and more, and they would have ceased more and more from their own strength ; their blessedness to the church would have increased, and, instead of being followed by admirers, they would have become despised and rejected of men. Thus, whenever an opportunity has been afforded for the church to return to the good old ways wherewith she caused the weary to rest, she has sinned against the Holy Ghost, quenched the Spirit through her rulers, and given place to the devil. If God at this time be once more making his voice to be heard on earth by the mouths of XXXU PREFACE. holy men and women, it depends on the pastors whether that voice shall be heard in the churches or excluded from them. According to the forms and ceremonies of the Church of England, to which her office-bearers cling with far greater tenacity than they do to what is more essential, the prophetic voice could not be heard ; and therefore no minister who prefers his sect to God, as most do, dare permit its utterance. Hence the Church of England must come down, in order to make room for it. But no Chris- tian will assist in her destruction : God will pull her down ; and the instruments He makes use of for such ends are not His own people, but His enemies. It was not Isaiah, but Sennacherib ; it was not Jeremiah, but Nebuchadnezzar ; it was not our Lord, but Titus, who destroyed the church of Judea : it was not the spirit of faith, but the spirit of infidelity which has destroyed the popish imposture : and as He, and His disciples after Him, continued to worship at Jerusalem after the temple was devoted to destruction, and a new dispensation was commenced, giving all due honour to the very last to those who sat in Moses' seat, so is it the duty of Christians now, while justifying the righteous dealings of God in destroying that church, and those pastors who reject His Spirit, and refuse to allow His Son to enter into His own house, to continue still to wor- ship in the churches, and to reverence its ministers for their office-sake, if not for their own, until not one stone of her walls remains upon another ; or unless, as is more pro- bable, the Lord should have previously caught His disciples up to meet Him in the clouds, to be with Him as His as- sessors in the judgment, and His companions in breaking the nations, and the churches to pieces with a rod of iron. " Even so, come. Lord Jesus ; come quickly." EDITOR— 1832. ON THE GENERAL DELUSION OF CHRISTIANS TOUCHING THE WAYS OF GOD'S REVEALING HIMSELF. PART I. AN INQUIRY INTO SCRIPTURE TOUCHING THE SEVERAL WAYS USED OF GOD IN REVEALING HIMSELF; THE APPARITION OF ANGELS, DIVINE DREAMS, PROPHETIC VISIONS, VOICES HEARD, AND INSPIRATION. THB PART I CHAP. I. THE INTRODUCTION. § 1. The whole subject of this treatise being upon one point of revealed religion, we, in charity, make no doubt that those who are sincere among Christians, and who however stand opposed to the discussion of it herein, do act, as the Jews are said to do in respect of our Saviour, from some conceived principle of zeal for God. But since it is requisite that our zeal for God should be regulated by and according to knowledge, otherwise it may be no less than a fighting against Him under that denomination, as theirs also was ; we are in consequence necessarily to inquire into the quality of that knowledge that can give a distinction between effects of it, so very different and opposite the one from the other. St. Paul tells us, " we know that we all have know- ledge ;" and indeed there is no man but who pretends to the privilege, and that doubtless without just reproach ; unless we come to distinguish touching the subject of that knowledge. Now the sole subject of this treatise being confined to that of revealed religion, it follows, in course, that the knowledge that is to decide in it must be a knowledge of God, as revealed : accordingly, the Apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 1 — 3, subjoins to the de- claration, that " we know that we all have knowledge," that ex- planation of it, " if any man think that he knoweth any thing (perfectl}' of God), he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know;" that is, that whoever indulges a thought that he knoweth God perfectly, he, so far, knoweth nothing at all as he ought to know. § 2. According to this definition of Christian knowledge, if the great Apostle of the Gentiles, (whom all ages have and shall justify, in the title assumed of a wise master-builder,) does con- fess for himself and others, 1 Cor. xiii. 9 — 12, that he "pro- phesied but in part, and he knew but in part,' and still the things 4 PART I. — CHAP. I. of God appeared to him (ev eviy ixaTi) " through a glass darkly," in a riddle ; that is, veiled with enigmatical shades, as the full sense of a thing is couched under the obscurities of a riddle. We might be apt to think that there is no man now, who is par- taker of the charity (in that chapter described) that vaunteth not itself, nor behaves it unseemly, who would not readily sit down at the feet of that bright Apostle, and own the same things with him. But, alas ! there is nothing more common among Christians of this age than upon a discourse touching God in- comprehensible, to find men laying claim to know all things per- fectly of him. And if we inquire, how they came by such a knowledge, transcendently superior to one who was not behind the very chief of our Lord's Apostles ; they tell us the same Apostle subjoins to the words above, " When that which is per- fect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away ;" that is (by Dr. Hick's Enthusiasm Exorcised), ' When the per- fect state of the church is come, then that which is imperfect and obscure (namely, the Spirit of prophecy) shall be done away.' Indeed, if this were the true sense of the text just cited, we have full assurance that the church was never more than in our days at the full stature of manhood, seeing that all things prophetical are accounted for mere childishness ; but since the wisdom of God was ever foolishness with man, the purpose of this treatise is, to insist upon the prerogative of the former, and to shew that the perfection of manhood now-a-days claimed is but a doating upon science falsely so called. § 3. The persons, then, with whom we have to do in this argu- ment of the contempt of prophecy, are not denominated by any particular church or communion, but are spread through the whole lump, clothing their necks with arrogance, as the horse is said to do with thunder : for upon every debate touching the mysterious things of God, it is no unusual thing to see a man rush into the battle with a gaiety unreined, and full career, stretching out his band against the Almighty, and running " upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers " (Job XV. 26). Against all which presumption and haughtiness of pride, we have recourse to the aforesaid axiom, that, "If any man think he knoweth any thing (perfectly of God), he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." For, as we have properly no knowledge of God revealed but what is derived to us by the Spirit of prophecy, we are not only taught by him in St. Paul, INTRODUCTION. that " we know but in part," but in St. Peter also, that " the word of prophecy is a light that shineth in a dark place" (2 Pet. i. 19). Furthermore, we understand from thence (Rom. xi. 33), that "the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God is un- searchable, and his ways past finding out ; " but that He "dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see" (1 Tim. vi. 16). The inspired Psalmist concurs, that " his judgments are a great deep, his way is in the sea, his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known." And in Job we have it, that " but a little portion of his ways can be traced, and upon the utmost searching we can- not find out the Almighty unto perfection" (Psa. xxxvi. 6 ; Ixxvii. 19: Job xxvi. 14; xxxvii. 23 ; xi. 7). § 4. Let not then the arrogance of men be fathered upon the Scripture, seeing it is plain that whoever so behaves it knoweth nothing thereof yet as he ought to know : and if any man does pretend to know God more perfectly some other ways than he may from Scripture, I would desire him first, before that claim can be admitted, to unlock and unfold to me all the mysteries occurring in the animal and vegetable creatures ; for it is other- wise unfit that he presume to talk dogmatically of the Creator himself. I am sure there are lessons in the aerial and celestial works of God, as well as the earthly, enough so far to stop and silence the whispers of self-conceit, if we would attend to them ; that without having passed through these, we should not make so bold with Infinity as to dare to go about to circumscribe Him. But, until we can satisfactorily solve all these, it would become us, as men, better to know our distance, and learn by the toils our understanding meets with, from the nature and motion of the lowest reptile, how with sobriety and awfulness to abstain from intruding upon Him who is far above all visibility : for if we cannot, with all our minutest scrutiny, fully compre- hend the frame and operations of a little worm, we doubt not to conclude, that that feeble creature is much more at a loss to investigate the nobility of our superior nature. Why then should a man, who, in respect to the original of his body, is a worm, and who, in measuring himself by the comparison, has reason enough (if he will use it) to gather that he must needs stand at a wider remove from the Eternal Father of spirits than the most con- temptible crawler does from himself; why, I say, should he pre- 6 PART I. CHAP. I. sume that for himself which he would not, upon parallel ground, allow his brother-creature ? § 5. If, then, it be not for every man to solve the many rid- dles and difficulties that are every where legible in the book of the creation, we need but have recourse to the more intelligent therein, and we shall find their ingenuity in confessing that they cannot. And if the philosopher acknowledge himself unable to give a full and distinct account of the earthly things which are the proper subjects of his daily study and contemplation ; nay, after he has dedicated a long life to a scrutiny after some iew, and perhaps less noble, parts of that inquiry : if the astronomer leaves us much more in the dark, touching the heavenly orbs and meteors, the planets and fixed stars : if the ways of Provi- dence occurring among men, and even those over the four-footed beasts and fowls, the feeding of young ravens, and the fall of a little sparrow to the ground (ascribed to God), are altogether in- scrutable to us : if the anatomist and physician cannot fathom the mysterious depths in the texture, generation, growth, and operations of the human body ; and if the manner of an imma- terial soul's union with it for a time affords yet room, after the utmost exertion of our natural faculties, for a clearer solution : — we have not yet touched upon the wonders that are found in the deep and wide ocean ; nor upon those that lie hid in the nature of all the four elements ; nor upon those that the bowels of the earth have sometimes disclosed: — but if in all these we may know (if we will reflect) that we have very much to seek, how much more in the mysteries of His word is that light to be ac- knowledged impenetrable that no mortal eye can approach unto? § 6. By the natural light of reason, indeed, every man is capable, if disposed, of discerning and collecting so much of God, from his works of creation and providence, as will leave him without just excuse for violating the truth known by it, by un- righteousness of life ; for (Rom. i, 19, 20) " the invisible things of him, even his eternal power and Godhead, and that which may be known of him, are manifestly set forth and shewed to all men ; and if they are minded, they are seen {vosiieva Ka^opaTat), being understood by the things that are made ;" that they who wilfully neglect these items may be without excuse for their contempt of iiim. So that God never since the creation (Acts INTRODUCTION. 7 xiv. 17) left himself without witness of his being; no, nor of his bounty, in giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, fillinej our hearts with food and gladness, that we might praise him with that understanding which he hath given us above the beasts (as it is worded in Job). And, all circumstances considered, there seems but little advantage arising to man's present happiness from his understanding above the beasts, further than he employs it "to feel after and seek the Lord;" unto which employment there is great encouragement, seeing he may so easily be found, being every where visible in the lineaments of his power and goodness, instead of far from every one of us. Wherefore a duly attentive mind upon the book of the creation, instead of forgetting the impressions of a Deity, may on the contrary say, as David, '< Whither could I fly from his presence.^" But all this does not hinder what is said above, that there do remain, even to the most intelligent and observant, a great many objects in the natural world, and in the several parts of the visible crea- tion, that transcend the reach of man's weakened capacity to penetrate fully into. And thus the number of incomprehensibles and unaccountables, found interspersed in the visible creation, do altogether loudly call out to man, that God, in all things supernatural, and in his direction of the spiritual worlds, is much less to be measured by that reason which is too scanty when applied but to the objects of sense. § 7. It is then no disgrace upon revealed religion, if there be therein also subjects unaccounted for from the rational faculties ; nor a sufficient warrant to neglect the study of Holy Writ, be- cause there are unintelligibles in it, as well as in the book of nature. For why should any be oflPended with revealed subjects of religion on this account, seeing supernatural things ought to be allowed exempt from the measure of what is natural in man to trace ; and it is a fault in him, and condemnable by his own reason, to expect it should be otherwise ? In these things we are to yield up ourselves to the Father of spirits, and take them upon his word : nor can it be an unequitable thing in him from whom we live, and move, and have our being, to demand and require from us an obedience to his absolute will, and a succumbence of our understandings unto his. Our reason suffices to convince us, that He may justly do thus ; and on our part, to be subject to the Father of spirits is no degrading of our nature ; but, on the contrary, the capacity we have of receiving his laws and will is. 8 PART I. — CHAP. I. our greatest ennoblement. An assent to what is demonstrated to reason is properly intelligence, and not faith; for faith, in its true definition, is a homage and bowing down of the mind, or acknowledgment of that to be true which carries but a moral, and not a demonstrative, evidence to us : therefore, in the ex- traordinary methods of God revealing his will, if he discover such characters and criterions of himself as are not rationally to be judged compatible with the enemy of mankind; upon such evidence of his hand in it, the obedience of faith becomes our duty by the submission of our understandings, though there be some things, in the way and manner of his revealing, as well as in the subjects thereof, which we are unable fully to compre- hend by our natural powers. § 8. The purport of the ensuing treatise being a disquisition of the divers ways and manners wherein the Divine Majesty did condescend to impart unto man his will, it neither ought nor can be rightly an objection to our believing him therein, that every thing is not demonstratively obvious in those his steps, any more than the unaccountables in nature and sub- jects of revelation are a warrant of our despising and rejecting the knowledge that may be had of Him in them. As, then, there are many things in the book of nature, and in the written word, that surpass the reach of our intellect to comprehend, and yet we can read, discern, and acknowledge God in them ; so likewise we ought to do with respect to the methods He served himself of in revealing. But that in fact there was something usually in the way and manner of revealing that gave offence because unac- countable for by natural reason, I conceive appears sufficiently clear ; not so much from the ordinary rejecting of the word of the Lord by the people in common to whom it was sent, but principally because those persons who were most distinguished for wisdom and literature are in the sacred records most stigma- tized for their disobedience to and contempt of it. The his- torical parts of the Old and New Testament do furnish abundant instances of this kind ; but what at present I shall prove it by, is the declaration of the living oracle itself that what was commonly esteemed among men for wisdom and science was most averse to true WISDOM and knowledge, and to the inspiration of Him who is the Fountain and Father of light intellectual. § 9. For thus, in Isaiah xxix. 9 — 20, he bespeaks the learned, to whom the unlearned are there represented to submit and refer INTRODUCTION. 9 themselves, in what, concerned their reverence due to God. "Stay yourselves, and wonder! cry ye out, and cry [^Heb. * they are blinded, and blind others'] ; they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink ; for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep [CAa/c?.' Error'] and hath closed your eyes and the vision of all [_A. M, * the prophets ;' Chald. ' all prophecy'] is become unto you as the words of a letter sealed Wherefore the Lord said, Foras- much as this people draw near with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men \_Greeh, * but in vain do they worship me, teaching men's pre- cepts and doctrines'], therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work, and a wonder among this people; for the wis- dom of their wise men shall perish \_Gr. ' 1 will destroy the wisdom of the wise'], and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep \_arc pr()found~\ to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are [Gr, * they consult'] in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us ? \_Gr, * or what we do ?'] Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay [a/terahle at my pleasure^ : for shall the work say of him that made it. He made me not ? or the thing framed say of him that framed itj He had no understanding? \^Gr. * has not made me wisely'] Lebanon \^a forest high groutid'] shall be turned into a fruitful field liovo ground'] ; and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest. In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the letter, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity [or, Me/o^] : the meek \_oppressed and lovoly~\ also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men \_Gr. * the hopeless;' Chald. * the oppressed '] shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel ; when the terrible one IChald. * the oppressor'] is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed." $10. From the forecited passage it appears, that the Scribes were so intoxicated, blinded, and drunk with the opinion of their own learning, and their vain systems and traditional knowledge, that they could see no excellence or beauty, in the word of the Lord prophetical. But, upon the occasion of its crossing their received tenets, and blemishing the credit of their learning, they judged themselves wiser than their Maker, and therefore re- jected his voice, slighting all prophecy or inspiration as unin- c 10 PART I. — CHAP. I. telligible to them. Wherefore severe judicial blindness and confusion is denounced upon them, whilst there is a promise of triumphing grace to be conferred upon the simpler sort. In like manner, the people's not knowing the judgments of the Lord, is laid expressly at the door of the Scribes by Jeremiah ; their Sovereign Lord upbraiding them for arrogancy against him, chap.viii.7 — 9, thus ; "how do ye say. We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us ? Lo ! certainly [ Vulg. Lat. '■ the false pen of the Scribes has indited a lie'] in vain made he it ; the pen of the Scribe IChald, * to falsify the Scripture'] is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken [or catched~\. Lo ! they have rejected [Chald. * detested;' Heb. Sa. 'con- temned'] the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?" [or, what is ijoisdom to them ?] J IL Thus also in the New Testament, we find the Scribes and Pharisees, the learned of that age, pursuing our Saviour with endless objections and captious ensnaring questions, but iiever allowing any thing to be sufficient to convince them of his Mes- siahship : except once, when they made the insulting demand to Him on the cross, that if He would come down to them from thence, they, even they, would believe on Him. But for the temper they were in, to admit such evidence as God saw fit to give them, we find them charged, Luke xi. 48, 52, with ** ap- proving the deeds of their fathers, who killed the prophets," and with " taking away [some copies read, * hiding '] the key of knowledge " (that is, the Scripture) ; and as they entered not into the kingdom themselves, so " those that were entering in they forbad." So that it appears they were less capable than any other men of submitting to our Master's doctrine, " except a man humble himself, and become as a little child, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven " (Matt, xviii. S). And this even because they thought themselves, already, eyes to the blind ; and as themselves were above the being taught imme- diately of God, they expected, also, that it should be conclusive too for the people's faith when they said, " Have any of the Scribes and Pharisees believed on him?" Wherefore our great Prophet warns his disciples to "beware of the leaven of their doctrine ;" and it is plain, in effect, that his followers were of the simpler and illiterate sort of people : for so our Redeemer says. Matt. xi. 25 : "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and INTRODUCTION. 11 prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Whereas, then, the testimony of the Scripture was clear, and our Lord appealed to it for proof that he was the Messiah, as well as to his miracu- lous works, to justify that his claim ; I cannot see, how they, the leaders of the people, found means to justify themselves before men in the rejecting of him (as it is apparent, from the paucity of the believers after his crucifixion, they did), without some plausible topics of reasoning, either against the manner of his appearance, or some difficulties in his doctrine. The history of his life shews us, I think, this was the case ; and the reputation of their wisdom for interpreting the law, and of their critical learning in the comments and traditions of the elders, was the occasion of their own blindness, and hardness of heart to believe ; and so drew along with it the infidelity of the nation in general. J 12. Thus, then, as in the Old Testament the Scribes and lettered doctors of the law are especially charged with the inno- cent blood of the prophets, and the infidelity of the nation in our Saviour's time is chiefly imputable to them ; so in the spreading of Christianity the quaint philosophers of Athens (the eye of Greece), though for curiosity they gave St. Paul the hearing (which was, however, an instance of their civility), notwith- standing the Hellenistical gift of argument the Apostle was possessed of, and that the Spirit condescended to plead with them from their own authors, yet the Epicureans and Stoics were both so fond of their old beloved systems that they hin- dered any church from being there settled as in other places ; although in other places also not many wise, not many well- bred, were called, — for so it seemed good in God's sight, who resisteth the proud and extends grace to the humble. But that this was also the case among the heathen we may easily gather from an attentive reading of 1 Cor. i. and ii. ; where it is said that the " natural man {^vklkoq^ the soulish or rational) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned :" and to that rational man is there applied the text of Isaiah, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have en- tered into the heart of man, the things which God hath pre- pared for them that love him ; but God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit : for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God only." " Now," says he, " we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might (though others cannot) 12 PART I. — CHAP. I. know the things that are freely given to us of God." Which agrees exactly with our Lord's words subjoined to his acknow- ledgment that God had hid them from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes : " No man knoweth the Son but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father (revealed) but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matt. xi. 27). § 13. Therefore the rational man, while he stood entirely upon that foot (seeking with the Greeks after wisdom in their way, and expecting to have every thing made out to him by clear demonstrations of reasoning), it appears, stood thereby in a direct opposition to the will and counsel of God. " For," says the Apostle there, " Christ sent me to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom or excellency (that is, persuasible words) of speech; for after that the world by wisdom knew not God (in his wis- dom), it pleased him (and who shall instruct him ?) to choose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the" mighty, and base things of the world, and things the most despised, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, and by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." ** And now," says the Apostle, *' let no flesh glory in his presence, for it is apparent that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men : hath not he made foolish the wisdom of this world ? and where is the disputer of it ? where is the wise? where is the scribe ?" Which last words, Mr. Locke paraphrases: * Where is the philosopher skilled in the * wisdom of the Greeks ? where the scribe studied in the learn- ' ing of the Jews ? where the professor of human arts and * sciences ? Hath not God rendered all the learning and wisdom * of this world foolish and useless, for the discovery of truths * revealed ?' And on 1 Cor. ii. 14, he sayS) ' The animal man * {^vKiKog) is one that has no higher principles to build upon * than those of natural reason ; but a man who hath no other ' help but his own natural faculties (how much soever improved * by human arts and sciences) cannot receive the truths of the * Gospel (or any revelation) which are made known by another ' principle — namely, the Spirit of God revealing them ; and * therefore they seem foolish and absurd to such a man. Nor ' can he, by the bare use of his natural faculties, and the prin- ' ciples of human reason, ever come to the knowledge of them.' INTRODUCTION. 13 § 14. It being thus manifest, from the Old and New Testa- men r, that it is the usual way of the Spirit of God, in his reve- lation, to run counter to the tenor and stream of human wisdom ; there is little occasion of astonishment that the persons most celebrated for it should in all ages, or at any time, shew an un- common and peculiar aversion or distaste to his ways and me- thods and chosen instruments therein. Nor is it to be admired that illiterate people, who are bred up to an habitual reverence of those far superior to them in knowledge, should generally be led by the dictates of their teachers, and in course fall in with their passions, against the ways and insignificant instruments of God revealing. But whosoever hath ears to hearken to what the Spirit saith, he tells us by the Apostle, that our faith is not to stand in the wisdom of man, seeing it is originally founded upon the wisdom simply of God revealing : having begun in the Spirit, it is preposterous to seek to be perfected, or perfectly instructed, by the flesh ; for thus saith the Lord, in Col. ii. 20, *' If ye be dead with Christ from the elements of the world, why as though living in the world do ye dogmatize " (^oy/xart^fe-S-e), that is, still teach, or submit to be taught, by its principles. Whoever is able or will please to look into the critical annotators on this text that occur in Pool's Synopsis will find, that the elements of the world are bj' them construed to mean as well the prescrip- tions of human philosophy, and any other impositions of men, as Jewish ceremonies ; and that the genuine sense of the word " dogmatize " does more properly respect the former : and so the caution of that text runs, that we Christians should not sub- ject ourselves to, much less teach, them. And here I would pray the reader to observe, that whenever I make mention of the learned, the commentators, critical expositors, divines, or the like, without specifying a name, I shall henceforth refer my- self to Pool's Synopsis, as the best extant authority collective of that kind. § 15. However, as it is said of the law, that it is good if a man use it rightly ; the like may be justly said of philosophy, that whilst it is employed to search after natural causes (its proper objects) the same merits commendation, and is here con- demned only when positions are raised from it about supernatural things, as if, by the establishing of such, matters Divine ought to be judged of and decided by them. Now, in these cases, revelation being its own sole judge, the authority of God reveal- 14 TART I. — CHAP. I. ing ought to be vindicated from the usurpation of philosophy, or natural reason of men. But what I am here proving is, that men, trained up to admit the rules of philosophy, and to the study of, and arguing upon, any sort of systems or tenets de- rived from it, do find it very hard to unlearn their education and become as little children, when God authoritatively claims their regard to his extraordinary hand. And they being under more disadvantage than others, even on that very account for which they value themselves and are also valued by others, the wonder ceases that the wise and learned should have always most opposed God revealing. Mr. Dodwel, in his Dissertations on Cyprian, p. 121, describes to us the temper of philosophers, in respect to the supernatural things remarkable among Christians in the primitive ages, thus : * They,' says he, ' either from ge- * neral reasonings undervalued the belief of every kind of pre- * ternatural things, or they denied all manner of certainty in * them, or at least any likelihood of the truth of them ; or else * they would not allow there w^ere any criterions by which the * true could be distinguished from the counterfeit. And indeed * that university which flourished most in the first times of * Christianity did disown all manner of certainty, so that these * admitted no principles by which any facts could be confirmed; * and it is probable that most philosophers were of this latter * sort. Others, who would allow some topics whereon to prove * facts done, yet asserted more faith to be due to their precon- * ceived hypotheses than to the relation of any thing that passed. * There were, however, some among the philosophers who were * willing to allow more to a suitable attestation of things done * then to their own hypotheses ; but these had imbibed so base * an opinion of Christians, they did not think it worth while to * inquire into any thing about them ; — insomuch that, though * altogether they made such a noise of reason in other things, * yet in aflPairs respecting Christianity they would not permit * themselves to be guided by it ; no, nor so much as indulge that * curiosity which is peculiarly natural to a philosopher.' ^16. Whether some Christians afterwards have not in suc- ceeding ages contracted the like principles from vain philosophy, and pursued the pattern above-mentioned with respect to some supernatural occurrences among themselves, will be inquired into more fully in the sequel of this treatise. The quotation above is sufficient to shew the antipathy there is between human wisdom INTRODUCTION. 15 and that which speaks in revelation, and that they are inconsist- ent in the very foundation of each. And that the general cau- tion given by the Holy Ghost against listening to, or teaching, the elements of worldly philosophy, was not without good ground left an admonition to all Christians, did appear even as early as the middle of the second century ; for proof whereof, I refer myself to Dr. Grabe's Specil. part i. p. 177, where Justin Mar- tyr's discourse upon the great doctrine of the resurrection of the body argues thus : * Seeing,' says he, * our adversary the devil ' does not desist from assaulting men, but indefatigably uses * many arts to ensnare them, both to withdraw believers from * the faith and to keep infidels from believing ; I thought it ne- * cessary, for the sake of the weak, to have ourselves armed * with the invincible words of faith, that we may oppose those * who, by twisting together a great deal of sophistry [reciting here * several philosophical arguments they used], and blending it * with some texts of Scripture, do endeavour to turn men away < from the faith of the resurrection of the body. Some Christians * argue, that it is impossible ; not considering that they therein * are believers only in profession, and in fact do demonstrate * themselves infidels, nay, more infidel than the heathen. For those * who believe in idols are persuaded all things are possible to ' them ; much more ought we to believe in our God. As * to Christians, therefore, it is enough for us to say, we believe ; * and we need even to beg pardon of the children of truth, when * in respect to infidels we use foreign human arguments to ' demonstrate it possible. [Then he proceeds to use such argu- * ments ; but to Christians he says,] The word of Truth is free, * and stands upon his own right, nor will subject itself to the * probation of reasoning, or suffer itself to undergo a trial by ' such demonstration with the hearers : for the word of truth is ' sent from God, who will have the excellence and certainty of it * entrusted to himself who sends it, seeing there is no demon- * stration that comes up to the certainty there is in God : there- ' fore the prerogative he assumes is not to be taxed with arro- ' gance when what is given out by that authority requires to be * exempted from other ways of demonstration. Wherefore, since '■ nothing is stronger, nothing more worthy of credit, than truth * itself, whoever insists upon a demonstration thereof is like to a ' man who seeks after a demonstration of that which stands * apparent to his senses. As to all human affairs the attestation of |6 PART I CHAP. I. * the senses is evidence, and we by them, or the report of others * built upon them, do judge and determine ; but, as God is truth * and an intelligence perfect, the words of truth we judge of by * no other thing, but rely upon Him as the Father of us all. His * Son the existing Word, came down to us clothed in flesh, * shewing forth Himself and the Father, and giving unto us in * himself the resurrection from the dead, and after it eternal life : * wherefore, those that follow Him and have known Him do * repose themselves in Him, holding their faith on Him for * DEMONSTRATION.' § 17. Now, that reason ought not to be admitted to sit as judge upon revelation, as Justin the Martyr here hints, appears from the danger unto which many other sacred doctrines (as well as that above mentioned) whereon the faith of a Christian is built would be exposed, if they be allowed to be controverted upon the principles of philosophy; particularly that of the Divine foreknowledge, in its consistency with the free agency of man. Thus, also, all the passages in the prophetical parts of Scripture, either fulfilled already or still remaining to be so, ever were and are purely the subjects of faith, which can receive no aid therein from philosophy. The knowledge of God's express will, his counsel and designs, and every thing that comes under the head of instituted laws upon mankind, is built wholly upon revelation, and therefore requires that reasoning from the dictates of philo- sophy be deemed useless touching them. The celebrated and honourable Mr. Boyle makes it a very doubtful question, whe- ther bare Reason ever did, or can, arrive at so much as to assure us that there are such beings in nature as angels, whereof the Scripture treats so largely. And seeing that a great part of Holy Writ depends upon their agency, how dangerous must it then be to exalt philosophy, and apply the rules of it to Divine things? And indeed, if there were no other instance, of the dismal havock that has occurred in the church by suffering the points of faith to be debated in the lists of natural reasoning, than that one sacred mystery of the Trinity, the devastation has been so dreadful that it had been happy for Christians if they had adhered to the definition of the Word revealing being his own DEMONSTRATION. § 18. But in reference to the reasoning in men, and the so- much-boasted rectitude of it, as if the same were a fit rule to judge of God by, Mr. Boyle's Reconcilement of Reason and INTRODUCTION. ^ '^*^^^i:SLlLllJ' Revelation tells us, ' The understanding of man is not sincerely * disposed to receive the light of truth ; but receives an infusion ' (as it were) of adventitious colours from the will and affections < (that disguise the light) which makes him sooner believe those * things that he is desirous should be true, and reject many others * upon accounts that do no ways infer their being false ; wherefore * we may justly suspect that the generality of men have some * secret propensities to err about Divine things, and indispositions * to admit truths which not only detect the weaknesses of our * nature and our personal disabilities, and thereby offend or mor- * tify our pride and our ambition, but strongly tend to discover to * ourselves and others our vices and faults, and oftentimes to cross * our designs and interests. And if we consider the inbred pride * of man, (which is such that, if we believe the sacred story, even * Adam in paradise affected to be like God,) we shall not so much * marvel that almost every man in particular makes the notions he * has entertained already, and his senses, his inclinations, and his * interests, the standards by which he estimates and judges all * other things, whether natural or revealed. So that we may < justly complain, that men seek all the knowledge they care to * find, or will admit, either in these little worlds themselves^ or * from that great world the universe, but not from the Omniscient * Author of them both. Wherefore, when we make mention of * the dictates of right reason, and pretend to unbiassed under- * standings, we are to remember that our intellectual weaknesses, ' * or our prejudices, or prepossession by custom, by education, * &c., our interest, passions, vices, and I know not how many * other things, have so great and swaying an influence on them * that there are very few conclusions that we make, or opinions * that we espouse, that are so much the pure results of our * reason that no personal disability, prejudice, or fault, has any * interest in them.' § 19. The lively picture of the idol reason drawn as above serves well to explain to us that of St. Paul, how it comes that " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, nor can he know them." But as the discourse preceding chiefly intimates, that the moral corruption of man's reason is such as must necessarily render it a very incompetent judge of the things of God revealed ; so the same author adds, * Concerning * the natural imbecility of the human intellect, that it is such ' that the most piercing wits and excellent mathematicians are D 18 PART I. — CHAP. I. ' forced to confess, that not only their own reason, but that of * mankind, may be puzzled and nonplussed about quantity, * which is an object of contemplation natural, nay, mathematical. * Wherefore/ says he, ' why should we think it unfit to be be- ' lieved, and to be acknowledged, that in the attributes of God ' (or his extraordinary operations) there should be some things ' that our finite understandings cannot clearly comprehend. And ' we who cannot clearly comprehend how in ourselves two such * distinct natures as that of a gross body and immaterial spirit ' should be united so as to make up one man ; why should we * grudge to have our reason pupil to an Omniscient Instructor, ' who can teach us such things as neither our own mere reason, * nor any other's, could ever have discovered to us? ' § 20. But because, even in the revealed ways of God, and touching them, we shall find in the sequel of this treatise that we are often summoned to bow down to this idol. Reason ; we that stubbornly refuse such allegiance, being the subjects of another Sovereign, do refer ourselves to the above-cited cha- racters of its moral corruption and native imbecility. We fur- ther plead the many injuries accruing to several doctrines of the Christian faith, debased with the mixture of philosophical prin- ciples. We plead also a liberty from serving this tyrant, because of the manifold testimony of our Master the Word, touching the opposition to Him of worldly science falsely so called, vain phi- losophy and wisdom. And seeing that our Divine Schoolmaster has told us, that God is unsearchable in his ways, and past finding out unto perfection ; and one of the first form in our school owns " he knew but in part, and saw as through a glass darkly ;" we cannot admit other and opposing masters to pre- scribe us rules how to judge of things revealed by. We are content to wait, indeed, the happy time when we shall see as face to face, in comparison to what we now do ; though even in that most blissful state we have no further hope than to be like to, and equal (at most) with, angels*; who yet, in their near approaches, are represented to us as covering their faces, not able to support themselves under the dazzling brightness of Majesty Supreme. * The hope of the members of the mystical body Christ is much " further than being like to, and equal with, angels ;" for it is the hope of being like Christ himself, sitting with him on his throne, and ruhng over angels, and over all created intelligencies and things. — Editor. INTRODUCTION. 19 § 21. We oppose not, neither reject, any teachers further than they are other than our Lord the Word ; the dogmas and tra- ditions, according to the dictates of our sole Master and Dictator, we own, and oppose such dogmatizing only as is contrary to them. But we conceive it was a supplication worthy of one Apostle, in bowing his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we, " being rooted and grounded in love, might comprehend with all saints, and know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ," though at the same time he subjoins that *' it passeth knowledge." It was also an exhortation not unworthy of another, that we should grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet. iii. 18) : though, after we are grown to something of a manhood in that science, we may still be allowed to imitate the inspired King, saying, " Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it" (Psal. cxxxix. 0). It is the Spirit alone, abstractedly taken, that fully " searcheth the deep things of God ;" for the prophets themselves are set before us, 1 Pet. i- 11, 12, in the posture of " inquiring and searching diligently after the signification of what the Spirit of Christ in them did testify ;" and the very angels themselves are there affirmed to be " desirous to look into them :" which intimates, that they are far from penetrating to the bottom of those deeps. Wherefore we look upon it as an effect and mark of ignorance, as well as pre- sumption, when we hear every little mortal offer to talk of the ways of God conclusively ; as if he, even he, were the man that with one single act of intuition could pierce through them all. § 22. What we conceive of our duty is, that, whenever we speak of God, we are to stand in awe how we determine touch- ing Him ; and not, by an over-weening opinion of the little selfy presume that we have a perfect knowledge of every thing in Him whereof we have some knowledge. And this we are to do so much the rather, because, though we build upon the true Foundation, we are forewarned of a day, 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13, that shall declare what is wood, hay, and stubble, and a fire that shall distinguish them from the gold, silver, and precious stones. Which distinction of things to be consumed from those that are to remain, if I construe it to be accomplished in this world, and the former sort of them to mean the philosophical and merely human superstructures on the simple word of Christ, I am not without even learned attestations. And indeed the scope of the 20 PART. I. — CHAP. I. two preceding chapters, and what follows in this, seem to be^ sufficient to warrant it; wherefore I recommend the same to the further consideration of the students in theology. § 23. From all that has been said, the state of the argument supposes that there are among the professors of Christianity many that stand in the character of the natural man ; that is, such an one as acts by no other rule and guidance than that of his personal reason ; and, in consequence, he rejects whatsoever is above or seems contrary to it. We have seen already many instances, even in the natural world, wherein the mere light of reason affords but a loose and sandy foundation for the judgment to build upon even in those things ; insomuch that among the grossest parts of the creation the most bold and piercing wits are forced (when driven) to confess, that the reason of all man- kind may be puzzled and nonplussed about them. And Mr. Boyle, in his tract above-cited, says, that, * even in natural things, * philosophers themselves do, and must, adn\it several things * whereof they cannot explicate, or perhaps conceive the modus.' If so, why do the worshippers of Reason (every one of whom makes a deity of himself) upbraid the Christian's faith with ab- surdity for admitting that in supernaturals which he himself does in natural things ? If the philosopher acknowledges the conjunction of an immaterial spirit with a gross body, though he cannot explicate the modus or manner how it is formed, why should it be more incredible that the Eternal Spirit unites itself to the human, in revelation, merely because the manner of this adventitious union is also without full demonstration to our com- prehensions ? § 24. But revelation being the foundation whereon the faith, hope, and acting of all believers is built— that we may not be misunderstood in what we mean, when we allow that the man- ner of it is without full demonstration to our understandings — it is requisite once more to cite the words of Mr. Boyle. * It may * be seasonable to consider what kind of probation, or what de- * gree of evidence, may reasonably be thought sufficient to make ' revelation fit to be embraced. Now,' says he, ' besides the ' demonstrations wont to be treated of in vulgar logic, [I sup- ' pose he means mathematical, and such as are attested by the ' senses,] there are among philosophers three distinct kinds or ' degrees of demonstration. First, There is a metaphysical de- ' monstration, where the conclusion is manifestly built on those INTRODUCTION. 21 « general metaphysical axioms, that can never be other than true. < Secondly, Physical demonstrations, where the conclusion is ' evidently deduced from physical principles, which are not so * absolutely certain as the former. Thirdly, There are moral ' demonstrations, such as those where the conclusion is built ' upon some one moral proof, cogent in its kind, or some con- ' currence of probabilities, that it cannot be but allowed, sup- * posing the truth of the most received rules of prudence and * principles of practical philosophy. And this third kind of pro- * bation, though it comes behind the two others in certainty, * yet it is the surest guide which the actions of men have regu- ' larly allowed them to follow. And this is remarkable in moral ' demonstrations, that such may consist, and be as it were made ' up, of several particulars, that are each of them asunder, but ' probable ; because it is thought reasonable to suppose that, ' though each testimony single be but probable, yet a concur- ' rence of such probabilities may well amount to a moral cer- ' tainty, since the very concurrence ought in reason to be attri- * buted to the truth of what they jointly tend to prove. Now, * to apply these things to the Christian revelation, if you con- ' sider that it is as absurd and improper a thing to require ma- * thematical demonstrations in moral affairs as to take up with * moral arguments in matters mathematical ; you will not deny * that those articles of the Christian religion that can be proved * by a moral, though not by a metaphysical or physical, demon - * stration may without any blemish to a man's reason be assent- ' ed to.' § 25. According to this explanation of moral demonstration, the natural man has a simple capacity, in his rational faculty, to assent to revelation, upon moral proofs of it. Whereon we ought to consider that the honourable author who allows such a capacity takes the style of a philosopher; and when he says, that in a concurrence of probabilities a moral proof of revelation cannot but be allowed, he supposes that the most received rules of prudence, and the principles of practical philosophy, are pre- viously admitted. But the Apostle, when he says that a natural man ** cannot know the things of the Spirit of God," it is to be understood of that universal corruption which has infected the natural capacity ; so that, without some special grace, it cannot master that corruption. Nevertheless, seeing there is 22 PART I. — CHAP. I. such an inherent capacity in man to assent to revelation upon moral proofs of an indulgence, from the will, of those corrup- tions that vitiate the capacity, draws down guilt upon the heads of the indulgers as often as the Author of nature and Supreme Lawgiver and Judge sets before them such proofs of his revealed will. For it cannot be controverted, that the Father of us all has a sovereign right to signify his will whensoever he pleases to his creatures ; and it is an original debt, owing from all rational natures, that their understanding and will should bow down and pay obeisance to that of the Father of light and of all being, when it is so signified to them. § 26. Faith then, which is described to us to be " the evi- dence of things not seen," is a supernatural grace conferred on believers from above, and is the ground and confidence of things hoped for, though without mathematical, metaphysical, and phy- sical demonstrations, or such as are clear to our senses. How- ever, we may to the mere natural man say, that we have moral demonstrations to shew, either one very cogent in its kind or a concurrence of several probable ones of like sort, such as are allowed universally a sufficient foundation for the guidance of men in things natural and civil of the greatest moment. And herein the crooked partiality and iniquity of men merely rational is evident, that though they can and do act in other points with- out such certainty of demonstration, and often frame conclu- sions even without such moral proofs ; yet in the things of God, that come with an imperative authority to blast their own pride, and curb their passions, and overthrow their worldly interests, they then pretend that their reason cannot allow them to submit to the Giver of it, thereby not fearing to accuse their Maker. One would think it might indeed seem worthy to be admitted for the first principle of all reason, that the Author of it, as the Supreme Intellect, must have more understanding ; and in con- sequence, whenever he vouchsafes new rays of light, displayed from above, it were the happiness and joy of every man to open his breast readily to the influence thereof: because their very creation being an effect of his goodness. He ought not to be judged capable of meaning hurt to them ; but, on the contrary, as both able and disposed to render them more happy. And, in effect, those that with the whole heart believe do find it thus in them- selves during this present life ; even in that " peace (given in) INTRODUCTION. 2:^ which passeth all understanding " of them that have it not, and that joy which no man can take from us, and that love which is triumphant over all calamities, even over death itself. § 27. It is said by St. Paul to the Athenians, that the times of preceding ignorance among the Gentiles God winked at; but after the evangelical commission to command all men to repent, because of a judgment declared that should be passed upon them, we conclude the rejecters of that authority were no longer excusable from any indulged ignorance, any more than the Jews in rejecting the Messiah. Wherefore the scoffers of revelation now, under the pretext of reason, ought not to presume them- selves to be in like condition with those who never heard of that summons upon the authority of Revelation. But as to the prin- ciples whereon our faith of God revealing is built from the Scrip- ture, it were to be wished that there was nothing generally pre- dominant among Christians that justly ministered occasion of hardening the open contemners of all revealed religion. It is certain, that by the words of St. Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 14 — 16, '' he that believeth hath no more part with an infidel, than light hath communion with darkness, or Christ hath concord with Belial, or the temple of God hath agreement with idols." What, there- fore, the state of the Christian church hath long been, and at this day is, with respect to that faith of the Apostles and Pro- phets,. I mean the faith of God the WORD revealing, we pur- pose in this treatise to inquire. In order to which, as the first step, it is absolutely necessary to search into the Scripture, for the accounts given us there of the various manners and different ways whereby the invisible God did convey his oracles to men. For, whenever there was such a communication of the Divine will to men of indispensible necessity, there was some way used wherein the same was conveyed. But as infidelity consisted, by the Scripture definition of it, in rejecting the word of the Lord entrusted to the prophet, either by the apparition of angels, or by dreams, or by visions, or by voices heard, or by inspira- tion prophetic, and through his subservient instrumentality di- vulged ; we shall now proceed minutely to examine what the holy writings do demonstrate to us upon those heads severally, that we may be able to judge more distinctly what faith our Sovereign Lord and Maker did require from his creatures upon that occasion, and wherein their guilt consisted in refusing a subjection to him, when it was so claimed. 24 PART I.. — CHAP. II. CHAP. II. OF THE APPARITION OF ANGELS IN SCRIPTURE. When the Almighty began his speech to Job out of the whirl- wind, he said, chap, xxxviii. 7, that at his laying the foundations of this earth, "the morning stars [Gr. 'all his angels;' Chald. * all the troops of angels '] sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Daniel, when he beheld the Ancient of Days sitting on his throne, chap. vii. 10, saw " thousand thou- sands ministering unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him ;" and St. John saw and heard the same number. Rev. v. 11, joining in an anthem to the praises of the Lamb. All which " are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall inherit salvation " (Heb. i. 14). And indeed the very word, both in Hebrew and Greek, signifying an angel, means equally a messenger. Therefore they are represented in the posture of servants standing about the throne ready to re- ceive orders. Thus, one of them styles himself the fellow-servant of John, and of his brethren the prophets, Rev. xxii. 9. And their excellent qualities for that service are finely expressed by the Chaldee, in Psa. civ. 4 : " Who maketh his messengers swift as the wind, his ministers strong as the flaming fire." Thus, then, when a saint is at prayer here below (Dan. ix. 21), even while the words are speaking, the wings of a Gabriel can recon- cile the immense distance from the throne above to this lower world. Another could come down in a night (2 Kings xix. 35), and before day strew the camp of the Assyrians with one hun- dred and eighty-five thousand dead corpses. And if their puis- sance be such, what then will be the terror of that day when the King of kings, the Lord of lords, shall lead on the armies of heaven (drawn up in battalia) " to judge and make war, to smite the nations, and tb rule them with a rod of iron " (Rev. xix. 11 — 18). § 2. Whether the ordinary administration of Providence over kingdoms and nations ought to be ascribed to the ministry of angels, as some of the first rank of authors in the Christian church have asserted from Dan. x. 13, 20, we remit to inquiry. But, as to their instrumentality for good to the heirs of immortal life, during their abode here, it can never fall under question THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 25 among any but those who believe the Scripture but by halves. Our great Prophet says, Matt, xviii. 10, "The angels of children do always behold the face of his Father in heaven ;" which no ways excludes adult persons from the like privilege, but is there only applied to little ones as an argument why none ought to despise them. It was a general opinion among the Jews, that every one of the faithful had an angel, in propriety, attending him ; and many Christians did very early adopt that opinion, founding themselves principally on this text, though there be no such speciality expressed in it. To some extraordinary persons, indeed, there is much more ground to believe there was an angel properly assigned them ; as the congregation of believers sup- posed touching Peter, Acts xii. 15, that it was " his angel" who appeared at the gate assuming his manner of speech. So Jacob mentions one in special, Gen. xlviii. 16, saying, " The Angel which delivered me from all evil*." The like seems to be hinted by Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 16, 17, who knew who was with him, when he prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant to see it. Other arguments there want not to prove the same. } 3. But to return to the vigilant administration of angels more general, the Psalmist affirms by the Spirit, Psal. xxxiv. 7, that " the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." A representation of which en- campment, or circumvallation, was shewed to Jacob, Gen. xxxii* 1, 2, where he said, <* This is God's camp." And to Elisha's servant as above, when he saw the mountain covered with horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. But here let us ob- serve, that a visionary representation, as these were, does not lead us to conclude that every one of that camp, or of those horses and chariots, was a distinct angel ; though in another place, Psal. Ixviii. 17, angels are called the "chariots of God," which compose his numerous army. Furthermore, for the com- fort of him who makes the Lord his refuge, the Psalmist says, * The author's anxiety to multiply instances of the ministrations of angels has led him too far here ; for Jacob prays, in Gen. xlviii. 16, to the angel who had redeemed him, as our version following the Hebrew properly renders the original, ^J^UH ^^^ not merely delivered him ; and if the men- tion of the word redeemed be not sufficient to prove that the Angel of the Covenant, or the Angel of Jehovah's presence of Isa. Ixiii. 9, even the Lord Jesus, be the person intended, a reference to Gen. xxxi. 11 shews us that the Angel who delivered Jacob was no less than the God of Bethel. — Editor. E 26 PART I. — CHAP. II. ** He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways " (Psa. xci. 11) ; but, in respect to his enemies, prays, " Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them ; let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them " (xxxv. 5, 6). Under the same Divine inspiration, in regard to public worship, it is said, Psa. cxxxviii. 1, " I will praise thee with my whole heart; before the angels [Gr., ^M., Vulg.Lat., Arab.~\ will I sing praise unto thee." And as we believe there is fresh joy among them upon the repentance of a sinner, so it needs must be that they exult at the public prayers and due reverential praises of the saints. Wherefore, we find an admonition to the religious discharge of a solemn vow, from the inspection of an angel present at the making it, Eccles. v. 6. And, finally, from the like superinten- dency of theirs over the conduct of Christians, the Apostle, 1 Tim. V. 21, " adjures Timothy, before the elect angels," to observe the rules there prescribed him. And that they do heedfully regard all that passeth in the church on earth appears from Eph. iii. 10. § 4. Agreeably to these general doctrines of their presence with, and propitious care over, the persons of the faithful, in sub- serviency to their Lord and ours, we have many instances left us for the establishment of our faith therein. For thus, Abraham, in dismissing his servant to Chaldea, Gen. xxiv. 7, encourageth him to go cheerfully that journey, from a dependence that the Lord God of heaven, who had done such mighty things prece- dently for him, would send his angel to succeed it. Thus Jacob on his death-bed, in blessing the sons of Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 16, makes mention of the Angel that had delivered him from all evil. Our ever blessed Redeemer, in his state of humiliation, did not disdain, in an agony, to be strengthened by an angel (Luke xxii. 43). We read also of several of the Apostles who were de- livered out of prison by the ministry of an angel (Acts v. 18, 19). By that of another^ Cornelius is directed to his conversion ; and in like manner they officiously translate the soul of Lazarus, from its dungeon of the body, into the bosom of Abraham. I should not here make mention of the signal ministration of angels to the church in the wilderness, and especially at the giving of the Law ; and that Moses was a ruler and deliverer, " by the hand (or power) of the Angel which appeared in the bush*" (Acts vii. * The preceding note applies also to the expressions, " the Angel in the bush," and " the Angel of the Lord " of Psal. xxxiv. 7, before cited. THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 27 35) ; but that many need to be put in mind, that under the Christian dispensation we are come to "an innumerable company of angels " (Heb. xii. 22), and that " the Son of Man shall send his angel with a great sound of a trumpet [or, as in Dr. Mills, 'and a loud voice,'] to gather together his elect from the four winds" (Matt. xxiv. 31). — But, to add no more here, it is upon the foun- dation of the doctrines above mentioned, that we in the Church of England are exhorted, by the Collect for Michaelmas Day, to pray, ' O everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted ' the services of angels and men, in a wonderful order ; merci- * fully grant, that as thy holy angels always do thee service in * heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us * on earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' § 5. After so many express and clear declarations of the word of God, and not of men, touching the agency of angels in the course of Divine providence, and their intent inspection into the conduct of the spiritual worshippers of him, I am persuaded that the mere rational man, who believes none of these things as re- vealed, will yet be ready to own that, could he believe them all as Christians pretend to do, he would not openly scoff at and disbelieve any agency of angels when they shew themselves. For, may he say to the believer, * Unless you can produce as many texts for the contempt of their visible appearance now, as you own for it formerly, and as you own at all times, for their invisible instrumentality over men, with what consistency of prin- ciples do you act when you scorn and hate any man for the ocular testimony he now gives that is confirmatory of your own tenets?' That which is seen, and which is heard, and which is felt, affords the clearest proof that men can require for evidence in any case whatsoever. Wherefore, to pursue this argument, if any now can give the like for the appearance and agency of angels, what is there that can be said against it but must at the same time overturn all the received rules of justice and right reason ? In all other points wherein evidence is admitted touch- ing what occurred to a person, if that of the eye, and ear, and touch be excluded, would not this be to invalidate every kind of proof among men ? When, in Acts xii. 13, Rhoda told the first Christians that Peter himself stood before the gate, they said she was mad, but allowed that it might be an angel assuming his form : how is it, then, that we have so adopted the very reverse of their principles, that he who shall pretend to see one must be 28 PART I. CHAP. II. mad ? Here then is one thing wherein the modern believer takes part with the unbelieving Sadducee ; unless, upon examination, it appears that there was something in the appearing of angels recorded in Holy Writ beyond any that may occur again. Wherefore, in order to search to the root of infidelity, we pro- ceed to examine into the text touching that matter. § 6. First then, as to the manner of their appearance, we find it often in a form as well as behaviour so usual and familiar to men that they were not known to be other than men for a time* : thus one of them, addressing himself to Hagar at a foun- tain in the wilderness, bespeaks her in a friendly sort. Gen. xvi. 8, "Hagar, Sarah's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" Another of these heavenly messengers, in his speech to Manoah's wife, Judg.xiii.4 — 21, says familiarly, "be- ware, 1 pray thee," and was so far taken for a man that they offered to give him meat ; for Manoah knew not that he was an angel till he disappeared. Thus Lot, also, at the city gate re- ceived his guests no otherwise than as travellers, and courteously invited them to his house to lodge (Gen. xix. 1 — 10): they also appeared as beautiful young men to the Sodomites ; and, lastly, seemed to eat of the feast prepared for them. Abraham likewise addressed himself to those whom he saw, as passengers, and accordingly besought them to wash their feet, and repose themselves until he prepared them some refreshment; and at length they also appeared to eat (Gen. xviii. 4, 8). Under the disguise, in like manner, of the human nature, it is said of the angel to Gideon, that when he vanished out of sight, then, and not before, did Gideon perceive that he was so (Judg. vi. 21). Even thus the Captain-general of the Lord's host did seem at first to Joshua to be a man only, with his sword drawn (Josh. v. 13, 14). Wherefore, when Paul saw a man in Macedonian garb, who prayed him, saying, " Come over into Macedonia, and help us" (Acts xvi. 9), the familiarity of the appearance and allocution to him did not hinder, but that he assuredly gathered from it that * Although the author takes a more proper view of these passages in § 12, yet he does not clearly distinguish between mere angels, creatures though of a most glorious kind, and the manifestation of the God-man in his predestinated form, in the image of which Adam was created. Gen. xvi. 13, 14. shews that it was Jehovah Himself who spake to Hagar : Judges xiii. 22, that it was He who spake to Manoah : Gen. xviii. 1, 13, 17, 19, 20, 33, that it was He who spake to Abram and Lot : Judges vi. 2, that it is He who is Captain of the hosts of heaven. The argument in the text would have been sufficiently strong, if this distinction had been preserved. — Editor. THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 29 the Lord had called him to that country, any nacre than he doubted it to be an angel when he saw a man named Ananias coming in to him and laying hands upon him (Acts ix. 17). And thus, when the disciples were looking stedfastly after their Lord ascending up to heaven, their eyes no sooner turned down again to earth than they were entertained by two cherubs, clothed like men, and speaking in the style of such ; for they are called men (Acts i. 10). Nevertheless, even when these celestial spirits assume the most usual form and manner of men, they know how to dart out some displays of the difference; which occasioned Manoah's wife to say, " The countenance of the man of God (that is, a prophet) was like the countenance of an angel." Some- times the suddenness or unexpectedness of the apparition, ex- pressed by the words the angel of the Lord " came upon " such and such, seems to have caused some affrightment by the sur- prize, where nothing else in the vision is mentioned that could affect with terror : sometimes also the suddenness of their dis- appearance, after they had been presumed for mortals, wrought an impression of fear upon the reflection. Of both which cases there are instances, which the curious may easily remark. But I proceed next to their more refulgent manifestations. § 7. In several of the instances above given it may be ob- served, that, after those seraphic agents had for a while veiled themselves under the human shades, they let out some glimpses of their superior state ; but at other times, though they took a likeness to human form in their appointed association with men, the disguise was not so much as questionable. As when David, 1 Chron. xxi. 16, saw the angel standing between the earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out : or when the angel of the Lord came upon Peter, Acts xii.7, striking him on the side while asleep, and a light shined in the prison : but more expressly, when it is said, Luke i 12, something in the apparition troubled Zacharias, and fear fell on him, before he was struck deaf and dumb for his unbelief. Thus also it was that the shepherds were sore afraid when the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them in the night (Luke ii. 9). And thus more resplendently yet, in Matt, xxviii. 2, when the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and a great earthquake attended his coming to roll back the stone from the door of the sepulchre ; for when he sat upon it '* his countenance was like lightning, and for fear of him 30 PART I. — CHAP. II. the keepers did shake and become as dead men." And accord- ingly, in other texts, where the women are recited to attend the sepulchre, they are said to have been amazed, afFrightened, to tremble, and to fly with fear at the sight. But in these, and a multitude of other like occasions, the graciousness, to men, of the Divine economy over spirits is to be admired ; in that those refulgent ministers, in their approach to weak mortals, when the mind of these is duly impressed with the dignity of the mes- senger, and the majesty of Him whom they represent, then comes in favourably a salutation by name, as " Mary, Corne- lius," and the like, " fear not;" and with these words reviving strength is conveyed ; of which the following instance is further conspicuously pregnant. We read concerning Daniel (x. 3 — 19), that he, being by " the side of a great river, lift up his eyes, and beheld a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold, his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. Daniel alone saw the vision, for the men that were with him saw it not ; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide them- selves *." He being ** left alone, there remained no strength in him ; for his vigour was turned into corruption, and when he heard the voice of the (angelic) words, he fell into a deep sleep, with his face upon the ground. And, behold, a hand touched him, that set him upon his knees, and the palms of his hands ; and the angel said, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, for unto thee am I now sent, stand upright ; and when he had said that word, Daniel stood up trembling: then he said. Fear not, Daniel." But when some other words followed, " Daniel set his face toward the ground, and became dumb. And, behold, one like the simi- litude of the sons of men touched his lips," and his speech was restored. Then he said to the angel, *' O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength neither is there breath left in me how can thy servant talk with this my Lord ? Then, there came again one like the appearance of a man, and touched " and strengthened him the * This passage is more objectionable even than the former, because the exact similarity of this description of our Lord in glory, with that given by St. John in the Revelations, does not admit of a question that it was Jesus himself who spoke to the prophet.— Ji'rfiior. THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 31 fourth and fifth time. After all which, his vigour was restored fully by a concluding salutation, " O man, greatly beloved, fear not ; peace be unto thee ; be strong, yea, be strong." § 9. The last recited intercourse of Daniel with the angel is styled by him a great vision ; which character of it I rather judge to be affixed thereto from the majesty of the angelic ap- parition, and the enfeebling ecstatic effects on himself, than the subject therein contained. Upon another vision also (viii. 27), Daniel tells us he fainted, and was sick certain days : wherefore those effects on the human body are not to be adjudged im- pressions incompatible with the appearance and operation of a kind and heavenly agent ; for these did not hinder ; but Daniel, even by such a manifestation, was demonstrated to be a man greatly beloved of God. Nor do such things derogate at all from the goodness of our heavenly Father, even to the person in particular, much less reflect upon his parental tenderness in general. On the other side, whereas many have dressed up the appearance of an angel so necessarily terrible as if that the human nature neither ever could nor can support, under the majesty of it, without falling into a trance, or temporary sup- pression of the senses, we find by many of the preceding rela- tions nothing at all of that kind attending such an appearance. And as others again would have it, that all kind of familiarity in the manner and form and expressions of a spirit, when shewing himself visible to mankind, is a sufficient mark to denominate an evil one, the contrary is made evident at large, sect. 6. And because the supporters of that opinion plead the term used in 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, and in divers other places, which is translated *' a familiar spirit," it is worthy of remark that the Hebrew word in that text, touching the witch of Endor, carries it that she was mistress of a pythonic spirit : (Chald. * she knew how to raise the python ;' Syr. ' she could compel the pythons to arise ;* Vulg. Lat, * she had a python ;' Gr. terms her, ' a woman speak- ing as out of the belly.') Now from all these interpretations, there is no definition of the evil spirit, by the distinguishing mark of a familiar one other than, by the several instances above mentioned, may consist with what is alleged of good angels ; and with what is mentioned by our Saviour of the Holy Spirit, his coming to abide in us, to dwell, and walk in, and to sup with us. Certainly, therefore, it is a haughty presumption for any one to prescribe rules for our obedience or disobedience, in such 32 PART I. — CHAP. II. cases, unto God, beyond those of his own exhibiting ; not only by the above-said precepts, but hkewise by insisting that an angel ought not to be believed before a miracle was wrought by him. Moreover, if any do conclude that the figure of a human body is necessary to the appearance of an angel, he will do well to recollect the passages already quoted, that mention only *' a likeness to the similitude " of the sons of men. For every thing that does visionarily appear is properly as much the denotation of an angel present as the human form ; and of this there are several particular instances (chap. v. sect. 22), though this being the most noble figure of all creatures visible, and such as our eternal Redeemer of the body, the Lord of angels, honoured with his residence, the assuming it by angels has ever justly been accounted to demand a more peculiar regard, and especially because it carries more suitableness in it to the sub- jects of their message. § 10. But the obligation upon men to reverence God in such vouchsafements, besides the tenour of Scripture throughout, is excellently set forth to us in Acts v. 19, 20, 29 ; where, when the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, and brought out several of the Apostles, he commanded them, saying, <* Go, stand and speak in the temple;" they accordingly obeyed, were had before the council for it, where Peter and the rest, pleading in their defence, said, ** we ought (TrgtS-apxto/) to obey God rather than men." The Greek word there used signifies the obedience of a subject to a prince or king ; which is certainly as much due among men, when his command is signified by a con- stituted officer, as when given immediately by the prince himself in person. In like manner, if the King eternal, immortal, in- visible, the only Wise, hath constituted and declared the order of his government over his intellectual creatures here to be such, that, whenever his sovereign will is made known unto men by an angel, his proper minister and officer, it is no less an act of rebellion in the former than in the latter case to disobey. So that, whenever the professing believer does take part with the infidel, by cherishing in himself and teaching others principles of disobedience to the orders of an angel (bearing upon him the ensigns of his descent), such an one acts in open opposition to his Sovereign : and in vain therefore does he in words pretend to ascribe all honour and power due to " the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, dwelling in the THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 33 light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see." We are not pleading for a reverence due to angels in their natural capacity ; nor would we be understood by any thing already said, or which shall be, as if we thought that, by their own proper motion and any arbitrary power of their own, they were able either to do us good or harm, but in subserviency to the commission of their King and ours. Nevertheless, with this explanation of the true intent and meaning of the present argument, it is certain, from the positive laws of our God and sovereign King revealed, that an angel has frequently represent- ed, and may yet as often represent, the person of the Invisible, — and, when he does so, is to be absolutely obeyed in all things that he communicates from the unapproachable Throneabove ; which will be yet more evident from what followeth*. § 11. Notwithstanding the easy and free address of the angel to Hagar, Gen. xvi. 13, " she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her. Thou God seest me ;" which the Chaldee ren- ders, * She called on the name of the Lord, that spake to her, saying. Thou art God seeing all things.' And here, once for all, it is not unworthy of notice, that the Hebrew using divers words whereby to express God, Jehovah is the most exalted, majestic, and glorious of them all ; and this usually among the learned is styled * the four lettered name ;' the original writing it so ; and from its derivation signifies, " He was, He is. He will be the Almighty " (Rev. i. 8). So revered was, and is, this name by the Jews, that they ever did and do think it unlawful to speak it or to write it in translations ; whence it comes that the Greek and other (instead thereof) use the word Lord, as the modern languages still, from those, do write it among Christians also to this day. But this most majestic name we find here in the case of Hagar applied to an angel ; and on this, as well as some other occasions, because the majesty of God is more peculiarly expressed by that word Jehovah, I shall, for the setting forth the greater emphasis of the inspired text, take leave sometimes to use it. And now, to pursue the thread of the his- torical account of angels. Lot said unto one of those that at- tended him (Gen. xix. 19), " Thy servant hath found grace in • This is very true, under the assumption that the messenger do really come from the God and Father of Jesus Christ, which it is necessary for him to shew ; otherwise, Satan might come as an angel of light, without being discovered — Editor. 34 PART I.— CHAP. n. thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy unto me;" which is a plain instance of the ascribing of Divine honour, as well as that of Hagar. § 12. Nay, not only have poor mortals ascribed such honour to God manifesting himself in the appearance of an angel, but those sublime natures have often taken the character of that Supreme Majesty. Thus when "the Angel of Jehovah," called to Abraham out of heaven (Gen. xxii. 11, 12), " He said, Now I know that thou fearest God ; seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me." Thus also when " the Angel of God" spake unto Jacob in a dream (Gen. xxxi. 13), He said, " I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar and vowedst a vow unto me." Which passage the Greek renders, " I am God, who appeared to thee in Bethel, where thou anoint- edst to me the pillar." Thus again, " the man " that wrestled with Jacob, and pretended he could not stay longer than day- break, said to him at parting (Gen. xxxii. 28, 29), " Thou hast prevailed with God ; and He blessed Jacob' there." The like observation fully appears, where ** the Angel of Jehovah ap- peared unto Moses in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush;" for there, " when Jehovah saw that he turned aside, he said (Exod. iii. 6), I am the God of thy Father," &c. And in the following chapter, where the Hebrew is, " Jehovah met Moses, and sought to kill him," the Greek and Chaldee have it, " The angel of the Lord." After a like sort, when " the Angel of God" which went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, it is added (Exod. xiv. 24), "Jehovah looked through the pillar of the cloud." The very learned H. Ainsworth remarks on this text, that the Hebrew doctors say, * This being an angel was the Shechinah, or the Presence of * God ;' and thereby we understand that the Shechinah bears the like meaning as the word Jehovah, in other forementioned passages, when referred to an angel. This manifestation of the PRESENCE of God (which in Exod. xxxiii. 14, is termed by the Chald. ' Shechinah ' or Majesty, by the Hebr. and Vulg. Lat. * my face ;' by the Greek, * I myself;' by the Arab. ' my light ') is ascribed to an angel in Isa. Ixiii. 9: *' The Angel of his Pre- sence saved them." Wherefore this majestic sign of the pre- sence of God is applicable to some of the texts about angels above- cited ; as to Jehovah's looking through the pillar of cloud, §fe:-':;^j THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. if or to the angel that spake unto Moses in the bush, or at least to that angel, Exod. xxiii. 20 — 23, where it is by the Hebrew, " Beware of his Presence, and obey his voice, neither rebel against him ; for he will not pardon your transgressions ; for my name is in him." When, and when not, the brightness of the glory of God (such as these texts assert) was seen upon an angel, who can presume to determine ? But whereas, upon their ap- pearance, we have several instances wherein the beholders are recorded to have been in much fear for themselves on that occa- sion ; as Gideon, in particular, cried out (Judg. vi. 22), " Alas, O Lord God, because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." The commentators on that text tell us, ' Such like fear * arose from a common persuasion, that whoever saw an angel ' was speedily to die; and that persuasion (say they) seems to have * risen from that in Exod. xxxiii. 20, " Thou canst not see my * face ; for there shall no man see me and live." ' And indeed the Hebrew text in Psal. viii. 5, xcvii. 7, and elsewhere, does apply unto angels the word Elohim, commonly used to express God. § 13. In the relation of that very angel's appearing to Gideon, we have it, that Jehovah looked upon him and said, " Have not I sent thee?" And thus again in Judg. ii. 1, 4, the angel of the Lord who came up from Gilgal to Bochim, said, " I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers ;" thereby evidently represent- ing the person of the Omnipotent. Wherefore also, when the Lord spake to Paul in the night by a vision. Acts xviii. 9, the learned allow, both there and in chap. xxii. 17, 18, that the ap- pearance may well be ascribed to an angel representing the Per- son of Christ. And upon the same ground, some other passages in the New Testament are equally capable of being so applied, seeing Christ himself is termed by the Greek " the Angel of great Counsel," Isaiah ix. 6 ; and ** the Angel of the Covenant," Mai. iii. 1 : and in several of those appearances of an angel above-mentioned, the angel is generally by divines conceived to have personated the Son of God, who was afterwards to be incarnate*. Finally, that there is difference of degrees among * There is no little confusion here from the author not distinguishing between angels proper, that is, mere spiritual creatures, performing the will of their Creator, and Jehovah Himself manifested in the predestinated form of the God-man. Similar confusion has led others to adopt the notion of a pre-existent humanity, thereby making void the verity of the Word taking 36 PART I. — CHAP. II. angels, does appear from many places in Scripture ; as, in par- ticular, those that specify Michael, and those that mention elect angels, and what is said touching the seven Spirits *, that pecu- liarly " stand before his throne, being the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth ;" and by these definitions they ap- pear to be distinguished among the angels, which are all mi- nistering spirits, sent forth (Rev. viii, 1, 5, 6 ; Heb. i. 14). § 14. Tlie reverence due to God, in his revelation by the ministry of angels, standing upon so large a footing in the Scrip- tures, especially seeing they assume the style of the Deity, are called Elohim, and sometimes represent Christ, I cannot con- ceive to be all vacated and overturned by the words of St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 14, ** Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light;" any more than the existence of false apostles was an argument valid against receiving the true ones, or the like existence of false prophets among the Jews did warrant them to reject the true. But upon the same ground that we are warned and admonished to esteem as accursed every angel who (how- ever seemingly from Heaven) should preach any other Gospel or message than parallel to that we have received, and do ac- knowledge for Divine, it is left upon the footing of Divine testi- monies in sacred writ to pass a sentence upon all angelic ap- pearances : but if this text of St. Paul be urged further, and made to serve, without distinction, an overthrowing of all faith built upon revelation by angels, I cannot see but this is an ef- fectual way to suppress and blowup the foundations of faith like- wise, in every one of the manners wherein God by dream, by voice, and by prophetic inspiration, has spoken, or may speak unto men. For, if the devil did at any time counterfeit and take upon him the form of an angel of light, he did also in like manner ape the Deity, not only among the priests of Baal and other idols, but even in the false prophets among the Jews ; who, as we find, acted the true ones in their outward manner, by signs and otherwise, and even in the words, " Thus saith the Lord." But, though the devil did actually transform himself then, in the fallen substance of the Virgin Mary; the real incarnation thus becoming a mere phantasm, as the modern Scotch heretics do by calling his body a new-creation in his mother's womb. — Editor. * Here the author makes a like mistake, touching the manifestation of the Person of the Holy Ghost, to that which he did before respecting the manifestation of the Person of the Son ; for which, however, he may plead the authority of able, but still erroneous, commentators. —JErff^or. THE APPARITION OF ANGELS. 37 some sense, as an angel of light, and thereby gained his ends upon the Jewish priesthood generally to reject the true prophet, and adhere to the number of false ones ; yet he could never, by his so deluding one age, persuade and prevail with the next to cast off all reverence due to God revealing, or utterly to reject all the ways of the true Spirit, because of some resemblance thereto in the devil's agency on the false prophet. § 15. Wherefore seeing that, in the ancient church of God, Satan never prevailed further on this head than for a few ages before Christ to seduce a certain sect among them called the Sadducees, to insist on such principles as did entirely sap the foundations and destroy the grounds of evidence, in all Divine revelations : we hope better things from the Christian church, than so to pervert the text of St. Paul, touching Satan's transforming himself into the appearance of an angel of light, as to introduce thereby and establish the doctrine of Sadducism, that there could be no angel or spirit revealing. Further than this, we are not pleading: but as the true prophet did constant- ly appeal to the law and testimony Divine, to denominate and distinguish an evil spirit from the true one, so we submit every appearance of angels to undergo the same trial and strictest scrutiny by the written word touching them ; and that they may do so, we have here made the whole foregoing collection of pre- cedents, and noted many circumstances attending them, where- by the thing may be more distinctly and accurately examined. Therefore, taking it for granted that the agency of angels in Divine revelation, as above treated, does prove abundantly the reverence and obedience due to God with respect to their vi- sionary appearance, we proceed now to inquire also into the Scripture discoveries touching Divine revelation by dream. Note. — Although our author has missed the mark a little, in applying to ordinary angels some of those passages of Scripture which belong exclusively to " THE Angel or Messenger of the Covenant " (Mal.iv.), yet the principle he is contending for, namely, that God carries on communications with men by angels, is only the more confirmed bjr that name which Christ has taken ; inasmuch as there would have been neither meaning nor honour in that name, unless it had been proper to angels to carry on God's ministry towards men. But when we know that angels are used of God for all pur- poses of grace and goodness, of care and watchfulness, of power and go- vernment, towards men, then Christ has glory above and beyond them all, in that to him is committed the head ministry over the covenant which God made with his chosen people : they, messengers in general ; He, the Messenger in particular : they, messengers for common ends and uses of God's providence ; He, the Messenger of the covenant. Moreover, while 38 PART I. — CHAP. III. the Word was yet without a body, and acting in the aiffairs of his church, it behoved that he should be classed with some form of beings; and that with which he is generally classed, anterior to his manhood, is the order of angels, having above them all a pre-eminency in the object of his minis- tration—an angel, and more than an angel, as he is now become a man, and more than a man. To the effect of cutting off all foundation for the Arian heresy, that he was but a very exalted angel, the vision was given to Jacob at Bethel, wherein He is the ladder upon which the angels are supported, and borne inward and outward upon their errands of grace from the presence of Jehovah, to the earthly dwellings of men. Finally, in the ministrations of angels, the form of man is assumed, because that is the ultimate and per- fected form of God's plenipotentiary ambassador, being God's own image, where He can dwell, and from which He can speak, and shine, and act forth the completeness of His being in a visible, intelligible form. E. I. — Editor. CHAP. III. CONCERNING DIVINE DREAMS IN SCRIPTURE. § 1. In what has been remarked touching the visibility of angels, or rather the appearing human forms they assumed, and wherewith they clothed themselves upon the occasion, their essence or proper being remaining still undisclosed and impe- netrable to the eye of the beholder, even as the soul in man is veiled by the body from the eye of sense ; it must be granted, however, that in their apparition there was something of more explicit evidence in respect to the beholder, when awake, than can be expected we should find in that way of revelation we are now entering into a disquisition of. Nevertheless, there is also much agreement under these various manifestations ; for, in the account of the angels appearing to men awake, the person to whom those messengers were sent was often affected in that conjuncture with fear and astonishment, with trembling and faintness, and other different effects on the body. Answerable to which we find something of parallel kind under this head also ; for so Pilate's wife sent word to her husband (sitting on the seat of justice), Matt, xxvii. 19, that she '* had suffered many things" (by terrors represented, or the like,) " that day in a dream," be- cause of Christ (then to be judged), whose innocence was then revealed to her. In like manner Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 4, 5, being at rest and in a flourishing state of prosperity, " saw a dream, which made him afraid, and the visions of his head trou- bled him ;'* thus also when Daniel himself *' saw a dream," and DIVINE DREAMS. S9 saw in the night-visions many glorious things, chap. vii. 13, 15, 28, " I was grieved (says he) in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me, and my counte- nance was changed." § 2. In the little that is above recited of Divine dreams, we may observe, that the Spirit of God seems to place an emphasis upon the very mention of them (" saw a dream") that intimates a sort of certainty parallel to that of ocular demonstration ; and because it would too much embarrass every text (wherein the like occurs) to take express notice of it, therefore do we here in general remark, that the Hebrew and the other Oriental lan- guages (Greek, Chaldee, Samaritan, Arabic, Syriac,) which are the most ancient records of Holy Writ, are more frequent in specifying the expression in the text ("saw a dream") than the English ; and if the words carry in them, so placed, any more weight than " had a dream," or " saw in a dream," the observa- tion cannot be thought impertinent. But to make one reflection more upon what is already quoted on this head, we find that the being troubled in a dream (nay, terrified to a great degree. Job iv. 14, 15,) is no argument against its being a Divine one, as the forward reasoner on things he understandeth not may be ready to assert. § 3. In the general declaration on the part of Infinite Majesty, Joel ii. 28, of shedding forth or pouring out his Spirit, those that " dream dreams " are made equally partakers of the Holy Spirit with those that prophesy : therefore, without any diminution to that kind of Divine communication by dream, St. Peter inter- prets the glorious manifestation at Pentecost to be the beginning to accomplish the prophecy of Joel. And in effect, as we find that the Spirit was daily further poured out upon believers after Pentecost, in visions, voice, and prophesying, had it not been so likewise in dreams the accomplishment must have wanted one chain of the predictory promise recited by him. This is hinted lest the paucity of instances on the head of Divine dreams oc- curring in the short history of the Acts, might, with inconsiderate persons, breed some prejudice to the contempt of that way of the Holy Spirit's operation. But to proceed : that the usual way of Heaven's condescension unto men, in committing his oracles to the prophet (to be through him uttered to the world) was by dream, as well as any other manner, appears from that place. Numb. xii. 6, 8, where <* Jehovah came down in the pillar of ^^ PART I CHAP. III. the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said. Hear now my words ; if there be a prophet among you, \_Chald, < if there shall be prophets among you,'] I the Lord will speak unto him in a dream," either by words distinctly heard or figura- tive representations seen ; of both which kinds we have many instances in Scripture. § 4. Touching the voice of God in dream heard, it is written. Gen. XX. 3, *' God came lArab. * an angel of the Lord came ;' Chald. * a word came from the face of God '] to Abimelech in a dream by night :" so likewise, Gen. xv. 1, 5, " the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision ;" \_Chald. * in prophecy ; Or. admits * a vision of the night:'] which latter construction the facts of bringing him forth abroad and bidding him behold the stars of heaven seem to warrant, and to permit us to place here. A vision indeed may be to one awake, as well by night or in the dark, as in the day ; which may be collected from some instances under the head of visions proper, and is most remark- able in that of the man w^restling with Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 26, where the angel pleads, '' Let me go, for the day breaketh." Nevertheless visions of the night are commonly understood to mean dreams, and therefore I may comply with that conception without any injury (I hope) to the holy text. There is another difficulty that occurs also in the case of Abraham, a few verses following ; where, at the going down of the sun, a deep sleep and horror of great darkness fell upon him, wherein God spake to him : for a revelation by dream is properly during a natural sleep, though the closing up so of the senses may even then be locked faster, and more strongly pressed on the body by the supervening Power, than in the usual course of nature. Now, although we suppose that the sleep of Abraham was natural, yet the horror of great darkness impressed afterwards does not hinder us from understanding that celebrated passage to have a proper place among the Divine communications by dream. But to shew the near resemblance between an ecstasy, or trance, and a deep sleep, this very text, with those of Gen. ii. 21, and 1 Sam. xxvi. 12, does suffice ; for in all of them what we render deep sleep, is in the Greek and other languages ecstasy. § 5. But that there is not less certainty in the night-visions than in those of the day, or of angelic appearances, or any other way of God revealing himself; and that the writings which give us the most certain account of them all convey to us so many DIVINE DREAMS. 41 noble things fouching that of dreams as will leave all believers in- excusable that are partial in reflecting upon its validity, the follow- ing lines will clearly evince. But surely in this as well as other points the Scripture is " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," even the righteous- ness which is by faith : wherefore, when all Scripture is given by inspiration Divine, that the man of God may be perfected in his information thereby, we cease from listening to those that scoff at the Scripture on this head, by asserting that this way of revelation is unworthy of God to communicate himself by. And now to proceed, in turning towards the patterns of the ancient faith, that patriarch whom God himself honoured with the glo- rious name of Israel was so far from being captiously offended with his dream of the ram's leaping upon the cattle, that he mentions it with the noblest expressions of honour to God for it; saying, " The God of my father hath been with me, and the angel of God spake to me in a dream, and said, I am the God of Bethel " (Gen, xxxi. 5, 11, 13) ; and the care of our heavenly Father over the same patriarch, appears again in ver. 24 by a dream, wherein the Chaldee has it, ' the word came from the face of God to Laban ;' Lat. Vulg. < Laban saw God speaking to him in dreams.' The Arabic ascribes the same to an angel ; though the instrumentality of an angel makes it not less Divine, as is remarkable in the preceding acknowledgment of Jacob ; the same noble wrestler with Omnipotence, having offered up sacri- fices of faith at Beersheba (Gen. xlvi. 2), obtains again an answer from his high Oracle, which the Vulgate Latin renders, * Israel heard God calling to him by a vision of the night, saying, Jacob, Jacob, 1 am God, the God of thy fathers.' The critics never- theless allow the voice of an angel in this also : wherefore there is no need of doubting that revelation by dream may be ascribed to the ministry of angels without impeachment of the supreme authority thereof. But in the oracular response by dream, if the coming of it upon prayer be an argument of its divinity, then have we another glorious instance enough to put to shame (if possible) the surly pride of the scornful in this case ; for when king Solomon had with devout mind offered a thousand burnt- sacrifices (2 Chron. i. 7), in that very night did the Lord appear to him in a dream, at Gibeon (1 Kings iii. 5, 15), and said, *• Ask what I shall give thee." And hereat let us pause a while, and reflect on it, that for Him who dwelleth in light unapproachable G 42 PARTI. — CHAP. III. to make such an offer to man any way, is indeed worthy of the utmost admiration ; and why not worthy of some notice, that this contemptible manner of reveah'ng himself should be thereby stamped with an honour never paralleled (as I remember) in any other ? § 6. The actual conferring of the glorious gift of wisdom upon Solomon, during that vision of the night, is without a parallel also by any single visionary appearance : what we lose, however, by the ordinary contempt of Him who giveth not account of his proceedings, may be learnt, if we please, from the assertion in Job (xxxiii. 14 — 17), that " God speaketh once, yea twice (yet man perceiveth it not), in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and his pride from man." But, alas ! how few who pretend to believe all this are willing to have their pride withdrawn ? Whereas, if it be a favour from Heaven to mortify our pride thus, *' those (only) that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham " (Gal. iii. 9) ; and to others the word of God is made of none effect, which saith, 1 Cor. iii. 18, "Let no man deceive himself: if any man among you seemeth to be wise in -this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." All which, being applied to the present subject, leaves our duty to the Father of spirits therein clear. § 7. The great Prophet of his church, who is Lord over his own household, tells us, Mark viii. 38, " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Whilst therefore we are speaking of the faith of all his sacred prophets, to whom the word came in dreams, as well as other manifestations, there is no cause of shame in adding that in Job iv. 12 — 17 : " A word was secretly said to me, and mine ear received a little thereof: in thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake ; then a spirit passed before my face, which made the hair of my flesh stand up ; it stood still, but I did not discern the form thereof (distinctly) ; an image was before mine eyes, and I heard a still voice, saying. Shall mortal men be more just than God?" It will easily be granted, that we have no reason to imagine ourselves wiser than God any more than juster : and if DIVINE DREAMS. 43 I know the subordination of my constituted nature, I am to re- ceive instruction from ray Creator, and not find fault with him by quibbling upon the manner wherein the angel appears by whom he seeks to seal it to me. Wherefore, neither is the here- recited terror, nor the indistinction of the form, no, nor the de- fect of hearing all which that small voice said, a suflScient ground to reject a messenger who, to the hearer and beholder, is attested otherwise to be Divine. § 8. One of the most express prophecies in the Book of Jere- miah, touching the blessed days of the Messiah (which ends thus, " I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul "), was given him by dream ; and as the import of the vision was full of consolation, so was his sleep (figurative of it) sweet unto him (Jer. xxxi. 25, 26). Moreover, whoever has faith in the days of full consolations declared to the church by the " Song of Songs," (the title whereof by the Chaldee is, * Songs and Hymns, which Solomon the prophet, the king of Israel, ut- tered by the spirit of prophecy, before the Lord, the Lord of all the world '), let him not be offended with " the wine for his beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak " (Cant. vii. 9); for if He that is greater than Solomon is to drink it new with his disciples, I know not what can be meant better by it than to be filled with the Spirit, who " giveth songs in the night," and can make the lips of those that are asleep to speak them. § 9. How the favour of God shone brightly through dreams, to usher forth his only begotten Son to the world, the two first chapters of Matthew inform us ; for, to prevent Herod's mali- cious intentions, the wise men are thereby warned not to return to him at Jerusalem. Joseph, at the first, having thought to put away his wife, " the angel of the Lord " (intrusted to answer to the secret of his thoughts, and thereby giving proof of his heavenly authority,) ** appeared to him in a dream," and scat- tered those clouds. Again : when Emanuel was born, the angel of the Lord appeared the like way unto him, saying, " Go thou with the young child and his mother into Egypt, and remain there until I bring thee word." Accordingly, Herod being dead, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in Egypt the third time, commanding his return into the land of Israel. Lastly, being returned, and again under a concern in his thoughts, he was the fourth time " warned (XpT/juan^eic, benefited or answered) of 44 PART I. — CHAP. III. God in a dream," and so turned aside into Galilee. We have already mentioned the dream of Pilate's wife, the neglect of which admonition was fatal to himself, as historians relate. As to the two visions in the night vouchsafed to St. Paul (Acts xvi. 9 ; xviii. 9), they ought to be construed rather of dreams, according to the usual tenor of Scripture phrase ; but since they might be otherwise, I proceed from this sort of dream, consider- able chiefly or only for words therein distinctly heard, to inquire into that wherein figurative representations were principally if not only remarkable. § 10. " Jacob dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it ; and, behold ! Jehovah \_Chald. * The glory of the Lord/ which the critics in- terpret an archangel] stood above it " (Gen. xxviii. 12). Which manifestation was, it seemed, so remarkable a Divine evidence that the Israelite indeed, who had acknowledged the Son of God on a lesser one, was promised (with others) a demonstration equal to that of this dream ; to wit (John i. 51), That " they should see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Wherefore 1 beseech the Christian, for the love of the Spirit poured out in dreams, and in respect to his Saviour's words here, not to be so hasty in dis- daining of them ; for if there be no sufficient evidence in the vision of angels ascending and descending, wherein lies the force of our Lord's promise that they should have evidence of him, either the same in kind or equal to it ? It behoves them also to consider better of the double dream to Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 5 — 1 1 ; the one of the sheaves of corn, the other of the sun, moon, and stars : for if men allow themselves to be libertines in reasoning on matters supernatural, what could be more insolent and provoking among brothers than for a younger one to tell his elders such like dreams ? Wherefore, when it is said, that " they hated him yet the more for his dreams," let Christians beware they do not copy after so impious a pattern ; nay, and outdo it, by hating their brother secretly, and even separating him from their society, merely for the owning Divine visions, where no such stinging provocation is given, as in this case of Joseph to his brethren. § 11. But if even believers, or the members otherwise of the household of faith, will on this account turn persecutors, for DIVINE DREAMS. 45 the sake only of a reverence due to God, they who are thus treated have for their comfort the same history of Joseph ; wherein, though he was sold a slave for it, and in the event laid in irons, he endured harm but for a little while before the faith- ful and true God to his servants did by the same vouchsafement to hinr, concerning night visions (for which he had suffered), deliver him, and promote him to be the protector of his kindred. Thus the dreams seen by the butler and baker, Gen. xl. 8 — 19, occasioned his deliverance; and those by the king, in the next chapter, wrought his exaltation. In the relation of those several divine dreams, the text notes that the mind of the recipient was troubled, in that of Pharaoh particularly : the Syriac expresses |t, * was tossed up and down ;' Vulg. Lat. * terribly affrighted ;* the Heb. 'beaten as with a hammer;' so that the word of the Lord in a dream carries a force with it and impression which the weakness of the natural man cannot approach, whether in terror or suavity: of the latter, Jeremiah's is an instance; of the former, these, with many more. But as by dreams the high and mighty Lord of heaven and earth provided well for Joseph, and in him for his church ; so let the empty giggler at them either cast off the mask of owning the authority of Scripture, or learn to know from it that the same strong and mighty Arm can bruise any other as He did Job : and the anguish in him was too pun- gent, the bitterness of his soul too sharp, to be concealed. For *' when I think (says he) my bed shall comfort me, and ease rny sorrows, then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me through visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life " (Job vii. 13 — 1.5). § 12. Seeing there are several visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Revelations of St. John, which are not to this day under- stood, and do need still an interpretation from Him that gave them, God has thereby left a lesson proper at once to withdraw pride from man and at the same time an item to ask that wisdom of Him who alone can give it. But as in enigmatical visions, even those above mentioned, the prophet himself (as far as we can judge) did not understand the meaning of them; surely it is not for us to say dogmatically, a dream cannot be from the Lord because the signification is not instantly given with it to the receiver. Thus, when Joseph mentioned his dreams to the family, though the sense of them was suspected, yet it does not appear that he himself knew at that time positively the import of them : wherefore, when the butler and baker related theirs, he says, 46 PART. I. — CHAP. IV. "Do not interpretations belong to God?" Which allows that a dream may be from God, and yet the interpretation reserved by him. In like manner, when the king had recited the revelations received on his part, Joseph replies, " It is not in me ;" or as the Chaldee, ' Not out of my wisdom, but from before the Lord, an- swered shall be the peace of Pharaoh' (Gen. Ixi. 16). To the same purport is that monarch's confession in verse 38, " Can we find a man as this, in whom the Spirit of God is?" or as the Chaldee, *In whom the Spirit of prophecy from before God is?' § 13. Another observation ought to be made, before we pass over this history of Joseph; that is, that the Author of divine dreams sometimes gives them double, for the greater assurance of faith on them : therefore is it said, touching those two of Pharaoh, " the dream is one," though they were not only in their representation distinctly two, but different in the figures represented under them, as were likewise those two of Joseph himself. And to back this remark, the most ancient translations of the Hebrew text often render the word dream in the plural DREAMS. But now, to considcr other instances : Gideon, being commanded to go down to the army of the Midianites, was told, Judges vii. 10 — 15, he should there hear what they said, and so his hands should be strengthened to attack them. Accordingly he heard one soldier telling to another his dream of a barley- cake, which that other (by Divine instruction) interpreted to mean the sword of Gideon ; whereupon the commissioned captain and prophet worshipped, with faith of victory. Neither the teller nor the hearer of this dream understood it of themselves ; nor are others who receive such like ones warranted to expect the full knowledge of their sense in the instant ; for " God who gives knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom," he it was that " gave to Daniel understanding in all divine visions and dreams "(Dan. i. 17); namely, the gift of interpretation, by the Spirit of prophecy. Wherefore, according to that in Job xxxiii. 13, 17, when God speaketh to men thus, in the visions of the night, they are to lower their self-conceit, and, by the conviction of their lack of wisdom, to seek it from Him who giveth freely, and upbraideth not for their necessary ignorance. § 14. In the decree published by Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel (iv, 1 — 4) styles the dreams and visions of his head, signs and WONDERS, or MIRACLES, which God had wrought towards him, and with exclamation redoubles it, as if inexpressible : " How great are his signs ! how mighty his wonders ! " So that the DIVINE DREAMS. 47 prophet in these cases stands in need of no outward prodigy, to establish his faith of the celestial operation in them ; for the very act of God, when revealing, is altogether miraculous upon himself. If such a man, therefore, be thought worthy to suffer shame for His sake who gave the occasion, let him rejoice and glorify God, with the temper of Daniel (ii. 28, 30), saying, ** There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets; but as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living." — To conclude, we might now examine the several dreams of Daniel ; and the sublimity of matters contained therein would afford further subject of displaying the triumph of God's wisdom over that of man, in choosing to convey the same (with all the other wonderful things herein mentioned) by that despised way of dream, as well as by the mere act of his sovereignty to make crowned heads his instruments in this kind more numerous than in any other manner of his speaking unto men. § 15. But now, to recollect or review the whole: As in the apparition of angels they often spake in the style of Jehovah himself, and he that saw them said he had seen God, and the word delivered by them to men was the word of the Lord ex- pressly ; so in the case of dreams, Jacob says the God of his father had been with him, and an angel spake to him in a dream : and in the New Testament an angel coming to Joseph in a dream, and God warning him in it, is of the same import ; for as it is God's property only to know the thoughts of men, the angel's discovery of Joseph's shews that he acted subordinately in the dream. Dreams therefore are not of less authority, or less divine, because the ministry of angels interposes therein, as, in many instances above cited, the text expressly mentions. And in some places, where the text affirms that God spake in a dream, the learned do not doubt to interpret that it was by an angel. When we read, therefore, that God will make himself known to the prophet in a dream, and that his Spirit shall be poured out in dreams ; these expressions must either be reconciled with the ministry of angels in them, or a distinction put, when the interposition of an angel is used, and when not. But as I find no ability to unfold that mystery, I must content myself to believe that the word *' influence," and operation of an angel herein manifesting himself a heavenly one, is of the same autho- rity to me as the word of God himself, or of the Holy Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus. 48 CHAPTER IV, CONCERNING REVELATION BY VOICE IN SCRIPTURE. § 1. As it is obvious from the Scripture style, that all manner of revelation is sometimes comprehended under the word vision, the like might be observed, possibly, as frequently to be in that of VOICE ; particularly in all those places, very numerous, wherein the people of Israel are summoned attentively to "hear his voice ;" for instance, in Deut. xviii. where blessings are most so- lemnly pronounced on the obedient to it, and severe judgments denounced upon those who should not obey it. Moreover, ex- postulations to hearken to the voice of the Lord occur often, not only in the Books of Moses, and sometimes in the Historical, but throughout all the Prophets. Furthermore, as the most general expression of the prophet's commission is, that " the word of the Lord " came to him, we do readily grant that the same may com- prehend all the several ways of revelation ; but, then, what is nearest to the literal sense of those and such like terms ought not to be excluded from being contained within the meaning of them; and, in consequence, there is sufficient reason from thence to con- clude that the way of revelation by voice, or on man's part by a perception of the ear, was much more frequent than we find the same otherwise distinctly expressed. § 2. It is not however unworthy of observation, that, besides an articulate voice heard, there are sounds mentioned to be formed in the ear of man, which were not articulate, and yet nevertheless from Him who formed the ear. Among these is to be reckoned that in 2 Sam. v. 24, where we find " the sound of a going (whatever it was) on the tops of the mulberry trees," given by the Lord a sign to David, that when he heard it then he should attack the camp of the Philistines. And thus, when Elisha had pronounced the word of the Lord touching an incre- dible plenty in Samaria, the day following (2 Kings vii. 6), the same Jehovah made the array of the besiegers to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host ; whilst it is apparent the besieged in Samaria heard nothing of it : wherefore we have ground to conceive that the sound above said was formed miraculously in their ears, as the former in those of David, and not from any concussion in the air. Thus also REVELATION BY VOICE. 49 we have reason to think, touching that sound which came from heaven at the day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 2, "as (or like to that) of a mighty rushing wind," which filled the house, that is, the sound filled the ears of all in it ; for it does not appear that any wind attended, or that the noise of such a hurricane was heard abroad : therefore this also seems a sound miraculously formed in the ear, and the terror of it no more inconsistent with the Spirit of God to perform than that of a still voice. In like manner, the voice of *' Alpha and Omega," is described to us to affect St. John like " the sound of many waters," Rev. i. 15. And elsewhere there is mention of thunders, harps, trumpets, and whirlwinds ; but what ** the shout " and " the voice of the arch- angel and the trump of God " mean 1 Thess. iv. 16, it becomes us more to expect with fear than now presumptuously to define. § 3. Besides what has been already hinted of those general terms in Scripture that imply, though not expressly defined, a revelation by voice, there is mention of living oracles received. Acts vii. 38: where the word Xoyta, rendered " oracles," is by the ancient translations rendered "words," or " speeches;" signifying the responses of a deity to the prayers of his worshippers, whether applied to the oracles of idols or to the oracle of the only true God. Therefore, as this term " oracle " alludes properly to a voice distinctly heard, without any angelic apparition pronouncing it ; the application thereof to Moses in that text, of hearing such living oracles, will abundantly be made out to belong to this subject, if men are inclined heedfully to observe the usual practice of Moses in approaching the tabernacle, upon emergent occasions, and obtaining such responses thence. This way of revelation, however, was not limited to Moses, though to him God spoke as one friend to another, and therein he exceeded all other prophets. But Isaiah says (1. 5), ** The Lord God hath opened mine ear;" and (chap, liii.) "Who hath believed our HEARING?" for so the Hebrew runs, and most of the ancient translations carry it. The same word occurs Jer. xlix. 14 : ''I have heard a hearing from the Lord;" and Obadiah in the first verse heard the like : and the same Hebrew word, as in all those other texts, is rendered by the English, Habak.iii. 2, 16, " I have heard thy speech, and was afraid :....when I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself." From which instances it is evident that this way of revelation was very usual to the H 50 PART I. — CHAP. IV. Prophets ; and from the effects attending it on Habakkuk, and other instances here following, we are bound to believe, that the Divine utterance was not always without terror, notwithstanding what some men assert to the contrary; who proudly love to im- pose their own foolish schemes and systems upon the Almighty. § 4. Our first parents heard •' the voice of the Lord God walking in " paradise : and as they had time after it to hide themselves, the sound must have been at some distance. The Chaldee renders it, ' the voice of the speech of the Lord God;' which answers to that description in Ezek. i. 24, ** I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty ; the voice of speech as the noise of an host." Some annotators on the text do not stick to assert, that this voice, in paradise, of the Lord God was probably formed by an angel : thus also, after a vision to Abraham, " the word \_Gree1cy * the voice'] of the Lord came to him " (Gen. xv. 4); and upon his offering up of Isaac, " the angel of Jehovah called \_Heb. * aloud '] unto him out of heaven (or the heavens), Abraham, Abraham" (xxii. 11, 15, 16); which being repeated, the an- gelic voice said, " By myself have I sworn;" wherein the au- thority of God speaking, and of the angel speaking, is indis- tinguishable ; as also where it is written, " God heard, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven. ...saying, I will make Ishmael a great nation " (xxi. 17, 18). § 5. But now to inquire into the manifestations vouchsafed to that glorious person to whom the Invisible spake, Num.xii. 8, " mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches :" mouth to mouth is rendered by the Chaldee, ' speech for speech;' and the whole means familiarly and plainly by interlocution, as friend with friend mutually interchanging discourse one to ano- ther ; wherein the Ineffable stooped to the plain dialect of men, without those dark parabolical expressions used b him to other prophets. And here H. Ainsworth on the Pentateuch tells us, that the Hebrew doctors affirm, that ' all the prophets except Moses, prophesied by the hands (or influence) of an angel ; and thereby it was that they saw and spake in parables and dark speeches.' Surely then, in this clearness of the Deity's mani- festation to Moses, he exceeded not only all the prophets of the Old, but of the New Testament also, seeing that St. Paul in his Epistles mentions the speaking in a mystery, and that he ** saw through a glass," in a riddle, and not face to face, as REVELATION BY VOICE. 51 Moses. The dark speeches in the text of Numbers above cited is, in all the ancient translations of the Polyglot, rendered riddles, being the same word that the Holy Spirit in St. Paul makes use of. Wherefore a difficulty or darkness in the terms and expressions is never to be judged inconsistent with the Spirit of prophecy in a less degree than that of Moses, notwithstand- ing what our modern divines allege to the contrary. § 6. And yet, though the manifestation of the invisible was so bright to Moses as that, in comparison with other prophets, it was " apparently," and theirs "in dark speeches;" his was " face to face," and theirs *< through a glass darkly ;" the observation, however, of the Hebrew doctors, that his was without any me- dium or angelic interposition, in the manner of revelation, can- not be allowed : for where it is written, that " Moses went up unto God " Exod. xix. 3, the Arabic says, * unto the Angel of God,' and the Chaldee ' into the presence of the Word of the Lord;' and the Holy Spirit confirms it to be the presence of an angel, saying (Acts vii. 38), that " the angel spake in Mount Sinai to Moses, who (there) received the lively oracles to give unto us." Wherefore, when it is said in the same verse, that the Lord *' called unto him out of the mountain," we have full au- thority to understand it of a voice formed by the angel, which by the ninth verse appears to be so loud that it was heard by the people in the camp ; in the nineteenth verse, " Moses spake " (saying, Heb. xii. 21, " I exceedingly fear and quake "), " and God answered him by a voice ;'* or as the Chaldee, * It was answered him, from the presence of the Lord, by a voice;' and as the text adds, that " the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai," the Arabic has it, ' the angel of God appeared upon Mount Sinai ;' all which considered, and compared with what we find in the New Testament, that the law was given and or- dained by angels, we have assured foundation of confidence that Moses himself, notwithstanding the clear and apparent manner of manifestation, was not without the interposition of angels in the intercourse between Jehovah and him therein. § 7. But further, touching this bright manner of the commu- nion of Moses with God, we read, Exod. xxxiii. 9, 11, that when " Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar " (elsewhere construed the sign of the angel going before and be- hind the camp) " descended and stood at the door of it;" and the Lord talked with Moses, and spake unto him, '* face to face, 52 PART I. — CHAP. IV. as a man speaketh unto his friend." Now, because in the twen- tieth verse it is said, " no man can see my face," we must not understand that by speaking face to face was meant any form of God's essence ; therefore, if any form appeared, it was by an angel*. But as there is no need to suppose any form at all pre- sent, the speaking " face to face " means the manner of the voice to be kind and familiar; as the Chaldee expresses it, * speech to speech.' And for this kind and familiar correspon- dence of God with Moses we have another notable instance Num. vii. 89, where Moses went into the tabernacle "■ to speak with him [ Vulg. Lat. ' to consult the oracle,'] then he heard the voice of one \_Grceh, * the Lord ;' Chald. Jon. * the Spirit,'] speaking unto him from off the mercy-seat, between the cheru- bim:" so that the voice came out from heaven, to between the cherubim ; and from thence it came out into the* tent of the congregation, as the Rabbins (in Ainsworth) describe it. § 8. Now, to descend from that illustrious manner of mani- festation to Moses to the more common and ordinary one, by voice ; after that the angel of the Lord to Gideon (Judg. vi. 21 — 23) departed out of his sight, or vanished and disappeared, " Jehovah said unto him. Fear not ; thou shalt not die ;" where- upon the critics assert, that these words were formed in the air by the angel after he disappeared. Thus in the case of Samuel also, when the Lord called him by name, 1 Sam. iii. 4. The voice (it seems) went out from the Holy of Holies, and, passing by the interjacent space (where Eli lay) reached Samuel, who * This is not a legitimate conclusion. The Essential Godhead is neces- sarily invisible : wherefore, in order to become manifest to creatures, it must assume creature-form — that is, come into limitation. The revelation of a plurality of Persons in Deity instructs in this sublime mystery those who are desirous of learning how this manifestation could take place ; for, without a plurality of Persons, the Godhead must have remained without visibility and without finity. The Father must ever be incomprehensible ; for the less cannot contain the greater : " No one can see God " (1 Tim. vi. 16) : but, another Person in Deity having taken manhood into union with Himself, the Godhead is manifested, seen, heard, and handled (1 John i. 1) by all creatures. If the manifestation be made to the reason, it must be through the intellect ; if to the eye, it must be through a form ; if to the ear, through a voice: and since the Infinite Spirit of Godhead has no parts, if he do please to reveal himself to the creature's sight, he must use a ma- terial form ; and if he speak to the creature's ear he must use an animal's tongue, whether that of a man or of an ass. Besides this, however, he may send a messenger, whether an angel or a man ; but the messenger does not lose his own personality ; and the manifestation of the Deitv Himself, whether by voice or in humanity, should be accurately distinguisned from a message sent by a creature.— jBrfj^or. REVELATION BY VOICE. 53 lay beyond it, and though afterwards there is some appearance of vision accompanying the voices to Samuel, yet in the 21st verse it is said again, the Lord revealed himself to him in Shiloh, ' by voice or speech ' as the Chald. Jon., Syr., Arab, have it : wherefore this excellent person who has that singular privilege recorded of him that he was known {^Gr. believed] from one end of Israel to the other, to be a prophet constituted of God, enjoyed much of Divine communications by voice ; for the day before Saul came to him, I Sam. ix. 15, the Lord had " told Samuel in his ear," \_Heb. and Gr. * uncovered his ear,'] that is,J secretly or by a low voice ; as, when we whisper to a person, we uncover his ear. Thus also, when Samuel saw Saul, " the Lord said to him [Chald. ' from before the Lord, it was said to him '], Behold the man of whom I spake to thee." § 9. Elias also, who in some respects is honoured above all the prophets, and stands next to Moses, was well acquainted with this manner of revelation to the earj for, being in a cave at " Horeb, the Mount of God [ Chald. ' where the glory of the Lord was revealed '], Jehovah passed by" (1 Kings xix. 11 — 13). And the evidences of it were, " a strong wind rending the mountains, after that an earthquake, and after that a fire ; but the Lord [Chald. ' the Glory, Shechinah or Majesty, of the Lord *] was not in all these ; after those, the still small voice " [Gr. and Vulg. Lat. ' the whistling of a gentle air;' Chald. and Arab. * a small voice of singing '] brought forth Elias from the cave to attend ; and behold there came an articulate voice to him, saying, *' What dost thou here, Elijah?" Again, when king Ahaziah had sent to Baal-zebub, [Gr. * the flie-god,'] " the angel of the Lord " (2 Kings i. 3, 15), without any apparition, and so, either by voice heard or inward inspiration (which some annotators remark), bid him go meet the king's messengers. In like manner, when the two captains of fifty were consumed with fire from heaven, the angel of the Lord spake to him to go down with the third. § 10. Though the manner of the small voice to Elias be judged by the Rabbins to have been that which the sole Arbiter of his own ways thought good to use, from between the cherubim over the mercy seat ; yet to let man know he is not to be measured by that or any other like outward rule, we have these further instances of a different kind : for, if the Lord was not mani- fested in the blustering wind to Elijah, yet he was so in the 64 PART I. — CHAP. IV. whirlwind to Job, and spake out of it twice (xxxviii. 1 ; xl. 6). And not much otherwise is that of Ezekiel, who, when the Spirit took him up, *' heard behind him a voice of a great rush- ing (Ezek. iii. 12), saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place." We may also, from the effect, justly conceive the voice which fell from heaven (or the heavens) not to have been without terror, that said to Nebuchadnezzer (Dan. iv. 31), *' Thy kingdom is departed from thee:" whether this were by the agency of an angel or not, the learned do well not to de- termine, seeing that it makes no difference in the authority; and the instrumentality of those heavenly powers is so clearly assert- ed in this way of revelation by voice, that even that matchless communication of God to Moses was not without it, as has al- ready appeared. § 11. After the baptism of Jesus, and the Spirit of God was seen to descend upon him, there are some ancient authorities mentioned by Dr. Mills, that add, ' and there shined a great h'ght round about the place ;' the like whereof was at St. Paul's conversion, and bears a parallel to the Shechinah, or most ma- jestic manifestation of the Divine presence mentioned in the Old Testament; but, however that was, "Behold a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " (Matt. iii. 17) : touching which most sacred oracle there are some of no mean account among the men of letters that understand it of the words of God pronounced through the instrumentality of an angel. At another time, whilst our Lord Redeemer was at prayer, John xii. 28, 29, and said, " Father, glorify thy name ; then came there a voice from heaven, say- ing, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again : the people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered ; others said, \_Arab. adds, * Yes ;'] an angel spake to him. Jesus answered, This voice came for your sakes." The conjoined sounds of thunder and voices are several times in the Apocalypse noted in the angelic celebrations above ; nor do they here dis- agree at all. In the rattlings of thunder, an articulate voice was heard ; and so his followers (for the sake of whom it came) did not differ, since both (for any thing that appears) were true ; and our Lord reproves them not for ascribing it to an angel. A third time was our Lord attested to " by a voice that came from heaven, from the Excellent Glory, when he received from God the Father honour and glory " (2 Pet.i. 17, 18). The history -If 0/> :"><4^ BEVELATION BY VOICE. whereof we have thus : After our Saviour's transfiguration on the Mount, and his colloquy there with Moses and Elias, Luke ix. S3, 35, as these departed from him, and while Peter spake, so that he knew not what he said, " there came a cloud and over- shadowed them ; and whilst they feared as they entered into the cloud, there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him." Wherefore it is no little recommenda- tion to us of this method of Divine revelation, that our blessed Lord himself is said to have received honour from his Father on that occasion wherein this also had a share. But seeing there are in the text three designations of time remarked of this oc- currence ; that it was, " as Moses and Elias departed from him," and " AS Peter yet spake," and "as the bright cloud oversha- dowed them," the voice came out of it ; these do not hinder that the transaction was very short wherein the same was heard. § 12. In the vision St. Peter had of the beasts and fowls se- parately from it, there came a voice to him from heaven (Acts * xi. 9, 12) three .times; but whether the command the Spirit gave him to go with the men (then immediately standing at the door) ought to be ascribed also to this head, is dubious. How- ever, so sacred was this way of revelation held, even by the op- posers of the Apostles, that the Pharisees, touching St. Paul, could say. Acts xxiii. 9, *' If a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God :" therefore, that Apostle, when he had informed king Agrippa (Acts xxvi. 13, 14) that he " saw on the road, at noon-day, a light above the brightness of the sun, shining from heaven round about him, and therewith heard a voice speaking to " him ; what he adds, that he " was not dis- obedient to " it, must needs have the consciences of all concur to approve him for. But to add no more observations on this head of revelation, it surely deserves some notice that the vast scheme of things which Jesus sent and signified by an angel unto his servant John (to be testified to the churches) was in- troduced by a great voice, as of a trumpet, heard behind him (Rev. i. 10, 12); and the Apostle, turning towards the voice that spake with him, saw and heard all the rest of the many visions in that book. § 13. There is a tradition received among the Hebrew Rabbies, that, after the Jews' return from Babylon, and their building of the second temple, they had in it the use of a voice or echo, which they called Bath-koll ; that is, < the daughter of a voice ;' 56 PART I. — CHAP. V. as it were one voice proceeding out of another, in the manner of an echo. Some think it was with distinct and plain words; others not. However this matter be, it ought not to be con- founded with the manner of voices herein recited to be heard by the prophets ; seeing the Jews themselves, who deliver us this tradition, do sufficiently distinguish it from them. It being our business, therefore, to build only upon what is of more autho- rity than human traditions touching Divine revelation, let us now proceed to that of prophetic vision in Scripture. CHAP. V. CONCERNING PROPHETIC VISIONS IN SCRIPTURE. § 1. The true meaning of the word Prophet in Scripture, being a person to whom God any way reveals himself, the way of vision was so generally used by the Sovereign Disposer of his own benefits, that, until the time of Samuel, the prophet was called by no other term than a see-er ; which I take to be the sense of 1 Sam. ix. 9, *' he that is now called a prophet was beforetime called a seer;" for we find the word see-er (that is, of visions) continued long after the date of that text, nay, even throughout the Old Testament, and is used to express the same definition of a person as the word prophet ; for proof of which we need look no further than the English translation, though much might be added even to that, on this head. Thus, in the next verse but one to the text above, Samuel himself continues to be called a see-er; and in the following generation, the terms were synonymous as we find; for (2 Sam. xxiv, 11) " the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's see-er, say- ing," «Src. The like application of both words indifferently may be observed of Heman, Iddo, Hanani, and Jeduthun, where they are severally named : but what is more considerable, the word see-ers continues to be used, to express prophets in general, even throughout the Old Testament ; so that, after the conquest of Samaria by the Assyrians, it is said, 2 Kings xvii. 13, " The Lord testified against Israel, by all the prophets, all the seers." So also when Manasseh, king of Judah, was carried captive into Babylon, we have mention of the seers, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18, PROPHETIC VISIONS. 57 " that spake to him in the name of the Lord." These two in- stances shew the continuance of that appellation for prophets, near to the end of the two kingdoms; and what may sufl&ciently confirm the same is, that the people of Judah are charged by the word of the Lord, in the mouth of Isaiah (xxx. 9, 10), for " a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the see-ers, See not ; and to the prophets, Prophesy not/' § 2. Now that, in the places above cited, see-ers are not put under any distinction from prophets, but are both used as terms of the same signification, will be beyond doubt, if we consider that VISION and prophecy are likewise in the holy writings so used, both of them to express the very self-same thing, though properly they may be different. Thus the book of the prophecy of Isaiah has for title, " The vision which he saw concerning Judah." In like manner, '* The words of Amos, which he saw concerning Israel," is the preface of that prophet : *' The vision of Obadiah " makes his : " The word of the Lord that came to Micah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem," initiates the pro- phecies by him : " The book of the vision of Nahum/' is the key to his : " The burden (or prophecy) which Habakkuk the prophet did see," is the introduction there. These then, accord- ing to the letter, are all see-ers, and give us vision for their commission, and the foundation of their prophecies, and of the inspired writings bearing their names. And if we add to them, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah, who exhibit to us distinctly their visions, with David also, and Solomon, to whom God spoke in vision ; should we also recite Moses, and the patriarchs, and all the prophets, by name, that are expressly said to have en- joyed that communication from Heaven ; should we, finally, con- template the whole congregation of disciples, men and women, about an hundred and twenty, assembled together at the day of Pentecost, " unto whom there appeared (were seen) cloven tongues, like as of .fire, sitting upon each of them ;" we might rather doubt, whether every prophet were not strictly a see-er, than imagine that the word carried any diminution of that of a prophet. § 3. But that prophecy itself is often called " vision," is what appears further manifest from the declaration of the Divine oracles ; for what we read, " the burthen of the beasts of the south," Isai. xxx. 6, is in the Greek Septuagint written in capital I 58 PART I.—CHAP. V. letters, "the vision of the beasts;" so that the burden being but another word, and of the same signification in that text with prophecy, vision stands there of parallel meaning : so does it likewise in Isai.xxix.il, "the vision of all ['the prophets/ by the Old Eng, translation ; Chald. ' all prophecy'] is become unto you as a letter sealed." Wherefore Habukkuk, who re- cords us no vision of his actuall)^ is commanded to write the vision, chap. ii. 2 [Chald. ' the prophecy '] : and the sense clearly shews it so to mean. In the same sense is that to be taken, 1 Sam. iii. 1, " In those days there was no open vision :" thus again, Prov. xxix. 18, " Where there is no vision the people perish ;" and to sum up the matter, that of Jeremiah is plain to this purpose, " The law is no more ; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord " (Lam. ii. 9). § 4. Whoever then will give himself leave to reflect upon what is here said ; and deliberately consider, that not only St. Paul conjoins visions and revelations of the Lord, but the Holy Spirit, from one end of the sacred records ^ to the other, does confide so much to the authority of vision that we cannot find, but that all revelation must necessarily either subsist or decline with it. Wherefore, whosoever does maturely weigh things by the sanctuary balance, and take the written word for his rule to judge by, cannot but be astonished whence that universal deluge of profaneness and contempt of vision should spring up among those that are acquainted with the Scripture. But, however unaccountable the same may seem to a considerate mind, we may, in the prosecution of this work, peradventure discover some of the secret sources of this deluge. But, to supersede at pre- sentTthat inquiry, we are now to enter into a more exact disqui- sition of what the text affords on this head, touching the power of God exerted in visionary displays of himself. § 5. There is in Scripture sometimes a variation to the eye, of the natural object noted ; as, when the Moabite army looked upon the water, 2 Kings iii. 22, and saw it as red as blood, which was miraculously appointed of God to their destruction, accord- ing to the word of the Lord by Elisha. Thus Moses descending from Mount Sinai, the skin of his face shone (Exod. xxxiv. 30) so that Aaron and all the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him. Our Lord also, on the Mount, at prayer, was " trans- figured before them; the fashion of his countenance being altered and his raiment became white and glistering " (Luke ix. 29). In PROPHETIC VISIONS. 59 like manner, those that beheld Stephen before the council, and (Acts vi. 15) looked stedfastly on him before he made his de- fence, " saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." Tanta- mount is the power obstructing the eye, or understanding, not to discern a natural form ; as it is remarked of Mary, who saw Jesus after his resurrection (John xx. 14), " and knew not that it was he :" and the two disciples going to Emmaus, though they talked with our Saviour a good while (Luke xxiv. 16, 31), their eyes were holden, that they should not know him, till, by the same Power which withheld, they were opened again ; wherefore when we read, John viii. 59, that " Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the niidst of them, and so passed by," we need look no further to conceive how, than by the same way of exerting his manifold power. § 6. And as the superadding of somewhat to the natural form of things has in it one kind of the operations of a vision, so there is an appearance sometimes mentioned in Scripture, which, though it be clothed with a less distinct form or figure, yet being super- naturally wrought, does properly enough come under this head of vision : for instance, Moses, by the command of God, put into the breast-plate of judgment the Urim and Thummim, to be borne by Aaron when he went in before the Lord (Exod. xxviii.30). The Hebrew word for the breast-plate having affinity to one that signifies " seeing ;" and the Greek rendering it " oracle ;" moreover Urim signifying '* lights," and rendered by the Greek " manifestation ;" and it being certain, from Numb, xxvii. 21, that the use of these was to inquire of God, and to receive an answer of his will by them, in matters of great mo- ment ; — from these grounds it is pretty clear, that there was something visionarily appearing on this breast-plate which silently bespoke that answer for which the same was appointed. We know not if we are to regard what the Rabbins add, that upon inquiry of the oracle by prayer, on momentous occasions, the Holy Spirit came upon the high priest, and he, beholding the breast-plate, saw therein, by the vision of prophecy, the answer expressed in letters. But on these accounts we may understand the words of David to Zadock, 2 Sam. xv. 27, *' Art not thou a see-er?" properly to belong to him as high priest. § 7. Besides this sort of visionary manifestation less distinct, there was also upon the tabernacle constantly at evening (Numb. ix. 15), "as it were the appearance \_Chald. 'as the vision'] of 6€ PART I. — CHAP. V, fire" until the morning; which being not real or natural, although customary, of consequence must be a supernatural re- presentation of it. The like may be observed in the same place, of " the cloud " which covered the tabernacle when it was reared up; for this also was an extraordinary testimony of God's presence, insomuch that Solomon mentions, touching the like (1 Kings viii. ]0, 12), "the Lord said, that he would dwell in the thick darkness ;" for at that time, *' the cloud so filled the house of the Lord that the priests could not stand to minister because af the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." Concerning which cloud, as Solomon calls it " thick darkness," the Chaldee bears ' a cloud of mist,' and Isaiah, alluding to it (iv. 5), says, " a cloud and smoke by day." We see, however, the same is termed " the glory of the Lord." Wherefore, in his extraordinary manifestations. He is not always to be confined to the appearances of light and flame ; but even a pillar of cloud and thick darkness may be the signs of his presence, nay, a testimony of his glory ; who sometimes veils himself with " clouds and darkness round about him " (Psa. xcvii. 2). W*herefore, just before the seven last plagues to be poured forth from the vials of the wrath of God (Rev. xv. 8), " the temple " (a figure of the church, correspondently to that of Solomon aforecited) " was filled with smoke, from the glory of God, and from his power ; and no man was able to enter into the temple." In which text, says Dr. Walpole and others, the smoke does prefigure some darkness of immediate Divine dis- pensation to be exhibited in that juncture to the church. Now, as the pouring out of the vials is declared initiatory of the great day of the glorious government of our Lord on earth, the expo- sition above, of the smoke filling the temple, does answer to the description given us of the signs of that notable period in Joel ii. 2 ; Zeph. i. 15; Amos v. 20 ; Zech. xiv. 7. " The day of the Lord cometh, a day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness," wherein the world will be sur- prised, as a family is by a thief in the night. To illustrate which passage touching the temple's dedication by Solomon I have been the more large, because men are universally disposed to construe all the emblems and tokens of darkness, in any pro- phetic manifestation, to be doubtless inconsistent with the Father of light. But to proceed, — § 8. In the discourse upon the apparition of angels, we have PROPHETIC VISIONS. 61 had divers instances wherein the see-er was so far from any im- pressions, either of terror or trance, that he did not know them to be other than men till they disappeared suddenly ; and by a parity of reason one would think a man might see any other sort of vision, and, taking it for really and naturally that which it re- presented, not know the same to be so till it vanished away. But, as in the former case of angels appearing, there was not always an ecstatic influence on the person ; the same will be evident also in this of the ordinary prophetic visions, whereof we are now to speak ; for as, on the one side, there are several instances of trance attending, enough to evince to men prone to ridicule that they are different from the effects of a natural cause, so, on the other, there are also instances of vision without trances, that no one might treat every thing of this kind for imaginary, seeing that sometimes the free enjoyment of the senses and intellect remain without infringement, from the in- fluence of that Power that presents it. But since the greatest reproach from the profane commonly arises upon the mention of ecstasy, and the Christian also has learned therein to join hands with the Sadducee, he, the former, is to be reminded, that nothing ought to be the subject of shame with him which is so plainly written, even in the New Testament, as well as the Old. § 9. But as there will be occasion of more distinctly consi- dering the prophetic ecstasy under another head ; we shall here only take notice, that to be in the Spirit^ is to be for that time out of the use of the senses ; and no wonder, when St. John tells us that at the sight of his vision (Rev. i. 10, 17) he fell down as dead ; and St. Paul, on the mention of his visions and revelations, recites it twice, that we should the more heedfully observe it, that *' whether he was in the body or out of the body " (when he had them) " he could not tell, being caught up into paradise, or the third heaven" (2 Cor. xii. 1 — 4). But if St. Paul himself could not tell, in the ecstasy, whether he was in the body or out of the body, I think it must be but a vain curiosity to inquire whether those passages in Ezekiel and the Revelations, where it is said " the Spirit carried them away," are to be understood of a local removal of the body or not. Wherefore pretermitting this mysterious circumstance of vision without examination, I pass on to what is more apparent ; though from thence we may justly deduce thus much, That it is un- reasonable to expect that every thing in the secret operations of 6» PART I CHAP. V. vision should be accounted for by reason ; when by our Christian profession we allow that the ignorance of the Apostle, in so material a point of his, was no objection to the validity of it. § 10. As the revelation God vouchsafes of himself has been observed to be often in general represented to us under the term of vision, so the ' first of the new world, after the flood, that we have any account of as favoured with it was Abraham, Gen. xii. 7, to whom he appeared ; and thereon an altar was built to him who so appeared : on which account, as well as any other, he stands recommended by the inspired writings for the father of the faithful, and a pattern to all the children of faith, who should reverence and adore the Invisible upon the like super- natural evidences given of himself. Therefore, when the same Jehovah discovered himself to Isaac. He gives it as the sole reason of the blessings there promised. Gen. xxvi. 2, 5, that " Abraham had obeyed his voice;" and Jacob the imitator of the same faith, not at all offended with the lameness or hurt on his thigh received in vision, nor with the angel's excusing to stay beyond day-break, said to his household and all about him (Gen. XXXV. 2, 3), " Put away the strange gods that are among you, and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who was with me in the way which I went." So that the very foundation of all religion spiritually paid, as well as the first erecting of assemblies for worship after the flood, was built upon visionary revelation to these patriarchs. § 11. And as the first stones of a church were laid in the family of Abraham upon the faith of visions, so the first step towards the calling of the whole nation of the Hebrews into a solemn covenant-relation unto God, and the open worship of him, was that vision unto Moses of a bush flaming with fire and unconsumed; wherein the former vouchsafements are tacitly recited, under the style of " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And this establishment of his church upon the footing of visions seems to be completed more manifestly, Exod. xxiv. 9, 10, when '• Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up and saw \_Chald. * the glory of] the God of Israel, and under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness." And notwithstanding all the freedom wherewith the Lord of glory communicated himself by word to Moses, yet there is a special charge given him to PROPHETIC VISIONS. 63 have regard to the visionary part ; " for see (saith he) that thou make all things, according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount " (Heb. viii. 5). § 12. Thus having passed through some general topics whereon vision appears to have been the principal foundation of all revealed religion ; first, in the family of Abraham ; then, in the church in the wilderness; then, by the ancient term of See-er (as the sole denomination of a prophet); then, by the attestation of great part of those prophets whose writings are transmitted to us, and by the frequent use of the Holy Spirit to express all revelation under the word " vision:" having also already given a considerable number of instances of the faith of the saints in the apparition of angels, and in visions of the night, it might seem needless to insist any more here on it, but that the order of this treatise requires we should add some particulars to clear up a little the method of God's vouchsafement in this way also. However, seeing that a just discourse of enigmatical visions would require the recital of great part of the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and the Apocalypse, and indeed the turning over anew the whole body of Holy Scripture, the subsequent instances are to be considered but as a small scrap of what may be produced upon that head. § 13. When Balaam saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes (Numb. xxiv. 2, 4), " the Spirit of God came upon him ;" Chald. ' the Spirit of prophecy from the presence of the Lord rested upon him ;' Arab, ' the prophetic Spirit de- scended upon him ;' Vul^. Lot. * the Spirit of God rushed upon him.' Whereupon we ought to observe, that the text is as clear as any other in the Bible, without a shadow of doubt from thence; and, the subject of his prophecy ensuing, carries lively linea- ments in it of the Holy Spirit : and the more the bent of this wicked man was for mischief, the more the power of the Al- mighty was demonstrated in counterworking him to utter Divine oracles ; for if the man of God (or prophet) spake always not of himself, but as carried to it by the Holy Spirit, how should others know that that prophesying came not by the will of the man, better than when it came in a direct opposition to the will of that very man, as in the case of Balaam? And is it more incon- sistent with the Spirit of God, when rushing upon and resting on Balaam, to make him fall (into a trance), than to do the like on those holy men, Abraham, Daniel, John, and others, 64j part I. — CHAP. V. who fell also as dead ? And whether during this trance his eyes were open or shut, is a matter so indifferent that the Hebrew text, given by Divine inspiration, has here alone used a word which the greatest clerks cannot determine whether it mean the one or the other. Leaving therefore those that delight in it to jangle about words to no purpose, the ancientest translation, the Greek, instead of " the man whose eyes were open," renders it " the man who was truly a see-er ; " which Balaam might be, as well with his eyes shut as open : other- wise what are those visions of the night, or dreams, which (as already noted) are often in Scripture said to be seen ? and more- over the natural eye cannot be supposed, in a trance or deep sleep, in an ecstasy or deprivation of the senses, when men are as dead (and know not whether they are in the body or no) to have any part in what is affirmed of Balaam here, that " he saw the vision of the Almighty." § 14. It is not indeed the way of the Spirit to choose for his instruments the vilest among men, such as Balaam must be ac- counted of : nevertheless, this instance alone should be a suffi- cient caution against man's presumption to hmit Infinity in wis- dom, or prescribe bounds to Him who gave all his creatures their intellect, and of consequence must have understanding (for the direction of his own ways) superior to theirs. But that He has not confined himself to speak his oracles only by the holy, this instance of Balaam is not alone : for scarcely can we express a higher kind or degree of crime than what we find in the old prophet of Bethel, who falsely, and with intent to de- ceive (as the history acquaints us), affirmed that an angel had spoken to him by the word of the Lord ; and yet, even in the act of high treason against the Majesty of Heaven (1 Kings xiii. 18, 20), " the word of the Lord" IChald. ' the word of prophecy from the Lord,'] came indeed unto this impostor. Wherefore surely these two, without Caiaphas, Judas, and others, are abundantly sufficient to curb the rashness of those who would even put the bit into their Maker's mouth. § 15. In faith of the visions set before him it was that Micaiah with open face could stand unshaken before the angry looks of king Ahab at the head of his army, and bear the insults of four hundred prophets in that presence : the account of which visions, 1 Kings xxii. 17 — 23, affiards us much variety in that manifesta- tion ; the first, of " sheep scattered on the hills, without a PROPHETIC VISIONS. 65 shepherd," afforded a representation nearly resembling the mat- ters of fact signified by it. The other is more mysterious and enigmatical; namely, that of all ** the host of heaven, standing on the right and left hand of the throne above," by which some un- derstand the good and evil angels so ranked : however that be, the spirit that therein came forth and stood before the Lord had a commission from God to persuade and prevail to the destruc- tion of Ahab. But the application which Micaiah makes of this latter vision yields still more difficulties to human reason how to unfold ; for, says he, " the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." § 16. If, as we have said, the night- visions, or dreams, are always seen without the instrumentality of the bodily eye, and visions in the night, or by dark, profit nothing by it ; — if also those in a trance, or deprivation of the senses, do see and hear things (sometimes) unutterable, being like men dead, as divers texts do assert ; — if also we believe, according to the Scripture, many things of the invisible agency of angels, as that they en- camp round about them that fear God ; that they are sent forth to minister to the heirs of immortal glory ; that they are present in religious assemblies, and divers other things of like kind; why should we encourage so gross a conceit, and so opposed to the analogy of faith, as to think that where an angel is present the natural eye must needs see him ? and that he who pretends to see him, when others cannot, of consequence forfeits among Christians any claim to reason and a sober mind? For the angel was present when the ass whereon Balaam rode saw him ; and yet the master did not, till the Lord " opened the eyes of Ba- laam " (Num. xxii. 30). Thus was it with Elisha's servant when the prophet said those that were with them were more numerous than the Syrian army all around ; and yet the young man saw nothing of the chariots and horses of fire covering the mountain round about, till Elisha prayed, and the Lord " opened the eyes " of that servant (2 Kings vi. 17). Thus, also, Daniel affirms positively, that when he saw a vision gloriously resplend- ant (Dan. x. 7), the men that were with him saw it not. Ezekiel too had one given to himself, whilst sitting with the elders about him. We are not therefore to wonder, that, when Jesus ap- peared to Paul on the road, those that were with him (Acts ix. 7) saw no man. Let us then conclude, that the natural eye, 66 PART I. — CHAP. V. without supernatural influence from him that made it, (that is, " the Lord opening it,") can no more discern what constitutes a vision than a mere rational man can lay hold of the invisible objects of faith. But, if this matter needed any further proof, we might cite all those in testimony of it who conversed with angels in Scripture, and yet knew it not till they disappeared. § 17. It may easily be observed, that the visions here quoted are not fully described ; my purpose being rather to insist on the circumstances and manner attending, than on the subjects of them. Accordingly, when Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and his train filling the temple, what occurs remarkable to our present purpose is, that he cried out at the sight, Isai. vi. 5, 8, "Woe is me, for I am put to silence ;" (for so the same Hebrew word is rendered, chap. xv. 1 ;) and being dumb or un- able to speak, he reflects upon his unclean lips, and unfitness to be the mouth of God until the coal from the altar touched them ; and then he adds, " Here am I, send me." Other remarkable effects on himself, the same prophet acquaints us, attended him on the like occasion, chap. xxi. 2 — 4 ; wherein he gives not a de- tail of the vision : but probably the representation was as dismal as the former was gracious ; for, says he, *' a grievous vision is declared unto me therefore are my loins filled with pain : pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth : I was bowed down at the hearing of it ; I was dis- mayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me : the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me." After so clear a declaration of sorrows attending, joined with the more dismal state of faintness and sickness in Daniel, as well as the lameness of Jacob, and the blindness of St. Paul, what can more surprise us than to hear men well versed in the Scrip- ture touching other matters affirm, that all injuries to the body are incompatible with the gracious and good Spirit to inflict in any of his communications unto men ? Let us cease, therefore, from the fond reasonings of man in these sublime things ; for wherein is he to be accounted of? § 18. The glorious vision of Isaiah above mentioned ended without other signification given, than of personal comfort and establishment to himself: but, behold, in the case of Jeremiah we have two set before us (chap. i. 13 — J 6 ; xxiv. 1 — 10) ; the one of a seething pot, the other of two baskets of figs ; both contemptible in the figures seen, but yet by Him to whom inter- PROPHETIC VISIONS. 67 pretations belong ennobled by the explanation of them annexed, beyond that majestic one to Isaiah. How untraceable, there- fore, are his steps i and his ways passing the accounting for by man ! Jeremiah understood not of himself; but the explication of the thing seen must be due to the same hand that tendered them. And this manner of first presenting the visionary figures, and then adding by voice the signification of them, shews us more clearly what is meant sometimes by " the Lord speaking in vision." Here also we see, as by divers other precedents, that whenever some common and less noble things of the earth are represented to the prophet by the power of the Invisible, they are not to be despised on that account. § 19. Among the first words of the prophecies of Ezekiel, the Divine manifestation to him is described by three circumstances : First, *< The hand of the Lord was upon him ;" Chald, * the spirit of prophecy from before the Lord rested on him :' which, in the Scripture phrase, is of the same import on this occasion with the other expressions, " the Spirit fell [or rushed] upon," and St. John's " being in the Spirit ;" all of them including and mean- ing some ecstatic impressions on the body. Secondly, He " saw visions " of God, being by the river Chebar among the captives ; wherefore it seems the rest did not perceive them : for therein, Thirdly, ** The word of the Lord came expressly" unto him. In which circumstances, as described, there is a supernatural power felt by the bodily sensation, with a manifestation as to the eye by vision, and to the ear by voice expressed. Wherefore the pro- phet's commission being so attested to himself, though the tenor of his message by it be, *' Go, and tell this people, Hear ye in- deed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not : make the heart of this people fat, IChald. * besotted,'] and make their ears heavy, and shut up their eyes " (Isai. vi. 9, 10), What, however, can the prophet, on the above-said evidence to himself, justly do but say with Isaiah, chap.1.5 — 8, " The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back : I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair ; I hid not my face from shame and spitting : for the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded ; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that justifieth me." § 20. All those three testimonies of the heavenly power on 68 PART I. — CHAP. V. Ezekiel are by him recited to concur again, in the eighth chapter, whilst he sat in his house, and the elders of Judah before him. But there is not the least ground given us to think that those elders heard or saw what the prophet in the vision then did : nay, on the contrary, it is certain they did not ; for, supposing they had, the revelation then must have been as well to them as to him, which is inconsistent with the scope of the text, that affixes it only to Ezekiel. Indeed, as to '* the hand of the Lord God that FELL " there *' upon him," some commentators say that the word "fell " speaks a violence and suddenness upon him, as if thunderstruck; and so it must needs be that the elders were witnesses to the attendances of the ecstasy. Now, among the visions of Ezekiel, which in a manner compose his whole book, there are two in their kind so particular, that they deserve a special remark. In one of them (Ezek. ii. 9, 10), ** an hand was reached unto him, with a scroll of a book," which was spread before him, " and it was written within and without ;" (and it seems he read it, for) " there was written therein lamen- tations, and mourning, and woe." In the other, chap. viii. 7 — 12, being brought to the door of the temple court, he saw a hole in the wall ; and he, by command digging in the wall, found a door, and was bid to go in at it : so he " went in, and saw, and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were pourtrayed upon the wall round about." Then the Lord said unto him, " Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery ? for they say, The Lord seeth us not." Now, if we consider the dark manner of the introduction in this vision, that the prophet has it repre- sented as if he was digging through a wall into some vault under ground ; and the end of it, which was to draw a figure of what the elders did in the dark ; we may conclude, that the images pourtrayed upon the wall, if they bore a symmetry to the whole scheme, were rather drawn after the manner of Metzo-tinto print, in the shades of black and white, than the lively colours of other pictures. § 21. I confess myself not capable to understand how God's speaking *'face to face" for clearness, with Moses, stands op- posed to his speaking by visions and dark speeches to other pro- phets, if visions must necessarily be clearly understood by the seer : but, as in some particulars already we have noted, and in PROPHETIC VISIONS. 69 many more visions here cited, the like might have been observed, that at the instant of their being seen, the very beholder did not know the signification of them, which appears further in that to Peter; for after the withdrawing of that scene of beasts, and creeping things. Acts x. 16, 17, though it had been repeated three times, and a voice conjoined with it, yet he " doubted in himself what the vision he had seen should mean." And when Daniel understood not, all the answer is, " Go thy way, for the words are sealed *' (Dan. xii. 9). And notwithstanding that the gift of interpreting dreams and visions, in Joseph, Zechariah (2 Chron. xxvi. 5), and Daniel, is declared to be distinct from that of seeing them ; yet what most puts human understanding to the blush in this matter, and of consequence exalts the pre- rogative of the Divine, (for *• it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," Prov. xxv. 2,) is the giving of visions which are not to be divulged (Rev. x. 4), and the leaving upon record so many enigmatical visions stamped with a seal of authority enforcing them, such as no other parts of Scripture have more solemnly affixed to them ; which yet are not certainly to be understood by mere human reason : for in the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, which contain one entire mysterious vision, unfathomable in its depth even to this day, the prophet is commanded " to behold with his eyes, to hear with his ears, and to set his heart upon all that should be shewn him, that he might declare all that he saw to the house of Israel ;" and in particular, " to shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof; and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them" (Ezek. xl. 4; xliii. 11). After a like sort, that merely prophetical book of the New Testament entitled, with distin- guishment, the revelation, begins with a peculiar benedic- tion ; " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep " (or heedfully observe) "those things which are written therein :" and ends with a most emphatical commination ; '* For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book : and if any man shall take away from the words 70 PART I. — CHAP. V. of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Unto both which, let us add also the close of the mysterious visions of Daniel : " Go thou thy way till the end be, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end : many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly ; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Blessed is he that waiteth." § 22. Having already taken notice that " the pillar of cloud," before or behind the camp in the wilderness, is joined with the angel's so removing, we now proceed to shew that the apparition of angels in the Scripture is not limited to the human form. And here it is worthy of observation, that the word " zeraphim " means a Jiame ofjire : and thus an angel appeared to Moses in " a flame of fire." And the Psalmist says the Lord hath made his celestial ministers such : in another place he adds, " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels ;" as they appeared to Elisha's servant, and in transporting Elias ; and when they are represented an host, or army on horseback, there the figure of the horse is as much an essential part of them as that of the man, or of the chariots to which in other places the horse is joined: nay, in Zech. i. 8 — 11, horses alone are in- terpreted to be angels. Furthermore, in Rev. viii. 13, where an angel flew in the midst of heaven, divers good authorities give the text, " an eagle flew," &c. Neither can it be thought in- compatible with an angel to appear in that form, seeing the " four beasts,*' seen by Ezekiel and John, among various forms, had somewhat of the eagle ; and the fourth beast, in the Revelation, was like a flying eagle. The four beasts in Ezekiel went whither "the Spirit" (or ' their mind,* Heb.; * their will,* Chald.) was to go ; and those in St. John incessantly give glory, and honour, and thanks to Him that sat on the throne ; which shews them to be intellectual agents. Wherefore, it is no diminution to angels to appear in such like forms. Much to the same import may be observed also from the Hebrew, touching " the wheels " in Eze- kiel, that they were self-movers, or voluntary agents, and there- fore angels ; who may as well assume the form of a wheel alone, as when it is conjoined with a chariot. " The morning stars," in Job, " which sang together " at the creation, are by the Greek PROPHETIC VISIONS. 71 and Chaldee (the best interpreters of the text) construed, * all the angels ;' and in St. John, " the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." Thus, the star which fell (or went swiftly) from heaven unto the earth, Rev. ix. 1, xx. I, to whom was in- trusted the key of the bottomless pit, to open it, was certainly an angel as well as he who was intrusted with the same key to shut it up again. Wherefore, there can be little difficulty to ascribe the same thing to that star which went before and con- ducted the wise men by day as well as night, and pointed out the particular house in the town of Bethlehem ; seeing such direction does not consist with the nature of a planet in the heavens. § 23. We might add several other figures wherein angels have appeared ; but these being sufficient to shew that it is absurd, by the tenor of Scripture rule, to say they do not appear unless they assume the human form, therefore it was merely in com- pliance with the common apprehensions about them that I sup- ported the discourse of angels appearing in human form from this of other open visions : for since, as I have noted before, the essence of an angel is not seen by the form (whatever it be) that appears ; for then they must have always been known, which they often were not, even when exhibiting themselves in the similitude of man ; it follows necessarily, that the agency or in- strumentality of angels in Divine revelation ought no more to be excluded in other visions than in those that bore in them a like- ness of manhood,— seeing that we find that, in the visions of Eze- kiel, St. John, and elsewhere, as before mentioned, they appeared under other similitudes besides that of man. And in the ac- count already given of Divine revelation by dreams and articu- late voices, their agency is positively and beyond question asserted. Wherefore, though I can see no reason why any should doubt, considering what is here said above, whether angels have any part in this other sort of visions whereof we now treat, I shall notwithstanding add something more to clear it. § 24. The chariot of fire and horses of fire (a similitude that is ascribed to angels) that were seen by Elisha, to carry up Elias into heaven, who can doubt to be represented by an angel ? since, without any such vision exhibited, they might have trans- lated him, as Obadiah on another occasion hinted. Further- more, in another vision, after the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord (Ezek. ii. 2), where it is said " the Spirit 72 PART II. — CHAP. V. entered into Ezekiel, and set him upon his feet," the Greek has it, ' the spirit came to him, and took him, and lifted him up, and set him upon his feet;' so that it is pretty plain, the spirit that did all these ministerial services was an angel. Thus also, in another place, Ezek. viii. 2, 3, where he describes a " like- ness," as the appearance of fire from the loins downwards, and upward as the colour of amber; that likeness put forth an hand, and took him by a lock of his head, and the spirit (or likeness) lifted him up between the earth and the heaven, and shewed him the visions following. Thus when Daniel had seen the vi- sion of a ram and he-goat, and sought for the meaning, " then, behold, there stood before him as the appearance of a man " (Dan. viii. 2, 17), who opened to that vision. Wherefore, in this latter case, who can distinguish between the power exhibit- ing the vision and that which is employed to explain it ? as, in those of Ezekiel, to separate the dignity that shewed the ap- pearance and likeness mentioned, from that which produced the other figures in his visions, is too difficult ; and therefore I must conclude them all — that is, all manner of vision — under the same undivided way of Divine operation, to be manifested by the instrumentality of an angel. } 25. Whoever will please to look into the second and third chapters of Zechariah will find that the 'angel, which is defined to affect him in the former, did, in the latter, shew him Joshua the high priest, with divers circumstances there represented: and so, in the beginning of the fourth chapter, the angel came again and waked him as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and then presented before him several things in vision, which, upon the prophet's inquiry what they meant, are by the angel explained to be the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. In the latter part of the fourth chapter, and in the fifth and sixth, the angel of the Lord accompanies him in divers other visions, and with an easy familiarity expounds them. Wherefore, if the Scripture be taken for a conclusive rule to judge by, touching the manner of Divine revelation, as well as it is in all other points, the entire believer of it can never allow himself to imagine, but the agency of angels subordinate to the Deity is as great in this way of Divine manifestation by vision as in those of dream and voice; as, in Rev. xxii. 16, it is said, <' I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things." And among the variety of outward appearances in vision, those that are not in PROPHETIC VISIONS. 73 the proper similitude of men are equally authentic, and as much through the instrumentality of angels as those that are so only ; for the supreme unaccountable Disposer of his own ways has so ordered it, that sometimes those that appear in the human form have no more than a likeness to the similitude of the sons of men (Dan. x. 16). At other times they have each of them six wings (Isai. vi. 2) : and at other times, the human form is monstrously confounded with that of brute beasts, as occurs in the visions of Ezekiel and St. John. Neither is it inconsistent with an angel to assume the form of a woman in his ministry to men, as appears by Zech. v. 7 — 11, and Ezek. viii. 14, which was universally acknowledged by the testimony of the primo- primitive Christian church, that admitted the Visions of Hermas for canonical Scripture*, wherein several times angels are men- tioned to appear to him, assuming that form in their communi- cations with him ; and also in those early times an angel appear- ed to several, with clear evidences of his Divine commission, clothed with the form of Potamiania, a celebrated virgin mar- tyred, as will more fully appear in the sequel hereof. § 26. Upon all that has been said, I am persuaded, that the authority of vision will appear so sacred that no other way of Divine revelation can be esteemed worthy of more acceptation with the faithful. But, alas ! how few are they in this respect, when any other instances of Divine manifestation, by vision, dream, and voices heavenly, other tlian those particular ones mentioned in the sacred text, come under consideration, seeing that in such a case the most religious make no scruple now-a- xlays to join hands with the Sadducee and profane scoflfer ; or, as the Psalmist terms it, " stand in the way of sinners, and sit down in the seat of the scornful ;" and even with emulation strive to outdo him in the common topics of imputing them either to the whimsies of a diseased brain, or the effects of natural melancholy, or the doatings of a head wholly intoxicated with musing upon revelations. And this even religious men do, with- out fear of accounting, at the day of judgment, for " every idle word " that they shall speak on this subject ; though that comraination of our adored Saviour is particularly connected * Eusebius mentions the Visions of Hermas amongst other books which were read in the primitive churches (Eccles. Hist. iii. 3) ; but it does not follow from thence that they were reckoned canonical : and we know, on other grounds, that they never were included in the canon.— JEdiior. 74 PART II CHAP. VI. with the most terrible of all Gospel denunciations, touching the speaking a word against the Holy Ghost, as may appear from Matt. xii. 31, 32, 36. § 27. But knowing, from what shall be hereafter proved, that this was not the manner of the first Christians, and that the humour of scoffing at such like things came in among them with the corruptions that denominate the apostasy of the church, as I shall also endeavour to make apparent ; I am not pleading the Scripture precedents and authorities forementioned, of visionary discoveries, to warrant the indulging of a credulity of such pre- tences to revelation as, upon the due examination of circum- stance, can with any justice of reasoning (even by such rules of it as in all other cases are allowed) be fairly imputed to the discomposure of the person's brain. What we ought to say is, that every case must stand upon its own foot, if a due exami- nation be allowed : and therein, if in any age past, present, or to come, a man appearing to have sobriety of judgment shall give an account of like things befallen him, which are not justly reducible to natural causes, and which, being divulged, do tend any ways to edification, I do not see by what authority from the Scripture, they ought to be despised; nor how we can turn them into ridicule, without reproaching the faith of the most illustri- ous saints in all ages, and even casting a blemish upon the sacred text itself. But because there will be room for more argument on this head elsewhere, we shall here proceed to the examina- tion of prophecy, in the proper and specific sense of the word. CHAP. VI. TOUCHING PROPHECY PROPER, OR INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. Before we enter upon that way of Divine communication which I believe will be found the most generally used by Him whose messenger to the world the prophet always was, and wherein what he delivered was the word of the Lord, 1 shall take notice very briefly of some other very extraordinary methods of the Holy Spirit's operation which do not usually come under this head. § 1. When Ezekiel had seen in vision a roll " written within and without," the Spirit said to him, " Son of man, eat this roll " INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 75 (Ezek. iii. 1, 3), and so caused him to eat it, and fill his bowels with it; and it was in his mouth as honey for sweetness ; and then the Spirit said, " Go, speak with my words unto them." After a like manner, St. John was commanded to take a little book from an angel (Rev. x. 9, 11), and "he took it out of the hands of the angel, and eat it up ; and it was in his mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as he had eaten it his belly was bitter;" whereupon the angel said to him, " Thou must prophesy again, before many peoples." Parallel to these two patterns, Jeremiah says (xv. 16 — 18), " Thy words were found, and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." But in correspondence to the bitterness in St. John, he imme- diately adds, " I sat alone because of thy hand ; for thou hast filled me with indignation : why is my pain perpetual ; and my wound incurable ? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail ? " From all which collated texts, there appears to have been a supernatural impression on the sense of tasting, and that so delightful as may well be construed figura- tive of the joy that the Spirit of prophecy carries usually with it in its first infusion, though in the process it produces the bitter- ness of affliction, as above-mentioned, to the affected person; both the one and the other eventually to the benefit of the pro- phet, — for at the resurrection of the just, one star will differ from another in glory. § 2. But whatever be the bitterness, " it is " rationally " im- possible for those who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance " (Heb. vi. 4 — 6) ; because the same must necessarily be a most powerful means of grace, when heeded. Wherefore Ezekiel, before eating the roll, has a charge given him not to be rebellious, as the im- pudent and hard-hearted and rebellious house of Israel (the then church) was ; and after that just now cited petulant com- plaint of Jeremiah, the Lord said to him, *' If thou return " (from it, and dost not wholly fall away), " then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me " (in the prophetic office), " and thou shalt be as my mouth : return not thou to the assembly of the mockers ; for I will save thee, and deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked." Thus Jeremiah was set as a brazen wall, against which the terrible ones should not prevail. And how- ever it was better with Samuel in that respect of the world's 76 PART I. — CHAP. VI. contempt, his danger was no less from its smiles in being univer- sally known to be a prophet ; yet as to his being '* established to be a prophet of the Lord " (1 Sam. iii. 20), I know of no such word as " established " in the text ; for the Hebrew, Greeks Chaldee, and Vulgate Latin have it expressly, " faithful :" the Chaldee renders the sentence, " he was faithful in the prophetical words of the Lord ;" which it becomes every one to be who standeth before the Lord in the prophetic office, to receive and obey his commands without reserve, who is able to save and de- liver from men ; as was promised Jeremiah and Isaiah, or (which is better) to give him a reward peculiar in the resurrection of the just. But because, from that word established, some pretend that the prophet's commission stands in need of the acknowledgment (and verification as it were) of the existent church, as that of Samuel universally had ; I have taken the more freedom, in the cause of Divine truth, to shew, that such a claim is as little warrantable by that text alleged to maintain it, as it is condemned by the whole tenor of Scripture throughout. § 3. After this digression, which arose upon the supernatural impression, on the sense of tasting, emblematical of the sweet- ness of the prophetical word ; even as that of manna is described most grateful, being also figurative of Christ, the true manna from heaven ; — in concurrence with this observation, St. John tells us, that when " the Lamb took the sealed book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, the twenty-four elders fell down before the throne, having every one of them golden vials full of odours" (Rev. v. 8); — we therefore conceive it is rational to think from thence, that there was to the Apostle a supernatural impression on the sense of smell ; nor can such a construction be any ways injurious, seeing St. Paul mentions, more than once, the being " a sweet savour unto God ;" and St. John figures the gifts of the Spirit by the emblem of anointing, which implies odours. Moreover, the Holy Spirit of prophecy, in setting forth the glory of the great High Priest and Bride- groom of his beloved, uses the like metaphorical expressions of odoriferous ointment, myrrh, aloes, and cassia, to figure out to us his blessed effusions. And however this supernatural impres- sion on the smell be now a common subject of mockery (as is also that of tasting), we shall find, in the sequel of this treatise, it was not so among the primitive Christians. But referring it for the present to that proof in the case of Poly carp, and the INSPIRATION PROPHETIC, martyrs of Lyons, I now proceed to some others of the more" extraordinary operations of the Spirit. § 4. The Spirit of the Lord endowed Samson with marvellous strength of body ; and yet not inherently, after the manner of the natural, but when the Spirit came upon him, even the very same Spirit that was upon the prophets : wherefore Josephus styles him ' a prophet,' which in the larger sense comprehends all those who receive any Divine revelation, or the Spirit of God extraordinarily : and thus St. Paul, among the catalogue of those whose faith in Divine revelation (made to themselves mostly) was renowned, puts him with "Gideon, and Barak, and Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and the rest of the prophets ;" for so the Syriac, Ethiopic, and some ancient fathers write the text ; and the annotators say it ought to be therein understood, even though not expressed. But Samson is not the sole instance of bodily strength given extraordinarily to the prophet ; for Elijah's travelling forty days and forty nights without eating argues the same : so David also acknowledges that God enabled his arms to break even a bow of steel, and made him, when but a stripling, to overcome a lion and a bear. And certainly the restoration of youthful vigour to Abraham, for many years after his body was as good as dead, is without any precedent in a natural way, at least that we know of. Yet more marvellous is that of Moses, who in the xcth Psalm says, that, if the strength of man attained to the age of eighty years, yet his very strength was, even then, labour and sorrow : nevertheless, it is recorded of Moses him- self, Deut. xxxiv. 7, that " he was an hundred and twenty years old when he died, and yet his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated ;" in which text the Hebrew word, rendered " na- tural force," is so particular and emphatical, that, in the want of ability significantly to express it, the Vulgate Latin says, * his teeth were not loose ;* the Greek, ' his gums were not wasted ;* Chaldee, ' the clearness of the beauty of his countenance was not altered ;' Syriac, ' his cheeks had no wrinkles ;' Arabic, ' his moisture was not abated ;' Hebrew and Samaritan, ' his green- ness (namely, of youth) was not faded.' § 5. Touching these more extraordinary influences, let us add, that Solomon had from the same Spirit an understanding of the secrets of nature ; for he spake of trees, " from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop sprouting out of the wall." He spake also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes; 78 PART r. — CHAP. VI. so that in natural philosophy he was wiser than all men. Thus also political wisdom was a fruit of the same Spirit, to Joshua, Saul, Solomon, and divers of the Judges ; in particular, Othniel, on whom " the Spirit of the Lord came," Judg. iii. 10 IChald. * the Spirit of prophecy from the presence of the Lord rested on him ']. Thus, in another very different way of administration, Bezaleel (Exod. xxxi. 3) was *' filled with the Spirit of God," IGr. M-he Divine Spirit;' Chald. ' the prophetic Spirit from before the Lord,'] for workmanship in gold and silver for the use of the tabernacle : afterwards David had also from the Spirit (1 Chron. xxviii. 12 — 19) a pattern for building the temple, and direction for the services thereof. Moreover, as the sweet Psalmist of Israel tells us, Psal. xlix. 4, " he would open his dark saying upon the harp ;" so Asaph, Judathan, and Heman (whose in- spired hymns we have to this day), being all prophets, are said to prophesy with harps and other music, 1 Chron, xxv. 1 — 5. From whence it may be no easy question to solve, whether the music itself were not commanded, or even influenced, by the Spirit, as well as the subject of their song. § 6. Moreover, what one Evangelist writes of our Saviour, that he by the finger of God cast out devils, being by another related, that he by the Spirit of God did it, serves to explain to us what is meant, Exod. xxxi. 18, by the two tables of stone written with the finger of God : and this being the first mention of writing, what the Spirit or an angel did then he afterwards inspired others to do. Thus concerning the building and ser- vices of the temple, David says, *' The Lord made me to un- derstand in writing by his hand upon me" (1 Chron. xxviii. 19). And to king Jehoram, " there came a writing from the prophet Elijah " (2 Chron. xxi. 12—15). Thus when Ezra is termed a ready scribe, he is believed inspired to it, because it is said, " the wisdom of God was in his hand, and the hand of the Lord his God was upon him." It is certain that Isaiah had a Divine command to take him a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen a prophecy received (Isai. viii. 1) ; and in another place, namely, chap. xxx. 8, to write on a table, and note in a book (a remarkable prediction), that it might be for the latter days, even for eyer and ever. So likewise to Jeremiah came the word of the Lord, saying, *' Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book," as may be seen in the xxxvith chapter at large. The like order to write may be observed in Habakkuk INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 79 and in the Revelations of St. John ; a gift peculiar, as I con- ceive, attending the order, and not always pertinent to pro- phesying. § 7. Having thus in brief touched upon several of the more extraordinary ways of the Spirit of God, we come now to inquire into the most usual and general signification of prophecy, or PROPHETIC INSPIRATION, as it is defined and laid before us in the sense of Scripture. And here, because by the word pro- phet the most of men are willing now-a-days to understand no more meant, than of a foreteller, diviner, or prognos- ticator ; and in consequence, that prophecy is the same in sense as, and no other than, divination or prognostication ; it is necessary to observe, that the Hebrew uses three words to ex- press what we write *' prophet ;" which are, Roeh, Chozek, and Nabi. Thus, in I Chron. xxix. 29, Samuel is termed Roeh; Gad, Chozeh; and Nathan, Nabi. And yet in 1 Sam. iii. 26, xxii. 5, both Samuel and Gad are termed Nabi ; so that by the indistinct and promiscuous use of these words indifferently, it would seem as if they bore one and the same signification. Now, as to the two former, that is, Roeh and Chozeh, they give so dis- tinct and certain a sound of their signification, that, by the con- sent of all etymologists in the Hebrew, they express the word SEE-ER, or, in the modern phrase, a visionair, one who per- ceives something supernaturally by the eye : but the word Nabi is hardly to be traced to any certain root in the Hebrew, and thence it comes that there are many different guesses at it, and what proper signification it ought to bear. Wherefore the un- certainty of this word's propriety or distinct signification, and the use of it in the text indifferently, and undistinguishably from Roeh and Chozeh, is a strong presumption that there was no con- siderable difference, and therefore that it bore a parallel sense with Roeh and Chozeh, which uncontrovertedly mean a See-er or Visionair: thus Buxtorfs Lexicon says, the word * nabi pro- perly means a man to whom God revealeth secrets ;' which defi- nition, by one of the greatest masters of the Hebrew, plainly manifests that there is no proper signification of it to be traced out : and therefore we must sit down content, either not to know what it means, or else conclude, from what is said above, that it was synonymous with Roeh and Chozeh. § 8. From what has been said touching the words used by the inspired Hebrew text for prophet, thus much is certain, that 80 PART I. — CHAP. VI. two of them express clearly see-er ; and the third gives only (to us at this distance) a general sound, without any proper sig- nification. However, this is very remarkable, that among the various interpretations of the word Nabi by the learned, there is none of them that affix to it the sense of a foreteller ^ diviner, or prognosticator ; that is, one that predicts things to come: so that from the negative generally allowed touching the word Nabi, and from the positive clear sense of the words Roeh and Chozehf we may conclusively determine, that the common ac- ceptation of the word prophet (to mean a foreteller or predicier) has not the least shadow of foundation, from the Old-Testament inspired text. Nevertheless, the explication of the word Nabi given in Buxtorf, that is, ' a man to whom Godrevealeth secrets,' is therefore worthy consideration, because it is a definition agree- able to the sense of Scripture throughout, which we entirely appeal to, and ought to acquiesce in, for the defining " a pro- phet :" whether it be by voice, or dream, or vision, or inspira- tion, he to whom God revealeth secrets is a prophet ; and any «ianner of such revelation does formally constitute him so. § 9. Having thus evinced from the three Hebrew words, sig- nifying *' prophet," that there is not the least shadow from thence to fix upon it the definition of a person that foretels ; it must be acknowledged at the same time, that the Greek (which bears the next authority to the Hebrew, for the sense of the Old- Testament) expresses the word *' prophet " by one that means in the obvious sense to foretel: and this, no doubt, has given occasion to the common acceptation of it in that sense. Wherefore, to reconcile this disagreement between the Hebrew and Greek terms, we are driven of necessity to have recourse to the Scripture sense annexed, and conjoined with the word " prophet : " and as this will appear from the subject at large of this treatise, we shall for the present here only take notice, that the Hebrew word Nabi, and the Greek, Prophet, are not abso- lutely so wide or distant in their signification, but they may both be reconciled so as easily to comport one with another with- out disagreement. Taking it therefore for granted, that the Hebrew word properly means one to whom God revealeth secrets, then it follows, that every man to whom God reveals himself, by what way soever, is a prophet in the large and more extend- ed sense of that word. Now the Greek word TrpoiprjTrjg, though in its usual and common acceptation it means a foreteller, yet INSPIRATION PROPHETIC^ 81 it does admit of another sense also ; for proof whereof I appeal to the explication given us of that term in Pool's Synopsis, where, on Luke i. 67, the acceptation of that word by the critics is de- livered thus; * 7rpo(pr)T€veiv, " to prophesy," is properly ifo speak * FOR or in the stead of another^ as a Proconsul stood in the place * of the Consul, or a Vice-chancellor represents the Chancellor, * and the like, the Greek Trpo, in compositions, being of like im- * port with vTTcp for, and being joined with 0?;/zi to speak, the * signification of the compound word amounts to be to speak for. * In this sense, the poets are called " Prophets of the Muses ;" * that is, they speak by inspiration of the muses. Thus, to make * known the will of God by revelation or mission from him, is to * prophesy; in which sense Christ is a Prophet, and others.' And in like manner was Aaron the prophet of Moses, Exod. iv. 16, vii. 1, where the words of God to Moses are, '* Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet ; he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people." If, then, by this explication, poets are called prophets (confirmed by Titus i. 12), because speaking by inspiration of the muses, and Aaron because speaking for and by direction of Moses; and others, even Christ himself, as speaking in the place and stead of God ; then the word " prophet," by the Greek, means * one that speaks by inspiration, or revelation from God ;' and how does this disagree with the Hebrew Nahi^ * one to whom God revealeth somewhat ?' Only in this, that the Hebrew word expresses the prophet in his passive relation, wherein he receiveth a revelation from God ; the Greek in his active, where- in he yields himself instrumentally to utter it to men. § 10. Seeing, then, that the Greek word trpofriTrig, " prophet/' may mean as well, in general, ' to speak any thing by inspira- tion,' as in particular ' to foretel,' we appeal to the New Testa- ment's use of that word ; for there the Greek is the original, as the Hebrew is of the Old. And if, in the Christian dispensa- tion, prophesying be throughout the New Testament not at all limited to the particular of prediction, but taken at large for speaking by the Holy Spirit; then it is altogether unwarrantable for Christians to limit the sense of the word to divination or prognosticating. How it came to pass, or why they have in this particular limited the word of God touching prophecy, as well as in others, may peradventure hereafter be hinted at : but, for the present, to take it for confessed that a prophet is one to M 82 PART I. CHAP. VI. whom God reveals somewhat, and he utters it to the world, we now pursue the thread of this dis(X)urse. And having already in- quired into the Scripture discoveries touching the ways of God revealing himself by the apparition of angels, and by dreams, and by voice heard, and by visions; and having briefly noted some more extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit, we go. on to treat of inspiration prophetic § 1 1. When we mention inspiration to prophesy, or to utter, for the benefit of the existing church, what God revealeth and sendeth a man to do, it is manifest that this is quite a different thing from the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit on the heart. This latter indeed may be called inspiration ; and our Saviour bids his disciples ** rejoice that their names were writ- ten in heaven," much rather than because devils were subject to them : and surely that privilege which invests a man with the high honour of calling upon God as his Father, is much more comfortable for himself than to be his messenger. But my purpose being wholly to limit myself to' the ways of God extraordinary in revealing himself; and by what has been said already it appearing that he to whomsoever the arbitrary uncon- troulable chooser of his own instruments does so vouchsafe to communicate himself any way, whether by angelic appearances, or by dreams, voices, visions, or once by any one of them, may rightly be styled a prophet in the larger sense of that word ; yet, in the stricter and more proper sense of the word, a prophet is only that person who is actuated and carried by the Spirit to speak openly for the benefit of the existent church or genera- tion : the manner whereof, and how this extraordinary commis- sion appeared, it remains now to treat of, upon the Scripture foot only, and the discoveries it gives us of that matter. § 12. If Noah be honoured by God with the title of a " preacher of righteousness "' to the old world, for his assiduous work of faith, in obedience to a Divine command immediately given to himself, wherein he was the last monitor the world that perished had, Abraham may well be accounted a " preacher of righteousness " by faith to the new world, seeing he was the first of it that believed and rested upon God revealing, and there- in is set forth a pattern to all ages of that ** righteousness which is by faith." Therefore it cannot well be questioned that he comes within the definition of a prophet, whose proper office is to divulge to the world what he receives by revelation from God. INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 83 And we being now to inquire into the ways of the prophetic Spirit, that which we shall first insist on is the trance : and ac- cordingly, the manner wherein this father of nations (spiritually, much more than literally,) received those manifestations from the original Father of Light, is described to us. Gen. xv. 12, to be under " a deep sleep, \_Greelc, • ecstasy,'] and an horror of great darkness falling upon him :" upon which text (as H. Ains- worth notes) the Hebrew doctors affirm, * That before a prophe- * tical vision a deep sleep fell upon them and all that prophesied ; * their joints trembled ; there remained no strength in them ; their * thoughts were troubled (or interrupted), and the mind was left ' changed.' § 13. Balaam, before that noble prophecy of his was uttered, *fell down' (Heb,); which we render, Numb. xxiv. 4, "fell into a trance." And this was no objection valid enough to render dubious the affirmation of the text, that it was the Spirit of God that came so upon him ; for nothing in this case attended him but what equally accompanied the holy men of God, as will be found hereunder by multiplied examples. However, because some are offended to have him ranked among them, I shall here add to what has been already said upon it under the head of Visions, that the Greek peculiarly calls him < a true man ;' that is, one affected by the true Spirit of prophecy. And because most are at this day startled at the mention of ecstasy upon the influence of the good Spirit, I shall be the more particular here- under in citing what the critically learned in the text upon this subject do remark. Wherefore, to begin with the case of Balaam, Pool's Synopsis acquaints us, ' That when he fell upon his face * to the ground, it was from inability to bear up under the Spirit * of God : and it was the usual condition of men to fall down, * or flat on the ground, when the Spirit of prophecy descended * upon them ; for thus it was with Ezekiel, Daniel, Saul, and * St. John. Thus was Balaam surprised with ecstasy, and de- * prived of his senses ; for those that are under the afflatus, or * inspiration, either of a good or an evil spirit, do suffer the * temporary loss of their senses.' § 14. When king Saul sent messengers three times to appre- hend David (1 Sam. xix. 20 — 24), " the Spirit of God came upon them, and they prophesied also, when they saw the com- pany of prophets before Samuel prophesying ;" and Saul him- self, when he came among them, had the Spirit of God upon 8'i PART. I. — CHAP. VI. him. Wherein it is plain from the drift of the story, that by the Spirit of God upon them they were all deprived of strength to execute their purpose, and so far their reason and senses were superseded. But to express it with the men of study ; * They * were from above enforced to lay aside their military gar- ' ments at least, and to act the prophet. And perhaps " to * prophesy " in this place means, to talk at random, and dance * naked, as the worshippers of Bacchus used to do ; whilst * Samuel and the prophets praised God in their raptures. But * this is certain, that they forgetting their impious purpose, * hereby God manifested his power miraculously to rescue David. ' It might be, however, that Saul, in his ecstasy, did magnify the * Lord ; for the gift of prophesying is sometimes given to the < wicked. Thus, when he " fell down " naked on the ground, it * was but as others who were taken with, and possessed by, that * Divine Spirit ; for in such case, the exterior senses did not * perform their offices. It is true, he flung off all his clothes; < and nothing ought to be accounted shameful that appertains * to the celebrating Divine praises. When the prophets were * impressed by the Spirit of God, they often lost their senses, ' and therefore (no wonder) the sense of shame : and thus they * flung off their clothes, and lay prostrate on the earth. And as * Saul lay so all that day, and all that night, it was because he * was deprived of strength and sense to arise ; whereby David * had time to make his escape : upon which account, the proverb, * "Is Saul also among the prophets?" was hereon built, to ex- * press any wonderful deliverance or interposal of God beyond * all manner of human expectations.* § 15. Next to the loss of all sense and the being as a dead corpse, nothing more shews the superincidence and masterly agency of a Spirit on the prophets than what we find in Scrip- ture of the local removing of their bodies. For what befel Elias, in his actual translation up to heaven at length, is inti- mated to us, by Obadiah and the sons of the prophets at Jericho, to have been transacted on him in some removals or transporta- tions at other times (1 Kings xviii. 12; ii. 16). And what the undoubted Spirit of the Lord did to him, the same was most expressly done to Philip (Acts viii. 39), as even the evil one is thought to be permitted to do to our Lord himself (Matt. iv. 1 — 5). And what befel St. John and Ezekiel, when they men- tion the Spirit's snatching them up and carrying them away, is • INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 85 very difficult to resolve, whether it were not a bodily removal as well as the preceding ones. But when these instances are brought of the strong agency of the Spirit on the prophet, it ought not to be omitted that there are many degrees in that agency ; as that of Isaiah plainly hints, saying (chap. viii. 1 1), ** The Lord spake unto me with a strong hand :" for ** the hand of the Lord was upon me," is a phrase used several times, by Ezekiel and others, to express the Spirit of prophecy then in- cumbent on them, which in its operation may be more or less strong. And thus probably it was sometimes with David ; for the Greek puts the title of * A Psalm upon an ecstasy' on the xxxist; and what we render at the latter end thereof, " I said in my haste," is by the Greek, Vulgate Latin, and others, * I said in my ecstasy.' § 16. As to those strong impressions of the hand of the Lord, they occur frequently in Ezekiel : for when, upon beholding " the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," he was fallen upon his face (Ezek. ii. 2), the Spirit (or angel), entering into him, set him up upon his feet ; that is, restored him from that disability of strength which had occasioned his fall to the ground. Just the same expressions for his falling and recovery are found also in the next chapter : much like to these are repeated again in the xxxviitb, xliiid, and xlivth chapters. But I pass these over, because that of Daniel is more express ; for, says he (viii. 17, 18, 27), **When Gabriel came near unto me where I stood, I was afraid, and fell upon my face,. ..and when he spake to me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground ; but he touched me, and set me upright.. ..nevertheless, after the vision, I fainted, and was sick certain days." Now, * Whereas * (say the commentators) the disturbance of his mind was so * vehement that it made him languish and fall sick, we are not * thereby to understand it as naturally befalling; but that God * impressed such terror on him that he might not be lifted up by * his visions, and also to the end he might know this particular ' one to be Divine. And as to the fear he describes, it arose * from the majesty wherewith God invested the nature of an * angel, in his delegation unto men; and as the angel bespoke ' Daniel, under the compellation of ** son of man" (as they did * often to Ezekiel), this was to put him in mind of his condition * in flesh and blood, lest he should be exalted with such heavenly * sights, and that he might duly consider the distinction between 86 PART. I.— CHAP. VI. * himself and those angelic spirits he conversed withal. At the ' same time also, the compellation "son of man " has something ' of friendliness in it, and shews, in this and Ezekiel's case, that ' by touching and lifting up a frail mortal they are affected with * compassion to the weakness of mouldering flesh.' § 17. But because men have drawn such false ideas of the Spirit of God on the prophet, as if any bodily hurt from it were inconsistent with the operation of so gracious a Being, I shall here barely recite what concerns the same in Isaiah and Ha- bakkuk. ** A grievous vision is declared unto me," says the former; <* therefore are my loins filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, even like the pangs of a woman that tra- vaileth ; I was bowed down at hearing of it ; I was dismayed at the seeing of it ; my heart panted ; fearfulness affrighted me ; the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me." <' When I heard," says the latter, " my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself." So that what happened to Belshazzar in his cups, though in him it be represented as judicial, that, when he saw the hand which was writing on the wall (which was a vision to him), " his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another;" even all this to Belshazzar was no more than befel "the man of desires," the "greatly be- loved," Daniel himself (Dan. v. 6 ; x. 8 — 11) : for, says he, "I stood trembling, neither was there breath left in me ; (nay, at the first) there remained no strength in me ; my vigour was turned into corruption, and I fell (was flung) on my face upon the ground." In which text the words in the original are so em- phatical, that those that best understand them give us the import of them to be, * That he was almost without life ; all strength * to support the body was taken from his nerves ; all his senses, * external and internal, were suppressed ; and in the place of a * vigorous and flourishing state of health which he enjoyed * before, an universal decay and destitution of spirits seized the ' whole body.' § 18. But, say the lovers of themselves, the Spirit in the Christian dispensation never shewed itself in any of these ways of terror. Let us therefore examine whether the wisdom of God may not herein also differ from ours, which commonly savours of flesh ; for we have seen already, that the great effusion of the INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 87 Spirit at Pentecost was emblemed, and attended with the noise, as of a roaring rattling wind ; than which scarcely any thing in nature is more full of terror : and some of the ancients (I think in particular St. Cyprian) say. That this tempestuous one did nearly imitate the affrighting sounds at Mount Sinai, that made all the people in the camp to tremble. But, whether that tradi- tion in the first ages were well founded or not, it is certain, from the plain and obvious sense of the word written, that the sound there expressed must needs fill the minds of them that heard it with much fear. And this is not the sole instance of that kind attending the extraordinary manifestations of God in the New Testament to the prophets : for when Peter, James, and John were with our Lord on the mount, and there came a cloud which overshadowed them, •' they feared as they entered into the cloud," insomuch that Peter (possibly through the affrightment) knew not what he said ; then there came a voice out of that cloud, which when the disciples heard, " they fell on their face, and were sore afraid ; and Jesus came and touched them, say- ing, Arise, be not afraid " (Matt. xvii. 6, 7). Touching the full import of which text, I refer myself again to what is given us as the sense of the body of the most learned : * Here was affright- * ment,' say they, ' such as the women found at the sepulchre on * the sight of an angel, Mark xvi. 5 ; or rather, a sudden depri- * vation of all sense and feeling, as in Dan. viii. 17 ; which place < does clearly explain this. Nor can the context well bear any * other interpretation ; for the Apostles are here so struck, and ' disturbed in the state of their mind, that, as Mark and Luke * inform us, they neither spoke nor acted any thing with a sober * judgment. As, therefore, a sudden darting of light casts down * our eyes to the earth, it is no wonder if a greater consternation * flings also our bodies on the ground ; for those that are loaded * with the weight of a body cannot enter into a full converse with ' God.' Wherefore we see from hence what condition the Apo- stles were under, when Christ touched them, and said, '* Arise, be not afraid ;" even as the angel did to Daniel, in the parallel case herein alluded to. And they are both equally instances of the state of ecstasy, that it is a being deprived of the senses. § 19. But though men have heedlessly overlooked so long the operations of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, on this head of ecstasy accompanying extraordinary Divine manifesta- tions, the text of it, however, is not so barren that we need S8 PART I. — CHAP. VI. build upon the above-said case alone ; for when St. John was " in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev. i. 10), and saw that glorious angel and vision, he " fell at his feet as dead;" the cir- cumstance, *' falling down as dead," answers to that of the three Apostles falling on their face, and of Daniel (with others) on the like occasion more than once : but for the other term used by St. John, of his being " in the Spirit," lest I should be thought to give my private interpretation, let us leave the more intelli- gent in Scripture phrase to expound it: ' *'I was in the Spirit" * (say they), is a phrase which occurs several times in the Apoca- * lypse, and signifies that what he saw was not with the corpo- * real eye, but in an ecstasy, or state wherein he was out of him- * self, and understood nothing by the perception of his senses or * of his mind ; but, the faculties of the mind being rapt or taken * away, he was " in the Spirit," as it stands in opposition to his * being in the use of them. This is the definition of a rapture by * the Spirit, and of one inspired with sacred enthusiasm ; as the * Greeks used the same expression in the muses for one under a ' rapture by them : and in like manner, as the phrase (ev rryev- * fxari aKaS^apTb)) " in the evil spirit " is used, Mark i. 23, v. 2, * to express those that were possessed of the devil ; so St. John * says the same in other words, as Ezekiel in those, " The hand * of the Lord was upon nie.'* Wherefore the Apostle discerned * and conceived spiritual forms and things after a manner so * spiritual as the sense and reason of man, by their proper * powers, can never arise unto.' § 20. By agreement with the expression in those texts of Mark, of being " in the unclean spirit," and those of St. John, being " in the Holy Spirit," the same annotators tell us, that passage of 2 Cor. xii. 2, " I knew a man in Christ," is to be understood of one under rapture " in the Spirit of Christ," who was rapt or ** caught up to the third heaven; whether in the body or out of the body," the same man under that enthusiasm could not tell. Here, then, we have a third proof from the New Testa- ment, of what Isaiah seems to refer to, in saying, " the hand of the Lord was strong upon " him: and because St. Paul twice recites, that he was rapt or caught up, as if some stress more than common ought to be laid on those words, we set before the reader the interpretation thereof by the gentlemen so often in this treatise cited, * Rapt or caught up, 2 Cor. xii. 2 (say they), * means commonly an ecstasy, or deprivation of the mind, so far INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 89 * as that nothing is perceived by the senses or intellect, except * what at that time is presented to them from heaven. But this * of St. Paul is of a far greater kind ; for he remained not in the * same place, but from earth was so caught into paradise that * he confesses he knew not whether his soul went out of it, or * the body went also along with that : wherefore, in this rapture, * he seems to have heard or apprehended those unspeakable * words mentioned after the manner that spirits separate from * the body do ; whence we may well gather the greatness of the * revelation, in that the Apostle himself knew not the manner « of it.' § 21. The word enthusiasm, used in several foregoing para- graphs, is a Greek word adopted into most other languages, which in its original derivation signifies the being actuated of God, as the same stands opposed to the being acted by reason and the senses only. Wherefore, in the full latitude of the word, all the children of faith, who are acted by the principles of re- velation, and thereby embrace things that are above the dictates of reason, and even its comprehension, are properly so far within the term of Enthusiasts. But as we are limited in this treatise to the subject of prophetic revelation, inspiration, or enthusiasm, our sole business is to inquire into what is scriptural, and war- ranted by the authority of the sacred records : in the pursuit of which inquiry the foregoing paragraph has acquainted us, that even in raptures or ecstasies there are various degrees, wherein that of St. Paul, last mentioned, did far exceed the common sort of them. And as I am fully satisfied in the truth of that observation, so I believe the trance or ecstasy which the same Apostle fell into, Acts xxii. 17, whilst he was praying in the temple, was of that common sort, because therein he interchang- ed discourse with the appearance in vision before him : whereas, in the other, all the account we have is, that he heard " un- speakable words." And even in those great degrees of ecstasy wherein St. John, Daniel, and others, fell at the first to the ground as dead, the angelic or Divine power that struck them down soon relaxed the weight of that hand of the Lord upon them. Wherefore, under the same act of superseding the exer- cise of the rational mind and senses, there seems to have been a different degree of that suppression also before they wholly came to themselves, § 22. When Saul was travelling on the road to Damascus, the N 90 PART I. — CHAP. VI. light streaming from heaven made him fall to the earth, and took away his sight, which was plainly due to the supernatural cause then appearing ; even as the falling of Daniel, Ezekiel, and the three Apostles, on a like occasion: but that which caused his falling to the earth did not take away his senses, or at least soon left upon him only some trembling and astonishment (Acts ix. 4, 6). In like manner Peter, when the angel of the Lord came upon him in sleep, and with a stroke on the side raised him up, knew not what was done upon himself all the while until the angel left him (Acts xii. 9, 11), and then it is said he came to himself; which plainly shews, that he was not entirely compos mentis before, though he had both strength and understanding to put on his clothes, to walk along, and to know the places he passed through. Thus also, when Peter fell into a trance or ecstasy (Acts x. 10), wherein he saw the sheet full of living creatures, unclean by the law, and unlawful to eat, there was so much of the man left that, in answer to the angelic voice, he pleaded his own prejudices three times successively : wherefore, by the circumstances of this revelation, joined with the two preceding, we may conclude, that though a man be not himself wholly, either in his bodily senses or reason, under the impressions that attend a Divine presence or influence ; yet an ecstasy or trance do not always imply a total suppression of them, as in some cases above we have found it to contain. § 23. Wherefore, though the trance be a moral evidence of the superintendence of a Spirit, yet we are ready to confess that it can be no demonstration thereof; because there are trances natural, or what does so nearly approach them, that they take -off from it the very constituent of a demonstrative proof to the beholders, at least unless they be very skilful in the symptoms of disease. Neither do I know how the nature of a spiritual agency does strictly admit of demonstration, except to the person himself; and to him it may very well, and undoubtedly does, -take the place of such. But, desiring to be excused from philo- sophizing upon the utmost bounds of the natural, and those that commence the denomination of supernatural things; and per- -adventure it would be happier and wiser for all men so to do, unless they could critically set forth the limitations that distin- guish them ; I shall content myself with what my Saviour seems to have laid the greatest stress upon, " It is written," and '^ how -read you," and " search the Scriptures," and be determined by INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 91 the most obvious sense thereof. And as nothing in those sacred records is written in vain, but all for our instruction and com- fort ; the very pages of thera upon this subject, which are com- monly passed over without notice, do afford upon suitable occa- sions a treasure to the true believer more precious than that of gold and all the riches of the East and West together. Upon the report of these, therefore, I proceed further to search after the knowledge of God, in those ways that his supreme wisdom has chosen whereby to manifest himself to the children of men. § 24. Secondly. Therefore, as there is a constellation of many glories discovered to the eye of man, as may be observed in the preceding instance, under that despicable way of enthusiasm, the trancCy which the most piercing natural eye could never have reached, the moral proof of a Spirit's superincidence and re- siding on the prophet is further made good to us by another method of His whose steps are often in great measure untraceable and unaccountable to those who resolve to rest always upon their standing reason. And, possibly, in no other particular are they more plunged out of their depth than when they would go about to fathom his proceedings, in that way of his speaking unto men by figurative signs on the prophet's person. But see- ing that an inquiry into the state of the messengers He sends, and through whom He has spoken as through a trumpet, would be imperfect without inserting this remarkable circumstance occurring on them ; I shall need, among the entire believers of his word, no more apology for insisting on it than that " it is written :" though indeed there is an advantage to revelation in general, redounding (as I conceive) even from these (sometimes ridiculous; signs, in that they afford a just presumptive evidence that it was a supernatural coercive power of the Spirit which did force the prophet, against his natural will, to submit to them ; and thereby, in the chain of natural consequences, they yield us one link more of proof against the profane Sadducee, and serve to evince, that revelation came not by the will or subtle con- trivance of men, but was derived to us from a superior authority, even in some sense against the will, and always over-ruling the inclination, of the instruments in it. § 25. But that what I have above represented (as to figurative signs on the person of the prophet) was in earnest the true state of the matter ; that is, that the use of them was from the un- controulable power of the Spirit on him, and against his will 92 PART I. — ^^CHAP. VI. wrought upon him by it ; I conceive does fully appear from the complaints we find him uttering on that account. Thus Ezekiel, who, most of all the prophets by far, was made subservient to the will of God in this way of speaking to men (as we shall briefly shew bye-and-by), cries out (Ezek. xx. 49), " Ah, Lord God, they say of me, Doth he not speak parables ?" Which, if we will take the more literate commentator's sense of the words, the prophet therein represents the people speaking of him thus : * This fellow is mad, therefore he speaks parables which have * neither sense nor any coherence in them : whereas then, says * he, I have hitherto " prophesied by signs," and in that manner * to them that, according to the opinion of men, I am already * judged little better than one perfectly distracted. If I now * add the use of parabolical and obscure expressions, shall I not * be concluded in earnest to be a person altogether out of my * senses, and raving ? " Wherefore, O Lord, why dost thou com- * mand me to speak to them, after so dark a manner ? I beseech * thee, O Lord, seeing it is so grievous to them, let me speak * more plainly :" so that, in the whole, the complaint of the pro- * phet seems to import that not only the matter and argument * of his prophesying was obscurely expressed, but the form and * manner thereof exposed him to the scoffs of the people.* § 26. The noble prophet Isaiah, who shewed reluctancy at his first commissionating, having two sons given him, does by Divine appointment call them by uncouth names, for a sign to Israel ; and he himself must bow down in obedience to the heavenly voice, and be content to walk naked, without so much as a shoe, for three years' time together, to set forth by a lively sign after what an ignominious manner the Egyptians should be led into slavery by the Assyrian. ' But in all this,' say the learned, * he * sufficiently expresses, Isai. viii. 18, that it was from the Lord, * and in submission to his good pleasure, that himself and children * were exposed for " signs and wonders in Israel ;" supporting * himself with the said sole consideration, under the scoffs of the ' profane multitude, who, by the word wonder, are intimated * to count him a monster and strange fantastical fellow, pointing * with derision after him and his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz :* for, as few or none believed his report in the predictions signified by these signs, they must needs look upon him as a scarecrow, and common laughing-stock for them. And there seems some- thing also of like scorn upon the royal prophet, when, in the INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 93 complaint of his ill treatment by the wicked, he cries out, " I am as a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge " (Psa. Ixxi. 7). § 27. The false prophets ran without being sent of God : and as they could promise themselves no better wages, they made sure of the wind and tide of the world's approbation ; the priest and the people flocked after them, and so all went well on their side. Wherefore, if there be any weight in the Apostle's argu- ment, ] Cor. ix. 16 — 18, that a dispensation of the Gospel was evidently committed to him, because he did it not of his own will but from a necessity laid upon him, and a woe impending if he yielded not to it ; then the like argument is never stronger, for the proof of a man's being true in the prophetic mission, than when he is driven by an impelling necessity to such odd feats as unavoidably draw upon him the odium and contempt of all mankind. And surely there was, even upon the Apostles, somewhat that filled up the words of their being a spectacle to the world, and the off-scouring (or common jakes) of all things. But as to the point of shame and contempt (the most touching and pungent trial to ingenuous minds), I see nothing pertinent to the prophetic call that more necessarily involved them under it, than this of their being made figurative signs of what God spake by them : and yet by some passages of Scripture, one may be almost induced to question whether the same were not insepa- rable from the spirit of prophecy ; for thus the Psalmist expresses it, Psal. Ixxiv. 9, " We see not our signs ; there is no more any prophet ;" as if signs did always accompany the prophet, and the latter was not without the former : and again, in Hosea xii. 9, 10, "I am the Lord thy God, from the land of Egypt ;....! have also spoken by [_Heb, 'upon'] the prophets; and I have mul- tiplied visions, and used IHeb. or < will use'] similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets :'' on which passage the accurate ex- plainers of the word " simihtudes " give us the sense of it to be, < That God was shadowed forth and represented, not by the * words only but by the actions of prophets ; for the prophets * did a great many things in the people's view, which had respect * to the person of God ; and therein they represented him per- < sonally : wherefore this text does not insist upon the subject * matter of prophecy, but the way and manner whereby God did * manifest himself by the prophets.' § 28. Besides these texts, which afford room for question 94 PART I.— CHAP. VI. whether the manner of God's speaking by signs upon the persons of prophets were not general to all, that most notable discrimi- nation between the manner wherein he would speak to Moses, and that which he would use to all other prophets, is given us, Numb. xii. 8, to be, to Moses *' apparently," to others in ** dark speeches." By this description of the manner he would use to all other prophets, the way of figurative signs on them may well be included, but not upon any good ground (as I conceive) ex- cluded. However, leaving that matter to remain questionable, thus much is beyond it. That the use of signs upon the person of the prophet, whereby God shadowed out himself by facts done, and set before the eye of the spectators, as well as spake to them by words, is so multiplied by the express recital of the text, that no one acquainted with the written word can or ought to think, that the appearance of such, or the like to such, as the sacred record sets before us is any ways unworthy of the high and mighty Lord of heaven and earth to express himself by. For if the Divine Original of that Scripture revelation we have espoused and embraced with all our soul, be very strongly prove- able against the Deist by the tenor of its contrariety to all human pride (as well as other turbid passions), and its freedom from artifice and cunningly devised fable, what is there that comes with more weight into this scale than what follows in this rela- tion given us therein of prophetical signs ? § 29. The suffering of Isaiah above mentioned, in walking naked, is paralleled in another kind by that of the compassion- able prophet ; who, in order to set before king Ahab a figure of his denounced ignominious death, solicitously gets himself wounded ; and then being besmeared with blood and ashes (1 Kings XX. 37 — 43), delivers the message he was from above entrusted with. An action certainly this was, not only, in itself simply considered, difficult for flesh and blood to submit to, and exposing to the king's resentment ; but (what to us at this distant view) may seem to have rendered the word of the Lord com- manding it to be matter of suspicion, because the very fact of wounding came within the prohibition of the law. Lev. xxiv. 19, 20. And if in that age the people were possessed with any such suggestion, the most pungent by far of all this poor man's suf- ferings must arise to him on that account ; for to be esteemed a transgressor of the law on the very account of a man's obedience to the Lawgiver, is a sort of trial so heavy that no one can be INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 95 supposed to lie under a greater. But of this we shall see more in the marriage of Hosea, commanded by the first beginning of the word of the Lord in him, saying, '* Go, take thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms ; for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord." After which marriage performed, " Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim," conceives and bears him a son, who is named of the Lord, and a prophecy built upon that name : all which circumstances are specified again on the birth, severally of two other children, after weaning of each of them precedently. And all these things are given out to be significant of the tenor of his prophesying, as may be read at large in the first and second chapters ; and perhaps the most expressive promises of graciousness to his church in all the word of God may therein be found built upon that sign. § 30. The explication of the difficulties most offensive in the foregoing paragraph I leave upon the authority of the critics so often cited. ' Isaiah's going naked (says Mr. Calvin) was not * more indecent than the transaction of circumcising a grown * man (which among profane people might seem a very ridiculous 'thing) : therefore the Prophet Isaiah's obedience in this point * was highly commendable. As to the case of Hosea (say < others), to take unto himself a wife and children of whore- * doms might well seem a scandalous act, because the marrying * of a whore was forbidden to the priests. Lev. xxi. 7. But * whatsoever God commandeth extraordinarily, that thing, by * virtue of the very command, is rendered comely. An adulteress * by the law is to be put to death (Levit. xx. 10 ; Deut.xxii. 22) ; * and a bastard to be excluded the congregation, unto the tenth * generation (Deut. xxiii. 2). If therefore Hosea had by his * own will taken home and cherished such a woman and children, * he had, doubtless, violated the Divine law : but as God com- * manded it extraordinarily, the things otherwise unjust and ' sinful did become to him both lawful and seemly. Thus, * then, the marriage of Hosea was just, in order to shadow forth < by a sign the adultery of that people who had been espoused * unto God as their proper husband.' Wherefore, by these con- clusions the lawfulness of facts seems to be terminated by the right definition of what is voluntary and involuntary. Now in all other persons whatsoever, because all action implies it to be voluntary, whatever is contrary to the standing revealed will of 96 PART I. — CHAP. VI. God becomes sinful ; it being an original law incumbent on the creature, that his will should be in all things confined by that of his Creator : but in the case of a prophet, who, by the very constituted definition of his state, is not supposable to speak and act in his prophetic relation by the dictate of his own will ; the same action that must be voluntary in others is not so in him, because his personal Mrill is always overruled and super- seded by the uncontroulable agency upon him. And that this is the true state of the matter, I think will appear by the fol- lowing instances, wherein we have an account, from the Pro- phets themselves, of their representing God speaking by signs exhibited on their persons. J 31. For example, then, who can rationally suppose, that Jeremiah (chap, xxvii.) was led by his own will to put a tyre of half a dozen wooden yokes upon his neck ; and then to make the uneasy compliment of one of them to each of the foreign ambassadors residing at that time in Jerusalem, with the insolent command to send them severally to their masters ? And after- wards, what a spectacle must it be to wear one of them a consi- siderable time about his own neck, that he might represent to the Jewish people the condition of slavery just falling upon his own native country ? I am persuaded the most staring Deist of our age, with all his sarcasm, must and would drop his darling topic of priestcraft in such a case as this ; and not only in this, but even in the case of the more common functions of a prophet, his raillery upon the head of intrigue and artifice to establish revealed religion would soon be damped ; for what scoffer is there so senseless but would readily believe Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 16, where he says, " I did not hasten" (as false prophets are said to do) " from being a pastor, to serve God as a prophet ; nor did I desire that woeful day." But upon the acceptance of his call, since the venerable order of priesthood could not screen him from being in derision daily, and every one mocking him, we may further believe him also (chap, xx.) that he was ready to say, " I will not make mention of it, nor speak any more in this name ;" and since few or none there are but who would believe him in the foregoing clauses, why not also in what is subjoined ? " The word of the Lord" (commissionating) *' was in mine heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." But, alas ! alas ! few did INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 97 believe him here. His own fraternity of the priesthood might readily own he was a man who indeed, in some things, might be acquitted of much cunning ; * but then,' say they, * he is an obsti- nate coxcomb : and though he seems but a fool or madman, he may be tampering with the Chaldeans for all that ; and therefore, to put an end to his tricks, the house of Jonathan the Scribe is the safest lodging for him.' § 32. The history given us of Jeremiah's treatment will, I think, abundantly warrant a supposition of such inconsistent reasonings as are above represented about him. Now that his invisible commission (described to us as latent, " as a fire in the bones,") did overrule and forcibly constrain his will to continue in the woeful office of a prophet nearly forty years, the remainder of his signs alone, without other proof, are enough to evince ; for, according to the word of the Lord (chap, xiii.), he gets him a linen girdle, and wears it upon his loins ; and then comes ano- ther word from the Lord, saying, *< Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there, in a hole of the rock : so he went and hid it by Euphrates, as the Lord commanded him. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said unto him. Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went," says he, "to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and behold the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, After this manner," (even by a conquest from thence,) " will I mar the pride of Judah and Jerusalem." Now I think so long a journey twice gone upon an errand seemingly very trifling, because his prophecy might have been without it ; and to the country of the formidable enemy, which gave a handle to his personal revilers to blacken him with reports, as if he were corresponding with the Chaldeans ; must, in all rational argument, acquit him of doing it by his own will and pleasure. § 33. Having been so particular in reciting the text in the last mentioned sign given to the Jews, because the warrant of my producing it as such might appear in fuller strength, we shall more briefly add, that Jeremiah being already become a con- tempt and a hatred, of course his summoning the ancients of the priests and of the people to see the ceremony of his breaking a potter's earthen vessel in their presence (which is there called; o 98 PART I. — CHAP. VI. Jer. xix. 14, " to prophesy"), could very little suit with his own will and pleasure ; any more than that of taking and hiding great stones in the clay of a brick-kiln, and prophesying upon them, chap. Ixiii. Much less must it be pleasing to the shep- herds of Israel to see the Prophet Zechariah, acting with the "instruments of a foolish shepherd" (chap. xi. 15); which, say the commentators, were a crook sharpened to kill, instead of being fit for the catching of sheep, and a bag without any thing in it for their use. Very unprofitable also to the same prophet must it needs be, to take his staff ** Beauty," and cut it asunder, and after that to cut asunder his other staff " Bands ;" for it is evi- dent that the leaders were offended, and the poor of the flock only knew that it was the word of the Lord (Zech. xi. 10, 14) delivered in this manner. True therefore are the words of our Saviour, if applied to the usual prophesying by signs — namely, ** they that think they see shall be made blind:" but surely the prophet himself cannot but be acquitted from acting by design in these cases ; and, in consequence, it ought' to be concluded that he is therein overruled by a Spirit superior in power to himself. § 34. The more scope the profane wit of man has for his banter and ridicule upon this method of prophesying by signs, the more evidence even thence does arise for the prophet's sim- plicity and self-denial, and for the proof of a superior agent on him. Furthermore, those that please may read the fourth chap- ter of Ezekiel and beginning of the fifth ; and then let them tell us who would be content to lie three hundred and ninety days upon one side, and to eat and drink in the manner there pre- scribed him, in the sight of all observers, and to shave himself after a scandalous fashion, merely to figure out a sermon that nobody cared to hear ? And further, who among the men of pride would ever think of such a way to express it, as, in order to make himself a sign to his neighbours and countrymen, of their speedy deplorable captivity, to dig a hole through the wall of his own house in their sight ; and by day, in their sight, to carry forth the household goods upon his back, with a muffler on his face ? (chap, xii.) Nay, when the delight of his eyes is taken from him with a stroke, to withhold the dropping one tear, and dress himself without regard to that loss ; what is all this but to render himself a shame and a hatred (chap, xxiv.), whilst the significancy of the sign is overlooked ? But I shall add no INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 99 more, because these numerous instances already given are more than sufficient to shew, not only negatively, that the prophet therein acted not by his own will ; but also positively, that hu- man nature being unable to support itself, by its proper power, under many particulars of them, something above that must in consequence be granted to have upheld him under them, as well as given the command and enforced an obedience. § 35. If then the prophets spake as they were moved, in signs, by the Holy Spirit, it would be no objection at all to the Gospel agency of the Spirit at any time to repeat the same manner, though there was no instance of the like in the short history of the Acts. But we have therein also one prophet (Acts xi. 28), " sig'^ifyi^g by the Spirit" that there should be great dearth throughout all the world ; where the word {Earjfxave) is properly, to " declare by signs ;" and this, being done by the Spirit, gives room sufficient to think it was so expressed. Another prophet we find, of whom the manner of the sign is described, " by binding his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle" (Acts xxi. 11), and adding, " Thus saith the Holy Spirit." That practice also of the Apostles, Mark vi. 13, to anoint with oil many that were sick, seems to be a prophetic sign of their mi- raculous healing. But that the Christian institution was not without other signs extraordinary, there is proof from the com- mand of our Lord to shake off the dust of their feet, for a testimony against the city that would not hear his messengers ; and from the Apostolic injunction, of '* greeting one another with an holy kiss:" both which last commanded things, with that of anointing also, were so properly prophetic that I con- ceive they rightly did cease, or ought to have ceased, with the ages of the Spirit extraordinarily. But now, having largely treated on this manner of prophesying by signs, we proceed upon other circumstances of the Spirit's agency on the prophet. § 36. Thirdly. As there has been plentiful matter already found, under the two preceding heads of figurative signs and ecstasy, or trance, for clear moral proof of the temporary coinci- dence of a Spirit on the person of a prophet ; and whereas, in the discussion of that of trance, it appears that a total depriva- tion of sense was not therein necessary to be understood, but that, under the Scripture term of ecstasy, there were various degrees of the secession and giving way of the human spirit and senses, upon the incumbence of the Divine; so now we come to another sort of impression from that supervening Spirit that 100 PART I CHAP. VI. came upon the prophet, which was equally felt by him, and equally remarkable to others, as the two former circumstances above mentioned were. And that the reader may have some idea of what we are nov^r distinctly to treat upon, on the autho- rity of Scripture text, it cannot be improper here previously to hint, that the same will in part be represented by the celebrated tradition and opinion of the Hebrew doctors, which none of the learned can be supposed to be ignorant of; that is, * That all the * prophets, except Moses, when they prophesied, their joints * trembled, and strength of body failed, and their own thoughts * were disturbed or interrupted.' § 37. We have, in former instances of ecstasy, observed, that sometimes the person affected was capable of argument and responding. When therefore Esau came to his dying father (Gen. xxvii. 33), " and Isaac trembled with a great tembling, greatly," I see no incongruity in the Greek rendering, * Isaac was in a rapture of ecstasy exceeding great ;' wherein (accord- ing to the critics on the text) the fraud of Jacob, and the will of God not wholly to cut off Esau, were revealed to him ; which agrees with what a modern great master in Rabbinical learning, Buxtorf, tells us was a generally received opinion among the Jews ; namely, * that when the Spirit of prophecy came upon a * man, it took away all the strength and firmness of his body, * and seized him with so much terror and violent shaking that his * life scarcely subsisted in him.' We are not, however, to take it as if the outward evidence of the Spirit's falling upon the prophet was limited to any trepidation, but ought to be extend- ed to all such bodily actuation as does not agree with its natural motion ; but by the extravagance thereof does denote an agent not confined to the genuine laws of nature or the constituted texture of the body, much less to that which among men is usual or comely in motion. Therefore, another author of no mean repute (Anton. Hussius's Theol. Jud. lib. i. par. 1) has, with more judgment, given a further scope than Buxtorf to this matter, saying, ' The manner of prophesying has its peculiar * symptoms, wherein though the essence of prophecy does not ' properly consist, the Rabbins nevertheless do even place the * very essence of prophecy (or its definition) in those forms and * manners.' § 38. Now that these opinions of the Jewish doctors are not only theirs, but may appear to be in good measure admitted by the Christian, in their exposition and comments upon a great ^I'r':^?:^ INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. V^1|H number of texts in the sacred records, I must beg leave pretty frequent in quoting them ; not that I would have any' thing built upon merely human authorities, nor do offer them for that end : but since there will be often found much weight to lie in the words of the original tongues, and also in those ancient Eastern languages of the Polyglot (which were the first, and are still reputed the best, translations of holy writ), whoever would desire to understand the word of God more accurately lies under a moral necessity to have recourse to them, and to the ablest explainers of them. Thus then, where we read. Numb, xi. 23, that " the Spirit rested on the seventy elders, and they prophesied, and did not cease," the interpreters by human learn- ing say, * The Spirit here means the sign (or outward appear- * ance) of prophecy, as a general part of it ; so that by the * form and manner of speech there was evidence upon them of * being acted by the Divine Spirit ; and these extraordinary acts * or modes in prophesying continued upon them all that day, * which seemed to be a seal that God put to their new authority ' then conferred.' § 39. Those upon whom the Spirit of God extraordinarily fell (whatever the gifts were that he bestowed severally, according to his own good pleasure,) are properly enough reducible to the present subject of this head of inquiry; which is, to discover the outward symptoms of his residence for a time, when and as often as he thought good, and not at the pleasure of the man whom he affected. As therefore he fell upon the seventy-two elders, thereby giving them a solemn induction to their office, we find he did the like in the designation frequently of a Judge over Israel, as well as in the empowering a prophet (under the strict denomination of the word) to speak in his name ; yet as it was one and the same Spirit that wrought so different effects and gifts, we have no warrant to think that the external operations were otherwise in the one case of the Spirit falling than in the other : on the contrary, we find that there is much agreement in the outward symptoms of his resting on them both. Proofs, therefore, taken from those that were prophets in the larger sense, are equally valid to the thing in hand as those that are drawn from the precedents of prophecy proper. To proceed then upon this head of inquiry into the appearing manner of the Spirit's operation ; instead of the usual expression, " the Spirit came upon," the Hebrew and all the most authentic translations ^ 102 PART I. — CHAP. VI. have it (Judg. vi. 34), *' the Spirit clothed Gideon :" from which allusion to the garments that cover the whole body, we may just- ly infer, that something appeared on him visibly aflPecting all the parts of it ; for the garment is as open to the eye of all men as a spirit itself is visible to none, no, not the inherent natural one of man, and less therefore a more pure celestial essence. § 40. There is not one in the Old Testament (Isaac excepted) that was introduced into the world with so much solemnity from heaven as Samson ; in faith whereof his mother gave him that name, signifying in the Hebrew " a little sun ;" and Christians to this day do pay him a peculiar honour, in making him a figura- tive type of the all-illuminating Sun of Righteousness. On this man the Spirit of God dwelt afterwards abundantly : but the first notice of it is, Judg. xiii. 25, " when the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times;" where the Hebrew is, " to agitate him by intervals : " and the word in its original carries in it an allusion to the strokes of a smith repeated with his ham- mer. Wherefore it was some violent impulse that moved him, and not an interior silently progressive one, such as many men would fain confine the motions of the Holy Spirit to. And this will appear further evident, on the same sacred person (a Judge of Israel) in the next chapter (xiv. 6, 19) ; for where it is twice said, " the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him ; " the Hebrew word expresses, that " it rushed upon him;" therein shadowing out the impetuosity of a gust of wind, that, though invisible in itself, yet sufficiently discovers its agency on a tree by the agitation of the branches and leaves. In like manner, when the joints and fibres of a human body are suddenly in- vaded with unnatural emotions, without pain and illness natural, what can be plainer demonstration of an invisible agent upon him ? and that the fortitude of Samson was not in him, as any habitual or natural strength in others, the text determines, by asserting that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him expressly whenever his most notable actions were performed. § 41. As then, in the designation of the seventy elders to their office, and in the solemn vocation of Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson to be judges of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord " came upon them," as the great seal of Heaven giving their commission ; the like we read touching the appointment of Saul to the royal prerogative, 1 Sam. x. 6 — 13 : for, says Samuel, " Thou shalt meet a company of prophets, with musical instru- INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 103 ments before them, prophesying ; and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man ; and when these signs are come unto thee," &c. The commentators agree, ' that the words, * " turned into another man," are but an explanation of the pre- * ceding, " thou shalt prophesy ;" and the doing thus does here * mean (say they) the singing of sacred hymns conjointly with * the music, and that after such a manner as Saul, having never * learned to sing, could not of himself do.' I do not mention this exposition with any purpose of contemning it; because, from many other places of Scripture, I believe it may be fairly deduced, that singing by or under the Spirit was attended with something in the tone of the voice which was not natural, nor could be practicable by the same person without that influence. But, at the same time, the words of the text do afford as much foundation to believe that the incurrence of the Spirit did as well influence the motion of his body as that of his voice ; for the Hebrew word there used, " the Spirit will come upon thee," is so emphatical, that it signifies also, *< to leap upon " him, and the Greek and Vulgate Latin render it in that acceptation. And since all the slanders by took notice of the alteration upon Saul, and the word " company" being properly men in a long line, or chorus, that circumstance doubtless alludes as much to dancing as singing ; and considering the noise of instruments then sound- ing, I should think the impressions supernatural on his bodily motion were more likely to be observable than the tone of his voice, as well as better agree with the term used in the text of the Spirit leaping upon him. § 42. And thus we read, *' David danced before the Lord," 2 Sam. vi. 14,20 ; *' leaping after the manner," says the Hebrew, " of a goat or a lamb ;" insomuch that when his wife charged him with uncovering himself in it, as one of the vain (most scoundrel) fellows shamelessly uncovereth or maketh himself ridiculous, he makes no other apology than that it was "before the Lord," and he would again " be more vile " than so, and <'play [Gr. 'dance'] before the Lord." Wherefore, if David, actuated by the Spirit of God, did in this manner, I see no reason to object to the like in Saul under the foregoing para- graph ; especially when we consider that the same Spirit falling upon him at Ramoth (1 Sam. xix. 24), made him "strip off his clothes," and " prophesy before Samuel," and " fall ;" or that he 104 PART. I. — CHAP. VI. then was repeatedly falling down naked during all that day and all that night. Well therefore may the wise and most literate here acknowledge that, in falling down to the earth, he did but what the holiest of men have done and must do ; for who among frail mortals can do otherwise than succumb under the weight of a spirit rushing upon him ? There needs therefore no apology for dancing, leaping, and stripping naked, or any other extrava- gant behaviour, than this, That if the Spirit of God deprive men wholly, in some trances, of the exercise of their intellect and senses, he may surely do the same in part and in a less degree. And whenever this lesser sort of ecstasy is mentioned, it is to the advantage of revealed religion (as I conceive) to let the text speak out in its full extent, touching the operation of a superior Agent upon the person of the prophet. But, taking for granted that such actions as these are indubitable proofs of that incontroulable agency, I leave it to the consideration of all pious persons, whether, in defiance of the text, the giving way to the principles of Semi-Sadducism touching these matters does not, in its natural tendency, increase and strengthen all Deism, and consequently profaneness. § 43. When Samuel anointed David in the midst of his bre- thren, it is added, 1 Sara. xvi. 13, " the Spirit of the Lord came upon {Heb. and Gr. ' leaped,' or * danced upon'] David from that day forward." Other ancient translations in the Polyglot render this text more expressly, and say it came upon him with violence, and began then to agitate him, and from thenceforth did so. But it suffices, in this case we are upon, to observe, that the best authorities for Sacred Writ do herein allow him to be shaken during that noble life of inspiration whereof we have unto this day the happy product. And as, in these and other places, the Inspirer of the sacred text has chosen such words as do clearly shadow out to us some visible appearances of his resi- dence on the person of his messengers, so, where the text does not use expressions significant of it, the sense of the context seems sometimes necessarily to imply the same ; as, for example, when king Jehoshaphat had proclaimed a fast upon the invasion of a potent army, and *' the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jaha- ziel, in the midst of the congregation " (2 Chron. xx. 14), how should the king and people be so satisfied of the certainty of it as to bow down their faces to the earth in adoration and thank- fulness for that vouchsafement from Heaven, without some out- INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 105 ward indications that he spake not of himself? And if these must of necessity be allowed, we cannot suppose any other so justly as those which most frequently are expressed in the text itself. § 44. But, to return to the more expressive Scripture asser- tions of a Spirit overruling the prophet with power and force efficacious, we have in Job the declaration of one inspired touch- ing that his estate thus described, Job xxxii. 18 — 20 : " I am full of words, the spirit of my belly constraineth me ; behold ! my belly is as wine, which hath no vent ; it is ready to burst like new bottles: I will speak, that I may breathe (or be refreshed).'* To explain which text, I here give the words of the divines upon it : * " The spirit of the belly " (say they) is a metaphorical * phrase, having reference to either a wind in the bowels forcing * its way out, or rather to the labour-pangs of a woman, which * she cannot restrain ; and signifies, that he was in such pain * that he must, whether he would or no, utter himself. Another * metaphor which he uses, to express his urgent necessity to speak, * is that of new wine on the ferment, in a cask without vent, and * therefore says his belly, being so pent, would burst without * ease given it ; and as a man that is swoln up has difficulty of ^ breathing, he says, " I will speak, that I may have liberty, and * be no more thus straightened." ' Wherefore, the case being so very plain that the Spirit did most powerfully enforce him, we will leave it upon the foot of the letter itself, whether such a state as is here expressed must not be obviously manifest to those present ; for indeed he himself in the text appeals to all spectators, in the word *' behold." § 43. What has been observed of the Spirit affecting the body of David under inspiration, will not seem so strange to the reader, if he also consider what follows ; namely, that the title of *< a Psalm upon an ecstasy," is by the Greek affixed to the xxxi st, and a trance there mentioned expressly in the 22 d verse: and again, in the cxvith, ver. 11, "I said in my ecstasy " (by other ancient versions explained, " my trembling " or " agitation "). And the circumstance inserted to attend his state is thus de- scribed elsewhere, Psal. xxxix. 2, 3: « I was dumb with silence, and my sorrow was stirred ; ^Gr. ' my sore was ulcerated and increased ;'] my heart was hot within me : while I was musing, the fire burned; then spake I with my tongue." Wherefore, the necessity upon the Psalmist of venting himself was somewhat 106 PART I. — CHAP. VI. parallel to that above mentioned in Job, and both of them to the ensuing case of Jeremiah ; for this prophet, as well as David and Elihu, was bent upon silence ( Jer. xx. 7, 9) ; but, says he, "Thou, O Lord, art stronger than I, and hast prevailed ;" that is, Thou hast laid this burthen of prophesying upon me ; how was I able to withstand ? I did not of my own will, but by thy enforcement, take it upon me. " But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay :" the Greek says, * the burning fire inflamed his bones, and he quite fainted.' Now, let any man consider with himself whether such an inherent and urgently impelling inward force (if it were no more than that of a natural fever), wrought by a supernatural agency upon him, be not irresistible to the person it works upon : and if so, how can men upbraid the prophet with want of a commission in such a case, or running before he is sent ? § 46. What has been represented to us, in the persons of Elihu, David, and Jeremiah, may well be granted to amount to such a sort of proof of their commission as was to others morally evidential of a supernatural force impelling, and to themselves such as fell under the state of an absolute necessity ; unless they would have flown in the face of that heavenly authority that laid it upon them. And these cases do fully open to us the meaning of the Apostle's words, I Cor. ix. 16, 17 : ** A necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel ; and if I do it not willingly, but against my will, a dispensation (or prophetic commission) is committed unto me ;" because, where there are supernatural urgencies of like force with these, no man can be said to run before he is sent. And questionless there must be unavoidably some outward appearance of such like pressing straights as the text frequently asserts. But as to the philosophic principles of Sadducism and semi-Sadducism, touch- ing circumstances of this nature, what possibly does or does not exceed any natural power, I am excused from debate on them by the sole purport herein of representing the affirmations of Scripture for my conclusive law in judging of things as they oarry a moral eviction. To pursue therefore, without interrup- tion, my purpose : § 47. The young man, the prophet, who went to Ramoth- Gilead (2 Kings ix. 4, 11), met with the entertainment usually given to those of his character ; for, say they, in banter, "Where- INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 107 fore came this mad fellow to thee ?" Suppose, then, the circum- stances largely expressed in Elihu, David, and Jeremiah, had driven him to go to Jehu in a heat visible in his countenance and manner of gesture, and in running out of doors when his message was done, what could be expected from military officers but the bluntness of calling him a bedlamite? According to the Greek, he had fits upon him, or the falling-sickness : but as this could not denominate him mad, it seems when he came out of them there was something in his gesture that other ancient translations, with the Hebrew, by divers words allude to; for these express him to be " a fool, in a furious rage, frenzical and distracted, out of his wits :" and upon that foot Jehu's answer is to be taken, " Ye know the man, and his communication ;" as if he had said, * Ay, ye have well said, you take him right ; he is a madman, and what he has told me is like him, nonsensical, foolish stuff; why should I trouble you with it?' For the word, commM- nication is, in the Greek, prattling^ and in the Arabic the speech of a sot. Notwithstanding all which, neither did Jehu nor the officers believe him to be out of his wits, as appears by their putting all at stake immediately upon the credit of his word. Therefore they meant no otherwise, by those sarcastic words, than the common definition of a prophet taken up by the profane and ignorant (designedly cherished by the priests), merely from the outside appearance of antic postures and behaviour : whereas these gentlemen of sense and quality understood better; and kings themselves, even the most wicked, were often struck with awfulness upon a like message : but for the common opinion, the learned do give it on the text thus; ' They knew this man to be * a prophet by his manner and behaviour ; for prophets were * esteemed fools and madmen, because, while they were actuated * by the Spirit of prophecy, their bodily strength failed, and they * seemed to be distracted.' § 48. These outward signs of a Spirit forcibly influencing the prophet are more or less applicable to those passages, "the hand of the Lord was strong upon me ;" "he spake to me with a strong hand," and the like. And the sign visible sometimes might go no higher than those that appear upon a man in great anger : in which sense we may understand that of 1 Sam. xi. 6, 7, " And the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and his anger was kindled (or burned) greatly ; and he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them through all the coasts of Israel." Thus 108 PART I.— CHAP. VI. also was Jeremiah affected with fire in his bones, when he says^ Jer. vi. 10, 11, " To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear ? Behold, their ear cannot hearken ; therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord ; I am weary with holding in, I will pour it out upon the children in the streets ;" the Chaldee has it, ' I am filled with prophecy in fury from the presence of the Lord.' And the sense of this passage by interpreters is given thus : * Though I deal with you in passion, do not impute * it to my anger, but to the Spirit of God, that transports and * hurries me on. I am not acted by any personal indignation, * or my own proper motion ; but am so swelled up with fury from * God that I shall even burst, unless I break out into this vehe- * mence, and pour it forth upon your heads.' In like manner, when Ezekiel tells us (iii. 14), '* he went in hot anger, or the heat of his spirit," there is joined with it that the same was with bitterness or sorrow to himself; but **the hand of the Lord pre- vailed over " (or was strong upon) him ; which, say the commen- tators, means ; * He was not therein acted as a man rashly, but * impelled by the power and Spirit of God ; therefore he did * but obey, as driven by a forcible impulse of the Spirit ; and * it appears by his sorrow, that he did reluctate, and, unwillingly * in himself, was by the urging vehemence of the Spirit of pro- * phecy carried on this occasion.' § 49. The false prophet is said to run without an impelling force, but the true not so ; for as to the hand of the Lord, in the preceding paragraph, the word in Hebrew signifying " hand" means also vigour and powerful strength : wherefore, when it is applied to the Spirit of prophecy, as in Ezek. viii. 1, and twenty other places, then say the learned, * It stands opposed to all * human abilities, and intimates as much as if the prophet testi- * fied, that, whilst the efficacious operation of the Spirit of God * was upon him, he had in a sort put off the man ; and in this * particular text, wherein ** the hand of the Lord fell upon him," * we are to conceive that it fell upon him like the force qfapens' * tratingjlash of ligktni}ig.' If, then, the Spirit of prophesying (here called " the hand of the Lord "), when it fell upon a man, carried along with it a penetrating force like to that of lightning, than which nothing in nature is more piercing ; certainly the elders of Judah, who sat round him in the house, must be wit- nesses of something outwardly appearing of so astonishing a rapidity of the power that struck him. And we have no reason INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 109 to doubt that it was so, as the learned have explained it ; be- cause the same Hebrew word which signifies " to rush upon," which is found often in the text where the English renders " the Spirit fell," does as well mean '' to penetrate or strike through :" whereby we have another metaphor expressive of that violence wherewith superior spirits act upon weak and nothing mortals. All which expressions ought to have preserved the true wor- shippers of God from halving and trimming the matter with in- fidel Sadducees, to the end that the sacred boundaries God has set about the manner and appearances of his revelation should not have been trodden down and levelled by the definitions only of an undiscernable illumination of the mind ; since we find the holy text frequently above expresses it in metaphors and simili- tudes of the greatest violence that we are capable of receiving the knowledge of it by. And thus may we understand that wherein the prophet Micah declares to us touching himself, that he was full of the power and might of the Spirit of the Lord, chap. iii. 8. § 50. Let the outward actions of a prophet be as extravagant as those of fools and madmen, yet even these do directly tend to the reverence of God by impressing the greater certainty of a spirit's agency, whilst the habitual sobriety and good judgment of the man at other times shews it does not vitiate his brain : whereas an infidelity, either partial or total, of supernatural agencies, under the colour and upon mere suppositions of what the natural may extend to, does less or more sap the foundation of all revealed religion. But to go on with what is written ; Jeremiah says (xlviii. 31), "I will howl for Moab ;" which some of the ancient translations render, " I am forced to howl." In like manner, Micah is not ashamed in his own person to say (i. 8), <* I will wail and howl, I will go stript and naked;" (nay, that is not enough,) " I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls;" for this was enforced upon him, that thereby he might represent the scope of his prophecy touching the dismal state into which that people were falling. — But, having largely treated of the variety of these operations of the Spirit, in the manner of his appearance on the prophet, I do commit all to the authority of him who wrote it thus ; though possibly, the age of Hosea will be found not the last that has determined rashly touching God (Hosea ix. 7), in these points, that " the 110 PARTI. — CHAP. VI. prophet is a fool, the spiritual man (Greek, irvEvjiaroc^opoQi * the man agitated by the Spirit ') is mad." § 51. Under the two preceding appearances of a spirit on the prophet, in ecstasy and figurative signs, we have already proved sufficient indications in the New Testament, to manifest that, in the prophetic operations of the same one Spirit, there was a harmony between the New and the Old ; and I am persuaded, that, on this head also, of extraordinary and visible symptoms attending the person on whom the Spirit fell, a like harmony will be evident between them ; for, as in the last quoted text of the Old Testament, the words '* prophet" and "spiritual man" are used as terms synonimous, or of like signification ; the latter being only explicatory of the former, and expressing the defini- tion of a prophet to be (by the Greek) " one moved or agitated by the Spirit;" to the same effect in 1 Cor. xiv. 37, to be a " prophet " or *• spiritual man " are used alike, as in Hosea, for words of parallel meaning, both defining the same person^ and the latter explaining the former. It remains, therefore, only to examine whether {pneumaticos) the spiritual man in the Co- rinthians, be the same in signification with (pneumatophoros) the spiritual man in Hosea : and this, if we can take the judgment of the most learned in the Greek tongue for a decision of the two words, will be out of doubt. Wherefore I appeal to Mr. Pool's Synopsis for the sense and consent of the divines, that pneumaticos in that text of the New Testament is of like mean- ing with pneumatophoros ; and then it follows, that the spiritual man is, under the Gospel also, " one agitated by the Spirit ;" or as the Ethiopic version has it, " one whom the Holy Spirit is upon." Again, in 1 Cor. xii. 1, 3, where the Apostle speaks ** concerning spiritual men," the same expositors say he treats there of persons " inspired by a spirit upon them," whether it were a good or an evil one ; for, say they, the term is applicable to both, as appears, 1 John iv. 1, 2, 3, 6 : upon which foot it is that St. Paul, in directing the desire of spiritual gifts, chiefly in order to prophesying, 1 Cor. xiv. 1, does in the 12th verse take notice of their being desirous " of spirits " (7rj/£Vjuarwi/), and then adds, "seek that ye may abound;" which Chrysostom construes, * seek of God that ye may have them in great abund- ance, to the edifying of the church;' *' for he that prophesieth speaketh unto men, to edification, and exhortation, and com- INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. Ill fort." Wherefore, from these texts I conceive it to be clear that the spiritual man, or prophet, under the Christian dispen- sation was under like definition of the prophet in the Old Testa- ment expressed there so frequently, by the terms of " the hand of the Lord," or ** Spirit of the Lord falling upon " him, and the like. § 52. That there was therefore some visible signs of the Spirit falling on the prophet in the New Testament, also does appear by what followeth ; for we find, even in the person of the great Prophet, whom on that account we are alone to avow for our Master, that when He submitted to be baptized, and the Holy Spirit was seen thereon to descend upon him (Mark i. 12), " im- mediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." Now the word in that text " driveth," implies in it a force compelling, in whatever acceptation it can be taken ; and the commentators allow it was a visible one to those from whom it locally separated him : for though an invisible spirit conveys his operation on the prophet by ways imperceptible, this does not obstruct, but that that efficacy, secretly conveyed, should produce symptoms out- wardly visible. And as a fever, or any passion of joy or sorrow internal, works effects external ; so, and much more, may we well conceive that a powerful spirit, in his strongly touching upon a man, ought to be supposed, from the course of natural rea- soning, to work effects outwardly visible. But to return to the propriety of the word £fc€a\X£t, *' driveth," we most ordinarily find it in the New Testament rendered by the English ** cast out " or " forth;" whereby it seems to allude to the force of a man's hand casting from him a stone or net, and the like. In this sense we are commanded by our Redeemer, Matt. ix. 38, to " pray the Lord of the harvest, that he will cast forth {eKtaXrj) labourers into his harvest;" and as the word labourer is a term much used by St. Paul to express the prophetic minister, we may well gather from it that his mission was not without some force from the hand of the Lord that cast him forth into the vineyard. § 53. Now that the Lord himself was pleased to stoop further to the manner of the prophets known among the Jews, of whom concerning the flesh he came, and among whom his prophetic ministry was exercised, is plain from the like imputation upon him as had been in general upon them ; for, as ** the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad," had been in language their 112 PART I. — CHAP. VI. common entertainment, so our blessed Saviour had something visible upon him, probably (say the learned) some sort of ex- traordinary emotion, such as the prophets used to have, that gave the occasion to his friends of going to lay hold on him (Mark iii. 21, 22) ; for they said, "He is beside himself;" and the Scribes said plainly, " He hath Beelzebub ;" the word there rendered " beside himself;" the Vulg. Lat. and ^Ethiop. render " furious" or *^ raging;" and, in John x. 20, many of them said, " He hath a devil, and is mad;" on which latter text the Arabic has it ** a devil is in him," and the Syriac has it " He is furious mad." When therefore the case of the Master is so very plain, we need not be exact in the inquiry into the condition of the servant ; as where Festus charges St. Paul with being mad, Acts xxvi. 24, 25, though the words of sobriety spoken were enough to confute the charge in respect to a natural frenzy, yet the manner of prophetical emotions might perhaps give Festus the occasion upon which men generally had fixed that denomi- nation on the prophets. And if it were thus with this sort of madness the sobriety of St. Paul might well enough consist ; for so he himself confesses, 2 Cor. v. 13, " If we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or if we be sober, it is for your cause." The word rendered " beside ourselves," being here the same that is last above-mentioned touching his Master and ours, the like expositions belong to it ; and the annotators on the text ob- serve, ' that the opponents of the Apostle did calumniate upon * the subject of Paul's ecstasies, insinuating from thence that he < was not always right in his senses ; and herein, therefore, the * Apostle confesses the point of ecstasy, and opposes to it that * he was however, when out of that state, equally rational as * others. Thus the word " sober " stands here opposed to the * actions of a man under the ecstatic influence, as we read it to * be in the man possessed with the devil, Mark v. 15, who, up- * on his ejection, became clothed and in his right mind ; for * energumens (or persons possessed) were frequently taken with * madness, as appears by the insinuation John x. 20.' § 54. I know the word Energumen has been, among Chris- tians, generally received as a discrimination of one possessed by an evil spirit, and yet the word in itself signifies no more than to be powerfully wrought upon ; and the same word is in the New Testament divers times used in a good sense, as particularly in James v. 16: " The effectual fervent prayer" is in the Greek INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 113 ^(^t^^y * tjoas, or is' brought^ that is, from heaven) not by the will of ' man at any time " (past, present, or to come) ; where that is < in this text, prophecy means the prophetic utterance, or func- * tion of prophesying, for the solving or declaring Divine se- *crets; but this was, or is done (says the text), by persons * ((j>EpofievoLf acted, inspired, or under ecstasy, when they were, < or are driven, agitated, or impelled) ** moved " by the Holy * Spirit, as it is expressed to do upon Samson, Judg. xiii. 25 ; for R 122 PART I. — CHAP. VI. « those things are in Greek said to be (pepofjiEya, that are carried * and moved with a violence and force.' Now, upon this large definition of the modus of prophesying, we may observe, that the Divines have illustrated it by that in Ezek. iii. 16. Whoever then will take the pains to read the whole chapter will find that the book eaten by him, in the beginning of it, (and which is commonly received to be an emblem of his prophesying,) was presented him by an angel ; and in the latter end, the hand of the Lord or Spirit of prophecy upon him was by an angel or spirit (that entered into him and commanded him to stand upon his feet) ; wherefore th^ word of the Lord coming to him, in the 16th verse, does not appear to have any other authority than what was conveyed by an angel, in the preceding and subse- quent parts of that chapter; and in 2 Pet. i. 21, the word r/j/tx-^e, "was," or "is brought," applied to prophecy, does, I think, properly imply a messenger or angel. § 66. Upon what has been above said, we see that the inter- nal spring or cause, causing a man to prophesy, was joined with outward symptoms of that cause efficaciously causing : the for- mer, powerfully infused by a supernatural agent, was secretly the prophet's own commission and full assurance ; and the out- ward symptoms of that agency were the spectators' moral de- monstration, of his extraordinary state, and which put them upon a necessary scrutiny whether that supernatural mover was an evil or good spirit. Seeing also that Divine inspiration by angelic influence is under the Old Testament no strange doc- trine, and St. Peter says that the holy men of God always of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and at any time did, and ever would do so ; thus far it is certain, that the Holy Spirit so speaking in them stood absolutely distinguished from the evil spirit: but that it stood distinguished from angelic influence in speaking, that by no means can be allowed, without several positive exceptions already quoted in the Old Testament. And now we proceed to inquire, whether the Holy Spirit, speak- ing prophetically (as above described), did under the New Tes- tament necessarily exclude all instrumentality in angels whilst the Christian prophet so spake the word of God and not of men. § 67. It may justly be doubted, whether vision be not always presented through the ministry of angels ; and from the Scrip- ture there is no way of revelation more sacred than that ; and vision, as already hinted, being often used, a term synonimous INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 123 with that of prophecy; insomuch that divers entire books of pro- phecy are entitled ** the visions" of such and such ; it follows that the angel who gave the vision did communicate or minister also prophecy with it. And of this we have a celebrated instance in the first words of the Apocalypse, where it is declared, that ** God sent and signified the revelation of Jesus Christ " to John " by his angel;" and in the 3d verse it is added, ** Blessed are they that hear and keep the words of this prophecy." Now the book of this prophecy being again, in the close of it, chap. xxii. 7, 8, ascribed to the ministration of an angel, and it containing exhortations, promises, and denunciations, as well as any other of the prophetic writings ; then it is plain in this case, that the angel did authorize John to prophesy, by testifying, or bearing forth unto men, the contents of what he had so received from the angel. And yet this book is of equal authority with any other in the New Testament ; and the whole revelation in it (chap. i. 2) is expressly called " the word of God, and the tes- timony of Jesus Christ ;" and (chap. xxii. 16) it is said, " I Jesus have sent mine angel, to testify unto you these things in the churches." § 68. " The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy '* (Rev. xix. 10) are words of an angel to St. John; which if we take them in a sense restricted to the particular occasion of ex- pressing them, then the meaning they convey is, say the learned, * The testimony of Jesus is one and the same thing, and of equal * dignity, with the Spirit q/prophecy. Therefore says the angel * to John, " I am thy fellow-servant " (to Christ) : I and thou * then art equal in this ministry of Jesus Christ ; neither does * the honour of these relations belong to me, but to Christ alone, * who gave the testimony; that is, revealed the secret eternal ' councils of his Father, and from whom I received them, that < I might make them known unto thee, and that thou mightest 'testify and declare them to the church. Thus the book of the * Apocalypse, here called in particular "The testimony of Jesus," * came forth from Christ, administered by the prophetic Spirit, < *' in the hand or ministry of an angel;" and " the Spirit of * prophecy'* who is in thee, as well as in other prophets, and by * whom thou testifiest of Christ, " is the testimony " or open * declaration " of Jesus:" or. The Spirit of prophecy given unto * thee is the evidence whereby Jesus shews thee to be his ambas- * sador, or messenger prophetic (in the churches. Rev. xxii. 1ft). 124 PART I. — CFIAP. VI. § 69. Our great God and King, to whom all angels are sub- ject, and by him (Christ) sent forth into the earth, is justly en- titled to all the glory ; and therefore St. John was warned to look beyond the angels, to pay his adoration where only due. But having here the concurrence of literate interpreters, that the prophetic Spirit acted upon St. John by the hand or instrumen- tality of an angel, we will not intrude further into the mysterious ways of Divine operation in prophecy than the text asserts ; and whether the angelic Spirit (appearing before the Apostle) might not any time affect him to speak during that vision, as has already appeared an angel did amply, in Zechariah, and in Ezekiel some- times, I leave to the consideration of those who will collate the circumstances of each text severally. But, it being plain that the Spirit of prophecy acted upon St. John by an angel, we find that all other prophets of the New Testament are subjected to the like manner of Divine operation ; for, says the angel, I am (not only) a fellow-servant of thee but of thy brethren, that have the same testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy, upon them ; and in Ezekiel, the book he had from an angel, and eaten up by him, was an emblem of the gift of prophecy poured on him (chap. iii. 3). The same description we have of the manner wherein prophecy is conveyed. Rev. x. 9 — 1 1, represented by the Apostle's taking a little book from an angel, and eating it up : Jeremiah in like case, that is, speaking of his commission to prophesy, says, chap. xv. 16, "Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was," &c. Correspondent with these two instances of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, say the commentators, * When the angel said to John, " Take this little book and eat it * up;" the Apostle, by that delivery and eating it, is endowed * with the power of prophesying, for the book was symbolical of * prophecy. The angel so saying and delivering, represented * Christ ; and, as the angel adds, thou must prophesy again be- * fore many peoples, and nations, and kings, it signifies, that * though he had prophesied before, he had now a commission * further to do so ; and John is commanded this not so much re- * specting his own person, as therein then representing the person * of all other prophets : and the sense implies also, that prophecy * should be renewed and restored in the latter days against * Antichrist.' From all which duly considered, who can any more doubt that the instrumentality of an angel, was consistent with Christian inspiration to prophesy in the apostolic times, as INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 125 well as it has manifestly appeared in fact upon the prophets under the Old Testament, and is still to come just before the destruction of Babylon, when the angel entrusted with it '* shall preach the Gospel to every nation on the earth " (Rev. xiv. 6). § 70. Wherefore, upon the premised assertions in the New Testament that do plainly include, that Christian prophetic in- spiration was not, nor is, incompatible with the mediate agency of an angel in it ; I must again resume the observation, that all the ancient versions of the Polyglot which are above others of most esteem in the Christian world, and divers of the most au- thentic manuscripts and editions of the Greek text, do give us that in Rev. xxii. 6 thus : •' The Lord God of the spirits of the holy prophets hath sent his angel." I am not pleading to intro- duce any addition to the original words of that sacred prophecy; but since Dr. Mills has observed, that the opposers of Montanism did so universally prevail to decry the Book of the Revelations of St. John, that though the inspiration of it was never doubted in the second century, yet afterwards it was so much laid by that it was not by any public authority (as he could find) put with the rest of the canon of the New Testament, in the Eastern or Greek Church, till after the year 800. This long suppression of it no doubt gave an occasion for more easily corrupting it before restored ; and the variation of the text under debate, being much more liable to a corruption, by leaving out the word SPIRITS (from the general prejudice of men imbibed against their influence) than by adding it ; we may, I think, rationally conclude, that the word was in the original copy of St. John's Revelations, and then it, as another proof from it, follows, that the inscrutable Deity did sometimes, in his revelations to the prophets, use the instrumentality of heavenly agents for pro- phecy. Neither does this disagree with the rule given in general by the same Apostle, 1 John iv. 1, to " try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets were gone out into the world ;" for as that text supposes the prophet to be acted by a spirit extraordinarily, so the injunction to try those spirits^ and not to believe every spirit, seems to imply the agency of many, whether on the true or on the false prophet. Moreover in the Epistles of St. Paul, we find sometimes a distinction be- tween the Spirit of God, and " the Spirit which is of, or from God," as the same is explained by Hermas, part ii. chap. 2. §5 16 — 19, hereunder. 126 PART I. — CHAP. VI. § 71. As to that in 1 Cor. xiv. 12, " Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spirits," some may imagine perhaps that the subsist- ing of the word spirits there is dubious also, as well as the sub- sistence of it Rev. xxii. 6, above-mentioned : but the contrary is most manifest, from the accurate remarks of Dr. Mills touch- ing the variations in the Greek text ; for in this latter Scripture of St. Paul there is an universal concurrence, except of one single author, Kuffinus, the known corrupter of Origen's works, who has cited it spirituals, instead of spirits. If then men will be pleased to observe this text, and compare it with verses 1 and 3, they will readily gather, that to desire the edifying gift of pro- phecy is so connected with the desire of spirits, as if the one was not to be enjoyed without the other ; which strongly proves, that prophetic inspiration was not incompatible with the agency intermediate of angels in it, under the Christian dispensation. And upon all this evidence out of the New Testament, I refer it to every man to give a better reason of the same Apostle's direction (for the peculiarity of) " women prophesying " in public, to be covered (1 Cor. xi. 5, 10) "because of the angels," than that they were in that function of prophesying moved by angels, § 72. There is indeed one Scripture that seems to be repug- nant to this instrumentality of angels in prophetic inspiration under the Christian dispensation; and that is Ephes. iii. 10, where it is said, that " the manifold wisdom of God was made known by the church, unto principalities and powers in heaven- lies." Now, earthly potentates are sometimes termed principa- lities and powers, and to them the wisdom of God in heavenly things was doubtless made known at length by the church : but if principalities and powers be understood to mean angelic spirits, good or evil, then whoever will look into the critical state of that text in the Greek, may find more reason to believe that the wisdom of God made known to them by the church refers to his manifold wise disposals concerning it from the beginning of the world, (issuing in the Christian dispensation, and thereby made plain,) rather than to prophetical preaching. And there are so many difficulties among the learned, how to understand that text, that, without further entangling of this argument by offer- ing at the solving of them, it suffices here to conclude, that the same is no clear opposition to what we have already advanced touching the agency of angels in Divine inspiration. § 73. Thus far has been spoken touching prophecy special, or INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 127 what more properly is so : and it appears, that as a Spirit extra- ordinarily did affect the prophet in it, so he gave outward attes- tations of that his super-operating, either by trances, figurative signs, and other actions extravagant, whereby men might have a rational moral proof of the prophet's speaking not as another man. We have shewed also, that this superior visible agency was some- times, throughout the Scripture, exerted by the Father of spirits through the instrumentality of an angel, as well as in the other ways of Divine revelation, vision, dream, and heavenly voice heard : and I think, that whenever the infinite Deity is pleased to signify any thing of his will or council unto men, it is very happy for mankind to have these outward denotations, that the prophet does not speak in the manner of other men ; for when a man speaks, being violently actuated or moved by the Holy Spirit, there is much more reason to believe that his so prophe- sying, Cometh not of his own will, than if we supposed a man to prophesy, or be divinely inspired, without any outward ap- pearance upon him more than is common to all. But however this be as to reasonableness, what I have entirely built upon, for the knowledge of the ways of God revealing, is, that thus and thus <* it is written." And if it were possible that Christians should all with one consent run into definitions of prophetic in- spiration, that were built wholly upon internal operations, and secret illumination of the mind, without any sort of outward evidence of a superior agent more than other good men, I would rather adhere to Scriptural definitions of it than theirs ; for as to that internal and secret illumination, I doubt not that the Scripture prophets did commonly feel and experience the same, during and under the most wild and extravagant of all their outward deportments and violence of emotion preternatural, as has been already noted. § 74. Having now gone through these several circumstances, of ecstasy, figurative signs, and extraordinary motions, which the Scripture largely represents to have attended the estate and manner of prophetic inspiration ; and having evinced, from every one of those heads, that there was rational and moral evidence, by something seen, of a superior distinct Agent moving and affecting the prophet coincidently with his inspirations ; having also proved abundantly, that the Divine operation on him is fre- quently testified in Holy Writ to have been by the intermediate power of an angel; it is to be lamented, that most of these 128 PART I. — CHAP. Vr. things are universally overlooked, and even become as unknown as if they were not at all written in the text : but, on the con- trary, these testimonies of the manner of the prophetic Spirit are made void by the general opinion that these circumstances are even foreign to the Holy Spirit of prophecy, and only belong to an evil one. Upon which ignorance and presumption men have now (almost without controul, except among the most learned,) adopted such conceptions of inspiration properly pro- phetic, as if it never consisted in any thing else than a secret illumination of the mind ; so that the indulged omission to con- sider the circumstances above described being duly weighed, we cannot see with what justice those that have built up and war- ranted the aforesaid system of secret illumination can upbraid such as find in themselves that illumination, for believing and acting as having received the gift of prophecy " for edification, exhortation, and comfort" of the church ; and that without any outward evidences, other than those which constantly attend a real sanctification. § 75. It were to be wished indeed, for the benefit of all, that there was more of mutual exhortation and edification of faith, and communion of graces, exercised among Christians one with another wherever they meet together: but having already de- clared that I am in this subject confined to inspiration merely prophetic ; which I think is always in the Scripture signified to be attended with some outward manifestations of a Spirit supe- rior to the man's, though never so holy and blameless a person ; I shall now close the present inquiry with the observation, that there is another circumstance often in the holy text mentioned to attend the prophet, which to himself must also confirm his mission beyond doubt; which, because it does not admit of such outward evidence as the former ones above mentioned, I shall insist on it very briefly. But as the written word asserts it, and the generality of men do however deny the thing, and seeing it concerns the manner of Divine utterance to men by the prophet, somewhat here must be added touching that matter; which is, that the voords as "well as the sense of what was spoken hy the prophet, in the tremendous name of God, were dictated by the Divine power on him. — Now therefore, as to this point, the Holy Record being judge, I cannot conceive how all Scripture should be given by inspiration of God, unless the words literally thereof were so too : and if the numerical words were inspired, INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. there is proof from the letter of them, in Jeremiah and Epistles, that those words were inspired in the mouth of a person speaking, different from him by whom they were written. § 76. As to men speaking, whilst they were moved by the Holy Spirit, whether the words or the sense only without them were inspired by Him who formed man's mouth, I submit to consideration, upon the authority of the texts following, though abundantly more may be added of like kind. When the Lord gave to Moses his commission to go into Egypt, he said, Exod. iv. 12, "I will be with thy mouth;" where the Greek is, *I will open thy mouth ; ' Chaldee, ' I will put my word in thy mouth ;' Vulgate Latin, * I will be in thy mouth.' But because, for the reason above-cited, I purpose much brevity on this head, henceforth we will rest contented with the English text ; for, as the case does not admit outward evidence, we must sit down with the declarations of the prophet himself. But if the last words of the kingly prophet on his death-bed may be credited, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2, he says, " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." And if the exposition of that sentence may be left to the more learned, they tell us the meaning of it is, — David affirms thus ; * The Holy Spirit spake < the Psalms by me ; they are his words, not mine. Wherefore ' not only the inward infusion of the sense is ascribed to the * Holy Spirit, but also (say they) the literal words.' In like manner, where Deborah, in her prophetic song, Judges v. 23, interposes in a parenthesis " said the angel of the Lord," the same expositors add, that the prophetess therein asserts that the angel who spake through her dictated and formed the very words themselves, and not merely the sense of them. § 77. In ordinary arguments or common writings an aptitude of expression is a felicity so peculiar that men of good sense often want it : therefore, in the prophecy of Agur, allowing the truth of his own assertion, Prov. xxx. 2, ** Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man," we cannot rationally imagine he was left to his natural powers to word his inspiration. And thus, Canticles vii. 9, the Spirit's causing " the lips of those that are asleep to speak " can never consist with the exercise of the natural faculties. In like manner, when, under the Spirit of prophecy, men spake tongues unknown to themselves, and could not interpret them, as the case sometimes was (1 Cor. xiv.) then, if the sense only s 130 PART I. — CHAP. VI. were Infused to their understandings (though even that do not appear), how is it possible that the words should be formed by thenaselves ? Therefore, as in another place we find it expessed, I take it to be very plain that the Spirit gave them utterance di- redly himself ^ as the same stands distinguished from the mediate way of conveying light into the mind, by which the prophet himself was to dictate the words. § 78. But, further, there are divers places wherein the most obvious sense of the words in Scripture (which ought to be pre- ferred to one more remote, if the context allow) does import that the very words of the inspired person were dictated by the superior Agent, and not by himself ; as those spoken to Ezekiel carry it, chap. ii. 7, " Thou shalt speak my words unto them;" and again, chap. iii. 4, " Go get thee to the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them." And that remarkable prophecy touching the Redeemer coming to Zion seems very plain to the same purpose, Isa. lix. 21, " This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord ; My Spirit that is upon thee (Israel), and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever." And what can we understand, from the obvious words of the text, to be meant rather or preferably to some preternatural impression on the faculty of speech, where we find, by Isa. vi. 7, one of the seraphim seen in vision flew with a live coal in his hand, and laid it upon the prophet's mouth ? For in the descrip- tion that Jeremiah gives of the manner wherein his prophetic commission was sealed to him, he tells us, ** The Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth : and the Lord said unto me. Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." Upon which latter text the commentators say, that ' the Lord touched his mouth * by an angel, as that of Isaiah precedently ; to the end that, « by this external sign as by a sacramental seal and command, * he might constitute and establish Jeremiah a prophet ; or that * he might openly demonstrate that that mouth so touched was * dedicated unto him ; by this touch, as it were, opening and « unlocking his mouth to prophesy freely ; and at the same time * admonishing Jeremiah, that the words he was to utter were not * to be his own, but the words of God put into his mouth.' } 79. Indeed, if men are resolved, right or wrong, to wrangle about every thing that concerns the prophet's commission, the INSPIRATION PROPHETIC. 131 Scripture itself is but a dead letter, and the opinions of the learned on it are alterable at pleasure : and upon one or the other of these, reason itself (that darling of man in other points) shall be bound neck and heels, rather than be suffered a liberty to exert itself in behalf of prophetic inspiration. But, to pur- sue the track of the Divine oracle, our only Master in these things tells us, ** I will give you a mouth," Luke xxi. 15 ; and St. Paul thanked God " always, for the grace whereby the Corin- thians were enriched by him in all utterance " (1 Cor. i. 5) distinct from inspired knowledge ; and beseeches the prayers of others, that fresh supplies of that grace might issue to him (Eph. vi. 19), " that utterance might be given him." Wherefore, let sophistry take its course, it does suffice that the sole master of the house- hold of faith tells us this utterance of the prophetic preacher must be without taking any thought of the method how, or the matter what, he shall speak ; for (Matt. x. 19, 20) <' it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak ; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." If the Spirit speaketh, and not the man, then the words are the Spirit's, and not the man's : therefore, with great demon- stration of reason, do the commentators affirm the meaning of this latter text to be, * That the Divine Spirit furnishes as well * speech to the mouth as wisdom to the mind ; for (say they, on * John xi. 51,) Caiaphas spake, not of himself, when he pro- ' phesied, that is, not from his will or knowledge, what he should * say, but the words were put into his mouth, as into that of * Balaam's ass, and not into his mind ; and, however incongruous * this be, with respect to human reasoning, yet in respect to * prophesying it is true.' § 80. But having thus very briefly touched upon the prophet's inspiration, wherein the words as well as the sense, and even sometimes the former without the latter, were dictated by the Spirit of prophecy, though I cannot affirm from Scripture that it was never otherwise ; and having passed through the exami- nation of the most usual outward visible evidences of a spirit acting on him, in ecstasies, figurative signs, and other actions unaccountable for but from that predominating influence of the Spirit ; we shall now, from these Scripture observations, proceed to inquire what testimonies there are of the prophetical Spirit's operations to be found in human records since the date of the Divine. PART II. EXTRACTS FROM MOST OF THE WRITERS UNTO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE ; SHEWING THAT THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY CONTINUED TO BE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED AS EXISTING FOR THREE HUNDRED YEARS AT THE LEAST, CHAP. I. OF PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED IN THE FIRS.T CENTURY. § 1. Having at large treated, in the First Part, touching the various manners wherein God revealed himself to the Prophets, and by them spake unto mankind ; what followeth, in this Part, is to contain an historical account of the extraordinary presence of Christ with his church, espoused to him as her Lord and Husband and ruling Head in all things : so that the prophetic Spirit;, presiding therein as his vicegerent, was, under the Christian dispensation, instead of the Spirit of Jehovah in the Old Testa- ment. This latter also by St. Peter is called "the Spirit of Christ," which determines the one and the other to be the same Spirit. And so great was the effusion of that Spirit, not only upon the day of Pentecost, wherein the whole hundred and twenty, both men and women, partook of it, and who "spake the wonderful works of God, as the Spirit gave them utterance," which is an express and proper definition of prophesying ; but ** when the auditors were pricked in their hearts," St. Peter adds, " Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit ; for the promise (of it) is unto you, and to your children, and to all, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Therefore, of the three thousand added to the church at that time, the gift of the Holy Spirit extraordinarily, then promised, no doubt accompa- nied their ensuing baptism, if not to all, at least to as many of PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY I. 133 them as the Lord thought fit so to call to the prophetic office ; for we cannot otherwise conceive the words of the Apostle to have due effect. § 2. Thus, in the ivth chapter of the Acts, (to observe further the vast effusion of the Spirit on the new-born church,) after the further addition of five thousand more, when we may well suppose the number of believers assembled together (ver. 31) were more numerous than the former assembly ; the place was shaken, and they were " all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spake the word of God with boldness ;" which also implies prophecy. Again, in the viiith chapter, when a great number both of men and xuomen believed at Samaria, the Apostles prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit ; and when these laid their hands on them, the Holy Spirit was given, and they did receive it, which doubtless makes a further addition of prophets. Afterwards, in the xth chapter, where Cornelius had called together his kindred and near friends, and they with the family were assembled to hear Peter (ver. 44), " the Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word," even before baptism, or laying on of hands, but as on the Apostles themselves, and the rest of the first congregation at Pentecost. Moreover, when it is said, <*the word of God grew and multiplied," the most obvious sense of the word of God is the prophetic word. Thus when it is said at Iconium, that " the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit," I think by the Scripture use of those words, it includes the same : and again, in chap, xix., St. Paul " laid his hands upon about twelve ; and the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they prophesied." § 3. From these and other like texts, we may well gather, that the number of prophetical preachers was very great in the apostolic age. But as many people run on the other side, and do thence conclude, that during the same there was no other teachers or speakers in the church publicly but such as were prophetically inspired ; I must confess that though, before the forming of churches among the Gentiles, it seems to have been so, yet after it I can no more concur with these than with others that say prophesying itself in the New Testament means no other than human teaching : for as to the former, who would have it that there were no other elders or public ministers than prophets, even after the term above expressed, I do not take the same to be concluded from what is said, that the Holy Spirit had made them overseers; because the Holy Spirit in the Apostles and Pro- 134} PART II. CHAP. I. phets might constitute them such, though they were not them- selves prophetically inspired. On the contrary, since the Holy Spirit did appoint and set in the church some prophets and some teachers, if the teacher in it spake as extraordinarily inspired I am wholly without a key to distinguish them by. Furthermore, we find women not allowed for teachers, and yet allowed to speak in the church as prophets : now, these being debarred speaking in their natural capacity, because teaching implies an act of authority, that privilege being reserved to the men, shews they had a right to it in the Christian church without prophetical in- spiration, otherwise there was nothing at all in this case debarred to the woman. Moreover, the general directions given by the Spirit, in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, concerning the ap- pointment of bishops and deacons, elders or ministers, running all upon moral qualifications and good instruction in the Scrip- ture, did, I think, then, as well as for ages succeeding, lay a foun- dation for the ministry of teaching without the special gift of prophecying. § 4. As to that other insinuation, that prophecy itself did then mean no more than human speaking in the church publicly, all that has been said touching it in the first part of this treatise, and what follows in this second part, will sufficiently confute. And, whilst both these above-cited ways of confounding the ex- traordinary ministry of the prophet in the Christian church will be more fully opened in the sequel of this history, I shall pass them by for the present, and limit myself to the proper definition of prophetic inspiration. As therefore there is a distinction oc- curring in the New Testament, of Apostles and Prophets, it will be necessary to say somewhat of the difference between them. I know that the general acceptation now is, that the distinction is entirely limited by our Lord's call and nomination of his twelve disciples. Nevertheless, upon strict examination, the de- finition of Apostles will be found by the text much more ex- tended : the nomination, however, of twelve had undoubtedly a mysterious signification, and in itself very emphatical to the Jews, answering to the number of patriarchs and tribes, which seems to be also alluded to in Rev. xxi. 12, 14, where the new Jerusalem has " twelve gates, with the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel written thereon ; and the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." But allowing that mystical significa- tion, the name and title of an Apostle does not seem at all re- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY I. 135 Strained to the number of twelve in the New Testament, because we find it on divers occasions mentioned without reference to that number. § 5. If the distinction of Apostles had been certainly defined by our Saviour's nomination, then the church of Ephesus (Rev. ii. 2) would have had no occasion of trying those who said they were Apostles, and no subject of commendation in finding them liars. Nor can we imagine any ground for that in 2 Cor. xi. 13, upon which deceitful persons could transform themselves into the apostles of Christ, no more than of Paul's claim to that title upon any signs of an apostle wrought among the Corinthians, if so be that the definition of an Apostle had been confined to the number of the twelve called by our Saviour ; yet St. Paul and Barnabas are positively affirmed to be apostles, Acts xiv. 14 ; and Silvanus and Timothy seem entitled to the like distinc- tion, if we compare 1 Thess. i. 1 with chap. ii. 6. Indeed, the word " Apostle " in the Greek signifies no more than ** one sent ;" and in that acceptation it stands equal with the character of prophets, who are messengers extraordinarily delegated from Heaven ; so that, in reference to both, the words are true, "How should they preach except they be sent ? " In which sense I take both to be included in 2 Cor. viii. 23, where some brethren to St. Paul are styled " the glory of Christ," and ** messengers of the churches," just as the Prophet Ahijah, 1 Kings xiv. 6, is in the Greek called an Apostle to the wife of Jeroboam ; and as our Lord says, the servant sent is not greater than he that sent him. Besides, we have frequent mention of apostles without limitation of number, as where some are said to be of note among the Apostles ; and in 2 Pet. iii. 2, what we render '• us the apostles" is in the Greek "our apostles," thereby hinting at such as were indefinite in number. But that which seems to be conclusive on this head is what we find, 1 Cor. xv. 5, that our Lord risen " was seen of the twelve, and then of all the apostles," ver. 7. Upon which text, the sense of the primitive ages on this point is represented by the illustrious Chrysostom ; for, says he, there were other apostles besides the twelve, as the seventy disciples sent forth by our Saviour : and if the seventy were in- cluded in that appellation, we are sure there were more ; of which number even St. Paul himself stands for one, and Barnabas for another. § 6. In the larger acceptation of the word " Apostle," mean- ing 0726 sent of Godf there is no difference between him and the 136 PART II CHAP. I. prophet ; and they are both included in that of our Lord, Matt, xxiii. 34 — 37, " Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and Scribes." Such then were the seventy as well as the twelve, whom the Lord of the harvest, who sendeth forth his labourers, did send forth first unto the Jews. And as the number of twelve bore a reference to the patriarchs and tribes of that people, so did the seventy also to the seventy elders on whom the Spirit of prophecy rested on the Mount, and of which number the great council representative of that nation did con- sist. But seeing the distinction of an apostle from the prophet is intimated, as above, to be more extended even than these two numbers of seventy and twelve, it cannot be amiss to offer unto consideration somewhat further touching that distinction. Wherefore, let us consider, that they, having both a commission immediate from Heaven, are so far equally sentf and the publi- cation of their message was often regulated as to place and time by direction specifical of the Spirit, which appears from Acts xvi. 6, JO, compared with Rom. i. 10. Nevertheless, though the act commis&ionating did not absolutely fix the distinction, yet the end to which they were sent might, and I think did, de- nominate the difference. For example ; Paul, by his first vision was constituted a minister and prophetical witness of Christ, and his commission at large declared to be sent unto the Gen- tiles, Acts xxvi. 16 — 18. And thus he pleads from it ; " Am I not an apostle? Have not I seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" But this definition being, however, consistent also with the mission of a prophet, he adds, for further illustration, 1 Cor. ix. 2, " If I be not an apostle " (distinguished from a prophet) ** unto others, yet doubtless I am to you ; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord : " that is, the Corinthians being first converted from heathenism by his prophetic ministry, Acts xviii. 1, 11, was demonstration of his apostleship unto them. "Wherefore, I conceive, the distinguishing criterion between an apostle and prophet lay in this, that the former was sent to people among whom Christ had not been named ; and the lat- ter's mission was to those already called, for the edification of their faith. So that, from the first formation of a Christian church in any place, the character of an apostle must there con- sequently cease : and this observation will serve to open to us the mention, in several texts, of apostles indefinite in number. As to what other definition might be made, from the more emi- nent extraordinary gifts of an apostle above a prophet, we grant PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY I. 137 that the miraculous signs given out to them who yet believed not in Christ may well be supposed to have accompanied more conspicuously the Apostle, because of the peculiarity of his mission. § 7. Thus, from the explication of the word ** Apostle," we comprehend under that denomination all those original and primary prophets whom Christ after his ascension sent forth as his ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiaries, in his name, to treat and form a new alliance and fundamental covenant with mankind; by virtue whereof all that by faith accepted the tender, and came into it, thereby became the people of God, as the house of Israel had precedently been. But this character of ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary, in the full extent of that metaphorical term, ceased (as I take it) with the persons of the primary prophet who laid the foundations ; though the secondary one, being a labourer together with God in the build- ing thereupon, and in the constant husbandry of his vineyard, might also properly fill up the character of ambassadors residen- tiary. But how the character of an ambassador of Christ, to re- present his person and speak authoritatively in his name, can with any propriety of speech agree to any others than those who are immediately sent by him (as all prophets in the Christian church were), I confess myself unable to account for, seeing it is the highest character possible of any messenger extraordinary ; and the admitting it to be due to the common teacher must overthrow the order set by Christ in his church in the New Tes- tament. And indeed, though the word, ambassador might with some propriety belong unto the prophets subsequent to the apostles, yet because by the more modern use of the word it carries an idea so elevated that the application of it even to them might seem invidious to modest ears, and somewhat disagreeable with that tenor of humility always found upon them, I shall in the subsequent historical relation forbear the word. § 8. The prophets of the Old Testament, though acting by an immediate delegation under the broad seal of Heaven, we find represented to us under tortures ; under the trial of cruel mockings, scourgings, bonds, and imprisonments ; storied, sawn asunder, tempted, often murdered: at least they wandered about in sheep-skins or in goat-skins, being so afflicted by men that, destitute of friends, food, and lodging, they were necessitated to wander in deserts, in mountains, and lay hid in dens and T 138 PART II CHAP. I. caves of the earth. And if these were the ensigns of the heavenly ambassadors under the Old-Testament, we need not wonder to hear St. Paul himself representing the apostles set forth as spec- tacles (or May-games), exposed to derision and treated as the kennel-dirt and filthiest offscourings of the world; nay, and not only of the world, but often vilified and reproached among Christians, and even fools for Christ's sake, whilst others were wise (for themselves) in Christ. Wherefore we find that Apostle glorying of his apostleship, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, poor and having nothing, approv- ing himself in patience under afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, watchings, (labouring in the night with his hands, that he might preach to others gratis in the day,) and evil reports, as a deceiver; complaining that all men sought their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, separate from, and in opposition to, their own. And St. John also was de- spised by one who loved the pre-eminence to that degree as not to own any from the Apostle who came to the church where he predominated; no, nor submit to the Apostle himself. If this then was the treatment of the ambassadors plenipotentiary, what can be expected to attend the prophets of a lesser rank but what must needs sound very disagreeable to the usual badges of honour attending the character of ambassadors among men ? But if the chiefest apostles styled themselves frequently Elders, Brethren, Servants or Ministers, we shall rather let these suffice for the compellation of the Christian prophets than use the above- mentioned distinction of Ambassadors. § 9. The order of the Divine economy set by Christ in his church is, by 1 Cor. xii. 28, given us : *^ First, apostles ; se- condarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; after that, miracles." Touching the first, we have given our sentiments from the Scrip- ture ; and there will be little or nothing here- under to be added from human writings upon that head. Touching prophets who properly spoke the word of the Lord, they were, by the very gift of prophecy, sufficiently authorised always publicly to speak for the edification of the church. But as they might be idiots, or women, or of irregular lives, or wanting in other qualifi- cations required for it, in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and elsewhere, they were nevertheless sometimes incapable of being Bishops, Pastors, Elders or Deacons ; whereas if the pro- phet had also those qualifications, he was capable, with others. PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 139 of those public functions ; and his being actuated sometimes by the Spirit of prophecy, did not hinder him at other times to exercise all the proper duties of that station, equally with the teacher uninspired. Thus we read in Eusebius from Clemens Alexandrinus, that St. John, the survivor of the twelve, finding many in the churches of Lesser Asia endowed with the Holy Spirit, did out of them appoint some that were marked out to him by the Spirit to be bishops and pastors ; which passage in the last scene of the Apostle's life, who died about anno Christi 95, we may upon another occasion more authentically cite: but here it suffices to intimate, that the prophet, as such, was not necessarily a stated minister in the church, but was, however, capable of being so. § 10. As to the teacher properly so called, or uninspired mi- nister; he might enjoy some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit, as of miracles, or healing, and the like testimonial signs, and yet be a bishop and elder very distinct from him who had the gift of prophecy; for miracles, healing and the like, are reckoned among the diversities of gifts and ministrations by the same Spirit, though not lodged in the same person who had the gift of prophecy, as in 1 Cor. xii. may be read at large. For God hath set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him ; and as the body, being one, hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is the church of Christ : wherefore the Apostle subjoins to that emblematical harmony and union in the natural body an exhortation, that there should be no divisioq in the Christian community ; but that the members, instead of envying and grudging against one another, should have the same sympathy and care one of another, as the Author of nature has placed in the texture of the several members of the natural body. § 11. There is little to be added to the Scripture, on record touching prophecy in this first century : but Philo, an enemy to Christianity, has left us the bare mention of some people under the name of Worshippers, and not yet called Christians, that were spread through all the provinces of Egypt, who did lead a prophetical life, handling allegorically the Holy Scriptures, and composing of their own some grave canticles and hymns unto God, in the manner of sacred poetry. Furthermore, Eusebius tells us, that before the wars began in which Jerusalem was ji^stroyed, according to the denunciation of our Saviour, the 140 PART II. — CHAP. II. congregation of the faithful subsisting at Jerusalem had a reve- lation made to some among them by an oracle (Epiphanius says, an angel) commanding that they should depart that city, and inhabit a village beyond Jordan, called Pella; whither accord- ingly they went, and so escaped the judicial hand of God. § 12. These being the small scraps of what I can find else- where, from any good authority, touching the Spirit of prophecy in that century so abundantly expressed in the sacred text, I shall conclude this chapter with a tradition in Eusebius, lib. iii. chap, xxi.: ' That the Apostles of Christ used in their preach- * ing: a plain and simple manner of speech, from a Divine and ' forcible power which they had received of Christ ; and by such a * demonstration of the Holy Spirit, they published the knowledge ^ of the kingdom of heaven to the whole world, being nothing ' solicitous about writing of books ; and those few we have, * some of them wrote not without being constrained thereto; * particularly St. John (as Epiphanius says, lib. ii. tom. i. p. * 433), being in himself very unwilling and avoiding it, was forced * and compelled by the Spirit to write his Gospel a little before * his death.' CHAP. ir. OF PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED IN THE SECOND CENTURY. § 1. The Greek word Paraclete, rendered *' the Comforter" in the Gospel of St. John, is in his First Epistle, chap. ii. 1, ren- dered " an Advocate ;" but the word in its derivation is capable of a much more extended meaning than either or both those words do import ; which appears by the different constructions the English often puts upon the same word, in the verb as well as noun. Thus in 1 Thess. ii. 2 — 4, "I was bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God, for our exhortation was not of deceit, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak ;" in which text and others, the word TrapaKXrjaLgj exhortation, means, saysChrysostom, teaching: and indeed the context clearly shews it; for St- Paul's preaching is there termed the Gospel (or good message) of God. He therefore that despised it despised not man, but God, who had given unto him his Holy Spirit. Now exhortation, when it is applied to the Holy Spirit, carries in it, throughout the New PROPHECY UJ^CONTROVERTED ^CENTURY II. l4I Testament, the nature and validity of an authoritative command; nay, though the same Greek word be rendered beseech (as sometimes) or persuade; thus in 2 Thess. iii. 12, 14, "We command [TvapayyEXoixev, rather * declare') and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that men work and eat their own bread ; and if any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." And thus when the Apostle exhorts, that " supplications, prayers, and giving of thanks, be made for all men," we with one consent construe it a Divine command for so doing. § 2. The same Greek word is, in Acts xxviii. 20, rendered ** called for," and properly agrees with the derivation, which signifies any sort of speaking aloud or calling out to, and so well suits to public preaching ; and is so applied, not only to the pro- phetical inspiration of St. Paul above-mentioned, but in 1 Pet. V. 12: "I have written briefly, exhorting and (parallel to) tes- tifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand :" therefore the same word is joined with other ways (besides ex- hortation) used in preaching the word, 2 Tim. iv. 2 and else- where. Seeing then the English translation of the word with the sense concurring, does allow us to understand by it, " to plead as an advocate, to speak aloud, in exhorting and com- manding," as in the function of prophetic preaching ; let us have recourse to that great promise of our Saviour to his church, John xiv. 16, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another (Paraclete) Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." The following verses shew plainly that other Paraclete who was to supply his place : therefore our Lord, by way of explanation, adds, " I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you ; again, a little while, and ye shall see me, and I will manifest myself unto you." All which, in this, and the two following chapters, is ascribed to that Para- clete, saying, " He shall teach you all things, and when he is come, he shall testify of me : I have many things to speak unto you, but ye cannot bear them now ; howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you in all truth : He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak : he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and declare (avay- yeXfi, * publish') it unto you, and shall declare things to come. When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and convince it of judgment," &c. 142 PART II.— CHAP. II. § 3, Seeing, therefore, our Lord, the great Prophet, Teacher^ and Master of his ehurch has explained to us thus the^ office of * that Comforter to his church, how he would not leave us orphans, but come again, and be represented by the Paraclete, another like himself; that should speak unto us, testify of him, guide us, reprove, and declare to us many things he had not done ; — all these do indeed agree, with the character of an " Advocate," from and for God pleading with men, and with public authorita-f tive preaching, exhorting, and commanding by the prophet. And all these make up a complete definition of the Spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus, and of a Comforter, such another as our Lord himself; for if the presence of the head and husband ought to be the chief delight and comfort of the spouse, so also the presence of Christ with his church, extraordinarily signified, her main complacency and joy ; and the presence of the Spirit (Christ's representative) like to that said to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 14, " My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." In this sense it will be found, that the primitive Christians did expect that the said Comforter would abide with them for ever ; and whether any dislike and contempt, on the part of the espoused church, were not the just cause that it did not so, we refer to further search into that matter. § 4. In the duration of the Old-Testament canon, we find no mention of Sadducees ; but, as other records tell us, that sect sprung up some very few ages precedent to the final dissolution of that embodied nation. Among other tenets of theirs, this was one, That all the books subsequent to those of Moses were not of Divine authority ; and of consequence they rejected the inspiration of the Prophets, though their body for all that bore a considerable sway among the priests. In like manner, for se- veral ages past there have been in the Christian church many who plead that of Rev. xxii. 18, " If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book;" as if it signified, a ne plus ulira, or final bar put to the Spirit of prophecy acting in the Christian church after it; though I see not why the Sadducees might not with as much reason have urged that of Deut. xii. 32, " What thing soever I com- mand you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." For the argument brought by some Christians against the survival of prophecy after the decease of St. John, namely, that it must neces'sarily diminish and take away frorn PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 143 the authority of the primary sacred record, might also equally bear a fair pretext, in the mouths of the Sadducees, who pre- tended to magnify thereby the Law of Moses. But without en- tering into a formal discussion of such a fallacious argument, let us here content ourselves to give matter of fact in evidence of the contrary, and that from the beginning there were no such sentiments openly avowed among Christians. But as the Sad- ducees doubtless knew how to recommend themselves and guild over their arguments with plausible declamations against the horrid dangers of enthusiasm, and by applauses of the manner wherein God spake as mouth to mouth with Moses; so I hope that any such malevolent insinuations cannot stand good against the evidence of fact enumerated by a cloud of witnesses herein following, as free as any men whatsoever from the imputation of encouraging a wild or guilty enthusiasm ; and so learned at the same time, in the antiquities of the Christian church, and in the first principles of the Oracles of God, as are by no means to be supposed capable of being imposed on by foolish pretexts to tlie Spirit of prophecy, or cunningly Revised fables touching Divine revelation. § 5. As, therefore, the Spirit was poured out and shed forth, abundantly at Pentecost, and at divers other times after it, as the history of the Acts relates ; and we have, in the former part of this treatise, cited many instances of its agency, not only in prophecy properly so called, but in the Divine manifestations of vision, dream, and voice from heaven, during the apostolic age, terminating with the life of St. John and conclusion of the first century ;— now that the like manifestations of Christ's presence with his church, and the exertions of the Spirit of prophecy testifying of him, did not cease with the said term, but con- tinued several ages after it, appears beyond any possible reason of doubt, from the concurring testimony of many bright lumi- naries in the church, writing of themselves or their own times, and of things whereof they were eye and ear witnesses ; even such as were by the most judicious, and by common acceptation approved, as clear and distinct acts of God revealing himself, in the divers manners wherein he used to speak by the prophets. § 6. The first proof of these matters I shall quote from a book bearing in the title-page, * The Epistles of the apostolical Fathers, < St. Barnabas, St. Clement, St. Ignatius, St, Polycarp, the * Shepherd of Hermas, and the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and 144^ PART. II. — CHAP. II. < St. Polycarp, written by those who were present at their * Sufferings ; being, together with the Holy Scripture of the New * Testament, a complete Collection of the most primitive An- * tiquity, for about one hundred and fifty years after Christ. * Translated and published, with a large preliminary Discourse * relating to the several Treatises here put together, by the Right * Reverend Father in God, William, Lord Bishop of Lincoln. * Anno 1710.' In the preliminary discourse of which tract, it is said, that * the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit with which the Apo- * sties were endowed, the Holy Scriptures themselves tell us, * were distributed to other believers as well as unto them ; and * in the fathers whose writings are here put together, there ap- * pears sufficient indications of the continuance of these extra- * ordinary powers, even after the time of these fathers. We have * the express testimony of Justin Martyr to assure us, that those * extraordinary gifts continued still in the church, and were com- * municated not only to men but women ; and that we may be * sure he spake nothing in this matter but what he could un- * deniably have made out, we find him boasting of it against * Trypho the Jew, and urging it then as an unanswerable argu- < ment in behalf of Christianity, and against the Jews, from * whom the Spirit of prophecy had a long time been departed. * As to the Epistles here published, that of St. Clement mani- * festly declares to the like effect ; for he tells us, that some in ' the church of Corinth not only then had such extraordinary * gifts of the Spirit, but were even proud and conceited upon * the account of them. " Let a man," says he, " have faith ;" * that is, such a faith by which he is enabled to work miracles ; * " let him be powerful to utter mystical knowledge," for to that < his expression manifestly refers (and if so, then undoubtedly « this was prophesying, as the citer hereof conceives) ; " let * him be wise in discerning of speeches," another (prophetical) * gift common in those times ; *' but still," says he, " by how * much the more he seems to excel others," namely, upon the * account of these extraordinary endowments, " by so much the * more will it behove him to be humble minded, and to seek « what is profitable to all men, and not to his own advantage." * In like manner St. Ignatius not only supposes that such gifts * might be in others, but plainly intimates that he himself was * endowed with a large portion of them. Thus we are to under- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 146 < Stand what St. Clement tells us also, that " the Apostles did * prove by the Spirit the first fruits of their conversions, and out * of them set bishops and pastors over such as should believe ;" * that, by the extraordinary gifts of those whom they pitched < upon, they perceived they were worthy of such an employ, and * therefore chose them out for it ; the manner whereof we con- * ceive to be, as in the person of Timothy, whom St. Paul ex- * horts to stir up the gift, to xaptff/ia, extraordinary power of the * Spirit, which, says he, 1 Tim. iv. 14, " was given unto him by * prophecy, with or through the imposition of hands " upon him. § 7. * Now, what is said above affords us just cause to con- * elude, that those holy men whose writings we have here col- * lected were doubtless endowed with a very large portion of the * extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit ; whether we consider ' the frequency of those gifts in the age in which they lived, and * to how much lesser and worser men these gifts were usually * communicated then, — since it is certain, that in those times the * extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were bestowed, not only * upon such as were constituted pastors of the church, but upon * a great many of the common Christians too ; or whether we con- * sider the judgment which the very Apostles were by the Spirit * enabled to make of these persons ; or, thirdly, if we look to * those accounts which still remain to us (notwithstanding inter- * polations and other ways of corruption noted upon some of * them, in Dr. Mills's preface to his New Testament), they will * plainly shew us that these persons were endowed, and that in * a very eminent manner, with this power and extraordinary gift < of the Blessed Spirit ; or, lastly, if we duly weigh the public * approbation given of these writings by the church, whilst the * extraordinary gifts remained so common in it that the judgment < of the church touching them could scarcely therein be mis- < taken, — because one great particular of those gifts was for the * discerning of prophecy, to judge of what was proposed by any * one, or written for the use and benefit of the church. § 8. * Touching the approbation of the church, in those days < wherein she enjoyed the benefit of those extraordinary gifts, * and particularly that of discerning spirits, the Epistle of Bar- * nabas is not only quoted with great honour by those of the next * age to him, but in the ancient catalogue of Cotelerius, of the < inspired books of the New Testament, we find it placed the * very next to the Epistle of St. Jude, and no difference put be- u 146 PART II. — CHAP. II. * tween the authority of the one and the other. The Epistle of ' St. Clement was a long time read publicly, with the other Scrip- * tures, in the congregations of the faithful, and made a part of * their Bible, and was numbered among the sacred writings. * Thus our most ancient Alexandrian manuscript of the Old and ' New Testament (supposed to be written about four hundred * years after Christ) gives it still a place there : and even after * this, Epiphanius tells us, that it was wont so to be read in the < church in his time. And for the Book of St.Hermas, both Euse- * bius and St. Hierom (the most exact chronologists of the pri- * mitive ages) tell us, that it also was wont to be read in the * churches, and the ancient Stichometry of Cotelerius before * mentioned places the same in the very next rank to the Acts * of the holy Apostles : and in several of the most ancient ma- * nuscripts of the New Testament, we find it still written in the * same volume with the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists, * as if it had been esteemed of the same value and authority * with them. § 9. ' The name of Barnabas was at first Joses, but by the * Apostles changed into that, signifying, as by Luke, ** the son * of consolation," because of the consolation he gave to the poor * Christians by selling his whole estate for their relief. And the * author of the epistle here quoted was the very man, as we have * most reason to believe, so celebrated in the Acts as the fellow- * labourer of St. Paul, and called also an Apostle. As to the person * of St. Clement also, it is no small commendation which the Holy * Spirit, by St. Paul, has left us of him, Phil.iv. 3 ; where the Apo- * stle mentions him, not only as his fellow-labourer, but as one < whose *' name was written in the book of life." And as to St. < Hermas, it is very probable that he was the same person men- * tioned Rom. xvi. 14: and in respect to the extraordinary reve- ' lation vouchsafed him, even in those times of miracles it was * esteemed so singular a grace to him that we find some other * Christians, not so humble as they ought to be, became enemies * to him upon the account of them. The Epistle of St. Polycarp, * with that of the church of Smyrna hereunder subjoined, were * read publicly too in the assemblies of the faithful (though not * generally/, as the preceding tracts were, nor ever tvith them ad- ' mitted into the volume of the New- Testament sacred writings, as ' appears in the case of the others). And for those of St. Igna- * tius, we find a mighty value put upon them by the Christians PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. 147 * of those times {though nowhere mentioned as read in the church, * or placed among the canon of Scripture).* § 10. Besides the short notes above included in a parenthesis, for explanation of the things there treated, I judge it necessary also, for the information of the less learned reader, here to add, that the fixing the New-Testament Scripture canon, exclusive of the writings of Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, was due to Pope Gelasius, about anno 500 : from which time they became generally omitted in the Western church ; and the retaining of them still by several ancient manuscripts is one of the best proofs that occur, to manifest the antiquity of those valuable Scripture records. But whereas it is alleged above, that the ages which acknowledged the inspiration of these later prophets, by reading them publicly in the church, and enrolling them conjointly with the rest of the books of the New Testament, were better judges of the prophetic Spirit indicting them ; by reason of the extra- ordinary gifts of the Spirit then subsisting in the church, and particularly that of discerning spirits ; many people may be in- quisitive, how latter ages, void of that advantage of the Spirit of prophecy to judge by, came to exclude these tracts from the body of Holy Writ, which were precedently so long ranked in it. For the sake of such it is necessary to add, that the text of the New Testament which we now admit is supposed in every part of it to be stamped with the authority of the Apostles, who had brighter and more extensive gifts of the Holy Spirit upon them ; (though this also, concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews and some other parts of it, is mightily disputed among the learned to this day :) but allowing that supposition, as if indisputable in every part, if any think it not a just cause to exclude the en- suing tracts, I must confess I can give them no further reason- able account ; unless we may be allowed to fear some design of eclipsing the proofs of prophecy subsisting after the Apostles might be one motive to leave them out of the volumes of Scrip- ture : but after the exclusion of them, the said cause does doubt- less at this day concur with others, why they are presumptuously descried. But since it is very likely that the separating them from the body of Holy Writ has given the more easy occasion of corrupting them, and given them a tincture from the more modern principles and interests ; I would not be misunderstood, as if I thought them worthy, in their present posture, to be re- admitted into the number of sacred tracts of the New Testament. 148 PART II. — CHAP. II. But if, in any part of them more than another, they remain still free from suchi alterations and additions, I do conceive that what I shall hereunder quote from them may with just reason be esteemed so ; because the quotations I make will wholly concern the manner and circumstances of the Spirit of prophecy* what- soever ways displayed therein ; which thing, I believe, most men will agree is of that nature that the principles and interests of latter ages are not very likely to have so much favoured, as, for the encouragement thereof, to have given in to the corrupt- ing any ancient records. But now it is high time to proceed to those citations, from the late edition in English of the foremen- tioned pieces under the name of so venerable a person. § 11. The Epistle of Barnabas tells us, that when Christ chose his Apostles, who were afterwards to publish his Gospel, he took men who had been very great sinners, that thereby he might shew " he came not to call the righteous, but sinners ; " (for so Dr. Mills, on Matt. ix. 13, reads it, omitting " to re- pentance;") wherefore, it was compatible with the way of God at any time to call sinful persons to partake the gifts extraordi- nary of the Spirit. But the manner of the Spirit of prophecy upon a man is described by divers expressions in this tract, such as these that follow: * Moses (says he) " spake in the Spirit,'* * and upon mention of a text in Zephan, the Latin of Cotelerius * has it, " This does the vessel of his spirit (viz. Zeph.) say." * Moreover, he calls the ministry of the prophet the being " taught * of God ;" and therefore adds, " Thou shalt love as the apple * of thine eye, every one that speaketk unto thee the word of the * Lord : for, says he, God hath put in us the engrafted gift of * his teaching within ; (even as St. Paul, 2 Cor. v. 19, " God * hath put in us the word ;") wherefore, God truly dwells in our * house (earthly, of this body) ; that is, in us : He himself pro- * phesies within us : He himself dwelleth in us, and openeth to ' us the gate of our temple (the body) ; that is, the mouth of * wisdom (inspired) ; he therefore that desires to be saved looketh * not unto the man, but unto him that dwelleth in him, and * speaketh by him; being struck with wonder, forasmuch as he * never heard him speaking such words out of his mouth." Now * the comment of Cotelerius upon this place says ; Thus it is * true, what we read in Luke x. "He that heareth you heareth < me;" and Matt. xx. " It is not ye that shall speak, but the » Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you ; ' and on Psaira PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II, * Ixviii. 11. (Heb.) " The Lord will give the word; great the * army of women that publish it." St. Hilary says, God therein * promises to pour the word (or utterance) into the. very mouths.* § 12. The preface or preliminary discourse having given an account, from the Epistle of Clement, of the abundance of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit subsisting in the church of Co- rinth, we shall be the more brief in our remarks thereon. But as there it was observed, that some persons enjoying them be- came proud and conceited on that account, it was certainly a very perverse use of a good thing, and yet at the same time not incompatible with the reality of that thing possessed by them : for, though the gift of prophecy renders a man a witness to others of the invisible world, and should be, by its operation, the powerfulest means of sanctification to the person himself, yet it does not necessarily, and as a cause causing, sanctify ; but inward grace is another kind of operation from the same Spirit. Nevertheless, by the scope and main drift of St. Clement in that Epistle, it appears that the pride and contention flowing from it, which distracted that church, was not chiefly lodged in the inspired of it, but in those that opposed them ; for, says he, * Let every one be subject to his neighbour, according to the * order in which he is placed by the (extraordinary) gift of God, * and let us choose to offend some foolish and unlearned men (as * 2 Pet. iii. 1(5), lifted up and glorying in the pride of their own * speech or reason, rather than God ; then, enumerating several * prophets of the Old Testament, he particularizes in Rahab the * harlot, that she also had the Spirit of prophecy as well as faith. < And since, says he, all the ministers of the Gospel-grace have * spoken by the Holy Spirit, and such were constituted elders * over you by the Apostles, with the consent of the whole church, * and who have, with all lowliness and innocency, ministered to * the flock in peace and without self-interest, it is a great shame * to your Christian profession, that the ancient church of the * Corinthians should be led into a sedition against its spiritual * elders. Therefore, it is unseemly for any to harden their hearts, * as the hearts of those were hardened who raised up sedition * against Moses, the servant of God. Whoever has any charity, < let him say. If this sedition, this contention, and these schisms * be upon my account, I am ready to depart whithersoever and * do whatsoever the multitude (the church) shall command me ; ' only let the flock of Christ be in peace with the elders that are * set over it. Do ye therefore, who laid the first foundation of 150 PART. II. — CHAP. II. * this sedition, submit yourselves unto your elders, bending the * knees of your hearts, learn to be subject, not unto us, but to * the will of God, laying aside all proud and arrogant boasting ' of your oratory : for thus speaks the super-excellent Wisdom, * '* I will pour out of the word of my Spirit upon you ; I will * make kiiown my speech unto you:" '' Because I called, and ' ye would not hear, I stretched out my words, and ye regarded * not : but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none ' of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock * when your fear cometh." ' § 13. The preliminary discourse has proved beyond any pos- sible doubt*, that the book of Hermas was received, read, and owned by the church as Divine revelation, even as the other books of the New Testament : it follows therefore by necessary consequence, that the ways of God revealing therein specified were such as the ages blessed with the Spirit of prophecy knew to be well warranted and authorised by many precedents among them, and by the rule of " comparing spiritual things (whether written in the Bible, or existent before them) with spiritual." And indeed I know nothing can shock several of the systems commonly now received, touching Divine revelation, (particularly that wherein the subserviency of angels in the hand of God_, for prophetic inspiration, is almost wholly excluded,) like a treatise which, if it had remained among the records of Holy Writ, would have for ever probably prevented the frightful growth of Sadducism in the Christian world, by continual inculcating of principles that must have stifled it even at the very roots. But whatever be the principles that have sapped the foundations of faith in all revelation, and troubled the fountains of that faith, and brought anarchy and confused inconsistency into the * Whoever will take the trouble to consult Jones, or any work of autho- rity on the Canon, will be readily satisfied that it never was Jixed otherwise than as we have it now. Many books, not in the Canon, were read in the early church for edification ; and if they were read now for the same end, similar profit would result. These books were most likely written by per- sons having the Spirit ; — moreover, it is possible that they might be written from their lips while speaking under inspiration ;— but it does not therefore follow, that these persons were commissioned to write books for the perpe- tual guidance of the church : wherefore it probably is that the books of many inspired men are lost. If persons in these days speak at times under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is not therefore proper that these utterances should be written down, and transmitted through the land. Unless the Spirit says, Write, it is more than questionable whether anything ought to be written. The doubt is much strengthened with respect to visions. — Editor. PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 151 first principles of the oracles of God, we are content to appeal to those first principles largely insisted on in the preceding part of this treatise, and herein exemplified in the prophetical ages of Christianity. § 14. The revelation made to Hermas, for which he was envied and reproached (very blameably in those that did so), was given him entirely by the hands of an angel, who appeared in the habit of a shepherd ; and thence his book took its title of the Shepherd of Hermas. Now the authority with which the same was given him appears from his own words here following, which are merely historical of the visions vouchsafed him, as the Apocalypse of St. John also is. The angel said to him, * Thou < shalt write two books of what I shall say to thee, and send * one of them to Clement, with order to dispatch the same to * foreign parts; and the other thou shalt read in this city (Rome), < with the elders of the church ; for these things are not revealed * to thee only, but that thou mayest make them manifest unto all. * And woe to the doubtful, even to those who shall hear these * words and shall despise them ; it had been better for them that * they had not been born. And he, the angel, said. Thou shalt * live, if thou keep these my commandments ; and whosoever shall * hear and do these commands shall live ; so shall thy former sins * be forgiven. In like manner shall all others be forgiven who shall * observe these my commandments.' But the moral command- ments and prophetical injunctions, intermixed with the reve- lation, I omit here, as not necessary to the present occasion and subject. * Fulfil therefore diligently this ministry which I commit * to thee, and thou shalt find great benefit by it. Whereupon I * wrote his commands and similitudes, and did as he bade me ; * which things, if when ye have heard, ye shall observe to do * them, and shall walk according to them, and exercise yourselves * in them, ye shall receive from the Lord those things which he * hath herein promised unto you : but if, having heard them, ye * shall not repent, but shall still go on to add to your sins, ye * shall be punished by him ; all these things that shepherd, the * angel of repentance (or calling to it), commanded me to write.' } 15. Thus the command being declared by an angel, with the sanction of rewards and punishments both to the prophet and others, the preliminary discourse acquaints us, that the church, or Christian community, by faith obeying, and peni- tently preparing for some public judgments denounced, did greatly profit by this prophetical warning : and as to all the 152 PART II. — CHAP. II. exhortations of it, the same was regarded as the word of the Lord. We proceed now to recount the manner of the vision in the circumstances attending on Hermas, who gives it to the effect and purport as followeth : * In the beginning of his great * revelations, he fell into a sleep ecstatic, and was carrried away * in the Spirit ; at which time an angel appeared to him in the form * of a young woman, and convinced him of some particular sins * of his. Another time the angel appeared in the form of a ve- * nerable ancient woman ; and then his hair stood on end, and a * kind of horror seized him, and she took him by the hand, and * lift him up from his knees in prayer. Again, when he was * once walking in the fields, and praying to God, that the reve- * lations given by the venerable ancient woman, representing his < church, might be confirmed, something like a human voice * answered, " Doubt not, Hermas ;" for at that instant he saw * somewhat which he rather suspected than knew that it was a * vision. After these things, which filled up four visions, when * he rose from prayer in his chamber, and was sat down upon the * bed, a certain man came in to him, with a reverend aspect, in * the habit of a shepherd ; who immediately sat down by him, * and said, I am sent that I should dwell with thee all the re- * maining days of thy life.' From this time the angelic shepherd often appeared to him, and shewed him visions, and explained the signification of them in a familiar way, as we read touching Zechariah and the angel to him. At last, even in the close of the revelation published by St. Hermas, and after he had written the book of it, says he, ' The angel which had delivered me to * that shepherd came into the house, and sat upon the bed, and * that shepherd stood at his right hand : then he called me, and * said, I delivered thee and thy house to this shepherd, that thou * mightest be protected by him ; and I said. Yes, Lord : and he * added. Whosoever shall do according to the commands of this * shepherd, who is a prince of great authority, and in great * honour with God, he shall live ; but they that shall not keep * his commands, shall deliver themselves unto death, and shall be * every one guilty of his own blood. But I say unto thee. Keep * these commandments, and thou shalt find a cure for all thy * sins.' § 16. The foregoing clause shews the manner of the visions to St. Hermas. And now let us see what that revelation to him, which was generally acknowledged in the church for Divine, gives us of the ways of the Spirit of prophecy in general : where- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 153 fore, to this purpose, after the enumeration of divers moral evil quah'ties, he says, * These, if they remain in the same man, the * vessel in which the Holy Spirit dwells, it cannot contain them * both together (long) : when, therefore, the Spirit extraordinary * departeth from that man, he is afterwards filled with wicked * spirits. In particular, doubting and sadness do grieve him ; * for the Spirit of the Lord, which is given to dwell in the flesh * (or body, called also a *' vessel," 1 Thess. iv. 4) endureth no * such sadness, but will entreat God and depart from thee. The * spirit that, being asked, speaketh according to men's desires, * and concerning many other affairs of this present world, un- ' derstands not the things which belong to God ; but every * Spirit that is given from God, needeth not to be asked (possibly * he means, knowing thy thought), but, having the power of the * Divinity, speaks all things of itself, because he comes from * above, from the power of the Spirit of God.' Upon which last- mentioned passages the annotator observes, that the Spirit of the Lord which is given to dwell in the flesh ; which is vexed, and then entreats God to depart thence ; which is given Jrom God, and Cometh from above, that is, from the power of the Spirit of God, is not God himself but a created spirit : as mdeed (says he) Paul himself mentions '* the Spirit which is (Greek) from God," 1 Cor. ii. 12, distinguished from '* the Spirit of God," ver. 11*. But to pursue the words of Hermas, speaking of an evil spirit that prophesies to a man in corners and hidden places, he adds, * When he, that evil spirit, cometh into the company of * just men, that have the Spirit of God in them, and they pray * unto the Lord, the evil spirit flies from that man, and he is * dumb, and cannot speak any thing ; but when a man who hath * the Spirit of God cometh as above into the company of the * faithful, and they pray unto the Lord, then the holy angel of * God fills that man with the blessed Spirit, and he (prophesies, * or) speaks in the congregation, as he is moved of God. For the * Spirit of God doth not speak to a man when he himself will, * but when God pleases (which, it seems here, used to be) when * the congregation put up their prayers for it. § 17. Most of the last paragraph is to be found in those * If any distinction be made between the expressions in vers. 11 and 12, it will destroy the whole argument of the Apostle. Moreover, the phrase " Spirit /rom God," is quite as strong in the Greek as "the Spirit ufGoA" the former being to rivsu^a to ek (out of) ts ©eh, the very word selected to express identity in the Creed, ©eof ek ©£«, &c. — Editor. X 154 PART II. — CHAP. II. chapters of Hermas, entitled the Tenth and Eleventh Commands. What follows is in the ninth similitude : ' The angel, the shep- ' herd, says Hermas, came to me, and said, I will shew thee all * those things which the Spirit under the figure of the church ' (namely, the venerable old woman) spake with thee. That < Spirit, said the angel, is the Son of God ; and because then * thou wert weak in body, until strengthened since by the Spirit, ' it was not declared unto thee by the angel, that thou mightest * also see him ; but now thou art enlightened by the angel : but < yet by the same Spirit (the Son of God) and the forty persons < thou lately sawest in vision are the apostles and teachers of ' the preaching of the Son of God ; for these first carried those < spirits, and they departed not the one from the other ; neither < the men from the spirits, nor the spirits from the men ; but the < spirits were joined to those men, even to the day of their death ; ' who, if they had not had these spirits with them, or carried * those holy spirits, they could not have been useful to the * building of the tower thou sawest in vision as a representation ' of the church, jointed, framed, and built up.' All which asser- tions, touching the manner of prophetic inspiration, do concur to give us the sense of the pure ages of Christianity to be the same which, in the first part of this treatise, has been evidently proved from the Old and New Testament ; that is, that Divine inspiration to prophesy is consistent with the intermediate agency of angels in it. § 18. Having thus drawn out some remarks, from the writings of Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, such as were in the primi- tive ages enrolled in the volume of the sacred records of the New Testament, we proceed now to the Epistles of the blessed martyr Ignatius, and the Martyrology of his death; which, though they were not in that degree held sacred as the preceding, yet were received with much honour in those ages, because he was universally known for a prophetical bishop ; and these Epi- stles were written as his farewel legacy to those churches, after his being ennobled with chains for the Christian faith, and his going to offer up himself a sacrifice for the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy, which he had upon him. In the three preceding tracts, we find the prophets termed the vessels of the Spirit ; which is further explained to us in the term of carrying the Spirit, and which latter term is the same word in Greek that we render moved in that text wherein the prophets are said to PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 155 be (2 Pet.i. 21) *' moved by the Holy Spirit." It is but agree- able, therefore, with the sense of the Scripture words in Greek, Pneumatophoi'us Pneumaticos, (whereby the prophet is denomi- nated and described,) and with the expressions used in the pre- cedent tracts, that Ignatius in these farewel writings always calls himself Theophoros ; that is, one carrying God, or carried (moved) of God; which seems to me to mean no more than what Hernias expresses when he says, that a man who hath the Spirit of God carrieth and is filled by an angel, and so prophe- sies as he is moved of God. And notwithstanding the absurdity which the modern ages or age may conceive, of the expression, one carrying God, yet whoever will condescend to look into those times that were ocular witnesses of prophecy existent will find that they were not offended with it, or saw that impropriety which now is imputed to the expression ; for besides all that has been elsewhere said already on this head, I beseech those who are capable, to look into Dr. Mills's New Testament in Greek, on ] Cor. vi. 20: " Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." The latter part of that verse they will there find is wholly left out by so many of the most ancient manu- scripts of the Scripture, and in the citation of that text by seve- ral fathers, as must afford sufficient ground to doubt whether it was at all in the original ; and there also they may find many great and ancient authorities that read the former part thus : *' Glorify and carry God in your body." Wherefore here is a proof beyond the power of contradiction, that the most illustrious of the ancient doctors of the church saw no absurdity at all in the expression used by Ignatius, styling himself otie carrying God, Nay, the Vulgar Latin, which is known to be one of the best copies of the New- Testament Scripture, reads the same text to this day, " Glorify and carry God in your bodies." § 19. Ignatius, for himself, answering before Trajan the em- peror for the very assuming of that word carrying God, says, he had Christ within him : for, says he, it is written, " I will dwell in them and walk in them;" and Rev. iii. 20, *' If any man open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him ;" and the Apostle Paul says, "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). There- fore those that will wrangle about one of the expressions would do well to shew the less absurdity of the other : and however the claim of Ignatius to that denomination might be but equally due to him with many more before his examination in the em- peror's presence, yet that very profession before Trajan being 156 I'ART ir. — CHAP. II. the instantaneous cause of his condemnation, and the specific and only charge alleged in the sentence pronounced against him, to be thrown for it to the beasts for the delight of the people ; this is reason enough to excuse him from vanity in inserting the same in those letters written after he was going to execution for that very expression. Why, therefore, should it seem invidious to any that the holy martyr should wear a laurel which he paid down the price of his own blood for, even as the pro- phets used to do for no less a presumption ? And indeed I could further, from Scripture, clear the said expression from any ab- surdity ; but I choose to conclude with an exhortation to all that have sobriety in the faith of Christ, or indeed of any reve- lation, not to be hasty with their mouths to pronounce that this man died as a fool or madman, when he died expressly for openly confessing that he did carry, or was carried of, God. § 20. If the remark of Dr. Mills, in his preface to the New Testament, be well founded, there was much difference between the copies of the sacred text that were for the public use of the churches, and those that remained in the hands of private men ; for, says he, ' the latter presently became scrabbled with inter- * lineations and marginal glosses, which were soon by a second. * transcriber either intermixed with the sacred text or even some- * times the inspired words themselves were jostled out, and the * spurious supputation put in the place thereof, by the ignorance, * or through a worse disposition, of the writer.' The abovesaid way of arguing I take to be a sort of presumptive demonstration of fact ; and, therefore, as the Epistles of Ignatius were cer- tainly not used in the public ministry of the church, and their being written by an inspired person affording also more reason of corrupting them than writings merely human ; I dare not build any thing on them further than as affording a proof of his own claim to the Spirit of prophecy, and, as the preliminary discourse has asserted, his supposing of the same in others to whom he wrote. For as to the variations in the copies of them, my own eyes are witnesses to it in a passage in that to the Philadelphians, which, according to Vossius, runs thus : ' Although,' says he, * some would have me deceived according to the flesh, yet the * Spirit I have is not deceived ; for I received it from God, and * it knows both whence it came and whither it goes, and re- ' proveth secrets : for I cried out with a loud voice among those * to whom I spake, uttering not my own words but those of * God ; the bishops, and presbyters, and deacons being present. PROPHECY UNCONTKOVERTED CENTURY II, 157 * But some despised me (or mocked at me) as if I spake as know- < ing beforehand, a division arising among them. But whilst I '< so spake, He is witness to me, for whose sake I am in bonds, < that I had it not from the mouth of man, but the Spirit spoke * it to me.' § 21. But without entangling myself among the briars and thorns of disputable copies, I shall now follow that of the English translation before us, upon the two heads of his own prophetic inspiration, and that by him supposed in others. As to that upon himself, the style of Theophoros, and the instance above given, are both manifest declarations ; and yet he adds further, in that to the Trallians, — * Am not I able to write to * you of heavenly things ? But I forbear, lest ye, as babes in * Christ, should not be able to receive them : for even I myself < am not able to understand heavenly things, such as the orders * of the angels, and the several companies of them, under their ' respective princes ; but in these I am yet a learner.' In other places, he tells us, * I have great knowledge in God ; but I re- * frain myself, lest I should perish in my boasting ; for I ought * now the more to fear, and not hearken to those that would puff * me up. There is not any fire within me that affects (or fastens * upon) material things, but (there is) living and springing water, * saying xuithin me, &c. Thus also my mouth is without de- * ceit, and the Father hath truly spoken by it.' And several other expressions there are of like sort, which, if they be not allowed for evidences of his being a man of the Spirit, or Pneu- maticos, I cannot understand them ; especially that in his Epistle to the Trallians, ' Woe to that man through whose vanity my < name is blasphemed by any.' § 22. And if the prophetic Spirit be manifested upon him from such passages above, the like must be from the same provable also upon others. Thus to the church at Ephesus, he says, — ' Ye are the stones of the temple of the Father, prepared * for his building by the Holy Spirit ; being carriers of God, * spiritual temples, carrying Christ, possessing the word of Jesus. ' In particular, there is among you, my fellow-servant Burrhus, * your deacon, blessed in all things after God. Let us therefore * do all things as becomes those who have God dtvelling in them, * that we may be his temples, and he in us may be our God. * And why do we suffer ourselves foolishly to perish, not knowing * the gift extraordinary which the Lord hath truly sent us?' In like manner also, he ' advises the church of Magnesians, to look 158 PART II. — CHAP. II. * upon no man after the flesh, but to yield all reverence to their * bishop, presiding in the place of God, according to the power * of God the Father (on him), submitting not to him but to the * Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of all ; and he who does not * so deceives not the bishop whom he sees, but juggles with the * Invisible One. Let us therefore be found the followers of * Jesus Christ, our sole Instructor ; for ye have Jesus Christ in * yourselves, and I know ye are full of Gody possessing his inse- * parable Spirit, which is Jesus Christ ; and thus is your presby- * tery a spiritual crown.' With the like expressions, he salutes the church of the Trallians in its fulness and apostolic character, exhorting them to ' submit to their presbytery, as to the apostles ' (messengers extraordinary) of Jesus Christ. In like manner let ' all reverence the deacons, as Jesus Christ (himself).' And after the same sort, he says, * The ministers of the church at * Philadelphia were manifested and settled by the Holy Spirit * according to the will and mind of Christ ; for I know the bishop * obtained that public ministry of his, not of himself, neither by * men, but by the love of God the Father, and Jesus Christ our * Lord ; wherefore, do nothing but according to Christ's instruc- * tion.' Upon which evidences, I conceive there is competent proof that the gifts extraordinary continued in those churches, because the expressions are scarcely (if at all) accountable for in any other sense. § 23. We have no need to look into the Epistle of Ignatius to the church at Rome, for proof of the Spirit of prophecy existing there, because we have had it in the instances of Clement and Hermas ; nor into that to the church at Smyrna, because touch- ing that, there will follow here supernumerary testimonies of the same, in the person of Polycarp. Let us then proceed to the account of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius, written by those who accompanied him from Antioch, and were present at his conflict with, and being devoured by, beasts in the theatre at Rome, * He was,' say they, * a man in all things like unto the Apostles, * and in the church where he lived was after the manner of a * Divine lamp (or candle) illuminating every man's heart by the ex- * position of the Holy Scriptures ' (which is certainly one peculiar gift of the Spirit of prophecy) : * and whilst we passed,' say they, * on our voyage to Rome, they flocked from all parts to see him, ' if by any means they might receive some participation of the ' spirituargift ' on him, (which shews, that sometimes the same was communicated). ' And when we came to Rome, and he PKOPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. 159 * saluted the brethren, he knew by the Spirit the intentions of * some of them. The night after his suffering we were together * uoatching hi prayer, that God would vouchsafe us (weak men) * some assurance of what had passed : whereupon several in the « company fell into a slumber (ecstatical, because •watching in * prayer), and therein saw visions wherein Ignatius was repre- * sented ; which when we had conferred together, we glorified * God, the giver of all good things, being thereby assured of his * blessedness.' Dr. Grabe indeed gives some reasons (says the preface) to render it probable that this latter part might be sup- puted to the original ; but as no copies are mentioned to be without it (except one), we have no warrant to reject the paragraph. § 24. Having now given evidences of prophecy abounding in the Christian church, out of the rest of those writings which, together with the New Testament, make up a complete collec- tion of the most primitive antiquity for about one hundred and fifty years after Christ ; we close with some observations taken from that of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, who suflPered for his gracious Master and ours, anno 147 : the account of which was written in a circular letter by the church of Smyrna, di- rected to all the assemblies of the church in every place; and was of such esteem for many ages that it was wont to be read pub- licly in the churches, for their edification ; and the copy thereof used by Bishop Usher is so well attested, that we need not (says our preface) any further assurance of the truth of it. This let- ter, then, giving an account of several other martyrs dying at the same time with Polycarp, says, — ' That whilst they were * under the torments, they were absent from the body (probably * under the ecstatical impressions), or rather the Lord Christ * stood by them, and conversed with them, and revealed things ' to them, inconceivable by man ; as if they were no longer men, * but already become angels. As to Polycarp, he saw a vision * three days before he was taken ; and behold, the pillow under * his head he saw all in a flame, whereupon, turning to those * about him, he said prophetically, I shall be burnt alive. After * his apprehension, whilst he was going into the place of execu- * tion, there came a voice from heaven, saying, " Be strong, ' and quit thyself like a man, Polycarp." Now no one saw who ' spoke to him, but many of our brethren present heard the * voice. Then Polycarp, looking sternly round on the people^ * shaking hia hand at them, xvith a deep groan, and with a mouth 160 PART II. — CHAP. III. * but half open, as one who spoke not his own words but those * of another, (by Usher's copy) looking up to heaven, said, Tahe * away the ivicked. Then, having made a large confession of * Christ, he was filled with confidence and joy, insomuch that * his very countenance was so full of grace (brightness) that the * proconsul was struck with astonishment : and when the flames * encompassed his body, we standing by perceived so sweet a * smell issuing thence, as if frankincense or some rich spices had * been smoking there. Such was the end of Polycarp, who in * our times was a truly apostolical and prophetical teacher ; for * every word that went out of his mouth either has been already * fulfilled, or will be : and thus he now with angels glorifies God, ' and blesseth our Lord, the Governor of our bodies, and Shep- * herd of the universal church on earth. This epistle was tran- * scribed from the copy of Iraeneus, the disciple of Polycarp, by * Caius : after which, I Pionius wrote it from the said copy, * which I found, by a revelation, wherein Polycarp appeared, and < directed me to it, as I have, and do declare in a most solemn * manner.' The whole tenor of this epistle gives so many clear proofs of revelation in those days, and of the faith of many ages of these proofs by their reading it in public, that it needs no more any explanatory comment, than it can want assurance of its veracity in the relation of facts. CHAP. III. OF PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED IN THE SECOND CENTURY. § 1. Hitherto we have produced proof of prophecy existent after the decease of the Apostles, from such writings of the very prophets themselves as were generally acknowledged for Divine by the church for three or four centuries ; which were most of them placed among the other sacred records of the New Testament, and are found, even to this day, enrolled together with them in some of the most ancient and most esteemed copies thereof in manuscript. Henceforth, indeed, the evidences to be given of prophetic inspiration for the[ public edification of the church will not be taken from any remaining writings of such prophets yet surviving, but from the concurrent testimonies, not of some few authors, obscure and of little note, but of many PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 161 and even most of the now surviving writings of the primitive fathers, in the church before Constantine ; such as were the brightest ornaments thereof for piety, and the most able and fervently industrious to vindicate and evince the truth of Christ by their writings, against both the heathen and Jews on the one hand, and continually arising errors among Christians on the other. § 2. Whilst, therefore, we are searching after truth, even the same and no other than that which was " once delivered to the saints ;" and looking into the foundations of it, as they were laid and " built upon the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone;" we conceive the clear testimonies of it, on this point of the Divine presence of Christ with his church, by the various exertions of the Spirit of prophecy among the household of faith, drawn from the yet subsisting accord of the most primitive times of Christianity, signified by the concurrence of most of the ablest writers before Constan- tine that are express and clear in this matter. Such testimonies I conceive to be abundantly sufficient, especially if we consider, that, however these writings handed down to us of those authors may have been probably corrupted in some points, such as after- ages have been very prone to favour, yet seeing for at least twelve hundred years past there has been little disposition among the learned to contribute any thing towards the encouragement of enthusiasm, we have less reason to suspect any adulteration of those authors upon this head, than on some others whereof later ages have been passionately fond. But as to this present subject of prophetic inspiration and Divine revelation any ways continuing in the church, I am aware that some men are so willingly deaf and blind that possibly they will rather reject all authorities, and deny the validity of the most authentic, (even such as, in other points, they would gladly acquiesce in,) than ever admit them in this. As to such men, I beseech them by the bowels of Christ to consider, that, in this remote state of ages wherein we now are, there is not any manuscript copy of the New-Testament sacred writ surviving to us so ancient as the writings of those authors were which we are now to quote : and therefore those that know any thing fully do know, that, for proof of the sacred text of Scripture itself, the editions of it have had recourse to those very monuments of antiquity upon which we are now to build evidences, touching matters of fact Y 165 PART ri. — CHAP. III. that passed in those distant ages. And I hope this very consi- deration of the venerable authority of those monuments, if the importance of it be duly weighed, may incline them to lend an ear to the report of them in this very case also whereof we treat. § 3. It is true, that, besides the testimony of those ancient Christian doctors, drawn from their signification of what they knew, saw, or heard, severally in their day, we must have re- course to secondary writers, such as Eusebius, the historian of times preceding his own. This ought, however, to be allowed also, because it is that kind of testimony upon which, in all other things, we build our knowledge of things passed. Now, every one who has looked, or will inquisitively look, into this affair knows, or may know, that no man could have greater opportunity of collecting authentic evidences of fact to compile a history than Eusebius had. And since it appears that he used many books from whence to draw his chronology which are long since perish- ed, and nothing to be found of them but their mention in his, we shall say no more than that he was a reporter of affairs far from being inclined to speak partially in favour of what we are here to represent from him. Now, besides the report of those authors testifying of their own times, and that of the historian of preceding ones, there will be mixed with the following rela- tion of facts the comments and affirmations of some very eminent divines of our own age ; concerning which latter, without further branching into their several character,, or meddling with any thing of the argument of their writings more than what concerns the proof and illustration of facts in the point we are upon, I could wish that men would be content to let every cause stand upon its own foot, and not intermix their passions of affection or aversion to this or that author, and thereby suffer their judgment to take any bias thence. I have used such as providentially came to my hand ; and I am sure the living age will allow them to be in the first rank among the learned in Christian antiquities : and I believe also, that none can charge them with any favour to a culpable enthusiasm; seeing the express design of those books of theirs I make quotations from was to oppose and con- vince of guilt what they judged to be of that kind, and is com- monly esteemed for such. § 4. We, for our part, cannot pretend to have searched into the antiquities of the Christian church in any kind of degree that should enable us to give a full account of the subject hereof PROPHECY UNCONTUOVERTED — CENTURY II. 163 from thence, but do tender here possibly but a little part of what a student therein might furnish : wherefore it will appear, that what is subjoined touching it, is drawn from a very little reading concerning that matter. However, until a more accurate search by some who are better qualified for it, we are to understand, that though there subsist no more authentic prophetical writings for one hundred and fifty years after Christ_, than those above- mentioned in the last chapter, and besides the number indefinite which those books intimate to be extraordinarily inspired, or au- thorised to declare revelations to the church in the several cities whereof they treat, we find several specified by name during the said term : as, for example, the four daughters of Philip which did prophesy. Acts xxi. 9, and survived unto this time; the rest of whom died at Hierapolis, but one of them (saith Euse- bius) resteth at Ephesus. And of her he adds, that she acted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in her conduct, whereby the continuance of that gift upon her is signified. But yet more expressly, lib. iii. ch. 37, touching the evangelists who then flourished, he says, * Besides the daughters of Philip foremen- * tioned, that shone brightly in that gift, there were many others ' also that were noted for it, and in particular Quadratus ; and * these are called divine (or inspired) disciples, who built up the * churches in every place where the Apostles had laid the foun- * dation ; who spread far and wide by their preaching the glad- * some seed of the Gospel, their souls being inflamed by the * heavenly word. These also, in performing the ofl&ce of evan- * gelists,— -that is, of inspired preachers, — left their own homes, * and passed into far distant and barbarous countries, where the * name of Christ had not yet been heard of, and there laid other * new foundations, and constituted stated pastors of those con- * gregations by imposition of hands. These evangelists then * committed to them the care of the new plantation, whilst them- < selves still advanced farther to other regions, with the pouer * and grace of God attending them ; and so great tvas the ?iumber * of these evangelists^ that it is impossible for us to rehearse them * all singly by name.^ But the one name of Quadratus, bishop of Athens, serves to give us a little light into the time whereof these things are to be understood ; for he lived to about the year 125, and was so considerable as to address an apology for the Christian faith to the Roman Emperor. § 5. And although the names are not essentially necessary, yet they illustrate iXxefact asserted in general. Among the rank 164 PART II. — CHAP. III. of prophetical teachers alluded to in the foregoing paragraph, we find that of Papias (the companion of Polycarp), and Amia (a holy woman of Philadelphia). Papias wrote five books expla- natory of our Saviour's sermons, for so they were entitled : (Nicephorus says, he wanted none of those gifts usual in this time :) and he himself sealed the faith of Christ with his own blood, A.D. 133. But as I doubt not there are many now-a-days who are ready to join with Eusebius in charging this man with error, because he insisted pn the doctrine of new heavens and a new earth to come, I shall add what in his vindication Dr. Grabe has affirmed. (Spicil. part i. p. 31, &c.) ' All the primitive Chris- * tians,' says he, * that were sound in the faith did expect a new * heaven and new earth, according to the words of the Apostles * and promises of the Prophets ; and that, at the second coming * of the Messiah, these should be restored to their original feli- ^ city before the Fall of Adam. And the most did place this * felicity, not to reside only in spiritual things, but in temporal ' too ; being persuaded that the very soil should be freed from * the curse laid upon it for the sin of Adam, and should be plen- * teously productive of all good things, without human labour.' I will suppose, then, that this may suffice for a vindication of Papias ; and if there needs any more to make good the general affirmation of Dr. Grabe, there is abundantly enough to be col- lected from other antiquaries to shew the same not only to be the faith of the ancients, but that the hope built upon this par- ticular subject of their faith was one principle specially moving them to triumph over death in martyrdom, as Papias did. How- ever, here we have a taste of our historian's favouring that prin- ciple, whereon the Greek churches did universally, soon after him (as already mentioned), reject the inspiration of the Reve- lations of St. John, as well as he herein calumniated one of his immediate disciples. § 6. As to the chronology, we do not pretend in any part of the ensuing relation to be exact; but it seems somewhat remark- able that those who have studied much to be punctual in time do make the inspired daughters of Philip to survive to a.d. 120 (at least sixty years after they are said, in Acts xxi. 9, to pro- phesy) : wherefore, doubtless, some one or other of them must have been but of an infant age when they first did so. Qua- dratus is also by others thought to have lived past the year of Christ 140. And about a.d. 155 Melito bishop of Sardis, an Eunuch, is expressly said to have done all things by the inspira- PROPHECV UNCONTRO VERTED — CENTURY II. 165 tion of the Holy Spirit, Euseb. lib. v. 24; which we must un- derstand to mean no more than the frequent directions of it. And if so, how great is the loss to the Christian world, that no- thing now remains of them but the titles of twenty tracts written by him : whereof one was concerning the prophets, and another upon prophecy itself? Thus, therefore, we have a few names of the most celebrated prophets that were resident in the fixed churches ; though, as to the number of apostolic ones, who tra- velled far from home, and laid the foundations of Christian so- cieties in many parts, and had probably greater gifts of the Spirit attending them, — these, though the most honourable, yet with- out any memorial of honour personally to themselves for their heroic employment, have left us, however, clear matter for con- cluding, that the spreading of Christianity, and the first sowing and planting of it, was performed by the Spirit extraordinarily upon such ; and by its immediate orders too, as to St. Paul, and not by human oratory of teaching, or human measures. But that we may have the more distinct idea of the gift of prophe- eying or inspired preaching in those days, I shall here subjoin the several accounts of it given by two persons well known in our age, and both very well acquainted with the history of these times whereof now we treat. § 7. The very learned Mr. Dodwell, in the preface to his Dissertations on Irena^us, says, * That even the apostles, or pro- * phets of the highest rank, were not under inspiration at their own * pleasure or choice ; neither are we to take all they said or did * for Divine oracles, but then only when the Spirit was upon * them. And who is there that can be so ignorant as not to ' know that there were divers degrees of prophecy, and very dif- * ferent, in one and the same gift of the prophetic Spirit ? nay, ' there was difference in respect to certainty (in the very act of * prophesying) of one person more than another : for thus the * New Testament seems to bear it in those several texts wherein * apostles are mentioned to be not only distinguished from pro- * phets, but in their gifts superior ; as where St. Paul gives out * his doctrine for a standard to the common prophets, 1 Cor. * xiv. 37 : " If any one seemeth to be a prophet or spiritual man, * let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the * commandments of the Lord." And thus, when he says, that * he " received his apostleship by the revelation of Jesus * Christ," no one can doubt that he there means the gift of pro- * phecy, wherein he claims to be equal with the " very chiefest 166 TART. II.— CHAP. III. * apostles ;" by which expression is intimated, that not only tiie * common degree of that gift among the prophets was insufficient * to denominate an apostle, but that among those that were * apostles there might be difference too. Wherefore, although * many in the second century had the gift of prophecy, it does * not thence necessarily follow that therein they were equal to * the Apostles. And that there were degrees also of eminence * among the very apostles, in that gift, appears from the terms * used concerning them, " seemed to be somewhat ," Gal. ii. 6, 9 ; * " seemed to be pillars," 2 Cor. xi. 6 ; '' great apostles," xii. 11 ; * ** above measure apostles." And thus it is said, Deut. xxxiv. * 10, " there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses," * whom the Lord knew face to face. Nevertheless, such was the * economy of Divine appointment in the mystical body, that * the less noble members were necessary even to the more noble, * and that in the communion of spiritual gifts also. Thus the ' Spirit spake to St. Paul, in his journey towards Jerusalem, by * Agabus and other prophets of particular churches. And if * prophecy in any one particular person deserved regard, the * unity and concurrence of the Spirit of prophecy, in few or more < persons, added proportionable weight in any point. Wherefore, * if God had thought fit, the Spirit prophesying later than the age ' of the Apostles might have given forth rules and injunctions new * and unknown to the Apostles, which ought to have been ac- * knowledged for Divine revelation ; and even so there is no fear * of innovating in the Christian faith, although we do acknow- * ledge the prophecying in the primitive ages of the church to * be equally such (that is, equally true, or from the Divine Spirit) ' with those of the Apostles; seeing nothing contrary or incon- * sistent with the apostolical is by them delivered.' § 8. Wherefore, in his Second Dissertation, the same author adds, — * Among the first fruits of the Spirit, Clement, Hermas, ' Ignatius, and Polycarp, are to be accounted : and their * writings ought to be esteemed, though not equal to the apos- * tolical, yet for divine ; as of prophets, in a rank inferior to them, * and such as are far to be preferred above all human writings. * As to direction and government of particular churches, whilst * the prophetic gifts remained, there could be no one uninspired * set over the prophets to prescribe to them. Ignatius takes notice, < that in the church of Smyrna every kind of the extraordinary < gifts of the Spirit subsisted ; and therefore prophecy and the * discerning of spirits were among the rest ; and this kept all PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. 167 * errors from venting themselves. Papias witnesses, that even * the gift of miracles continued in the place where he resided, * and Epiphanius mentions a Roman governor converted else- * where, a.d. 136, by the great evidence of the gift of healing. * Polycarp was by a miraculous voice strengthened under his * last conflict ; and the believers standing by were comforted by ** the fragrant odour they smelt. But as to miracles, there were * some heretical teachers who pretended to authorise their errors * by them : and in that danger of the faithful, the Spirit, being * always present in the guidance of the church, did admonish * them of their duty, and what to do ; as, by the gift of discern- * ing spirits, and that of prophecy, has already been hinted ; and * thus the elect were preserved from the danger predicted to * arise from miracles.' (The latter clause about miracles is the subject of divers pages in the author.) § 9. Dr. George Hicks, another person well versed in the antiqui- ties of the Christian church, in a tract called "Enthusiasm exor- cised," the fourth edition, 1709, gives us the following account of them : ' When our Lord left the world,' says he, * he sent his * Spirit as his vicar or vicegerent, to assist and teach them in his * absence, as St. Paul and Barnabas were instructed by inspi- * ration, or other revelations of the Holy Spirit, who supplied the * place of Christ. And in the " differences of administrations " — * that is, of ministries or ministers — the Apostles stood first; con- * cerning which spiritual or inspired persons the Apostle speaks, * 1 Cor. xii. 1. These gifts inspired were given to the Apostles * and other disciples, in several measures ; and " the word of * wisdom " or ** knowledge " enabled to teach and interpret the ' allegorical and typical mysteries of the Old Testament, as they * related to the Evangelical state, and to expound the prophe- * tical passages of it. This gift of understanding y teaching, and * applying the Scriptures of the Old Testament was one of the * most noble of the prophetical gifts. It was by virtue of this * gift, which St. Peter and St. Paul had from the Spirit, that they * opened and applied in all their Epistles, and expounded and * testified the kingdom of God to the Jews ; and even by the < fulness of this prophetical gift, Christ himself (" who had not * the Spirit by measure") frequently opened the Scripture. To * this gift is originally ovoing that interpretation of Scripture used * by the ancient Christian writers, which, though not found in the * New-Testament writings, had been so applied and explained by 168 PART II.-— CHAP. III. * inspired ministers in the times of inspiration, and transmitted * to them in age after age for the benefit of the church ; the * instances whereof are many, in the tracts of Clement, Barnabas, * Justin Martyr, Clemens of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, * Cyprian, and Novatian ; and in particular, according to them, ' the Psalms are almost all applied to Christ and his church ; * many, or most of which interpretations are not found in the * New-Testament Scriptures, and yet are generally received in * some remarkable texts ; as, for instance, that of Gen. xlix. 10, * " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from ' between his feet, till Shiloh come." By this prophetical word * of knowledge^ other books received among the Jews were cited, * besides those of their canonical Scriptures ; as those from ' which St. Paul quotes the magicians, Jannes and Jambres, that < withstood Moses. And St. Stephen says, that '• Moses was ' learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and was forty * years of age when he visited his brethren by a revelation from * God beforehand. Out of the same books it was likely that * St. Paul says, '< Moses exceedingly quaked ;" and Peter and * Jude mention the fall of the angels from their first station ; and * *' Michael the archangel contended with the devil about the * body of Moses ;" and the prophecy of Enoch is cited, "Behold, * the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." This is * the prophetical gift promised by Isai. xi. 2, called the Spirit of * wisdom and the Spirit of knowledge. Thus the gift of under- < standing the secret and mystical sense of the Scriptures in the ' New Testament is called "wisdom" by St. John, Rev. xiii. 18: < *' Here is wisdom ; let him that hath understanding count the * number of the beast ;" and in chap. xvii. 9, ** Here is the mind < that hath wisdom." In this sense the ancient fathers do ex- * press themselves, as Origen, in answer to Celsus, saith: He who * is adorned with the gift which we call the 'word of wisdom can * declare the reason why the heavens were opened unto Jesus, * and why the Spirit appeared in the likeness of a dove and of * no other living creature. This was one of the most noble gifts * which the Pneumaiicoi^ or spiritual ministers, enjoyed by inspi- * ration of the Holy Spirit, and which was given to St. Paul im- < mediately upon his conversion, as appears Acts ix. 20, 22 : and < this is what the prayer of his refers to, Ephes. i. 17, *' That ' God may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, < for the further knowledge of Jesus Christ." This gift of teach- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. 169 * ing, interpreting, and instructing out of the Scriptures was < common in the churches ; and the edifying men who were in- * spired with it were called, in the Hebrew sense of the word, * prophets ; that is, inspired ministers or teachers : and so we * are to understand the word prophets in the New Testament, * wherein speahing and prophesying by the Spirit signifieth preach- *ing; as in the texts, "every man praying or prophesying," * " he that prophesyeth speaketh unto men for edification," and * such like. And thus it was that the foolish things of the world * did out-argue and puzzle the wise, when they spoke not in the * words or reasons which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the ' Holy Spirit teacheth.' § 10. By the report of these two divines, the manner and quality of prophets and teachers by the Spirit, in the Christian church, is a little explained : therefore we shall now proceed in the proof of their continuing, by the peculiar grace of Christ, to his spouse the church. First, then, Justin the Martyr, who sealed the truth with his own blood about the year 170, is a man so well deserving of the Christian commonwealth by many treatises in her defence, against the Jews and the heathen, and the erroneous in all kinds, that a more unreproachable witness of any matter cannot be. There were some tracts of his that are perished, which might have given a more distinguishing light into the thing now under consideration, as that of the Nature of Angels, and another concerning Hymns, and an Exposition of the Apocalypse. Touching these I shall only observe, that Pliny and other authors mention sacred hymns to be composed and sung by the first Christians. And as St. Paul joins the same to the being filled with the Spirit, and calls them inspired songs, the tract of Justinus might probably have given some account of such ; for the prophetic Spirit often has exerted itself in that way : but at present it must suffice to us, that in the works of his still extant he urges against the Jews the argument of the pro- phetic Spirit existent in the church, as a proof incontestible of the truth of Christianity ; for, says he, * Ye may among us see * both women and men having the gifts of the Spirit of God * which was among you of old, and has of long time ceased :* wherein, says Mr. Dodwell (Dissert. Cyp.), there is an appeal to ocular demonstration of the Spirit's agency, as Gal. iii. 1, 2 ; *' before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth," in your receiving of the Spirit extraordinarily. And then in 170 PART II. — CHAF. III. the course of his argument, Justin challenges them, the Jews, * to hear the words of prophecy and doctrine (in the name of * Christ) as a demonstration of his power yet existing, that they * might also believe ; and, at the same time, goes on largely to * upbraid them, that they would rather blindly adhere to their * Rabbins' traditions than listen to what the Spirit of prophecy * from God noijo spahe ; for, says he, the gifts of prophecy are * among us unto this day.' Wherefore, rightly doth Eusebius report of Justin Martyr, that he affirmed the gift of prophecy shone brightly in the chirch in his time. § 11. And as Justin thus boldly asserted the fact unto the Jews, the inference is clear, that the prophetic Spirit, whensoever justified by the harmony of his precedent word, ought in all times to be obeyed, whenever he so speaks. Therefore the Jews were then culpable, and without excuse, in not submitting to it, above one hundred and twenty years after Christ's decease, as well as in rejecting him when alive. But the same Christian hero, in his Apology to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, p. 67j insists on the same topic to the heathen, saying, 'When ye hear the words * of prophets, do not ye think that the person whom the Spirit * inspireth speaks, but the Divine Word that moves him ; whether * it be that the words spoken are in the person of God the Father * of all, or in that of Christ, or as in his own person, or as re- * presenting the people in their arguing.' Moreover, it is very ob- servable, that not only in this author but by many authors, during the time that the Spirit of prophecy was acknowledged to reside in the church, and the manner of his operation better known than by the presumptuous ages that are without any such in- struction ; the violent agitations notorious on the Sybils, and their not understanding what they spake during the ecstasy, was no sufficient objection to determine against the divinity of their inspiration ; as may be seen (among many other ancient autho- rities) in Justin's Exhortation to the Greeks, p. 35, wherein he declares himself satisfied that some of the Sybils were divinely actuated and inspired : and in p. 9, he describes the prophetic influence by the metaphor of a musician's hand touching the strings of a harp or spinnet (which is a motion visible) ; for * thus,' says he, ' the Divine Agent, the Spirit, in his communi- * cated operation, affects the man as an instrument to sound forth * and declare the knowledge of heavenly things to us which * otherwise were above our reach to attain.' PROPHECY UMCONTROVERTED CENTURY II. 171 § 12. A little after Justin Martyr, namely, about a.d. 180, Athenagoras, who was commissioned by the Christians to carry another apology in their name to the emperor, says in it, — < The * Spirit of prophecy gives his assent to our prayer ; for the Holy * Spirit pours out prophetical words in those on whom he operates. * I call them prophets, who, being out of themselves and their * own thoughts, did utter forth whatsoever by the impelling povoer * of the Spirit he wrought in them ; whilst the Divine Operator * served himself of them, or their organs, even as men do of a * trumpet, blowing through it. Thus have we prophets for wit- * nesses and affirmers of our faith ; and is it not equal and worthy < of human reason, O ye emperors, to yield up our faith to the * Divine Spirit, who moves the moiiths of the prophets as his instru- ' ments ? We exhort you, therefore, to cease from human per- * suasions.^ From all which it is plain that the Christians did insist, both with Jews, and infidels, upon their privilege of inspi- ration prophetic continuing among them ; and about the same time Eusebius (hb.v. 1) gives us the copy of a memorable epistle from the churches of Lyons and Vienne, which yields an account of divers martyrs in their country : in particular, * that there was * one Vetius Epagathus, who is mentioned to be fervent in the * Spirit, and transported ivith vehement emotion^ having in him- * self the Paraclete^ even the Spirit, in greater abundance than * Zacharias the father of John the Baptist ; and whilst they ad- * vanced joyfully to lay hold of the crown of martyrdom, the * standers-by smelt the fragrant odour of Christ, as if their bodies * had been perfumed with odoriferous ointment. In particular, * again, Alexander, a Phrygian, exceedingly encouraged those * heroic champions, in their last conflict for the faith : for this * man, by profession a physician, was well known in France for * his great zeal to God, and his bold preaching ; for he was en- < dowed with the apostolical gifts of the Spirit. In the same * church also, there was one Alcibiades, who had used himself * to great mortification, that he might enjoy the more commu- * nion with God ; who was directed by a message from Heaven, * given in a vision, signifying that he was in the wrong to ac- * custom himself to bread and water only, and bid him to use * other of God's creatures lawfully.' § 13. By the last-mentioned instances, and several preceding ones, it appears that the Spirit of prophecy proved a seed of new rising churches, as well in powerfully scattering the blood of 172 PART II. — CHAP. III. martyrs as in its prevalent operation upon the auditors of its sermons. And the chain of proofs of the continuance thereof with the church having already reached near the end of the second century, we shall add but one link more, to complete that period. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who fell asleep a.d. 192, was a star too bright and shining, in the clear hemisphere of the church, for any one the least acquainted with books to need a further character of him before he be admitted a credible evi- dence in this cause. I shall only take notice, that Epiphanius (lib. i. tom. ii. p. 205) says, that IrencBus himself was completely/ adorned "with the gifts of the Spirit; and if so, we must allow that, though his own modesty would not suffer him, in his large writings in behalf of the truth as it is in Jesus, to declare that, yet he bears a luminous testimony to the same grace of Christ and fellowship of the Holy Spirit plentiful in others ; for who- ever pleases may read more of his words on this subject (lib. ii. cap. 56—58). But here it might suffice to observe, that, speak- ing of the notorious heretics Simon Magus and Carpocrates, who were reported to work miracles, he goes on to shew the difference between their operations and the true Christian's, and then adds ; * They are far from doing any thing like unto raising of the ' dead, as our Saviour did, and the Apostles by prayer did ; and * among the brethren often, when the whole church in any place, * using much supplication and fasting, have besought it, the spirit * of the dead returned, and the man is given in to the prayers of ' the saints. But if some men say scoffingly, that the Lord has * performed these things fantastically, (I suppose he means the * usual and well known appearances on the prophet,) we, on this * point appealing unto prophetical things, shall demonstrate from * them, that all things that were predicted and affirmed touching * the Lord were performed after a like manner: wherefore, he * being the only Son of God, by his name those that are indeed ' his disciples, receiving grace from him, do now perform to the * benefit of other men, according as every one has received the ' gift from him ; for some do cast out devils truly and effectually, * so that those who are cleansed from the impure spirits them- < selves are converted to the faith, and abide in the church : * others have fore-knowledge of things future, and have visions, * and the gift of prophesying : others, by imposition of hands, do * restore the sick and heal all diseases : and, as we have already * said, the dead are raised, and do survive with us many years. PROPHECY UNCONTRO VERTED CENTURY II. 173 ' But what shall I say ? for it is not possible to reckon up the * number of those gifts which the church all the world over has * received, and does exert even every day, in the name of Jesus * Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate, neither seducing any one * nor taking from him any money ; for he that has received it * freely from God does minister the gift gratis unto others. * Moreover, they noxjo speak in all tongues by the Spirit of God, * even as St. Paul spake ; even as we ourselves have heard many * of the brethren that have the prophetical gifts in the church, * and who speak by the Spirit in all languages, and profitably do * make manifest the secrets of mens hearts, and openly publish the * mysterious things of God.' § 14. Says Mr. Dodwell, in his Dissertations on this passage; * I see not what could be spoken more magnificent, of even the * apostolic age, in the very Scriptures apostolical : I see no one * gift in the church then, more than Irenaeus here mentions of * his age. Did the churches apostolic enjoy the gift of healing, * give hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, and cure all maims * and diseases ? So did those coeval with our author : and even * with the same sign of the imposition of hands, with the same * fasting and prayers, and calling over them the sacred name of * Jesus, the dead were raised in the apostolic churches; and yet * we have but rare mention of it in the Acts of Apostles : and * here we find that among the brethren it was frequently so upon * the general supplication of a church, and upon necessary ur- * gency ; and the dead so raised lived amongst them many years.' But not to recite all Mr. Dodwell's comment, ' Here is evidence/ says he, * of visions, and foreknowledge of future things, and * prophetical speeches, and manifesting the thoughts of men's * hearts, and of opening the deep things of God : and these gifts * were in that plenty that they could not be numbered. These * things are reported by Irenaeus, not as things of some time * passed, or which he had upon trust or uncertain rumour ; but * they were performed daily, to the benefit of the nations ; and * he himself both saw and heard them, and received the evidence < of them by his own proper senses, being things done in the * public assemblies of the church, and therefore capable to be * attested by the concurrent witnessing of the church universal. * And if these affirmations had not been universally known to * be true, Eusebius, instead of inserting this passage in his his- * tory, to the honour of Irenaeus, would either have left it out. n^i PART II. — CHAP. IV. * or reproved him for it (having a very fair opportunity to do so, * because Trenceus ivas a Chiliast, or held the future reign of the * Messiah, which Eusebius opposed) : but these are not the sole * passages in this ancient father, which affirm the continuance of * the Paraclete in the church ; for, says he elsewhere, where a * church is, there the Spirit of God is ; and where the Spirit of * God is, there is a church, and every gift (of his) : so that he * asserts, that all manner of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit * were so necessary to the connecting together the constituents * of a church, as if no number of men, however else compacted * together, was properly such if it were destitute of those gifts; * which way of argument in him could never have been tolerable * but upon the foot of the incontestible certainty of the facts * precedently advanced, — that is, that the existence of those gifts * in every church was apparently evident to a demonstration.' CHAP. IV. OF PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED IN THE THIRD CENTURY. § 1. We have, during the whole series of the second century, found a cloud of witnesses still surviving to us in their writings, that give such testimonies of the Spirit of Christ extraordinarily continuing in the church, by all the ways of Divine manifestations prophetic, as leave no colour for the common allegation that pro- phecy ceased with the writing of St. John's Revelation, or at least with the age wherein he died ; namely, the end of the first century ; although we cannot but secretly blush, on the reading of these things, in behalf of those who stand in the place of the learned, and yet will shamelessly affirm the contrary to them. Surely these men will not persist in that course ; but, be that as it M'ill, we shall not now repeat any thing that has been said in the proofs above enumerated, only that at the close of them we find the continuance of the gifts extraordinary of the Spirit were so universal that the very definition of a church, as constituted by Christ, was held necessarily to imply and require the existence of them, more or less, in every such church distinctly. And this constitution of things being asserted by so eminent a father as Irenaeus, unreproved for it by others his contemporaries, at the PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 175 end of the second century ; though it be a strong affirmation, to assure us positively of the continuance, more or less, of those gifts in every church ; yet it is far short of what some modern writers would have to be thought, that is, that every single teacher was inspired, or gifted extraordinarily by the Holy Spirit, and that no one in those times was accounted a minister without it, or could be so. Nay, the very large positive testimony of Irenaeus had been highly derogating from the honour of his Saviour, by diminishing vastly the riches of his glory in the church (which is his body and fulness), had the scheme of these men been then true ; and therefore I look upon it as a full negative at that time to their conclusion. § 2. But now, before T give my poor endeavours to proceed in the collection of other like testimonies of this great subject for the duration of the third century, it is necessary to premise a repetition of my own ignorance in the histories of the church of the first ages ; lest the reader should conceive that this mighty demonstration of the triumph of Christ, when he led captive the enslaver of souls, and gave gifts unto rebellious man, from on high, were in those ages limited to my deficient quotations from some very few authorities. Let him therefore consider, that these foregoing and subsequent evidences of " the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy," are here drawn out by one who neither had any academic education, nor has the benefit of libraries ; no, nor leisure, nor indeed natural abilities such as mul- titudes alive now have. Wherefore, he may to his comfort, and all the world that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity may to theirs, reasonably and justly expect that not one only but many abler pens will contribute more amply to set forth the abounding sub- ject of the everlasting praises of our Redeemer's magnificence and exuberant bounty of his majestic royalty to his beloved. But until those more auspicious and truly noble undertakings (which may be a little answerable to the dignity of the matters herein contained) do rejoice the hearts of such as wish all glory to Christ, without any partnership in it unto men, I shall hereunder add what occurs from my little and very accidental reading. § 3. The " testimony of Jesus " abiding with his church uni- versal unto the year 200 being so largely evinced from Irenaeus, it cannot be amiss to exhibit some notes here of what Mr. Dod- well, in his Dissertations on that father, gives us of the prophe- 176 PART II. — CHAr. IV. tic state of the church, not limited to the second, but equally applicable to the third century. And though he cites not his authorities for some assertions positive therein, as we have done and shall do, for the clear history of facts ; yet he having in his preface declared, that in that treatise he gave not all, no nor the principal remarks he could have done, the author hereof, be- ing well assured of Mr. Dodwell's declaration about four years agone, that the account he had given, in this treatise of the pro- phetic gifts in the primitive times, was not only true in fact, but that he was able to have added a great deal more touching them, andhadyetthe notes prepared by him to do so, if occasion required. Upon these grounds we do suppose that what we have now to add, from his (at present) bare assertion, was by him provable, and may be so by others, from authentic monuments of anti- quity still existent, though we for our part are not capable to do it. Until therefore some abler hand shall pursue this argu- ment we must leave the ensuing notes upon the authority of him that gave them ; and whose accurate search into the Christian primary ages, no one that inquires touching him can be ignorant of; any more than he can find reason to think that Mr. Dod- well designed, in this work of his and others, to encourage a wild and foolish enthusiasm. But let every man judge as he pleases upon that report of his ; I subjoin it here, with some re- flections, as he gives occasion, in the Preface to, and Second Dissertation upon, Irenaeus. § 4. * The modern ages (says he, in the preface,) interpret * Scripture merely by human means and abilities, but the pri- * mitive had God and the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary man- < ner the interpreter of it. Revelation indeed may be expounded < both ways ; that is, either by human wit, or by a new revela- * tion of the same Spirit that first indited it. Thus Daniel, who * had the endowment of excellent parts, might, upon the foot * of his own ability, have given the sense of a previous revela- * tion before he did implore a new and other revelation for the * exposition of a former one. However, touching these two * ways of interpretation of Scripture, no man can doubt that * even the lowest degree of true prophecy ought to be preferred * before the most polite and exquisite reasonings of men upon < it ; and of consequence, for the right apprehending the sense * of any Scripture no one can doubt to which of them we are to ' give the most adherence and faith. For instance, in the argu- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — ^CENTURY III. 177 * ment of the Socinian controversy now-a-days, it is far less * absurd to think that the most presuming arrogance of human < wit may deceive them, than that the Divine Spirit, even in the * lowest degree of revelation, can. Now, says he, we have the * testimony more than human, in the church of the first ages, on ' this point, whereon we ought to depend for the interpretation ' of Scripture more than on the finest modern reasonings of men.' Unto which observation of Mr. Dodwell, because it belongs to the present subject of proving acknowledged prophecy in the church for the first three centuries, I here subjoin the assertion of Epiphanius touching the same point of doctrine, or at least that of the Arian. Epiphanius living about anno 400, and treat- ing of Arius, lib. ii. tom. ii. pp. 728 and 735, says, that *the coun- * cils which condemned him did confirm the faith delivered by * the Apostles and Prophets to the Christian church.' In the Second Dissertation, Mr, Dodwell says, *The infallibility ascribed * to the Apostles by the church we must not take to be proper * only to their writings which we have, but to be the same in * other writings of theirs, and in their actions and speeches. * The infallibility of their persons is evinced from their extraordi- ' nary gifts, which shew they were endowed with the prophetic * Spirit. That that Spirit was from God, and accordingly good, * the Jews were wont to infer from the signs of prophets j and * therefore, to prove it the same way to the Jews, the Apostles * accommodated themselves to their conceptions, by insisting on * the same appearances of the Spirit, the same signs of prophets, * But as to the infallibility affixed to their persons, there never * was a prophet (except our Lord himself) who did all things * under the guidance of the prophetic Spirit ; and in those which * he, the prophet, performed by his human spirit, he was obnoxi- < ous to human errors. Thus Barnabas and Peter, though en- * dued with the highest degree of the extraordinary gifts, did * err. Therefore any error in lesser matters, found upon the * prophetical fathers of the second century, does not conclude * against their being vested with the extraordinary gifts of the < Spirit, and in consequence their being infallible in points of « great moment ; for error in such points must have been per- < nicious, and highly injurious to the church for whose sake re- * velations were given. Therefore errors of this kind I take to * be inconsistent with the true claim of prophetic inspiration, * though those of a less do not appear to me so.' Now because 2 a 178 PART II. — CHAP. IV. men have generally admitted a notion that any error, of what kind soever, though of very small moment, is utterly inconsistent with true inspiration, differently from what Mr. Dodwell thus represents of the prophetic times, and on other occasions, several of the learned do assert ; I refer to their consideration the men- tion of Jeremiah in Matt, xxvii. 9, whereas that passage is found in Zechariah, and not in Jeremiah. Let them also reflect on that in Mark ii. 26, how David is there said to eat the shew-bread in the days of Abiathar the high priest, when by 1 Sam. xxi. in the whole context of the story it appears that Abimelech was then priest. So likewise, in Acts vii. 16, Abraham is named to have bought the sepulchre at Sichem ; whereas it is plain from Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19, that the same was bought by Jacob. In like manner, what shall we say to that of 1 Cor. xv. 5, where twelve Apostles are mentioned to have seen our Lord risen, when certainly there was not that number .^ Moreover, if we consider the words written upon our Saviour's cross, and that they are given to us to be different by every one of the four" Gospels ; we must, on these accounts, as well as that in 1 Cor. xiv. 29, (where some actuated by the Divine Spirit are supposed capable of erring,) conclude that the modern dogmas or systems touch- ing the Spirit of prophecy are unscriptural ; because these little defects are by Supreme Wisdom not in vain left in the sacred text. § 6. But to pursue the recital of Mr. Dodwell's report con- cerning those times : * These gifts (says he) of the Spirit extraor- < dinary were distributed not only in the second but also in the * third century, even unto the time of Constantine ; and thus it * was, that God himself immediately, and not men, did take ' care of his church, and the evidence of his Divine favour to * her was that degree of the gifts. Far be it from us to under- ' stand; that the human spirit did preside or prescribe to the * Divine ; for the gifts extraordinary were for the public use and * guidance of the church : therefore, if God set some men in it * to preside and guide others, he so constituted things that men * might know they followed and were led by his own Divine direc- ^ tion, rather than the dictate of man. And thus we read often, < that " the Spirit fell {itisiliit, < leaped ') upon them," when 'they received from God a public trust, as it was with the elders *that partook of it with Moses, for his help in government. * Neither let us think that this unction of the Spirit was an in- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 179 ^ duction so temporary, that the like may not be expected again * in our days ; for the Christians of primitive times did so under- * stand it that the holy anointing mentioned by the Apostle John * more than once did mean the internal oil (the Spirit given) re- * sponding to the outward call.' § 7. In the same Second Dissertation on Irenaeus, Mr. Dodwell continues his remarks on the prophetical state of Christians ; saying, ' In the first conversion of churches, the water of bap- * tism was a symbol of the Spirit extraordinary : for the Spirit * was in that manner (for the most part) conferred on the bap- * tized, that it appeared and shelved itself by some outvoard and * sensible sign, which they called the manifestation of the Spirit; * and this was so apparently exhibited, that the very infidels * could not doubt of that gift of the Spirit. Thus the gift of it * to some who were baptized, being open to and affecting the * senses of others, drew many new proselytes daily unto baptism ; * which argument to persuade converts could have been of no * validity, but that the gift of the Spirit therein did discover itself * obviously by some sign affecting the senses of all beholders ; unto ' which manifestation of the Spirit the Apostle refers, 1 Cor. * xii. 7. And those who were thus possessed by the Spirit were * such who, in the apprehension of the Greeks, ought to be * styled prophets ; insomuch that the Gentiles themselves were * satisfied that those very persons were prophets, and had truly < received the Spirit. Thus the words of our Saviour were made * good, " Ye shall be baptized {plunged or covered) with the * Holy Spirit," as John baptized with water without it ; which < emblem of covering answers to that of the Old Testament, of < <' clothed by the Spirit." That Spirit which was on the prophets * under the times of the Law was the very same which Christ * conferred under the Gospel, and which the ancient prophets * had predicted should be communicated to all, in the last times * of Christianity, as Joel annexes, " and they shall prophesy," * to the words " I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh;" and * of this prophetical teaching by the Spirit are to be understood * the words of Isaiah liv. 13, " All thy children shall be taught * of God," as it stands distinguished from, " No man shall any * more teach his brother, or his neighbour, saying. Know the * Lord; but all men should know him," without needing any * human instructions or teaching (Jer. xxxi. 34). , §8. * Nevertheless, although we owe faith to God revealing 180 PART II. — CHAP. IV. * in all ; nor is one word of God's to be preferred before another? * yet the case, as to those who are inspired of God, is not the * same : for among these some have more ample gifts than others, * and in consequence more assuring arguments why we should * prefer them in believing. Nor do we thereby deny our faith * to God revealing, when, for the discriminating (to our satis- * faction) the human spirit from the Divine, we desist from a * prophet of a less rank to build upon another in an higher ; for * the Apostle supposes such degrees among the prophets, when * he allows some to judge of what others had spoken, i Cor. * xiv. 29, (some defect being thereby implied) : they had also * among them certain means by which assuredly to distinguish * between those truly inspired and those not so ; one of which * was, that none probably presided in the church but who were * remarkable for spiritual gifts, and more especially for that of * discerning spirits. And this we may the rather believe, be- * cause, by the concurring monuments of those times, it appears, * that the extraordinary gifts were used in the electing of men * for the ministry. Unto this did the prescriptions of St. Paul * refer, "Despise not prophecyings ;" " Prove all things, hold * fast what is good ;" and that of St. John, *« Try the spirits, * whether they be of God." And the trial was not of the gifts * by those without them, but the judgment was to be made by * the extraordinary gifts themselves (in others). In particular, * with respect to the call of ministers, it was committed to the * Discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart ; and * the spiritual man judged " all things, and he himself was (in * that judgment) discerned of no man ;" for we find both in the * Old and New Testament, the spirit of judgment or knowledge * mentioned among the spiritual gifts. In this matter, then, the * Spirit signified his will after divers manners, and sometimes < made known to the prophets the future conduct and disposi- * tions and gifts of him who was to be ordained a minister ; as * 1 Tim. i. 18 : and the Holy Spirit guided and directed also ex- * ternal things relating to the church, not only by revelations * made thereof to the pastors, but to other members of it also, * even to some of the most abject and contemptible among the * laity. For illustration, therefore, when the names of men to * be ordained for pastors were, after an examination, proposed * to the church, and solemn fasting and prayers were on that oc- * casion used ; then the sentence of the prophets appeared in it, PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 181 * not that of any certain or prepared persons, but according to < the free pleasure of the prophetic Spirit, sometimes bi/ the mouth < of children, sometimes of grown persons, sometimes of mini- * sters, sometimes of the laics, even just as at that time the * (impetus) rushing poiver of the Spirit of prophecy impelled them: * for it was the way of God, not always to instruct the very * Apostles by their own proper revelations, but often by those < of other people ; and no man was admitted into the public < offices of the church but who was approved by the public tes- * timonies of it. Thus, that in 1 Cor. xii. 22, the less comely * parts of the body mystical, became more necessary; so that * ** the eye," even those who had ordinarily *' the gift of know- * ledge," *' could not say to the hand or feet. We have no need * of you." And thus probably it was disposed by the framer of * the body, lest ministers should be puffed up with their peculiar * gifts, or learn to despise those of the laity. § 9. * During the second and third century, as well as in the * first, all sorts of men, and even of women, of every rank, had * the extraordinary gifts of the prophetic Spirit, though those * who were most remarkable for the degree of it were placed in * the hifjhest stations in the church ; and it is certain, there were * no offices performed in the church but what were primarily to * be referred to " the gift of prophecy " in it. In particular, the * singing of Psalms, which made up by far the largest part of * public worship, was almost peculiar to the prophets ; for they * had the gift not only to compose Psalms, but to sing them : for * the ancient Gentiles esteemed poets to be sacred, and called * them Divine speakers ; and thus Epimenides the poet is called * by St. Paul " a prophet" (Tit. i. 12). In a parallel allusion, < the sacred enthusiasm of the prophets, in a poetical rapture of * the Divine Spirit among Christians, took place in the tone of * singing, as well as in the composing of hymns : the Holy * Spirit raised the affections and imagination of those that sung, * and disposed them interchangeably to be excited to the utmost * impelling exertions of the same Spirit in others ; as we find < the use of music among the prophets, in the time of Elisha, to * prepare men fi3r the illapses of the Spirit. Nor do I think that < the word Eucharist (thanksgiving) used for the Sacrament had * any other original but from the conjunction of a hymn with it; * which was dictated or sung, not by any stated minister, in that *■ extraordinary discipline in the church, but by whomsoever 182 PART II. CHAP. IV. * among the crowd of the faithful, the prophetical impelling povier ^Jell upon : and the same person under that impetuous power < was then also driven to consecrate the Sacrament ; nor possibly * had the sacramental elements in those times any other conse- * cration than that Eucharistical Hymn. Next to the Psalms, * the chief act of worship was preaching, which was by the lan- * guage and custom of those ages, termed TrapajcXTycetc, which * may be understood either consolations or exhortations ; and * this preaching (by the Paraclete) was properly the office of the * prophets; among whom he that had the gift of knowledge was * in a specific manner termed a teacher or doctor. § 10. ' Dr. Whitby's Preface to his Paraphrase on all the < Epistles of the New Testament tells us, that we have reason * to believe the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were conferred * upon other churches, equally with those which the Apostles * mention in their Epistles. For this appears included in divers * expressions touching prophets and prophecy used therein (cited * there by the author): and it may be gathered also for the reason * of the thing ; for the operations of the Holy Spirit are said to < be designed for these several ends : — First, The confirmation of < the testimony and the faith of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 6 ; and their < establishment in Christ, v Cor. i. 21, 22: Secondly, The edifi- * cation of the body of Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 7 ; Ephes. iv. 11, 12: * Thirdly, To be a pledge and earnest of their adoption and their * future happiness, Rom. viii. 23 ; 2 Cor. i. 22 ; Gal. iv. 6, 7 ; * Ephes. i. 13 : Fourthly, To be their comfort under persecutions, * Rom. v. 3, 5 ; 2 Cor. i. 7 ; 1 Pet. i. 4. Now these are ends as * necessary for all as for any Christian churches, who must all * equally need the confirmation of their faith, the work of the * ministry, the perfecting of the saints, and the edification of the * body of Christ, the support and comfort of the Spirit under < persecutions, the pledge and earnest of their future hopes. § 11. 'It seems evident, that, at the first foundation of a * Christian church among the Gentiles, there were no settled * pastors to perform the public offices in their assemblies ; but * they were generally performed by prophets, or spiritual menf * who had the gift of prophecy, or were in the assembly excited * to that work by an afflatus of the Holy Spirit. For the Apo- * sties did not presently upon the conversion of any number of * persons to the Christian faith ordain them elders in every church, ' but left them for a season to the conduct of those prophets and PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED CENTURY III. 183 * spiritual men the Holy Ghost had fitted for that work. The ' church of Antioch was converted, saith Dr. Lightfoot, in the * fortieth year of our Lord, and yet no elders (stated ministers) * were ordained among them till the fiftieth year; but in this in- * terval there were prophets among them who ministered in their * assemblies to the Lord. In like manner the isle of Crete was * converted for some considerable time, and so likewise ministered * unto, before St. Paul sent Titus to them, to " ordain elders in * every city." And if we may take an estimate of other churches * by what was certainly performed in that of Corinth, we cannot * reasonably doubt the truth of this assertion : for, whereas all * the public offices performed then in the church were prayer and * singing Psalms, expounding or preaching the word, and Eucha- * ristical oblations ; all these are in ICor.xiv. ascribed to the pro- * phets in that church, or to the men endued with spiritual gifts * among them. Some of those prophets prayed ; others composed * sacred hymns by their spiritual gift ; others did teach for edifi- * cation, exhortation, and comfort : others did also then euXoyetv, * "bless," which is the word used for consecration of the Eucha- ' rist, chap. x. 16; and evj^aptTctv, "give thanks," which is the * word used in our Lord's institution of this sacrament, 1 Cor.xi. * 21. But that all or any of these things were done by stated * pastors, we never read in the Epistles to that church. § 12. * All which things put together render it more than * probable that there were then no settled pastors in the church * of Corinth, which makes it necessary that the affairs of their * church assemblies should be wholly managed by their prophets * or spiritual persons. It seemeth also highly probable that this * was the case of other churches, since the Apostle, directing his * Epistles to many of them, makes no mention of any church- * governors among them ; either in the beginning of them, as he * does in his Epistle to the Philippians, or in the salutations at * the close of them, as in that to the Hebrews. Now, for the * continuance of this gift of prophecy^ not only in the age of the * Apostles but in several succeeding ones, we have sufficient < evidence from the best writers of the Christian church, as < Hermas,Polycarp, Ignatius, Quadratus, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, < Origen, the opposers of Montanus, and from others. There was * also another Divine gift, which beareth some affinity to that of * prophecy; namely, that of discerning spirits; which discovered * itself not only in discerning between true and false prophets, 184 PART II. — CHAP. IV. * and in exposing the secrets of men's hearts ; but also was ex- * ercised in discerning men's fitness or qualifications for any * office in the church, and accordingly in setting them apart for * that office. Here then we find, by all these early testimonies, * that in the first two centuries many gifts of the Holy Ghost * were still continued in all churches. These also are relations ' not of things done in a corner, but commonly performed in the * face of the assemblies, and so confirmed by the joint testimonies * of all Christian churches. None but our Jesus, saith Origen, * ever pretended to enable their followers to speak with tongues, * to discover the secrets of men's hearts, or confer all or any of * these gifts upon their proselytes. But, saith Irenaeus in his * Tract of Weights, there are unhappy men who choose them- * selves to be false prophets ; that is, to speak in God's name, * when they confess they are not taught of God, and ivko endea- * vour to repel the grace of prophecy from the church,' But to return again to Mr. Dodwell's Report : § 13. * After the year 220, and from thence unto ^50,* says Mr. Dodwell, * the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit did decrease * and grow rare, in comparison of the time preceding ; for in < that space Theophilus, who wrote in defence of Christianity, * seems to confess he could not find one instance of a person * who had been raised from the dead. In this space, the usual * manifestation or visible sign of the Spirit falling on the baptized^ * seems to have ceased ; as likewise the gifts of languages grew * deficient ; and in the same interval, the gift of publicly disco- < vering men's thoughts was also wanting ; or at least we find * but few if any of these several gifts mentioned by any writers * of good credit, later than this period ; and at the latter end of * this period, Origen acquaints us, that though in his age the gift * of prophecy ing still remained, yet it was decreased, and not in * the same measure as in the foregoing age. And since this * decay happened with respect to the gift of prophecy, we need * not to wonder that the like befel other gifts; seeing the Apostle < puts this discrimination between that of prophecy and the other * gifts, that these were given for the sake of infidels, as a sign to * them, whereas God graciously bestowed that of prophecy chiefly * to the end that the church herself might be edified by it (1 Cor. ' xiv. 3, 4, 22). Wherefore the Christians of the primitive ages < did expect that some degree of prophecy would be perpetual ' in the church ; and, notwithstanding what is here noted of the PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 185 * deficiency of some and decay of other gifts, there subsisted * after this period one or other of the miraculous gifts, which * testified the extraordinary presence of Christ with his church : * but whereas, in the times we are now speaking of, there was * very seldom, or scarce any, express missions undertaken by the * Christians to convert infidels, there was not the like reason to * expect the same plenty of the miraculous gifts as did attend * the converting of heathen nations; but if occasion offered itself to * solicit infidels to the faith, there remained still indications suffi- * ciently manifest of the Divine presence in the church, as, in par- * ticular, the power of casting out devils, and the gift of healing * administered to unbelievers. Besides, there were some things * extraordinarily granted to the joint prayers of the church, when * her children were driven, by some heavy necessities or straits, * to supplicate the Divine grace more intensely ; and thus the * histories of those times acquaint us some things happened to * strengthen the minds of the martyrs, who were to pass through * agonies for the faith, even after all these signs of the decay of * the extraordinary gifts: those, however, which were most useful * to the church were of all other gifts the most permanent. And 5 thus among the ancients, the most recent and longest mention * we find of any of those gifts is oi prophecy ings, which were to * the edification or benefit of the church, either by edifying the * faithful or by directing in her public affairs, or by deciding < touching the candidates for baptism, or those for the stated ' ministry ; and for this very end that the church might profit * herself of the extraordinary presence of God with her, the * prophets were forced into the public assemblies, that they might * severally declare the revelations of God, and communicate them * for the public uses : and their prophecyings used to be com- * monly delivered mth signs (symbolis) ; for in the case of pro- * phecy, besides symbolical words, the symbolical facts were re- * ceived also.' § 14. Having given, from the notes of this learned antiquary and others, some account of the state, uses, and manner of pro- phesying in the church, applicable either to that in the second or in the third century indifferently, we now pursue the history of fact. And that the Spirit of prophecy rested among Christians after the year 200, will appear by what Eusebius (lib. v. cap. 10) tells us of * one Pant£Enus, a Stoic philosopher, converted to Christ ; * who was touched with vehement ardour of raind, in relation to 3b 186 PART II CHAP. IV. * the Divine word, and was sent (of God) to preach the Gospel ' to the nations of the East, as far as India ; for there were even * unto that time many evangelists of the tuord, who were incited * by a Divine zeal, Hke unto that of the Apostles, to give them- * selves up to the propagation and spreading of the Divine word. * Among these Pantsenus, after he had accomplished his mission * into India, returned to Alexandria, and there, partly by writing * and partly by word of mouth, he held forth the treasures of ' Divine principles. Unto this Pantsenus, Clemens of Alexan- * dria was a scholar, who, in his book called Stromaton, recorded ' the portraiture of those blessed men here mentioned, worthy * of immortal memory, for their efficacious [inspired) and invi- * gorated speakings i one of whom (says he) was an Ionian, ano- * ther of Great Greece; another was born in Ccelosyria ; another * came from Egypt: some of them lived in the East, of whom * one was an Assyrian ; another of Palestine, by birth a Jew: but * the last in order was the first of all in heavenly power, whom * I found out lying hid in Egypt ; this was a child who had re- ' ceived from the Father, and the rest had kept fast the tradition * of the blessed doctrine of the Apostles Peter, James, John, * and Paul. Few are the children like their fathers, but these < had from God preserved unto our days those ancient and apo- * stolical seeds.' § 15. This testimony of the prophetic Spirit subsisting, given by Eusebius out of a book of Clemens of Alexandria, exhibits instances thereof continuing unto the year 220; and concerning the same time, Mr. Dodwell's Dissertation on St. Cyprian, pp. 15, 16, quotes an anonymous author of the Martyrology of Per- petua, Saturus, and Felicitas in Africa, who recites at large the visions of these martyrs written with their own hands. Upon which occasion, that ancient author, in the preface to his treatise, does prove and recommend the usefulness of such visions, from the prophecy of Joel, which had promised them to be vouch- safed of God in the latter day. The said writer of the acts of these martyrs confirms his assertions by Scripture testimonies, and alleges, that ' the persons he treats of were owned for mar- ' tyrs by the church universally, and says. Thus we acknowledge * and honour, as well new visions as nexv pr ophecyings, which * were of old promised ; and we esteem the other powers of the * Holy Spirit to be to the benefit of the church: wherefore, to ' the glory of God, and of our Saviour, who administers all the PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 187 * extraordinary gifts freely unto every one severally as he pleases, * we here cannot but celebrate the same, and recommend the * reading thereof. And this we do the rather, lest any one * should think, through weakness or fainting in faith, that such * condescending graciousness of God in the revelations of him- * self was vouchsafed only to the ancient or earlier Christians : * but when God alwaj^s performs and works what he has promised, ' those that will not believe the prophetic testimony, let them at * least regard the benefit.' Mr. Dodwell having thought fit to go no further in the recital of this ancient author, we can but sup- pose in this case (what is apparent in many others) that the tenor of his argument in the preface was to shew, that the reve- lations there alluded to did excite and strengthen the martyrs to seal the faith of Christ with their blood, which in effect proved to the benefit of the church in general. § 16. During the same space of time, Eusebius (lib. v. cap. 28) mentions one Natalius, who denied the Divinity of Christ, and was abominable in life. ' This man,' says he, ' was often * admonished of the Lord in dreams ; for our most merciful God * and Saviour Jesus Christ would not suffer him to perish out of < the church. But Natalius, led astray by filthy lucre and am- * bition, neglected to give heed to the warnings sent him from * above by those visions : so that at length he was scourged and * beaten grievously for the space of a whole night by the holy * angels 5 upon which he lamented his crimes, being covered « with sackcloth and ashes, and publicly rolled himself at the * feet both of the ministers and people, and with his tears and * lamentations besought the compassions of the church, for the * bowels of Christ his sake. After much of .this kind of argu- * ing, and when he had shewn on his body the bruises and < wounds received by the stripes above mentioned, he was at * length admitted again into the communion of the church. All < which was done in the city of Rome itself, and was a warning ' so pathetical to sinners that I suppose (says the historian) had < it been done in Sodom they would have fallen to repentance.' But without any further reflection on this instahce of Divine re- velation, we may justly determine that a severer discipline by men could scarcely be used to humble the sinner, and that a more open and explicit declaration of the public acknowledg- ment and faith of the then church in such like Divine appear- ances could scarcely be possible; 188 PART II. ;hap. IV. § 17. In the same age, whilst the persecution raged at Alex- andria, Eusebius relates,— that ' there was among the martyrs * a renowned young woman named Potamiana, whose courage in * martyrdom caused great astonishment among the spectators. * Three days after her victorious entrance into glory, Potamiana * (that is, an angel assuming her form) appeared by night to one * of them named Basilides, a Roman soldier, and, covering his * head with a crown, said he must shortly be taken away. The ' vision wrought effectually to convert Basilides. Many others * also at the same time, in Alexandria, were wrought upon to * the open confession of their faith in Christ by visions of Pota- * miana, who in dreams urged them so to do. As to Basilides, * he became forthwith so noble a confessor that he was soon dis- * tinguished with chains ; and in that estate, whilst the Christian < brethren caressed him with the right hand of fellowship, he * was encircled with a laurel (of martyrdom),' such as none of the Caesars ever had one to compare unto ; being such as the great Captain of our salvation thought himself to be glorified by. Thus are the weak things of Christ stronger than the haughtiest of men, and the things despised hath he chosen, to put to silence the most esteemed: for, alas! what is all the rhetoric and oratory and quaintness of man's wisdom able to convert a sinner, to enlighten an idolater, and make a martyr for the faith of a dissolute soldier ? But the power of Christ, in a vision, did all these in a trice. And we need not be offended with the manner of the apparition, or wonder at the Christian historian's celebration of these things, if we consider that the book of Hermas (then received for sacred Scripture) tells us that an angel which appeared to him, in the form of a woman, was Christ ; and surely an angel might as well personate Pota- miana, as we read in the Acts that one did personate Ananias, chap. ix. 12, and another was supposed to appear in the person of Peter ; and, as we have herein heard before, Polycarp after his death and Ignatius also were seen. § 18. Having thus far, in the third century, given an account of particular persons who enjoyed an extraordinary communion with God, by his grace to them, in revealing himself to them more especially ; to make this way of proof the more closely connected, we proceed to other persons also, to whom, in par- ticular, the prophetic Spirit was conceded by the report of Eu- sebius touching that age; for says he, * anno 241, there was PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 189 * an election to be made of a bishop in Rome, and those con- * cerned in it were assembled to that purpose ; and Fabianus, ' a country minister, was accidentally present, whom no * body had least thought about as to the election ; when sud- * denly from on high there came down a dove, and alighted * upon his head, after the manner of the Holy Spirit which in * like form descended upon our Saviour ; upon which the whole * multitude present, as moved by the same one Divine Spirit, * readily and with one soul cried out, he was luorthyy and in- * stantly constituted him their bishop.' Now, as we have already heard that the Holy Spirit did by the prophets ordinarily call men in the Christian church to the work of the public ministry, the above-mentioned vision and Divine influence immediate on the people was, according to those times, a clear and full dis- covery of the will of God by revelation for the appointment of Fabianus to be bishop of Rome ; but this instance of the regard publicly paid to every act of God revealing, is backed by ano- ther very remarkable in the election of a bishop also : < For Nar- * cissus, bishop of Jesusalem, being about an hundred years old, * and thereby unfitted for the duties of his function, the marvel- ' lous dispensation of God provided for him a help by signifying * to Alexander, a Cappadocian bishop, through a vision by night, * that be should go to Jerusalem; and when Alexander approach- * ed near to that city several of the chief persons of that church * had visions also, which appeared to them by night, when also < they heard a voice commanding them to hasten out of the gates * of that city and receive the bishop ordained of God for them. * Accordingly, they, with the consent of the church, obeyed ; , * and meeting Alexander, and conducting him into Jerusalem, * they constrained him to abide with them, and exercise the office * of a bishop (without other appointment than what was given * from heaven). He continued in that function several years, ' and died under imprisonment for the faith anno 253.' By these particulars, and by many general assertions forementioned in this historical deduction of the Spirit extraordinarily abiding in the church, it appears that the Christian affairs of moment were under the immediate government of God, present in all places for her director and guide in matters of importance. And how happy and comfortable that Theocracy was, which neces- sarily excluded all intrigues, avarice, ambition, and usurpation of man, I leave duly to be reflected on. 190 PART II CHAP. IV. § 19. Whilst Alexander sat bishop of Jerusalem, Eusebius tells us, • that Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, had, in some * treatise or letters by him published, declared, that it was a * practice never heard of that men unordained to the public * ministry should in the presence of bishops or pastors, teach in * the church : but Alexander of Jerusalem, and Theophylact * of Caesarea, boldly answered him, that the said assertion of * his was an audacious untruth; and for confutation thereof, they * produced divers instances wherein men without any ordination ' had been requested, even by the pastors or bishops, publicly * to preach in the church.' Now this passage is worthy of re- mark, because it gives an hint of some human usurpations about this time rising in the church, and also because that the pro- phetical pastor Alexander was an open opposer of such like practices. And indeed the very admitting of, or submitting to, the immediate regency of Heaven, signified (as Mr. Dodwell expresses the thing) by children, women, and the most abject of the people, on whom the Spirit fell, must needs be a severe mortification to the pride of men : on the other side, therefore, according to the course of human passions, the pride of man may well be supposed to rise up against the Spirit of prophecy, which stands opposed to, and resisteth, the proud. Thus, it seems, the prophets found some reason to grow remiss in their thankless office in public; for, the same author acquaints us they were sometimes forced into the assemblies; and Clemens of Alexandria, from his observation, tells us the most eminent person for spiritual gifts that he knew lay hid in Egypt, so that he had much to do to find him out. Irenaeus also takes notice, that some men objected to the fantastic manner of the prophets, although no otherwise fantastical in times of Christianity than in those to whose testimony our Saviour himself appealed : he tells us also of some that repelled the grace of prophecy in the church. There are many other symptoms herein beforemen- tioned of a growing contempt of God revealing ; and we shall see much to the same purpose more clearly by-and-bye ; but if the prophet's ministry in the church became uneasy, we have the less reason to wonder that the preaching of a person unin- spired should be restrained unduly. j 20. But we have a better account of Dionysius, another bishop of Alexandria, as given by himself, and reported by the historian Eusebius (lib. vii. cap. 7) as folio weth. ' Whilst,' says PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 191 he, * I had read some erroneous authors, and was in debate within * myself, whether I should go on to do so, there came to me a < vision from God, and did confirm me ; for therein I heard a * voice distinctly saying, *' Read whatsoever cometh into thj^ * hands ; for thou shalt be able to weigh, prove, and try all, and * by this means thou wert at first drawn in to the faith of Christ." * I thankfully entertained this vision, as agreeable to the aposto- * lical voice spoken to men of more strength than me. The * same Dionysius mentions, touching Heraclas, his predecessor * in the church of Alexandria, that some persons under baptism * had received the Holy Spirit by his, the said predecessor's, * means.' And again, speaking of Novktus the heretic, who re- nounced his baptism, and had drawn divers of the brethren to impieties, he adds, * Novatus causeth the Holy Spirit to Jiy out * of them, though there continue still some hope that He will * yet either remain with or come upon them again.' In which passages the Holy Spirit, as I conceive, cannot properly be un- derstood in any other sense than that of the Spirit of prophecy. Wherefore, we have herein an attestation to it from a person of great eminence in the church, in respect to the place whereof he was bishop ; and the time of this testimony we may refer to that of his death, a.d. 268. § 21. Eusebius (lib. vi. cap. 40) adds, that * Dionysius having * in the heat of persecution fled from his house, he himself gives * an account thereof, saying. An officer of the emperor's sought < for me four days successively, but a darkness fell upon his eyes * that he could not find the house : mean time, I was commanded < of God to depart thence, and beyond all expectation he opened * me a way for it. I speak this in the presence of God, who < knows 1 do not therein lie, and that I fled not of my own will * but by his appointment.' Now, says Mr. Dodwell, what shall we do in this case ? Shall we believe, or not, this holy man upon his solemn word and oath ? But the same Dionysius tells us, that * the persecution in Alexandria was raised against the * Christians at the instigation of the Egyptian sorcerers, because * these were obstructed in their enchantments by the miraculous * powers of Christ (Euseb. lib. vii. c. 10) : for, says he, there are * at this day, as well as formerly, some persons who, only by being * present and looking on, or else by their blovoing and speaking a * voordi do disturb all enchantments of the devil.' Now, because the circumstance of blowing, applied to those who had the ex- 192 PART II. — CHAP. IV. traordinary gifts of the Spirit, may not possibly be readily ap- prehended, it is fit to have recourse to our first principles touch- ing the oracles of God : the same word, therefore, above ren- dered blotving, occurs in John xx. 22, where our Lord, after his resurrection, '* breathed (or blowed) upon his disciples, and said. Receive ye a holy spirit," (for here ttvev^xu ayiov is without the particle to, which in the Greek fixes it to the Holy Spirit, as a Westminster Grammar decides of this text ;) we suppose there- fore, from this manner of our adored Lord, that the breathing or blowing was significative of what should attend those that were to be vested with the Spirit extraordinarily. And, in truth, the very word Ptieumaticos, used in the New Testament to express those who had the extraordinary gifts, is both by sacred and profane authors taken by the ancients to mean a person possessed by a spirit, and by the Greek Dictionary does include also at the same time the sense of one irregularly/ breathing. Indeed, both in the Greek and Latin, the words that express Divine inspiration have a plain reference to somewhat in breathing or > blowing. And whoever pleases to look into Dr. Grabe's Gleanings out of the ancient Fathers, part ii. p. 93 and p. 237, may read there, that Heracleon, Iraeneus, and Clemens Alexandrinus, do use the word above rendered blotving, ejjKbvarjiia, to express the state of a person inspired extraordinarily. § 22. Thus out of Eusebius we are informed how the Almighty Power wrought by vision, dream^ and voice, to the conversion of infidels, the restoring of the erroneous, the directing of public affairs in the churches, the reforming of the vicious, and the con- stituting of bishops. There has been also in those instances some mention of the gift of prophecying; but this latter point will more clearly be manifested by what follows, that is drawn from other authors of much note in those times. But before we proceed to citations from them, we shall here remark what Mr. Dodwell notes further of these prophetical times, in his Second Dissertation on Iraeneus, to this effect : * Where the Apostle * (says he), 1 Cor. xiv. 26, saith, " Every one of you, when ye * come together, hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, * hath a revelation, hath an interpretation:" these were several < offices to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit ; but that of "doctrine" * included the gift of knowledge inspired, which was, with that < other of discerning of spirits, the most regarded for government * in the church ; and whilst there were men renowned in the PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— KJENTURY III. 193 < churches for those spiritual gifts, that were fit otherwise to be < taken into that trust, many inscriptions of epistles directed to * entire churches shew that they were so set over them ; for in ' those epistles, the expression, " Grace be multiplied unto you," * signified a prayer, that, besides those extraordinary gifts, where- * with they already abounded, they might be filled with more * plenty of yet greater ones : which form of salutation, as it was * very common, implied that the gifts themselves were so too ; * nor have we any reason to think that any church was destitute * of them in that state of things. Among other signs attending * the manifestation of the prophetic Spirit was that chiefly of a * glancing light, as of fire, which often came upon the baptized ; * which also, among the Jews, was thought to be the Shechinah, * that is, the symbol of the Divine presence. Unto this appear- * ance was applied the word of John the Baptist touching our * Saviour, *• He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with * fire." And concerning this Shechinah, or glorious Light, Justin * the Martyr quotes it as written in the Gospels, (and the very * ancient manuscript of St. Germans, and some Latin versions * and other authorities, have it to this day,) on Matt. iii. 16, that * when our Lord went down into Jordan a light shone upon the * place. Thus the baptism of our Saviour was in its manner a * pattern of the baptism wherewith he would baptize others. * Wherefore, when after his resurrection he said, *' Ye shall be * baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence," the sym- ' bol of that baptism on the day of Pentecost appeared also in * the tongues of fire, which answered to the Shechinah, accord- * ing to the said prophecy of John the Baptist. Among other * appeals to the direction of the Spirit, in those prophetic times, * was that also of casting lots. Acts i. 24 — 26, which was an- * ciently of use in the cases of Achan, Jonathan, and king Saul, < I Sam. xiv. 41 : and this casting of lots was so peculiarly in * use among the clergy, with prayers on urgent occasions, that * the very word deer as (rendered part in Acts i. 17, 25), sig- * nifying a lot, we believe, gave them that compellation : neither * is it likely that this custom of drawing lots on that occasion did * wholly cease, till all the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit de- < parted out of the church.' § 23. Hitherto, in the proof and exhibiting of instances of the prophetic Spirit's abode in the church during the third century, we have used chiefly the report of Eusebius, the historian ofthose 2 c 194 FART II. — CHAP. IV. times ; but now we proceed to the testimony of authors who do not purposely write history, but such as, in the method and course of their argument, are led accidentally to insist on the existence of the Spirit of prophecy in their times. Thus, in the treatise of Tertullian to Scapula, cap. iv., he says, ' These miraculous * powers among the Christians you may be informed of by the * heathen notaries and lawyers, who themselves have received * benefits from them ; for we speak not of the common people, * but many persons of distinction and quality are thus delivered « from devils, and from divers diseases ; even Severus the em- * peror himself had reason in this case to remember the Christians, * since Proculus, by anointing with oil, did once cure him : Ca- * racalla also, the emperor, successor to Severus, found the like < benefit from Euodius a Christian, who was his foster-father ; * and on the former account was retained in his court to the day * of his death.' And as the casting out of devils and curing all diseases did still continue among the signs that were to follow, by the promise of Christ, them who believed in his name, and were now exercised upon the persons of unbelievers for their conviction ; so the severe discipline of the Spirit, or rather the fatherly chastisement of God by his immediate hand upon Christians themselves, Tertullian gives us two examples of in his time, in his tract touching plays in the theatre, cap. xxvi.: for he mentions one Christian woman who, going to those spectacles, came back possessed with the devil ; the other Christian woman, that very night after she had been at a tragedy, saw in a dream a winding-sheet, and was upbraided with the name of the trage- dian, and she lived not five days after it. } 24. There is not one single tract, peradventure, among the ancients, of more universal approbation than the Apology of Tertullian for the Christian Religion : therein we find him chal- lenging all the powers of darkness and their boldest votaries to deny the arm of the Lord stretched out, in signs and mighty wonders done by Christians in the name of their triumphant Jesus, < Hitherto,' says he, * we have used words ; we will now ' come to a demonstration of the very thing, that your Gentile * gods are no one of them greater than another. For a decision * of the point, let any one that is judged to be possessed by a * devil be brought into open court before your tribunals ; when * that spirit shall be commanded by a Christian to speak, he shall * as truly confess himself a devil there, as elsewhere he falsely PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 195 * claims to be a god ; or let one equally be produced, who is * among you Gentiles judged to be inspired of God, who waits * at your altars, and is esteemed a sacred person by you ; nay, * though he be acted hy one of your most venerated deities, be *■ it Diana the heavenly virgin, the promiser of rain, or Escula- * pius that prescribes you medicines, and who pretends to relieve * the dying ; yet these, or any others, when they are summoned, * if they dare to lie unto the Christian summoning, and if they * do not confess themselves openly to be devils, then let that re- * proachful Christian's blood be spilt by you on the spot. What * can be more manifesting proof than this ? what a more decisive * trial to judge upon? The simplicity of truth is open in this * case to your examination : the particular Christian's own virtue * alone can stand him in stead here : nothing of magical arts, or ' any other juggling to deceive, will be practicable. If your eyes ' and ears are permitted to be judges, ye are not called to believe * us upon our words only.* Who can surmise, that so open a challenge as this should be given to the Pagan deities, if there was not power still subsisting among the Christians to make good the trial ; and indeed the author being assured of victory therein, from many evidences of the fact, triumphs over the enslaved devils in the manner following : * If they be really gods, why * do they belie themselves, in acknowledging to be devils "^ Is * it, do ye think, to please us Christians ? Therefore, even now, * is your deity subjected to Christians. A fine deity indeed, that * is subject unto a man ! Surely those who elsewhere are wor- * shipped for gods would not, if they could help it, depose them- * selves from that dignity, and give their own confessions that * they are devils. But, indeed, they know that our Christ is * their Judge, and that they are by an uncontroulable authority < made subject to his servants : therefore from our touch and * breath they fly (affrighted with the view of avenging flames) * out of the bodies where they did reside, unwillingly and with * grief, in your presence.' § 25. Tertullian, who died about a.d. 231, tells us, moreover, in his Prescriptions against Heresy, of a certain teacher gifted voith the inspired grace of knowledge ; and in his tract concerning the Soul, cap. ix., he says, — • We had right, after St. John, to * expect prophecyings, and we do now acknowledge the said * spiritual gifts ; for there is at this day living among us a sister * who is partaker of the gift of revelations, which she receives 196 PART II. CHAP. IV. ' under ecstasy in the Spirit in the public congregation ; wherein ' she converses with angels, sometimes also with the Lord, and ' seeth and heareth Divine mysteries, and discovereth the hearts * of some persons, and does minister succour to such as desire * it: and whilst the Scriptures are read, or Psalms are singing, * or they are preaching, or prayers are oiFered up, subjects from * thence are ministered in her visions. We had once some dis- ' courses touching the soul, whilst this sister 'was in the Spirit : * after the public services were over, and most of the people ' gone, she acquainted us with what she saw, as the custom was ; * for these things are heedfully digested, that they may be duly * proved : among other things, she then told us that a material * soul was set before her, and the Spirit was beheld by her, being * of a quality not void and empty, but of the colour of the sky, * and of a thin brightness, preserving the form throughout of the * human body. This was the vision, God is witness, as the Apo- ' stle (Paul), the fitting promiser of the gifts which were to be * existent in the church. But thou, O Hermogenes ' (the philo- sopher to whom the treatise is addressed), ' wilt not believe, un- * less the thing itself in all particulars do persuade thee.' § 26. Contemporary with Tertullian was Theophilus, whose writings to his Pagan friend Autolicus, in behalf of the Christian religion, we have still extant ; wherein he mentions * men car- * ryingf or carried hy the Spirit, being inspired of God, as 2 Pet. * i. 2 1 ; saying, that thereby they were constituted prophets, < and became the organs of God.' And Marcarius, commenting on the word organ (suppose a trumpet or any pipe), says, * As * the human breath passing through a trumpet speaks, so the * Spirit celebrates God in psalms, and hymns, and prayers, pass- * ing through persons {pneumatophorous) carried of the Spirit.' And says Theophilus, p. 93, ' As the sea needs the perpetual * influx of the rivers, else it would dry up, so would the wicked- < ness of the world consume it were it not for the (written) law * of God and the prophets, from which (as from fountains of ' living water) do flow and perpetually issue forth consolation, ' mercy, and righteousness, and the teaching of the holy com- * mands of God.' And his testimony also concurs,, touching the still residing power among Christians to cast out devils; for, says he, pp. 77, 78, ' unto this day the unclean spirits are forced * by Christians to confess their own shame, and unwillingly for- * sake their inhabitations, when adjured in the name of Christ;' PROPHECY UNCONTROVeRTED CENTURY III. 197 and from thence Theophilus argues, that * the spirits acting on * ike Gentile poets, or prophets, and which the Pagans set in * opposition to the Christian prophet, were evil ones, since those * very poets, when dispossessed, owned themselves to have been * possessed by devils.'— After this author, and about the year 237, Minutius Felix is another witness of the like extraordinary gifts still in the church ; for, in his book concerning Octavius, he says to the heathen, * All these things are known to most * among you, that as often as they are required by us they are * driven to confess themselves devils, and to depart out of bodies, * forced by our words as by scourges, flames, or thunder. Saturn * himself, and Serapis, and Jupiter, and the chief of those gods * ye worship, being overcome with grief, speak out to their own * shame, which they would not falsely do in the presence of ye ' their adorers. Believe them, therefore, when they witness of * themselves that they are devils : being adjured by the only * true God, they, relucting and in pain, do roar in those bodies, * and either instantly go forth, or gradually withdraw from them, * as the faith of the possessed assists, or the gift of him that * healeth carries it. Thus, those evil spirits, who at a distance * egged you on in droves against the Christians, do, when at * hand, fly from us : for, as it is natural to hate what is feared, * so they through fear of themselves, do secretly solicit your * minds to hate us Christians.' The same author, giving an account of the manner of that conference between Caecilius a heathen philosopher, and Octavius a Christian, wherein the former was convinced of his error, and brought over to the faith of Christ ; he concludes the relation with the commendation of Octavius, saying, ' He enjoys a bright gift from God, from * whom, beinsc inspired, be besought it, and obtained it for his * help.' And though these latter evidences are not express to the gift of prophecying, the less mention of that may possibly be more therein due to some other causes than the scarcity of it. However, we find that the same was not yet extinguished, even by the author now next quoted ; and Mr. Dodwell says it is acknowledged to be the most permanent of any of the extra- ordinary favours of Christ to his church. § 27. The works of Origen are very many, and voluminous ; and in the subject we are upon, Mr. Dodwell's Second Disserta- tion on Irenaeus, pp. 184 — 187, makes no less than twenty quo- tations out of them : wherefore, being myself not at leisure 198 PART II. — CHAP. IV. enough to look into the original, I here take the liberty to draw the ensuing matters from that reporter. The substance, then, of Origen's testimony, touching the continuance of the gifts of the Spirit extraordinary, is, — ' That in his time, who lived to * about the year 255, there were many eye-witnesses to prove * that devils were frequently cast out by the bare mention of the * name of Christ, without any sort of means or observations < other than prayers and adjurations. This was done sometimes * in the very places wherein they were worshipped : and some- * times not only the bodies of the possessed were freed from * their vexations, but even the very souls; insomuch that many * of those unhappy people were, almost against their wills, drawn * to embrace the Christian religion ; some Spirit suddenly chang- ' ing their mind, and turning it from the hatred precedently im- * bibed against the word, — so that, after they had received some ' visions, presented them either sleeping or waking, they de- * murred not to encounter death for the sake of it. Many things * of which kind he had seen done in his presence, which if he * should give a relation of he knew the infidels would but laugh ' at them ; and yet he devoutly calls God to witness for his own * conscience, that they were really true. He says, that the * Christian religion had even then the demonstration to it which * the Apostle would have called " the manifestation of the * Spirit and of power," and which he himself terras ivonderful * powers ; that there were in his age persons who directed their * ways by the good pleasure of the Word (which I suppose * means Christ inspiring). Moreover, the gift of healing did * abound, and some distracted people were cured by the name * of Jesus : and, if there was need, he could bring a hundred < instances of the most vicious and profligate livers who were, by * one sudden act of the Spirit, (as by vision, or the like,) turned * about into the most exemplary and luminous courses of life ; ' and these were of different qualities, both Greeks and barba- * rians, philosophers and foolish persons, who, touched with the * love of God, seemed even ambitious to outgo one another unto * death in the Christian piety.' § 28. Origen further says, that * among the Jews there re- * mained then no prophets, nor any wonderful signs ; but there * are found among Christians the footsteps or remains of these, * even now, after so long a time, and even some things greater; * for they are faithful who usually say, We ourselves have seen PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 199 * them. And in evidence of the miraculous powers received by * faith, this is a sign, that by the name of Jesus, unto this day, ' the sick are healed, even such as God pleases to have cured. * I myself (says he) have seen many of them, who were delivered * from lunacies and a multitude of other the most afflicting dis- * eases. In the assemblies of the church, there still remained * some who had the gift of discerning spirits, angelical and human * (the greatest evidence of prophecy) ; and touching the latter, * what lay hid in the secrets of the heart was exposed to the ^ notice of many, to the shame of those who were conscious of * such guilt. There was some difference in the power of casting * out devils : sometimes the name of Jesus alone did suffice ; at * other times, this power given to the Apostles was exercised * after prayers and a solemn adjuration, from whence the latter * ages, more than the primitive, called the gifted persons ex- * orcists. There were also, in that age, other unexceptionable * miracles, whereof Origen himself, among many more witnesses * beyond exception in the church, does bear his testimony. But,' says Mr. Dodwell, ' when Origen tells us there were found ' among Christians the remains of prophecy, and of wonderful * signs in his time, we are not to take it absolutely, as if these * were in themselves rare or slight footsteps of them ; but, by a * comparison with the Apostolic age (whereon he is then insist- * ing), they were more seldom found, and, in the degree of their * manifestation, less : and the most we can understand by that < expression is, that in his time they were decreased from the * plenty and power of them during the second century, as de- * scribed by Irenaeus and others. These remains of prophecy ings, * however, were such that upon them he argues, as Justin Martyr * had done before in the second century, that the Jews were * then without prophets, and that the Spirit of prophecy still * extant among Christians was proof that God did favour the * latter, as his peculiar people, instead of the Jews formerly in * that manner honoured.' § 29. Touching prophecy, and those things greater than mira- culous signs which Origen mentions to remain among Christians, we cannot conceive what should induce him to add, ^ they are * faithful who commonly say. We ourselves have seen them,' but some reproaches attending that confession of theirs; for in the sequel hereof it will appear, that about the time we now treat of there were principles generally received among Christians 200 PART II CHAP. IV. that were destructive of faith in all the ways of immediate re- velation from God, by vision, dream, voice, and prophecy. To proceed, however, in those acknowledgments we find of them, we ought to remind the reader, that the evidence hitherto given of facts positive has been all taken from those who wrote and bore witness of the times they severally lived in : even the cita- tions drawn from the historian Eusebius are from authors out of whom he gives some specimen or extract ; and those authors wrote severally every one of his own age; so that hitherto what has been said upon this point stands upon as firm and clear a foundation of truth as the nature of proof among men can in any thing whatsoever admit touching matters of time passed. And being loath to admit any thing into this chronological abridg- ment that might weaken the strength of its foundation as to the certainty and simplicity of truth in the matters contained in it, I shall pass over much evidence to the like import that may be found in the life of Gregory Thaumaturgus, written thirty or fifty years after his death, by a bishop of Nissa of great repute ; because he, the latter, wrote the same merely and only upon report of the facts therein contained. Thaumaturgus was a scholar of Origen, at his lecture in Alexandria, as was also Dionysius, who has been already quoted, a most positive and express witness of revelations in his time. It may be, however, worthy of remark, that all these three noted persons in the church, and witnesses of the surviving powers of the Holy Spirit in it, were inhabi- tants in Africa; for it will be manifest, by what follows here im- mediately and in the third part of this treatise, that the Christians in Africa preserved longer a reverential regard to the ways of the prophetic Spirit revealing than in other parts of the Christian world. § 30. Having thus far traced, step by step, the course of the extraordinary gifts abiding, as the gracious testimony of Christ's peculiar presence with his church, the several links of proof from many signal confessors of it being so closely connected that hitherto there is not one space of above twenty years without remarkable attestation surviving to this day touching this matter; we are come down so far, in the deduction historical, of these great things, for the highest honour and glory of our Sovereign Lord, the great Prophet, as well as blessed and only Potentate of his church, that there remain henceforth from the death of Dionysius but about thirty years to bring testimony of, for com- PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. pleting the whole scheme of evidence unquestionable that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and immediate revelations from God did continue in the church three hundred years from the year of grace, (that is, the birth of our high and mighty Saviour,) which ushered in unparalleled good tidings of great joy unto all people. And though we shall not here deduce the proofs lower than the year 300, it ought not to be understood that those gifts and revelations were then extinct ; for I make no doubt, that the same are provable beyond that time. Indeed, whensoever they cease to be provable, from the acknowledgments public of per- sons whose character might carry a weight with it unto us at this vast remove of ages, it will not at all follow that those gifts and graces, or favours Divine, were wholly withdrawn ; but it is no- torious unto every man who has seen but the least glimpse of history, that the whole texture and frame of things in the church took a new turn from the secular powers, which, after the con- version of the emperor Constantine, were forthwith exercised in the church. Neither is it to be wondered, that honours and riches flowing in with them should vitiate the minds of the very ministers of Christ, who were by their Gospel constitution to be the lights and salt of the earth for all manner of humility and godliness of life. But, indeed, the main reason why I shall proceed no further than the end of the third century, in proving the continuance of the Spirit extraordinary, is, that it is evident to me that the Christians, even before that time, and much more after, were so fallen away generally from their reve- rence to and love of the Spirit that, by the contrary and op- posing principles they had admitted and imbibed, they were morally incapable of owning uhat was truly prophecy and re- velation from God, according to the rules of Scripture, the un- deficient touchstone to judge by, and even according to the rules whereon the Christians themselves, in the second century, had admitted them. } 31. The testimonies before given, we conceive to have reached unto the year 268 : and for the small term remaining to fill up the third century, the ensuing relations may be abundantly sufficient: the chief of them, indeed, will be drawn from the works of St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, the chief city of Africa, who died before the end of that period. But his evidences are so numerous and express as may, however, well suffice alone by themselves, because they include the acknowledgment of severajl 2d i^i, ^ir PART II. — CHAP. IV. churches which died not with him. But because of his eminence for piety, he dying a martyr for the faith of Christ, and by reason of his learning that makes him to this day of great esteem, and by reason of his unblemished character, to add an energy to the certainty of whatsoever he gives a positive testimony of, they deserve a more ample relation here. Wherefore, from the volume of his works it appears, among other like things, that ' Celerinus, * a minister at Carthage, being by that church appointed to some * particular office which he through humility scrupled to accept * of, he was thereupon admonished in a vision by night, and forced * by that Divine command not to refuse the charge tendered * him.' This instance of Divine revelation to Celerinus is related in the Thirty-fourth Epistle of Cyprian; and in the Fifty-second Epistle, he gives another in the person of Cornelius, who had from God and Christ immediately a designation to the office of a public minister in the church. And this particular point of the extraordinary inspection of God in the government and conj- forting direction of his people, was so common in those days, op at least in the parts where Cyprian was conversant, that not only he himself openly professed to hold by that title, but, judging of things in general by those he had within his view, he does in many places intimate, that no one was rightly constituted to the public ministry who was without some extraordinary significa- tions of the Spirit to confirm it to him. And therefore, from the authority of a prophetic vision to himself, he says (Ep. 69), * He that refuses to believe Christ when he constitutes a minister, * let him begin then to believe it when Christ avenges that » minister.' § 32. There are persons who will argue the certain existence of the powers extraordinary continuing in the church unto the time of Constantine, from the natural impossibility without them of keeping the strict discipline upon manners and erroneous principles which was remarkable in the communion of Christians before they had any thing of secular rules, measures, or penalties to enforce it by. And though I believe this way of argument is valid so far as to produce a strong presumption that those gifts and powers were much more numerous among them, either me- diately by the prophets or immediately by the Divine hand ex- ercised, than we have clear and authentic records to prove; yet we must content ourselves to go on in what appears, and is handed down to us from these, of that kind. And methinks it PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY IH. 203 is not a little hint of these matters that St. Cyprian gives us in several of his epistles, even in the declension of that primitive discipline which soon after him had a period, but which was never afterwards matched by all the severities and coercive methods that the imperious pride of man could impose, or the councils of the clergy invent : for says St. Cyprian, « Some that were re- < ceived into the church by baptism, when afterwards they began * to fall away into sinful courses, they used to be possessed and * torn by an evil spirit ; (which may possibly be in part what the * Apostle means by delivering such a one to Satan ;) and con- * cerning those who fell away from their profession of faith in * time of persecution, he adds, One of those who went to the * magistrate to renounce his faith, after he had done so, was * struck dumb. Whereas also in some cases they were forbidden * to frequent the public baths for pleasure ; a woman (says he) * that would go thither was surprized on the spot by an evil * spirit, and, dropping down, she tore that tongue with her teeth < wherewith she had either impiously talked or fed : nor could * she outlive it long, but died with torments in her belly and * bowels. Thus also Cyprian gives an account of two persons * who had for clandestine ends sacrificed to idols, and yet pre- * sented themselves to the communion of Christians, to their * miserable sorrow, in his presence. One of these was a woman, * who as soon as she had received the bread, and had scarce * swallowed it, feeling as if she had taken some deadly poison, or a * sword had pierced her, fell into dolorous anguish and faintings, * and, sinking under the load of her own guilt, with flutterings « and trembling she dropt down dead. The whole church were * spectators of this latter tragedy ; and the former, with a third, < though very dismal, I omit for brevity. And, indeed, far be- * yond a few particulars was the church discipline of these ages * guarded as with the avenging sword of a cherubim : for, says < Cyprian, there are many at this day who, in the want of due * humiliation and repentance for their faults, are possessed by * impure spirits, and are driven into melancholy despair, and * even downright madness.' However tremendous, yet so com- mon were such like judicial strokes from the immediate hand of Heaven, that the same author says they were equal in number to that of delinquents all over the Christian world. Nay, Ter- tullian's Apology, p. 39, says, that * whosoever did prove to be * such a delinquent as to be excluded from a participation in the 204 PART II. CHAP. IV. * public assemblies for prayer and the communion, he was cer- * tain to meet with, from the presence of the Lord, evidences of * a foregoing sentence to the future judgment.' § 33. We find, by St. Cyprian's declaration of a vision to him, a threatening denounced ; and those forementioned terrors of the Lord (begun by the stroke upon Ananias and Sapphira) were doubtless insisted on, and threatened by the Spirit of prophecy, whilst He continued in any sort publicly owned, and submitted to. Indeed, that gift of discerning the latent vileness in the heart does seem to imply that the Searcher of it was then some- times the openly Avenger too, upon the contumacious and im- penitent, for the honour of his Spirit, whose office was to con- vince the world of sin, and of judgment consequent. Even thus it was true that our Saviour came not only to bring peace to be- lievers, but a sword upon the head of the abominable in his eye. Nevertheless, this way of the Divine Theocracy, or immediate su- perin tendency of God over his church, was a privilege expressive highly of his favour to it; whilst thereby the societies of Chris- tians were preserved and fenced, as well from hypocritical de- ceivers as from the contagion of members openly corrupt and vicious ; but this was the peculiar glory of the times of the Spirit, which continued as long as men were willing to submit to his leading and presiding over them, and would endure to be taught, reproved, and governed by the immediate voice and word of the Lord. But though these things were never so manifestly open to view, those who had a secret declivity to vile affections and passions, and to the love of worldly pleasure, profit, and honour, must of necessity be weary of so strict an Inspector and Superintendant over them, who was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and struck his terrors even to between the joints and the marrow. Thus therefore, whilst we find such men as Tertullian and Cyprian celebrating and recording the glory of God on that account, Eusebius the courtier was quite of another turn ; and therefore we find him not only unwilling in his history to perpetuate the memory of their still surviving and immortal writings, but omitting the very mention of them, that they might be buried in obscurity as much as in him lay. § 3k Now, to trace the thread of Divine manifestations re- ported by Cyprian, in his tract touching Mortality, there is men- tion of * one of his fellow-ministers, who grew weary of his bodily ' infirmities ; and yet, when death seemed to be approaching, PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. ^05 * with much concern besought of God a reprieve from it. Whilst * he was thus on the brink of the grave, and during the time of ' his prayer, there appeared nigh him a tall young man, of a clear * complexion, of so bright and luminous an aspect that scarce * could the human eye steadily behold him ; who spake with a * voice and air of some indignation, saying, " Ye are impatient * to suffer, and yet unwilling to go hence ; what shall I do with * you ? " Our brother and partner, says Cyprian, heard this near * his death, that he might tell it to those that remain ; for not for * himself only, but for our use too, was this admonition sent. He, * a minister of God, was reproved for begging to be absent from * the Lord, and to abide in this life, that we might acknowledge * what is expedient for the rest who are under concern about * persecution, and yet would be contriving for a temporal futu- * rity, and not readily acquiescing with His calling us from hence. * Even to myself also (says Cyprian) the least and lowest, it has * been often revealed {even as often as the Divine condescension * would favour me with his command) that I should publicly * preach and earnestly inculcate, that our brethren, rescued from * this world by Heaven's kind removal of them, ought not to be * lamented, when we know them not to be lost but only speed- ' ing before to that port whither we are sailing: we ought indeed * to desire them before the release, but not to bewail them after * it, nor take mourning habits here for those who are there < clothed with robes of triumphing joy ; for, if we do otherwise, * the heathen may justly upbraid us in lamenting those as if * lost and perished whom we say do now live with God, and as * if the witness of our hearts and consciences did not concur * with the profession of our mouths.' § 35. I have, in the last instance of prophetic vision, mixed a little of that admirable instruction of doctrine joined usually with those celestial vouchsafements granted to this illustrious prophet in the Christian church : that title is given him, because I know not how the distinction of a prophet can be denied to a person who published nearly twenty visions received by him for the instruction, comfort, and edification of the then church, and gave them out in the name and character of the word of the Lord to him. To recite all these visions here, as they are in the circumstances described, and with the doctrine wherewith they are applied and enforced, would be beyond the measures used in any part of this compendious tract ; the design whereof is but FART. II.— CHAP. IV, to shew the certainty of the Spirit of prophecy's existing in those ages wherein some patterns and precedents of it are exhibited. And I think the number of these Divine communications, re- corded by St. Cyprian to have been granted unto many others, is so plentiful that they are competent proof of the continuance of such for some time beyond that of his own natural life ; for the Spirit which liberally gave forth these, as he publishes them, cannot be thought extinguished, and to expire, in those exertions on others, with his mortal breath. There needs but little ex- ercise of the same reason for deduction and inference that is allowed among men in all other cases, to make the premises laid down Trom the testimony of this author valid in this point also of the continuance of those graces as above ; notwithstanding the wilful silence of the historian Eusebius after this term. § 36. But, to give some i'ew more specimens of what occurs in the large folio volume of the subsisting works of this great father in the primitive church; * Pontius, a minister of the church * at Carthage, the companion of St. Cyprian during his last suffer- * ings, and the writer of his life after them, tells us, that his * mind was enriched by God in all things, and his faith firmly * obedient to the Divine will made known by revelations ; so that * he believed he should have sinned even by martyrdom when * he was once commanded (as Dionysius forementioned was) to * retire from his house. Wherefore this man, whose abilities * were ennobled chiefly by being spiritually formed, was preserved * a while to administer with a celestial hand medicines to the * wounded and weak and what way soever infirm. Indeed, where * was the manMike to him that strengthened so many martyrs * with the exhortation of an inspired word ? Who is he that * animated with the incentive of a heavenly trumpet so many * suffering confessors, and like him sealed them, as it were, with * an inscription on their foreheads, to be reserved for the future < honour of glorifying their Saviour by the testimony of martyr- * dom ? Says Pontius, I went along with him in the retirement * ordered from above ; and the first day of our resting at the * place whither we withdrew, Cyprian told me, that before he was * quite asleep a youth, in form beautiful beyond the human, ap- < peared to him ; who led him to the town-house, or court of * justice, where he thought himself to approach unto the Roman * magistrate on the bench. The judge (said he) was represented * to look upon me, who, without asking me any questions as is PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— CENTURY III. 207 * usual on such occasions, presently began to write on his table* * book, which I thought was a sentence of condemnation to be * passed upon me ; but what it was, I knew not. Then I saw a * young man standing behind the judge, who looked over his * shoulder, as very curious to observe what the judge had written; * and, as if he could not openly tell me by words, the young * man expressed it to me by signs : for, stretching forth his arm, * he expressed the manner of an executioner cutting off a man's * head with a stroke, and this was as clear and livelily described * as words could have done it. Wherefore, when I apprehended * the manner whereby I was to suffer, I instantly began to pray * the respite but of one day, to set my affairs in order. When * I had repeated these petitions several times, the judge wrote * again upon his memorandum-book ; and I perceived in the * vision, by the serenity of his face, that my reasonable request * was granted : and this I was the more certainly assured of by * the foresaid young man, who drew nigh me with expressive * signs of the delay of the sentence. 1 however, since I read * not the sentence, though I rejoiced for the small reprieve of it, * yet was so much affected with fear lest I should mistake in * the interpretation thereof that I trembled all over with the * remains of terror.' Now, as the manner of God's speaking in vision to the prophets is, by the former part of this treatise, ex- plained to be enigmatical and in dark speeches, so Cyprian him- self knew not at the end of this vision what was precisely the full import of it : but the event shewed it plainly ; for that very day twelve-months after he saw these things he passed into the possession of endless bliss, by the separation in a moment of his head from the trunk of an useless body. § 37. If any will deride the visions of this prophet, they can- not do it upon principles other than such as must equally weaken the authority of revelation in the Scripture the same way; for we have fully proved, that prophecy in general is there called Vision ; and a great part of the Scripture prophets, we admit, had no other authority for their commission (that we know of) but what St. Cyprian had. But having given a specimen of one of his at large, we may by the prolixity of it the better be ex- cused from particularizing all of them that are related by himself, because it would exceed the purposed bound and even design of this recital : some few, therefore, we shall content ourselves herein to note, as that * wherein he saw five Christian ministers 208 PART II. — CHAP. IV. ' * consulting with the heathen magistrates how to draw and issue * a proclamation for a persecution of the believers in Christ ; * which very ministers afterwards proved deserters of the faith, * and encouragers of multitudes to revolt from it, which appears * in several of his epistles, and in particular the 40th. In the * 54th, 56th, and others, he says. We receive often warnings * from the Lord, which in conscience we think ourselves bound * to communicate to you (writing then to entire churches), that * a more terrible conflict of contending by sufferings for the faith * than ever hitherto has been is now just at hand. Therefore, < since I have these frequent heavenly admonitions by vision, * we ought not to be disobedient to the celestial voice in them; * and thus I exhort ye, pastors, not to forsake the sheep in their * imminent danger; but, as I continually inculcate unto those by * the Divine appointment committed unto me, so when the Holy * Spirit and the Lord is pleased by repeated visionary manifesta- * tions to set before me the enemy coming on to assault us with * utmost violence, I beseech you that we may be armed and * prepared, and that ye will also duly admonish your flocks.' Thus, it seems, did this man of God acquit himself of the trust by express command from the Heavenly King vested in his hands, that in the very provincial assemblies, or synods of the bishops, he laid these things revealed to him before them, to be more publicly known, and in testimony against them who should ne- glect the declaration. § 38. As to the guidance of the flock at Carthage, unto which he was made an overseer, it appears, that he conducted himself as directed by the Spirit of prophecy; for onePupianus, a person under some sentence for his crimes, signifying his repentance and earnest desire to be re-admitted to full communion with the church, Cyprian answers, in Ep. 69, that * though he might * give satisfaction competent for a re-admission, yet whilst there * remains among us, says he, a reverence and regard to the Di- * vine censure (intimated upon Pupianus) I dare not permit you * to communicate with his church before I consult my God upon * it, and do receive the direction of some discovery from him * whether 1 shall do it or not; for I remember, what Christ (the * Great Shepherd) did once signify to his servant, who is fearful * of disobeying his sovereign commands, how that, among other * things which he was pleased to honour me with the communi- * cation of, he added this; Whosoever does not give credit to PROPHECY UNCONTRO VERTED — CENTURY III. 209 * Christ when he constitutes a minister^ will afterwards begin to < believe when that minister is avenged by himJ* In which sort of expostulation and conclusive determining of himself we are not to understand that St. Cyprian depended only upon Divine re- velations to himself for his direction ; but, as divers others have been already, in his writings, specified by name or special defi- nition to enjoy the extraordinary communications of the Spirit of prophecy as well as himself, so he expresses it to be, in his church at least, much more common than the instances of a few persons would make it, as will fully appear by the following section. § 39. The city of Carthage, where Cyprian presided, being the capital of most part of Africa, he was, as it were, a light set upon an hill ; and if any thing was advanced by him that was not congruous with the analogy of the Christian faith, or with the tenor of Scripture, there wanted not many who envied his reputation, and therefore would greedily have laid hold of the occasion, to have blasted it ; but the things of the Spirit which he so freely advances, being warranted by the written word of God, though they began to fall under the lash of ridi- cule among Christians generally then, could not openly be spoken against in such an one as he, and therefore no one did then offer publicly to attack him on these accounts. And thus the high character of this author unblasted has been the means to con- tinue down to us the notices above mentioned of the Divine be- nignity to himself, and to divers among the clergy, and to many among the people; for, says he (Ep. 16), * The discipline of God * over us never ceases, both by night and day, to correct and ' reprove; for not only by visions of the night, but by day, even * the innocent age of children is Jilled among us with the Holy < Spirit; and they see, and hear, and speak in ecstasy such things < as the Lord vouchsafes to admonish and instruct us by.' In which short sentence he declares the manifestations of God by vision, voice, and prophecy proper to be frequent among them, without any diminution of the authority thereof by their pro- ceeding through the instrumentality of babes. Upon which passage, Rigaltius the commentator on St, Cyprian's works, sub- joins, — < Not only from dreams and visions, but from or in rap- < tures, did persons of the most laudable Christian piety receive « Divine manifestations. We have already noted several dreams * and visions which Cyprian communicated to his brethren of the 2e 910 PART II. — CHAP. IV. * clergy : in this epistle he inculcates to them some admonitions ' and commands from the ecstatical declarations of innocent * children. Rightly does he interpose the words, in ecstasy; for * the power of the Divine Spirit coming upon the children did * remove and cast out whatsoever was in their own proper and * natural mind ; so that every one of them, being no longer * himself, but Jilled (or possessed) with that great Inhabitant, * neither thought, nor saw, jior spake any thing but what that * new Guest furnished to them. And thus Tertullian, writing * against Marcion the heretic does maintain, that the temporary * secession of reason and understanding did agree, or was the * same thing with ecstasy ; for it is unavoidable, says he, but * that a person in the Spirit do cease from his own sense : there- * fore in the ecstatical for a little time knowledge dies, or at * least the human intellect is so overshadowed and darkened by a * supervention of the Divine that it seems for the interim to be * expired ; and as Tertullian thus describes it, so Chrysostom, * treating of the trance that fell upon St. Peter when he saw the * large vessel and sheet descending from heaven, says, " A * trance is as if a man should say the soul goeth out of the * body." ' § 40. The same Rigaltius, in his notes upon some divine dreams which Cyprian communicated to the church, says, on Ep. 11, that • it was usual with the fathers in the Christian * church to signify by letters, publicly to be read, most things * imparted to them in dreams.' Thus the faith of God revealing was not as yet perished from the earth; but we find it owned unto this period in all the ways of Divine manifestation, insomuch that it used to be publicly declared unto the congregations of the church. And this circumstance fully shews that the faith of those subjects was not confined to such as did receive the said manifestations, or to a ^ew only of their private acquaintance. As to St. Cyprian himself, it appears that he acted from a full assurance of faith in those to him ; and therefore he was (as it is said of Samuel) faithful to the Lord as a prophet ; or as St. Paul words it, 2 Cor. iv. 13, <• We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak." But now, to con- clude the observations from Cyprian, with what he says in Ep. 58, — * When Daniel with his partners stood before Nebuchad- * nezzar they said, *« We are not careful to answer thee in this PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED— CENTURY III. 211 * matter : our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of * thine hand ; but if he will not, be it known unto thee, O king, * we will not worship the golden image which thou hast set up." * Here is the great vigour of faith ; and in these words, the un- * conquered potver of the Holy Spirit rushed violently through * their mouth; which answers to the word of our Lord, " Take ' no thought what ye shall say, for it shall be given you in that * instant ; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of my Father * that speaketh in you." He then (says Cyprian) has promised * that it shall be given us in that hour, and/rom God uttered; * what therefore can we speak or answer ? Nor is it we who then * speak, but the Spirit of God the Father; who, as he does not * withdraw, nor is separated from those that confess him, so he * it is that both speaketh and triumpheth in us also.' § 41. All that has appeared from the works of St. Cyprian being duly considered, no man can with any justice of reasoning doubt that they infer the continuance in others of the said mul- tiplied communications of the Spirit extraordinary, for some years after his conquest over death; but, blessed be God, we stand in no need to crave the benefit of the most unavoidable and neces- sary inferences to assure to us the existence and agency of the prophetic Spirit, openly acknowledged, unto the full end of the year 300 after the birth of our blessed Emmanuel; for, Arnobius writing of the last period of that term, says, that * the devils, * even then, trembled at the name of Christ, and withdrew in * horror from those they possessed, being vanquished by the * force of a superior authority; and that Christ appeared to them * that loved him, in dreams; not such as are of a vain kind, but * those that are evidently genuine from above: and this, as St. * Hierom confirms, was the very case of Arnobius himself, who < was driven and enforced (from idolatry) to the faith of Christ < by dreams. Lactantius also, and Julius Firmicus, are very * express and ample touching the same interval of time, that the * power of casting out devils, (the same which was conferred on ' the primary Apostles, by our Lord himself, for an evidence of * his power abiding with them,) did still continue to be openly ' exercised in his church ; which received from him grace for * grace, or somewhat that answered to every power exercised by * himself when on earth.' } 42. The last words quoted from St. Cyprian, that ' God * does not withdraw, nor is separated from those that confess 212 TART II.— CHAP. IV. * him,' are there applied to the Spirit extraordinarily iaspiring; concurrent with which it was an opinion generally received among the writers and fathers in the church preceding him, that the gift of prophecy, in particular, was ever to remain in the church, for her comfort, edification, and direction. Now that opinion prevailing, uncontrouled and unconderaned, before Con- stantine, is a just and reasonable presumption, that, though in some places the same was not apparent and visible, yet that it was not questioned to survive in others ; so that though we have chiefly built the latter proofs, at this distance of time, upon the authority of St. Cyprian, yet there is abundant reason to con- clude, from so general a consent in that opinion here mentioned, that there were numerous instances of like kind in other coun- tries : for if the published revelations of Cyprian had not been attended with some contemporary manifestations of God else- where, it is not conceivable how his reputation could have been supported in that degree to the last, wherein it certainly was, over all the Christian world. But, to render what I have said here a very just and reasonable presumption, it seems of great weight what Mr. Dodwell (Fourth Dissert, on Cypr. sect. 22) affirms. ' I do not think,' says he there, * that there was one * man before the Emperor Constantine who believed that the * prophetical gifts were ceased in the church ; nor, of conse- * quence, could it enter into any one's thoughts to inquire for a * reason of their deficience : but it was after the time of Con- * stantine that the doctors^r*^ began to look for reasons of their ' ceasing, though neither then did they presently acknowledge * that those gifts were extinct. And in particular, as to the gift * of prophecy y says he elsewhere, * men generally before Con- * stantine did expect from Scripture declarations and promises * of the New Testament, that it would ever remain in the church. * And,' says he, in sect. 37, ' the Christians of those times did * determine touching the prophetical Scriptures themselves, in * the obscure parts of them, that they were not any ways cer- * tainly to be understood but by new revelations of the same ' Spirit which had dictated them at first. It was therefore near * the end of the fourth century, and about the year 400,' says the same author, ' that Chrysostom affirms the cessation of pro- * phecyings, raising the dead, the gift of healing, and casting * out of devils.' Nevertheless, in the same period, Epiphanius (lib. ii. torn. 1, p. 403) says, < Is the Divine gift of prophecy PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 213 * ceased ? Far be it from us to think so ; for surely in the uni- < versal church it is not.' And Augustine in Africa, about the same time (Confes. lib. viii. cap. 12) ' writes himself to be first * converted by a voice from heaven, saying, " Take up the book * and read," viz. the Scriptures ; ' and elsewhere he writes very dubiously, whether the miraculous powers were ceased in the church or not, because the separatists or heretics claimed to enjoy them still. J 43. < I confess indeed,' says Mr. Dodwell (Fourth Dissert, on Cyprian), < that there were, even in the age of St. Cyprian, ' persons in the Christian church who treated visions and dreams * in ridicule ; but what manner of people these were, he shews Ep. * 69 ; " for," says he, ** although I know that some persons judge * contemptuously of dreams, and esteem visions an idle whimsy, * yet they are such who rather choose to believe any thing against * the ministry than for it." By which words,' Mr. Dodwell adds, * is implied, that those who expressed themselves in that man- * ner were ill affected to the church. And that persons of that * kidney should so think, is no whit to be wondered at ; for in * the time of the Scripture prophets, there were of this sort * of men whom the Hebrew text calls Latsim, who, that they * might bring all revealed religion into contempt, did attempt to * do that with scurrility and the sneer, with banter and the joke, * which they never could do in any way of argument.' — Now, if we have any value for the Scripture representation, we ought to inquire into the character of those who derided all religion, and who are spoken of therein by the term Latsim, Wherefore, upon search into Buxtorf's Dictionary, we may find that Latsim signifies a person who speaks in an uncouth, and ridiculous man- ner, in the apprehension of those who do not understand him ; and is passively taken for an allusion to the barbarous way of the ignorant rabble in a country, who scoff at the appearance of foreigners for the strangeness of their habit, behaviour, and language. The English often renders the word in the Old Tes- tament, mockers, scorners, despisers, and scurrilous laughers at things the most sacred and reverend. But sometimes the word Latsim is applied to a thing which, in the common accep- tation, does but (as above) appear fantastical and ridiculous, though in itself it be not so. And thus it occurs in Isai. xxvii. 11 — 13 : " Whom shall he teach knowledge? for with {Latsim) STAMMERINGS of lips will he speak to this people; but the word 214 PART II.— CHAP. IV. of the Lord was unto them '* (in that manner) " that they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." Yet the said text is cited by the Apostle, 1 Cor. xiv. 21, and applied to the Christian prophecying in strange tongues : " with other (or strange) lips will I speak," &c. § 44. Now, whether there w^as any thing in the manner of speak- ing by the Spirit of prophecy in other tongues in the Apostolic time, that might answer to the word (Latsim) in Isaiah, signi- fying a STAMMERING and RIDICULOUS BABBLING, 1 Icavc to the more learned to solve : only it may perhaps be not unworthy here to notice, that Irenseus (lib. iii. cap. 7) says, that * the * obscurity and perplexed style of the Apostle Paul, frequent in * his Epistles, did flow from the rapidity of his utterancef and * through the violence of the Spirit that was upon him.' But to pursue Mr. Dodwell's remarks on the age of St. Cyprian ; * It * was true/ says he, * indeed, that the manner of the prophets, * in their gestures of body , was a little strange, and different from * the common usages of men, by which it was easy for those * that were given to buffoonery to represent the prophets them- * selves as very ridiculous ; even as Cyprian himself had taken < notice of, that Joseph was in scorn by his brethren, called " a * dreamer." That prophet who was sent by Elisha to anoint * Jehu king of Israel was called by the officers of the army a * " mad fellow." Thus in the Apostles' time, the frequent cau- * tionary warnings we have, not to despise prophecying^ nor to ' quench or extinguish the Spirit. These do sufficiently imply * how ready and prone men were like to be to that against which * there was need so often to warn them. Neither indeed was ' there any thing better in that very time of the Apostles to be ' expected, since even then the prophets were so untractable, * and such disturbers of public order, that they spake many of * them together {although nevertheless by the true Spirit) ; and * the prophetesses, among crowds of men, did preach with their * hair all about their ears, not becoming the modesty of the * sex. And when the prophets also then (however true) did * exercise their gifts, without any respect to public edification * and use, they needed to be restrained lest they should continue * in that practice; (though on these accounts they were not con- * demned for false prophets.) Wherefore, if men would suffer * themselves easily to transgress, they never needed to look far * for a pretext, when they could judge these or such like things PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 215 * sufficient reasons to treat the persons of the prophets with scorn.' Let us observe, however, such irregularities were not inconsistent with the true Spirit of prophecy, as most men in our days would be apt on like occasions to judge. § 45. As to that subject of ridicule, the extravagant gestures of hody usual, and (by what I can find) possibly universal on the prophets ; whosoever will make what is comely and de- cent in the sight of men, and becoming to the order requisite for public assemblies, rather a rule for them to judge by than the full and clear standard of God's word, there is no arguing with such ; to their own Master they stand or fall : the ancient prophets were all condemnable upon such like topics; and in like manner also the Christian prophet was exceptionable on that account, as well as the ancient ones among the Jews. All which has fully appeared in the First Part of this treatise, and also in this Second, and will be yet more so in the course of argument upon the now immediately ensuing Third Part ; for, as in this latter we are to treat wholly upon the Montanistical in- spired ; who were nisihly agitated, that is, they were Energumens and Prieumaticnl, or apparently affected by a spirit upon them ; we shall here only add, that Epiphanius (lib. ii. torn. i. p. 409), speaking on this very subject, says, * It is certain, that both the * ancient Prophets and Apostles all of them did prophesy * after the same manner, and not diflPerently the one from the * other.' The author likewise of the History of Montanism, who writes expressly against them, as well as Epiphanius there did, says, * There was a liberty of prophesying, or speaking under * inspiration, allowed in the primitive church in general to as * many as were Pneumatical (acted by a spirit) ; that is,' says he, ' those that were thought to have received the gifts of the * Spirit, by certain visible manifestations thereof, as it evidently ' appears from the most ancient monuments that we have, and < particularly from the Epistles of St. Paul.' And now, if the reader will turn back to the First Part hereof, and look again into the chapter on prophecy proper, he will excuse me from in- sisting any further here on this point ; but will permit me to pursue the report Mr. Dodwell gives us of the profaneness grow- ing up among Christians in the days of Cyprian, with respect to the extraordinary ways of the Spirit of God, who, notwithstand- ing all despite done to Him, waited long ; still existent, though 216 PART II. — CHAP. IV. despised ; surviving, though then exceedingly quenched ; as un- willing to depart, although long and variously grieved. § 46. ' But if,' says Mr. Dodwell, ' in the times of those pro- * phets (of the Old and New Testament) who gave forth the most * assured evidences of their prophecyings, there was nevertheless * such kind of scoffers, there is less to be wondered at that the * like should be found in the days of Cyprian, when the Epicu- * rean philosophy had obtained the vogue, which turns all pre- * ternatural things into ridicule. It was no matter with this sort * of people whether the prophecyings (intimated hereby extant) * were from the true Spirit or a false one, or whether those who ' more perfectly understood such things did approve them or ' not. This is what never came into question ; but the very * mention of the supernatural with the gentlemen of an Epicu- * rean tincture was matter enough to serve them for a jest ; for, * as to the reality of the thing, we find that the most learned * and most intelligent persons in spiritual affairs who were con- * temporaries with St. Cyprian did acknowledge the prophetical * gifts then in the church : but as for the Atheistical Epicurean * Christian, and people of that turn, it was always, and is at this * day, their genuine faculty to sit down content with and settle * upon the lees of some general systems, or projected suppositions * of their own; and not to trouble their heads about any particular * instances set before them ; no, not so much as to inquire (any * ways distinctly) into them.' § 47. This is indeed a very melancholy account; and that there should ever be at all, in the Christian church, scoffers at revelation in general, and despisers of those ways of Divine ma- nifestation upon which all religion according to the Scriptures is built, must be a subject of the deepest lamentation to every faithful believer in Christ. And that the leaven of so nefarious a poison should have tinctured those early days of Cyprian, which were the middle of the third century, has something in it that may well strike us w^ith astonishment. But now, to with- draw ourselves from reflections that may be more proper else- where, and here to go on to pursue the track of our present subject, which is an inquiry into matters, as they were in fact ; we find by the whole chain of what is passed that the extraor- dinary gifts of the Spirit, the riches of the glory of Christ in his church, did apparently decrease in the third century. Mr. PROPHECY UNCONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 217 Dodwell (as already noted) has more critically fixed that decrease to the interval between the years 220 and 230. Which com- putation be builds upon the records of the subsisting authors in that age, who make less reports in their writings of those ex- traordinary gifts than such who in time preceded them. After that space we have, it is true, several particulars of revelation and gifts by divers other persons : but the main burden of proof lies upon the shoulders of Cyprian, who was himself a prophet, and it seems had the usual good sign of the true ; that is, to be the subject of derision. But the reflection most obvious, and most worthy of remark, touching this juncture, is, that the increase of Epicurean and infidel principles in all revelation, and the de- crease of the extraordinary gifts of God revealing, meet together, by this historical collection, much about the same period of time ; for when Mr. Dodwell says, that * the most learned and most. < intelligent persons,' did in Cyprian's time acknowledge the pro- phetical gifts subsisting, it is plain from thence that there were many, nay, multitudes, of less learned and intelligent, that did deny it ; and he says, those that in the church derided and scoffed at the authority of Divine manifestations then did it upon such principles whereby all prophecying, the true as well as false, stood equally rejected and condemned. § 48. As to the introducing of philosophy into the Christian church, against which the Holy Spirit by the Apostles had warned us, in the most express terms (as has been hinted, in the intro- duction of this treatise), and especially the Epicurean ; and how it obtained or grew in vogue there in the age we are now treating of, we leave to further inquiry, and more mature consideration : but I wish men would duly reflect upon it, and consider whether the philosophical principles destructive of faith in the extraor- dinary manifestations of God which concurred with the decrease of the prophetical gifts, may not be accounted among the just causes of that decrease by the righteous dispensation of Divine judgment ? For we know very well that the sect of the Saddu- cees, notwithstanding that they rejected the prophetical autho- rity of all the Old- Testament Scriptures, besides those of Moses, and held principles incompatible with the acknowledging of the Spirit of prophecy, yet for all that they were a leading party among the priests. As to those, indeed, whom Mr. Dodwell mentions, of the less learned and intelligent who bad imbibed the principles of the Epicurean philosophy with respect to the pro- 2f 218 PART II. — CHAP. IV. phetic gifts in Cyprian's time, we cannot tell whether he means any among the clergy ; but if it were so, as it is not impossible, their professed adherence, however, to the inspiration of the writings of the Apostles might probably enough secure their in- terest and reputation too, especially considering that a number of abettors generally makes good an argument, be it what it will. Nevertheless, the most intelligent in spiritual things, who believed the prophetical gifts then existing in Cyprian's time, did consider them as the evidence of Christ's extraordinary presence with his church, and therefore they did well to acknowledge them. I am persuaded that those who now-a-days love the Lord Jesus in sincerity cannot but think that at what time soever God the Father of all ever did or ever shall speak unto his people by the Spirit of prophecy, it ought always to be accounted of as the highest favour possible from the throne of the Heavenly King of his church, and be submitted to with a reverence much greater than that of our bounden allegiance to an earthly prince. There- fore, in respect to such as these, and in consequence of the duty I owe to my transcendent Prophet and King, I now proceed to the Third Part of this treatise, wherein perhaps some of those principles, here last above-mentioned to be destructive of true faith in St. Cyprian's time, may appear to have generally pre- vailed, at least in the churches of Asia, before it. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. III. 210 PART III. BRIEF RECOLLECTIONS FROM THE WRITERS UNTO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE ; IMPORTING THAT THE SPIRIT CONDEMNED BY SOME CHURCHES UNDER THE NAME OF MONTANISM, WAS THE TRUE SPIRIT OP PROPHECY. CHAP. L OF CONTROVERTED PROPHECY IN THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. § L In the First Part of this treatise, under the head o^ prophecy proper, we have shewn at large, from the words of the Scripture text both of the Old and New Testament, that the very consti- tuent denomination of a prophet is set forth to us by terms which express a person violently moved and actuated by a Spirit ; that is, there was some sort of extraordinary impressions visible upon him in the circumstances, either of ecstasy or trance, extrava- gancy of figurative signs, and agitations or emotions ; all of them SO very uncommon that these did afford a moral assurance to all observers that he neither spake nor acted by his own will, as other men, but that a superior agent did at certain times affect him so in the functions of his office. Having therefore laid the foundation of our faith and knowledge of the ways of the Holy Spirit of prophecy upon the records thereof in Holy Writ, as recited in the First Part hereof, there is, in the Second Part, an evident concurrence to the said Scripture definition of prophecy- ing observable from the writings of the most celebrated fathers in the second and third centuries, and the report of moderns touching those times. Thus, for instance, — § 2. In the Epistles of Barnabas and Ignatius, and the Book of Hermas, we find a prophet termed the vessel of the Spirit, one in whom the Spirit dwelt, and voith which he was Jilled ; as in 220 PART III. — CHAP. I. Job xxxii. 18 — 20, wherein the word vessel is plainly to be understood in the sense that St. Paul gives it, 1 Thess. iv. 4, namely, the body : wherefore Barnabas says, the Spirit so dwell- ing opened the door of his house or temple (the body), that is, the mouth ; as in Job, *' I will speak that I may be refreshed." And Hermas says, the prophetic Spirit was given to dwell in the Jlesh. Thus also, when we read that the ancients had the text of 1 Cor. vi. 20, *' Glorify, and carry God in your body ;" and we find Hermas signifying and describing of prophets by their carrying holy spirits^ and being moved by them ; — moreover, when we observe that Ignatius styles himself Theojjhoros, that is, one carrying God, or moved of God, and likens the Spirit in- fluencing to living water springing up within him, and speaking (or overflowing) by his mouth ; — when also he mentions other prophetical persons, to be in the state of carrying Christ, or under the condition of possessing Christ, and their being Jiill of God, and possessing the Spirit ; we cannot but conceive that the ex- pressions used by these primo-primitive Christian prophets do clearly denote some visible manifestations on the person, such as are largely proved from the sacred text, part i. cap. 6, under the third head there treated of. Wherefore also, — § 3. In agreement with the trance prophetical, whereof we have copiously treated in the First Part, which is rendered some- times a deep sleep, and whereof various degrees are there hinted ; the witnesses of Ignatius's martyrdom, in the Second Part, tell us of many that fell into a slumber, and therein saw visions. Tertullian also mentions prophesying in ecstasy, or in the Spirit, And after him Cyprian describes a vision of his own to be given him, while he was under a slumber, and not yet quite asleep ; and he speaks of it as a thing notorious, that the Divine Spirit frequently gave put his public admonitions and reproofs by per- sons speaking under ecstasy. Upon which passage of Cyprian the commentators deliver us their judgment, that it was usual with prophets to be in a trance. Wherefore, Dr. Hicks's Enthu- siasm exorcised, and Mr. Dodwell on Irenaeus, do several times, in their treating of prophecy during the first Christian ages, men- tion that of rapture to be a circumstance pertinent to the pro- phets. And thence, even from the notoriety of fact in this case, it came, that not only Justin the Martyr, but many or most of the ancients before Constantine, believed the Sybils to be di- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 221 vinely inspired, although their ecstasies were exceeding great* Furthermore — § 4. The Letter of the Church of Smyrna, on the death of Polycarp, directed to all Christian churches, and therein com- monly read, does style Christ to be (that is, his Spirit) the Go- vernor of our bodies, and describes Polycarp in his last speech at the stake, looking sternly round about, with a deep groan, shaking his hand at the people, having his mouth but half open, which are all actions seemingly prophetical. And Mr. Dodwell, writing of those times, says, that prophecyings used to be deli- vered with signs ; which is but according to the manner of the Scripture ones: for the same author (with all others, I think,) allows that the prophetic Spirit poured out under the Gospel was the same which was in the ancients, and which, in pursuance of their predictions, fell upon the believers in Christ. And on this very point of outward visible tokens of prophecy, Epipha- nius readily grants that the like appearances of a spirit were not different in the prophets of the Old from those under the New Testament. However, we having more at large, in the first part, spoken of the harmony in all circumstances of the Old and New Testament upon the head of prophecy, what is there alleged is laid as the foundation ; and the short citations here from the Second Part is but to remind the reader of the connexion of this treatise ; and therein of the consent of antiquity to leave the definition of prophecy upon the Scripture foot, and in their judgment to be determined by it. But to proceed in the recital thereof: § 5. Thus, then, where Justin the Mart)^ says that the pro- phets were influenced by the Spirit, as the strings of a harp by a musician's hand, there is a visible emotion plainly inferred ; and when Athenagoras likens the impelling power moving their mouths to a man serving himself of an organic instrument, some visible circumstance may well be allowed. Thus also the churches of Lyons and Vienne speak of their prophets under the cha- racter of men transported with a vehement emotion ; and Irenaeus describes the manner of them to be fantastical; and on that account they were the objects of scoff to some. To the like effect that passage in Clemens of Alexandria seems to be where he calls prophecy an efficacious and invigorated speaking, the word there used being properly expressive of an energumen or 222 PART III. — CHAP. I, person appearing possessed. Nor was it in those ages taken to carry any harsh sound, as in the modern, to say that the Christian prophet spake by a possession ; for what we have already men- tioned of carrying the Spirit, and Hermas's- saying that the pro- phets were Joined to spirits, implies the same. Moreover, Dio- nysius, bishop of Alexandria, speaks of the prophets as under a possession, where he alleges that Novatus had caused the Holy Spirit to Jly out of them by the renouncing their baptism, and subjoins a hope of his returning into them again. And further, he adds something that was remarkable in their breathing un- usually, which is a circumstance that was then allowed for a sign of one possessed ; and seems included in the Apostle's words of groans unutterable, as above explained. And now, let us also recollect something briefly of what Mr. Dodwell reports of these times of the Spirit, in the Christian church. § 6. * We read often,' says he, * that when those who presided ' in the church, received from God a public trust, the Spirit /e// * or leaped upon them, as on the Seventy Elders ; ' (and how this latter was, we refer to the comment of the learned on that text, in Part I.) * Now the Spirit was conferred on the baptized in * that manner, that it appeared and shelved itself b?/ some outivard * and sensible sign, which they, the primitive Christians, called * the manifestation of the Spirit, And so open and affecting the * senses of others was this manifestation to them who beheld it, * that the very infidels or heathen could not doubt of that gift of * the Spirit to such persons. Thus, then, those who were so ' possessed by the Spirit were rightly called prophets, and the * rushing power of the prophetic Spirit falling upon a person * drove him to perform all offices in the church publicly ; such * as, exhortation or preaching, consecrating the sacramental ele- * ments, and singing of Psalms by the poetical rapture of the * Divine Spirit, which took place as well in the tone of singing * as in the composing of the said Psalms or hymns.' In ano- ther place of the same author, cited in the Second Part, he tells us, ' that the gestures of body (caused by the Spirit) on the * prophets was very odd, and that their speech was represented * by the profane, and derided, as a stammering, or a strange * sort of utterance ; and that many irregularities attended in the * manner of their prophesying, if human reasoning about order * and regularity might be judge.' - OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 223 § 7. But as to the consent of antiquity, with the Scripture definition of prophets and prophecy by terms expressing some visible outward appearances thereof, the same is further declared by the solemn appeals of Justin Martyr and Origen, urging the Jews to come and see the exertions of the Spirit of prophecy among Christians in their days. For those appeals made to the Jews do loudly evince, that the prophecyings under the Christian dispensation were, in the manner of them, the very same, and no ways differing from the circumstances of prophets under the Law ; because, had they been of a diflPerent kind, the Jews were not capable of being convinced by the sight of them ; whereas, on the contrary, the challengers knew, and do even argue, that there was something open to ocular demonstration, that shewed the like signs of prophecy with those recorded in the Old Testa- ment. Wherefore I shall add no more in this recital, from the Second Part, on this head, than that Theophilus and Cyprian, after the time of Origen, do continue to describe to us spiritual or prophetical men by the circumstances of carrying or being carried by the Spirit^ and their speaking under an influence ex- pressed by the power of the Holy Spirit rushing violently through their mouth : which are terms also that cannot be well filled up without some outward evidences thereof. § 8. I would not detain the reader needlessly by the length of this recital ; but, in what has been said already, the incumbence of the Holy Spirit of prophecy being sometimes described therein by words that intimate a permanent abode thereof on the person ; lest, therefore, we should confound it with the com- mon habit of grace, or the new creation inwardly wrought, and so make it to disagree with the temporary operations forecited of that Spirit, in the act of prophesying ; I must here necessa- rily observe, that to answer those expressions there may be pos- sibly some sort of secret intimations to the prophet himself more abundantly, and to others also, of the Spirit prophetic frequently and often affecting him, although that agent did powerfully move him but rarely to any utterance. But it suffices in this argument, that, without open and outward manifestations, in some kind or other evidencing a supernatural agency, even dis- tinguishable from a mere internal sanctification, we have shewed that neither from the words of the sacred text or the testimony of the ancient church of Christians is there a sufficient warrant for any man to think himself to enjoy the gift of prophecy, that 224 PART III. — CHAP. I. is, of preaching by the Spirit, or for others to esteem so of him. § 9. Thus the Second Part having largely made appear the consent of Christian churches at the first to the Scripture testi- monies of the superior power, visibly operating on the prophet, and having here recited that matter somewhat more amply, that the modern opinion of prophecy under the Christian dispensa- tion, as if it had been tvithout those exterior manifestations^ might stand reproved by the declarations of the primitive simplicity of Christian ages ; I shall now briefly recollect, also from the same authorities, what were the functions of the Spirit prophetic for the public admonition, comfort, and edification of the faithful, after that he, the Holy Spirit of prophecy, had sowed and plant- ed every where the word and doctrine of the truth in Jesus, and laid the foundation of churches by himself alone propagated and framed. For it is evident beyond question, that the conversion of Jews and heathen was primarily due, and due only to prophetic preaching, as appears by many passages in the history of Eusebius. § 10, Men are willing in our days to indulge themselves in the opinion, that, from the very first plantation of Gospel churches, those communities of Christians were constituted in their direc- tion, and exercised in their worship, just so and no otherwise than they are at this very day among us. Nevertheless, it ap- pears plainly that things were very much otherwise ; for, instead of stated pastors who are now alone allowed to speak for public instruction, we find in these primitive churches that not only some of all ranks did in their assemblies preach by inspiration, but even of the most abject and contemptible among the people, women and children did prophesy without restraint. It appears, moreover, that there being visible evidences of the Spirit actuat- ing or moving them in doing so, the trial of that Spirit was not by any who had not the extraordinary gifts ; but the judgment in such case was determined by the Spirit in others. Nay, and the stated pastors themselves were elected and set apart for the ministry by appointment and designation of the Spirit in the prophets ; and the eminency in gifts extraordinary (especially that of discerning spirits angelical and human) is represented as the chief distinction of men set over the flock : for, whilst the spiritual gifts remained, there could be no one uninspired (says Mr. Dodwell) set over the prophets to prescribe to them. Under this economy and constitution of the church the Holy Spirit OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. III. 225 presided, guided and directed by immediate revelations to whom- soever he pleased, even external things relating to the church. But among the gifted or prophetical persons, there were some so remarkably graced, as Melito, bishop of Sardis, in particular, that they are said to have received Divine directions touching all things of moment. And there was sometimes a communi- cation of the spiritual gifts to others, as is hinted in the case of Ignatius, and frequently by tiie laying on of hands. § 11. I am here repeating only some few of the reports touch- ing the times of the Spirit, and his conduct in the church, that are at large given us by the learned, as exemplified in the Second . Part ; among which we find that the discernment of spirits is allowed to have kept all errors from venting themselves. And in this point it is remarkable, that the errors which did arise during the superintendency of the Spirit in the Christian churches neither did spread so much nor continue so long as they did after the cessation of that extraordinary guide in all truth. And this deserves to be more heedfully regarded now, because men have universally imbibed a notion that every dispensation of the Spirit must necessarily draw along with it the consequence of error uncontroulable. And because any prophesying or preaching by the Spirit is thought now inconsistent with the essential consti- tuents denominating a church, I cannot but remind the reader of the quite contrary definition thereof in the primitive ages ; namely, where the Spirit extraordinary ivas there tuas a church, and no where else properly under an apostolical constitution. § 12. The infliction of, and absolving from, censures upon close hypocrites and open offenders, and the correction of disor- derly persons in general, was (for any thing that appears) wholly under the direction of the Spirit, whose office (by our Lord's appointment) was to be the Reprover ; and the declaration of such reproofs or censures was generally followed with strokes immediate, of his all-powerful hand upon the stubborn and con- tumacious. But for the ordinary functions of those who were spiritual, or prophetical, in church assemblies, it seems that the singing of hymns and spiritual songs and the consecrating of the sacramental elements were by the great Comforter instantaneously directed and universally performed by the prophets. Preaching itself was in those times expressed usually by the word TrapaKXrj' sEigf signifying equally comforting or exhortation. And as this was generall}' also performed by the prophets, it clearly shews 2g 226 PART III. — CHAP. I. US how the first Christians understood the promise of our Saviour to send us the Holy Ghost for our Comforter. Wherefore, the prophetical gifts of knowledge and exhortation did consist in opening, interpreting, teaching, and applying (often personally to the hearts of men) the Scriptures. And surely, says Mr. Dodwell, * the lowest degree of true prophecy is to be preferred, * for interpretation of Scripture, before the most exquisite rea- * sonings of men upon it ; and the primitive Christians generally * thought that many parts of Scripture were not possible to be < explained but by him who dictated them at first.' Even as touching human laws, whereinsoever they admit various opi- nions, only the same power that made them is allowed to fix the sense conclusively*. ♦ It is worthy of very serious reflection how contempt of the Spirit's power first occasioned relaxation of discipline ; so that it quickly came to pass, that offenders in the churches either escaped chastisement altogether, or were punished by temporal, not by spiritual, inflictions. The severity of church discipline exemplified in the cases of Zecharias, Ananias, Sapphira, Elymas, the incestuous person, " delivered over unto Satan for the destruc- tion of the flesh," spoken of in 1 Cor. v. 5, as well as Hymeneus and Alex- ander in 1 Tim. i. 20, shews that the severity exercised by the secular arm was but a feeble imitation of that which was exercised by the Spirit, although the hypocritical infidelity of modern liberalism ascribes it to the mistaken ignorance of darker ages. The churches no longer having any members endowed with the power to discern spirits and to cast out devils, the pastors, with cruel impotence, consigned the unhappy objects of satanic possession to the civil power, who burned their bodies instead of liberating their souls. The absurdity of this remedy was not finally recognized till within the last hundred years; and now Satan has prevailed upon men, both religious and irreligious, to believe, either that there is no such person as himself, or that at all events, though he may influence, he never possesses any body. In like manner we may observe how philosophy, human forms of reason, love of disputation, vain distinction, pride of intellect, idolatry of themselves and of pulpit oratory, has given birth to the whole tribe of commentators, systematic divines, writers on religious doctrines, and eloquent sermon-makers, with which the church is more infested in these days, and the truth of God more obscured, than ever it was by the lawyers, scribes, and talmuds of the Jews. It is by this class of persons that the greatest opposition would be made to any who should now speak in the power of the Spirit, not with words of man's wisdom, but with words that the Holy Ghost teaches ; because it is by the same class that the Spirit was originally quenched. When Paul came to the Corinthians, his principal object was to avoid making a fine sermon, and to manifest to them the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost, that the)r might not receive a bundle of doctrines of his teaching, and rest satisfied with them, instead of with the possession of the living God within them. From the same cause true Christian love has died out of the church, where it never could have remained without all the other gifts of the Spirit, and its place has been supplied by mere human benevolence, which looks upon all creeds alike ; and the church lays greater claim to it now, the more it is without it, than in all former generations.— Editor. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 227 § 13. Thus far what is represented in the Second Part, from the majority of writers in the second and third centuries surviving to us at this distance of time (upon whose report we must now ne- cessarily depend), may warrantably be thence concluded for the sense of the church in general touching the manner and functions of the Spirit of prophecy in those ages existent. Nevertheless, even from the death of the primary Apostles unto the time of Constantine, there was in the Christian church a sort of men who withstood the Spirit, and despised prophesyings ; which the Holy Ghost foreseeing, did * therefore leave,' says Mr. Dodwell, * repeated admonitions against quenching and grieving of the * Spirit,* that the true Israel of God might benefit themselves thereby, and not tempt and provoke Christ by unbelief and mur- murs against him, as the Hebrews had done in the wilderness. We are not therefore to be surprised and amazed at any thing of that kind which will be found in the sequel of this treatise ; and the rather because it appears from the New Testament that there were many opposers to the very Apostles themselves, which is so manifest that I may well be excused from insisting on the proof thereof here, and especially because our present subject is to give an account of the ages which succeeded to theirs. However, before we proceed to that account, § 14. It is worthy our observation, that what we render, 2 Thess. ii. 3, " falling away," and in 1 Tim. iv. I, " departing from " the fSith, is expressed in the Greek by apostasy. Upon which words, Mr. Mede's Apostasy of the latter Times does ac- quaint us, that apostasy, having reference to a sovereignty or lordship, does betoken a withdrawing of subjection and service therefrom ; and that, when this word is applied to the church in reference to God, it signifies (says he) a spiritual revolt from God, or rebellion against Divine Majesty. Consequently, there- fore, the apostasy mentioned 2 Thess. ii. 3 means a breach of al- legiance and faith given unto Christ by the church ; which inter- pretation of the word the same great author confirms by alleging that the Hebrew word, which we render in the Old Testament by that of rebellion ^ is there by the Septuagint Greek rendered aTro^ao-ia, apostasy-, so that, the New Testament borrowing thence the said word, we are to understand that the apostasy here cited in St. Paul's Epistles carries the same meaning with rebellion expressed in the Prophets of the Old Testament. Ac- cordingly, therefore, this spiritual revolt and rebellion fixed by 228 PART III. CHAP. I. St. Paul on the Christian church may well be understood by the word apostasy to bear the same sense which the same word does in the Old Testament. And there we find it applied to the re- jecting and disobeying the word of the Sovereign Lord of his church by the prophets ; as in Neh. ix. 26, where the Levites make a confession, saying in respect to their predecessors, " they rebelled against thee," and slew thy prophets, which the Greek reads, " they apostatised from thee." Thus also is it in Dan. ix, 9, 10, " tue have rebelled against him, neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by his servants the prophets ;" in which text again the Greek renders it '* itoe have apostatised,'' &c. As also in Num. xiv. 9, where Joshua said, " Rebel not ye against the Lord," the Greek translates, " Be not ye apostates'' § 15. Concerning this apostasy then, or rebellion, which St. Paul mentions that it should arise in the Christian church, it is certain he speaks of it as then in some sort present, and which did then already work : he says also, that he who withheld or hindered it from prevailing was notoriously at the same time known among Christians, and should let until he were taken, tK fXE(Ts,Jrom amojig, or out of the midst of them, 2 Thess. ii. 7. Therefore, touching what occurs in the next verse, which by the common Greek Testament is, " whom the Lord shall consume " (avoKwaEi), it is very remarkable that Dr. Mills gives twenty-one authorities from the most esteemed manuscripts and most ancient fathers, which read the text avaXei, *' whom the Lord doth con- sume " or pull down. Which latter sense agrees well with the divers notices we have of opposition, in the very Christian church to the chief apostles, from the false apostles, the many antichrists, the boasters of themselves as Diotrephes, and from several other circumstances of like import in the Epistles Apostolical. Where- fore He who, in the church or among Christians, did withhold the mystery of iniquity from prevailing, and did then suppress the growth of it, was (as we conceive) the mighty Power of pro- phecy, called in that context " the Spirit of his mouth." How- ever, this we may be sure of, that the root of the apostasy (pre- figuredj say some, by the treachery of Judas) was coeval with the Apostles themselves ; and if we understand the word " apostasy " with agreement to the sense above cited which it bears in the Old Testament — namely, an opposition to the word of the Lord pro- phetical, — then the presence and abode of Christ with his church being thus construed, it follows that every thing that opposed >;m OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. the authority of his vicegerent, the Lord the Spirit, was properly antichristianism, apostasy, or rebellion. § 16. Having made this digression, to explain that the word " apostasy " may well be taken to mean a contempt and rejec- tion of the Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus, and that the root of it began in the very age of the Apostles, we now proceed to shew that it shot forth abundantly more after their decease. For Clemens, in his Epistle, soon after speaks at large of a sedition in the church of Corinth against their prophetical elders, fomented by some who were lifted up in the pride of their own reason and boasting of their oratory. Ignatius also, about the same time, found himself obliged to vindicate his innocence with the solemnity of an oath, against the surmises and scurrility of some, touching somewhat in his public prophe- sying. Justin Martyr, in the discourse mentioned in our intro- duction, whilst he labours to support the authority of the Word revealing, tells us of Christians who denied the resurrection of the body, by mixing a great deal of sophistry, and blending some few texts of Scripture with their philosophy. After him, Irenaeus tells us, that the prophetical function in his days was scoffed at by some as fantastical, and that ' there were men who endea- * voured to drive the grace of prophecy out of the church.' § 17. The above-mentioned reports of the contempt and de- spite done to the Spirit of prophecy concern the second century; and in the third, we have an anonymous author of the martyro- logy of Perpetua expostulating with his age, touching the decay of faith in the prophetic testimony then surviving. Clemens of Alexandria mentions prophets who then hid them- selves in solitary retirement, so that he had a great deal of trouble to find out one whom he sought for. To the same effect Mr. Dodwell informs us, that upon emergent occasions there were some urgent methods used to draw the prophets into the public assemblies, that the church might thereby profit herself of the extraordinary presence of God with her. Origen inti- mates, that those who in his time were faithful in declaring what they saw and heard of the Spirit of prophecy extant, met with some inconveniences for doing it. And Cyprian takes notice of men who scoffed at revelations given in his days ; upon which latter declaration Mr. Dodwell says, that the same was not at all to be wondered at, because the Epicurean philosophy had then obtained the vogue, which turns all preternatural things into 230 PART III. — CHAP. I. ridicule. Wherefore, the learned and leading part of men being so corrupted, and turned away from the simplicity of the Gospel, there can be no question that the apostolic canon, <*not to despise prophesyings," was in this manner superseded. And as to our dread Sovereign's commination. Matt. xii. 36, " But I say unto you, that every idle xuord which men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment," the sophisters a-la- mode found out some criticism doubtless to make the text refer to any thing else whatsoever but that which our Master affixed it to ; that is, the speaking a word against the Holy Spirit. § 18. As to these latter despiters of the Spirit in St. Cyprian's time, who set themselves down in the seat of the scornful, they seem to have attained to the estate of a seared conscience in regard to the reverence due to God revealing. So that, when the Lord cometh to execute judgment upon those who have spoken hard things against him (Jude 15), and that the expostu- lation of the Judge be, " Your words have been stout against me," that sort of persons are likely to answer, as in Mai. iii. 13, " What have we spoken so much against thee?" Wherefore, not to plead here with that race of primitive deistical profaners of sacred things, the most melancholy circumstance of that age was, that such ridiculing of all supernatural things was grown into fashion, and made up the common complexion of the time ; for thus much is clearly intimated to us, by the words of Mr. Dod- well, saying, that only those who were of * the most perfectly * instructed in spiritual matters, the most learned and most in- * telligent therein,' did then acknowledge the prophetical gifts to be existing at that juncture. Upon which account of the general prevailing contempt of prophecy in Cyprian's days, we must, for discovering the growth of such spreading contagion in the principles of apostasy, look back higher towards the source of them, and carry our retrospect again to the second century. § 19. We have heard, by the report of Dr. Whitby, a passage from some of the works of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, who lived at the latter end of the second century, that whilst the extraor- dinary gifts abounded in his church, and in all the churches within his knowledge and view, * there were, however (to his lamentation), * some men who endeavoured to repel the grace of prophecy from * the church.' Now, if we consider that in Phrygia (a country at the utmost distance from him) the condemnation of Montanus and others for prophesying by an evil spirit was at the same time OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY III. 231 under examination and debate all over the Christian world, it is not impossible that Irenaeus might in that passage have respect to the sentence passed in Phrygia. Nay, it seems also highly probable ; because the epistle written at the very same time by the churches of Lyons and Vienne to the bishop of Rome (cited by Eusebius, lib. v. cap. 1) was concerning the Phrygian prophets; for, according to the judgment of Bishop Pearson, and others learned in antiquity, they therein interceded with the bishop of Rome to use his interest in behalf of the said prophets, and to get the sentence against them reversed. And supposing it to be so, if we consider that the churches of France, thus espousing the cause of Montanus, were plentifully then endowed with the prophetic gifts, we cannot well conceive that they should do so, without the guidance and direction of the Spirit of prophecy among them. Wherefore, it is of exceeding moment to have this affair candidly and impartially inquired into. § 20. The Spirit of prophecy being in the primitive ages es- teemed as the presence of Christ with his church, espoused by covenant, and owing allegiance to him; if the churches of Asia, which condemned Montanus and the rest for prophesying by an evil spirit, did the same upon principles injurious to the Holy Ghost, whose office was to testify of Christ ; then the Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus, was, in the most heinous manner possible, despised, grieved, and done despite to, — nay, although the sentence passed against Montanus be granted for just and rightful with respect to him personally. Because in this point the case was not concerning private and particular persons ridiculing the sacred things of the Spirit, but the sentence was passed upon the resolves of several synodical assemblies of the clergy, and under the form thereof, whatever number those assemblies did consist of, few or more. The subject, therefore, of this part of our treatise being to search after the evidences of opposition in the church to the prophetic spirit, as in the Second Part it was to exhibit proofs from the second and third centuries of the honour and esteem paid to it, we are not herein chiefly concerned to vindicate any persons that went under the name of Montanists, but diligently to examine the principles advanced touching the Spirit of prophecy in general, whether misapplied or not upon the temporary occasion. § 21. For, suppose that the spirit in Montanus and others then was an evil one, and so far the sentence passed against them were 232 PART III. — CHAP. I. warrantable, yet if upon that occasion principles were advanced and established, under the name and authority of the uninspired clergy, which are found antiscriptural ; those principles, being equally applicable to the Spirit in the true prophets at any tirae, will sufficiently evince that the open falling away, or apostasy in the church, from her allegiance due to the Spirit of Christ may rightly be applicable to those councils which did first attempt to authorize such tenets of revolt and rebellion against their Sove- reign. In this matter we could wish indeed for a clear and dis- tinct account of things ; but, since the synods herein to be con- sidered are universally allowed to have been the very first assem- blies of the clergy in that sort next after the date of the Scripture record, we must be content with the imperfect relations which are yet subsisting of them, and argue upon the foot only of what does still subsist, whereof we shall now enter upon an inquiry. { 22. In a matter of this consequence then, that the reader may first have the case duly stated before we go about to have the merits of it minutely examined, we shall offer all that is in our power by exhibiting to him here two somewhat differing representations thereof, by persons of some eminence in learning, now both living (for aught I know); the one a foreigner, the other of our own country. As to the latter of these, in the year 1709 there was a book published, entitled, * * the said Apostles, or from any persons that had received it * from them.' ' Ansiver. — As in the former article, there was g. general doc- trine included, which, upon examination, was found to be op- posed to the Scripture rule for judging of prophecy ; so in this, there is openly expressed another general rule, whereon to de- termine touching the sacred authority of the Spirit, which is nevertheless plainly antiscriptural ; for, without concerning our- selves in behalf of Montanus, to whom and others the same was applied at that time, we say, from the authority of the Holy Writ, that a prophetic Spirit might then and may at any time be the same which was in the Apostles of Christ, though it were not communicated to the person from any who had it from them. And we prove it thus : The Spirit is invisible, and never was derived from any man, but, coming down from the one and only Father of spirits, doth pass, as the wind, imperceptibly dealing out himself to every one severally as he pleaseth. The Spirit prophetic on Eldad and Medad was nevertheless the same with that on Moses, though not the least proof could be brought that it was com- municated from him. During the histories of Joshua and the Judges, there were many on whom the Spirit of prophecy fell, without being derived or communicated from any man whatso- ever. The Spirit on Samuel was not derived from Ely ; nor is there one instance in the Old Testament of a prophet constituted OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 261" guch by the lineal descendants from Aaron, who had himself the ^ame Spirit. The Spirit is self-originate, and every person, man or woman, prophesying, ever did so by a commission immediate from Him, and not from the agency of any other man. The Spirit on Elijah was the same as that on David ; although neither Solomon his son nor Elijah had it from David, or received it from any that had it from David. The Spirit on Malachi was the same that was on Isaiah, though no ways communicated from Isaiah. In like manner, that on Daniel was the same with the Spirit on Jeremiah, though not derived from him. We might name all the rest of the prophets of the Old Testament, for proof that the conclusion of the bishops of Asia was herein anti- scriptural. The Spirit of prophecy on Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, and John Baptist, was the same with that on Malachi, though neither communicated from any who had it from Malachi, nor from Za- chariah the father of John. The whole hundred and twenty men and women received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost imme- diately from heaven, and not from the eleven Apostles com- missioned by our Saviour, and having the Spirit in his life time. The style of Apostles is not to be restrained to the twelve, as we have elsewhere proved ; and therefore any instrumentality in the Gospel ministration of the Spirit is not to be limited to them; the instrumentality, in this case, of any man was never declared by the Gospel constitution necessary in itself at all, not either from the men or women of the first assembly at Pentecost. Thus therefore Cornelius by a vision enjoys a Divine manifestation prophetic, before his conversion to Christianity, from the same Spirit that vouchsafed the like to the prophets. And when Peter did but begin to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on all those assem- bled with Cornelius, though Gentiles, unconverted to Christi- anity and unbaptized : and St. Peter, reciting the account of it (Acts xi. 15—17), says it fell on them as on the hundred and twenty at the beginning ; that is, without any communication human, but God gave it them immediately from himself, and particularly not from Peter ; for, says he, " what was I, that I could withstand God ? " Again also, Ananias, a disciple at Damascus, being by the Lord immediately commissioned in a vision, and not by any communication we know of from the Apostles, went to Saul, and said, " The Lord Jesus hath sent rae, that thou mightest 262 PART III. — CHAP. II. receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." And in like manner, as Ananias had his commission immediately from Heaven, so had Paul himself his also from the Lord Jesus directly, who said (Acts xxvi. 16 — 18), " I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister unto the Gentiles; unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light." There are many other prophets men- tioned in the New Testament, concerning whom we have not the least proof that the Spirit on them was communicated from the Apostles. Therefore, upon all these grounds, the Spirit on Montanus and others might be the same that was on Hosea, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Malachi, Mary, Anna, Elizabeth, Zacha- riah, John Baptist, the whole number at Pentecost, Cornelius and his friends, Ananias, St. Paul, and others, although it was not communicated from the Twelve Apostles. But neither from the Old or New Testament is it necessary at all that the pro- phetic Spirit must be received from any succession ; it suffices, that the word of the Lord does come to such or such, and that they receive it not from man, nor are any ways taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in respect to the homage owing from us to our sole Sovereign High Priest, great Prophet, Lord and King of his church, we renounce the usurpa- tion on this article of the confederate Asiatic bishops, and of all others who have taught, or shall by their example teach, any doctrine such as this is, destructive of the authority of the pro- phetic word in Scripture. Article III * The Cataphrygian Spirit could not be the * Spirit of the Apostles, and consequently not of Christ, while * it pretended to greater prerogatives than those ever enjoyed, or * could lay claim to, by virtue of the promise of their Lord.' Answer. — If there be any general proposition contained in this article, it must be this: That whenever any Spirit shall claim greater prerogatives by a prophet than the Apostles did enjoy, consequently the same cannot be the Spirit of Christ. In which conclusion, whoever will presume to make it, there may be an unjustifiable rashness, if the words of our Lord himself be duly considered. Rev. ii. 26, 27 : *' He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations ; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I have received of my Father." But having barely mentioned this, only to shew how little it becomes any sort of men to dog- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED CENTURY II. Ill, 263 matfze in the deep things of God, which no man knoweth, and are not to be judged of before the time the sole Searcher of them does make the same manifest; what we have to do, on the occasion of this article, is to look into the application thereof, whether right or not. And herein, because it is not unprofit- able to examine whether the temper of those who passed the sentence did shew itself to be equitable or not, and because the union of the church catholic is built upon charity as well as agreement in faith, we shall endeavour to see whether there was that charity in the Catholics which thinketh no evil of others but what is apparent. Now then, we take it for granted, that, before any sort of conclusion can be drawn from a fact, the fact itself ought to be first clearly proved. The fact asserted in this article is, that the Spirit in Montanus and others claimed greater prerogatives than the Spirit in the Apostles. In this case, therefore, the bishops of Asia ought to have given some instances expressly, wherein the Spirit, sentenced by them for diabolical, did claim prerogatives above that in the Apostles; but nothing at all appears of their proving any such, or even attempting to prove any thing like it. What shall we do then ? We are left of necessity, either to say the imputation in this article on the Spirit in Montanus was merely fictitious and a slander ; like to several others, owned by the History of Mon- tanism, to have been purposely cast upon the excommunicated, lest the sentence of the church should be judged to have passed without sufficient ground ; or else we must guess at something which the said bishops meant by this imputation, and which for secret reasons they were loth to speak out. I am willing to give the reader the fullest light possible for me into these mysterious ecclesiastical proceedings; and I know nothing that can properly belong to this article but what is told us from Tertullian, by the advocate of these bishops, p. 232, * that excepting the rule of faith, which is unmoveable and im- < mutable, and whereto nothing is to be added, or any thing in * it to be varied, manners and customs may be reformed and * changed, according as occasion may be. And this is that (viz. * the altering of manners and customs) which the Holy Ghost * had done by the ministry of Montanus.' Now we are left to consider, whether this could possibly be the assuming a greater prerogative than the Holy Ghost had done in the Apostles, by abolishing the political and ceremonial laws of the Jews, and ^64 PART III. — CHAP. II. absolving them and all Christians from their obligation to such, though these laws had been commanded by God himself, as if to be perpetual. But let us hear what our author says, in defence of his Ca- tholic bishops, the Apollinarians, on this head : ' The Montanists * observed a most strict and austere discipline in mortifications * and fasting, exceeding all that were not of their party ; they * were zealous above most, for the traditions of the elders ; and * they would not innovate in old customs, or suffer any thing to * be taken awa}'^, but chose rather to add thereto from the in- * spirations of the Spirit among them. By the means of which < Spirit they established certain rules and orders among them- * selves. Among which rules and orders there were some for * the manner of fasting, and of abstinence. Now the Catholics ' did anathematize the said discipline of the Montanists, not * upon the ground of its being in itself evil or unlawful, but • ' because it was given upon the authority of prophecy ; for had * they not acted upon the authority of a Spirit, but upon the ' public authority of the church, it is more than probable they * had not been condemned for the use of it. The reason, therefore, ' of their condemnation was the submitting to a spirit of revela- * tion, but without the authority of the true governors of the * church sitting in the chair of Christ and his Apostles.* Wherefore by this account we find, that if the prerogatives charged in this article to be claimed above the Apostles consist- ed in the imposing of these orders and rules forementioned, then the Catholic bishops might have claimed them, and all would have been well. But the Spirit, the Paraclete, whose office is to testify of Christ, to abide with the church in his stead, and to teach, guide, and fill up the place of our Sovereign Lord and Master, and to command in his name ; he must do nothing without leave of the Apollinarians : for, says the author (p. 233), * The fundamental error in Tertullian (and the rest) was a too * forward zeal for somewhat extraordinary in religion, before it * was sufficiently authorized by the church.' We have proved, under the first article, that the bishops of Asia had no right to assume and appropriate to themselves the style of the church. We shall therefore here suppose that the churches disallowing the sentence passed, and owning the in- spiration of Montanus, might on the subject of this article plead to this effect : * Wherever ye mention the public authority of OF PROPHECY CONTROVERl'ED — CENTURY II. III. 265 * the church, we think ourselves equally with you bound to vin- < dicate it : now there is no privilege wherewith the mystical * body of Christ is more signally favoured than that of his own * gracious presence with us by the Spirit of prophecy, which is * as it were the very soul of that body : wherefore if He, our * Sovereign Lord and Master, be thereby manifestly present * with us, it seems . strange doctrine to us to hear of any body * setting themselves up in the chair of Christ, and opposingly ' assuming an authority in the church above God therein speak- * ing by the prophets. As to yourselves, ye do not pretend to * be vested with the extraordinary graces of the Spirit ; and as * to your other pretensions, brethren, they shall be considered * and discussed upon a proper occasion ; but for the point before * us in this article ye do not give the least manner of proof that * the Montanists are guilty of assuming higher prerogatives than * the Apostles, and yet ye condemn them for doing so. God * forbid that ye should continue obstinate in such a crying in- * justice ; but if ye will continue so absurdly wicked and un- * reasonable men, we shall not cease prayer that the church may * be delivered from you, and that, notwithstanding your oppo- * sition, the word of the Lord may have free course, and still * be glorified in the church ' (2 Thess. iii. 1, 2). Article IV. — * This could not be that Spirit which it pre- * tended to be, because it wanted the marks of the true prophe- * tical and Apostolical Spirit ; and was not able to give that de- * monstration to others which the Apostles and Prophets gave to * the truth of their message, or indeed any demonstration at all.' Answer. — The historian of Facts, p. 112 and p. 113, reports them thus : * The Spirit in Montanus and others does nearly * imitate most, if not all, the properties of the true Divine * Spirit. It is difficult for many serious and sincere Christians * to discern what manner of Spirit it is that presses to so much * holiness, and rebukes vice so openly and powerfully. Where- * fore some think that the devil cannot well be supposed so much * out of his wits as to preach at that rate against himself and * his own interest. Moreover, the Spirit of Montanus resembles * much the Spirit of God, in effectually working, according to * his exhortations, such outward fruits as are nearly like to * those that are called *' the fruits of the Spirit," in opposition to * " the works of the flesh." And, that this Spirit also may seem * to be even a discerner of the secrets of the heart, as well as 2 M 266 PART III. — CHAP. II. * an utter enemy to all iniquity, he does publicly in their assem* * blies for prophesying, make one or other of the inspired re- < prove some present for their faults which were not known. * However, who can tell the depths of Satan ? And we cannot * think there is any demonstration in this case.' To this, the other churches who owned their inspirations re- join : * First, Ye say the Spirit in Montanus does nearly inti- mate mostt if not all the properties of the true Divine Spirit inspiring ; and then ye condemn him as an evil one, for disabi- lity to give any demonstration at all. We cannot reconcile these things : we think ye have confuted and disproved your own ac- cusation of the Montanists ; so that from your own confession they ought to be acquitted and received into communion, that the church may be comforted and edified by them. But if ye con- tinue thus to make war upon the testimony of a Spirit that has in him most, if not all, of the properties of the Deity, may ye- not irrecoverably fall into the depths of Satan by belying the Lord, •whilst ye say it is not he ? as in Jer. v. 12. We cannot perceive but, by your own acknowledgment, there is the same demonstration upon Montanus of the true Spirit of Christ which was upon St. Paul ( 1 Cor. ii. 4). We beseech you therefore, by the bowels of Christ, and for the love of the Spirit's sake, tell us, dear brethren, what is the demonstration of the Spirit of Christ ye insist upon, and which Montanus wanted. For besides all the above-mentioned evidences, ye own, p. 77, that he also wrought signs and voonders.' * We do not,' say the Apollinarians, * mean that he wanted the latter ; for they were to us no demonstration at all, because these may be wrought by the devil transformed, as well as by the operation of God. Indeed, we desire to be excused from giving any definition of what can or ought to demonstrate a prophet, or be accounted for marks decisive of it, for we do not think that there is any need of prophets at all : on the con- trary, it is more for the advantage of the stated ministry certain- ly to be without them; nay, and more tending to the advancing of unity and peace in the church too, as our Miltiades has made appear : for whilst the induction of men into the public ministry is not allowed to pass without the sanction of the Spirit declared by the prophets, there is not that encouragement for all sorts of learning and philosophy whereby we are to plead with unbe- lievers, as otherwise will be. And whilst the Spirit of pro- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 267 phecy stands in esteem for the best interpreter of the Scriptures, there cannot be that just regard to human study, oratory, and elocution that is due to it, and would make our ministerial func- tion duly honourable among the people. And, moreover, this custom of having the Spirit of prophecy to be judged only by those who themselves possess the most distinguishing of his extraor- dinary gifts, is highly prejudicial to the bishop's authority. In fine, all these things together do necessarily break the peace of the church ; for we find, that, whilst some churches enjoy those distinguishing gifts and others are without them, the former are apt to despise the latter ; and these can very hardly without an evil eye bear that contempt ; and thus emulation and dissensions arise. We think therefore, brethren, upon all these accounts, that it is better for the honour of the clergy, and the welfare of the people also, to restrain and suppress the liberty of prophe- cying, which breeds so much disorder, than to subject ourselves to his superintendency and reproofs of correction. But, in par- ticular, as to this Spirit of Montanus and others, it is plain he could not demonstrate himself to Zoticus of Comanum, and JuHan of Apamia; therefore our president Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, cannot believe it the Spirit of God Almighty : and we subscribe to his determination.' * As to your prudential reasoning,' say the other churches, * we take it, brethren, to concern matters which are not properly under our direction, for Christ alone is Lord of his church : He alone isModerator, Umpire, and Rector thereof, in all points. He has glorified his name in bestowing heavenly gifts unto men, and given us luminous testimonies of his presence with us ; so that all the idol-gods of the heathen do daily bow down, and are broken by his sovereign power. The prophetical word of the Lord has hitherto planted and edified the church, and enlarged her borders, and guarded her distinct communions and their discipline with such mighty demonstrations of his power, that neither any of the openly vicious, no, nor the secret hypocrite, can abide safely in them. Shall we now, therefore, so much as enter into debate about any parts of the constitution of his church ? Far be it from us ! As to the honour of the clergy, we are content to leave that under the definition our Saviour gave us of it, saying, " he that would be greatest among you, let him become the least of all, and the servant of all ;" for if He, our Lord and Master, came not to be ministered unto but to mini- 268 PART III. — CHAP. II. ster or serve, let us also not seek our own but the things of Jesus Christ, leaving ofF to provoke one another, envying and grudg- ing against one another. We shall not therefore so much as enter into a full discussion of your prudential reasonings about the expediency of prophecy in general, lest we should thereby draw into question the wisdom of Him whose church and house- hold we are. We should have been glad to have heard from you what were the marks of the true prophetical Spirit that are want- ing in Montanus ; but since ye are willingly silent on that head, and have only instanced in his not being able to give demon- stration of his being so unto Zoticus, Julian, and Apollinaris, we conceive the Jewish priests might, upon this principle, equal- ly with as much justice as you, and with more too, have main- tained, that most of the prophets God sent to them were pos- sessed by the devil ; for it is apparent that the Spirit on those prophets did not convince the Jewish doctors, any more than that of Montanus does Zoticus of Comanum and Julian of Apa- mia. Wherefore take heed, brethren, that ye deal not '^ trea- cherously against the Lord " (Jer. v. 11). Take heed that ye be not, by such presumptuous dictating to the Spirit, setting the briars and thorns against God in battle (Isa. xxvii. 4) ; for, if it be only the childlike, the weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts, that can be taught knowledge, and made to under- stand doctrine [or, Heb. ' the hearing of the prophet,'] (Isa. xxviii. 9), we fear ye may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken, by these rules of your making (verse 13).' Article V. — * The Spirit of Montanus and his apostles was ' not the Spirit of Christ and his, because, instead of removing ' the heavy burden of legal observances, it was still for making * it more heavy.' Answer* — * There were certain names of contempt given them ' by others, as all those were that were derived from their leaders, ' men or women. But the persons herein meant did all with one * accord consent to disown every such name, as distinguished « them by their leaders. And therefore they called themselves * all by the one name of the inspired, as those who had received * the Holy Spirit, who alone was to lead them.' The Spirit who thus led them is herein charged with making heavier the burden of legal observances, instead of removing it. Now, I have read over the author of this history several times; OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. SOtJf and upon this very head have searched it anew, and must do justice to the Catholics in owning I do not find one legal ob- servance retained in the Christian church : therefore I know not what is meant by the words, * making heavier the burden of ' legal observances.' And seeing the subject of this accusation carries no distinction, at least no intelligible one to me, if it refers to the third article, or to the following one, it is there answered. But if at any time what has now escaped me should appear, that is, that the Spirit of Montanus did declare for re- taining the burden of legal observances ; and much more, if he made it heavier, I grant it was not the Spirit of Christ and his Apostles that did so. In the mean time, where there is public defamation, authorized under the name of the church, it seems a contradiction to the adjunct of Holy, which the Apostles' Creed gives to denominate that Catholic Church which we are to believe. Article VI. — ' The Spirit of Montanus, Maximilla, and * Priscilla, was a diabolical spirit of imposture, in their pretend- * ing to a higher degree of purity, saintship, and abstraction than * all other Christians.' Answer. — We are now inquiring into the causes of these per- sons inspired being excommunicated ; and it seems one of the principal grounds whereon the bishops of Asia proceeded in that censure was, that it must be a diabolical spirit that pretended to a higher degree of sanctity than they and their congregations had by whom the Montanists were excommunicated : for as to all outward appearances of that sanctity, and such evidences as must prove the reality of it, the History of Montanism (in the chapters that treat of their morality and discipline, and else- where,) does abundantly declare that the lives of these Mon- tanists were no other than like to those of the first converts to Christianity, screwed up to the highest pitch ; neither do the words of this article contradict it. Even in this they are not so much as charged with the opinion of a sinless perfection, but (in the words of the author) * with sticking close to the letter of ' the Gospel, in its very severest precepts, without admitting of * any limitations or exceptions from human commentaries : and * so they must have been by their principles, for pressing not < only the precepts of the Decalogue, and the law of nature, * but must have carried the law of grace in Jesus Christ further * than any had ever done before them ; or at least none did more 270 PART III. — CHAP. II. * extol his merits ; and if they added any peculiarities of their ' own, these could not be taxed with being evil, further than as ' commanded by, and done in obedience to, the Spirit, without * an establishment by authority of the church governors.' What guilt there was, therefore, contained in the import of this article, I leave to the consideration of those who can pene- trate fully into the mystery of iniquity, and so may be able to comprehend the proof of a diabolical spirit from the higher de- gree of holiness it effected than any other Christians had. Article VII. — * They indulged themselves in feasting and * gluttony, and dyed their hair, and blackened their eyes, and * painted their faces, and affected fine clothes, and played at * tables and dice.' Anstver.— In this and the foregoing article we have something of a parallel to what was among the Jewish priests, who always opposed the Holy Ghost ; for, when John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, they said he had a devil, though among the people all men held him for a prophet : and, on the con- trary, when our Redeemer came both eating and drinking like other men, they then objected that he was a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. Which manner of conduct discovers such a pro- pensity to reject the true messengers of God, that, rather than want a plea for it, they could even sit down content with allege ing the very doing or the omitting the same action (though on both sides of an indifferent nature in itself, and neither one way nor the other distinguishing in the point) to be an excuse suffi- cient for them in the case of a prophet. And now, though this sort of reasoning could never be allowed upon any other occa- sion, yet the bishops of Asia seem yet to have been more ab- surd therein than the Jews, because they apply the same con- tradiction in argument to the very self-same persons ; whereas the Jews applied it differently to two who were distinct the one from the other. The senselessness of the Jews, in their contra- dictory censure of him and John Baptist, is by our Saviour compared to the trifling of children in their play ; and St. James tells us, no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh at the same time (iii. 12). Thus also the rejectors of the word of the Lord, though they called themselves wise, are upbraided (Jer. viii. 7, 9) with being more senseless than the stork, the turtle, the crane, the swallow, nay than the stupid ox and the dull ass. But for the case in hand, can any thing be more unaccountable OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II, III. 271 and unintelligible than to hear it imputed to the Montanists, at one and the same time, that they observed the most strict and austere discipline in mortifications and fastings, and that the Spirit in them produced such fruits as were directly opposed to the works of the flesh ; and yet that the same persons indulged themselves in feasting, gluttony, and the like ? But let the mat- ter hang together as it will, the fact is related thus by Dr. Hicks : * Montanus was addicted to great mortifications and abstractions, * for the purifying of the soul, especially in fasting and absti- * nence. This reformer was followed by Maximilla and Pris- * cilia, in abstinence from all the lusts of the flesh, that they * might be the fitter for organs and vessels of the Holy Spirit ; * and upon the whole it must be owned, that their lives were out- * wardly holy and blameless, which drew after them great num- * bers. The morals described in the writings of Tertullian are * no other than those of the first Montanists, importing even the ' perfection of Christian morality ; for they pretended to take * the life of Christ for the model of all that they were to do. * Their penitential discipline before baptism consisted in long ' watchings, fastings, and prayers ; for without mortification pre- * ceding, they held baptism ineffectual : for they laid down this maxim, that the baptism of the heart must always prepare for that of the body ; and after baptism the discipline of the Mon- tanists, in all the parts of it, was extremely rigorous, parti- cularly as to eating and drinking ; and indeed they declared themselves utter enemies of all the pleasures of sense. They * were professed enemies also to all superfluities, both in apparel * and in the furniture of the house, and were for having all sold * and distributed to pious and charitable uses. The habits both * of their men and women seem to have been exceeding plain, * except perhaps upon some great and festival appearances. Ne- * vertheless, if all that is told us by those who wrote professedly * against them toere true they must have had a morality exceed- * ing loose and scandalous, for the chiefs of the inspired are all * painted out in very black characters by some one or other. * Thus Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla, are described to be * persons who conformed themselves to the vanities and modes « of the world, in apparel, dress, and equipage, as perfect cour- * tiers, to paint the face, colour the eye- brows and hair, perfume < the head, play at tables and dice ; in a word, that, under the * mask of godliness, they were defiled with all manner of im- 272 PART^III CHAP. II. * purities and abominations, who denied themselves nothing in * private, and were guilty of scandalous practices in secret ; and * lastly, as if under the notion of greater spirituality they were * confederated only to work more securely the works of the flesh. * However, we can say but little to these charges upon them, * which depend not only upon the veracity and impartiality of * the single writing of Apoilonius, but also upon the truth and * fairness of the accounts transmitted to him. And although * Apoilonius is by some accounted no better than a mere libeller, * yet he appears to have been too good a Christian to have been * guilty of any wilful misrepresentation of fact ; but it is not im- * possible but he may have been somewhat too easy in giving * credit to, and in relating after others, relations not sufficiently * examined and attested. But after he had given an account of * such reports as these, concerning Montanus and those that ad- * hered to him, he makes this modest and judicious conclusion, * viz. " As for us, we are of opinion that we can know nothing * of these matters, but what we have seen with our own eyes " * (but, as to the reports above specified, he did not pretend to * have seen them himself). It may be then, says the historian, * these things were so, or it may be not : but whether all this * was merely an hypocritical form, or whatever else it might * possibly be, thus much at least is certain, that the principles of * their morality had nothing loose in them, but on the contrary * were rather too rigid and severe. And as to the book of Apol- * lonius, TertuUian is said to have written an answer to it, in * which he undertook to clear his friend Montanus, and the * chiefs of that party, of all that had been charged against him * or them.' Article VIII. — * It was not to be thought, that any who < were the prophets and messengers of the true God would either * give or take bribes, as some of these did.' Anstver, — Among the other imputations which Apoilonius cast upon the Montanist leaders, this also of taking and giving bribes was one. And we must acknowledge that it might be a very considerable piece of service he therein did for the party which had condemned them, because persons excommunicated ought not, in all prudence, be suffered to be reputed more holy than the bishops condemning. Nevertheless, be it on which side soever, let truth prevail. Here therefore, first, the words of Apoilonius on this article: ' This Montanus,' says he, OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. III.' 273 * craftily covered the sordid receiving of gifts with the name < of offerings, and gave hire to the preachers of his doctrine. If * they deny that their prophets do receive such gifts, we can * prove it by a thousand instances. And do not you know, that * the Scripture throughout forbids a prophet to receive gifts or * money ? Let them then answer, and confess that those who are * convicted of receiving money can be no prophets.' In pursuance, therefore, of this open taxing of the Montanists, before we consider whether the same be lawful or not by Scrip- ture, we ought first to examine the fact itself; how far true, and how far not. And in this matter, we do appeal to the author of the history of Montanism for a decision. ' Maximilla and Pris- * cilia,' says he, ' are charged by Apollonius with suffering them- * selves to be bribed, and with prophesying for presents. But St. * Hierom, on the contrary, supposes them rather to bribe others: * for this father has acquainted us that they were both ladies of * quality, and exceeding rich, so that they could have no need ' of acting the prophetesses for hire, and no inducement from * worldly considerations to express themselves after so strange a * manner as they did. But we will in charity presume they did * verily take the Spirit upon them to be the Divine one. It is * probable, therefore, that the presents that were made to them * were not properly addressed to them for rewards or gratuities, * but were given strictly to the Spirit, under the specious name * of offerings. After they were cut off from the communion of * the church, they formed themselves into a distinct method of * societies, communities, or churches. After this constitution of * theirs, the number of their followers surprisingly increasing, * there were voluntary contributions and offerings made ; the care * of receiving and gathering of which was committed by Mon- ' tanus to one Theodotus principally, that the same might be * distributed as fit occasions did present. As to Priscilla in par- < ticular, she was honoured by some of the highest station in * the church, and appealed to. And as she was noble and rich, < it cannot be doubted that with her riches she did a great deal * of mischief to the church, and all this under the notion of * charity, as the ancients have delivered down to us. However, * the chiefs of the inspired are all painted out in very black cha- < racters ; and in particular Apollonius insists largely upon their * taking bribes, and upon their rioting and gluttony, vain garbs, ' and such like. However, we can say but little to most of these 2n 274 PART III. — CHAP. II. * charges, which depend upon the veracity and impartiality of * this single reporter. Tertullian is said to have written an answer * to Apollonius, in which he undertook to clear Montanus and * the chief of that party of those scandals. And that this author, * however deluded, was a person of sincerity, we cannot but * conclude, as well from the testimony of the ancients, noways * partial to him, as from his own undoubted remains, which give * us the clearest picture of his mind; and certainly from him the * morals of the then Montanists were no other than the morals * of the very first Christians, even screwed up to the highest * pitch. Particularly they were used to give large alms, to visit * the poor, the sick, the imprisoned for Christ's sake, to make * rich offerings, and even oblations sometimes of all they had * for the service of the church. They were professed enemies * to all superfluities, both in apparel and furniture of the house ; * and consequently were for having it all sold, and distributed to, * pious and charitable uses. But in these charities they were * not restrained to those of their own party; for their doctrine * was, that they were obliged by Christ to return always good * for evil, and to render all sorts of charitable services to their * enemies, and even bitter persecutors.' Upon all this evidence, it may well be supposed, that the opponent churches of Asia, Africa, and Europe, might reply to the Apollinarians ; * It appears to us, that ye seek to make valid your sentence of excommunication by mere slanders, in a man- ner not becoming the ministers of Christ ; as if the voluntary offerings made in the Montanist assemblies were not, in their nature and application, as far from bribes as those customarily given in your churches or ours. If ye call the minister's sub- sistence among them a hire, why not also among us and you as properly ? The rules of St. Paul for our maintenance were they not given for such ministers as were then inspired prophetically, and was not he himself sometimes relieved by contributions ? There- fore Apollonius, like a false prophet, has expressly contradicted the Scripture, which says, " Those that wait at the altar are to be partakers of the altar;" and our very Lord himself and his Apostles were supplied from the substance of others. Thus he notoriously belies the text also, in making it from thence a de- termination positive, that he cannot be a prophet who takes a gift ; for among others, Joseph, Daniel, Samuel from Saul, and Elisha from Hazael, did so : much more would this reproacher OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 275 of the Scriptures have made it incompatible with a prophet for any one to have run in debt without being able to pay, as in 2 Kings iv. 1.' Article IX. — * There was no obligation to receive that Spi- * rit which refused to be tried according to the standing rules * both in the Jewish and Christian church, or reason to think * that it could be the Spirit of Jesus which would by no means * submit to be adjured in the name of Jesus.' Anstuer.—The fact by our author is thus stated: * The church * in Asia was rent into pieces ; for there were some in the highest * dignities of it who could hardly be supposed to have any selfish * or ill design, who pleaded against restraining the liberty o^ * prophesying, and so took part with Montanus and the rest. * Thus, in particular, when Sotas and some of the orthodox * clergy attempted to exorcise the demon of Priscilla, there were, * on the contrary, also those that owned her to be acted by a < true Spirit. At another time, when the bishops of lesser Asia * met together to try the Spirit ofMaximilla, Julian, andZoticus < (the latter styled by Eusebius, lib. v. cap. xvi. p. 182, bishop * of the village of Comanum) contended for the right of bishops * as the ordinary judges in this case ; there was on the other side * Themison and a number of persons of eminence, who claimed * as much right in the case as Julian and Zoticus, and would * not give her leave to make the trial, crying out that it was to * blaspheme the Holy Ghost. It is urged by Apollonius indeed, « that the friends of Maximilla would not venture the manner of * trial by exorcising, and permitted not the experiment to be * made : but another author, who had well weighed this matter, * and was no more a friend to her or her party than Apollonius * himself, could not tell what to say to it, when he had taken a * great deal of pains to inform himself of the truth therein. As * to Apollonius, some will have him a little too credulous in * picking up relations of fact ; and it is not impossible, that he * may have been somewhat too easy in relating, after others, * relations not sufficiently examined and attested.' * As to Apollonius's evidence,' say the churches, * we ought not to believe more of it than he himself does, who tells us fairly, that we can know nothing thereof but what we have seen with our own eyes. But from what appears on other evidence, Maximilla and Priscilla did each of them severally appear before you, and the dispute about exorcising was between the clergy 276 PART III. — CHAP. II. themselves ; possibly some without the Spirit would have had the matter decided : however, some did attempt to exorcise, but in vain. Therefore, we absolutely deny that it ever was a stand- ing rule, either in the Jewish or Christian church, to condemn the Spirit of prophecy upon an allegation, not only unproved, but even such an one as the accusers themselves do acquit him of*.* Article X. — * The Spirit of these prophets was not a spirit < of martyrdom ; for, notwithstanding all their great boastings * and their express declarations against the lawfulness of retiring * to avoid persecution, none did more shamefully betray the cause * of Christianity when they were brought to the test.' Answer. — The Spirit of prophecy, as may be seen in the Second Part of this treatise, had always in the Christian church strongly encouraged and strengthened persons to the glorious confession of Christ in martyrdom. Now the Spirit in Montanus had in like sort strenuously moved and excited men to the like ; and, by all the most powerful motives of injunction, exhortation, promise, and commination, enforced it doctrinally. This all the world knew, fiom the books of TertuUian (who had made a col- * There seems to be equal error in the opinions of the author of the History of Montanism, and in those of his opponent, upon this article. The first point to ascertain is the fact, Did Montanus refuse, or did he not, to have the spirit by which he spoke tried according to the tests appointed in Scripture ? If he did, he ought not to have been allowed to speak in the church of which he was a member. The only person, however, proper to try the spirit in him was the pastor, or ruler, or minister, or angel, or over- seer, or bishop — let him be called by what name he may — of the church to which Montanus belonged. Dr. Hicks (or rather Mr. Lee, who was really the author of the work which Dr. Hicks fathered) in another place charges Montanus with being the author of Presbyterianism. Now it is very probable that a question of church discipline was here involved, which is much lost sight of. Every community of Christians, meeting together under a duly ordained minister, who administers the ordinances of Christ to them, is a church perfect and complete in itself, over which no other person or body can exercise any controul. Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, although become tyrannical and popish, M'ere not originally wrong ; for they were appointed for mutual assistance and encouragement, but not for domination, or for interfering between the ruling elders of each separate church of Chris- tians. Now if the elder of the church of which Montanus was a member did try the spirit that was in him ; and if the other gifted persons in that church, who had also been previously tried, as they ought to have been, before being allowed to prophesy in the church, did acknowledge the Spirit who spoke in him to be the Holy Spirit of God ; he was perfectly right in refusing to submit to the intermeddling of other elders of other churches, or of bishops, or of any persons assuming an antichristian power of controul. Under every view of the case, the history shews that the real use of the gift of prophecy was already much misunderstood, even in those early days, by the undue importance that was attached to its existence in any particular m dividual. —^Editor. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. II r. 277 lection of their inspirations), and his writings to the eflPect above- mentioned remain unto this day ; in which it appears, that, if any one renounced Christ in the hour of that great trial, there was to be no receiving him again into the communion of the Montanists. This is what is meant in the present article by their express declarations against the lawfulness of avoiding perse- cution. It is further incontestible, that this doctrinal root did produce abundant fruits agreeable to itself. For Apollinaris bi- shop of Hierapolis, their principal accuser, allowed the subject of their boasting of many martyrs to be true, and adds in Euse- bius, * but as often as the men of the church are called to suffer < death, with the martyrs (as they term them) of the Phrygian < heresy, the Catholics do separate from them even at the stake; * which is verified in the examples lately, of Caius and Alex- * ander at Apamea.' This testimony of Apollinaris is indeed added after he had asserted that the Montanists had no martyrs; no, not one ; but upon this head, the author of Montanism will be their compurgator, and clear them as to the fact ; for, says he also, < they assembled so publicly, and celebrated the Christian * mysteries so openly, in the sight of the sun, when the edicts * of the emperors were most severe against all societies conven- * ing for religious worship contrary to the laws, as if they even * meant to provoke and irritate hereby the infidels; for they not * only believed it was unlawful to fly in the time of persecution, * but they ran earnestly, many of them, to embrace death. In * the beginning of the third century, there was a custom uni- * versal among the Catholics and Montanists equally, to offer * oblations annually in honour of the martyrs ; and so Tertullian * shews that they, the Montanists, offered in their communities * oblations every year, in honour of the martyrs among them. * Even Tertullian himself is thought by some to have died a * martyr for the faith of Christ : Rogino reckons hrm in the num- * ber of those witnesses who, in the persecution of the church, * shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus. Rhonanus agrees * to that account of his death, and in the martyrology of Usu- * ardus, there is, upon the 4th of August, mention made of the * passion of one Tertullian ; who, after having been beaten with * clubs, and tortured both by burning his sides and extending his * joints upon the rack, had his head cut off, being probably above * a hundred years old.' We have been told also, from another historian of the church, 278 PART III. — CHAP. II. and heretic in these ages, that the very original of the schism on occasion of the prophets was in part that the bishops and elders in Phrygia, contrary to the former general discipline among Christians, did often re-admit into their communion the renouncers of Christ in the hour of great tribulation, without evidences of a serious repentance for that apostasy; and that Montanus was not only reproached because he upbraided them with the truth of facts passed, but disliked upon the account of his so violently urging the Gospel duty incumbent on Christians of hating their own very lives for their Saviour's sake, and for lead- ing on the way to it by many examples of his troop. Among others, then, that were willing rather to draw back in the heat of the battle, and were offended therefore with seeing the en- signs of Montanus planted upon the entrenchments of the enemy, was the noted Apollonius ; who, instead of supporting the attack of the common enemy of the Christian name, drew out of his quiver an arrow to pierce those ensigns. The story he tells is this ; "' There was among the Montanists,' says he, ' one Alex- * ander condemned to death for robbery at Ephesus by the Ro- * man proconsul, who to save his life renounced Christ ; and for * an attestation of the truth of this fact, I appeal to the public * register of that city. Nevertheless, Montanus disowned that * he knew the said person, although they lived together several * years. And thus I at once convict the prophet also of a fal- * sity; and if I would, I could exhibit the like of several others * of them.' * Apollonius indeed, the relater hereof, would have us believe,' says our author, * that there were a great many others besides * that did so. However, we can say but little to it, seeing it * depends upon the veracity and impartiality of this single wit- * ness, who, after he had given out an account of such reports * upon Montanus and his adherents, makes this modest and ju- * dicious conclusion, viz. " As for us, we are of the opinion, * that we can know nothing of those matters, but what we have * seen with our own eyes." ' Upon these evidences the churches of Asia, Africa, and Europe may well be thought^ during the debate, to reply to the Apollinarians thus: ' Ye have in this ar- ticle asserted, that none did more shamefully betray the cause of Christianity, when called to suffer martyrdom, than the Montanists : we are loth to insist upon an odious comparison ; for if any of your communion have shamefully betrayed it, the OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 279 taxing of Montanists for the same does not excuse you. We wish therefore ye had, if it might have been justified, drawn this article that none but the Montanists had shamefully be- trayed the cause of Christianity. Seeing, therefore, the ac- cusation lies only, that they did, no less than others, shame Christianity, it seems as if that they, as a communion, are to be taxed with doing so. Now, a communion is then justly re- proved when there is any thing in its doctrine, discipline, or ge- neral administration, that gives room for the subject of it : but herein ye do acquit them by your words in this article, mention- ing their express declarations against the lawfulness of retiring to avoid persecutions. How then is the Spirit of the prophets among you proved not to be a Spirit of martyrdom when he has authorized such doctrine and discipline, and the administration subsequent is well cleared ? Ye say. We prove it by evidences in fact. But where is the demonstration of facts ? Ye cite the single report of Apollonius, touching a man, one Alexander, whom, however, Montanus says he knew not. And Apollonius himself tells us we can know nothing of the certainty of his re- ports but what we have seen with our own eyes. Now then, pray, dear brethren, do but allow yourselves to consider the un- fairness of your proceedings on this point. Apollinaris grants that the Montanists had many martyrs, and yet says it proved nothing, however, in favour of the Spirit on them : Apollonius brings but one instance of apostasy, and ye would make this the foundation of condemning it. In fine, if we should adhere to you, we know not how to justify the cause of Christianity in general against the infidels ; for they will confound us, on one side, with our own albwed principles, that an array of martyrs proves nothing in our favour ; and, on the other, they have many more instances of apostasy than one to convict us upon, and so we shall be self-condemned*.' * The Scriptures do not say, Try the spirits by seeing whether they will go to the stake : there is nothing in martyrdom to prove either good or bad spirits. An evil spirit seeks to injure the bodies as well as the souls of men ; and therefore is very likely to lead them into fire, and every other calamity. Peter and all the Apostles deserted our Lord, yet they were not possessed of evil spirits : Paul's disciples "all forsook" him (2 Tim. iv. 16), but they were baptized with the Holy Ghost nevertheless. Martyrdom is often mere obstinacy and pride, and as likely to be endured for false doctrine as for true. To endure martyrdom, however, with the mind that was in Jesus, is the highest power which the Holy Spirit can exercise on man. — Edit * both ; teaching men, .that, unless their righteousness did * exceed that of these, they could not enter into the king- * dom of heaven. Their prophecyings had an appearance of * agreeing in all things with those in Holy Writ, but calculated < for the present time and state in which they lived. They de- * rogated not at all from the honour of the priesthood, but only « seemed to lament, that the Apostolical spirit which had been- * first communicated by the imposition of hands, was then in a * great measure departed from the bishops and clergy ; so that ' they were become strangers to the very Spirit that was in Christ * and his Apostles, and which ought to be the seal of their < mission. And hence, by degrees, they proceeded to lessen the * esteem which was due to those that sit in the chair of Christ * and his Apostles.' * Beloved brethren,' say the other churches, * under the foregoing paragraph we begged of you to clear your own commission of *< sitting in the chairs of the Apostles " in judgment upon a prophet ; but instead of clearing your authority therein to be certainly divine, ye have not offered in the least, or said one word, to prove it so : nevertheless, ye have in the last clause advanced yourselves still higher ; and now ye are seated, by yourselves, " in the very chair of Christ." If ye will thus go on, and give us no account how ye came by this authority, we must openly protest against such an unheard-of usurpation, that would even become the black character of " the man of sin." For ye must necessarily prove that ye do sit " in the chair of Christ," in the point before us, or we can never, in respect to the honour of our Divine Saviour, find it that the spirit in Montanus and others, in refusing to be silenced by you, did despise " an authority cer- tainly divine," as ye have now explained the same. The ApoUinarian churches add, < The seat of this great evil < being in Phrygia and parts adjacent, we acquaint you, brethren, OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED CENTURY II. III. 297 * that the clergy of that country did contend for the right of « Christian bishops, as the ordinary judges, in the case of prophecy, * since the death of the Apostles. They assembled several * times, and in divers places, in order to consider of the proper ' methods that were likely to stem this tide which threatened to * overflow them, and to bear down the ancient banks. They * watched in earnest against the incursion of evil spirits, and * wolves in sheep's clothing of fancied revelation, and against * that incursion, in particular, which was called the Phrygian * Heresy y whilst as yet it was in its engbrio only. They rejected, * in a word, the whole scheme of Montanus, both as to its new dis- * cipline and new inspiration, as having no sufficient credentials. * And they judged it not compatible with the charter of the * Catholic church, which had received the right of judicature ' over spirits, and to which all the promises do rightfully belong.' * Ye having thus finished your account of this article,' say the churches of Asia, Africa, and Europe to the Apollinarians, 'what we particularly remind you of is, first, That in one and the same breath ye both accuse and acquit Montanus of being an heretic ; for in the beginning ye affirmed, that his life and doctrine were holy and blameless ; and now in the close ye say, that his inspi- ration was " called the Phrygian Heresy," whilst as yet it was in its embrio only. — With like coherence, ye say, secondly, That he and his adherents were of the sect of the Apostolicals, and the most strict observers of the customs and ordinances delivered by the Apostles, and did approve themselves unto all men con- formable to the order and discipline established throughout the churches ; and still concerning the same time, even before your sentence, ye tell us, that the tide threatened to bear down the ancient banks.— After the same manner of an unintelligible in- consistency, ye at once assert, thirdly, That he was orthodox indisputably, in his notion of the church, according to the pattern delivered by Christ ; and yet ye reject the whole scheme of Montanus, in his discipline touching it as new and unheard-of before. — Fourthly, Ye own that the clergy, even in Asia itself, were much divided in their sentiments, to the very time of the sentence passed upon him ; and that they contended among themselves, about the uninspired bishop's right of judicature over the prophet : and now ye stamp yourselves alone with the name of Catholic, excluding our churches also, as well as theirs, from having any thing to do with that denomination. — Fifthly, Ye 2q 298 PART III. — CHAP. III. acknowledge, that Christ the Head of his church, should by his own Spirit extraordinarily, and by the gift of discerning spirits, determine summarily touching a prophet. But at the same time that He is present with us by that prophetical gift, acquitting and justifying Montanus, ye do conclusively condemn him, without any like claim on your part ; and even while ye confess it was not possible otherwise to distinguish in some cases the evil from the good Spirit. — Lastly, Instead of giving us an account how ye came to place yourselves in the chair of Christ, ye only say, that the Phrygian bishops judged the existing inspiration incompatible with the charter of the catholic church. Unto which we answer, Be the guilt upon their heads who resist the Holy Ghost, by slandering Him for a devil, as in Mark iii. 28 — 30. We on our part, who are bishops as much as ye, do not think that the sub- sistence of prophecy is incompatible with the charter of the Christian church; but, contrariwise, it is the greatest privilege contained in it. But as the Spirit in Montanus has no ways set up a new order of discipline in the church, nor despised any authority thereof certainly divine, we do acquit him, and all adherents to prophec}^ from the allegations of this article, since ye have not proved one tittle of them. On the other side, we exhort you to take heed what ye do, in taking upon you to sit in the chair of Christ, whilst you seem even to reject Him in rejecting those whom He sends, and quite to have forgot the commandment Apostolical, not to quench the Spirit, nor despise prophecy ; which is an authority (above all others) in the church certainly divine *. ♦ The case is stated too abstractly. The Spirit of God would not teach a breach of the institutions of God ; but the institutions of God may come to be so misused by wicked men, as to make it a very holy act to break them. It was right to observe the Sabbath, but the priests and pharisees wished to preserve the Sabbath at the expense of keeping a fellow-creature a day longer in sickness ; rather than do which, our Lord righteously broke the Sabbath. In like manner, it is right to keep the ordinances of the church ; but we see these ordinances daily used to impede, rather than to promote, the preaching of God's love in Jesus Christ to perishing sinners. In the actual state of the churches in these realms, if the Holy Ghost were to speak in any of the members, as He did in the Corinthian and all other Apostolical churches, the gifted persons would be certainly forbid to exercise their gift ; and they, as well as all who desired to be edified by their gift, must worship in assemblies of their own. The crime of schism, however, would lie on the church which ejected them, not on them who were driven out. The same reflections arise from considering the due importance of creeds, confessions, articles, catechisms, &c. &c. : if used as so many marks of territory gained out of the clutches of the enemy, they are good ; but if used as impediments to further progress, and everyone is to be condemned 299 CHAP. III. OF CONTROVERTED PROPHECY IN THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. § 1. In the preceding chapter it has fully appeared, that the excommunication and sentence passed against Montanus, for being acted by a diabolical spirit, was far from being confirmed by, and so made the act of, the universal church, in the age wherein the same was capable of being better understood and more impartially debated ; namely, for thirty or forty years after the debate about it arose. What succeeding ages, further re- moved from the scene of facts, and more vitiated in their prin- ciples than this early one was, did judge thereof, we shall see by-and-bye. In the mean time, y^e thought it highly importing the honour of the Christian church in general, and needful to the better discovery of truth, to insist more largely therein than usual, in this compendious treatise, that neither the excommuni- cation itself, nor the several grounds and reasons whereon the Spirit was adjudged diabolical, were allowed to be valid by the concurrence of the churches or congregations composing the catholic church : for which cause, we thought it but equitable to represent the churches opposing, in alleging their reasons, and interposing their authority, upon many of the articles there charged; because it sufficiently appears, that the Montanists condemned did appeal from the sentence unto all the churches of Christendom, and did insist to justify themselves by the general usages, and all foregoing prescription in the church, as well as by Scripture itself; and their chief writers, Themison, Proculus, and Tertullian, did, in their defence and apology, argue upon principles, maintainable by Holy Writ, and justifiable by the because his spirit cannot clothe itself in the terms used by the reformers, doctors, and other talmudists of the Protestant sanhedrim, the sooner they are trampled upon the better. If any one desires a more full and impartial account of Montanus, he cannot do better than consult Lardner; whose observations were not drawn up to serve any particular end, and where he will see how loose and idle is the cry of heresy which every angry polemic hurls against his adversary; how notoriously false are most of the charges which superficial inquirers have in their ignorance disseminated against Montanus ; and how impossible it is in these days to procure the necessary information, in order to form a just judgment upon the subject. — Editor, 300 PART III CHAP. Iir. practice of the two generations or ages, that had intervened between that of the Apostles and them. § 2. Upon the proofs that have been there produced, taking it then for granted that the sentence passed upon the Spirit for dia- boHcal was not the act of the church universal, but that of a part of it only, and probably but a small part also, we now pro- ceed to examine, whether this part of the church, namely, the bishops and communions or churches which condemned Montanus, did not, in the tenor of their proceedings (recited in the two former chapters), discover plainly upon that occasion a dispo- sition to reject, despise, and render contemptible the Spirit of prophecy itself. First, then, it appears by their own confession, that though the extraordinary graces of the Spirit were at that time plenteously conspicuous in all the churches known to Irenaeus in the West, the Apollinarians almost in the furthest East had lost them. And as they are charged to have fallen from their first love, they do not go about to disprove it by lamenting the loss of the presence of Christ prophetically ; and this seems to argue the little esteem they had of the thing which makes up the propriety of " despising prophesyings" (1 Thess. V. 20), for e^ovB-eveiTe in that text does properly signify * to esteem a thing little or nothing worth.' § 3. They, having lost the Spirit extraordinarily, which in its gifts was the usual distinction of pre-eminence, and presiding in the church of those ages, as appears in the Second Part of this Treatise, Secondly, proceeded to esteem it a grievance, as the Jews usually represented the message of God to them, " the burden of the Lord." For thus much is intimated to us, by the modern historians mentioned in the first chapter, who tell us that the reproofs of the Spirit in Montanus were highly resented ; because, though there was something of moral looseness con- nived at or indulged in those churches, the bishops could not allow to the Spirit a liberty of such reproof, or the authority of requiring a reformation thereof. Now as this indignation arose before the sentence passed upon the spirit for a diabolical one, it is evident thence that there was in the judges of him a dispo- sition to turn their backs on, and do despite to, the true testimony of Jesus, and therein to his authority. § 4. This withdrawing of allegiance, and the tendency to a revolt in the churches of Asia, from the Spirit of Christ present among them, appears further, Thirdly^ by the uninspired bishop's OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 301 claim of judging the things of the Spirit by his own mere au- thority : for, if the sentence against Montanus had been founded upon evident testimonies of Scripture, the judgment doubtless had been of Divine authority, and not ascribable to the bishops of Asia. But herein Montanus was justified, in not submitting to their judicature, because, the Spirit of prophecy being then luminously existing in the church, it was in thoSe ages an uni- versally received rule, that the trial of spirits was not to be per- formed by those who were destitute of the extraordinary gifts ; but the judgment in such case was left to be decided by the Spirit in others, as might be made appear also from the New- Testament canons. And that the true state of fact, in relation to the judging of prophecy, was such precedently to them, the Apollinarians themselves did not deny ; but they pleaded to have that acknowledged custom of the churches to be reversed and altered in favour of the pastors uninspired. § 5. By the last paragraph, those excommunicating, — whilst they owned prophecy might be existing in other churches, and also that without the extraordinary gift of discernment it was not possible to determine touching spiritual appearances in some cases, — are self-condemned in doing so, when they might have submitted the matter to the Spirit existing, unless their sentence be maintainable from the Scripture text. But instead of such an appeal to the Spirit, they shewed a yet greater opposition to him, Fourthlyy by taxing the inspired with setting up a new order of ministers, and a new discipline of government, in the church ; as if the bishops that immediately succeeded the Apo- stles had presided over the flock without being constituted over- seers of it by the Spirit extraordinarily upon, or attesting to, them. And under this insinuation, though the same in our Second Part be evidenced apparently false, and that the ordi- nation of ministers themselves by the joint suffrage of the people included the prophetical voice to approve it, yet they went on to magnify themselves, however uninspired, as if sitting in the thrones of the Apostles (as they term it), and even in the chair or judg- ment-seat of Christ. All which is the drift and purport of the fourteenth article, and is virtually contained in the prerogative claimed by them under the first article, wherein, to support it and colour their claim, they wrongfully assumed the style of the Church Catholic. § 6. The insurrection or sedition (as Clement calls it) of these 302 PART III. — CHAP. III. opposers of the Spirit, in the time and upon occasion of Mon- tanus, is evinced, Fifthly, from the confessed writings of Miltiades (one of the first, if not the very first writer in this cause), against all new pretences undistinguishably of that kind ; and which is confirmed by their appeal in Article XL to former deceased pro- phets, as if there were none then living and acknowledged in the church of Christ. The contrary whereto the whole Christian world were witnesses of, as appears in the historical account thereof in our Second Part ; nay, upon the first appearing of Montanus, they themselves owned, that it was the time of the Spirit, and that there was liberty publicly of prophesying every where in the church. So that, if we may build upon their own word, the ministration of these very inspired persons, while the matter was yet in embrio, and before any pretence of ecclesias- tical decision on it, was called * the Phrygian heresy:' which clearly intimates a condemnation (in their sense of the word heresy) of the Spirit before trial, and does shew that there was in that country a sort of men in being who impiously withstood inspiration at a venture, without fear of offending, by a rash censure and evil speaking of the Holy Ghost. For as to the true definition of blasphemy, the derivation of the Greek word plainly limits it to an evil and wrongful speaking of Him. And, besides, Miltiades asserted. That * all new revelation tendeth to break the unity of the church,' which affixes an evil necessarily upon the Spirit of prophecy itself. § 7. The wilful contempt of the Spirit of prophecy, the testi- mony of Jesus, by the bishops of Asia, is apparent, Sixthly^ from their asserting, that the true prophet had neither ecstasy nor agitations, that is, neither a suppression of the senses total or in part, during the Divine manifestations. Now, because the Scrip- ture throughout is so full in asserting these attendances of pro- phecy, and that they themselves owned it in some measure, it could be no other than some aversion to truth, and an indisposi- tion to the love of it, that prompted them to look out for some aid from philosophy, as a relief against '^the burden of the Lord," which they earnestly desired to shake off. And thus when, by the fourth article, they insisted that the Spirit in Montanus wanted evidence, without being able to specify what kind of evidence it was which he wanted, and they were in right to require ; it is implied, that any other one, two, or three bishops or parish priests, as weir as Apollinaris, Julian, and Zoticus, if they were not them- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 303 selves convinced of the conamission of a prophet, might arbi- trarily sentence him for an infernal one, and so by excommuni- cation cut him off from the society and communion of Christians ; for, by the multitudes on the spot adhering to Montanus, the people appear not to have concurred. Which sort of proceeding tended evidently to lodge in the hands of the clergy, either one or more, a power to excommunicate whom they pleased, without the suffrage of the church or concurrence of the community, as the practice of these ages was to have ; and in that case a blind obedience is required to man, even touching the most sacred and deep things of God, upon slight evidence among Christians: whereas H. Ainsworth on the Pentateuch tells us, from the Jewish Rabbins, that a prophet could not be legally tried among the Jews, but by the great council of the nation, as our Lord said, that "a prophet could not perish out of Jerusalem." § 8. The opposition of these bishops of Asia to the Spirit of Christ does manifest itself. Seventhly^ from the position which is implied in the first article, that the non-acknowledgment of a prophet by the church is proof that he was not of God : which position is not only contrary to the tenor of Scripture rule in that case, but tended to establish the opinion of infallibility in the church in whatsoever she concludes at any time. The like oppo- sition to the Spirit itself, without any necessary limitation to Montanus, does in the bishops of Asia demonstrate the same again, by the conclusion expressed in the second article; namely, that prophecy not communicated to a man by a succession from the Apostles cannot be from the Spirit of Christ, and therefore ought to be rejected ; which maxim is proved to be an ti- scrip- tural. But what can we infer, from so many clear and plain contraventions to the authority of the sacred text, less than that the pursuers of such measures did resolve at any rate to drive the grace of prophecy, or the presence of Christ extraordinary, out of the church of Christ. § 9. Had, therefore, the bishops of Asia acted in this matter without any malevolence to prophecy itself, and been only moved therein by a concern for the honour of Christ, and the welfare of his church, they would never have sentenced the Spirit to have been a devil, because he wrought upon his fol- lowers to be holy according to the severest precepts of the Gospel, as in the sixth article. Had they acted with sobriety of judgment, and a sufficient demonstration of truth on their 304 PART III CHAP. iir. side, they could never have fallen into measures so purely satanical, as the following articles do exhibit us. For in charg- ing the Montanists by Article III. that they assumed greater prerogatives than the Apostles, they do not offer one word of proof, any more than they do in respect to the accusation of the fifth article, that the Montanists made the burden of legal ob- servances in the church heavier. These, therefore, are to be looked upon as no other than the sharp arrows of the grand accuser of the brethren, which are shot forth again in the seventh article, wherein the Montanists are charged most un- justly with gluttony, riot, and lewdness. The like temper of calumny vents its poison again, in the eighth article, where the inspired are loaded with the imputation of taking bribes ; and so far the fury prevailed on that head, that they affix to it a general falsity ; namely, that it is inconsistent with one prophesying by the Spirit of God to accept of presents. § 10. This denomination of false accusers, so inconsistent with Gospel-ministers, lies very hard upon the bishops of Asia, by their own confession on Article IX., where Maximilla and the rest are charged to have refused the tendering of themselves to the trial of exorcising. Thus also with the usual incon- sistency of false witnesses, do the writers against the inspired, with one and the same breath affirm. That none of the Mon- tanists ever suffered martyrdom, and that many of them did so, as appears in Article X. Nevertheless, these above-numerated are but a few of those numerous scandals, which, by report of Apollonius, were raked together, and heaped upon them. But Apollonius was not alone in that practice, though the bishops of Asia, in adhering to his, did in some manner make the defama- tions of that writer their own act. For, says the author of Montanism, < the first who signalized himself in this controversy, * though he was not long alone in this war, was St. Apollinaris, * the celebrated bishop of Hierapolis, who then deserved the title * of most blessed ; and in the succeeding times he was looked * upon by the church as a man worthy of all praises, as a bishop * whose memory was holy, as a glorious ornament of prelates, * and as one of the firmest and most invincible supporters of * the church against heresy.' Yet, after all, the prosecution of the inspired, even by false reports, was by this so celebrated a person ushered in with the false imputation charged in the tenth article. Neither was that the single point wherein he favoured OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY IT. III. 305 and admitted, or took up an evil report against the persons accused by him ; for in Eusebius he says, * Whilst they charge * us with the death of the prophets, Montanus and Maximilla * are said to die a very different kind of death from martyrdom ; * for they say, that both these, through the motion of their mad * spirit, did hang themselves severally, and not at one and the * same time.' And touching this latter report so vented, the his- torian of Montanism himself does answer, saying, ' St. Apolli- * naris lived to see little more than the rise of this sect ; for he * died before the end of the second century, and most probably, * as the critics are able to judge, before the year 180, but Maxi- * milla lived to about the year 220.' § 11. It is written in Exod. xxiii. 1, "Thou shalt not receive a false report, or put thine hand with the wicked to be an un- righteous witness." And again, a righteous man, Psa. xv. 3, is described to be one " who doth not take up a reproach against his neighbour." Moreover, by the New Testament, nothing is more disagreeable to the evangelical law than slandering, lying, and bearing false witness. In particular, by the Gospel- constitution, ministers' wives are not to be slanderers ; the Greek is, devils (1 Tim. iii. 11). Wherefore it is not supposable there, that ever Gospel-ministers themselves could be such ; and especially be- cause there is the highest obligation possible to ingenuous minds, laid upon them, never to fall under that character, seeing that the Holy Spirit has given an especial charge to all that obey Him, not easily to admit an accusation against an elder (1 Tim. V. 19). Yet after all, whether it be that there is some way or other to dispense with this law of Christ in the case of prophets, or whatever was the meaning of it, the fact is clear, from the premises above-enumerated, that the Catholics in the age we are treating of did not hold themselves bounden by it in this case, any more than the Jews, who always persecuted their prophets after a like sort; although, in respect to the stated elder, they could allow themselves to add to the word written 1 Tim. XV. 9 the clause, £Ktoq el fxr\ ein ^vw 7/ rptiov fiapTvpiMv, <* unless it be under two or three witnesses," as Dr. Mills assures us, from his notes on the text, and in his exquisite preface. § 12. The last chapter having given a distinct account of the reasons, grounds, and motives, on which the bishops who excom- municated the Montanists did proceed, about a. d. 180, and 2 R 306 PART III. — CHAP. III. the defence of those reasons being drawn up under each article (for the most part) as the same is recited by the writer of the History of Montanism, the reader now has a full state of the case. The author hereof has not wilfully omitted or suppressed any thing he could find in the said history that could give a greater weight to the arguments of the Apollinarian churches, nor misrepre- sented willingly any part thereof. Butas that authorconstantlyputs to the Apollinarians the style of the church, it is not unworthy of notice, that a celebrated work, entitled, * An Inquiry into *the Constitution, Discipline, and Unity of the Primitive Church/ printed a. d. 1691, does assure us, that the word church, though it be used sometimes to represent the body invisible of saints, and at other times to express the union of faith and doctrine in all parts ; yet it never once occurs in any of the writers before Constantino, to signify a collection of all particular churches into one ; but they always used the style of the churches in the plural. And as we have endeavoured also to draw up, on the other side, what may be supposed for the grounds and reasons of the other churches in Asia, Africa, and Europe, why they did not concur in the sentence against the prophets so condemned; he submits the whole to a fair and equitable consideration, whe- ther the accusers or the justifiers of the inspired in those ages did most proceed upon the rules of God's testimony of himself, that is, the standard of undoubtedly true prophecy, in the sa- cred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. But being himself persuaded assuredly, that the Apollinarians did therein transact, without warrant sufficient from the Scripture, he thinks it to be evident that they were therein acted by their own lusts and passions only, unto which the Spirit of prophecy stood op- posed. § 13. For whilst the matter was but in embrio, and stood clear as the noon-day sun, in the point of sound doctrine and good life, on the part of prophecy, the maligners of it, however, called the same the Phrygian Heresy, which is, properly speaking, a condemnation before the trial ; which with other things plainly discovers that the Apollinarians were a sort of Christians heartily disposed and violently bent to root out all prophesying, without any equitable will to distinguish the Divine Spirit from a diabo- lical ; because that, in the whole process of their articles against the Montanists, there is nothing charged upon them that carries the least appearance of heresy. The foundation of the process OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. Ill, 307 being therefore entirely laid upon a notorious falsity in this point also by St. ApoUinaris, we find it carried on by the same prin- ciple of false accusing from the beginning to the end : which is sufficiently proved upon them from their own frequent confes- sions, and from a clear demonstration of facts, when they come to be inquired into. But the sum of the case at first being this, that the clergy who rose up against it were offended with the Spirit of prophecy, because he reproved, with an authority that became him, the scandals in life then obvious, and want of dis- cipline in the churches of Phrygia, upon shameless professors of the Christian name. And hereupon the accused began the practice of the Jewish church of old, in hating " the burden of the Lord." § 14. And because now-a-days, through the long cessation of prophecy, or rather (by the forecited account) the Antichristian rejection of it, some may be so ignorant of the word of God as to think that there was in those ages no guilt in rejecting, or any moral obligation to submit to the Spirit of prophecy then ex- istent. It may serve for a conclusion to the history of prophecy uncontroverted in the Second Part of this treatise, and that of the controverted in this Third Part, thus far, if we here subjoin a short view of what the Scriptures afford us upon this head ; not doubting but it will be allowed, that the Christian church was equally bounden to honour, reverence, fear, love, and sub- mit to the Spirit of prophecy, as ever the Jewish had been. And at the same time we must take for granted, that the injunctions, threatenings, and promises that relate to the owning or disown- ing the authority of God revealing, as they are found in the Old Testament, were none of the ceremonial laws of the Jews, which were abrogated by the coming of our adored Saviour. And therefore whatever occurs of that kind are permanently and eter- nally obliging upon the covenant people of God, as much under the Christian dispensation as they ever were to the ancient Israel. § 15. First, then, let us call to remembrance what is written touching the obligation incumbent on the prophet himself. And herein we may for some ages yet suppose some of the churches in Asia, Africa, and Europe, pleading with the Apollinarians, in respect to the rejected prophets ; * We know not, brethren, how ye pretend to limit the word of the Lord because He has reproved you by it, which ye call lessening the esteem due to those that sit in the chair of Christ and his Apostles. Are ye 308 PART III. — CHAP. III. more the salt of the earth than the Apostles themselves were, when our great Prophet said, " But if the salt hath lost its sa- vour, wherewith shall the earth be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matt. v. 13). How dare ye imitate the Jews, or rather fulfil that prophecy of Isaiah spoken of some in time to come (xxx. 9, 10) ? " This is a rebellious people, lying children, chil- dren that will not hear the law of the Lord ; which say to the see-ers, See not, and to the prophets. Prophesy not unto us right things ; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." Is it of you that the Apostle prophesied, saying (2 Tim. iv. 3), " The time will come when they will not endure sound doc- trine ; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears?" If God has set us as watch- men over others, our charter holds by no other title than that which the Jewish priests had, of " hearkening to the sound of the trumpet" (Jer. vi. 17); and shall we say, *' We will not hearken?" Take heed lest the voice of Montanus and others accuse you before God, as Jeremiah, saying (vers. 10, 11), *' To whom shall I speak, and give warning that they may hear ? Be- hold, their ear is (become) uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken : behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach ; they have no delight in it ; therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord ; I am weary with holding in ; I will pour it out upon the children in the streets," &c. § 16. * Ye plead indeed, that he and they wanted suffi- cient credentials ; but then ye never explain what is meant by that term ; and we know that the Jews pleaded the same thing in respect to our Lord, not esteeming his miracles superior to those of Moses : therefore they never come to particularize what they expected for his sufficient credentials, till they had nailed him to the cross, and then they impiously said, " Let him come down thence, and we," even we, " will believe on him." It is not for us, brethren, to prescribe laws and conditions to our Maker ; we are to take the law from his mouth, for our believing or disbelieving. They followed him with endless objections and arbitrary demands, even as far as Golgotha, and never limited themselves to the humility due on this occasion of being deter- mined by the rules prescribed by God himself; we being there- fore warned to call no man Master in this case, but to submit to Christ as our sole Master and competent Teacher on the point ; OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED CENTURY II. III. 309 we are in the same danger of tempting Christ as those in the wilderness, whose dismal example we have for our admonition, if we despise his authority certainly Divine, in revealing who is " made a High Priest " over us after ** the power of an endless life " (Heb. vii. 16), and '' the more sure word of prophecy, unto which " we are exhorted " to take head " (2 Pet. i. 19), refers as well to the subsisting Spirit of prophecy at any time as to that preceding our Lord's time. § 1 7. * Therefore, instead of letting your own natural pas- sions work upon the occasion of Montanus with prophetic boldness reproving you, be pleased, dear brethren, to suffer a word of exhortation from us, your fellow-labourers ; and there- fore let us consider the nature of a prophetic call, that it is com- pelling on the person, and ought not by him to be suppressed, nor can without the most heavy guilt ; and therefore we ought not to be offended with him. We find, that even great kings among the heathen, as Nebuchadnezzar, Abimelech, Bel- shazzar, and others, were so far from being angry that they rewarded and honoured the prophet, though delivering messages direful to themselves. The King of Nineveh, Rehoboam, and wicked Ahab, instead of persecuting the messengers, humbled themselves upon their declaration. And we could recite a great many instances of this sort, recorded for our instruction, enough, if considered, to shame your perverseness : but we rather choose to argue with you here, upon the necessity incumbent on the prophet to submit and yield himself to the celestial command given; for it is preposterous for us to be angry with any man for doing what he is, and we in this case should be, indispensibly bound to do. Therefore, if we believe the written word touching the manner of the word of the Lord, commissionating a man to speak in the name of our Lawgiver, we must acknowledge that he could not with safety to himself, any more than we in like case, justly decline it, as we gather from the Scripture ensuing: for, in the case of Amos, there seems to have been some Divine enforcement, with displeasure annexed, where he saitb (iii. 8), " The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy ?" And thus Jeremiah testifies of himself (xvii. 16, XX. 7, 9, 11), "I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee, neither have I desired the woful day, thou knowest; but, O Lord, thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed ; for when I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any 310 PART III.— CHAP. III. more in His name, the Lord was with me as a mighty terrible one, and His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones ; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." To the same effect, Isaiah declares (1. 5), " The Lord God hath opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backwards; but I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair ; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." And thus saith the Lord to Ezekiel (ii. 8), " Hear what I say unto thee : Be not thou rebellious, like that rebellious house ; but open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee." § 18. ' Now that these instances above said were real, and no pretended enforcements on the prophet, we find abundantly corroborated b}' others, wherein the infidelity of the prophet was punished ; as, first, if ye compare Numb. xi. 21, 23, with xx. 12, ye may there see, that because Moses expressed some doubt concerning the Divine word, the Lord said unto him and Aaron, *' Because ye believed me not, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." In 1 Kings xiii. 21, 22, the man of God was slain by a lion, because he disobeyed a command which he had received from the mouth of the Lord to him. Thus was also Zacharias stricken deaf and dumb, because he believed not the word of an angel. St. Paul therefore mentions it as a thing unreprovable to him, that he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Why then should we load men with heavy imputations for that which the text represents in the highest manner as their duty, or ours on like occasion ; and treat the same thing as a crime which our God declares to be in Abraham the foundation of that unparalleled blessing, Gcn.xxii, 18, " In thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be- blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." Wherefore we beseech you, brethren, let us not so invert or pervert the Scriptures, as if the examples therein of contempt and disobedience to the prophetic Spirit were rather to be copied after than the contrary ones that are recommended by Him who is Wisdom with the highest /ennobling praises. For if we read attentively the eulogies of the ancient worthies in Heb. xi. we find little else but the commendation of the same faith of our father Abraham, above cited, in that noble register of the faithful to God, in the several Divine vouchsafements unto them ; for these all obtained through faith a good report and heavenly testimonies from God, under the trial of cruel mockings from men. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 311 § 19. * Ye tell us indeed often, brethren, of our Lord's caution to " beware of false prophets ;" and we agree with you, when- soever the Scripture denominates them so: for these, that is, false prophets, are described to us always to be such as seduce from the blissful ways of God, and lead men into erring from the word ; but in the case of the Montanists before us, there is nothing like unto any thing of this kind laid to their charge. Now, therefore, because ye are constantly harping upon the misapplication of those texts, we fear ye need to be reminded, on the other side, what without any need of wresting is as worthy of your regard in the Scriptures. Tell us therefore, then, if ye have diligently searched and numbered the texts, how often it is repeated, " Hear ye the word of the Lord," both in the Old and New Testament. Thus, of all the churches in Christendom, ye in Asia should not forget the words so often in the second and third chapter of St. John's revelations, *' He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." We would recite more, from the Old Testament, of positive commands to this effect ; but a redundancy of the New does excuse the need of it. Only, therefore, recollect that happy disposition of Moses expressed to Joshua (Numb. xi. 29), *^ Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them." Let us consider, then, for our seasonable admonition, what our Saviour said to those who taxed him with having a devil (Matt. xii. 32, 36), ** Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age {auavoo) nor in the age to come . . . .but every idle word that men shall speak (on this head) they shall give an account thereof in the day of judg- ment." And in that day it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the city which shall not receive you my messengers (chap. x. 1, 14, 15). Wherefore we exhort you to reflect on these things, lest ye be partakers of like crimes, and be found fighting against God. § 20. We find a temper recommended to our imitation, in Mark xii. 37, Acts ii. 41, of hearing and receiving the prophe- tic word "gladly," as an acceptable benefit from the propitious Father of spirits ; whereas the contrary to this temper seems to be reproved in that expostulation (Mic. ii. 7), ** O thou that art named the House of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord (and not 312 PART III. — CHAP. III. rather yours) straitened ? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" Thus we are taught by our Saviour, according to our Bibles, in Luke xi. 2, to pray, " may the Holy Spirit come upon us " (Mills's Preface, p. 77) : and in the subsequent discourse of our blessed Redeemer, we are thereto encouraged ; since, if it be inconsistent with parental tenderness among men to give a supplicant child a scorpion for an egg, " how much more (says he) shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit (and not a devil) to them that ask him ?" And thus we find, that not only for ourselves may we so pray, but for others, as the Apostle did for the Samaritans, Acts viii. 15, ac- cording to the heroic zeal of Moses. Moreover, the Apostle of the Gentiles has left us a command (1 Cor. xii. 31, 34; i. 12), to " covet earnestly the best gifts, to desire spirits, and to be zealous in our requests (unto God for them) that we may excel to the edifying of the church." And in some of our Sacred Records, that of Gal. iv. 18 runs thus : " Zealously do ye affect the more excellent gifts, for it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." Therefore, brethren, since the Mon- tanists upbraid you for having despised the Spirit, and thereby lost it, be provoked to a holy emulation to be importunately fervent with our Father in heaven, to restore to you that good thing, that best of gifts, the Spirit. We beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with us, in your prayers unto God, on this account. " And may the word of Christ dwell in you (and us) richly, in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs" (Col. iii. 16). § 21. 'Wisdom is one of the noblest of all prophetic gifts ; and concerning this we have the encouraging news by St. James, that God upbraideth not for asking so great a benefit, nor for our poverty in wanting it, but is ready to give liberally ; and St. Peter tells us, the promise of giving the Holy Ghost is made to all, even to them that " were afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts ii. 39). Wherefore, let us, brethren, look with hope unto that promise in Isa. lix. 21, " This is my covenant with Jacob, saith the Lord ; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouthy nor out the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." We then, as the spiritual seed of Abraham, have a claim to this pro- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 313 mise: and as God giveth liberally living water to the thirsty after it, and upbraideth not, on one side, for our importunate knocking at his gate for wisdom ; so in Prov. viii. He does upbraid, on the other, for our contempt of it : for in that place we read, that knowledge spiritual is to be sought preferably to choice gold ; and such wisdom is incomparably better than rubies, and all desirable things ; therefore does He, the essential Word and Wisdom, who was before the creation, say there, " I love them that love me, and those who seek me early shall find me ; I lead in the paths of right judgment, and do cause those that love me to inherit substance, and will fill their treasure ; for my delights are with the sons of men." Now " therefore," saith He there also, '* hearken unto me, O ye children : the teachable shall be taught of me ; the humble soul will I satiate with good : the meek of the earth shall increase in knowledge ; watching at my gates ye shall be blessed : listen to my instruc- tion and be wise, and refuse it not ; if any man open his ear, I will come in and dwell with him, for I rejoice in the habitable part of the earth." And " they that be wise thus, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan.xii. 3). § 22. * Thus much have we said, brethren, to put you in re- membrance of the tenor of the covenant of promise, and on what terms the great promise of the Father unto the church on earth is rightfully to be expected by us. We dare not limit the Almighty, who can strike you down to the earth, as He did Saul the persecutor of Him, and can give gifts to the rebellious also at his sovereign pleasure. But because in the last words of your plea for rejecting prophetic inspiration, Yehavejudgedit incompatible toith the charter of the catholic churchy luhich had received the right of judicature over spirits, and to tvhich ail the promises do rightfully belong ; we have said enough already, that ye have no title to assume to yourselves the style of the catholic church ; and that the right of judicature over spirits belongs to Christ the Head, who from his chair and tribunal supreme administers the same by the prophetic Spirit, in the gift of discerning, ye your- selves have amply confessed before. We are now reminding you by what charter all the covenant promises of God do belong to his church ; and the terms of it we have from Scripture shewn to be an obedience to, and reverential fear of, his prophetic voice. We have set before you the tenor of that charter or covenant, 2s 314 FART III CHAP. III. in the point before us ; namely, that on the church's part an obse- quiousness to her Lord and Husband is required, as always was from his former church, the Jewish, in the place of which we now stand : we have set before you the terms on which the Spirit extraordinarily was ever promised, that is, to the seed of Abra- ham, who first received the promise, that ** all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him, because he believed and obeyed the voice of God revealing." So long, then, as the church of Christ continues with the quality of the spiritual seed of Abraham, by faith in Christ reveahng, and blessing her with his abiding presence, we agree with you that all the promises do rightfully belong to her, as to the children of the covenant made with Abraham (Acts iii. 25). But do ye think the promises belong to those who do not lay hold on them by faith, or that " the gift of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the acknowledgment of Him" (Eph. i. 17), will be granted on the Apostle's prayers, without yours also to that purpose ? We have set before you, that the promise of the Spirit to the church is joined with commands to seek tliesameby prayer; by prayer importunate and fervent, and under the condition of little children, teachable of God, in the posture of waiting supplicants at the gates of Wisdom, and always invigorated by faith on the promises of it. Thus then our Saviour Himself (John vii. 38, 39) annexes the promise of the Spirit to the faith on Him, as the Giver of it; and in the third and fourth chapters df the Hebrews, we are warned of faltering in this faith, by the example of the unbelieving Israelites ; for, says he, '' we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end ; while it is said. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb. iii. 14). In this text, our being made partakers of Christ is limited to the condition of our holding fast our confidence on Him stedfast unto the end ; but without hearing his voice, and if we harden our hearts against it, the promise given in Matt, xxviii. 20, of Christbeingwith us always (Traerae rac 7?/xepae), may cease, as the promise to D^vid (1 Kings xi. 36), expressed in the same terms, did ; or even as that also made to Solomon (1 Kings ix. 3), '* I will hallow this house (the temple), to put my name there for ever (eiq tov aiwm)and mine eyes and my heart shall be there (iraaaQ rag rjfjLepag) perpetually ;" yet we see before our eyes the desolations of that place, for the very crime of rejecting the prophets. And is it not then high time, brethren, to fear that the temple of God with us may also OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 315 become destituted of his presence prophetical, and afterwards desolate, upon our grieving and despite done in like manner to the Holy Spirit ? since we have no further security from that in Matt, xxviii. 20, " I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," than what was given to the Jews in as clear terms 1 Kings ix. 3 ; which nevertheless is, for their sins, now long since deplorably failed. Wherefore, it behoves us, before it be too late, to remember Isa. vii. 9, " If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." And as the phrase Trao-ac rag rjfispaQ lite- rally signifies '' all the days," and is a definition of time determi- nable by the secret council of God, let us therefore take it as it is rendered Isa. Ixiii. 9 ; where it is added, unto the 14th verse, that ** He who put his Holy Spirit within that people, and led them by it," as a man (a superior nature) leads an horse, and guides him ; when the then church rebelled, '* and vexed his Holy Spirit," for that very reason ♦' He turned to be their ene- my, and he fought against them." So that we have little reason to presume upon Christ's presence with us any longer than we honour and esteem his Spirit prophetical abiding, from his promise to be with us *' all the days," since the words Trao-ac rag rj/iepae signify, and are rendered no more than so in 2 Kings xiii. 3 also. § 23. ' As to your high pretensions for the name of the church, we find the Levitical Priesthood never made more noise about theirs than when they were actually denying the word of the Lord in the Prophet: thus in Jer. v. 11 — 18: " The houses of Israel and Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord ; they have belied the Lord, and said it is not he ; neither shall evil come upon us : and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Wherefore, because they speak this word, I will bring a desolating nation upon them ; nevertheless, in those days I will not make a full end of them." These therefore continued the church of God, though they dealt treacherously, and belied the Lord speaking by Jeremiah, and had framed such systems touching prophecy that they said it was not He, nor was it the word of the Lord in Jeremiah and the rest : but said they, chap, xviii. 18, " Come, and let 'us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet (by whose means we bear rule, chap. v. 31). Come let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his 316 PART III. — CHAP. in. words." vii. 13—28 : " And now because, saith the Lord, I spake unto you, rising up early, and speaking, but ye heard not ; I called you, but ye answered not ; therefore will I do unto this house (the temple) which is called by my name, wherein you trust, as I have done to Shiloh, and I will cast you out of my sight. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them (comparatively) concerning sacrifices or burnt-offerings ; but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice (at all times), and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. But thou (Jeremiah) shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, nor receiveth correction (from it, and thus) truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth." viii. 8, 9 : " How then do ye say We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? lo, certainly the false (forging) pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood (in vain) ; the wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken ; lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?" } 24. * Ye have here, brethren, a pattern of the sad fruits of human wisdom and vain philosophy, a science falsely so called, when it is employed by the scribe to draw up rules to judge of the Spirit of prophecy by; for to the same effect we have it charged upon them in Isai. xl. 13, 14 ; Ixv. 2, " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him ? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding ? I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh after their own thoughts." Ye see, brethren, the character of a rebellious people is here defined, by offering to prescribe, in- struct, and teach the Spirit of prophecy, and " walking after their own thoughts " in rejecting it. Do not therefore ye run head- long into the same pernicious measures with respect to it ; for if ye do, ye will stand but in the place of the rebellious house of Israel, although ye may appropriate to yourselves loudly the style of the church; as "they trusted in lying words, saying. The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these " (Jer. vii. 4). We for our parts do adhere to the definition of the church, taken from the Spirit of prophecy itself, which remains among us to this day; and if Justin Martyr and others did rightly argue against the Jews, that the Christian church was manifested to stand in the place of the Jewish by the Spirit prophetic residing OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 317 with US instead of them ; we may, upon the same foot of argu- ment, plead that ye are but a rebellious house, and not the true Israel, the church. Wherefore, if ye will obey the voice of the Lord among us, by the prophets which we own, and do submit to receive correction from it, ye must then receive again into communion those ye say the Lord hath not spoken by. But if ye do not, then, however orthodox in other points, '* truth " in this <^ is perished, and is cut off from your mouth ;" and though your sacrifices be no other than what God himself appointed, yet he disowns that ever he required any, in com- parison of obedience to his immediate voice. In like manner, ye may doat upon wisdom among men reputed ; but there is no wisdom properly which turns against the Lord in this very point. Corah and his confederates were Israelites as well as the rest ; but if we will subscribe to the definition given by God Himself of rebellion, then let us hear what Samuel said ; " Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry ; be- cause thou therefore (Saul) hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (1 Sam. xv. 22, 23). { 25. * But whereas ye have rejected prophecy among you, it must be upon one of these three principles : either by the prophetic gift of discernment, and this ye do not at all pretend to ; — or, secondly, because it is condemned by Scripture testi- mony, and the general rules there found ; but this we have dis- tinctly upon every article examined, and found your sentence without warrant from ; — or, thirdly, from an arbitrary authority lodged in you ; and this also, we have now made appear there never was nor is any Scripture charter for ; and therefore we reject it as an usurpation upon Christ the Head, in whom alone the body can be united, and so rightly called his church. But lest, brethren, we should be accessory to your guilt in the intro- ducing of an authority into the church which opposes and is contrary to the Divine Legislator of it, we do here set before you the lamentable issue of such rebellious courses, in the an- cient church of God. If, then, your ears are not yet become quite uncircumcised, hearken to the word of the Lord, in Amos viii. 9, 11 : "It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will S18 PART III. — CHAP. III. darken the earth in the clear day : behold I will send a famine in the land ; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord ; for they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." To the same effect is that in Jer. xxiii. 33 — 40 : '* When this people, or the prophet, or the priest, shall ask thee (Jeremiah) what is the burden of the Lord ? Thou shalt then say unto them, What burden ? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. Thus shall ye say, What hath the Lord answered ? And what hath the Lord spoken ? And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more. For ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God. But because ye will say, The burden of the Lord ; therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and cast you out of my pre- sence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame." Here, brethren, was the sentence of God pronounced prophetically, upon those who hated prophecy, per- verted the words of it, and esteemed it a heavy load upon them, as the devil secretly incites men to esteem it, being the perpetual maligner of man's happiness ; the punishment threatened is, God's forgetting them, forsaking of them, and at length casting them out of his presence, by withdrawing the light of the sun, the word of the Lord, or Spirit of prophecy, the shining token of his presence with the church, which is a woman clothed with the sun. § 26. * But to conclude now from some of the last records left us of the history of the Old Testament, let us read 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10, 11 ; xxxvi. 1.5, 16 : •• The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending ; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place ; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken ; wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Assj^rians, and they were carried to Babylon." After they had tasted the bitter fruit of their own rebellious folly, a lamentation for it fol- lows in Nehemiah ix. 20, 26, 30 : *' Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them, to turn them to thee, and OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 3l9 they wrought great provocations; yet many years didst thou for- bear them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit, in the hand of thy prophets ; yet would they not give ear ; therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands." And, lastly, take an account of the sum of the matter, and exe- cution of the sentence pronounced by Amos and Jeremiah be- forehand, from Zech. vii. 11 — 13: " They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they should not hear; yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit, by the hand of his former prophets ; there- fore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts ; therefore it IS COME TO PASS, that as He cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts." This same ** Zechariah the son of Berachiah they slew between the temple and the altar" (Matt.xxiii.35), because they esteemed prophecy the burden of the Lord, and a dead weight upon them: wherefore the Lord forsook them, and cast them out of his pre- sence, and withdrew his Spirit from them, and there is a famine of the word upon them even from that day to this. § 27. ' And now, brethren, we ought to do that justice to God's ancient church among the Jews, that though they could not suffer the word of the Lord, by reason of some harshness in the subject of its reproof to the living generation, and they found somewhat in the manner of it on the prophet that justified before men their rejecting of him, yet they did never condemn prophecy itself. In like manner, whatever succeeding ages in the Christian church may do, we do readily own, brethren, that ye also in rejecting those sent unto you, do not deny prophecy to be existent, nor pass a sentence upon our churches for own- ing it to be so ; neither do ye, any more than the Jews, con- demn prophecy itself absolutely, (but such only as is among you,) as if it were incompatible with the charter of the catholic church. Nevertheless, since the grounds whereon ye have built your rejection of the Montanists are such as are not warrantable by the written word, nor approved by the surviving Spirit of pro- phecy, and are justified only upon the foot of precarious opinions in some churches newly received; we fear greatly that these grounds and opinions foisted in by the devil, the slanderer of God to men, will prove, in the effect, the extinguishing of the prophetic Spirit, where they are received and do prevail to be- 320 PART III.-^CHAP. III. come the rules and precedents whereon to judge and condemn the Spirit of prophecy : and by these means the wrath of the Lord, after much long-suffering, may be so provoked that He may also at length utterly forsake Christians, and cast them out of his presence too, with respect to the prophetic testimonies of it. Under the Christian dispensation, we the present covenant people of God, and the children of promise, are not indeed embodied into a national polity, as the Jews were, and therefore cannot apprehend how we should be capable of a local captivity, like to that of the children of Israel and Judah, in Babylon. However, we have fair warning, from the Book of the Revelation of St. John, of something that will arise within the Christian church itself that is to bear a parallel to that captivity of the Jews in Babylon. We read there also of a war to be made upon those that have the testimony of Jesus ; that is, the Spirit of prophecy upon them j even after that the woman representing the true church fled into the wilderness. Now whatever these things may here- after prove that are couched in figurative obscurities, we cannot but with much concern hear that among you who reject the Montanists the said prophetic book of the New Testament is falling daily into more and more disgrace ; even so far that some among you do not already stick to impute it to the dictate of the unclean spirit of Cerinthus. § 28. ' Ye may think the catholic church secure against the evils above-mentioned to have attended the Jewish, because they are always charged by the prophets to be prone to idolatry, which the Christian church unto these our days has no appear- ance of: but pray consider, brethren, that their very zeal for the temple service, as the same was perversely construed, did make the standing institution of God a cloak for their rejecting the prophet, as if the latter despised it. In like manner, ye have advanced some parallel principles, as if the constitution of the stated clergy were necessarily brought into contempt by, and the honour due to it incompatible with, prophecy proper. This has so near a resemblance to the pleas of the Levitical Priest- hood violently always urged, for their rejecting the prophets sent them, that we cannot tell but, if ever the wrath of the Lord arises against the Christian church on the same account, there may something also rise up in it which may likewise bear a parallel to their inclination to idolatry in God's account. And this we have the more reason to fear, because we are told by St. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED-^CENTURY II. III. 321 Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 4, of a *' man of sin to be revealed, who op- poseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that' is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." It is true, indeed, that no such thing is as yet clearly disclosed and apparent in the Chris- tian church ; and we are willing to confine our arguments with you to the state of the matter at present under debate : where- fore, having lightly touched upon the history of the ancient church, unto whom the Gospel was preached as well as unto us, we have laid before you an abbreviated pattern of their unbelief, and the fatal consequences of it ; hoping it may not be unuseful to prevent in you any steps that may draw the like, in times to come, upon the churches of Christ. § 29. * In the last desolating judgment on the Jews, much worse than that of their captivity in Babylon, our Lord says, " all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, even the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world," was to be required of that generation. To the like effect, " Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and the abominations of the earth," is to be ** drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; " so that when " the King of kings," whose name is " the Word of God," makes war upon her, there will be ** found in her the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." We know not but in the prophetic stjle, and in God's account, the pro- phets are said to be slain when their testimony of Jesus is rejected, and their mouths stopped by a sentence of the then church ; we now, therefore, once more beg of you, brethren, to hold your hands, lest they be imbrued in the blood of pro- phets. But if your ears are become quite deaf upon this sub- ject, at least compassionate the common state of Christians, which is like to be endangered by these courses of yours ; for, in your furious zeal against them, ye have passed a sentence upon a considerable part of the believers in Jesus ; and wherever your power reaches, ye have now first, without any precedent ever heard of in the Christian church, excommunicated persons, who are, by your own confession, in all things as sound in doc- trine, and in strictness of life more holy than yourselves. If then your authority be so absolute now, that ye do arbitrarily exclude from the communion of the church even prophets who by an authority above your own have reproved you, and this 2t 322 PART III. — CHAP. III. without being able to prove any error doctrinal, or any immo- rality whatsoever, upon them; who shall hereafter stand up against such masters in the church, who may call any man a heretic that displeases them, and even if they please may ex- communicate for no other cause than that he is a saint? as Plu- tarch tells us of a fellow that was for banishing Aristides out of Athens, merely and only because he was deadly just. § 30. ' Well, brethren, we have now finished our remonstrance and protestation against your proceedings, and conclude with this one word. That prophecy, from the beginning of the world to this day, is represented to us, from sacred authority, to be a " testimony of Jesus," and touching Christ the Messiah ; so that the main current of our examination ought to run in this channel, thereby to decide whether it be true or false. Accord- ingly, we have narrowly sifted that of the Montanist prophets which ye have condemned, and do find that the Spirit speaking through their organs, who is adjudged by you for a diabolical one, has constantly witnessed to all the glorious things said in the Scriptures touching the Messiah ; insomuch that ye your- selves cannot charge him with the least omission or defect in this point on the one side, nor, on the other, with any extravagances of doctrine mixed and superadded to those in the Scripture on the same head : but, all things in the latter inspiration being con- sonant and agreeable to the testimony of the former undoubted- ly true prophets, we cannot understand how the sacred text has its due honour of being the standard to try other things by, if in this great point we grant unto you that it is defective and in- competent, and needs to be supplied by human wisdom and ar- bitrary opinions, or, in its clear dictates, is to be controuled and superseded by rules of man's invention. Therefore, since the case before us is touching persons prophetical, and acted by a Spirit apparently, who by that Spirit are led to proclaim more explicitly the several glories and high prerogatives of Christ our Head and Redeemer, High Priest, and Great Prophet, contained more concisely and therefore obscurely in the Scripture ; we cannot but, on the one side, subscribe to the determination by St. Peter, that ** no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation," or can be conclusively fixed by the knowledge which is merely human ; so, on the other, when spiritual persons, or prophetical, that is, such as are moved and acted apparently by a Spirit, do openly urge and testify at large the glories of OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. HI. 323 our Saviour, we must also subscribe to that of St. Paul, that " no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost " (1 Cor.xii.3).' CHAP. IV. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED IN THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES. § 1. Hitherto we have insisted upon those which are alleged to be the principal grounds and reasons whereon the bishops of Asia went, in the excommunication of the prophets and their adherents. But as some lesser reasons are intimated, I would gladly give the utmost latitude to this affair ; and therefore, for the reader's further information, these latter may possibly be what followeth :— First, The sixth article having represented them as deservedly odious for being more holy than other Chris- tians, the offence that seems to have been in this was, that they did not content themselves with that happiness, but urged the same upon others, even with vehement reproofs of the Spirit for their looseness and degeneracy. For, says Dr. Hicks, * Mon- * tanus being one of the most strict sect of the Apostolicals, < and in all things zealous for the laws and customs of the church, * he continued a most diligent observer of all its discipline, and < a mighty stickler for restoring (in others) the decayed spirit * and life of Christianity. And as he had a zeal very extraordi- * nary for that holy religion into which he was baptized, he * would needs set up for a mighty reformer in the church, how * impracticable soever so good an end might appear. And thus * in his zeal for the establishment of the churches according to * the most perfect model, that he might bring them back to their < " first love," and " strengthen the things that were ready to < die," he gave way to a disorderly ambition after the dignities * of the church. And as he was indefatigable in what he once < undertook to promote, so there was likewise such an opiniona- * tiveness and inflexibility in his temper as nothing could ever < bend.' — Now, though I believe that the character here given might be found very agreeable to that of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other Prophets, whose faces are said to be hardened as flint, and their obstinacy (through the Divine power on them) com- 324. PART III. CHAP. IV. pared to a wall of brass ; and as even the Apostles had a sort of *' boldness " astonishing to the beholders ; and though the end herein mentioned to be pursued is no other than what all the prophets in Scripture might have been charged withal, as also the extraordinary manner of zeal, wherewith that end was pur- sued, is no less agreeable to the true messengers of God, and the efficacious energy working on them ; even as it is worded in Jer. vi. 1], "I am full of the fury of the Lord ;" and Ezekiel went in "hot anger," or ^« the heat of his spirit" (iii. 14). And thus in Gal. ii. 8, it is said, that God " wrought effectually in Peter," and " was mighty in Paul," where the word Evepyrjae, so ren- dered, does properly signify the operation of a spirit in them, vehement and strong, like one possessed. Nevertheless, because we have largely treated of this matter in the First Part, as also by reason that the whole of this article is mentioned but as a lesser reason of condemning him, I shall add no more in my defence of the Spirit of prophecy on this point. Therefore to proceed, — § 2. We have another reason for condemning them given us, thus: *Montanus, being acted by a spirit of delusion, did but * disturb the world, and unprofitably amuse and perplex people's * minds with vain fancies and the expectation of wonderful ap- * preaching revolutions, even no less than the total change of all * things quicMy ; therefore the Catholics foared not to forbid him * to speak any more hy that spirit : but his mind being intoxicated * with high notions, he went up and down, and drew after him * certain religious melancholists. Maximilla prophesied of the * pouring forth of the last judgment upon the world, and of such * dreadful calamities as never had been before from the founda- * tion of it ; but that, even then, there should be a hiding-place ' for the elect and spiritual Christian, till the indignation should * pass over the earth ; and that the heavenly city should then * descend, and all things afterwards be renewed, and the curse * taken away. Tertullian wrote six books of the ecstatical visions * and revelations of the Montanists, which are mentioned by St. * Hierom, and must have been considerable : among these was * something of the heavenly marriage, vohich tvas clearly a catholic * mystery at the Jlrst, It was reported also, that the figure of a * beautiful and glorious city, embling the Jerusalem that is to * descend from heaven, had appeared to them, wherein they and * the other Millenaries imagined they should live the term of a OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY it. III. 325 < thousand years in all happiness. Thus, then, they were led on * with a false faith.' § 3. As to the doctrine here above ascribed to the Millena- ries, Dr. Grabe, in his Spicel. par. i. p. 31, tells us, that all the primitive Christians accounted to be sound in faith were such* : therefore we suppose the anti-prophetical bishops now declaring it to be a false faith were the primitive fathers of the generation of scoffers, who were by the Apostle foretold to arise in the church. For this they seem to take to themselves the honour of, by owning that the heavenly marriage which by Rev. xix. is to take place after the judgment of the whorish corrupter of the earth was clearly a catholic mystery^ that is, such an one as was universally acknowledged at the fir &t. But as to the strict sect of the Apostolicals, among whom Montanus continued to be, it was enough for men of the Apollinarian turn to make him a criminal, because he xvas not for suffering the least iota of the Gospel (wherein also this heavenly marriage is contained) to fall to the ground ; * for,' says the history, p. 338, * his overstraining * the letter of it, and of the rest of the Holy Scriptures, by a too * forward zeal, was the principal source of his enthusiastic error.' As to religious melancholy herein imputed to the Apostolicals, we are told, p. 213, that * Apollinaris did demonstrate by his * writings, from what sect of philosophy every heresy among the * Christians drew their errors ; which was of vast service to the * church : for the Montanist prophets in general predicted great * and terrible things near at hand, exhorting to repentance, * and pressing their auditory to make haste to fly from the wrath * to come.' The Catholics, therefore, forbad them to speak any more by that Spirit, seeing it was to disturb the world, and to * The heaven, or place of happiness, held out in Scripture as the hope of God's children, is this globe purified from sin, ruled over by them in Rubservience to, but in company with, God manifested in Jesus Christ. From this hope men have flown off in every age ; and therefore the uniform tenor of the prophetic spirit, from the days of Enoch, down to this hour, has been to testify of Jesus as bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, setting up His kingdom of blessedness on the earth. Thus we find that despite to the Spirit of prophecy, and to the kingdom of Christ, and to the Book of Revelations, as describing the details of his coming to establish that kingdom, and destroy all those on the earth at the time of his advent, has ever been found in the same persons. The Spirit of prophecy seems to have been a most merciful provision of God for keeping up a perpetual recurrence to an event, respecting which men would not believe the plain testimony of his written word. See also p. 320. — Editor, 326 PART III. — CHAP. IV, ^muse and perplex people's minds, who otherwise might live at ease but for such vain and melancholy fancies. § 4. These being two of the lesser reasons whereon the Spirit of Montanus was rejected, a third perhaps might be this, con- sidering that the clergy were then chosen by the Spirit prophe- tical, that * they held that none were to be received into the * priesthood, without an express designation of the Holy Ghost : ' they moreover multiplied the number of bishops very much, * without any apparent cause, and so rendered them far less con- * siderable ; their subjects being but few, and the episcopal throne * depressed : for not only every city, but almost every little * town or borough where they inhabited, had a bishop. Their * presbyters continued in subjection to their bishops, as among * the Catholics ; but both by the unnecessary multitude of such < bishops, and by the claim of the one no less than the other, to * an extraordinary and prophetical mission, the distinction that ' was left between a presbyter and a bishop could not be indeed * very great.' — I have but mentioned it ; and whether there might be emulation and affectation of superiority and dominion contained in this point, I know not. I shall therefore here con- clude the enumeration of all the reasons given us for excom- municating the Spirit of prophecy in that place and occasion, whereof we have largely treated ; only observing, that the author of * an Enquiry into the Constitution and Discipline of the Pri- mitive Church' tells us, that the diocese of a bishop before Constantine meant no more than a parish, and that touching or- dination there is little said in antiquity. § 5. What particularly concerned Montanus, and others with him, is not of so much importance as to examine whether, under the colour of their personal prosecution, there were not measures and precedents in the church laid down injurious to the honour of the Spirit, and evidently tending to quench or extinguish pro- phecy itself This therefore we have made our main aim ; and as to what was personal, we desire not that any thing should be further considered of it than as the general glory of Christ, pre- sent with his church by the prophetic Spirit, demands from our hands. But as we have made it appear that this prosecution of the inspired or prophet was carried on by a part only of the church, we are to trace the steps of that prosecution further, to find whether they were more orthodox than those whom OF PROPHECY CON.TRO VERTED— CENTURY II. III. 327 they excommunicated : because that, for any thing we can find hitherto, we cannot see but that, if the Apostle Paul's declara- tion that he *' believed all things written in the Law and the Pro- phets," were a valid plea that he was no heretic, the same without any diminution or difference, even from the mouths and ample confession of his accusers, ought to have been allowed a plea valid also in behalf of Montanus. For, as to the case of St. Paul, the Pharisees indeed said, "If an angel or spirit hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God :" but the Sadducees, being priests as well as they, who by principle denied the authority of an angel or spirit speaking, might as well condemn him for an heretic, and had every whit as much right to appropriate to themselves the character of the catholic church, as these con- demners of Montanus had. § 6. Having, then, thus far limited ourselves to such a dis- cussion of the point of inspiration, among those now called Montanists, as can be gathered from the memorials of that age wherein it was condemned for diabolical by some churches, and by others esteemed Divine ; and upon all that is gathered upon this point, it being rational to conclude, that the condemners of it were not regulated and warranted by the Scriptures, nor pre- ceding usages of the Christian church ; it does follow neces- sarily, that they were a corrupt party among Christians, who fell away and revolted from the testimony of Jesus, both written and surviving : which does also appear from a passage in Dr. Mills's elaborate preface to the New Testament in Greek, which runs thus : * This,' says he, * is undoubtedly certain, that, fronj * the very time of its writing, there was not the least controversy * ever moved, as far as can be gathered from all the remains of < antiquity, touching the sacred authority or the author of the * Revelation of St. John, unto the year of Christ 210 ; then first * Caius, a minister of the church at Rome, being fired with * hatred of the Montanists, who, in their arguments upon th^ * Millennium, used to allege texts out of the Apocalypse for * proof of earthly pleasures and delights to attend the renovar * tion of the earth and heavens. This man, when he ought to * have interpreted those places alleged in a spiritual sense; * even this Caius in his public famous disputation with Proclus, * a leader among the Montanists, went so far as to deny the * sacred authority of that book, and afiirmed it to be written by 828 PART III. — CHAP. IV. ' Cerinthus (a beastly heretic) under the name of the Apostle < John.' } 7. Had this passed only in surprise, under the heat of argu- ment, it might have admitted of a mitigation ; but Caius was not ashamed to publish his assertion, and adhere to it in writing. And after that, the same author acquaints us, that the Revelation of St. John fell under such contempt with the Asiatic churches that for several hundred years the Greeks left it quite out of the volume of their New Testament, which was a proceeding highly criminal, if we adhere to the text. Rev. xxii. 19, "If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city." But seeing the matter in fact was so, I leave it to the impartial reader to judge whether these men were not blasphemers of the Holy Ghost; and whether they did not, by the act of cutting off from the New Testament one of its principal parts, give a manifest proof of their apostasy from Christ, and contempt of the great things said of Him there by the testimony of Jesus. § 8. By these things it appears, that the anti-prophetical party did revolt from the truth as it is in Jesus, both by ridiculing the faith of the saints touching the full manifestations of our Saviour's glory required and te^ified in Scripture, which was to have been held fast until the second coming of our Lord (Rev. ii. 25) ; and therein also turning into scoff the hope of such his appearance, they renounced all the promises, and disdained the threatenings, which our Jesus had sent his angel to signify to the churches, for a successive memorial of him, in the revelations vouchsafed to St. John the divine. Now, as the principal charac- teristic, whereby to judge of the Spirit of prophecy, is the due examination, whether it be such a testimony of Jesus as does give to Him all the prerogatives of his rightful sovereignty, lord- ship, and authority, or not ; it follows then, that those who owned Him indeed to have been received into heaven, but derided " the times of restitution," a7ro/carag laurel of martyrdom, determines in * this matter, who, when he would set forth how enormous a < crime the same was, he illustrates it with this similitude ? If a < scoundrel, says he, among the rabble, should assume to him- 332 PART III. — CHAP. IV. * self the imperial purple, both he and his accomplices in the * fact were justly to suffer the most ignominious death, as tyran- * nical usurpers ; so likewise, whoever do invade the prerogative * of the Lord by unlawful usurpation_, and thereby pronounce a ' man convicted and condemned by the church, they precipitate * themselves into utter destruction by assuming to themselves * the peculiar regality of the Son, whom God has constituted * Judge.' § 14. But without insisting further here on the orthodoxy of the accused or accusers, because by the universal judgment of the church at this day, I know the Montanists or inspired will be acquitted, and of course ought by us Protestants no longer to be reputed heretics ; since they were not only in this of the Trinity^ but in all other points doctrinal, sound in the faith once delivered to the saints, and only reproachable that they pre- tended to be reformers of what was amiss in the declension of others from it. Therefore we go on to give an instance of that usurping and tyrannical temper which rose up and prevailed among the anti-prophetical, to effect at length a total desolation of the Christian church ; the case whereof is reported by the historian of Montanism thus : * After the death of Tertullian, in * or about the year 231, the Montanists did not presently lose ' their ground ; for Firmilian, a bishop in Asia, finding their sect ' to spread, and that they professed themselves to have the same ' faith and baptism as other Christians, and only to differ from ' them in greater spirituality and purity, gathered a council of ' fifty bishops at Iconium, who determined their baptism to be < invalid and null. Unto which time all communion did not * seem entirely cut off, because the validity of the Montanist ' baptism was hitherto allowed ; but thus all correspondence * between them and other Christians was entirely broken off.' } 15. The new rising Catholics, it seems, did judge that spirituahty and purity were things worthy to be expelled their church : but it was not so with other churches at that time ; for, this reason being esteemed insufficient, we find them witnessing against the usurpation above cited. For the critical History of the Apostles' Creed tells us, ' that, although whatsoever was * regularly performed in one church was allowed to be valid and * obligatory by all others, yet for a man to offer to prove this * consentaneousness among the churches touching baptism would * be the greatest impertinency, seeing every one knows that the OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 333 * baptism of heretics ivas deemed valid, and ivas never reiterated,' Here then was such a sentence passed against the prophets and their adherents as was never known against the grossest of he- resies, though they are taxed with no other kind of heresy than that of a greater spirituaHty and purity. ' Why therefore,' says the author of Montanism, * the baptism of Montanists should be * held less valid than that of the other heretics, and heretics too < that made the fiercest opposition against the capital doctrines * of the Christian faith, which these did not ; for Firmilian him- * self owned that they professed the same faith with other Chris- ' tians ; why therefore the others were admitted by penance only, * but these not without another baptism, has not been yet un- ' folded, so far as I know, by any. Moreover it is plain, that * some of the orthodox did, in the time of St. Firmilian himself, * doubt whether their baptism was invalid or no.' § 16. After what has been cited of the notoriety of the fact, that the baptism of heretics was always deemed valid, and never reiterated, and that the consentaneousness among the churches in this point was so known to every one that it would be as im- pertinent to go about to give proof of it, as that there is a sun in the heavens : we are allowed to understand, that the * some of the orthodox ' above mentioned were no other than some of the persecuting clergy in Asia themselves, who, being resolved by hook or by crook to extirpate prophecy in their parts at any rate, made no bones of breaking down the most established usages of all the churches. And to shew that this very act of Firmilian was so taken, the testimony of Dionysius bishop of Alexandria, quoted by Eusebius, lib. vii. cap. 4 and 6, may suffice saying ; * Stephen bishop of Rome wrote an epistle touch- < ing Firmilian, and all Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and the * bordering nations, that he would not communicate with them, * for this cause, to wit, that they re-baptized heretics ; and as to * my predecessor Heracleas, says Dionysius, he never would * admit that heretics should be re-baptized : and I am sure of * this, that not only the bishops of Africa have practised the * like, but also the bishops of old in the most famous churches, * and the synods more lately of the brethren at Iconium and * Synadis, with the advice of many, have decreed the same: * whose sentences to overthrow, and now to raise contention and * brawling among the brethren, I cannot bear with.* § 17. By the state of the case above, it seems the council 334* PART III. — CHAP. IV. under Firmilian had determined that heretics in general ought to be re-baptized, because the baptism of such was null ; for in the counter-declarations of the churches in Europe and Africa, there is no particular mention of the Montanists, although Firmilian and his party might apply it chiefly or only unto them ; but we see by this manner of proceeding, that the Apollinarian sect or heresy was the inverter of the ancient order and harmony in the churches of Christ, and was the reverse to the true, holy, catholic church, which is essentially characterized to have been before this, one in love and charity, as well as one in faith and doctrine. But it being apparent, from this and former instances, that the anti-prophetical sect led the van to human usurpations in the church, we shall find another dismal corruption, wherein they were also the chief leaders. § 18. Irenaeus takes notice of some men who objected to the extraordinary ministrations of the prophet in his time, that they were performed after a fantastical or ridiculous manner ; which, says he, is, however, defensible from precedents among the ancient prophets. Whether or not he had any respect to the Apollina- rians therein, is not material ; but as to the fact of ridiculing the ways of the Spirit of prophecy, the history of Montanism in the close of the second century does represent the anti-prophetical upbraiding the Montanists with melancholy and vain fancies, with visions or waking dreams, pretending to have such, though none saw them but themselves, and objecting even to the outward symptoms of a Spirit moving the prophets. This disposition, then, among the first excommunicators of the Spirit, being equally applicable to the true as well as false prophets, sowed the first seeds that we know of in the Christian church of profaneness and contempt of God revealing. And as Apollinaris himself is cele- brated for so mighty skill in philosophy, that he demonstrated in his writings, from what principles of philosophy every heresy among Christians did spring ; we cannot doubt that his admirers did pursue his methods so laid down for the discovering of all heresy ; as appears by Praxeas a mighty reasoner, his being so considerable in the church; wherein they were further edified also by the public institution of schools about the year 230, for polishing the study of Divine things by the intermixing them with human philosophy, namely, the systems of the wise and critically learned among the heathen. § 19. Now, as to the effect of this study of philosophy, and the OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 335 sort of reasoning used among the Catholics, on the subject of revelation, in the age immediately succeeding Firmilian, we may gather some light into it from a fore-cited passage of Mr. Dodwell, which runs thus: *I confess, indeed,' says he, * that there were * in the days of St. Cyprian persons in the Christian church who * treated visions and dreams in ridicule ; a sort of men who, in * the time of the Scripture prophets, that they might bring all * religion into contempt, did attempt to do that with scurrility and * the sneer, with banter and the joke, which they never could do * in any way of argument. The manner of the prophets, in their * gestures of body, was indeed a little strange, and different from * the common usages of men, by which it was easy for those who * were given to buffoonery to represent the prophets themselves * as very ridiculous. Wherefore, if men would suffer themselves * easily to transgress, they never needed to look far for a pretext, * when they would judge these, or such like things, sufficient * reasons to treat the persons of the prophets with scorn. And * that such like persons should be found in the church in the * days of St. Cyprian, is little to be wondered at, seeing that the * Epicurean philosophy had then obtained the vogue, which turns * all preter?iatural things into ridicule. It tvas no matter voith this * sort of people whether the prophesyings were from a true Spirit * or a false one ; or whether those who more perfectly understood * such things did approve them or not. This is what never came * into question ; but the very mention of the supernatural with *■ the gentlemen of an Epicurean tincture, was matter enough to * serve them for a joke. Now as to the Atheistical Epicurean * Christians, and people of that turn, it always was, and is at this * day, their genuine faculty to sit down content with, and settle * upon, the lees of some general systems, or projected supposi- * tions of their own ; and not to trouble their heads about any ' particular instances set before them, no, not so much as to * inquire (any ways distinctly) into them.' J 20. This of the two preceding sections being an account of the primitive Fathers in the Church, of the numerous brood of philosophising Christians, and of Free-thinkers, as the moderns call them, it is past the power of any contradiction that every man tinctured with such principles was of the catholic party. And as Apollinaris and Praxeas had rendered themselves cele- brated in this way of science, so, as soon as ever the Epicurean philosophy (which turns all things supernatural into ridicule) had 38G PART III. — CHAP. IV. obtained to be in vogue, the anti-prophetical did clearly gain their point by it, and soon hissed the Montanists quite off the stage. Wherefore, when the Christian church was come to be of this complexion we shall not only cease to be astonished that whole societies of men unreproachable for doctrine and life were expelled out of the church, and denied the very Christian name, merely on the account of their greater spirituality and purity ; but from such a juncture, even from the days of St. Cyprian (who died about anno 260), there ceased to be room for any arguments in behalf of inspiration or prophecy existent, because the very mention of the supernatural did but serve and furnish matter for a jest ; seeing it was all one with this sort of people •whether the prophest/ings were from a true spirit or a false one. But that the church in general was of that complexion, from vain philosophy of one kind or other, as to make a scofFat super- natural things, about the time of St. Cyprian, may be gathered partly from the silence of the age succeeding him touching the gifts of the Spirit, and is intimated plainly from the words of Mr. Dodwell, in the close of the Second Part of this treatise ; for when he says, that * the most learned, the more perfectly in- * structed, and the most intelligent persons in spiritual affairs,' who were contemporaries with St. Cyprian did acknowledge the prophetical gifts then in the church, he intimates that the de- spisers of them, upon Epicurean or other philosophic principles, were the body and more numerous of the church. J 21. The advance of philosophy being, as above, the intro- duction to infidelity in the extraordinary communications of the Spirit, which were by the Scripture-constitution not to be judged of by " science falsely so called ;" we have already seen the sad effects of that presumptuous reasoning, in the case of Praxeas, touching our Saviour's Deity ; from which time, the contempt of it went on increasing unto the days of Arius*. It is not for me to enter into the merits of that debate : but this is certain, that the Spirit of prophecy, the living testimony of Jesus among the * The despisers of prophecy, and of the personal reign of Christ, were also the fathers of heresy respecting the Person of Christ. The Arians only lower the Deity of Christ at an undefinably minute distance from the Godhead of the Father, pleading the incomprehensibleness of the generation of the Son of God, and yet are rightly considered to deny his essential Divi- nity. The Scotch heretics, despising in like manner the personal reign and kingdom, raise the human nature of Christ a small degree above the nature of man, pleading the mysteriousness of the immaculate conception, and therefore are rightly considered to deny his essential humanity Editor. OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED CENTURY II. III. 337 Montanists, did as all the prophets in the Christian church had ever done ; that is, ascribe to the Son of God the prerogatives of the Deity. They were the most remarkable of all Christiaris in the acknowledgment of this point, and the most express con- cerning it ; and the opposers of that doctrine were on that account the most fierce persecutors of them. This also is observable, that the Catholics, who were the accusers chiefly of the Montan- ists, joined rather with the Arian in all measures to suppress the prophet, than with the strongest advocate of Christ's Deity to withstand the blasphemers of it. Nor is it to be wondered at ; for if Praxeas and the Arians were so devoted to strong reason- ing, and conceited that theirs was such, with respect to the Divinity of Christ the Redeemer, that they would not bow down their necks to admit any thing upon the credit of revelation on that point which they could not comprehend; the Catholics, though they might not universally apply it to that point, yet seem to have gone upon the same principle, that if they themselves also could not by their rules of philosophy comprehend God in the ways and act of his then revealing, neither would they believe at all that it was He. Thus therefore, the learned generally be- coming blind to the ways of the Spirit, the visions of all the prophets set before them were no other to them than as unintel- ligible '' as the words of a letter sealed" (Isa. xxix.) ; whilst it is apparent that some of the most intelligent in spiritual affairs did own prophetical gifts existing in the church after the days of Cyprian. § 22. We have observed from the History of Montanism, that it was imputed to the prophets that they would not suffer the least iota of the written word of God to fall to the ground ; and that it was one principal occasion of their delusion, that they adhered too stifly to the letter of the text. But as it may seem strange and unintelligible to us of the Reformed communion how such a matter could be charged upon them for a guilt, we remit the reader to Dr. Mills's admirable preface to the Greek New- Testament, where he affirms, in twenty places of it, as may be seen by the index, that to impute the adulteration of Scripture to the heretics, for the vindicating their opinions and doctrines, is a mere fable ; Marcion only excepted, and his followers. Now it cannot be gainsaid, that the Montanists were stiff opposers of Marcion and his followers ; insomuch that Tertullian wrote more strenuously against him than any of the Catholics, and did upbraid 2 X 338 PART III. — CHAP. IV. him boldly for that daring impiety of altering the written words of God. Moreover, as Dr. Mills not only expressly clears the Montanists, but peremptorily charges the orthodox or catholic Christians, and them alone, with this horrid crime ; and says, that among these the learned were the guilty authors of that calamity on the text ; this also must be reckoned among the dismal effects which vain philosophy introduced upon the Christian world. § 23. In this manner the greater part of Christians having, before the time of Constantine, in pursuance of the precedent first given by the Apollinarian churches, exalted reason into the throne, in opposition to the Spirit of prophecy, and condemned the latter by the rules and dictates of the former ; and then, as if the golden image of Apollo had right to be worshipped, when their reason had uttered its oracles they went on to persecute those who could not bow down to it. For, as the sentences of excommunication against the prophets, unwarrantable by Scrip- ture and customs of the church, that were pertinaciously carried on in Asia, had loudly proclaimed this temper of usurpation ; so, when the secular authority came by the conversion of Con- stantine into the church, Eusebius tells us, ' The emperor being * minded to suppress certain hypocrites, who, like caterpillars ' and locusts, under a counterfeit shew of religion, devoured * cities, did by an edict command the governors of provinces to * suppress such kind of men ; the letters patent whereof, among * other things, ran to this effect : — § 24. ' Know ye, by this law which I have established, O * Cataphrygians (the nickname given to the prophetical), and all * of you who desire your sects and heresies, that ye have followed * and maintained, should increase and spread ; know ye, I say, * that your doctrine is both vain and false, O ye enemies of * truth and eternal life, ye authors and counsellors of death, * whose tenets and opinions are contrary to truth, consonant to ' wickedness, and full of vanity and fabulous fictions, whereby ye ' do spread abroad lies, and poison others with your contagion, * and strive almost to take away the day-light from man. Why * should 1 insist with you on particulars, seeing brevity of time * and my own affairs do not permit me to describe your wicked- * ness in such colours as it deserves ; for your wickedness is so * great and abounding, that it requires a large description of such * actions, and the very mention of them would but be a disgrace * to the Christian religion.^ Why should not we rather, with all OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY It. III. 3^9 * dispatch, root out such wickedness, by pubhc punishments on * the offenders ? Now, that your pestilential and infectious errors < may spread no further, we command you by this law, that none * of you dare hereafter to meet at conventicles; and therefore we * command, that all those places where ye were wont to keep ' such meetings shall be demolished. And we command you * from this day to keep no more factious and superstitious meet- * ings, neither in public places nor in private houses, but to * return to the catholic church.' — Touching which edict, the said historian adds, ' That it enjoined that the Montanist books < should be searched after, and suppressed ; that the public * meeting-houses also should be, without any delay, pulled down, * and confiscated to the catholic church ; but that more private * places of their assembling together should be converted to the * use of the commonwealth. The issue of which law was, says « Eusebius (in the third book of the Life of Constantine), " that * the catholic church of God alone, being well compacted within * itself, shone forth brightly, there being not one society, either * of heretics or schismatics, left any where subsisting in the « world." ' § 23. If this edict had been issued as the result of all the several churches respectively consulted, the same ought to have been regarded as the declaration of the catholic or universal church ; but the edict takes no notice of any such thing pre- cedent. On the contrary, the historian observes, that the very union of the catholic church was by this imperial decree framed and compacted within itself, and this union was but the issue and effect of that political institution. Now, the peculiar hap- piness of the times before Constantine was, that nothing could properly take the denomination of heresy ; that is, a doctrine by the church adjudged erroneous; but what all the churches, acting severally on their own bottom, concurred in the denounc- ing to be such : and so, the manner admitting more deliberation, and there being a perfect liberty in every one of the churches to enter a negative protestation, the perspicuity of the case carrying its own eviction was alone sufficient to obtain : and thus the sentence of the universal church was more solemn and authentic before Constantine, than by general councils afterwards ; for in these latter the major vote of a multitude assembled in one place was conclusive to all Christendom. Nevertlieless, the determination of the church visible never could at any time, or 340 PART III. CHAP. TV. can, stand in competition with the authority of the word of God, which has alone the prerogative both of the positive and negative ; that is, what is or is not heresy : for, says the Critical History of the Apostles' Creed, < The primitive writers lay a great stress ' upon the distinction between believing and believing in ; so that * we are not only simply to believe the Father and the Son, but * IN the Father, and in the Son, terminating our faith upon * them. Whereas it is not said in the holy church, but barely * that we believe the holy church ; and the framers of the symbol * did omit to prefix the preposition in to the article of believing * the holy church, that the Creator might be distinguished from * the creature, and Divine things separated from human.' § 26. As to the case in hand touching the Montanists, the last sentence against them being to nullify and void their baptism, there was a council ecclesiastical in Africa, which, during the reign of Constantine, did at Carthage conclude against it ; and in the general, there was not, even unto this time, in that part of the world any condemnation passed against the prophets by a public and solemn act there. Moreover, as Phrygia had been fi'om the beginning, even from the year 170, the chief seat of this controversy, and the main occasion of debates all over the Christian world about it, Phrygia itself at last can testify that the many councils which excommunicated the inspired were not the genuine acts of the church there. For the History of Mon- tanism tells us, * That when Constantine the Great had made * certain laws against heretics, and the Montanists were involved ' with them in other provinces, they escaped, as Sozomen takes * notice, in that of Phrygia and the parts adjacent, without any * molestation ; the which was not probable on the account of < their numbers only, but that they were there reckoned for the * Established Church, otherwise the laws of Constantine must * needs have reached them.' § 27. These laws of Constantine therefore, though they laid the scheme of consolidating the Catholic church, and well com- pacting it within itself, upon the foot of the imperial government and authority, and suppressing the ancient constitution ; yet, by what appears, they did not immediately effect it, even with re- spect to the Montanists. And, as to other points, we have great difficulty to understand the words of Eusebius, how ' the Catholic < Church shone forth brightly, being well compacted within itself, * and that there was not one society of heretics left subsisting OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 34«1 * any where in the world.' For that historian himself gives us a large account of the hurly-burly broils and confusions of churches, and open scandalous contestations of the clergy ; one bishop against another, and one city and province against another ; at this very juncture far and wide raging, between the Orthodox and Arians ; so that the rent made in the church was never pre- cedently greater. There is no way therefore to understand this new brightness, stamped upon the church by the foresaid edict of the emperor, than by granting the doctrine of Arius to be no heresy, and allowing the dissensions about it to be no violation of her well compacted union. Which things being very hard to reconcile, I shall remark no more about them than that the Catholics who ruled at court persuaded the emperor that the Arians ought not to be esteemed for heretics, and therefore they were not mentioned in the edict so applauded. § 28. By the book several times mentioned, called * An En- quiry into the Constitution of the Primitive Church,' it appears that, before Constantine, the greatest city in Christendom except Alexandria had but one meeting or congregation of Christians in it ; so that doubtless after him the number of those bearing the name was exceedingly increased. But if the catholic church of Christ were to be measured by his magnificent gifts to her, or by the soundness of her faith and doctrine, or by the refulgence of her love and charity, or by the lives of her household, we might say a great deal to render it very questionable, whether she gained any brightness at all from the laws or reign of Con- stantine. But this we may say, if it be any advantage to her, that by and under the shadow of the Roman empire's authority she gained a greater facility of declaring whom she pleased for heretics, and then oppressing them with temporal inflictions. However, as our subject stands limited to the case of prophetical inspiration, and considering that the decree of Constantine against the Montanists was rather an act of state than any determination properly of the catholic church under him ; we shall now take one single step further, and see what the catholic church, thus compacted within itself by the institution political of Constantine, did transact and determine, in two of her first general councils, against the inspired, called Montanists, and their churches; for it appears that not only in the large province of upper and lower Phrygia, but in the parts adjacent, they were unmolested by the laws of Constantine. 342 PART III CHAP. IV. § 29. The History of Montanism says, * That Firmilian him- * self, under whom the sentence passed for declaring the baptism * of Montanists to be null and void, declares that they professed ^ the same faith and haj)tism as the Catholics; and hereon he * cites the opinion of Baronius, that there are convincing proofs * in Tertullian that the Montanists were generally orthodox in < the faith of the Trinity, and canonical in the form of baptizing.' Touching which sentence we have proved already most fully, that, by universal consentaneousness of the churches preceding Firmilian, and by express declarations of the most famous churches of Christendom subsequent to that sentence, the Ca- tholics in Asia had usurped an authority which never was before Constantine exercised in the church. But now we shall present the reader with a view of the manner of the church, after it was new embodied and consolidated by imperial charter. The in- stance whereof is drawn from the History of Montanism, abruptly as he gives it. § 30. < It seems strange and unaccountable, that the baptism * of those who had been synodically condemned, either as blas- * phemers against the Son of God with the Arians, or against the * Holy Ghost with the Macedonians, should be allowed as valid, * and yet the baptism of the Montanists should be declared null < and utterly void ; but so it was. What therefore should be this * that could prevail with so great and venerable a body, as the * Second General Council (when they had but just confirmed ' the faith of the Nicene fathers, concerning the consubstantiality * of the Father and the Son, against the Arians ; and had also, in * like manner, so solemnly declared the catholic faith concerning ' the Holy Ghost by that creed which we at this day use) to * admit both Arians and Macedonians into communion without * re-baptising, and at the very same time to reject the Montanists < from the like benefit ? What also should be this that could so * prevail with the Council of Laodicea, consisting mostly of Phry- < gian bishops held in a place where they were every where sur- * rounded with Montanists, and where consequently they could * not but be rightfully informed of their principles and customs, < if they pleased ? I say again, what should be this that could * prevail with two such assemblies, filled with judges that were * every way undoubtedly qualified to proceed after this manner, * is at first a most amazing consideration, and may well deserve to * be further looked into ? For why the Arians and Macedonians OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED— CENTURY II. III. 34)3 * were admitted into the communion of the church catholic by < penance only, but the Montanists not without another baptism, * has not been yet unfolded, so far as I know, by any.* (Here the author examines many reasons reported and suggested for this proceeding, but finds them all and every one like the wit- nesses testifying against our Saviour, grossly false, disagreeing and inconsistent, and then adds his own sentiment, thus:) * Wherefore, it remains that the only true and adequate ground * of this difference, which was made both by the Constantinopo- * litan and the Laodicean Fathers, between the Arians and Mace- * donians on the one hand, and the Montanists on the other, was * this; that the Arians and Macedonians, though heretics^ did * never once pretend to act and speak by a Spirit and power * above themselves. But, on the contrary, all knew the preten- * sions of the Montanists, and that the foundation of their extra- * vagances (not heresies) was this pretext of a Divine Spirit and * power extraordinarily and even visibly acting thetnJ § 31. Had the Montanists been taxable of real heresy — such as is by the canon of Scripture — the denying the Deity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost — whoever at this distance of time should industriously write in their defence would deserve, after two or three admonitions, to be rejected by the Apostolic rule from the communion of all Christians. But at the same time that their very accusers acquit them of any real heresy; that is, such error doctrinal as in points material is opposed to the Divine Oracle ; for a general council, by the measure of its censures, to declare them greater criminals than the blasphemers of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, merely and only because they believed a Spirit and power extraordinarily, and even visibly acting them to be Divine ; this is in the most enormous manner possible, for the catholic church visible, embodied under its new constitution, to declare herself revolting and apostatised from herdue allegiance to Christ, whose presence with her the Spirit of prophecy was : seeing that in the First and Second Parts of this treatise, and also herein, we have abundantly proved from the sacred text, and the primo-primitive church of Christ, that every true prophet sent of God ever did and ever must speak by a Spirit and power above themselves ; and that its extraordinary and even visible acting them was the most constant sign of their inspiration alleged in the Holy Text. J 32. To be partial in ourselves, and to judge any thing by 344 PART III. — CHAP. IV. a partiality of esteem and affection, is the surest way to go astray from *' the truth as it is in Jesus," and more especially in that particular of his testimonial Spirit of prophecy. If then, touching the prophet himself, we are to appeal to, and be determined by, the law and testimonies preceding the standard of the sure word of prophecy, and reject an angel of light, if it were possible for such an one to preach contrary to them; I can see no reason why we should otherwise treat Satan transforming himself, in any other manner ; nay, though he should be seated in a throne, and vest himself with the venerable name of the Catholic Church ; for we cannot understand how the number of abettors can stamp what is error by the word of the Lord, with the signature and characterising mark of truth. Therefore, whilst we are bound to believe the catholic church, we are no further obliged to it by the creed, than as she is one and holy, or united in holiness, that is, in principles which take the denomination of their sanctity from a Scriptural definition. And in consequence, whenever the church visible departs from that character of holy, she may be even literally heretical, as well as any smaller party of Christians whom she excommunicates ; as we have heard already that the framers of the Apostolical symbol did omit to prefix the prepo- sition IN to the article of believing the catholic church, that the Creator might be distinguished from the creature, and Divine things separated from human. And lest any one should think that the article of the Creed immediately following, whereby we profess to believe the communion of saints, did in this age oblige men to conform to the conclusions of the general council, the representative of the catholic church visible ; the forecited critical annotator on that creed tells us, ' That the said article touching * the communion of saints is not to be found in any creed before ' St. Austin's time, nor in any of his genuine and undoubted * writings, though it be very likely that about that time, or not < long after, this clause was introduced into it ;' that is, about anno Christi 430. § 33. What then, though the Montanists or prophetical were become but a small party in comparison of their opponents, when these by a general council held at Laodicea, in or about anno Christi 368, deprived them of the Christian name and communion ; the question returns still to the same point, — Was this act of the catholic churcb visible, according to the law and testimonies Divine, or not ? Now, we have proved, both from Scripture and OP PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY 11. III. 345 preceding antiquity, that to reject and condemn a prophet merely and only because he was visibly moved, and pretended to speak by a Power and Spirit above himself, is anti-Scriptural, and there- fore anti- Christian. And in this very case of their baptism con- demned but a hundred years before, even upon the like excom- munication under Firmilian, the most famous churches expressly, and the church universally, did declare the same to have been so unjustifiable that they even refused to communicate on that account with the censuring Asiatic churches themselves. But the History of Montanism tells us, that * though this above-men- * tioned was the only true ground whereon the councils of Con- * stantinople and Laodicea proceeded so unequally with the * Montanists, yet there are many other reasons reported ; and * among the rest, that they were Sabellians : but, says he, this * could not be true, for the Sabellians did subscribe to the * decrees of the same councils ; nay and did appeal to them, even * so far that the Arians charged those councils, or one of them, * to have been, in their decrees, patrons of Sabellianism.' § 34. It is indeed a matter worthy of lamentation, that the decrees of the Catholic Church should be unaccountable for without manifest misrepresentation of fact, or such doctrinal rules touching prophecy as are evidently opposed to Scripture. But seeing we have now traced the prosecution of condemning the prophets for two hundred years, from the first sentence under Apollinaris unto this council of Laodicea, and have found little else in it than what proceeded from one or other of those two sources, and was built upon such grounds, we shall now agree, that the whole matter, as well as this determination at Laodicea, well deserves to be further looked into ; but this latter indeed more especially, since every true prophet of God ever did and ever will speak as moved to it by a Power and Spirit above his own. And if the determination of these primitive general coun- cils be allowed to set aside and invalidate a thousand places in the sacred text, which oblige us to acknowledge a messenger of the Heavenly King, there is no need to inquire further how the gift of prophecy came finally to cease in the Christian church ; because that, so far as these councils were owned and submitted to, every instrument over-ruled by the hand of the Lord to pro- phesy must by these laws be driven out of the church, and denied the Christian name for so doing : at least thus it appears 2y MO PART III.— rCHAP. IV. to me, because there is no distinction made in them between the being moved and speaking by a good Spirit from that of an evil one ; but herein I should gladly be undeceived, if the whole state of the controversy, and especially this particular, can|be made to bear a truer judgment of things by the Divine Law. § 35. As the council of Laodicea is said to be every where surrounded with Montanists, it is not probable that they should in those countries submit to a decree of it against themselves, which is in itself so extravagant and utterly unaccountable for. Moreover the historian of Montanism does confess, that, not- withstanding this determination of two general councils, the church of Alexandria did admit them into communion without re-baptizing, after the year 400 ; and St. Austin says, that in his time, namely, about the year 430, the heretics in Africa did pretend to enjoy the prophetical gifts of the Spirit. Wherefore, as in the Second Part of this treatise we desisted from an inquiry after the survival of acknowledged prophecy with the beginning of the fifth century, so we shall also finish these animadversions on that which was controverted with the same age. We submit, therefore, all that has been said to a more strict examination ; supposing that, if we could come to a clear certainty of the time when the last of Christian churches sound in the faith did acknowledge such prophecy as was according to the analogy of Scripture, it would be as apposite a period from whence to date the apostasy of the church as any other in the fifth century which many learned tracts have fixed upon ; in order thence to calculate, from the numbers of Daniel and the Revelations, the brightness of our Lord's coming to destroy the an ti- Christian state with the spirit of his mouth (2 Thess. ii. 8). § 36. So far as men are equitable in their judgments, they cannot but allow that the priests of the ancient church of God among the Jews were teachers established therein by as clear definitions at least, and invested with prerogatives by Divine authority as ample at least, as the stated ministry of the unin- spired bishop, pastor, or teacher in the Christian church. Yet, by the constitution of the Divine economy among the Jews, there was reserved to himself, the Lawgiver, a liberty of sending to them extraordinary ministers as often and in what number he alone should think fit ; to exhort, rebuke, guide, teach, and ex- pound former revelations to the existing church. And though OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 34)7 those priests under the law were generally anti-prophetical, a man cannot be so absurd in his imaginations as to think that they should know a prophet to be of God, and at the same time wittingly embrue their hands in his blood ; for in the last and most heinous instance of their always resisting the Holy Ghost, they are acquitted of it by St. Peter, Acts iii. 15, 17, saying, " Ye have denied and killed the Prince of Life And now brethren I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers" (the priests) ; and by St. Paul, 1 Cor. ii. 8, saying, ^' For had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory;" and in Rom. x. 2, " For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." They therefore, the Jews, always persecuted and rejected the prophets upon some false principles, whereon they first judged them not to have been sent of God ; and these principles are both in the Old and New Testament signified to us to be some received traditions and doctrines of men (Isa. xxix. 13, 15; Matt. XV. 6 — 9). § 37. Moreover, we find a complaint on God's part against the ancient Israel, Jer. v. 31, saying, " A horrible thing is com- mitted in the land ; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so ;" which intimates to us, that one reason of their rejecting the true was, that he always stood in opposition to this character of the false ones. Now, whether there was any thing in the Ca- tholics of those ages of the Christian church who condemned the inspired under the nickname of Montanists that bore a parallel to the false principles received, and doctrines of men taught, among the Jews, whereupon they rejected the extraordinary ministers of God, is left to be determined by the Scripture standard, upon the merits of the cause at large herein exhibited. But this is apparent from the whole which is said of them, that the Montanists had nothing upon them of the last mentioned character of false prophets ; namely, that « the priests bare rule by their means." However, since the Spirit in the Montanists had all along, for two hundred years, reproved somewhat roughly the growing corruptions in the church discipline, and whatever was of usurpation in the settled ministry ; whether they did therein fill up the character of Christ's " faithful witness Antipas," which literally signifies antipope, and on that account were 348 PART III. — CHAP. IV. hardly dealt with, we leave also to further inquiry, as a matter well deserving it. § 38. I have heard often, that the churches of Christ since the Reformation, protesting against Popery, do allow the decrees of the first four general councils ; and therefore the particular determination of one of them, touching persons acted and speaking by a spirit above their own, may seem to be included in that approbation. But since the History of Montanism, reporting it, does affirm, that it has never yet been accounted for by any, and is in itself unaccountable, I cannot but conclude that this is a case and point to be excepted, and which the Protestant churches have not approved upon the authority of those general councils. Nay, and what is more, whoever will please to consider that a general council of the church, being always necessarily filled up with a greater number of the neighbouring bishops representing the country adjacent, than in proportion can be to represent the more distant churches ; the Protestant churches, in what point soever they do agree, do stand upon a better foot therein than the authority of the council at Laodicea did. Nevertheless, be- cause many people have so highly conceived of the church in the fourth and fifth centuries that they will scarcely think it possible they should be so unequal judges of prophecy that their determination touching it can be unaccountable, I submit to their consideration a sort of corruption in those ages, represented by a very celebrated author, as followeth. § 39. Dr. Mills, in his elaborate preface to the Greek New- Testament, acquaints us in these terms : * Towards the end of * the fourth century, the transcribers of Scripture copies used a * licentiousness every where in corrupting and mixing the text * with criticisms scribbled on the margin, or between the lines, * by an impudence I know not how much greater than that of * preceding times; so that all became marred ; and in particular, * that in Matt. vi. 13, " For thine is the kingdom, and the power, « and the glory for ever," was now first added to the Lord's < Prayer. Not that these things are to be imputed to the bishops * of the ancient church, whom Grotius, on Luke xix. 41, does in- « juriously and falsely charge with presuming to have so done; ' for, among all the heap of additions, substractions, and other * variations which we have discovered in the manuscripts of the < New Testament, not one of them was by the authority of the OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. Ill, 349 < governors ecclesiastic ; unless possibly, by the lessons divided, * there might be some such words added or omitted, as ♦* Jesus — * beloved — in that hour — Amen — brethren — he that hath ears < to hear, let him hear;" all the rest were introduced into the * text by the critical annotations of the learned, or by the care- * lessness, ignorance, and forgery of the booksellers. Now, to < impute the adulteration of Scripture to the heretics, is a mere < fable, Marcion only excepted, who stood reproved ; but it was * the Orthodox and Catholics alone who either could or did do it * effectually.' § 40. * Hierom,' says the same author, < coming into Italy * about the year 364, did convince many, that, as to the transla- * tions of the New Testament into Latin, they were so far de- * praved, partly by the heedlessness of transcribers, and partly * by ignorant presumptuous usurpers that all things in them * were so mixed and confounded, especially in the Gospels, that * there was an absolute necessity of reducing and reforming the * whole by the Greek copies ; for there was no possible remedy- * ing the matter, by collating together the Latin manuscripts, * seeing that these did so monstrously differ the one from the * other that they no longer looked like the transcripts of any * one certain original, but rather as if they had been taken seve- * rally from a different pattern. Such was then the state of the * Latin Bibles by the report of Hierom, upon examination into * them, that of the Scripture there were as many different copies * as there were volumes of it. On the other side, Hilary, com- * monly called Ambrosiaster, living at the same time, tells * us thus : We are, says he, referred to the Greek copies of * Scripture as if they were not disagreeing the one from the other * as well as the Latin ; now, the contrary to this is apparent and ' proved from some Latin copies of Scripture, in former times * translated from the ancient Greek manuscripts which the * simplicity of the times did preserve. But afterwards, in the * bustles about heretics, that men's minds came to be distorted * by dissension, and things came to be wrested in dispute, * many things in the text of both were altered according * to men's several apprehensions, that what seemed good to * the man might appear to be inserted in the text itself. For < this has the study of contention produced, because the dis- * putant cannot prevail by the authority of his own affirmation 350 PART III. — CHAP. IV. * to confute his opponent ; therefore does he alter the Scripture, * that he may thence quote his own sense for the words of God, * to the end that it might seem as if the Divine authority, and * and not his reasoning, determined. § 41. * Not only thus was the Scripture mixed and marred, * but (says Dr. Mills) about the end of the fourth century came * forth a book, commonly called The Constitutions and Canons * of the Apostles ; the latter of which were thirty-five in num- * ber, and in the last of them was a list of the books of the Old * and New Testament ; and in this list the said Constitutions of * the Apostles were placed by the forger among the writings of * the New Testament. Furthermore, about the end of the fifth * century, Anastasius reports, that at Constantinople, by the en- * couragement of the emperor, the holy Gospels were misliked ' and corrected, as composed by writers that were mere idiots. * Whence the said author had this account, I know not (says Dr* * Mills), but thus much is probable enough to have been true, * that the sophisters of that city, and other teaching doctors, who * looked upon the barbarous style of the Gospels with scornful * contempt, might transact with the emperor, about compiling ' anew the history of the Gospels, and setting forth the same * in truer Greek; and possibly that impious prince might so far * yield to their nefarious councils, that he might in earnest think * of reforming the Gospels in this manner ; and perhaps the en- * terprise itself was begun with ; but nothing can be more cer* * tain than that no such Gospels were ever published.' } 42. How little reason therefore have we to pin our faith on the church catholic in these ages wherein she suffered the foun- tains of life to be poisoned, and the authors of it to go uncen- sured ; treading themselves in the way of Marcion the heretic, and upbraiding those with enthusiasm who would not suffer the least iota of the Gospel to fall to the ground. Whether she, the Catholic Church, made herself herein a patroness of false pro- phets and prophecy may well deserve a further inquiry ; but it is certain, that those who looked with scornful contempt upon the apostolic writings were never likely to judge righteously of existent prophecyings ; and those who found fault with the standard, how were they capable of approving what was good by it ? But particularly, it is remarkable, that the forger of the Apostolic Constitutions, for an effectual vindication of the sen- OF PROPHECY CONTROVERTED — CENTURY II. III. 351 tence passed by the council of Laodicea against the Montanists did, by a pious artifice, insert among them a lesson distinct for the solemn excluding from every Christian assembly all Eriergumens, or persons prophetically acted by a Spirit above themselves ; so that such of the Catholics who could own the said book of Divine authority needed no other justification of their proceed- ings therein ; and had that book been then owned, they would doubtless have pleaded it, as they did not. And finally, if it be wisdom, we must own that " the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light;" for, whilst they could alter the old Scriptures as they pleased, and impose new ones by wholesale, they, even the Asiatic Catholics chiefly, took care to leave the Revelations of St. John wholly out of their Testament, that they might never be affrightened with the re- mindment of the true and righteous judgments of the Lord our God, when He shall judge the great whore which corrupted the earth with her fornication ; and shall avenge the blood of his servants at her hand, even the blood of prophets and of saints, found in her (Rev. xviii. 24, compared with chap. xix. 2). 352 TART IV. CHAP. I. PART IV. OF MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. CHAP. I. THE SCRIPTUBES A PERFECT STANDARD BY WHICH TO MEASURE AND JUDGE OF PROPHECY. § 1. Having the happiness to be born within the pale of the Chris- tian church visible, and the invaluable advantage of an education in those parts of it wherein the treasures of the Divine word lie open for all men freely to enrich themselves, in several degrees^ with the knowledge of them, we stand in need of no apology for searching after wisdom thence to instruct our judgment touching the manner and evidences of God revealing ; seeing that error in those points betrays us into sin, as well as in others, and that even into one of the very greatest,— of blas- pheming or speaking evil against the Holy Ghost, by ascribing his operations to the devil. Moreover, since there is nothing more universally acknowledged by all Christians that reject the errors and usurpations of those who at this day do appropriate to themselves the style of Catholics, and of the Catholic Church, as the accusers and condemners of prophecy in the third and fourth centuries did ; I say, seeing there is nothing more fun- damental to the Reformation than the joint acknowledgment of all parties, that the Scriptures are a rule perfect^ and completely sufficient^ for our instruction in the knowledge of God ; it follows thence, that the Scripture is a clear and full standard decisive to determine by, what is and what is not prophecy Divine : for in all other points Protestants are agreed on this one head, and do justify their dissenting from the Catholics upon it : and upon the same foot it is, that every subdivision of Protestants among themselves does claim to warrant itself severally in dissenting one from another. From all which nothing can be more evident than that the joint concurrence of all Christians professing the SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. 333 Reformation centres in this one point, that the Scriptures are a rule perfect and completely sufficient for our instruction in the knowledge of God. Wherefore upon this fundamental principle it is, that whatsoever appears dissonant from, and contrary to, that rule stands condemned, and justly so, by all parties; what authority soever, either ecclesiastical or civil, has or can determine otherwise. On the other side, every thing that stands allowed and approved, and appears clearly so, upon the Scripture foot, is, by the same joint consent of all parties, equally confessed to have the force and sanction of Divine authority for it. § 2. This being a principle without contradiction among Pro- testants universally received, we are excused from any need of demonstrating it to be just ; but instead thereof we have hitherto builded, and do trust by the grace of God that we always shall build, upon it as an incontestible foundation. Accordingly, in the First Part of this treatise we have accurately searched for Divine wisdom as more valuable than all shining dust and stones. The knowledge merely of human sciences may indeed take the place of the latter, and so be valuable and worth the digging for ; but if it must stand in competition with the former, then it is but as a diamond to the sun. Upon this foundation we have laid down what discoveries occurred touching God revealing himself, from the sacred text, that they might be in the place of a helm to guide and steer our course in the judgment to be made of our Sovereign's ways in prophecy. Upon which discoveries of the supreme law, and the institutions of the only Lawgiver to his church, we have, in the consequence of our argument, taken it for granted that whatsoever stood at any time allowed and approved by that perfect and completely sufficient standard ought ever to have been received for the voice of God pro- phetically. Otherwise, that is, if prophecy approved from Scrip- ture were not to be received as the voice of God, I can see no use or purport of the appeal in Isa. viii. 20, " To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this word (the test and standard), it is because there is no light in them :" nor of that used by our Saviour himself, John v. 39, " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me :" and elsewhere, *' How read ye ?" Nor could there be any use of the conduct of the Apostles in constantly proving their inspiration by its agreement with the previous Scriptures ; in particular, that of St. Paul, Acts xxvi. 2z 354» PART IV. — CHAP. I. 22, " Witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come." If then, after the Apostles and their writings, the Scriptures Divine, were, no less than before, a perfect and com- pletely sufficient standard and touchstone, they must be so, as they ever were before, a rule equally valid and obligatory on both sides : that is, if by some manifestation a man who appeared to be actuated by a power above himself, and so to be a prophet, spake not according to the law and prophetic testimonies of God precedent, he was to be rejected ; but if he were approved and justified from thence, he was to be received, according to the Apostle's rule of holding fast that which appeared to be good upon proving all things so. J 3. I have thus, in the First Part of this treatise, to the best of my ability, laid down what the law and testimony Scriptural of God do afford for the knowledge of his ways in prophecy, according to the standard of which the Divinely inspired ought to be received by the existent church. In the Second Part it is proved to a demonstration, by a cloud of witnesses incontestible, that the church of Christ did acknowledge such prophets suc- cessively for the term of 300 years existing; and thereby they did submit to the positive commands of God, that his voice imme- diate should ever be obeyed. It was never in all these primitive ages of the Christian church, any more than in the Jewish, insisted on that the admitting of subsequent immediate inspiration of God did supersede, undermine, or disannul the validity of previous revelation. Nor was it once in that time advanced by any one, that inspiration ceased and was extinct with the death of the primary Apostles, nor so much as that it was needless. But, according to the fundamental principle already proved, that a messenger of God, or one extraordinarily commissioned to signify his will to mankind, ought to be acknowledged and lis- tened to with fear, there was nothing left to the church at that age wherein he appeared but to examine his testimony by the perfect and sufficiently complete rule of received Scripture ; and, if it were standard by that, he was as rightfully to be admitted, as rejected if it was not. And for this their submission and obedience to the prophetic Spirit, they not only built upon the foundation of the Prophets of the Old Testament, who all with one consent declare it to be rebellion not to do so ; but upon the positive declaration of Christ himself (John xiii. 20 ; Matt. x. 14), SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. 355 « He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me ; and who- soever shall hot receive you, nor hear your words, it shall be more tolerahle," &c. Moreover, that the primitive Christians were, in this point of honouring and reverentially esteeming pro- phecy, built upon the joint foundation of the Apostles and their writings, as well as those of Prophets precedent, appears by the confession of the Jews themselves concerning St. Paul (Acts xxiii. 9), " If a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God;" and by the apostolic injunctions (Heb. xiii. 7, 17 ; .1 Cor. xvi. 16), *' Obey and submit yourselves to such as are guides to you, who have spoken to you the word of God ; and to every one that helpeth and laboureth with us*" They were also reverentially observant therein of other laws of Christ, as these ; " Despise not prophesy ings :" and "he that despiseth you (prophesying), despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me" (Luke x. 16). There is one body and one Spirit ; therefore Christ is the Head of that bodi/y and the church is subject to him ; that is, to the Spirit that " receiveth of his, and testifieth of him." From these and many more texts, the church of the first ages did think it highly criminal, from the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets under Christ, to quench or extin- guish, by limitations of their own invention, the prophetic Spirit speaking. And this their reverence to Christ was regulated in proving all things spiritual by that rule (Rom. xii. 6); "If any prophesy, let them prophesy according to the analogy of faith." No man, in that case, say they, can forbid them to prophesy; but *' if any man preach any other Gospel unto you, than that ye have received, let him he accursed" (Gal. i. 9). § 4. The foundation then being laid, that the Scriptures are a rule perfect and completely sufficient for the proving all thing* touching prophecy ; upon this foundation, unto the end of the third century, a man prophesying, being approved by the standard and established test, had liberty allowed of preaching in the church, and the establishment of prophets in the ministry thereof was expected in those ages to be perpetually permanent, according to that in I Cor. xii. 28, " God hath set some in the church, first, apostles ; secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers.*' But in the just concluded part of this treatise we have shewed how in the same ages there arose a sort of men in the Christian church who would not submit themselves to Christ in his pro- phetic testimony and manifest abode with her. And instead of 356 TART IV. — CHAP. I. being determined, in their proof and trial of prophecy, by the perfect and completely sufficient rule for it ; they, like the Jews, who always withstood the Holy Ghost, invented a mani- fold standard of their own to try it by. And here, not to enu- merate the measures and grounds, at large recited there, upon which at length the church collectively united under Constan- tine did, first by severe edicts of persecution, and then by the several acts of general councils, in effect suppress all prophecy by a law ; thus much suffices to recollect, that the catholic church visible passed a determination importing in the effect, that thenceforth " whoever spake by a Spirit or power above himself, or believed any other man to speak so," should not only be excluded a communion with the body of Christ, but even denied to bear, from any such baptism, the very name of a Christian. By that conclusive law, the Christian church visible did, by any thing that appears, manifest itself much more than ever the Jewish, to be '* a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord ; which say to the see-ers. See not ; and to the prophets. Prophesy not unto us right things ; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits : get ye out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." § 5. For the explanation of my meaning in the paragraph above, the reader is referred to the argument and scope of the Third Part of this treatise ; and the present conclusion here from it is. That if the sentence against the Montanists was not regu- larly and justly built upon Scripture proofs of their being acted by an evil spirit, then the whole process was void in itself; there being no other authority on which a prophet can be determined false. Now in this appeal from the declaration of the catholic church visible, unto the Scripture, as the sole decisive judge, we conceive that we stand in this point upon the same foot that all Protestants in other points do in their renouncing the authority of the church, in any thing whatsoever wherein she plainly de- viated from, or contradicted, the sole and complete rule of faith. Now the subject herein treated of is certainly a point of faith, and of great moment too; that is to say, whether we should receive or reject the word of the Lord spoken to us by a mes- senger of his ; so that we are not arguing about trifles, such as may be done or left undone without evident sin, that is, without the breach evidently of the positive commands of God, SCRIPTURE A PRECEPT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. 357 whilst we are pleading for the subjects of " faith once delivered to the saints." But having thus fixed the rule and standard whereby we are to measure, and the same being such as always was or might have been known ; the ignorance of it indulged could at no time, nor can, excuse those who did or shall deter- mine by any other. For it can be no small crime and presump- tion, whether in private persons or stated communities, to pre- scribe arbitrary rules, whereby the Spirit of God in his agency is to be limited and determined of. But the state of the case, in rela- tion to the primitive church, has been already fully discussed ; and it sufficiently appears to be the upshot of it, that towards the year 400, the principles prevailing universally, and the constitu- tions thereof authoritative, could not, in any ways we know of, admit prophesying, however truly Divine, to be acknowledged any longer in it ; which is the reason that I have not pretended to carry on some evidences of the prophetic Spirit subsisting beyond the account thereof, in the Second Part ; though it is clear, from Rev. xii. 17, that the Spirit of prophecy did continue longer, because the dragon did pursue those who had the testi- mony of Jesus. in the wilderness state of the church. And for the^same reason, 1 shall not offer at any proof here of true pro- phecy, either precedently to, or attending, the time of the Re- formation ; because the principles universally prevailing among Christians could never, by any thing I can find, from the period mentioned above unto this day, suffer a true prophet to pass for other than a monster, a heretic, a fanatic or madman, an im- postor or blasphemer : for not only the fables of Apollonius and others, which have been instanced to have been poured out like a flood, to bear down all truth of fact in the case of the Mon- tanists, were, and have been to this day, admitted ; but innu- merable others also have been coined of them, by later ages (saitli^the author of their history), lest the sentence of the church upon them should ever be known to have passed upon little or no ground. § 6. The historian of Montanism takes notice of some particular sects who were called Montanists, after the condemnation of those whose cause we have examined and seems justified : which sects might possibly pretend to revelation, and under that claim be guilty of dreadful abominations; all which were put to the account of the other, who were innocent and free from any such. Which course of arguing, if the thing be weighed impartially, 358 PART IV.— -GHAP. I. amounts to the subsequent conclusion ; that is, because there were false prophets, therefore there were none true : or, because inspiration diabolical produced such and such horrible effectis, therefore all inspiration is to be concluded diabolical ; and be- cause the devil openly and evidently works in some, therefore he does the same in all the rest, transformed into an angel of light. By what ways of argument it was that the Sadducism and con- tempt of revelation, by a breach wilfully made in the ancient Scripture banks (touching the trying prophetic spirits) did enter like a swelling sea^ and deluge all the Christian world, so that there are no longer any footsteps to be discovered of the ancient faith of God revealing, 1 conceive has already in some measure appeared. In all this, I am not pleading in behalf of any in- spiration which can, by the perfect and completely sufficient rule, the Scriptures, be condemned ; but for such only as ought to be received, and acquitted by it from arbitrary and usurped rules of judging. And surely it cannot be esteemed otherwise than a thing very laudable for us to act, in all matters relating to God, uniformly and of a piece. Thus, if I, as a Protestant, stand bound to believe that the Scripture is a perfect and com- pletely sufficient rule, and whatever is dissonant from and con-f trary to it I am thereby bound also to reject and deny as an usurpation in the church ; it follows of course, that in this point of God extraordinarily communicating of himself, I am not to favour, but contrariwise oppose, all usurpations against God : and for myself, I am in dut}'^ to Him bound solely to examine things by the sanctuary balance, and to be determined in my judgment, one way or other, as that turns the scale. In fine, I am able to discern no reason, as a Christian, why I should be partial in the law of God, and say it is a complete rule in other points, but very defective and insufficient in this, and therefore needs human wisdom to supply the deficiency ; or conclude that it ought to be observed and obeyed without reserve in all other cases, but not at all in this one. § 7. Having thus explained myself (I hope sufficiently) to obviate undue constructions in the whole of this treatise, both of what is already passed, and whnt follows ; I have laid down, and according to my capacity gone upon, this one fundamental principle, that the written word of God is a sufficient and com- plete rule to lead our judgment with respect to prophecy or revelation, whether in times past, present, or to come. If I have SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OP PROPHECY. 359 any ways erred or mistaken in the construction of this rule, I am willingly desirous to be set to rights, from it and by it ; I say, from that, and from that alone, seeing that there is no authority which can substitute another, such as is any ways at all satis- factory in this point. " Let God be " acknowledged " true " in his word, ** and every man a liar," who would add to it by pre- scriptions imposed, or diminish from it by denying the same to be a sufficient rule. The clergy indeed, in respect to their office, ought to be considered and respected on that account : but whenever they, collectively or separately, either under a body national or provincial, or one alone, or many severally (for the case alters not), advance any thing positive which is not warrantable by the word of God ; in such a case I think they may, nay they ought (by all those who have any due regard to the first and the great commandment), to be withstood equally as any other men ; and even more too, lest their character should be abused to the great dishonour of God with respect to the supreme authority of his word. For we are bound to regard and esteem them distinguishably, merely and only for their work's sake ; and as that proper work, for which we ought to esteem them, is defined and limited expressly to teach and be examples of a Scripture obedience unto God, we must strangely pervert the text when we esteem them as ministers in contradicting it. Upon this ground, I have not judged any reverence due to the Apollinarian bishops, whilst, in the subject of this argument, they separated themselves from God, set up many human insti- tutions, stood in opposition to the sacred text, and themselves taught and gave examples of the utmost contempt of the prophetical word, the Divine Guide and Supreme Master in the church. } 8. In like manner, the clothing themselves with the awful style of the Catholic Church, which is the highest character that the clergy can ever assume, could never, at least in ray opinion, alter the very nature of obvious reproach, personal calumniating, and palpable lying, which the constitution of Christianity deter- mines for crimes of a hateful kind. Therefore, when I found the torrent of that sort so turgidly rising in the account of the Mon- tanist historian, that he himself sometimes endeavoured to stem and check it ; I, on my part, even opened the flood gates, and let it pass, without taking any notice of many particulars which might easily have been exposed for falsities. And this 1 did the 360 PART IV. — CHAP. I. rather because that, with men of sobriety in judgment, that reflect upon the treatment which the true prophets in Scripture found, it is easy to gather that these and such hke practices were the very spears and arrows and sharp swords wherewith, conjointly with cruel mockings, the giants in infidelity did pursue the desti- tuted messengers of God, until they pushed them to wander up and down, half naked and starved, in deserts and mountains, and at length to seek a refuge in dens and caves of the earth. If then in the whole of this subject Christian men will keep their ears open to clamour and brawling on the one side, and shut their eyes from discerning by the light of God's word' on the other, what is consonant to it, and under that posture will judge of the point before us, we must content ourselves to say, with relation to it. If the foundations be destroyed, and truth is perished from the earth, what can the adherers to it do ? § 9. But if there remains among professors of Christianity any impartial equity, or unprejudiced love to truth, no case requires it more from us than that of a prophetic summons to have recourse to our first principles. Whereas, on the contrary to what it ought to be, there is so little concern among men in this point that all Scripture rules for the trial of spirits stand for nothing, on the side of approving what is good by them ; although a little noise of evil report, such as was always upon the true prophets, suffices to condemn any claim to inspiration, without the least care or fear for that sentence. And this propensity to condemn a thing unheard and unexamined can be little wondered at, whilst, on the one part, no principles are allowed and fixed upon but anti-scriptural whereon the Spirit of prophecy might have justice done him ; and on the other, all the characteristics and peculiar properties of the Holy Spirit so speaking are easily and readily granted over to the evil one. For I know very well, that there are men now-a-days who will allow that the devil himself can make as full and as clear a confession of all the prerogatives due to our Emmanuel, as the very testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of pro- phecy, can J although the primitive Christians, in the case of the Sybils, denied it ; and the Scripture also does so abundantly in 1 Cor. xii. 3, and in all the places wherein an appeal is made to the foregoing testimonies of it. The magnifiers of the devil, however, will go further still, and do say that he may preach like a Boanerges, pray like a saint, and praise the Lord like an angel of light, and urge men to repentance as forcibly as John the SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. 163 Baptist ; nay, I have heard a very pious Christian aver, that he may for a time produce sanctification genuine and true. But whence men have gathered this kind of divinity, which reproaches the teacher's office as well as the prophet's, I know not ; and from the Scriptures I find no room for supposing any such case ever possible in the point of prophetical preaching. Nevertheless, if such a case must be supposed, Christ our Head, who has triumphed, and led captivity captive, with whom is the residue of the Spirit to give, has promised to be with his church ; and to Him, in a case wherein the Scripture does not decide, must the judgment and appeal be left. Man's authority reaches no further than to try and judge all things by the standard of prophecy undoubtedly Divine ; and where that does not decide, he ought, he can go no further, without setting himself up in the very judicial seat of Christ. Upon such an emergency as above-mentioned, if men will be so presumptuous as, without any competent Scripture- foundation, to allow it possible, there ought then to be solemn supplication to the Head and Governor of his body the church, to yield unto her the necessary aid of his own Spirit, arbitrarily to pass sentence by the gift and spiritual power of discernment. And whereas, no one can, by the law and testimonies of God be accounted a prophet, or spiritual person, without some visible manifestation of a spirit above his own exhibited ; in such case, if it be possible that an emergency as above-mentioned can be supposed, the greater manifestation of power supernatural is to determine between the accuser and the accused. § 10. But upon all this, if any man in the name of Christ, and giving him all the rights due to him, speaks prophetically to *' exhortation, edification, and comfort," by 1 Cor.xii. 4, it cannot be by any other power but by the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, and from the harmony of Scripture testimonials, we have not granted the case before-mentioned to be possible ; and mentioned it only as the rash headiness of a few ignorant men, so that we need insist no longer on it. Nevertheless, if any prophetical person, without much of doctrine, exhortation, prayer, praise, or other exercises edifying to the church, or assembly of believers, should perform some extraordinary act with the simple confession of Christ afight; we have in Luke ix. 30, a precedent given by our Lawgiver, saying, '^ Forbid him not, because he followeth not us ; for he that is not against us is for us." Here we are to observe, that there was no opposition in the person that followed not our 3 A 362 PART IV.— CHAP. I. ' Saviour ; but if we can possibly suppose a case wherein two spiritual persons are opponents in any kind, and both equally sound in the subjects of faith taught, there the evidence of greater povoer supernaturally exerted is to determine ; which is clear, on a different occasion, from the rule given by our Lord^ Matt. xii. 29, 30, and Luke xi. 21—23, where the same being first exerted on his part, the conclusion thence, and upon that evidence drawn is, "He that is not with me, is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth;" for our great Master cast out devils that confessed him. The like proof also, touching a masterly power in cases supernatural, we find mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 19—21, and 2 Cor. x. 6. But, in all of this treatise, both preceding and subsequent, we are limited to the general rules laid down in Holy Writ, by which persons uninspired ought to judge and be determined ; and therefore we cease to treat of points that are proper only to the summary ways of the Spirit extraordinary to determine by. § 11. Our subject being to shew that uninspired persons are limited in their judgment of a prophetic Spirit by the rules con- tained in the Scripture-canon, and that they ought not to arrogate to themselves a power of acting arbitrarily therein ; we have, in the Second Part of this treatise, made appear, that the opinion of the purest times of Christianity was clear in this point. Which opinion and practice of the ages next immediately succeeding to that of the Apostles is not only significative of the honour and reverence then paid to the Spirit in the church, and is further provable in its equity from the nature of a supernatural agency, but, as we take it, is plainly included in several texts of the New Testament : as, where the Apostle afiirms, that " the natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned, and that the spiritual man himself is judged of no man" (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15): "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God '* (ver. 11). And thus the spirits of the prophets are subject only to such as are prophets, according to what was given to every one by the Spirit; " to one the word of knowledge, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits:" therefore, when some prophets spake two or three, others were to judge ; namely, they who were known to have the gift of discerning spirits. We do not hereby aim to exclude men's judging of things spiritual^ SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. 363 as far as the comparing of them with the written word does enable them, and they are thence entitled to do; for to this course we may apply the Apostle's appeal, " I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say :" but this appeal of the Apostle, which was made unto men in every thing enriched by God, especially in all knowledge, so that they came behind in no gift extraor- dinary of the Spirit, is far from being a warrant to universal libertinism in assuming to be wise in their own spirits above what is written by inspiration, for the deciding upon a prophetical appearance. And now to proceed, from the extraordinary way of judging whereof we have but occasionally spoken very briefly, to the main tenor of our argument touching the more general and standing precepts on that head, and how far men are willing to submit their private opinions to them : § 12, We having recited, that, in and after the fifth century, the church visible fell under such a constitution that the Holy Scripture was no longer allowed for a standard, whereby any thing of true prophecy for public edification could be acknow- ledged; the numerous examples of vision and revelations, vented and owned in the succeeding times of dark Popery, that carried all of them evident tendencies to flatter and promote the growing corruptions in the doctrine and discipline of the Chris- tian church, are no just exception: for the general rules of the holy text ought always in this case to decide ; and if an angel from heaven could bring any other message or gospel than what agrees with the tenor of the precedent oracles Divine, the same ought to have been at all times, and even now among Protestants, rejected with the utmost abhorrence. This allowance, therefore, of false prophecy by the Papists is duly condemned by us, and there is no question upon this head : the question is, whether we do not, on the contrary, suppress even as well as they the autho- rity of God's word to denominate what is true of that kind. But this latter point — that is, whether the written word is allowed its free course and due prerogative among Protestants, anymore than among the Papists, to warrant and authorize the belief and acceptance of what is true prophesying by the law and testi- monies of Scripture — is the proper subject of this part of the present treatise to examine and inquire into. § 13. The Papists indeed are embodied under a tyrannical -hierarchy in the church ; and the secular powers are so blindly .devoted to serve that usurpation that not only a true prophet, but 364 PART IV.— CHAP. I. a common Christian avowing ** the truth as it is in Jesus," does pass with them for a heretic : and, under that name being con- cluded for the chief of criminals, he suffers as a malefactor of the highest dye. But there is a wide difference between them and the Protestants, both in respect to any usurpation in the church, and cruelty in the secular powers, touching matters reli- gious. Nevertheless, if we reflect duly upon our foundations, the Reformed do not build themselves wholly upon a renuncia- tion of errors in the Church of Rome, but do profess to adhere to the Scripture, as their sole sovereign law, and to the pattern of the first and purest ages of Christianity, as their precedent in all things. And to apply this to the subject in hand, the Re- formed churches do well to disown and detest all impositions of doctrine or worship which were introduced among the Catholics under the colour of visions and revelations ; because these, being tried by Scripture, are found to come from the father of lies, the deceiving and false spirit, who would lead us astray from the simplicity of the Gospel, or Divine message by the prophets in Holy Writ. On the other side, whilst false vision is prevalent among the Papists, under the sanction of the authority of the church, which allows, and as it were verifies, or makes it cur- rent ; it must be confessed, that at the same time they, in ad- vancing the authority of the church, do utterly disallow the written word of God to conclude any thing in favour of true prophecy. And in this latter case, the Protestants in all coun- tries, and the clergy in every sect of Christians, if they unani- mously concur to advance principles touching this subject which are anti-scriptural, and yet do pretend that every spirit prophesying should be tried by those arbitrary rules ; thus far, and in this point, they join hands with the Papists, and in their usurpation, not only over the written word, but the prerogative of the essential and Eternal Word. § 14. In the case above mentioned, therefore, we conceive that Protestants do not sincerely and truly seek to be reformed, ac- cording to the pattern of the purest ages of Christianity, as long as they shall continue to withstand the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures ; and by their universal concurrence do assume an authority to determine touching every Spirit prophetical, upon rules merely human. I am sure there is nothing necessarily in- cluded in our profession as Protestants. that does open a door to Sadducism and the contempt of revelation ; but, on the contrary, SCRIPTURE A PERFECT STANDARD OF PROPHECY. \ 36^ we are from the Scriptures taught to have no communion with ■ Beh'al, or men under no yoke and government from the laws of the Spirit of Christ, and that the true beh'ever has no^more agreement with an infidel than light with darkness. And here I must confess, to the honour of the Reformation, that I know no one point, except that of running down of enthusiasm, without distinguishing the true from the false, wherein all the parts and sects of it, and the clergy or stated teacher, pastor, or speaker, of every one, do (by all that I can gather, either of my own or foreign countries) with one voice agree to advance principles and doctrines clearly unscriptural ; whereof we shall here sub- join a small specimen, taken from the late writings of divines of several different communions and opinions in other things. Now the consent of all parties, and the ministers of each, to suffer unscriptural positions on this point to pass unreproved, and without any mutual debate, such as they never will pass over in any other case without reproof alternatively, has been (as I con- ceive) the cause of that darkness and error in the point of reve- lation prophetic which the Reformed churches are not universally chargeable with on any other subject that 1 know of. § 15. But, because men are insensible of any evil attending such a practice, therefore, before we come to examine into the false principles so advanced, we here propose to the reader's timely consideration a passage in the preface of William Ni- cholls, Doctor of Divinity, to his book called, A Conference with a Deist. * The spreading infidelity of Deism,' says he, < unless a stop be put to it, will be the ruin of these kingdoms, < and force heaven to pour out the last vials of its wrath * upon us. Socinians, Papists, and Schismatics, though they are < guilty of grievous and dangerous errors, yet the worst of them < maintain some part of the ground-work of Christianity still ; * but Deists, who disown a revelation, make our whole religion < an imposture, and all that have to do with it either cheats or « fools. So that we who are ministers of the Gospel are highly * concerned to overthrow those principles which tend to the * subversion of our common Christianity, and to exert our * utmost power against these opinions, which debauch and damn * so many men whose souls we have the charge of. Nay fur- * ther, there is the greatest danger from these infidel opinions, ' because they are espoused by men of all parties^ and by many * of those who join themselves with some particular body of 366 PART IV.— CHAP. II. " * Christians. Now because such infidels lie herded among all * sects of Christians, as they are not so easily discerned, so they * are not so vigorouslj'^ opposed ; and by this means they have of * late gained such strength that now they begin to look for- ' midable ; and it is dreadful to consider what vast numbers of * men are poisoned by these infidel principles. But the greatest * encouragement which infidelity meets with is from some phi- * losophical gentlemen, who find that the Scripture seems to * contradict some notions in philosophy that they have espoused.* § 16. The greatness of the evil herein represented being above all other evils that do or can afflict the church, and wound the honour of Christ, ought doubtless to engage the ministry against it with more application and ardency than any other point. For, if we consider them as stewards of the household, they are to deal out that which is most necessary in the first place : and if they are entrusted with the word of God on record, they are rightly to distribute the word of truth, and not to be partial in their interpreting the Divine law, so as to conceal some parts of it, or pass them over without concern; much less to concur in promoting the principles of infidelity, instead of overthrowing them with all their might. But, whether they have discharged their duty with respect to the subject of this treatise, or rather hidden the key of knowledge touching it ; whether they have exerted their office in casting down the imaginations of Saddu- cees and Deists, the scorners of all revelation, with that vigilance and zeal they ought to have done, will appear in some measure by the following sheets. CHAP. II. OF MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY, § 1. Upon the foundation laid down in the preceding chapter, that the Scripture is a complete and decisive rule for Christians to judge upon touching the Spirit of prophecy, it has been the sole scope of this treatise to reduce all things to it, and to oppose hu- man impositions. Without any retrospect, therefore, into times passed, since the period mentioned in the Second Part, I will sup- pose and take for granted, that there is no part of the church vi- sible now on earth better acquainted with the Scriptures in general iMODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 367 than that m England ; we will also suppose and take for granted, that there is no other country wherein the written word of God has a more free course, and is allowed to be pleaded and argued as the sole decisive judge in all other points whatsoever, except this of the subject hereof. But as we have no concern, in this present argument, with other matters among Christians hotly debated, we conceive that the same rule admitted to be perfect in all other points is, however, highly disgraced and rendered contemptible in this by the course that most of the clergy have taken in our days to prescribe other rules and precepts whereby to judge and determine touching the Spirit of prophecy in general, as if those in Scripture were deficient. For, as in the Third Part of this treatise we were not advocates for Montanus, or the rest there named, further than they ought to have had liberty of prophesying in the church, by the general rules given in Scripture, by Divine inspiration ; so neither in this part are we desirous to apologise for any particular persons whatsoever : but we desire to have the cause withdrawn from special and per- sonal instances, and put upon a general foot; that whenever the Sovereign will of God shall be to send prophets, and to inspire any one from above, there may be due honour paid, not to him, but to the word of the Lord abstractedly considered. § 2. This being the ultimate end and only scope of the present treatise, I should have been exceeding glad to have had occasion to add here, that those of the clergy in my own nation, and of the same common faith and hope in religion, had shewn themselves now in the point of prophecy reformed in principles beyond and above the time of Constantino. Now it will not be unseasonable to reflect, that throughout the whole debate upon the Montanists, I have but slightly taken notice of the style, which is frequent with the author of their history, in branding them with the name of Reformers, and the urgers of a reformation in the church ; therefore the other party are bj"^ him vested with that of the Catholics and the Catholic Church, who pleaded that it belonged alone to them to reform themselves, and they objected to the authority of the prophetic Spirit to do it. I am not to meddle here with the subjects of reformation which concerned that time : but whereas the authority of the prophetic Spirit in private persons, after the clergy in Phrygia had lost it, was disowned, I cannot forbear to add, that the Montanists are injuriously dealt with to lie under a reproach 368 PART IV. — CHAP. II. with us now-a days for insisting upon such a reformation as might have prevented any subsequent occasion for the word as used among us now ; on the contrary, they ought to be honoured as the most primitive reformers of the early corruptions, de- pravity, and growing usurpations, in the Christian church, who contended to preserve all things in it upon the platform of the Apostles and Prophets. Having therefore barely mentioned the misapplied phrase above-said, we now proceed to examine whether the Christian clergy of the Reformed faith and discipline do stand at this day more scriptural in their judgment of prophecy, and less guilty of teaching human doctrines in opposition to the Divine, than the condemners of the Montanists did. § 3. We have observed, in the close of the Second Part, that the first notice occurring to us from the writings of the ancient Fathers, that all the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit had ceased in the Christian church, was between the years 400 and 430. Whether the gift of prophecy was known in any place to subsist at all unto the end of that time, we cannot tell ; but since that time we take it to be concluded universally, that nothing of it has been openly in the church acknowledged. Wherefore, during so long a space of the withdrawing or con- ceived absence of the Spirit prophetic, it is not to be wondered at if there be numerous traditional opinions contracted and imbibed touching it, that upon examination are found anti- scriptural : because the students in divinity, through want of occasion calling them to it by the instances of any persons pro- phesying or speaking by the (pavspojaig, or manifestation of a Spirit, according to the analogy of faith, even the sacred writings of the Old and New Testament have taken for granted that the Montanists were justly condemned for prophesying by an evil spirit, and so have not only built themselves upon that presump- tion, but have added innumerable other dogmas, axioms, or systems, touching the Spirit of prophecy, suitable to the schemes of human wisdom ; without that careful proving of them by the touchstone of Scripture which, in other points that are contro- verted among themselves, they are accustomed to use : for as to this point, the clergy have never suffered a debate what might be true prophecy. And though these unwarrantable opinions received by the tradition of learned writers, from one age to another, through a long succession, be very numerous ; we know not, however, of any communion of Protestants that have, as such, inserted among MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 369 the articles of their faith a conclusive sentence on this point of Divine revelation and prophecying, except one. We shall begin therefore with that, and subjoin to it, as a pattern of what might be more numerously exemplified, some declarations severally, within a few years, often or twelve divines who have published tracts, which are most of them sermons, for teaching the people on the subject before us. But because I have signified my desire to abstract the cause from the entanglements of personal debate, and put it entirely upon the foot of a general inquiry ; I do beg leave to omit the names of these several divines, who (I think) are all now living, and persons, for the most of them, of no mean characters for piety and learning; who are not to be supposed to vent any thing inconsiderately from the pulpit, and who have, in what I shall quote from them, spoken no other thing than such as is commonly received, maintained, and preached among their brethren, and which they can doubtless justify by the tradition of their fathers. However, I seek no evasion by this liberty of omitting to name them ; for whenever I am called upon to do it publicly, I am ready to produce from them the vouchers for every one of these Articles following. Doctrine I A Confession of Faith, published by the As- sembly of Divines anno 1650, after enumerating the several books of the Old and New Testament, subjoins ; < to which nothing at * any time is to be added by new revelations of the Spirit.' Ansxver. — Leaving it to be further explained by the advocates of this Confession of Faith, we can at present understand no less by it than a plain declaration, that there is to be no more reve- lations of the Spirit ; and in consequence, every spirit pretending to give forth inspiration or prophecy must be diabolical*. Now, because this matter has already been and will be further ex- plained necessarily, in treating upon some other articles, we here think it sufficient to set in opposition to it, that which does abundantly appear to be built upon much more authority of the Scriptures, and therefore a full answer, even the Church of * The words do not justify this deduction : they assert simply that the canon of Scripture is complete, and to receive no addition during the present dispensation ; a truth very necessary to be maintained. If the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit had continued in the church, we should always have possessed a living infallible interpreter ; but interpretation would not have been addition. The Popish Church bears witness that it ought so to continue, by falsely asserting that she has it ; yet she is less in error than modern Protestantism, which denies it altogether. — Editor, 3b 370 >ART IV. — CHAP. II. England's prayer, on the anniversary of Barnabas the Apostle : * O Lord God Almighty, who didst endue thy holy Apostle * Barnabas with singular gifts of the Holy Ghost ; leave us not, * we beseech thee, destitute of thy manifold gifts, nor yet of * grace to use them always to thy honour and glory, through * Jesus Christ our Lord.' In confirmation of which prayer, and to shew a great concurrency of private opinions in the same communion, that which is annexed to the celebrated book ' The * whole Duty of Man ' may suffice ; for there, in a prayer for the peace of the church, we read, < When thou didst mount up to * heaven triumphantly, thou gavest gifts unto men, of thy Spirit; * renew again from above thy old bountifulness; give that thing ' to thy church, now fainting and growing downward, that thou * gavest unto her shooting upward at her first beginning. And * because thy Spirit hath the science of speaking, give to the * bishops the gift of prophecy, that they may declare and in- * terpret Holy Scripture, not of their own brain, but of thine * inspiring. And thus the old dignity and tranquillity of the * church shall return again with a godly order, unto the glory of * thy name.' Doctrine H. — An advocate of the Confession of Faith above mentioned, says; 'Inspiration was given but for a limited ' time ; the Apostles were the last messengers of God to his * church : it is now above sixteen hundred years since inspiration * expired ; nor can it be ever restored, because of Rev. xxii. 19, * for whoever has (or since had) a new revelation, not only adds * (or added) to the Scriptures, but entirely secludes and super- * sedes (or did so by) them thereby : hence the Montanists were * by some of the fathers proved impostors, in pretending to the * gift of prophecy, for that it was then ceased in the church ; the * New Testament being the last volume of Divine Revelations * completed (Rev. xxii. 19), the reason of inspiration ceased.' Answer. — First, This here intimated is a doctrine altogether novel, that the reason of inspiration, at the Pentecost and after- wards, was to write the volume of the New Testament ; when it is plain by our Saviour's commission, that he empowered them to convert all nations by preaching evangelically, and not by writing; and when we have not a word therein written by a majority of the twelve, any more than of those numbers on whom the Holy Ghost fell, and who indefatigably preached by inspira- 4;ion every where ; neither was there any precept of our Lord to MODERN OPINIONS CONCliRNING PROPHECY. 371 them to write at all.— But, secondly. The volume of the New Testament was not completed by the book of St. John's Revela- tion, that we know of upon any good authority ; the placing it last in our Bible being merely of human discretion. In truth, by the best accounts we have, this book was written in the isle of Patmos, and the Gospel of St. John was written after his release thence ; which is notorious to them that are the most learned, as appears in Dr. Mills's preface to his Greek Testament. — Thirdly, The volume of the New Testament, as to the number of tracts now allowed to be included in it, was not at all con- cluded till about anno 500 ; unto which time, or the greatest part of it, the Epistles of Clemens and Barnabas, and the Visions of Hermas (as we have proved) were enrolled therein ; and some tracts included now in ours were much controverted : all which may appear by numerous evidences uncontroulable. — Fourthly, The Montanists were not by any one of the fathers before Con- stantine ever taxed, much less proved, for impostors, upon this foot asserted that the gift of prophecy was then ceased in the church; for demonstrating whereof, I appeal to the evidence alleged in the Second and Third Part. — Fifthly, Whether in- spiration was given for a limited time, I leave to be judged of from the author's own words, thus ; ' They that say the Spirit of * prophecy did not cease at the destruction of Jerusalem (anno * Christi 74), or thereabouts, will not know where to limit it, and * what that age was wherein it was extinguished ; and if no limits * be put to it, then how great is the danger we are in ? And, * besides, if no period be fixed, then there were no age but * there would be some persons oracular as Moses : and if there * be any limitation, then where is it fixed 1 Probably at the fall * of Jerusalem ; or probably it expired, in effect, in the Apostles* * days, or soon after (probably).' — Sixthly, Those that had reve- lations and the gift of prophecy did not seclude and supersede the Scriptures by them; but we have shewn already, that in fact the Montanists were the closest adherers to them ; and the accusers of these then did even acknowledge the same as the principal occasion of Montanus's delusion ; insomuch that one item of charge against the prophets was then, that they would not sufier one iota of the written word to fall to the ground. In like manner, we have argued in the whole of this present treatise ; and we wish that all others would take heed of secluding and superseding the Scriptures, as the general rule to determine of prophecy by, whether to be rejected or allowed. But upon this 372 PART IV. — CHAP. II. occasion the love of God and a concern for his glory will not suffer us to pass over so many falsities positively affirmed, without pitying those who first affright themselves with an imaginary danger, and then, to screen themselves from it, will pursue such measures as do clearly betray that they are far from a love of truth, and have pleasure in the contrary : otherwise, what account can be given of heaping together so many arbitrary assertions as this article sets before us without the alleging of any authorities from antiquity, concerning which the affirmations hereof include several points of great moment. But to proceed, and inquire into what is built upon the above-mentioned foundations mani- festly false : Doctrine III. — * Whoever has a new revelation, not only * adds to the Scriptures, but entirely secludes and supersedes * them thereby. To add any further revelation to the New * Testament is to undermine it. And seeing that, by Rev. xxii. * 18, he that addeth to the Scripture has damnation denounced * to him, therefore those that break that rule by pretended inspi- * ration are to be judged for impostors, seducers, emissaries of ' the devil, commissioned by the father of lies. But inspiration * is therefore false, because new since the Apostolic writings.* Ansxioer, — These being rules equally valid in all times since the death of St. John, we appeal to the primo-primitive Chris- tians, who had many advantages above the modern ages to know the will of God delivered by the primary and chief Apostles? or as it was revealed to the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit (Eph. iii. 5). Let therefore those ages testify loudly against the modern, by what we have made appear of them, saying, * We have seen and heard those very Apostles * ye pretend to acknowledge : they never taught us such a < doctrine as this : they, and in particular St. John, appointed < such to preside over us as were most distinguished by the gifts * of the Holy Ghost, who survived him ; and we submitted gladly * to such overseers, who spake to us in the name and by the word * of the Lord. Thus it is that we have been taught of God by * the mouths of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Barnabas, and a < thousand other prophets; and yet the prophetical and Aposto- ' lical Scriptures were never secluded and superseded, but read * with reverence in our assemblies. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, * Tertullian, Cyprian, Dionysius, and many more, can proclaim * in our behalf, that the paying due submissive reverence to the * Lord the Spirit, and the hearing prophetic sermons dictated MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 373 * from on high, did well agree with owning the Scriptures aposto- < lical for the standard of our faith ; whilst others, who opposed * the Spirit in our days, did corrupt the Scriptures, and denied * part of them. Nay, who but He that has the key of David, * who but He that is gifted from above with wisdom and know- ' ledge, who but the Spirit of prophecy, which knows the deep * things of God, and dictated the Scriptures, can unfold to us the < very many obscure and mysterious parts of these very Scrip- * tures themselves ? It is not for men of their own heads to do * it : let them take heed how they presume to invade the office * of the Holy Ghost to teach and lead us into all truth, and to * testify of Christ in these points ; for no prophecy of the Scrip- * ture is of any private or human interpretation. He, on the * contrary, is •' an interpreter one of a thousand," and has opened * to us the Scriptures so as no man ever could have done ; and * when he speaks by inspiration, there is nothing on man's part * added to the Scripture. We have left to all future generations * numerous testimonies of his expounding the Scriptures to the * full satisfaction of the whole church in our ages, who received < those expositions as uncontroulable by man. We were so far * from esteeming the inspired necessarily false, and emissaries of * the devil, because succeeding the generation of the Apostles, < that we believed prophecy would be perpetual in the Christian * church, because God had set therein prophets as an order dis- < tinct ; and because we thought that the declared use thereof * for edification and comfort of the church could never cease ; < and because the precepts and promises of the Spirit were with- < out limitation of time. If any man therefore appeared to be * prophetical, or acted by a Spirit, we tried that Spirit by I Cor. * xiv. 37, and other Scriptures, whether he acknowledged the * things written by the Apostles to be the commandments of the « Lord ; and when we had proved all things of this kind by the * test and standard of avowed prophecy, we adhered to, and ap- < proved, that which was good by it. We therefore for these rea- < sons, protest openly against your principles as anti-apostolicaL' Doctrine IV.—' The word of God gives no ground to think < that God would do any thing of this kind after the death of the ' Apostles : we have warning of false prophets in the New Tes- « lament, but no promise of any true ones.' Anstuer. — Jesus " being a Priest after the order of Melchi- sedec (Heb. viii. 6), is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises," even of the Spirit ; for # 37'i PART IV. — CHAP. II. the Gospel is called, by way of supereminence above the Law, the ministration of the Spirit ; insomuch that Christ is said to be justified by the Spirit, when his followers or believers every where (1 Cor. xii. 13), whether Jew or Gentile, were made to " drink into one Spirit ; for by one Spirit they were all baptized into one body : but if the fall and diminishing of the Jews was then the riches of the Gentiles, how much more shall their fulness be so?" Rom. xi. 12: *' What shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead ? " These things we ought further to consider, lest that, by admitting of strange doctrine, the church of Chris- tians should appear less favoured of God than that of the Jews, which was blessed fifteen hundred years with the grace of prophecy; and that it might be also after Malachi, is not improbable ; for this would be the reverse of the Apostle's noble reflection upon the subject ; " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ?" Instead, therefore, of allowing this doctrine, which is so diminishing of the honour of our im- mortal Prophet and Melchisediacal High Priest, let us rather recollect what is still to come, as well as what was his glory in the church of the first ages in Christ ; and in particular, that in the primitive times it was the sentiment universal of Christians, that the gift of prophecy should never cease in the church ; inso- much that though Apollinaris condemned and excommunicated Montanus in his diocese or parish, yet it may be seen in Euse- bius, that the same Apollinaris mentions it as a doctrine of the Apostles, that the grace of prophecy should never cease in the church general. The modern divines, therefore, asserting that * the word of God gives no ground to think that God would ever * bestow the gifts extraordinary of the Spirit after the days of * the Apostles,' well deserves to be examined ; because it appears to be the clear reverse of the opinion universal of the church, while she answered to the figure of " a woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet." Wherefore, let us recollect, Jirst, what promises in the Old Testament are made over unto the Christian church in the New : and herein we find, upon the first opening of the Pentecost com- mission, Peter saying to the Jews, Acts ii. 38, 39, " Repent and be baptized, every one of you, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; for the promise of it is unto you,^and to your children, and to all that are afar off (the Gentiles), even as many MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 375 as the Lord our God shall call." In search after the promise, therefore, referred to by St. Peter, we find in Isa. lix. 21, <♦ This is my covenant with Jacob, saith the Lord : My Spirit which is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Neither will 1 hide my face any more from them ; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord" (Ezek. xxxix. 29). Our Saviour calls the Holy Spirit, Luke xxiv. 49, " The promise of the Father ;" and St. Paul mentions it as " the blessing of Abraham come upon the Gentiles" by promise. Gal. iii. 14. So that, whatever pro- mises of that kind were given of the old to the Jews, they are devolved upon Christians as the seed of Abraham by faith. As to the pouring out of the Spirit prophetically upon the Jews in some age still to come, there would not want, if we sought for them, several modern divines to vouch for it from these and other texts; but that alone of Dr. Scott's Christian Life, p. 1167, shall here suflSce : * God will all on a sudden, and in a most sur- * prising manner (Isa. Ixvi. 8, Zech. iii. 9), open the eyes of this * blinded nation by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon * them, such as that was on the day of Pentecost, though far * more extensive (Ezek. xxxix. 28, 29; Isa. xxxii. IS — 15, lix, * 20, 22, compared with Rom. xi. 25, 26), " I would not, brethren^ * that ye should be ignorant of this mystery '' (if we will how- * ever, we may) " that blindness in part is happened to Israel, ' axpiQ 8, till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," * that is, about that time when the conversion of the Gentiles * shall be completed.' Now the pouring out from heaven of the Spirit of prophecy seems in that text applied, as well to the completing of the conversion of all the Gentile nations first by it, as to the saving of all Israel ; but if the Jews did receive alone that effusion of the Spirit (which is very hard to allow, and is not contained in the text), they would be, however, one church with us, and we should partake the benefit ; which does sufiiciently overthrow the dogmatising of this article. But because we have sufficient reason to insist that Christians now are children of the covenant, and heirs of these promises made over to the Christian church ; we instance particularly further, in that of Psal. Ixxii. 6, "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth," and in that of Jer. xxxi. 34, " They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every 376 PART IV. — CHAP. TI. man his brother ; for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord," which is in Heb. viii. recited at large, and distinguished from the former covenant which was broken, and given as a new covenant, wherein God would no more remember their iniquities ; some of which promises are express for the never-ceasing blessing of the Holy Spirit to be poured out, and are a direct confutation to the above-said modern doctrine of our divines, that the word of God gives no ground to think, &c. Secondly, That the word of God does give some ground to think, that he would bestow the Spirit of prophecy some longer time than the days of the Apostles, appears further by the prayer of St. Paul, in the latter end of his days, that God would " give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" unto the Ephesians, chap, i. 17; nay, even the usual apostolic prayer, "The grace of our Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all," being a benedictory salutation to churches, was so under- stood by those nearest to the Apostles, that they meant thereby an increase, or at least continuance, of the prophetic gifts ; which salutation was, in that very verse, used afterwards by the churches one to another. Thus also, when the Apostle, Eph. iii. ]9, 21, prays that they might be "filled with all the fulness of God," it is evident that the communion of the Spirit in the highest degree must be included ; and if so, he is so far from limiting that petition to any time, that he adds, " Unto God be glory in the church, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." But as if the Spirit foresaw such a narrowness or sel- fishness in men of latter ages to come, to limit the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ, so as to exclude the extensive- ness of the words ; therefore he tells us, in the same Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. iv. 11 — 13, that "He gave some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, (that is,) unto the measure of the age of the FULNESS OF CHiiiST." Now, the age of the fulness of Christ is, by the same Apostle, in Rom. xi. set forth to us to be the saving of all Israel, when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, as it is written Isa. lix. 20, 21, Jer. xxxi., and other places ; to which the Apostle refers in that place, as they are already cited in the former paragraph. In reference therefore to this great promise MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 377 of the Father, the Spirit to be difFused, the same Apostle says again, to the Ephesians, chap. i. 11 — 14, "In Christ also we have obtained an inheritance, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory ; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed wit^h that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the EARNEST of our inheritence, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the (greater) praise of his glory." So that the Apostolic age receiving the earnest of the promises of God, which are our inheritance, it was a pledge to assure the whole ; and they, having the first-fruits of the Spirit, waited for the full adoption to come, the redemption of the body, the per- fect man, the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ; as every creature, with earnest expectation, *' waited for the mani- festation of the sons of God." (Rom. viii.) But, thirdly^ this doctrine, that the word of God gives no ground to think that God would do any thing of this kind after the death of the Apostles, seems to be directly opposite to the angel's saying to John, Rev. x. 11, " Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings :" for as we are informed from chronologists of that time, that St. John lived but a year or two after it, and was so far from performing the same that he conversed only with the churches of Asia already planted ; so the commentators on this text interpret it^ that John in that vision represented other prophets, who should be sent forth by the Lord of the harvest towards the time of the destruction of antichrist ; which also seems to be promised in 2 Thess. ii. 8, since " that wicked shall be destroyed (or con- sumed) with the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, and the brightness of his presence " (Trapsoriag). But long before this period, even when the woman was fled into the wilderness (which I suppose is applied to the fourth or the fifth century), the dragon went to make war with the remnant of her seed, " which have the testimony of Jesus;" an expression that in its plainest sense means, throughout the Scripture, persons having the Spirit of prophecy. Again, just before the desolation of the mother of harlots, there is an angel entrusted to preach the everlasting Gospel to every nation upon earth. Rev. xiv. 6 ; which surely bespeaks more than the customary preaching of men, and doubtless prophecy. Lastly, the apostatized state of the Christian church, denomi- nated by "Babylon the Great," cannot be imagined to have taken place during the very lives of the Apostles ; yet, in the time of 3c 378 I»ART IV. — CHAP. II, her usurpation and inebriating the nations with her abominations, it is positively asserted there were prophets ; for *' she was drunken with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and in her was found the blood of prophets " (Rev. xviii. 24, xvii. 6) : nay, certainly between the age of the Apostles and that of the man of sin (grown up) are we to understand the prophesying of Antipas, the slain witness of Jesus (ii. 13). Fourthly. That the primitive ages of Christ were much better founded on the Apostles and Prophets (Jesus himself being the Corner Stone), when they trusted that the grace of prophecy should be perpetual in the church, than our divines are in the doctrine that there is no ground to think that God would ever do any thing of this kind after the death of St. John, the Lord's Prayer itself does sufficiently declare. For, whenever there is a command to pray for the Spirit, our bounteous God does not, in all the record of his word, limit his graciousness either to time or manner wherein he will hear our request by faith ; it is only the spirit of man lusting to envy that does impose the restraint either to our faith in prayer, or the Divine propitiousness to hear> saying, '* The Spirit of the Lord is shortened " (Micah ii. 7). Thus for instance, when our Saviour taught us daily to supplicate for (.wLovoLov, supersiibstantial hready the primitive Christians universally, even the Grecians themselves, who must needs understand the term better than we, did construe that to be a supplication for the Spirit, which the proper Father of Christians is as ready to give to his genuine children as He does plenteously the material to his enemies. Tertullian*s and Cyprian's expla- nation of that clause, with that of many others, do shew us the said sense of it to be universally received ; and our Lord's sub- sequent encouragement, that the Father of fathers will not give a devil to a child petitioning for the good Spirit, does assure us the same. But, again, we find in Dr. Mills's Preface, p. 77, and on the text of Luke xi. 2, that in the second and third and fourth centuries (in the place of " Thy kingdom come," in Matthew), there was "Thy Holy Spirit come upon us," which seems further to explain the petition of " daily bread," and that also for the further manifestation of the kingdom of God ; and this latter text of Luke was read so before the time of Tertullian; which is the more considerable, because that father assures us that the very writings of the Apostles themselves remained unto his time to be searched. MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 379 Fifthly, As every injunction of seeking a thing from God implies a promise precedent, the primitive Christians were clearly founded upon the Apostles in expecting that the grace of pro- phecy would be perpetual in the church : for in 1 Cor. xii. 31, xiv. 1, 12, we have a command to "covet earnestly the best gifts, and desire spiritual gifts, but (among them) rather that of prophesying, and to be zealous of spirits, seeking to excel to the edifying of the church." Answerable to which general injunc- tions, without the least shadow of a limitation of time for these petitions, it appears in Dr. Mills, that some copies of the Sacred Text had that of Gal. iv. IB, " Zealously do ye affect the more excellent gifts ; for it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." In like manner does our Lord himself require from us the prayer of faith in this point, John vii. 37, 39 : <' In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink : he that believeth on me (the Giver), out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water ;" that is, the Holy Ghost given. On the other side, we are warned against faltering in this faith, in the third and fourth chapters to the Hebrews, by the example of the un- believing Israelites ; and chap. iii. 14, *' For we are made par- takers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end, while it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Sixthly, The primitive Christians thought that none could edify the church satisfactorily, by interpreting the Scriptures, but the inspired teacher : moreover they pleaded, that as there was one body, so necessarily there must be one Spirit informing that body, to constitute a church Apostolical ; for Christians united are a spiritual house, growing into a temple fitly framed together by a diversity of the Spirit's operations, called " an habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii. 19, 22. They understood that the warnings given by our Saviour, of " false prophets," implied, He would not leave them comfortless, without the Spirit extraordinary to discern them, but that He would be with them as a ruling Head in that case : but, said they, there must be true prophets, otherwise the cautions touching false ones would be needless ; for we are warned only " not to believe every spirit." But if He will send us none, why are we to '' try the spirits, whether they be of God ;" which shews they may be so ? What need have we to " prove all things," when nothing 380 1»ART IV. — CHAP. II. of this kind can be good which we are bid to hold fast ? The reward promised to those who receive a prophet makes us un- wilHng to lose it : and why are we to submit ourselves to such whom the Holy Ghost makes our overseers, if there can be no such thing ? We can never suppose that these canons are made to serve for nothing, any more than those touching the manner of prophets speaking in assemblies, or women prophesying there. If indeed we should be so ungrateful and rebellious as not to receive those whom Christ shall send, we should reject Him, and then we might justly expect that he would give us up to blind- ness and hardness of heart. But if the Apostles and multitudes more received the Spirit because they first trusted in Christ, we will not tempt him to withdraw from us by doing despite to the Spirit, or by grieving or vexing him, by any vilif)ings of pro- phecy, or quenching of our Comforter ; but, on the contrary, " pray unto the Lord of the harvest daily to send forth " pro- phetical *' labourers into his harvest " (Matt. ix. 38). Doctrine V. — < There is no need of prophets.' Ansiver. — Our great Prophet and sole Master in teaching said to the scribes (Matt. xv. 7—9), ''Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is FAR from me ; but in vain they do worship me, teaching J(jr doctrines the commandments of men." Why the distinguished words are put in a different character in our English I know not, seeing that the Greek has them ; but being by this text referred by our Saviour to Isaiah xxix. 9, we find there in the Hebrew, " Stay yourselves and wonder ; they are blind, and blind others.'' Our Lord often says, " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear :' but then he tells us the reason of that call to the people (Matt.xiii* 15), " For this people's heart is waxed gross (generally), and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed." In like manner, the same prophetic summons occurs in the Revelations : *' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." And whilst there was any disposition in the churches of Christ to hear the sound of that trumpet, this doctrine of the needlessness of prophecy was never heard of, as has appeared in the Second Part ; so likewise, whilst there was any regard to the Scriptures on this point, it was uncontroverted, that he that prophesied edified the church. And when St. Paul supposes that the more noble parts of the mystical body might MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 381 possibly say to the less noble, " We have no need of you," it is not there imagined possible for Christians indeed ever to be so foolishly presumptuous as to say, That the prophets, who are constituted and set in the church second to the Apostles, should be needless. But as to the many uses that prophecy was of in the churches of Christ, I have at large expressed them in the Second Part hereof, and shall not here recollect them, but refer somewhat of that kind to another place. I am persuaded, that the Jewish priesthood were very jealous of admitting that there was so much as one pin of the tabernacle useless which was of Divine appointment : it is strange, therefore, that one of the most noble constituent parts of the Christian church and temple should be so rashly now judged useless. I am persuaded also, that the modern preachers of this doctrine would not now allow that a like plea was valid in the mouth of the Jewish Levites, against the word of the Lord spoken then by the Prophet ; al- though it appears, by Levit. x. 11, Mai. ii. 7, that the Levitical priesthood were empowered to teach the people; and it further appears, that they did it unblameably, by 2 Chron. xxx. 22, and Neh. viii. 7, 8. Moreover, this preaching and instruction of theirs continued in our Saviour's time so commendably performed that our Lord directs his disciples to practise what they taught. How then comes it to be more unnecessary under the Christian dispensation than under that of the Law, that men should have the Scriptures opened, and be taught to know rightly the Divine laws, by the Spirit of prophecy ? Surely, when our Lord said that if sinners would **not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither would they be converted though one rose from the dead," he never intended to absolve the Jews from hearing Himself, and the Apostles and Prophets He should send to them afterwards. Our divines also will easily allow, and do in their writings, that on many other accounts, besides this of teaching and opening the Scripture, God did then graciously speak to his people by several forewarnings, consolatory promises under affliction, reproofs of various kinds to the clergy and people, and necessary directions in times of exigence. How is it, therefore, that under the pro- fession of Christianity there can be no need at all for the same Spirit of Christ which spake in the Jewish Prophets ever to do so again ? What if some of the Gospel ministers should become as profane as the Sadducees, and others as hypocritical as the Pharisees, and the people, notwithstanding all their preaching* 382 TART IV. — CHAP. II. run universally into the luxury and wantonness of Sodom, can there be no need, no, not from the bowels of Infinite Mercy itself, for any prophets ? It is possible that the Levitical priest- hood might plead, that there was then no more need of prophets than the Christian teachers do now : they might say, *' The Law of the Lord is already perfect ;" and it appears they did say, " The Law shall not perish from the priests (who teach it), but the prophets shall become wind ;" they might say. There is no ground to think God will send any ; for we read in Deut. xii. 32, " Thou shalt not add " to the word of God ; they might say possibly within themselves, The Lord knoweth it will be in vain to send prophets to us, for the vision of all prophecy is a letter sealed which we cannot read, and which we do secretly resolve to oppose : they might say. We cannot believe God should send Isaiah purposely to harden us, as his words seem to import. But in all these cases, and forty more, who is to be judge of the need there may be of prophetic messengers — the All-wise God, or perverse men ? Doctrine VI. — * If we attend not to the Scripture, neither * would we be prevailed on* by never so many prophets sent * among us: we may rest satisfied then, that Almighty God will ' not send them, where he foresees it is likely to turn to no better * account.' Ansiioer. — We see here what a strange infatuation of dogmatis- ing, or framing of systems against the Lord the Spirit, has got among the learned : for, on the one side, what man can say that we should not at all be prevailed on, edified, exhorted, and comforted, as well as the primitive church, by the Spirit of pro- phecy, who were far more illustrious in their lives than has been ever without it ? The wind bloweth where and when it listeth; and so doth the Holy Spirit the Comforter; whereof we find a bright shining instance in the numerous conversions wrought by the ministry of the Apostles, and by succeeding prophets, in the first planting of churches, and their propagation after them. But, on the other side, supposing that prophecy would, from the infidelity of men, prove, in great measure use- less to the ends above mentioned, in such an age as ours, what meaneth this presumptuous reflection, upon the council and unerring wisdom of God, in sending any messengers to us ? For it does not at all appear inconsistent with the will of God at any time to send prophets that shall be rejected : nay, on the con- MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 383 trary, we have in Holy Writ more evidences of their being so than otherwise; for, ''Who hath believed our report?" saith Isaiah: "unto whom shall I speak?" saith Jeremiah. Nay, most of the rest are full of such like testifyings against the people of Israel ; and since that people are charged with the blood of all the prophets, it is from thence evident that their prophesying did not prevail. Nevertheless, though God cer- tainly foresaw the same would turn to no better account, yet He always sent even them who were so rejected. And this is so plain, one would wonder how it is that preachers of the Gospel could overlook the complaints to the same purpose, in Matt, xiii. 14, 15; Mark iv. 12; Luke viii. 10; John xii. 40 ; Acts xxviii. 26; Rom. xi. 8; where the fruitlessness of the prophetic word in the Apostles and our Lord is likened to the commission of Isaiah, *' Go, tell this people. Hear ye indeed, but under- stand not ; see ye indeed, but perceive not ; make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut up their eyes." Wherefore, since our very Protestant divines will needs make themselves judges of the ways of God revealing, in opposition to the so-frequent declarations of the sacred Scripture, I wish it may not be their portion also, in this matter, that the Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed their eyes, that *' the vision" of all the prophets (or the com- mission of God, in revealing Himself to them) is become unto these as a letter sealed (Isaiah xxix. 10, 11). Doctrine VII. — * No prophetess can be authorized under * the Gospel ; for it is commanded as a standing canon concern- * ing women, 1 Cor. xiv. 34, that they should keep silence in the * churches, and not be suffered to speak there.' Answer. — The learned Grotius notes upon the text, that * it is to be understood with an exception of the prophetic < afflatus or inspiration, which is a special command of God for < them to speak; for,' says he on 1 Cor. xi. 5, * as in the Old * Testament there were prophetesses, as Miriam, Deborah, the * wife of Isaiah, Huldah ; so in the New there were the daugh- < ters of Philip, and others afterwards. Women then, who were < such, were wont to utter their prophesyings even in public* Unto which explanation of the case by Grotius, let us add, that the reason annexed to that apostolic command is, because women are to be under obedience to their husbands, and there- fore to be in silence, as it stands in opposition to the usurping 384 PART. IV.— CHAP. II. authority over the man by public teaching (I Tim. ii. 12). This therefore plainly refers to women that are not prophetesses ; but as there is neither male nor female in the case of the Spirit speaking, so there is a positive injunction touching every woman that prophesyeth in public assemblies 1 Cor. xi. 3 ; wherein it is not possible that the Apostle should in the same Epistle contradict himself, or at all indeed speak inconsistently with other places under the Spirit ; for, Rom. xvi. 1, he styles Phoebe " a minister (haKovog) of the church which is at Cenchrea," the word in Greek being the very same which is every where, when applied unto men preachers, rendered a minister. Again, in the third verse, Priscilla is called the "fellow- labourer (crvepyog, colleague) of the Apostle in Christ Jesus;" a title as honourable and significant as is given to any man. In like manner, verse 12, " Tryphena and Tryphosa (two women) laboured in the Lord;" which plainly does describe their work. Wherefore Clemens of Alexandria (Strom, lib. iii. p. 448), upon 1 Cor. ix. 6, " Have we not power to lead about a sister, a woman (yvvaiKo), as well as other Apostles?" says; * The Apostles * carried with them women, not because wives, but as sisters, * that were fellow -labourers in the ministry of preaching.' And thus Dr. Mills, on 1 Pet. v. 13, says, * It was not a church, but * an elect woman at Babylon, saluted.' Concurrently with these texts, it appears that women were authorized under the Gospel to prophesy, not only by the instances of Anna, Elizabeth, Mary, and the four daughters of Philip, Acts xxi. 9 ; but be- cause, at the great effusion of Pentecost, we read of Mary and other women in the number (ox^oQf the crowd) of the one hun- dred and twenty disciples, who seem to be the same that *' were all (undistinguished from the men) filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them ut- terance ;" and that this was so, appears in its being a fulfilment of that in Joel, *' Your daughters shall prophesy, and on my handmaidens I will pour out of my Spirit, and they shall pro- phesy," which also plainly asserts their public prophecying. Thus again at Samaria (Acts viii. 12, 15, 17), " After that they believed and were baptized, both men and women, the Apostles prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost," and then laid their hands on them ; and they, the women as well as men (for any thing that appears), did receive it. In consequence of these things, we have, in the Second Part, cited from Euse- MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 385 bius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, several instances of women prophesying, acknowledged there by the Bishop of Lin- coln, Mr. Dodwell, Dr. Hicks in the person of Amia, and others ; upon all which we cannot but take notice with how little justice modern divines do upbraid enthusiasts for invalidating the Scrip- tures, whilst they themselves continually advance doctrines quite opposite to the contents thereof*. Doctrine VIII. — < The prophesying of little or young chil- ' dren is a reasonable ground of suspicion that the spirit so * influencing is an evil, deluding, and satanical one ; seeing we * never read that God at any time revealed himself to any such.' Answer, — The prophecy of Joel, quoted at Pentecost, seems to imply children, by the distinction therein of sons and daughters, from young men and old men ; and this is certain, that Beza's copy of the New Testament at Cambridge reads that of Acts i. 14i, touching the assembly of disciples on whom the Holy Ghost afterwards fell, '* these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and children;" which, though we should positively conclude it were not originally Scripture, yet so ancient a copy as by some is judged the most ancient we have, discovers plainly that many have admitted it to be so ; and that, in consequence, the inspiration of children was not doubted by them. In the primitive times, Mr. Dodwell says that children did sometimes speak by public prophecy. We have also, in the sixteenth epistle of Cyprian, a very express mention of the like in his days, for which he was unreproved by the church of that age. His words are: * Both by night and day God doth conti- * nually admonish and rebuke us ; for, besides night visions, even * by day children among us of an infant age do in ecstacy see, * hear, and speak, being filled with the Holy Spirit, such < things as the Lord condescends to warn and instruct us by.' The historian Josephus tells us, that Samuel was indeed full twelve years of age when he began to prophesy, and received revelations from God (1 Sam. iii. 4). But the Scripture is very little accurate in recording of ages : wherefore we cannot be positive what age the Spirit was at any time limited to. In particular, touching Samson, when the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times, it is only affirmed, that ** the child grew." Nevertheless, those that go a great way to fill up the character * The reader may consult also Locke's note on this subject, in loco, in his paraphrase, which is quite conclusive. — Editor, 3d 386 PART IV. — CHAP. II. of men in Isaiah, to whom the prophet says there, " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" are desired to read again Luke i. 41, where Elizabeth being filled with the Holy Ghost, the babe leaped in her womb, agreeably to the words of the angel, ver. 15 ; which in the Gothic, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, Persic, and Origin Testa- ments, are, "He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb." Therefore the very objectors to the inspiration of children may read among the learned of their brethren, that the child's leaping in the womb is construed so miraculous as to amount to prophesying, or speaking by signs. However, accord- ing to the English, " He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb," means doubtless to prophesy as soon as he was born ; and it is not very clear but he did do so on the day of his circumcision, the opening of his mouth seeming rather to refer to him than his father, verses 64 — 66. We believe justly (however the other be), that our Lord himself was filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth ; and the same thing which is affirmed of him, Luke ii. 40, " the Child grew, and waxed strong in Spirit," is in the same words affirmed also of John Baptist, chap. i. 80. Wherefore we are astonished to find that the very students in divinity assert in this doctrinal article, that they never read, either in Scripture or elsewhere, that God at any time revealed himself to any children ; considering too, that of Matt. xxi. 15, 16 : for there, when the chief priests and scribes saw the children crying in the temple, *' Hosannah to the Son of David," our Saviour's answer clearly and emphatically shews they were acted from above therein ; for, says he, ** Have ye never read (strange therefore that the Christian scribes have not), Out of the mouth of babes ^nd sucklings (which were surely little children), thou hast perfected praise ?" Furthermore, when our sole Master prophetical says to his disciples, " Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven ;" and when we read also that He laid his hands upon them, we cannot be well assured but that they might receive thereby some tokens of his heavenly power. But if this latter declaration of Emmanuel be construed to relate only to persons childlike in humility, and teachable, we may usefully apply to ourselves, that in Isaiah xxviii. 9 — 13, where the word of the Lord was such an offence, that some persons offended by it ^' went backward, and fell, and were broken, and snared, and taken ; " and thereupon MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 387 the expostulation occurs proper to the teachers of philosophy now-a-days, rather than of Scripture ; " Whom shall he teach knowledge ? And whom shall he make to understand the hearing of the Prophet ? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.^' ^ Doctrine IX * It is beneath a good angel to speak a verse * out of an heathen poet.' Answer — If so, it is doubtless also beneath the Spirit inspiring ; but the learned tell us, as an honour done to human literature, that St. Paul quotes a passage out of Aratus, Acts xvii. 28 ; and another out of Menander, 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; and a third also out of Epimenides, Tit. i. 12. Now as all these were heathen poets, we are not sure but the same Spirit may also do the like again. Doctrine X.—* To use invectives against the clergy effec- * tually proves a man not to have the Divine Spirit.' Answer We are sure that most of the Scripture Prophets, by the Divine influence upon them, did so ; and not only those in the Old Testament, but those in the New, as John Baptist, Stephen, and even our Divine Master himself, could not have been justified^ owned, or received, if the doctrine of this article be granted. If the Christian church had preserved any records of their prophets, and the inspirations by them, upon the falling away and revolt, or gradual apostasy thereof, we might have had precedents also from these of a like sort, as St. Cyprian hints in the reports given by the children in ecstacy, and touching the five apostatising ministers ; and as to those whom Irenaeus mentions to be violently bent to drive the grace of prophecy out of the church, had we any records of what the Spirit then spake, we might have found some invectives probably in them against the clergy. We find also, that Antipas (Rev. ii. 13) is by the Greek, expressive of one that withstood the pope, who is called by our Saviour, nevertheless, " his faithful witness." Wherefore, as to that sort of prophets of whom the Lord by Jeremiah speaks, that " the priests bore rule by their means," we leave them to the times of antichrist's dominion to allow them on that account. But as the subject of reproving the Christian ministry has been more at large debated in the Third Part, we shall add nothing on that head here, but a sincere desire that all Christian teachers may be (according to the Apostolic canons) blameless as the stewards of God's word, sound in doctrine, unreprovable in life, <* holding fast the faithful word " written, and not partial in dispensing it, much less opposing it by any dogmas or doctrines 388 PART IV. CHAP. II. of their own ; especially in that point of true love and reverence, due thereby to the Spirit of prophecy. But more particularly, and above all, we hope and pray that they may cease from strengthening the infidelity of those who deny all revelation; and who, among other arguments against that of the Scripture, are represented by Dr. Nicholls to use this (Conf. with a Deist, part iii. p. 135) : ' To be in a passion and call men hard names, as * hypocrites, generation of vipers, and the like (as John Baptist ' and others did to the priests), and liberally to deal about male- * dictions, is the perfect character of an angry man, who, when * he cannot convince, will threaten : this, therefore, is not only * unworthy of God, but unbecoming of a prudent man.' But if, nevertheless, the clergy should be guilty of these things, we are bound to adhere to the sacred text rather than to them ; and from thence it appears that the Paraclete, which is the Holy Ghost, being to '* reprove the world of sin," He may at any time hereafter, as well as heretofore, use the like invectives against the Christian clergy also, who thus withstand him, and expose themselves justly to his reproofs. Doctrine XI. — ' It is an horrid affront to ascribe false syntax * and declensions, or improprieties in any language, to the all- ' wise Spirit of God, as if he could not dictate true and proper * language. A bungling manner of expression, therefore, mani- * festly shews there is no direction of God in it.' Answer. — That there are * improprieties ' in the language of the Holy Ghost, in the New Testament, none can deny that Understand ever so little of the Greek tongue; and we might largely prove the same from the confession of the learned divines themselves. We here only desire to refer ourselves unto Dr. Mills's frequent observation, that * in the various readings of the * text, that which unto men seems most absurd ought, even upon * that very account, to be esteemed the genuine inspired word ; ' because the learned in such case must be presumed to have * altered it, for the sake of its absurdity.' But why do others of the clergy affix so horrid an aifront upon the Holy Spirit, as if some improprieties in language argued that He could not dictate true? since the Apostle Paul, when moved by the Holy Ghost, tells us, in 1 Cor. ii. 13, that he spake not in the " words which man's wisdom teacheth, or used excellency of speech and enticing language;" and gives us the reason of it to be, that " our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men." Wherefore, the end of the Dictator of holy writ, in often passing over the rules of MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 389 grammar, might be purposely to cast a blemish upon polemic learning, " that no flesh should glory in his presence." But it is the most pungent of all sorrows, to find the clergy, by this article, joining issue with the rejectors of all revelation, who, in Dr. NichoUs's ' Conference,' part iv., say thus : * The Apostles would not have wrote so barbarous Greek had * they been inspired of God, it being unreasonable to ascribe all * those solecisms to the Holy Ghost. But if the composing of * the Scriptures was any ways owing to the Holy Ghost, methinks * they should have been wrote in a much finer language than we * find they are ; for the common reason of mankind expects that * a Divine composition should have in it the height of eloquence. * Therefore, the meanness of the Scripture style, and the want of * exact method, and the many uncouth and odd expressions in * those books, has been always a great argument to me against * their Divinity. There are many impertinent and trivial pas- * sages in the Scriptural books ; and they are full of needless * repetitions, trifling relations, questions, answers, and remarks, * such as do not agree with the prudence of a Wise Indicter.' Under which Dr. NichoUs answers : ' The Holy Scriptures * are wrote in a plain and simple style, accommodated to the use < of the vulgar ; and many things in it wrote according to their * way of speaking ; so that what ye, gentlemen, who have studied * for an exact and elaborate style, may call trivial, God Almighty * does think to be wisely contrived for the capacities of ordinary 'people, who may be best edified thereby. But there is no * doubt to be made, but if the Holy Ghost had designed to write * the Bible to suit the ears of curious scholars, he would have * composed some parts of it in a more exact and castigated style. * Why must the Holy Ghost be obliged to make the Apostles < speak Greek, just as they did at Athens ? The Holy Spirit < did not think tit to condescend to such a nicety as this, to have * regard in a Divine Revelation to spruce phrases in language. * The Apostles were to be infallible divines; and if so be their < doctrine was true, he could not think himself obliged to take * care of the fineness of their Greek, or to make them true gram- < marians. But if the Greek of the New Testament had been < as smooth and pure as that of Zenophon or Isocrates, the un- < believers would have cavilled at it more, for the operoseness * of its style, or its being too much like human eloquence ; which * would have been a more material objection to its inspiration 390 PART IV. — CHAP. II. .* than its not being wrote in exact Greek. And as to the method,* says Dr. Nicholls, * that is a thing not at all looked upon in a , * physician's bill, or valuable in a lawyer's conveyance, much less * ought it to be esteemed in matters of so great concernment * as the Scriptures contain. But even this want of artificial * method is more agreeable to the nature of inspiration ; for * inspiration is the language of another world, something of the * reasonhig of spirits. We, to make things lie plain before our < gross understandings, are of necessity to use the ways of argu- * mentation among men ; but pure spirits have no need of those * little methodical distinctions. Hence it comes to pass, that, * though the Holy Ghost does vouchsafe to speak in the language * of men, yet in His compositions there are some traces to be * found of the celestial tongue, peculiar to the angelic natures, < whose flaming thoughts are never clogged with the cold and * jejune laws of our human method.' Doctrine XH. — ' Speaking with tongues is one sign of a < demoniac : the devil has the command of languages, and no < wonder if he inspire and enable men to speak them. Meric * Casaubon gives us several instances of persons possessed by the * devil who spake strange languages, such as they were utterly < ignorant of. But the Holy Spirit would never speak in a lan- < guage that could not be understood by the hearers, which is * mere mockery, and unworthy of Him.' Answer. — That the devil has power to speak or inspire lan- guages, and that grammatically or politely too, it is possible may be proved from heathen authors, giving an account of their priests, prophets, and oracles ; as, in particular, it is said, that Apollo- nius Tyanaeus spake all manner of languages by inspiration. This, therefore, is a good proof against the mere Sadducee, of an invisible agent on that person, and ought to acquit him of being wholly an impostor. But why should this be any more a sign of an evil, than of a good spirit, inspiring ? We have as good authority, that the Holy One did speak in foreign languages by his prophets, not only in the Apostolic age but in that of Irenaeus, as ye have for the devil's doing so. Wherefore, when it is said, that "tongues are for a sign to them that believe not" (1 Cor. xiv. 22), that the persons were in general prophetically author- ised, the Apostle therein supposes the very heathen to be more equitable than ye are to conclude the possession to be by an evil spirit only. But indeed the subject matter of such languages is MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY, 391 to decide the quality of that spirit who speaks them through the organs of a man. Suppose, therefore, such an one, prophesying or speaking by the Spirit, does manifest the secrets of the heart in others personally ; suppose he declares the wonderful works of God, and unfolds the deep things of the Divine council, cele- brates the Deity with praises and spiritual songs, and in the whole does prophesy in foreign tongues according to the analogy of faith ; to allow this to proceed from the devil would be to overthrow the purport of our Saviour's argument, Matt. xii. 25, 2G. Because there the devil is declared incapable to will the destroying of his own kingdom. But this sort of divinity which would make the bare speaking with tongues, without such edify- ing prophecy, the sign only of a devil ; and make it a mere mockery, unworthy of, and impracticable by, the Holy Ghost to speak so as not to be understood by the hearers, is what we can- not understand ; because in 1 Cor. xiv. 2 we read of some in the Christian assemblies that spake in the Spirit mysteries, though it was in an unknown tongue, such as no man understood ; and yet he spake unto God, though not unto men. And this manner of speaking with tongues is expressly mentioned as one gift of the Holy Ghost, distinguished from that of " speaking unto men to edification ;" though it is said the person edified himself thereby (ver. 4), and therefore the Apostle wished that they all might speak with tongues (ver. 5). But if our divines please to read the whole chapter, they will find that the speaking of tongues unknown to the hearers is allowed to be a gift of the Holy Ghost, profitable to the person, though to others he appeared a barbarian, and was calumniated as mad ; wherefore we hope they will, upon second thoughts, cease to fill up the character of scoffers, in this point, at his sacred operations. Doctrine XHI. — * It is inconceivable how the prophet him- * self could know that any revelation was from God. What * impulses, motions, or force, or what sort of perception will * clearly argue a supernatural cause, we cannot apprehend ; * these things have been the cause of much delusion. A voice * therefore, or call prophetic, must have something so peculiar in * it, that nothing human or diabolical could do the like. For, if * we consider the case of a disordered imagination, in which men * believe they hear and see strange things, this will render a * man's thinking he hears a voice or sees a vision a very insuffi- * cient ground to conclude himself appointed by it to a high ent* 392 PART IV. — CHAP. II. * ployment : " God is a Spirit," and as such cannot be revealed * to the senses : and as to inward impulses or impressions, for a * man who feels them to affirm from thence that he is inspired, « is to affirm with the utmost certainty that of which he can * have evidently no certainty. But as to ecstasies and visions, ' how should we know that a man is not imposed on ? For, < when the devil can put on an appearance of an angel of light, < no man's bare word is to be depended on. Certainly, no body < ought to believe an extraordinary revelation the truth of which * in fact rests upon a single testimony, since the witness of one < person must necessarily be fruitless : this is to represent the * Creator to act in vain, which is to admit him to act against all * the laws He has established in nature.' Ansvoer. — That the devil has had his prophets, and that he has aped the Deity in visions and inspirations, and so caused much delusion, has nothing in it that should supersede our be- lief of revelation ; but the arguments and doctrines above cited seem to be of an Epicurean leaven, that turns all preternatural things into ridicule, without distinguishing the operations of the good from those of the evil spirit. Now, the subject we are upon is that of public prophecy, not being concerned so much about revelations of a private and personal respect ; and why then con- cerning this, is delusion so much charged upon it, when we sub- mit the same to the utmost scrutiny by Scripture ? Can there be, with the analogy of faith and harmony with precedents of Holy Writ, any such delusion upon this head, as in the total infidelity of these things? The fourth century, indeed, did adjudge enthu- siasm (for any thing appears), either the true or the false, to be a greater heresy than that of denying the Deity of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost : but better things ought to be expected of those who profess to reform, even according to the pattern of the apostolic times. We know, that then the Holy Ghost was poured out in dreaming of dreams, seeing of visions, and by speaking under some sort of impulse, motion, force, impression, or perception : and yet ye declare there is no certainty in any of these ; for positively ' God cannot be revealed to the senses,' either by voice or vision ; and lest we should think ye meant that it must be then by some inward impressions, ye add, That it is evident there can be no certainty in any of these neither. We fear there may be greater delusion in these doctrines, than that ye would suppress by them. For, as ye will not MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 393 grant what kind of motion or force does argue any supernatural cause at all, ye seem very much to lean towards Sadducism, and encourage a disbelief of the agency of angels and spirits, which was the corruption but of a small sect among the Jews, and is always esteemed an error or heresy. Ye know that the whole of revealed religion does necessarily turn upon this hinge ; and therefore it might reasonably be expected, that Gospel-mini- sters should use their utmost force against the great delusion of Deism; that is, the despising and rejecting all revelation; especially, since ye are loudly warned by one of your own bre- thren, that the overflowing infidelity of this age is like to be the ruin of these kingdoms, and draw down the last vials of the fiercest wrath of Almighty God upon them. Surely those that have the honour of Christ at heart cannot well relish, or go on to teach, such doctrines as put arguments into the mouth of the abominable and the blasphemers of Scripture, who have improved them thus, in Dr. Nicholls's Conf. part ii. pp. 138 — 141:— Says the Deist there ; * That inspiration which the Jews, and * after them the Christians, would needs have to proceed imme- * diately from God, is only the effect of a vivid imagination ; but * if they had understood better the natural causes of inspiration, * they would never have been guilty of such manifest absurdities. < Therefore it is not to be thought that the prophets had any * more converse with God immediately, than other men ; but < only they had warmer heads, a quicker imagination, and a more ' lively fancy. Other men's imaginations and dreams did not * leave such lasting impressions upon their minds : but the pro- * phetic imaginators had such strong fancies in their heads, that * they were as clear to them as the representations made by their * outward senses ; and they thought they were as certain of what * they so fancied, as of what they heard and saw. And thus it * was, that the prophets, for the most part, were out of the < country people, or at least persons of no erudition ; so that * these folk, having but little understanding, had stronger passions, ' and did abound more in imagination, than men who had better * sense, and who governed their fancies by their reason. But * that imagination was the foundation of revelation, and the * cause of it, appears by their prophecies differing only by the ^ diversity of their imagination. Thus Elisha could not pro- * phesy until a minstrel was brought to allay his choler, that, 3 E 394 PART IV. — CHAP. II. * being in a good humour, he might be inclined to imagine as * pleasant things as the kings would have him. On the contrary, * when Moses was angry the slaughter of the Egyptians was * revealed to him ; and when the Spirit lift up Ezekiel in bitter- * ness and in hot anger, he prophesied the miseries of the Jews ; ' therefore Jeremiah, being always a melancholy man and weary * of his life, did nothing but prophesy dreadful calamities.' Unto which Dr. Nicholls answers : * There are innumerable * instances in Scripture of the prophets being in the Spirit, and * of the Spirit's coming upon them, which shews that prophecy * proceeded from another cause than imagination, — namely, * the influence of the Holy Spirit ; and this is undeniable. * But indeed it is not easy to give a philosophical and notional * account of this supernatural influence, or by what means it * was conveyed, or by what criterion or marks they could distin- * guish it from delusion ; because we, who are not honoured ' with these supernatural gifts, and therefore can have no idea of * these things, as having never been the objects of our under- * standings ; nevertheless, because we ordinary persons can have * no notion of this extraordinary influx of God, therefore for us * to say it cannot be, is only to expose our own ignorance. But * a blind man might with as much modesty pretend to demon- * strate against the existence of colours, or a clown laugh at * mathematical theorems, as we can pretend to dispute against * the certainty of this supernatural influence. For it is not to * be doubted, that the Prophets had as absolute certainty of the * truth of it as we have of things that do immediately strike our * senses, and therefore could as little question their visions and * inspirations as we do our senses. Now, if God has been pleased * to make an extraordinary impression upon some men's minds * by vision or otherwise, which He does not on all, must we * therefore judge it impossible because we who do not experience * it do not perceive it ? Or must every man be mad and enthu- * siastical that hath better eyes than we ? I am sure that this is * a very mad way of arguing : and there is no more reason to ' question the truth of the revelation to the Prophets, than * blind men have to question our sight.* It is, then, no little comfort to find there are some among the clergy who do esteem Sadducism and Deism a delusion pernicious, and an infidelity wherewith those in communion with Christ should have no partnership. We cannot but secretly mourn MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 395 over the growth of this pestilential delusion ; and as the stated minister is chiefly if not only capable, by a vigorous exertion, to put a stop to that contagion, and by the tenor of his function is bound to do it, we hope the number of the encouragers and promoters of it among them will daily decrease ; and that they will concur no more with the systems of infidelity, which blow up the fundamental principles of all revealed religion. But until these men shall duly recollect themselves, and consult better the honour and duty of their own character in this point, we must of necessity, and are forcibly constrained by the love we owe to God, and for the glory of his name, to oppose them. The various gifts of the Spirit of prophecy wherewith the Co- rinthians were enriched, which must be about thirty years at least after the Pentecost (by that of Peter, Acts xv. 7, a^i r]ixep(av apxaiwv, the long ago there mentioned) are styled a con- JirmatioJi of the precedent testimony of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 6. And afterwards, iu 2 Cor. i. 21, 22, the Apostle terms the same anoint- ing of the Spirit to be an establishment of them and others in the faith of Christ. According to which foundation of reason- ing, the spreading and new plantation of Christian churches far and wide extended by the evangelists or prophetical preachers after the age of the Apostles ; and the Holy Ghost still poured out in visions, voices, and revelations, in the second and third centuries, were to the confirmation and establishment of the churches in the fundamental principles of faith on God revealing. And thus we shall have occasion to mention by-and-bye, that as the faith of the saints was of old, even ever from the be- ginning, built upon the (now accounted) foolish things of God, the supernatural influence of prophesying, and the means used by Him of vision and voice, so the primitive Christians con- strued all these to be miracles, signs, and wonders, wrought by the Holy Ghost. And by these external demonstrations of his power and presence they concluded that the glory of God did manifest itself to the church ; until the Epicurean philosophy, which turns all preternatural things into ridicule, grew to be in vogue among the learned. And as to the modern ages, what sort of philosophy is now in vogue we cannot tell ; but it ap- pears abundantly, by the confession of several among the clergy above cited, that they are as blind men, and the vision of all prophecy is to them as unknown, as the contents of a letter sealed : for they confess plainly, that because these superna- 396 PAIIT IV. — CHAP. II. tural gifts have not been the objects of their understandings, and their own senses have not been spiritually exercised, there- fore they can have no idea of these things, nor any notion of the extraordinary influence of God. Nay further, as for themselves they own they cannot apprehend what sort of perception, or what kind of impulses, inward or outward, will clearly argue a supernatural cause. They give their sentiments also, even for all others, that it is inconceivable how the prophet himself could know that any revelation was ever from God. But as one among them has declared, that a blind man might with as much modesty pretend to demonstrate against the existence of colours as they can pretend to dispute against the certainty of such supernatural influence, and extraordinary impression, by vision or otherwise, as belongs to the prophet, we hope God will gra- ciously open their eyes to see out of obscurity in this matter; and if they will please to look only through the optic of the per- fect and enlightening word of God, the mist of vain philosophy which obstructs the eyesight will soon vanish. In the mean time, whilst they are so confessedly ignorant, it is not for them to judge of things they know not, and call every one an impostor, mad, and enthusiastical, who may have better eyes than they ; and if they did but allow any evidence from enthusiasts, the ob- jections of Deists might be overturned by rational demonstration that vision is not the effect of mere fancy. We are not pleading for any thing wherein there is any com- petent evidence of a natural disorder ia the brain, or which can be concluded by scriptural reason for mere imagination, but have in this whole treatise built upon the utmost manifestation of the Spirit that the law of God will permit, and upon such distinguishing signs of prophecy as are warrantable from thence, according to my best ability to conceive of it. But when the clergy by this article of doctrine teach us, that no man's bare word (whatever sobriety in judgment and integrity of life he might be of) is to be depended on for any vision or revelation, this posi- tion seems to us to reproach the Holy Ghost, who (we are sure) throughout the sacred Scriptures has chosen and used to reveal Himself to single persons severally : but if the prophet, giving a report of his visions (and, by the connection of circumstances attending him therein, and making it out that his own imagina- tion natural, could not be rationally adjudged to frame the same, especially when he did not know it to be an angel or vision till MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY its disappearance), never ought to have been believed, here is** sufficient apology made for all those who ever derided or rejected Him. And should we join with this infidel principle, as also with that other, that God cannot be revealed as to the senses by vision, and that no such manifestation can appoint a man to be the special messenger of God ; or should we further agree, that there can be no certainty in these things ; we must offend against the whole generation of the children of faith, and overturn the authority of great part of the Scripture, and disgrace all the evi- dences of the invisible world. O happy for us that former ages were not so sceptical as ours ! We might then have been without great part of the Scripture. We therefore adhere to the credit of the sacred text, and desire to tread in the steps of those ancient Fathers in the faith for ages long past, and in those particularly who owned surviving prophecy during the first three centuries of the Christian church, as we have largely explained it in the First and Second Parts of this treatise. And as to the rules of philosophy, if the Divines are pleased to stick to them in opposition to the Scripture, and to tell us from them, that *to admit the validity of one witness * for a vision to him, is to represent the Creator to act in vain, * which is to admit him to act against all the laws he has esta- * blished in nature.' We answer, that if no Scripture principles are admitted whereon proof may be given of these extraordinary things, but, on the contrary, the same are superseded and over- thrown, we cannot wonder at the threatening deluge of infidelity, by which, under the colour of such philosophy, and topics of like kind with this last, the authority of the Scripture itself is so much despised, as appears in Conference with the Deist, part iv. p. 178, For those who deny the authority of Scripture principles and precedents are strictly Deists. Doctrine XIV. — ' Whensoever Godsends prophets, he will, * as he hath always done, send them with the power of working * signs and wonders.' Anstoer.-^Dr, Hicks, in his Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised, tells us, that ' in Heb. ii. 4, the Apostle saith of the disciples of * Jesus, that "' God bore them witness, both with signs and won- < ders, and with divers miracles and distributions (/icpio-juotc) of the < Holy Ghost, according to his own will." Under which head,' says he, * may be reduced the audible and visible manifestations * of the power and presence of God ; such as voices from heaven, 398 PAKT IV. — CHAP. II. ' heard by one or more ; the shaking of the places where the < Christians prayed (as also, the noise of a wind, and the symptom * of drunkenness), and the appearance of angels, those ministering ' spirits, to bring messages, orders, and directions from God, or * otherwise to assist his elect. All which, Cosmus Indicopleustes * reckons among the wonders ascribed to the Holy Ghost, who, * by his outward as well as inward aids and assistances, supplied * the presence of Christ to bis church. Thus, saith he, *' Joel * foretold the wonders that were to be wrought by the Holy * Ghost in the time of Christ, as prophecies, dreams, visions, * voices, and the appearance of angels, which women beheld at * the passion of our Lord." This latter sort of miracle (angelic < apparitions), as well as other visions, was in the church in the * time of St. Cyprian, who tells us of an angel that appeared to * a dying bishop in shape of a young man. These external * demonstrations and testimonies of the power and presence of * God are distinguished by the Apostle, in the text fore«men- * tioned, from the internal operations and gifts; and I thought * requisite to mention them, because they were wrought by God * to manifest his glory in the church.' r Well, if the miracles, signs, and wonders, wrought by the Holy Ghost, in dreams, visions, voices, prophecyings, and the appear- ance of angels, be God's bearing witness to believers ; and these external demonstrations and testimonies of his power and pre- sence be allowed the manifestation of his glory in the church, we are agreed that God ever did send his Prophets with signs and wonders manifest. And thus Nebuchadnezzar speaks of his Divine dreams (Dan. iv. 2, 3) : " It was seemly before me to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought towards me; how great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders !" Thus we find the visions given to the Prophets in Scripture always mentioned with astonishing admiration of God's graciousness and power in them ; as also in the primitive ages, they are never spoken of without religious reverence by the per- sons to whom they were vouchsafed, or by those who believed them ; and no wonder that they are, in the citation above, called Qutward demonstrations and testimonies of God's power and presence ; for all these several operations of the Holy Ghost are outward with respect to the person of the prophet himself: nay, and the signs of prophecy, in the greater and lesser ecstacies, are outwardly visible also to other people, as at large appears, in the MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 399 First Part hereof, on that head. And certainly they are mira- culous too, if the common definition of a miracle may take place ; that is, an effect appearing so wonderful to the sense that to the reason of its spectators, it is not accountable for from natural causes. I know the age we live in is become so refined in atheistical criticism, that they will scarcely forbear laughing at the simplicity of those ages, that esteemed vision, voices, dreams, and the rest of the above-mentioned, to be " signs and wonders ;" though upon that very simplicity our faith is founded, and our enjoyment of the Scriptures is owing to it. Having therefore a rule to appeal unto, we say, " to the law and to the testimony." Those that are content to be fools in the opinion of the wise of this world, and to become as little children, in learning to know God conclusively from Scripture, must of necessity own that these were such miracles as did sufiiciently denominate a Pro- phet sent of God, when his doctrine and the fruits of the Spirit teaching by him, were justified by the analogy of faith, or their harmony with preceding prophecy of Divine inspiration. Because, as to other signs and wonders attending the Prophet, they find none in the instances following, nor any miracles wrought by them. — Deborah, a Prophetess, who judged Israel, Judg. iv. Another, in chap. vi. 8. Hannah prophesieth in prayer, 1 Sam. ii. Nathan, a Prophet, 2 Sam. xii. and elsewhere. Gad, a Prophet, chap. xxiv. Abijah, 1 Kings xi. Shemaiah, chap. xii. Jehu, chap. xvi. Micaiah, chap. xxii. The Prophets slain by Jezebel, and The Hundred that were hid by Obadiah, chap, xviii. Huldah the Prophetess, 2 Kings xxii. Heman, the King's Seer, in the words of God, 1 Chron. XXV. 5. Asaph the Seer, 2 Chron. xxix. 30. Jeduthun the King's Seer, 2 Chron. xxxv. 15. The Spirit of God came upon Azariah, 2 Chron. xv, 1. Hanani the Seer, chap. xvi. 7. Jehu the Seer, or Prophet, chap. xix. 2. Jahaziel, chap. xx. 14 : Eliezer, ver. 87. 400 PART IV. — CHAP. II. Zechariah, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20. The Man of God, chap. xxv. 7 : another Prophet, ver. 15. Oded, chap, xxviii. 9. Other Prophets indefinite in number, chap, xxviii. and chap, xxxiii. and chap, xxxvi. The inspired Writers of some Books, as those of Ruth and Esther. Job and his Three Friends. Agur, Prov. xxx. Lemuel's Mother, chap. xxxi. Iddo the Seer, 2 Chron. ix. 29. Another Iddo, Zech. i. 1. Igdahah, in Jer. xxxv. Hosea is said to have prophesied eighty-four years, and yet no miracle attended that vre know of, any more than in Jeremiah's like ministry for forty odd years, unless the marvellous power of God in protecting and delivering them so long, under the univer- sal hatred of the nation, be accounted so. The same also may be observed of Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi ; concerning all whom it is said only to this effect, that " the word of the Lord came to them ;" " an angel," or, " God spake to them ;" ** The Lord put forth his hand, and touched their mouth ;" ** The hand of the Lord was upon them ;" they saw visions, heard voices, and they could not forbear, but must prophesy. Besides, Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Isaiah, and others, were prophets some years before any other miracles attended them (that we know of) than such as are herein already mentioned. In the New Testament also, there was Elizabeth, Anna, Simeon, Zacharias, and the Virgin Mary, filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesying without working miracles upon others. Ananias, and the women who saw angels ; Paul himself, who was ordained a prophetical minis- ter in his first vision ; Timothy, Titus, Barnabas, and a great many more in the Epistles and Acts specified, are witnesses against this doctrine for any thing that appears. Wherefore, let others judge, if they please, that the church, in her despising of prophecyings, is grown up now from the weakness of a child to the more excellent estate of manhood. We conclude, that the bold asserting of a falsity, by this article, shews that men are ashamed of the simplicity of the Gospel ; and because they love not truth, they have apostatised from it. But as to those that MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PIIOPHECY, 401 are espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ, they are to " fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. xi. 33). Doctrine XV • Some Novatians arc said to work miracles, * as Paulus and Eutichianus: and God suffered even the worst * of heretics to work stupendous things, as Simon Magus, Me- * nander, Marcus, Carpocrates ; so that the Fathers of the church * did caution the people against miracle-workers, lest they should * believe a lie on that account. Nevertheless, the Holy Scripture ' does constantly resolve the Divine authority of a person or * revelation into miracles, as one of the essential marks by which * it is distinguished from imposture, and without which it is not ' to be received upon any other account whatsoever. When * God truly reveals himself, it must have the utmost evidence * and proof, unless we will make the Deity miserably to trifle, or * worse; and because it is intended to be known to others, the * pretenders are unavoidably obliged to prove their immediate * inspiration, which cannot be done without miracles. For if it * cannot be proved by miracles, that is all one as if it never < were, as to any good the world can reap from it. Touching * the signs and bodily impressions that attended the Jewish Pro- * phets, the evidence that they were acted under them by the * Divine Spirit was their miracles, which distinguished them from < madmen. We know not how far, by some secrets in nature, * miraculous effects may be produced ; therefore those who work ' miracles ought to be resplendent in holiness of life, otherwise * their miracles ought to be esteemed impostures. That miracles * may appear really such, it is absolutely requisite that they be * done upon the spot where required to be believed, and not at * a distance ; and no other evidence of this kind ought to be * esteemed satisfactory but such as Christ and his Apostles came < with. It is also absolutely requisite that they be done chiefly * upon strangers, and not friends, or precedently followers of the * worker. There is a sort of natural magic, and the corpuscular * philosophy, with some further improvements that may yet be * made in it, which will solve the phenomena of many natural ef- * fects by the effluviums of certain animal volatile spirits, or subtle * little particles of bodies of different figures and shapes, with * various different motions, that go from bodies to bodies, and ' may, by the voice or touch of the hand, penetrate into tha 3f 402 TART IV. — CHAP. 11. * bodies and animal spirits of other men, and make impression there. How then can revelation be proved ? By such outward * manifestations only as denote Infinite Power and Majesty, and are not within the reach of natural causes, or the power of the devil to produce. Supposing then a man were really inspired, * yet whilst he gives no proof of his inspiration, our refusing to receive him is no more than we are bound in duty to do; for it would be just the same rashness in us to receive as an inspired * prophet a man that is really so, while as yet there is no evidence * appearing of his being so inspired, as it would be to give credit * to an impostor. Now the proof or evidence of any man's being ' inspired, which may reasonably be required, is such as Moses, * the lawgiver of the Jews, and such as Christ and his Apostles, * the first preachers of the Gospel, did give ; and this proof may * be with good reason expected and required of any man, at the * very time when he utters his pretended inspiration : for thus * Moses proved his Divine mission to those to whom he was * sent ; and thus our Saviour and his Apostles proved theirs, to * whom they first preached ; that is, by such works as could not * be done but by the power of God. And then, when the pre- ' tenders to inspiration do such works we shall have some reason ' to listen to what they have to say to us ; but till then we shall * have none. Without these, any man that assumes or pretends a * Divine call, as that he is inspired, or feels supernatural im- * pressions, ought not to be suffered to speak, because we cannot * be assured but he has some dangerous design in it.' Answer. — As in the Apostolic age of Christianity it is men- tioned (Heb. ii. 4), " God beareth witness to prophets, with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to iiis own will ;" these, consisting in voices, visions, dreams, and prophecyings, were by the pri- mitive ages, as under the preceding article, received and esteemed as miracles ; and some Fathers of the church, in this article confessed, as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, builded on them for sufficient evidences of God revealing, and did warn people against the too forward building upon other more osten- tatious ones. Seeing these latter, as well as the former, needed to be proved Divine by the doctrine (if any) to them annexed, we think therefore your demands of miracles, exclusively to, and above, those distributions of the Holy Ghost whereby God bore witness to his messengers " according to his own will," is alto- MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 403 gether unscriptural, as appears from the number of prophets the Scripture gives us without miracles : God's will, and not yours, ought to take place. But, according to your system, the Jews had right to demand from Hosea (and all the rest cited in Ar- ticle XIV.) miraculous proofs of his inspiration, equal to those of Moses ; and from Amos, the like exertions of Divine Power as those vouchsafed to Elias. In like manner, unless one like to Timothy could shew the like signs for his prophecy that our Lord did for his being the Son of God, he was, by your systems, to be treated no better than an impostor. Thus also, unless God wrought the same special miracles by the hands of one inspired in the degree of Agabus, as he did (Acts xix. II) by those of Paul a master-builder, he ought, by the rulesof your prescribing, not to be heard, listened to, or suffered to speak. Ye confess ye yourselves do not know how far the secret powers in nature may reach ; and yet ye say, a miracle must necessarily exceed all possible reach of them. In like manner, ye are at a loss to fix how far the power of Satan, by Divine permission, may extend in miracles, since he caused the fire of God to come down from heaven (Job i. 16) ; since the magicians of Egypt cast down every man his rod, and of a stick they became living serpents, and they turned water into blood by their enchantments, and brought up frogs, as Moses, upon the land of Egypt. Ye have quoted stupendous miracles wrought by the devil in heretics of the Christian name, and ye have instanced his speaking correctly (by your allowance) languages unknown to the person ; and ye are provided with ammunition of this kind abundant, out of the stories of Plutarch, Cicero, and Apollonius Tyanaeus, in the first century; — all these things we know will render your faith in a prophet very difficult at last to be produced by miracles ; for some of your brethren say, that they cannot prove inspiration ; and since ye say that the devil has and may work stupendous ones, and the denomination of lying or true miracles follows the quality of the worker ; that is, whether it be a true or a false spirit; and the fixing of this, after all, must depend upon proof of another sort, and often not upon the miracles themselves. Nay, if miracles were wrought, even such as Moses and our Divine Saviour performed, all that ye grant then is no more than that ye should have some reason to hear what the prophet has to say to you ; but till then, he ought not to be suffered to speak. Nay, it is absolutely required too, that the proof above mentioned 404» PART IV. — CHAP. II. should be wrought upon the spot ; for if at a distance it is not satisfactory evidence, by your laws of trial : and this proof is required of any man, at the very time when he utters his pre- tended inspiration : and, finally, such an one's miracles, however otherwise they stand the proof, must also be attended with re- splendent holiness of life in the worker, or else they ought to be counted impostures; so that, considering the Jews blackened the life of our Saviour, and he has told us beforehand that the true prophets he would send should find all manner of evil spoken of them, as it ever was with the ancient ones ; the poor prophet at last must be counted but an impostor, unless some men now-a-days, like Apollonius and others, in respect to the Montanists, could be kept from speaking evil of him falsely, or, as it is in Matt. v. 11, "^evEofxevoi, "lying for Christ's sake." The sum of the case is this, that God bearing witness to the prophets by the distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his oxun ivill, as at large described in the First Part of this treatise, is a sufficient sign and wonder attesting prophecy ; but if men according to their will, and every one severally as he pleases, may put the law upon the Holy Ghost, the foundations of the ancient faith are destroyed. Put the case of miracle how ye please, what is false by the tenor of God's word cannot be made true by it ; and what is true by the same word of God needs no miracle to prove it so. The Scriptures, dictated without any further attestation than by vision, voice, dream, and prophetic inspiration (which are all miraculous), are as valid, and of equal authority with those which were, at the time of uttering, con- firmed by other miracles. Such miracles as ye insist on are but more extrinsic proofs of a superior agent, unless ye could define, as ye either can or will not, what may or may not be within the power of the devil by Divine licence. Therefore, since the working of Satan (2 Thess. ii. 9 — 11) may be *' with all power, and signs, and lying wonders (tending to confirm a lie, Chrysost.), that they should believe a lie ;" this lie in the text is put in opposition to some doctrinal truth manifested in his prophetic word ; from which, in order " to seduce us " (Mark xiii. 22), ^' false Christs and prophets," as Simon Magus, Menander, Marcus, Carpocrates, " shall arise, and shall shew signs and won- ders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." Therefore, being thus warned by our Redeemer (Matt. xxiv. 24), that •' there shall arise false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders* MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 405 insomuch that, if it were possible (but it is not), they shall deceive {n-Xavriffai, make to err from truth) the very elect ;" and being also cautioned by the Fathers of the primitive church, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, who were witnesses of prophecy then existent, to keep our eye fixed upon the mark of doctrinal truth, and not to take our aim from ostentatious miracles, in the judgment of prophesying, or of God revealing ; we do renounce your test prescribed, because, if we did allow of it, we must pass a sentence in favour of the Jews, who embrued their hands in the blood of all the prophets, whose remains are our standard. And we fear to be included in the guilt and punishment of that mother of harlots on whom the strong Lord that judgeth her shall avenge the blood of his servants the Apostles and Pro- phets, wherewith she is found drunk. Nevertheless, and although miracles, in the common acceptation, are not necessary at all to the existence of true prophecying, or for the Scriptural proof of it; yet if ever God shall add to it, of his abounding grace, the bene- ficial gifts of healing and casting out devils, I cannot perceive from Scripture but that the same ought to be acknowledged an evi- dential sign of the coming of Christ's kingdom, which we pray for (as to come) by his appointment ; even a kingdom that cannot be shaken by the prevalence of Antichrist, as that hitherto has been ; because our Lord himself makes the like works evidential of his first coming, saying (Matt. xii. 28), "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you ;" and again (Luke xi. 20), ♦' If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." In like manner also he gave commission to the seventy disciples (Luke x. 8, 9), " Into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them. The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." Doctrine XVI ' Matt. vii. 15, 16, 18 : " Beware of false * prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly ' they are ravening wolves: ye shall know them by their fruits; * a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt * tree bring forth good fruit." Thus, when a man pretends any * thing revealed from God, which he delivers to us in his name, * if his life be vicious and corrupt, he is a false prophet, and to * be rejected. In respect to the ordinary ministers, the case is « otherwise ; for beyond all question, their scandalous lives, their * vices, and disorders, do no ways hinder, but they are never- 406 PART IV. — CHAP. II. * theless true ministers ; they ought to be listened to, for the ' word of God loses nothing of its authority, though it passes * sometimes in them through an impure channel and profane * mouth, your own good, and a principle of charity, should turn * away your eyes from the faults of the pastors ; for though they * be as hypocritical as the Pharisees, and as profane as the Scribes * (or Sadducees), they sit in Moses's chair, and the validity of their * ministerial office does not depend upon their fruits, their morals. * But prophets may, on the contrary, be " wolves in sheep's < clothing ;" they may appear grave, modest, and mortified : nay, * though there appear nothing on them but what is virtuous, it is * not however sufficient to believe them ; for we find the true * prophets, to whom God revealed himself, were of as eminent * sanctification as can be in this life, wherein it is never perfect.' Ansiver. — It is a rare privilege that the ordinary minister has above the extraordinary, by the explanation of Scripture in this manner ! But because comparisons are difficultly handled without offence, I shall drop that part of this article, and insist merely upon what concerns the prophet, without it. Now that the model here given is not standard, even by the common judgment of the learned concerning prophetical gifts, I take to be clear from the usual and universally received distinction between the moral and miraculous graces: the former are called graticB gratumjacientes ; that is, such gifts of the Spirit as are sanctify- ing and saving, by their effectual working in the heart, as faith, hope, charity, purity, humility; but the miraculous unctions or graces are called gratice gratis dates, such as the gift of tongues, power of working miracles, healing, and the gift of prophecy, which may be by an angel. As to these latter, that of Psa.lxviii. 18 affirms in general, that they were not to be always necessarily conjoined with the former, as the present article affirms ; for it is said there, when our Lord ascended, and received gifts for men, it was that He might {KaTaaKwioaat) " dwell in the rebellious also," as a thing is put into a vessel; for to that metaphor the Greek word alludes. Dr. Hicks's Spirit of Enthusiasm exorcised, says, * The mira- < culous gifts are not of a moral kind : therefore they did not * sanctify the nature of the person on whom they were bestowed, * nor rendered him in the least a better Christian, or more * acceptable to God than he was before. They were indeed * often given to sanctified persons, but not always so in the MODERN OriNIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 407 * primitive times. For at first the Holy Ghost fell upon all that * were baptized, as Theophylact and Chrysostom acquaint us : * (the Lord appeared to Cain, and several heathen kings, by * revelations.) The Spirit of prophecy was given to Balaam : * the power of working signs and wonders, and casting out devils, * was given to Judas as well as to the rest of the Apostles ; and * therefore saith our Saviour to this purpose (Matt. vii. 23), * " Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not ' prophesied in thy name (by thy authority), and in thy name * have done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto * you, I never knew you (no more than Judas) ; depart from me, * ye workers of iniquity." From which place it is evident, that * miraculous gifts are so far from transforming the sinful nature * of man, that, if they do not find us, they cannot make us, good.' To the same effect is that of St. Paul, (1 Cor. xiii.) *« Though I speak with tongues, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith (miraculous), so that I could remove mountains, it profiteth me nothing." Which clearly implies, that the miracu- lous gifts might be separate from the saving graces, otherwise that powerful discourse has no force or consistency in it : nay, the Apostle elsewhere hints, that it was possible he himself might be cast away. And again, in Luke x. 20, our Lord warns the seventy, " in this rejoice not that the devils are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven ; " but if the casting out devils in Christ's name were inseparably annexed to luminous sanctification, and so a certain sign of their salvation, there could be no need of the said caution or admoni- tion. And even concerning these seventy, Dorotheus, who lived before and in the time of Constantino, tells us, that Phigellus, Hermogenes, and Demas were of the number ; yet St. Paul takes notice of them, that they had all turned away from him, — Demas, in particular, " through the love of this present world;" concerning which last Dorotheus adds, that he became an idol priest at Thessalonica. Moreover, Nicholas, one of the seven deacons "full of the Holy Ghost" (Acts vi.) is supposed the father, afterwards, of the abominable Nicholaitans. (Rev. ii.) The passage mentioned above of Chrysostom, on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, is thus: « God at the first,' says he, * gave * unto all that were baptized various and divers gifts, which the ' Apostle expresses by the term spirits.* We have largely, in 408 PART IV. — CHAF. II. the First Part of this treatise, under the head of prophecy proper, shewed, from the Old and New Testament, both that there is no way of revelation but what may be conveyed by God through the instrumentality of an angel, which is what Chrysostom takes notice of, referring to 1 Cor. xiv. 12, *' Ye are desirous of spirits ;" and if so, we need not wonder that sanctification does not necessasily and inseparably attend it. Wherefore, upon the general remark of the first baptized Chris- tians, let us observe, that Simon the sorcerer saw something which visibly denoted their receiving the Spirit ; but how he should see saving grace conveyed to them, or that they were all necessarily saved, any more than Judas and Demas, does not appear. Upon these considerations, if sanctifying and saving grace be not in itself at all necessarily annexed to the miraculous gifts, we are excused from inquiring what degree of sanctification is suffi- cient in a prophet to have his testimony credible, which possibly would never be definable by the advancers of this opinion themselves. But the caution of our Saviour in the text, against receiving oi false prophets^ such as on whom nothing appears in their life but what is sheep s clothings seems to point us to quite another sort of trial ; that is, that since a prophet, or preacher by inspiration, must have upon him some manifestation apparent of a spirit, or else he cannot properly (we think) be so much as a false prophet, it follows that what we are to try touching him is, that spirit appearing to be superior to his own. Our Sovereign Prophet, therefore, warning us that false spirits may put on sheep's clothing, in that case we are directed to turn our eyes upon the fruits of their inspiration; that is, the tendency and scheme of their doctrine ; so that our examination then lies in bringing to the touchstone — nam.ely, law and testimony Di- vine — those doctrinal fruits proceeding off the tree : for, as to spirits inspiring, our Lawgiver has, in this very text of Matt. vii. 15— 18 prescribed as a decisive and conclusive rule, that ** a good tree (spirit) cannot bring forth evil fruit (doctrine) ; nei- ther can a corrupt tree (spirit) bring forth good fruit," that is, doctrine. Scripture proof; for, as to '* sheep's clothing," that is, appearing godliness, the text gives it them ; and whoever dares in so masterly a manner to judge his brother for a wolf, who has nothing appearing on him but what is characteristic of a sheep, as this article does, I dare not. Now, that an evil MODERN OPIiflONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 409 spirit, in the tendency and tenor of doctrine, ever did bring forth good fruit, by a prophet or person preaching by his inspira- tion, let opposers produce but one instance of, if they can ; for our Lord's words are positive, That *' men cannot gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles;" and this we are sure of, that St. Paul, concurrently with our Saviour as above, does, concerning spiritual persons or ministers, affirm, that " no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. xii. 3), and St. John also directs us to determine by the same rule, in the extensive sense of 1 John iv. 1 — 3, 6. In the primitive church, for several ages, the Holy Ghost did extraordinarily appoint overseers ; and the degree of gifts pro^ phetical did constitute the most distinguishing stations in the churches: nevertheless, by the Apostolic canons, even a pro- phet was not capable of being a bishop or pastor without the moral qualifications mentioned in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. But for women, children, or other persons, uncapable of that office, their speaking accidentally in public, under visible manifestations of a spirit, we have said enough to shew that any eminence in holiness was not absolutely requisite to denominate that spirit to be Divine. However, if the article here had asserted no more than that a visible sanctification was generally the concomitant of the Spirit prophetical, I dared not to have opposed my sentiment, because the prophets are commonly styled holy, and that I look upon them to enjoy the highest means of it ; so that, in respect to any other means, ** it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the hea- venly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repent- ance" (Heb. vi. 4 — 6). We find also the prophets of the New Testament as well as the Old set often as examples unto others, and particularly of patience in suffering afflictions James v. 10, of prayer in many texts all over the Bible. Every where also they are signalized ^ov faith, self-denial^ and humility. On the contrary, the false prophets are set out as the reverse of all these, and especially in being proud, heady, pvffed up in their vain mind, seeking the applause of men, despisers of others, and the like ; but enlarging hereon being not necessary here, we desist. Doctrine XVH. — * Actions that become not a man of gravity • cannot come from the Spirit of God ; for the true prophet ta 3 G 4>W PART IV.— CHAP. II. * appear in the guise and manner of a man distracted is prepos- * terous : for it is absurd and inconceivable that inspiration, or * the prophetic spirit, should transport him beyond the rules of * common decency and right reason, and dispose him to a wild * frantic behaviour, resembling natural distraction. And that ' the prophet, through inspiration, should be determined to such * a carriage as all sober men esteem the effects of a distempered * imagination, is absolutely irreconcileable to the wisdom of God. * The Holy Spirit does not contradict common sense ; and that * the communications divine form any symptoms on the person * which are common with those possessed by an evil spirit, is * false. Almighty God does subject his Revelation to our trial * and judgment ; having given us faculties able to judge, whether * such and such appearances be truly worthy of Him or not, and * our reward lies in receiving, as such, only what appears to our * best reason to be truly worthy of him.' Ansijoer.— The ministers of Christ ought to " hold fast the faithful word as they have been taught" (Tit. i. 9), and adhere to ** the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (1 Tim. iii. 9); but whether ye have not departed from the law of truth and cor- rupted the covenant of Levi in this matter, let the text be judge, and a witness between us. And indeed ye appeal not to the Scripture, but against it, to common sense, and the prevailing reason among men, for your supreme rule and judge : and doubt- less the natural man, who cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, will universally applaud you ; although, if ministers had performed their duty in teaching, the common sense of Chris- tians must needs have been otherwise. But whoever turns back to the rudiments of the world, the weak and beggarly elements or vain philosophy, and would make them the touchstone of things revealed, we cannot (by the injunction of Col. ii. 20, explained in the introduction) esteem of such other than vain talkers and deceivers : therefore, whatever your best reason is, the best rea- son of true Christians still is always regulated by the word of God ; and whatever is there found cannot but be truly worthy of Him ; so that we are to take the law from his mouth, to inform us what is truly worthy of Him, and reconcileable to his wisdom, which is often (as in the introduction hereof specified) not to be measured, by that in vogue among men ; for to do this would be to the encouragement of Deism openly. We take it for granted that there is rational proof sufficient that the Scripture MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 41! is the Revelation of God, and, as such, ought to be owned for a rule to square your axioms and doctrines by ; and then we leave this matter to be decided by that test, as at large insisted on in Part I. chap. iv. And as in this doctrine ye have studiously avoided to quote any thing from the written word, so, until ye can disprove our numerous allegations from it there. That the prophets (we all own for Divine) were extravagant in their actions and deportment under the Spirit of prophecy, we cannot think otherwise than that by the conclusions of this article ye have laid down your clothes, and bear witness for yourselves, that ye are the children of them that stoned the prophets. In the minute discussion of this matter, in the First Part, we have (without building on it) produced many citations from the most esteemed collection of critics, which do allow that the Divine Spirit did form on the prophets some symptoms like to those possessed by an evil one. We have indeed omitted to cite there the names of modern divines who concur in allowing the plain sense of the sacred text ; and we suppose that, if St. Paul had no authority against the truth, and only in behalf of it, we ought not implicitly to subject ourselves to persons who do allow themselves to have among them, possibly, some as profane as the Sadducees, who believed neither angel nor spirit. Never- theless, we could here heap up a number of modern names acknowledging the same thing for Divine truth which is in this article said to be * false, absurd, inconceivable, absolutely irre- * concileable to the wisdom of God, and impossible to be from * Him.' But, to avoid prolixity and a needless incumbering of the argument, we content ourselves to mention here only Mr. Wilson's complete Christian Dictionary ; where we find under the word prophecy, * That a prophet is called vvoiprjTrjg, one to * whom the oracle speaks ; and that to prophesy is sometimes set * to signify a wild raving behaviour or speaking, such as the * ev^eoL, or enthusiasts^ among the heathen, men possessed with * devils, or diabolical furies, were wont to use ; and the reason < of this is clear from 1 Sam. xviii. 12, because prophets did ordi- * narily both speak and act in a manner far distant and remote * from the ordinary practice of other men ; they used strange * language, strange motions and agitations of the body, and * accordingly were by many that looked on them thought to be 'mad (2 Kings ix. 11).' If our ears could be open to the oracles of reason, as superior ^1^ PART IV. — CHAP. TI. to and judge over Revelation, we should be in the greatest danger on this head of prophetic signs, ecstacies, and agitations ; and therefore we stick fast to the text, and will run the venture of having this course censured, as it was upon the Montanists by the primitive fathers of the Free-thinkers, for the principal cause of their delusion ; because we find that these fine declamations of appealing to reason and common sense are the sole refuge of all infidels in our days ; and thus the Conference with a Deist, represents him, in Part III. page 149, saying, * For our Saviour * to ride upon such an odd sort of a beast, at the head of a mob, * was an action not becoming a wise or grave man, much less the * Son of God ; and it looks like an intolerable affectation of * popularity to suffer the rabble to Hosannah Him all along upon * the road, and to throw their doublets in the way, to grace the * triumph. What could we think of it, but a great vanity or * enthusiasm ?' To which Dr. Nicholls answers, * Our Lord was * pleased to make use of this mean sort of triumph, as a kind of * hieroglyjohical representatioyi of the humility which his religion * taught, and which by this (as well as the sign used of washing * the disciples' feet) He recommended to them ; for this was the * usual way of the Eastern people to represent things by, as * appears in Micaiah hh pushing with horns, and Ezekiel's boiling ■* the pot.' But as to the main case, of the raving behaviour, the strange motions, agitations, and extravagant manner of the prophets, having already said so much, upon occasion of the Montanists, in PartH. and concerning the Scriptural description of prophets, in Part I., I shall here add no more than that the same is not ascribable to the custom of any Eastern people ; because, if there had been nothing upon them but what was customary in the age and places wherein they so prophesyed, we see not why Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel^ and the Psalmist, should complain of being in derision, of being exposed and made hateful, as on this account it appears in Part I. they were. If his behaviour had nothing of odd and fantastical, how earner the young man sent to Jehu, to be termed a " mad fellow" by those who only saw it ? Besides, we find the general case of the prophets, in Hosea ix. 7, Jer. xxix. 26, is expressed by madness; and even our Saviour is taxed with some appearances of madness, John x. 10. Where- fore, we look upon the Scripture testimony as fixed for a general standard in this point, as much as any other, for the trial of MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 413 prophets of all ages and countries ; although the adhering to the Sacred Record may prove dangerous to any man's reputation, for by the marginal reading of Isaiah lix. 15, " Truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil is accounted mad." Doctrine XVIII — < God is the God of order, not of confu- * sion ; and He certainly allows us to be judges of order and * regularity; and this is in force upon all prophets, as the rule of * their speaking and prophesying.* Answer.— ^e read of a horrible thing in the ancient Israel, that " the prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their means; and that the people loved to have it so" (Jer. V. 31). And in chap. xxix. 24, one of this sort, Shemaiah the dreamer, complimented the priests with a general commission over every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet. But unless it lie in these texts, I know of no authority in the church that is set over the prophets ; and that what is human should prescribe to the Divine, I suppose none will pretend. We have seen at large, that the churches of Christ, for some ages, pre- scribed no rules which hindered any person in the congregation, on whomsoever the Spirit fell, from singing of inspired hymns, expounding the Scriptures, and consecrating the elements. Par- ticularly, as to the first of these. Origin, de Orat. sect. vi. p. 7, speaking of the then public worship, says, that * without the * Spirit's immediate influence, it was not possible to sing the * praise of God, either in good rhyme, tune, metre, or harmony;* which doubtless would be disallowed by the modern judges of common decency. But as to those who now pretend to be con- stituted judges of order and regularity, they have, under the foregoing article, told us, that the Infinite Being does subject his revelation to their judgment and faculties, to determine whe- ther such and such appearances be truly worthy of Him or not ; and, according to their best reason, they have there concluded already, that any thing in the behaviour and manner of the pro- phet, which is beyond the rules of common decency, and which does contradict sensus communist the common sense of the age and place, however profane upon this subject, and which would not become a man of gravity, cannot be from God, and is abso- lutely irreconcileable to him : wherefore, since it has appeared, beyond any possible confutation, in Part I., that the holy text throughout does assert the prophet to be one agitated by a spirit, and oftentimes appearing, in his behaviour and outward 4.14 PART IV. — CHAP. II. manner, very wide from the rules of common decency, and unbecoming a man of gravity; so that, from the outward appear- ance on him, he was usually adjudged to be mad; those then who will determine by and from outward forms and seemliness would have adhered to the ** boasters in appearance," against the Apostle, who grants that he was beside himself at times (2 Cor. V. 12, 13). Nay, men that look chiefly at the outside face of things, might very well have chosen the Pharisee for their leader and guide, rather than our Lord, who had no form or comeliness, nor any thing to be seen upon him, that could recommend him to beholders. And yet further, such sort of judges as these would have despised, rejected, and have hid their faces, or been ashamed of their Redeemer, when, by his friends as well as ene- mies, he was said to be mad. If, therefore, men will not listen to or hear Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, nor permit the law and testimony to stand for any thing in this point; there is little ground to expect, from such principles as are men- tioned above touching these things, any rules of order but what will violate the apostolic constitution of the prophets, speaking two or three in an assembly. Nevertheless, whatever regulations are allowable, without infringement of the liberty of prophesyings, according to the tenor of the Divine legislature, they ought to take place, that all things may be done, as far as the thing admits, decently and in order; for '* God is not the author of confusion and tumult when the prophet speaks, but of peace in all the churches of the saints." In this article, and in all the rest wherein the clergy are either expressed or implied to hold principles unjustifiable touching the Spirit of prophecy ; the word in this treatise is not limited to those of the Church of England, but is intended to comprehend the teachers, speakers, and ministers, of all separate communi- ties; and there ought to be no kind of reflection made by the reader upon one party of Christians more than another; because even the very principles I have cited, which appear correspondent with those of infidels in all revelation, are drawn from the ser- mons of Dissenting Ministers and their writings, as well as from those of the Church. So likewise, in the other doctrinal errors upon this subject mentioned already and here following, the Discerner of the secret intents of the heart knows that the author hereof does not affix them unto any one community of Christians more than other. In particular, therefore, as to the present MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROl'HECY. 415 article, he knows of no society of religion, from the Papists to the Quakers, but wherein the ministry, or stated eldership, do claim to be judges of order, and to impose such rules of it, that thereby a prophet according to the Scriptural definition is necessarily debarred to prophesy. Addressing here, therefore, to all of them indifferently, it is sufficient to say, that order and decency are comely things, and in their proper place ought to be consulted : and I only wish they may not be used as fine coverings for an enmity to the prophetic voice of the Lord ; for those, who in regulating Christian assemblies said to the rich man, " Sit thou here in a seemly place (/caXwc)," and to the poor, '* Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool," wanted not the pretence of order and decency for so doing ; and yet they are severely rebuked for this decency of respect (James ii. 1 — 9); and they are said to be therein "judges of (or from) evil reasonings {EiaXoyiofjLdJv), and to judge wrong in themselves (SiaKpiB^riTe) ;" but whether, in respect to a prophet, all stated ministers are not partial in themselves, I leave to God and their own consciences. Doctrine XIX. — * If visions be of difficult explication, that * is sufficient reason to reject them.' Answer. — That Scripture visions were often not fully under- stood by those who saw them, has been made appear in Part I. chap. iv. sect. 18, 21. And that those of Ezekiel, St. John, Daniel, and Zechariah are to this day of very difficult explication, I believe the venters of this doctrine will not deny. The primi- tive Christians had among them an opinion generally prevailing, that no prophecy of Scripture could be certainly interpreted by human abilities, and therefore they highly valued the presence of the Spirit to interpret the deep things of God, and give the sense of former revelations clearly ; for where any doubt arises about the meaning of a former law among men, it is a preroga- tive reserved in the legislator only to explain the same conclu- sively. I remember that Dr. Stanhope, in his Sermons at Mr. Boyle's Lecture, observes upon 2 Pet. i. 19, that < the word of prophecy, being '' a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn," is to be taken to refer to the time of our Lord's bright manifestation to come for the clearing it.' Thus it is, that, after the Spirit of Christ in them had testified of the sufferings and ensuing glory of Christ, yet the prophets themselves did in- quire and search diligently into the signification of those predic- tions (I Pet. i. 10, 11). Thus also, aftpr the conversion of the 4«16 I'ART IV. — CHAP. If. Ephesians to Christianity, the Apostle prays that " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" might be given them, for the clear knowledge of God, chap. i. 17. We are often in Sacred Writ tau2;ht by parables and allegories, and put in mind of the wisdom of God in a mystery, even hidden wisdom ; and ministers in par- ticular are charged to hold fast " the mystery of faith," and admonished not to wrest things which are hard to be under- stood : from what fountain therefore men have drawn this sort of divinity will possibly be evident from the reasoning and philo- sophy of the rejectors of Christianity itself. The Conference with a Deist, in Parts III. and IV., represents him thus speaking : ' The obscurity of Scripture is a great ar- * gument against the Divinity of it ; for the want of perspicuity * is the most intolerable fault which any author can be guilty of, * because the very end and design of writing is to be understood. * Had therefore God been pleased to have made such a revela- * tion, he would undoubtedly have done it with all imaginable * plainness ; but it looks like a banter upon mankind for God to * give out that for a revelation of Himself which is wrapped up * in the darkest and most inaccessible clouds. But, for proof * of this profound darkness in the scriptural books, we need * only to appeal to the collection of critics. Moreover, to speak * by parables, especially when it is asserted that it was purposely * done to the end that the Jews might not understand it, is a * very odd way of signifying things. Further also, there are * several texts quoted for predictions, which are as veiled, dark, * mysterious riddles. Now if God Almighty had given mankind * a previous knowledge of those things. He would not have * wrapped up the matter in obscure enigmatical veils, like the < heathen oracles ; but would have set them down in words at * length, plainly, and expressing the facts ; for this would have * been more agreeeble to the simplicity and veracity of God.' Unto which presumptuous and arrogant way of arguing, Dr. Nicholls answers : * The obscurity of some places in the Scrip- * tures, is so far from being a fault that it is a peculiar excellency * in them, and an instance of the wisdom and goodness of God ' in ordering them to be composed in that manner. It is highly * requisite that the prophetical parts of Scripture should be some- * what obscure, and should be plainly intelligible only after the * completion : for it is not without manifest wisdom designed, * that some passages should be very difficult and obscure, to MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 4>l7 ' raise in men a sacred awe and veneration for these books < which would be more generally wanting in men, if they were < wrote with the bright perspicuity of other common authors. < By this obscurity, therefore, God Almighty teaches us humility, ' and puts us in mind of the shallowness of our understandings ; * and shews us, that it is owing to his good will and pleasure < that we have any knowledge at all of Divine truths ; that * He reveals to us just as much as He pleases, and at his will * veils over the rest with darkness. But by the same diflSculties * He gives us an opportunity of exercising our diligence in these * sacred matters ; for otherwise men would be more lazy in the * business of their salvation ; nor would the Divine truths be so * strongly imprinted upon their minds, as when some of them ' with so much difficulty and study are to be found out in the * Scripture.* Upon the whole matter, it seems to us, that the essential difference between the Deist and the Christian is, that the former does not think himself obliged to believe any thing further than he can comprehend it : and with such an one the authority of revelation stands for nothing. On the other side, the Christian, when he finds reason sufficient to conclude a thing to be revealed from God, he admits the same without further debate. And thus it is, that, in respect to the Trinity, the late Bishop of Bath and Wells, in his Demonstration of the Messias, part iii. p. 447, tells us, * there are many things we have reason to believe, which * yet we have not ability to comprehend.' Thus also, the same Reverend author, partii.p. 323, does confess that the difficulty is great to reconcile the genealogies of our Saviour, given us so differently in Matthew and Luke ; but then, says he, * we have < not sufficient cause to question the truth of the Christian religion * because of these difficulties: they are very weak and foolish * men who will renounce the whole religion, because there are * some things said and taught in it which they are not able to * comprehend or give an account of. There are many difficulties * in the Old Testament, and seeming contradictions to be found, * especially in matters of names and numbers ; but it is un- * reasonable to doubt of the whole, because a man is not able to * give a clear account of those difficult passages which are found < therein. Thus, when we are urged with the different accounts * given by the Evangelists of our Lord's lineage, and put upon * reconciling of them ; I appeal to any indifferent person, whether 3h 418 PART IV. — CHAP. II. * it be likely that Matthew and Luke should, in the beginning * of their relations, say that which would overthrow the credit of < the whole. They may differ in their account ; but it is not * credible they should contradict one another : it may be difficult * to reconcile them, but it is incredible that they should say any * thing that does subvert the credit of the whole.* Upon these hints, with others in our Introduction, it appears sufficiently, that both visions and prophecy in Scripture are fre- quently of difficult explication, or hard to be understood ; and doubtless were rather more so in the ages in which they were delivered, than after so long a chain of Providence to help the exposition now. Glorified therefore be the mercy of God to his church, that the infidel doctrine, in this article, of rejecting them on that account, has not prevailed. The primitive ages of Christianity argued, from the obscurity and difficulties- of Scrip- ture, an absolute necessity of the prophetic Spirit for giving the sense thereof clearly ; and I find no argument sufficient to refute that opinion. This then we may conclude at least, that, the Sacred Text being left as a standard to all other succeeding prophecy and vision, such as are of difficult explication, the latter no more than the former ought therefore to be rejected. Doctrine XX. — ' Threatening of judgments upon opposers * argues a malicious spirit, and therefore cannot be of God.' Anstver. — As to opposers in general of the word of the Lord in the prophet, men certainly must deny a great part of the Scripture, if the Spirit threatening judgments upon them could not be of God ; and we have instanced already, that the rejectors of Christianity do object to the divinity of the Sacred Records even upon this foot. We are sorry, therefore, that the teachers of the word should thus strengthen the hands of infidelity, though hereby they have given us occasion to search more heedful ly into that word of the Lord on record. But certainly, be it who it will that advances this doctrine, and lays it as a general rule, they do therein blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, who has, all along, in the Prophets, threatened judgments upon opposers of Him. And we find, in particular, that Jeremiah, in chap. xi. 14, and again in xiv. 11, was positively commanded of God not to pray for such against whom the Lord had denounced judg- ments by him. And as to denunciations personal, the same prophet, by command of the Lord, does it in chap. xx. upon Pashur ; in chap. xxii. upon Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Coniah ; MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 419 in chap, xxviii. upon Hananiah ; in chap. xxix. upon Ahab> Zedekiah, and Shemaiah ; in chap, xxxvi. upon king Jehoi- akim, his own dread sovereign ; in chap. xlii. upon Johanan. These, one would think, might suffice ; and it is strange that Gospel ministers could overlook them all : but there may a great many more instances of personal denunciations be found, (as in Isa. xxii. 15 — 19, and elsewhere,) which the prophet was forced to deliver whether he would or no ; all which came from the Spirit of prophecy undoubtedly Divine. Even in the New Tes- tament also, the case of Ananias and Sapphira, the threatening to Simon at Samaria, to Elymas, and to the high priest Ananias, and to Diotrephes by St. John, and those to whom St. Paul speaks of his coming with a rod ; all these, with our Saviour's driving out of the temple the merchants and bankers, with their lumber, might be reducible to the same head ; and I hope those who so often commend the Bereans, and recommend them to our imitation, will of themselves reflect further upon these matters, and never any more, upon this subject, need to be put in mind of their opposition to the Scripture, by one of the laity. Doctrine XXI. — • Most of the prophets were learned men : * the art and elegancy of David's poems shew that they were com- * posed with care and study, to which the blessing of inspiration * was added as a reward upon his devout labours. The same * must be said of all the more perfect prophets ; as Moses, the * authors of Judges and Ruth, Samuel, the authors of the * Kings, Chronicles, and Esther j Nehemiah, Ezra, Job, Solo- * mon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and most, if not all, the minor Pro- * phets, wrote in this same reasonable way, with the help of * study and learning as well as inspiration.' Answer. — 2 Tim. iii. 16, " All Scripture is given by inspira- tion of God ;" therefore no part of it was composed by the study and devout labours of men; and thus, 2 Pet. i. 21, *' Prophecy comes, or came, not at any time by the will of man :" but study and labour implies the will of man; and so here are two counter assertions, the one by a modern student in divinity, the other by an inspired fisherman. Surely our ministers do not duly reflect, that, whilst they so frequently contradict the Scripture, they do thereby oppose and withstand the Holy Ghost after so daring a manner that it is impossible, under that temper, that they should do otherwise than the Jews of old by the living prophets, when- ever God sends such. What Christian heart can cease on this 420 PART IV.--CHAP. II. occasion, from mourning for them ! They may be censorious without mercy, if they please, upon the poor enthusiast ; but the Witness of all things knows, that no sorrow ever affected that of the writer hereof like unto the contempt of the Scriptures on their part, as it is numerously instanced in this treatise : for herein we have a distinction of some prophets tnore perfect, or perfectly inspired, than others ; which naturally leads men into an inquiry, which would not be easily decided, and which must draw very sad consequences upon some or other parts of the Scripture, especially the New-Testament writings, which were indicted by the unlearned. And besides, as the Scripture is for the most part a transcript of what was spoken, or what was seen by the prophet, under the Spirit's immediate influence, human study and learning cannot be allowed any share therein without the utmost danger to the authority of the act of God instan- taneously revealing, and even to the nature of revelation itself. We cannot, therefore, permit here much amplifying upon a point so tender. But it shall suffice to say, that as to the poems of David composed with care and study, his dying words tells us (2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3), " The God of Israel spake to him, the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, and the word of God was in his tongue;" which is a very different account from his composing them with labour, care, and study. Moreover, the title affixed to most of those Psalms from the Greek — namely, " a Psalm of David," "^aXjuioQ no AaviB — is properly *' a Psalm to David j " which intimates, that they were by the Spirit of the Lord given unto him for the use and benefit of the church, and were not at all his composure. If any among the writers of the New Tes- tament was learned, we conceive that it must have been St. Paul ', but that he did not speak or write from any composition of his own labour and study, appears from I Cor. ii. 13 : •' Which things we speak, not in the words which man's (no, not our own) wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." More- over, the command of our Saviour was positive, not to take previous thought or care, much less study, what they should say, seeing it was not they who were to speak, but the Spirit of God by them ; and therefore the most illiterate and ignorant might be prophetically inspired to teach. Besides all this, the tenor of Scripture prophecy being a declaration on God's part, and from him, I cannot see how it is possible to have been, in any part thereof, dictated by human study without the foulest im- posture on the prophet's part. The Holy Spirit, in serving him- MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 421 self of the various styles and abilities of the men He inspired, did however speak by them, and not they from themselves ; and as to the word of God written which we usually call Scripture, when it is affirmed to have been " given by inspiration of God," I take it to be implied, that the same was spoken under inspira- tion instantaneously then given of God ; because the word ifi- spiration alludes properly to the breath that forms speech. However this case of writing the word of God was, we are now treating upon a doctrine that allows a great deal to the learning, study, care, and composition of the prophet himself, and thereby grants a mixture of the human. So that, upon such like tenets which seemed to imply that an ignorant man cannot be inspired, I am wholly at a loss to know^ how our divines could have sepa- rated and distinguished that which was simply and only the word of God from what was composed or compounded with the care and study of the man, and conveyed with some tincture of his style and abilities ; for we are assured they would not have submitted to an inspiration thus described by themselves. The Apostle Paul and Timothy tell us, 2 Cor. ii. 17, " We are not as many which corrupt ( fcaTrj/Xc vovr£c> wz/x, as the vintner his wines,) the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ," and the conscience of this is sufficient to the prophet himself; nevertheless, how others, without the miraculous gift of discernment, could know as- suredly that there was no mixture on the prophet's part while speaking, I should be very glad that the learned would explain to us. In the mean time, as the written word does absolutely require that we ought in case of a heavenly voice to believe the prophet's hearing it, and in that of a vision that we should be- lieve his seeing it ; so in the point of prophetic inspiration (wherein there are some signs or manifestation visible to our- selves) we have no less reason to believe him speaking by the word of the Lord, or power operating on him supernaturally ; when he asserts his own sincerity, as Paul did. Doctrine XXII. — ' It is an affectation of tyranny over the * understandings of men, to enforce a belief upon persons to * whom they propose their doctrines, by endeavouring to make * them believe they have such immediate inspirations as the * Prophets and Apostles had : so as not to hearken to them, and < not to believe them, is all one as not to hearken to God, nor * believe him. Such inspirations are not to affect other people. 422 PART IV CHAP. II. * unless God gives to the inspired person, at the same time, means * to convince them of the truth of what he affirms. For example, * for an inspiration to say, such and such is the meaning of a * former Scripture, without it enable them to make it out, is * gratis dictum. This is to require a blind submission to its * authority.* Anstioer. — We have already elsewhere insisted upon it, that there was a difference in the clearness of Divine manifestation under the law ; that of Moses being termed God's speaking to him Jnce to face, and that equally true speaking of God to other prophets was comparatively in dark speeches (Num. xii. 6 — 8). In like manner, in the New Testament we find mention of the X)ery chief est apostles, with whom the great number of those who went every where preaching the word, even such as Ananias and Agabus, could not stand in competition, any more than the numerous prophets residentiary in the several churches. Thus, therefore, the prophetical writings of the Old Testament being stamped anew with the seal of our Saviour's authority, and those of the New Testament now subsisting with that of the chiefest apostles ; these Scripture prophecyings of the text are allowed justly the prerogative of being the standard by which all subse- quent inspiration is to be tried, and to which trial it ought to appeal ; and the authority of these is not controulable by any less clear and powerful exertions of the same Spirit, in whatsoever age we enjoy the manifestation of it. Upon these terms, the preachings extemporary and unwritten of the Apostles and Prophets concurrent with them in the Chris- tian church, cannot be judged other than Divine inspirations, though all their sermons were not to be perpetuated as universal laws to the church in all ages. So also the inspiration of pro- phets, in several ages after the Apostles, as at large proved in the Second and Third Parts, was equally from one and the same Spirit ; and those who enjoyed their ministry were taught imme- diately of God, and not by men like themselves ; but now, for ministers to say, as by this article, that immediate inspiration is a tyranny over the understandings of men, is to concur in and warrant the maxims or principles upon which the scoffers at all revealed religion do pretend to justify themselves. Indeed, it is a lamentable consideration to find, by several of the doctrines herein mentioned, how much encouragement Sadducism and infi- delity of God revealing has found from the tenets of the clergy, MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 423 even ever since Apollinaris down to this day. And thus the Conference with a Deist represents him saying, in the Third and Fourth Parts ; * In the Scripture way of commanding things there * is no rational account of those moral duties ; but all these rules * are to be taken upon the word of the speaker, so that we are put * off with a " Thus saith the Lord," or an " I say unto you," * instead of proving the obligations we lie under to those moral- ' ities : wherefore no sensible man can rationally be taken with * such lectures. Now Plato and Tully prove their moralities by * deducing them from general and uncontroverted principles, * from the eternal rules of justice, from the rectitude and honour- * ableness of virtue, and the pravity and turpitude of vice ; so * that when I read a piece of Cicero's Morality, I cannot but be * in love with the duties he recommends : he makes them to be * so agreeable to my reason, so conformable to my nature, or ' my state and condition in the world, that methinks I am * charmed into the practice of them whether I will or no. Such * authors shew me so much beautiful order and harmony, and * agreeableness with the laws of nature in every virtue, such an * ugly unproportionableness in vice, such an incongruity with and * disturbance to nature, as makes, in the eyes of every rational * man, the one to look lovely and delightful, the other monstrous ' and abominable. But the Scriptural writers I cannot be per- * suaded were inspired of God, because they were not masters * of this noble quality ; for though they honestly enough tell * men what they should do, yet they give them no reason for it ; * so that in many parts of the Scripture, that desirable thing ' called good reasoning I find wanting ; and though men should * be really convinced of their duty by the Scripture, yet bare * authority can never have that influence upon their lives as a * rational persuasion.' In the introduction we have more largely shewed (than is proper here), that the way of the Holy Spirit of prophecy has not generally been adapted to human wisdom, nor used eloquence of speech, or the artificial way of reasoning commonly esteemed; but, on the contrary, has chosen to use the things which by the world's admired wisdom are accounted " foolish, weak, base, despised, and nothing worth." Wherefore, when the Holy Ghost gives a charge universal to believers, touching " prophesyings, not to despise," or (by the Greek) * esteem them nothing worth,' he therein does intimate there was something attending prophecy 424 PART IV. — CHAP. II. which would tempt the pride of men to trample it under their feet. Seeing then that our calling in Christ, and the very foun- dations of faith, require that we should take the word inspired upon the manifestation of the Spirit justified by the harmony of Scripture ; it is a very small matter to be condemned therein by man's judgment, which is regulated by quite another principle. Let the mockers therefore go on at their peril ! We must adhere to the first principles of the oracles of God, among which (besides all that has been at large already said, touching the obligation of reverence due to the Spirit of prophecy) we read thus, in Heb. xii. 25 : *' See that ye refuse not him that speaketh" (who liveth, and speaketh when he pleases) ; " for if they (even the Jews) escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we (Christians) escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." For it is written, Rev. xix. 11 — 16, He whose name is " the Word of God," at the head of the armies of heaven, " shall judge in righteousness and make war ; he shall smite the nations with a sharp sword out of his mouth ; he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; and he shall tread the wine- press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." As to the infidel assertion, that it is but gratis dictum for the Spirit of prophecy to say such and such is the meaning of a former Scripture, unless it be made out by rational means of demonstration ; we have in the introduction shewed, that to re- ceive any thing as it stands proved by natural reason, and only when it is so, is not at all to receive it as revealed : but for the exposition of Scripture, it belongs so peculiarly to the gift of prophecying, that the earliest ages of Christianity held it gene- rally for a rule, that many obscure parts of the text were not possible to be expounded, but by the same Spirit which indicted it. The books of Barnabas, Clemens, and Hermas, which were allowed among the New-Testament writings, do give instances of prophetic exposition ; and I have, in the Second Part of this treatise, produced proof from Dr. Hicks, of several other Scrip- ture interpretations, which were received universally by the an- cient church from prophets after the age Apostolical. When, therefore, we shall pay the homage due from our understandings unto God, by submitting to the Spirit of prophecy, interpreting the Scripture, who, by an immediate act of his own, can convince of the truth of what he affirms, and open our understandings to know the Scripture ; we think we walk m the way of God's sta- MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 425 tutes and commandraents, by multiplied citations already in- stanced, and are safer therein than in trusting to confused and disagreeing comments, and unscriptural precepts of the learned, here mentioned. Doctrine XXIII. — * It cannot be properly said that a man is * immediately instructed by the Spirit, when the Spirit makes use * of the word, or outward teaching, as a means of information, * comfort, or support.* Ansxjoer.— The teachers hereof are desired to compare this with Doctrine XXI. because they seem inconsisting ; but to build upon the text that saith, " He that prophesyeth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort; and he that prophesyeth edifieth the church" (1 Cor. xiv. 3, 4). Even thus our Lord, the great Prophet of his church, as his custom was, went into the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read ; and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaias ; and ** when he had opened or un- folded the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me : and he closed the book, and he gave it again unto the minister, and sat down ; and he began, saying, This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him toitness, and toondered at the gracious tvords tvhich proceeded out of his mouth " (Luke iv. 16—22). Now, gentle- men, be pleased to make application of your own doctrine your- selves ; for indeed it often is very hard to reconcile it with Scrip- ture. Furthermore, the Apostles do frequently quote the text of the Old Testament, and appeal to it in their arguing with the Jews ; and particularly at Thessalonica, in the synagogue (where Moses was constantly read), " Paul, as his manner was, did, three Sabbath-days reason with them out of the Scriptures" (Acts xvii. 1, 2). Pray, sirs, therefore, was he inspired in that reason- ing ? The same Apostle admonishes Timothy to stir up the gift of God in him, and saith, 1 Tim. iv. 13, "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine," and " neglect not the gift that is in thee." Was then the reading of Timothy inconsistent with that gift he is advised to stir up, or not ? For I do not understand your rule, and pray you to explain, whether ye intend by it to encourage a wild enthusiasm, or only to withstand one that is true and Scripture proof? Doctrine XXIV. — ' The knowledge of men's thoughts, if it 3 I 4S6 PART IV. — CHAP. II. * were true, we confess would be something to prove ' inspiration ; but a few instances of this kind should not pass * as miraculous.' Answer. Suppose it then for assuredly true, that the Spirit on a prophet has the knowledge of men's thoughts, the Scripture is clear in the point that it must be the Spirit of God ; for the prayer of Solomon says (I Kings viii. 39), " Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men :" which is the foundation of confidence in prayer to him in secret. Therefore God himself claims it as his own peculiar, in Jer. xvii. 9, 10: ** The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it ? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins." Thus in Amos iv. 13, "The Lord, the God of Hosts is his name, who declareth unto man what is his thought." And again, in Rev. ii. 23, " All the churches shall know that I am He who searches the heart." Our Lord Redeemer said to the Pharisees, Luke xvi. 15, *'Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts ;" and I take it as an evidence of our Saviour's Divinity, that " he needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man " (John ii. 25). Thus also his Apostles, upon his anticipating their inquiry into a point, and answering their desire before it was expressed, do solemnly confess, John xvi. 30, " Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee ; by this we believe that thou camest forth from God ;" which is a more ample confession than we find made by them upon the occasion of any of his miracles. Furthermore, the discerning of spirits, natural or supernatural, was one frequently acknowledged gift of the Holy Ghost; for concern- ing the Spirit inspiring, it is said, Heb. iv. 12, 13, " The word of God is quick and powerful, a discernerof the thoughts and intents of the heart ; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight ; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Peter also, having upon him this gift of discerning, said to Ananias, " Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart ; and why has Satan filled thine heart .^" And says St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25, " If all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 427 made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth */' Seeing, therefore, that the Scriptures are so plain in this case, and the primitive ages of Christianity did appeal unto the Spirit of prophecy on this account, in the election of ministers, as in Acts i. 24i ; and, moreover, did universally take for granted, that, according to the text, "the discerning of thoughts," when the fact was evinced, was clear demonstration of the Divinity of that Spirit which, in or unto any prophet, openly discovered them ; as is particularly illustrated, Neh. vi. 12 — 14, touching Noadiah, Shemaiah, and other prophets ; how come we now-a-days so to unlearn the Scripture, then, as to affirm that * a few instances * of this kind should not pass as miraculous ?' Nevertheless, seeing ye confess it is something towards proving inspiration, I should have been glad that the number of instances requisite had been fixed ; because, though some may think seven sufficient, others may demand forty, to make it miraculous : nay possibly, the poor infidel and unlearned, in the Corinthians, that " fell down on his face," and acknowledged God in the prophets " of a truth," was not particularly convinced of the least of these numbers. I cannot tell who has indeed authority to fix any number of instances ; for one thought alone, secret in my heart, known only to God, but discovered by the Spirit of prophecy, would be more than a Nathaniel needed to convince him that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and the King of Israel ; and the peculiar commendation of Nathaniel, by the best Judge of characters, ought to be more respected than it is among Christians. But why should I argue with modern infidels on this point, upon a Scripture foot ? for, suppose that there were more then a few instances of the discerning of thoughts by a prophetic Spirit, it would possibly amount to very little at the last : for, say they, we confess this would be something to prove inspiration ; and when we inquire what that something means, the answer is given us positively already in Article XV. ' Nothing * can prove inspiration but such miracles as were wrought by * The above-quoted passages of Scripture assert that God knows the thoughts of men's hearts, and judges by them rather than by outward actions ; but they do not necessarily assert that the devil is not acquainted with them also. Indeed, as the author elsewhere admits, Satan often inspires men ; wherefore it follows that he must know the suggestions he himself has inspired. Many instances have occurred in the present days, of the secret imaginations of men's hearts being declared to them by others, and certainly not through the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost. — Editor, PART IV. — CHAP. II. * Moses, our Saviour, and his Apostles.' And even this de- manded proof is by our Thomases clogged too with the further demand that they should be wrought before the prophet is heard ; and then, after all, the conclusion on that head is no more than this, ' Then we shall have some reason to listen to what they * have to say to us ; but till then we shall have none ;' which is directly contrary to the tenor of Scripture, that requires hearing as the means of faith. We might go on to enumerate many more tenets, commonly received touching prophecy, which are merely traditions and dogmas vented by those elders who claim to sit in the seat of Moses, the leaven of whose doctrine we are commanded to be aware of, so far as they make the word of God void and of none effect. But these are more than we could have wished; for there is nothing more plainly, more strongly and repeatedly, commanded in the written word of God, than an obedience to his voice revealing, according to the ways severally wherein his good pleasure shall choose to speak. But these commands of God are frustrated and rendered of no effect, when we admit the doctrines of men, to prescribe to and teach us divers rules, directly opposed to the law and testimony Divine ; so that when these rules and principles of disobedience are vented in a manner which claims an authority, this is properly teaching of " the laying aside the commandments of God," that " the tra- ditions of men'* may be observed and held instead thereof, Mark vii. 3 — 13. Wherefore, upon the very same point we are now insisting, to wit, that the vision or revealing manifestation to all the prophets [Chald. all prophecy'] was to the learned become as unknown as the contents of a letter sealed, Isaiah xxix. 10 — 16. Our Saviour himself, from Isaiah, does also apply, and leave for our warning the same words : *• This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. xv. 8, 9). For thus, however sound in other doctrines of the written word of the Lord men may be, yet if, upon the subject before us, they do with a ministerial authority advance and preach their own invented systems, they put themselves under the condition unto which the last-mentioned text does refer ; and, as such, every good Christian has a commission sufficient, nay an indispensable obligation, from this sole Master of the household, to oppose them. MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 4)29 CHAP. III. OF MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. § 1. To re-assume, then, the state of our argument, it lies thus : That, as Christians, we stand bound to walk according to all the precepts and commands of God's word ; to hope also in its pro- mises, and pray for them ; to stand in awe and reverential fear of our Supreme Sovereign's denunciations ; and, finally, to believe all that is written therein, touching the discoveries of Himself graciously vouchsafed unto mankind. Moreover, since the Chris- tian church has erred universally in many things, and we in this happy part of it have renounced any human authority that has acted dissonantly from, and contrary to, the express tenor of the Divine will in several points, and are equally bound by our principles to do so in all others ; those that are of the Reformed faith and communion accordingly, building themselves wholly upon the written records of God's prophetic word, and owning the same a completely sufficient rule to determine by in all neces- sary cases, are obliged to oppose whatsoever usurps and super- sedes the authority thereof. We in like manner, in the whole scheme of the present argument, while we are treating upon the subject of God revealing himself after divers manners, according to his own good pleasure ; do think we have acted upon the general foot of duties incumbent on all Christians, whilst we have pursued strictly the measures prescribed to us from the unapproachable Throne of all Majesty in the highest, for the knowledge of Him ; and do think we stand acquitted, by the very foundations of the Reformation, whilst we renounce the authority of traditions and doctrines merely human, in the point before us, though they may claim a prescription from some part of the church in the third and the fourth centuries ; for every reformation that stops short of the rule apostolical is imperfect. § 2. In the First Part of this treatise, we have done our en- deavour to search into the true knowledge of God's word, and the proper sense and meaning of it, as it lies most expressive in the original tongues ; thence we have traced the stream nearest to the fountain, as it is conveyed in the channel of the ancient and most universally esteemed translations of the sacred text. From this foundation laid, of the Apostles and Prophets, dili- 430 PART IV. — CHAP. III. gently looked into, that we might have the more firm assurance of our faith in God, we have proceeded, in the Second Part, to examine what were the evidences of like fact, and what the principles touching it in the first, and therefore the more pure and well-instructed, ages of the Christian church; for though no reverence of antiquity ought to warrant error, yet, in the point before us, it is the most clear of it by the Scripture canon ; and truth is necessarily an elder brother to error, which is but a deviation and apostasy from the former. And because the very fact apparent in Part II. is for the most of it generally unknown, and through ignorance rashly denied, even generally also ; and forasmuch as most principles are best illustrated by their con- traries, we have endeavoured, in the Third Part hereof, to discover the rise and progress of those opposite principles which stand against the recited ones in the Second Part, and which are likely to have prevailed, in latter ages, to the almost total suppressing the evidences of facts in the latter. In the chain of this argu- ment, we have now at length, in this Fourth Part, made an inquiry into the modern doctrines and conclusions touching the ways of God revealing himself, by the Spirit of prophecy, in dreams, visions, voices heavenly, and by the prophetic afilatus, or inspiration, styled in Scripture " the word of the Lord ;" the purport of which inquiry is to discover whether the principles and doctrines now prevailing are standard by the Scriptures of truth, and agreeable either to the faith once formerly delivered to the saints, or to the testimony of the purer ages of Christianity touching it, whilst these did themselves enjoy corroborating and explanatory instances thereof. § 3. The sum of all that has been thus insisted on, according to the best ability of the inquirer, does finally amount to thus much ; that the very learned, and even more pious among the Christians of our time, as well as others, have taken up for granted many tenets, opinions, and conclusions, touching the Spirit of prophecy, which are not warrantable ; but, on the contrary, appear condemned by the very text of Scripture itself, and by the more pure ancient Fathers of the church before Con- stantino. Therefore, appealing to these, both the more sure word of prophecy and the more intelligent and uncorrupted times of Christianity ; whilst we stand acquitted by them, we do not need to be ashamed of a confession of truth, though at a time when the world is under a deluge of ignorance therein, and MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 4«31 the most unjustifiable prejudice against it. We have not ad- vanced any thing in favour (as we conceive) of a guilty and foolish enthusiasm, but such an one only as, by the tenor of our Scripture faith, we are bound, in the strongest obligations upon conscience, to admit with a reverential fear, and by the first and great commandment to observe and keep. By the law and previous testimonies of God, we are no longer therefore at liberty, without the heaviest load of Divine displeasure, to resist the Holy Ghost at any time, when He shall speak prophetically. Woe be to them that set themselves in array against their Maker : we dare not be found fighting against God in subscribing to anti-scriptural principles dictated from the pulpit ; and it is very " hard " for any one, as well as Saul, ** to kick against the pricks." § 4. Our purpose herein being to press the incumbent obliga- tion of the buried and quite forgotten precepts of God, for a reverence to his voice extraordinary, accordingly we do but urge men to have recourse to their first principles, of believing on the Scripture foot, and retrieving from oblivion the ways and steps of our ancient fathers in Christ, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, the first believers in Jesus, and the noble army of martyrs, con- fessors, and witnesses of his mighty power in the Christian church for three hundred years. We do not plead for any exemption from an obedience to whatsoever He, our Divine Saviour, autho- rizes and commanded his Apostles to preach ; that we should observe and do ; nor have produced any precedent of vacating and destroying the office of the teacher in the Christian church, or laid a foundation of persuading men to renounce it ; but, con- trary wise, founded ourselves upon the practice and doctrine of the ages that did allow the same, under the condition of preserving sacred also that of the prophet, and the joyous privilege of the church, to partake the testimonies of Christ's presence and abode with her, as the sovereign and ruling Head of the household of faith. § 5. The bent of the whole treatise being intended but a defence of the rights and regalities of our sole Master upon earth, the Divine Prophet and Royal Priest of his church ; wherever these fail to be concerned, let all argument sink into nothing, as they deserve. Some other of the prerogatives of this mighty King, as they are contained in the grand charter from which we hold the knowledge of him, and have a title to an ^^ PART IV. — CHAP. Ill, inheritance among the heirs of his purchased possession, were once, in the purpose of the author hereof to have here compen- diously annexed; I mean those more especially which were acknowledged by the ages of the Christian church, wherein the Spirit of prophecy was owned the guide in all truth, and the sole competent expositor of his own dictates in the Scripture. For we have taken notice already, that in those prophetic times the doctrine and faith of the kingdom of Christ (to be in a far more glorious manner exercised and universally prevailing than was then) did generally either obtain, or was not exploded as in the ages since it has been ; and the Bishop of Bath and Wells's De- monstration of the Messias acquaints us that they did also expect the Elias of Malachi still to come. But because this treatise has already swelled to a considerable bulk, and the great subject once proposed is of so vast an extent, spread through all the books of the Old and New Testament, that the most com- pendious collating of texts upon that head, to give an abstract any thing distinct thereof must of necessity have taken up many sheets ; we have for the present dropped that design : though I cannot but think it highly advancing the honour of our God and King, if men would be persuaded to look anew into the Scriptures, and examine them afresh upon that subject ; lest, while we pre- tend to know him fully, we are willingly ignorant, and despisers too, of his crown and dignity. For we have already cited Dr. Grabes's report, that all who were sound in faith during the first ages of Christianity did acknowledge the doctrine of the kingdom state of the church to come ; and since there are many tracts written thereon of late days, though little preaching of it to the people, even by those ministers who believe it, we hope the ancient faith of the saints in that point is reviving, though we cannot without much astonishment but observe that in these modern tracts little or no notice is taken of the many prophecies, both in the Old and New Testament, which declare most ex- pressly that the Spirit of prophecy revived is to attend that great revolution in the church. But as I have, in divers parts of this treatise, instanced already in several of those prophetic promises, I wish that the omitting thereof by the writers on that subject may not flow from somewhat of ** unwillingness to receive the love of the truth," in this point; for to be willingly ignorant of the truth as it is in Jesus, is no small crime ; and to be par- tially affected in our minds against it, is alleged for the special MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 433 cause, 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11, why God would deliver up the apo- statized Christian church unto, and send upon her, " strong delusion." § 9. But as we are limited in this treatise to the subject of the prophetical testimonies of Jesus, the Word, who liveth from everlasting and abideth for ever, — the Wisdom, who was from before the foundations of the earth ; we say there was an ori- ginal subordination of man's understanding, framed by the great Creator to that Word and Wisdom ; and his Creator made a demand from him of that subordination before the fall, in the command arbitrary not to touch the tree of knowledge. Thus after the world was fallen under the dominion of infidelity, and God called Abraham to become the father of the faithful, he arbitrarily demands an homage of his understanding to the voice and sovereign will of his Lord in the precept of circumcision. In like manner, all the prophets being reckoned from Samuel (Acts iii. 24), the original right of God to an immediate and arbitrary command over his creatures is by him asserted ; saying, " To hearken to the voice of the Lord, is more acceptable to him than sacrifice (though instituted) : and disobedience to it is rebellion, and parallel to the sin of witchcraft and idolatry." All the Prophets of the Old Testament do frequently remind the children of Israel of this original constitution of their covenant relation unto God, made in Abraham, and more explicitly de- clared at Mount Sinai, and do charge the rejectors of the word of the Lord by the prophet with rebellion against God their Sovereign. Furthermore, we say that the prophetical declara- tions of this kind are none of the ritual and civil laws which our Saviour, the Lawgiver of his church, came to abolish; nay, on the contrary. He enforces them anew. *' Behold I send you forth " (Matt. X. 16,14); *'and whoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, it shall be more tolerable," &c. But " he that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me" (Luke x. 10). "And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, and ye shall be endowed with power from on high " (chap. xxiv. 49). " Verily, verily I say unto you, He that re- ceiveth whomsoever I shall send {eav Tiva Tre/z^^w, if I shall send any man, he that receiveth him) receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (John xiii.20). § 7. According to the tenor of this constitution, revived and established by our Saviour after the day of Pentecost, that He 3k 43'4 I'ART IV. — CHAP. III. sent the promise of the Father upon his disciples ; not only the eleven but all that received power from on high, that is, the Spirit of prophecy, were to be received and heard, as Christ himself, who sent them forth. For here is no limitation to any number of dying persons, in all the tenor of this commission; the great Prophet, who liveth and abideth for ever, is to be received, heard, and obeyed, in whomsoever He " shall send," without limitation of time» Thus then, being sent and em- powered from on high, while the Apostles remained all at Jeru- salem, " those that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word " (Acts viii. 4). In particular, St. Paul being sent forth a minister by Christ, he pleads largely in the Epistle to the Romans, touching the covenant and law of faith made with Abraham, who received the promise of having all the nations of the earth blessed in him, because he obeyed the im- mediate voice of God. And in this respect the true circum- cision were the children and followers of the faith of Abra- ham, who worshipped God in the Spirit as revealing himself then by the holy Apostles and Prophets ; on which account, says he, Rom. iii. 31, " Do we then make void the law through faith ? God forbid : yea, we establish the law." And thus pursuing the argument of faith, the faith of Abraham, he, the Apostle by the Spirit, established the ancient root and founda- tion of it, that is, an obedience to, and reliance upon, God re- vealing. Therefore his exhortations apostolic, which are uni- versally and perpetually obliging commands, are frequent to the same effect : " Quench not the the Spirit.. ..Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom. ...Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.... Obey them who have spoken unto you the word of the Lord.... If any prophesy according to the analogy of faith, let them prophesy... .Despise not pro- phesyings (or whomsoever Christ shall send) ;....for he that des- piseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath given unto you his Holy Spirit....O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth ? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? Are ye so foolish ; having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ? He therefore that minis- tereth to you the Spirit, doth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?.. ..Even as Abraham believed God (re- vealing), and it was accounted to him for righteousness ; know ye MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 435 therefore, that they which be of faith are the children of Abra- ham, and are blessed with faithful Abraham. ...And we have received the promise of the Spirit through faith; for the just shall live by faith" (Gal. iii. 1 — 14). § 8. The authority therefore of the prophetic Spirit, the great promise of the Father, that is, of the Paraclete, who received of Christ and shewed the will of God unto men, and filled up our Saviour's words, ** I will not leave you orphans, I will come again unto you I will be with you always unto the end of the world," was so settled in the apostolic times, that "thus saith the Holy Ghost" was of the same significancy in the Evangelical prophet, as " thus saith the Lord" in those preceding him ; with this distinction, that though among the prophets of the old there was none greater than John the Baptist, yet the least that fol- lowed was greater than he ; if the prophets of the Old Testa- ment had a celestial trumpet put to their mouths, those of the New also "sounded out the word of the Lord" (1 Thess. i. 8). And thus '^ to one was given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he would ; so the whole body," the church of Christ, *' were all baptised into one body, and made to drink into one Spirit." The character in which the prophet spake under the Gospel was no less than the voice of God (1 Cor. vii. 10); and if it was the Spirit of Christ which signified things to the ancient Prophets, the word of the Lord also as of old did abide in the believers after Christ. Thus the Gentiles at Antioch (Acts xiii. 48, 49) " glorified the word of the Lord ; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed it ; and the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region." And saith the Apostle, 1 Pet. i. 25, " The word of the Lord endureth forever ; and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." The Word Jehovah is, in the New Testament, the Alpha and Omega, who is, was, and is to come : therefore the majesty of that four-lettered name, the most glorious of all wherewith the Inconceivable is styled, is not a whit sunk or abated under the Gospel dispensation. In like manner, parallel to the phrase and style of the Old Testament, James prophesying, chap. v. 4, says, " the cries of them which have reaped your fields are entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts." And thus again, Rom. ix. 29, is by the Greek, " except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed," &c. 436 PART IV. — CHAP. III. § 9. According to this constitution of the church, the founda- tion of the Apostles and Prophets stands cemented together, under Christ the Head and corner stone, with respect to obeying the immediate voice of the Lord prophetically ; and the true circum- cision, or church among Christians, followers and children of the faith of Abraham, were as much bound as ever the Jews were to bow the knee, and not despise or reject the Spirit of prophecy ; which was certainly no less among them the Spirit of Christ than it was under the Law. The Gospel (as the Greek word signifies) was the prophetical message of God, in the primitive times of Christianity, even as the New-Testament Scriptures assert, " that the Gospel was preached unto Abraham, and unto the Israelites in the wilderness." In pursuance of these principles, and the order established by Christ and his Apostles, the church, rightly constituted under prophets and teachers, did, for a hundred years after the apostolic age, continue without any open breach of that constitution. ApoUinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, began first the war upon those who had the testimony of Jesus, which, in the prophetic style of the Old Testament, was a rebellion against the Lord, and, in that of the New, was a rejecting of Christ himself. Wherefore, the sounder part of the church, the then adherers to prophecy, who durst not violate the commands of Christ and his Apostles in this case, pleaded the promises of the Spirit prophetically to be perpetual ; and the denunciations of the ancient prophets on this head to be equally valid then, and in force, as ever before. Which promises and denunciations are more at large specified towards the close of Part III. } 10. About the year 200, the adherents to the Spirit of prophecy, and the despisers and rejecters of Him, became formed severally into distinct communions ; and from that time the sub- ject and scope of the Third Part of this treatise shews at large how the matter proceeded for two hundred years more ; at the end of which the issue seems to have been an exclusion from the communion of the Christian church of all that should pretend to speak by a power above their own. And during the times of this dissension, and different communions in the Christian church, the question was, on which side that schism in the body was to be charged. Now the adherents to prophecy alleged, that the union of the body was that one Spirit prophetically existing, who, being submitted to, did knit together the several parts and churches, and jointed it into one temple, in and under Christ the MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING I'ROPHECY. 437 Sovereign Head : therefore, these did turn, upon the other side^ that of St. Jude, *' In the last time there shall be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts ; these be they who separate them- selves, sensual, having not the Spirit." On the contrary, the Apollinarian churches claimed an authority in the bishops unin- spired, superior to that of prophets, and, in consequence, that the right of judicature over spirits belonging to them : they tried that of Montanus and others, and pronounced a sentence of condemnation upon the Spirit which moved and spake by them, and of excommunication upon the persons for obeying it ; which persons excommunicated adhering to the primary discipline in the church of the Spirit prophetical, being subject only to be judged by others who had the Spirit extraordinary for doing it, did form themselves (after excommunication) into a distinct communion and discipline under the Spirit ; and, for refusing to submit to the sentence abovesaid, they were called the schis- matics ; and, though they continued sound in all points of doc- trine and unblameable in life, they were pronounced heretics too. § 11. This being the case of the original breach into the constitution of the church framed by Christ and his Apostles, under prophets and teachers ; we shall recapitulate nothing more of what is said touching it in Part III. than that the Apolli- narians growing in number, through the corruption of times succeeding, they took the place, after Constantine, of the ca- tholic church visible. We know very well that, from and after the time of the total suppression or extinction of public pro- phecyings, the Catholic Church embodied under a new constitu- tion, wherein truth and orthodoxy took its denomination from number, grew more and more daily into usurpations over the authority of the sacred word of prophecy written: and thence it followed, that the dissenters from, and opposers of, such usur- pations were termed heretics, even as it is at this day ; that the church, assuming the name of Catholic from her political union and numbers, do brand us of the Reformation with the odious character of heretics ; which we, to clear ourselves of, do appeal to the law and testimony Divine from the decision and determi- nation of the said Catholic Church usurping an authority over it. Now, this being the foundation whereon Protestants stand in all other points, I believe there is none among us will be so shameless as openly to assert, that the point of prophecy ought 438 PART IV. CHAP. III. to be denied the benefit of this foundation : on the contrary, I am fully assured that I am writing and appealing to an age and nation wherein it will be universally owned that no man or number of men are to judge the law of God in Scripture, but will readily agree that even that is to judge for and determine them. § 12. If this be a general rule, whereon Protestants do pro- ceed and build themselves in all other points, there is much more reason still why men should not act without or against it in the case of the Spirit of prophecy, whensoever it shall or may appear, because of the sublimity and high importance of the subject : for the Spirit of prophecy is properly man's Superior: nay, his Lord and Governor, and even his Lawgiver ; seeing He that spake at any time, and at all times, the word and sovereign will of God our Maker cannot be less than so. Let us then give to God the things that are God's peculiar ; and, touching the ways of the Spirit, confess that his law preceding is perfectly holy, just, and good, and the sole measure by which all the ways of men are to be accounted equal or unequal. For, as it is in Isa. xl. 13, " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?" or ought to be allowed ever to do so ? § 13. The straight line of God's word being admitted for the indefeasible rule of proceeding in our judgment on all such appearances spiritual -, whatsoever being applied to it, and is thereby found to be crooked, ought to be rejected by all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity ; for the tenor of the first and great commandment to love God with all our soul, and in the first place to seek His kingdom, and the honour of the King of Glory, does absolutely oblige us to submit to his sovereign government, by the Spirit of prophecy administering the same over us ; without which a due regard is not paid to his special commandment in 1 John iii. 23, of believing in the name (which includes the authority) of his Son Jesus Christ. So far then as the church, or greater body of professed Christians, have in any age, past or present, departed, in this matter of inspiration pro- phetic, from the perfect rule of faith, and usurped and exercised an authority which never belonged to any of them ; so far we are justified in the sight of God, under the act of believing in MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 4)39 Him, and not in the conclusions of the church, either past or present. But, in the whole of this argument, we are founded upon the supposal of prophecyings agreeable to the written word in all things; and as to visions and voices heard, if the import of what is so seen and heard be personal only, they ought to be obeyed or disobeyed according to the faith of the receiver, the matter does not concern Christians in common : but if the word of the Lord come by vision or voice to any one, to impart it to the churches, for their public edification, exhortation, and comfort, the subject of such a message is to undergo, in ail points, the same examination as public prophecyings. § 14. Let the devil then take never so fine an appearance of an angel of light; either seating himself in a throne under the style of the universal church, or appearing as an angel from Heaven, to give his dictates by vision, voice, or prophecyings : in either of these cases equally, if any other Gospel or message be taught different from what Jehovah hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began, the same standard remains for both ; and in either case let him be anathema mara- natha. Whatsoever legends of stories therefore are to be pro- duced of false visions, dreams, and voices, that served for the occasion of introducing errors into the church after the ages we have mentioned in the Second and Third Parts of this treatise ; they ought all to have undergone the Scripture test ; and the admitting of them without such scrutiny, and without their being approved by it, was as well an effect of the anti-Christian apostasy as the anti-scriptural condemnation of other prophets (for any thing I can find) was the first spring of that apostasy. For, having measured and weighed the several articles exhibited against the prophetical and inspired, in the second and third centuries, by the best discoveries of the Scripture law that I am able to make ; the judgment which was passed against them was built upon arguments merely human, which stand condemned themselves by the written word and sovereign laws of God. If it be so, and provisionally, until it shall be made to appear other- wise, I cannot but conceive, from 2 Thess. ii. 3, 12, that He who withheld and letted the usurpation of the man of sin was the Spirit of prophecy subsiding in the church of Christ; which, when it was taken away, by reason that men received not the love of the truth ; for that very cause " God sent them strong delusion, that they" who would not receive the truth « should 440 PART IV. CHAP. III. believe a lie ;" that is, they who would not suffer the burden of true prophecy should be given up to give credit to the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, namely, visions and voices, from the adversary and opponent to the Spirit of Christ. § 15. Dr. Stillingfleet's Fanaticism of the Church of Rome tells us, pp. 226, 227, ' That the most celebrated religious orders * of Benedictines, Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and * Jesuits, were instituted by enthusiastic persons upon the credit * of their visions and revelations. For the Church of Rome is no * such enemy to enthusiasms and revelations as some believe: * but if, among all their visions, men do but mix some that con- * firm their particular doctrines ; as the visions of Juliana, con- * cerning the great worship of the blessed virgin from her Son, * and others touching transubstantiation, worshipping of saints, * purgatory, the holy vernacle at Rome, and such like fopperies; * for these make all the rest very acceptable among them. And * as to the inspired persons (p. 241) who were founders of reli- * gious orders, popes have been extremely partial in favour of * theni, because they found these enthusiasts their most useful * instruments in all their usurpations over the princes, the secular * clergy, and the people ; insomuch that, when some of these * enthusiasts, under the name of one Joachim, published a book, * anno 1254, entitled, *' The Everlasting Gospel," wherein they * so highly extolled love that they said, God was only good, * and not just, and that the Gospel of Christ was not " the Gospel * of the kingdom," but must give way to another Gospel ; the * honour of these friars was dearer to the pope than that of Christ * and the Christian religion, because the scope of this book was * to advance the honour of religious orders. Whereas, on the * other side, when some enthusiasts called Beguines, and styling < themselves Apostolicals and the Illuminated^ spread mightily in * Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; these were excommu- < nicated and even extirpated with the sword, because they * charged the church to be antichrist, and the popes and prelates * to be impostors and deceivers. And again, when Ignatius, the * founder of the Jesuits, abounding in visions and revelations, < besought of Pope Paul III. an institution of his order, anno < Christi, 1540, the pope being thoroughly satisfied in the main * point of their being serviceable to the interest of that church, * all other difficulties were soon conquered ; and the pope himself MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. Ml ^ having read the first draught of the rules of the society of * Jesuits, cried out, " The Spirit of the Lord is here." But the < most gross enthusiasm (pp. 282, 283), and extravagant illusions * of fanc}', is the fruit of leaving the Scriptures, and that most * plain and certain way of religion delivered therein ; against * which there can be no better care imaginable than the true * understanding of the nature of the Christian religion; but it is * the design of the Church of Rome, because it is their interest, * to keep the Bible out of the hands of the people.' § 16. If then, in the further ingulfed and darker times of antichrist, after the expulsion of prophecying, the church fell universally into a state like to that of the Jewish, represented in Jer. V. 31, " The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule" (or get money) **by their means, and my people love to have it so," an astonishment indeed and a filthiness was thereby committed. This practice, nevertheless, of the great whore and mother of abominations flowed from the same spring, that the rejecting of true prophets did — namely, the laying aside and voiding the law of God, as a standard decisive, either for hplding fast or disapproving what was good or bad by it. When the Apostle directs to " prove all things," in order to " hold fast that which is good," we Protestants allow that the proof and touchstone whereby we are to be directed to choose the good and refuse the evil, is the law and testimony precedently Di- vine ; accordingly, among the " all things," every false standard which men shall presumptuously advance, and place for trial, instead of the word of God, is in itself evil, and ought to be refused by that apostolic canon. Seeing, therefore, that the Apostle, in 1 Thess. v. 19 — 21, does introduce the command of proving all things, with the cautions prefixed of " not quenching the Spirit," or " despising of prophesyings," it is manifest thence that we are awfully warned not to try the Spirit of prophecy by received traditions of the elders, or by any preconceptions or partiality and bias in our affections against it. Now, that we may be disengaged from all prepossessions on this great point, and in order to be candid and impartial in the judgment of it, — § 17. Let us therefore take the Apostle's direction to " prove all things," by examining the conclusions and tenets of the third and fourth centuries, touching the Spirit of prophecy, by the one indeficient rule, rather than take them for granted, and so put the Montanists (or prophets of those times) into the number Sl 442 PART IV. — CHAP. III. of glaring heretics, and always mention them as such. But leaving others either to judge without examination, or to com- pare the things of the Spirit then with the spiritual things of the written word, the standard prophetical undoubtedly Divine ; 1 shall, from my own full persuasion of mind, provisionally, until better information in the word of the Lord, conclude, that the prophecy of Isa. v. 1 — 7 may be pertinently applied unto those times : " My well-beloved hath a vineyard, in a very fruitful hill ; and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wall about it : and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, 1 pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard : what could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it ? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. And now, go to, I will tell you what 1 will do to my vineyard : I will take away the fence thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down ; and 1 will lay it waste ; it shall not be pruned^ nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns : I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant ; and he looked for justice, but behold oppression ; for righteous- ness, but behold a cry." } 18. According to this prophecy, the vineyard planted with the choicest vine may well be understood of the Christian church also, planted alone at first by the Spirit of prophecy ; which being rooted out in the ages we have treated of, the vineyard left was degenerated into wild grapes, even soured with the doctrines of natural wisdom, under the figments of the true vine. In all the parts of human literature, she flourished indeed, and branched out large shoots ; but all the luminaries of the church in that kind were, after Constantine, tinctured with sen- timents in respect to the Spirit of prophecy very different from, and even opposite to, those of the purer ages before him. And it is observable, that all the learning of the fourth and the fifth centuries was far from stemming the tide that ran strongly to- wards the gulf of the great apostasy ; for the Spirit of pro- phecy, which withstood it, being removed, the inclinations and MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 443 propensity of men to fix upon another cement of union in the church, and another visible governor and umpire, left no way for the stream to run but the same channel wherein the imperial and secular authority flowed. And thus, God, by judicially withdrawing what they had long first rejected, despised, and opposed, took away the enclosure of the church (separating it from the world), and broke down the wall thereof, laying it waste, and as a common with the sensual and worldly, unpruned and undug, to be overrun with briars and thorns, undistin- guished by the dews of Heaven ; (for the strictness of the an- cient discipline, was kept up merely and only by the authority of the Spirit prophetical ;) and all this was the fruit and effect of their own choice ; for when he looked for their acknowledg- ments in a cultivating of the choicest vine, the Spirit of pro- phecy, instead of justice to Him, behold oppression ; instead of righteousness, in this account by faith, behold a cry, *< We will not have this man to reign over us." §19. Why should we wonder that this should be the case, in Christian ages that despised prophecy, and nevertheless flourished in human learning ? We have enough said, both in the Old and New Testament, upon the head of worldly wisdom, to make us cease astonishment; for although the sun sets, there remain beauteous things to be said of the moon and stars ; and the clearness of the heavens may be lovely still, notwithstanding that with the children of faith the most luminous presence of God with his church must ever be accounted the Spirit of prophecy. Men indeed, by their natural understanding and weak eyesight in spiritual things, will be prone to admire what is most agreeable to their own state; and the deep things of God which the Spirit produceth, because far out of their sight, will be despised. There- fore the Lord spake thus to Isaiah with a strong hand, and in- structed him not to walk in the way of that people, saying, chap, viii. 12 — 17, " Strike not in with their confederacy, neither fear ye their fear; sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; let Him be your fear, let him be your dread, and He shall be for a sanctuary '* (a Refuge for you), " but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel ; for a gin, and for a snare, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and many among them shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony " (as a scroll rolled up), " seal the law among my disciples. And I " (saith the Prophet) " will wait upon '444 PART IV. — CHAP. in. the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him :'' chap. xxix. 10 — 19 : " For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes ; and the vision of all the prophets is become unto you as the words of a letter sealed, which is delivered to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee ; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to one that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I am not learned. And the Lord said. Forasmuch as this people draw near with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men ; therefore the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid : for shall the work say of Him that made it. He made me not well, he had no understanding ? The deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity ; the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." § 20. The number of bright constellations for human litera- ture, in the fourth and fifth centuries, continuing to shine in the absence of prophecy, (and indeed the more so thereby,) and their soundness in other points, may be consistent enough with an unwarrantable contempt of the Spirit extraordinary ; as the rebellious house of Israel continued to be the church, and even as it is with us unto this day. What we are to do is to inquire whether they or the moderns who stand up in defence of that contempt and despite, and have added many other inventions of their own opposition into prophecy, be built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles in that opposition. In pursuit therefore, and search after the modern opinions touching it, I have herein exemplified twenty-four general articles of doctrine superadded to the fourteen in the Third Part. By all which a computation may be made whether the ways and precepts of the clergy now, for the trying of spirits, be more equal than those of their predecessors, and whether either of them be, ac- cording to the law and the testimony, the equal and just and good ways of God for it. The divines from whom I have drawn these twenty-four doctrines are still living, and men of much more literature than I pretend to : let them therefore make out their own ways, and those of the fathers whom they follow, to Ije equal by the Divine Law if they can. As to us who dare MODERN OPINIONS CONCERNING PROPHECY. 445 hot allow them, if we have mistaken the tenor and scope of the word of God in any point, let them set us to rights from it; and if we are under error, touching the state of things in the most primitive times, of the second and third centuries, let them charitably shew from authors of like antiquity that we are so. All other authorities will be short of due satisfaction, be- cause all ages, since the extinction of the Spirit, must compara- tively be very deficient in this point, on many accounts. The scriptural enthusiasm, which we defend alone, ought ever to have been "held fast" as good, upon the *' proving all things" touching it ; and as I do not espouse the cause of any other, if there be men who wilfully stand up against this, I leave once more to their consideration the prophecy of Isaiah xxx. 8 — 11, from the Hebrew thus: " Now, go write it before them in a table, and engrave it in a book, that it may be for the latter day, a testimony for ever ; that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord j who say to the seers. Ye shall not see -j and to the prophets, Ye shall not prophesy unto us right things j speak unto us smooth things, prophesy delusions. Get ye back out of the way ; turn aside out of the (right) path j make the Holy One of Israel to withdraw from before our faces." § 21. It has been pleaded, in the foregoing chapters, by the despisers of the prophetic word, that 'there is no need of prophecy,* which we have already taken notice of to be the very specific thing forbidden by the Apostle, 1 Thess. v. 20, the Greek word there rendered " despise" signifying * to esteem a thing nothing worth :' wherefore, in respect to those who place themselves in the seat of the scornful, it is necessary to add here somewhat of the advantages and benefits of that glorious gift which was origi- nally by Supreme Wisdom bestowed to the edification of the church (I Cor. xiv. 22). First, then, we think it ought to be esteemed a high favour from God, and a distinguishing mark of heavenly grace, to communicate Himself from the throne of all majesty, as well as a sovereign's speech to his people is rightly termed gracious. We Christians can easily grant that the ces- sation of prophecy among the Jews for four hundred years, from Malachi to John Baptist, was a turning away of God's face from that people, and an eclipse of the light of his countenance towards them. Among the earliest and most honoured ages of Chris- tians, the Spirit of Christ in prophecyings was esteemed as the 'M6 PART IV. — CHAP. III. presence of Christ with his spouse. And in the Second Part hereof we have noted, that there is not a person to be found, for three hundred years of the age of Christ or his church, tliat ever rose to so high an anti-Christianism as to say or teach pubhcly, * there was no need of prophecy.' And whoever now does so we are sure this is not a doctrine of the Gospel, but clearly the reverse to it; for the testimony of Jesus is surely something worth to those who " seek not their own, but Christ Jesus the Lord." The testifier of Christ is called the Paraclete, or Com- forter, in his teaching; and the Greek word rendered " Gospel" signifies only