after we read that the Princes of Iudah by whom Grotius understands the Senators of the great Sanhedrin they come up from the Kings house to the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lords house which probably was the place where the great Sanhedrin sat where after a particular examination of Ieremiah they acquit him as a person not worthy to dye upon a counterfeiting Prophecy but declare that he spake unto them in the name of the Lord. And in this sense Grotius likewise understands what is said of Zedekiah concerning Ieremiah to the Princes of Iudah afterwards behold he is in your hand for the King is not he that can do ought against you i. e. saith Grotius in manibus Synedrii cujus est judicare de Propheta vero aut falso And to this many make those words of our Saviour refer that it is impossible a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem because the seat of the great Sanhedrin was in Ierusalem and so elsewhere our Saviour saith O Ierusalem Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee because there it was the true Prophets were destroyed as though they had been false ones and Gods own messengers punished with the death of seducers which was lâ—pidation And on this very account many are of opinion that our Saviour was condemned by the Sanhedrin at Ierusalem which is supposed to have been assembled in the house of Caiaphas the High Priest when Christ was carried thither for examination which some think to have been at his lodgings in the Temple others at his Palace in the City For we read that the chief Priests and the Elders and all the Council were met together at the High Priests Palace in order to our Saviours tryal The next morning they were met early together again in order to the further scanning of this business but they seem not to examine Christ concerning a true spirit of Prophecy but concerning his being the Messias and calling himself the Son of God and so they would seem rather to proceed upon the Law against blasphemy then that against false Prophets But that which was the greatest security of the people against the imposture of false Prophets was the certain rules of judging them which were laid down in the Law of Moses Which may be comprehended under these two heads such as concern their doctrine or such as concern their predictions First such as concerned the Prophets doctrine which should especially be looked after because the main office of a Prophet was to be interpres internuncius divinae voluntatis to be a revealer of Gods will to men For the primary notion of a Prophet doth not lie in foretelling future events but in declaring and interpreting to the world the mind of God which he receives by immediate revelation from himself So that the receiving what he makes known by immediate revelation is that which formally constitutes a Prophet but it is wholly extrinsecal and accidental what time his Prophecy respects whether past present or to come but because future contingencies are the furthest out of the reach of humane understanding therefore the predictions of such have been chiefly looked on as the chief note and character of a Prophet as being apprehended to be the strongest evidence of Divine revelation And from hence it is in Scripture that the Patriarchs as Abraham and others are called Prophets not because of any predictions uttered by them but because of the frequency of immediate Divine revelation among them And hence likewise those in the New Testament who expounded the Scriptures by immediate inspiration are called Prophets and this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by the Apostle the exposition of the hidden mysteries of the Old Testament by an immediate inspiration And there is no word in the Hebrew for a Prophet which may not equally respect all differences of time but every one doth import immediate inspiration for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly is one qui revelat abscondita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Seer chiefly respects the clear representation of the intellectual species by the lumen propheticum to the understanding and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carries an equal indifferency to all circumstances of times This being then the chief notion of a Prophet whatever he declared as the mind and will of God must be searched and examined to see what consonancy it hath thereto For the question which Moses supposeth is founded upon clear and evident reason And if thou shalt say in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken For it being plain that there may be false Prophets as well as true we had need of some certain rules to judge of what is delivered for divine revelation For the clearing of which important question I lay down these principles The immediate dictates of natural light are no sufficient standard to judge of divine revelation by I mean not in reference to consonancy or repugnancy to natural light but in reference to the extent and latitude of divine revelation i. e. that natural light doth not contain in it whatever may be known of God or of his will and that upon these reasons 1. It implyes no repugnancy to any dictate of nature that God should reveal any thing more of his mind and will then is contained in the light of nature 2. Nature reacheth as to matters concerning religion no further then the obligation to duty but leaves the particular determination of the manner of obedience to divine positive Laws as is clear in reference to the time place and particular duties of worship 3. Nature owning an universal obligation to the will of God in whatever he shall command doth suppose a power in God to command what he pleaseth 4. Nature is sensible of its own decayes and the imperfection of its own light and therefore seems rather to require further illumination then to put any bar against it 5. Mans happiness being a free gift of God it stands to the highest reason that he should have the prescribing of the conditions which are in order to it now these conditions being the results not of Gods naeture but of his arbitrarious will it is impossible that natural light could ever reach to the full discovery of them 6. It hath been the general sense of all Nations in the world that God may reveal more of his will then nature can reach unto which sense discovers its self in two things 1. Praying to their several gods for direction 2. Hearkâ—ing after pretended Oracles which the Devil could never have had that advantage of deceiving the world by had it not been for this general sense of mankind that there wanted some particular revelation from God to make men happy So then this may be assumed as a principle that God may reveal more of his mind
God that day seeing it was neither new-moon nor Sabbath Whereby it is both evident that the Prophets did undertake the office of instructing the people on their solemn Festivals and that it was their custom to resort to them for that end Thus we see what care God took for the instruction of his people in a time of so general an Apostacy as that of the ten tribes was when the Church of God could not be known by that constant visibility and oâ—tward glory which some speak so much of but was then clouded in obscurity and shrouded it self under the mantlâ—s of some Prophets which God continued among them and that not by any lineal succession neither though the Iews would fain make the gift of Prophecy to be a kind of Cabala too and conveyed in a constant succession from one Prophet to another Neither were these Schools of the Prophets only in Israel but in Iudah likewise was God known and his Name was great among these Schools there In Ierusalem it self there was a Colledge where Huldah the Prophetess lived 2 Kings 22. 14. some render Mishna in secunda urbis parte for Ierusalem was divided into the upper and nether part of the City Abulensis and Lyra will have it refer to the three walls of the City in which the three chief parts of it were comprized in the first the Temple and the Kings Pâ—lace in the second the Nobles and the Prophets houses and in the third the common people Iosephus seems to favour the devision of the City into three parts but Pineda thinks the second part of the City was most inhabited by Artificers and that the Prophets and the wise men and such as frequented the Temple most dwelt in the City of David within the first wall and therefore he conjectures that the Colledge was upon Mount Sion and so properly called Sion Colledge and he explains that house which wisdom is said to have built and hewn out her seven pillars Prov. 9. 1. by this Colledge which he supposeth was built by Solomon in Mount Sion and thence ver 3. she is said to cry upon the highest places of the City Thus much may serve concerning the original and institution of these Schools of the Prophets I now come to the second thing promised concerning the Schools of the Prophets which is that it was Gods ordinary method to call those persons out of these Schools whom he did employ in the discharge of the prophetical office Two things will be necessary for the clearing of this First what tendency their education in those Schools had towards the fitting them for their prophetical office Secondly what evidence the Scripture gives us that God called the Prophets out from these Colledges The first of these is very requisite to be cleared because the prophetical office depending upon immediate inspiration it is hard to conceive what influence any antecedent and preparatory dispositions can have upon receiving the prophetical spirit It is commonly known how much the generality of Iewish Writers do insist on the necessity of these qualifications antecedent to a spirit of prophecie 1. An excellent natural temper 2. Good accomplishments both of with and fortunes 3. Separation from the world 4. Congruity of place which they make proper to Iudaea 5. Opportunity of time 6. And divine inspiration These are so largely discoursed of by many learned men from Iewish Writers that it will be both tedious and impertinent to recite much of their opinions concerning them who since they have lost the gift of prophecie seem to have lost too that wisdom and natural understanding which they make one of the most necessary qualifications of a Prophet It is not easie to imagine what subserviency riches could have to a prophetical spirit unless the Iews be of Simon Magus his opinion that these gifts of the Holy Ghost may be purchased with money and if so they think themselves in as likely a way to bid fair for a prophetical spirit as any people in the world Or is it that they thiâ—k it impossible any without them should have that fâ—ee cheerful and generous spirit which they make so necessary to a prophetick spirit that it is an axiome of great authority with them Spiritus sanctus non residet super hominem moestum and they think Elisha his fit of passion did excuss his prophetick spirit from him which he was fain to retrive again with a fit of Musick There are only two sorts of those antecedent dispositions which seem to bear any affinity with the prophetick spirit And those are such as tended to the improvement of their natural faculties and such as tended to their advancement in piety and consequently to the subduing all irregular motions in their souls Not that either of these did concur by way of efficiency to the production of a spirit of prophecie which is an opinion Maimonides seems very favourable to but that God might make choise particularly of such persons to remove all prejudices against them in those they were sent unto For nothing could possibly dissatisfie them more concerning divine inspiration then if the person who pretended to it were of very weak and shallow intellectuals or known to be of an irregular conversation In order therefore to the fuller satisfaction of men concerning these two qualisications this Institution of them in the Schools of the Prophets was of great subserviency because therein their only imployment was to improve in knowledge and especially in true piety This latter being the most necessary disposition since the Apostle hath told us that the Prophets were Holy men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And in order to this the greatest part we can find of the exercises of those who were educated in these Schools of the Prophets were instructions in the Law and the solemn celebration of the praises of God Which appears in Scripture to have been their chief employment as Prophets and by which they are said to prophecie So at Gibeah at the Oratory there we find a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery a Tabret and pipe and a Harp before them and prophecying It may seem somewhat strange to consider what relation these Musical instruments had to the prophecying here mentioned Are Musical notes like some seeds Naturalists speak of which will help to excite a prophetick spirit Or do they tend to elevate the spirits of men and so put them into a greater capacity of Enthusiasm Or is it because Musick is so excellent for allaying the tumults of inward passions and so fitting the soul for the better entertainment of the Divine Spirit Or was all this prophecying here spoken of nothing else but vocal and instrumental Musick So some indeed understand it that it was only the praising God with spiritual songs and melody wherein one as the Praecentor began a hymn which the rest took from him and carried on
from the true God or from Idols and false Gods So that the meer pretence to Divine revelation was that which God would have punished with so great severity The Iews tell us of three sorts of Prophets who were to be punished with death by men and three other sorts who were reserved to divine punishment Of the first rank were these 1. He that prophecyed that which he had not heard and for this they instance in Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah who made him horns of iron and said Thus saith the Lord this was the lying Prophet 2. He that speaks that which was revealed not to him but to another and for this they instance in Hananiah the son of Azur but how truly I shall not determine this was the Plagiary Prophet 3. He that prophesied in the name of an Idol as the Prophets of Baal did this was the Idol Prophet These three when once fully convicted were to be put to death The other rank of those which were left to Gods hand consisted of these 1. He that stisles and smothers his own prophecy as Jonas did by which it may seem that when the Divine Spirit did overshadow the understanding of the Prophets yet it offered no violence to their faculties but left them to the free determination of their own wills in the execution of their office but this must be understood of a lower degree of prophecy for at sometimes their prophecyes were as fire in their bones that they were never at any rest till they had discharged their office But withall by the example of Ionas we see that though the Spirit of prophecy like the fire on the Altar could only be kindled from heaven yet it might be destroyed when it was not maintained with something to feed upon or when it met not with suitable entertainment from the spirits of those it fell upon it might retreat back again to heaven or at least lie hid in the embers till a new blast from the Spirit of God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retrieve it into its former heat and activity Thus it was with Ionas 2. The other was he that despised the words of a true Prophet of such God saith Deut. 18. 19. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall not hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Which Maimonides explains by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death by the hands of God which he thus distinguisheth from the Cereth that he makes the death per manus coeli to be less then the Cereth because this latter continued in the soul after death but the other was expiated by death but generally they interpret it of a sudden death which falls upon the person 3. The last is he who hearkens not to the words of his own Prophecy of which we have a most remarkable instance in Scripture concerning the Prophet whom God sent to Bethel whom Tertullian calls Sameas the Iews Hedua whom God destroyed in an unusual manner for not observing the command which God had given him not to eat bread nor drink water at Bethel nor turn again by the way he came Neither was it any excuse to this Prophet that the old Prophet at Bethel told him that an Angel spake unto him by the word of the Lord that he should turn back For 1. Those whom God reveals his will unto he gives them full assurance of it in that they have a clear and distinct perception of God upon their own minds and so they have no doubt but it is the word of the Lord which comes unto them but this Prophet could have no such certainty of the Divine revelation which was made to another especially when it came immediately to contradict that which was so specially enjoyned him 2. Where God commands a Prophet to do any thing in the pursuit of his message there he can have no ground to question whether God should countermand it or no by another Prophet because that was in effect to thwart the whole design of his message So it was in this action of the Prophets for God intended his not eating and drinking in Bethel to testifie how much he loathed and abominated that place since its being polluted with Idolatry 3. He might have just cause to question the integrity of the old Prophet both because of his living in Bethel and not openly according to his office reproving their Idolatry and that God should send him out of Iudea upon that very errand which would not have seemed so probable if there had been true Prophets resident upon the place 4. The thing he desired him to do was not an act of that weight and importance on which God useth to send his Word to any Prophets much less by one Prophet to contradict what he had said by another and therefore Tertullian saith of him poenam deserti jejunii luit God punished him for breaking his fast at Bethel and therefore that message of this Prophet seemed to gratifie more mans carnal appetite then usually the actions of Prophets did which were most times matters of hardship and uneasiness to the flesh 5. However all these were yet he yeilded too soon especially having so much reason on his side as he had being well assured that God had commanded him he had reason to see some clear evidence of a countermand before he altered his mind if he had seen any thing upon tryal which might have staggerd his faith he ought to have made his immediate recourse to God by prayer for the settlement of his mind and removal of this great temptation But so easily to hearken to the words of a lying Prophet which contradicted his own message argued either great unbelief as to his own commission or too great easiness and inadvertency in being drawn aside by the old Prophet And therefore God made that old Prophet himself in the midst of his entertainment as with a hand writing against the wall to tell him he was weighed in the ballance and found too light and therefore his life should be taken from him Thus we see how dangerous a thing it was either to counterfeit a Spirit of Prophecy or to hearken to those who did It is the generally received opinion among the Iewish Doctors that the cognizance and tryal of false Prophets did peculiarly belong to the great Sanhedrin And that this was one end of its institution So Maimonides after he hath largely discoursed of the punishment of a seducer and speaking of that of a false Prophet he layes this down as a standing rule among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No false Prophet was to be judged but in the Court of seventy one which was the number of the great Sanhedrin And there is some thing looks very like this in the proceedings of the people of Israel against the Prophet Ieremiah for the people the Priests and the Prophets they laid hold on him and immediately
that perish If now the weight and consequence of the subject and the too great seasonableness of it if the common fame of the large spread of Atheism among us be true be not sufficient Apology for the publishing this Book I am resolved rather to undergo thy censure tben be beholding to any other The intendment therefore of this Preface is only to give a brief account of the scope design and method of the following Books although the view of the Contents of the Chapters might sufficiently acquains thee with it How far I have been either from transeribing or a design to excusse out of the hands of their admirers the several writings on the behalf of Religion in general or Christianity in particular especially Mornay Groâ—ius Amyraldus c. may easily appear by comparing what is contained in their Books and this together Had I not thought something might be said if not more fully and rationally yet more suitably to the present temper of this Age then what is already written by them â—thou hadst not been troubled with this Preface much less with the whole Book But as the tempers and Genius 's of Ages and Times alier so do the arms and wâ—npons which â—â—theists imploy against Religion the most papular pretences of the Atheists of our Age have been the irreconcileableness of the account of Times in Scripture with that of the learned and ancient Heathen Nations the inconsistency of the belief of the Scriptures with the principles of reason and the account which may be given of the Origine of things from principles of Philosophy without the Scriptures These three therefore I have particularly set my self against and directed against each of them a several Book In the first I have manifested that there is no ground of credibility in the account of ancient times given by any Heathen Nations different from the Scriptures which I have with so much care and diligence enquired into that from thence we may hope to hear no more of men before Adam to salve the Authority of the Scriptures by which yet was intended only as a design to undermine them but I have not thought the frivolous pretences of the Author of that Hypothesis worth particular mentioning supposing it sufficient to give a clear account of things without particular citation of Authors where it was not of great concernment for understanding the thing its self In the second Book I have undertaken to give a rational account of the grounds why we are to believe those several persons who in several ages were imployed to reveal the mind of God to the world and with greater particularity then hath yet been used I have insisted on the persons of Moses and the Prophets our Saviour and his Apostles and in every of them manifested the rational evidences on which they were to be believed not only by the men of their own Age but by those of succeeding Generations In the third Book I have insisted on the matters themselves which are either supposed by or revealed in the Scriptures and have therein not only manifested the certainty of the foundations of all Religion which lye in the Being of God and Immortality of the soul but the undoubted truth of those particular accounts concerning the Origine of the Universe of Evil and of Nations which were most lyable to the Atheists exceptions and have therein considered all the pretences of Philosophy ancient or modern which have seemed to contradict any of them to which mant ssae loco I have added the evidence of Scripture History in the remainders of it in Heathen Mythology and concluded all with a discourse of the excellency of the Scriptures Thus having given a brief view of the design and method of the whole I submit it to every free and unprejudiced judgement All the favour then I shall request of thee is to read seriously and judge impartially and then I doubt not but thou wilt see as much reason for Religion as I do THE CONTENTS BOOK I. CHAP. I. The obscurity and defect of Ancient History THE knowledge of truth proved to be the most natural perfection of the rational soul yet error often mistaken for truth the accounts of it Want of diligence in its search the mixture of truth and fâ—lshood Thence comes either rejecting truth for the errors sake or embracing the error for the truths sake the first instanced in Heathen Philosophers the second in vulgar Heathen Of Philosophical Atheism and the grounds of it The History of Antiquity very obscure The question stated where the true History of ancient times to be found in Heathen Histories or only in Scripture The want of credibility in Heathen Histories asserted and proved by the general defect for want of timely records among Heathen Nations the reason of it shewed from the first Plantations of the World The manner of them discovered The Original of Civil Government Of Hicroglyphicks The use of letters among the Greeks no elder then Cadmus his time enquired into no elder then Joshua the learning brought into Greece by him page 1 CHAP. II. Of the Phoenician and Aegyptian History The particular defect in the History of the most learned Heathen Nations First the Phoenicians Of Sanchoniathon his Antiquity and Fidelity Of Jerom-baal Baal-Berith The Antiquity of Tyre Scaliger vindicated against Bâ—chartus Abibalus The vanity of Phoenician Theology The imitation of it by the Gnosticks Of the Aegyptian History The Antiquity and Authority of Hermes Trismegistus Of his Inscriptions on Pillars transcribed by Manetho His Fabulousness thence discovered Terra Seriadica Of Seths Pillars in Josephus and an account whence they are taken pag. 25 CHAP. III. Of the Chaldean History The contest of Antiquity among Heathen Nations and the ways of deciding it Of the Chaldean Astrology and the foundation of Iudicial Astrology Of the Zabiâ— their Founder who they were no other then the old Chaldees Of Berosus and his History An account of the fabulous Dynastyes of Berosus and Manetho From the Translation of the Scripture history into Greek in the time of Prolomy Of that translation and the time of it Of Demetrius Phalereus Scaligers arguments answered Manetho writ after the Septuagint proved against Kircher his arguments answered Of Rabbinical and Arabick Authors and their little credit in matter of history The time of Berosus enquired into his writing co-temporary with Philadelphus pag. 40 CHAP. IV. The defect of the Graecian History That manifested by three evident arguments of it 1. The fabulousness of the Poetical age of Greece The Antiquity of Poetry Of Orpheus and the ancient Poets Whence the Poetical Fables borrowed The advancement of Poetry and Idolatry together in Greece The different censures of Strabo and Eratosthenes concerning the Poetical age of Greece and the reasons of them 2. The eldest historians of Greece are of suspected credit Of Damastes Aristeus and others of most of their eldest Historians we have nothing left but their names of others only the
Christ and his Apostles were sufficient evidences of a divine spirit in them and that the Scriptures were recorded by them to be an infallible rule of faith here we have more clear reason as to the primary motives and grounds of faith and withall the infallible veracity of God in the Scriptures as the last resolution of faith And while we assert such an infallible rule of faith delivered to us by such an unanimous consent from the first delivery of it and then so fully attested by such uncontroulable miracles we cannot in the least understand to what end a power of miracles should now serve in the Church especially among those who all believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Indeed before the great harvest of Converts in the primitive times were brought in both of Iews and Gentiles and the Church sully setled in receiving the Canon of the Scriptures universally we find God did continue this power among them but after the books of the New Testament were generally imbraced as the rule of faith among Christians we find them so far from pretending to any such power that they reject the pretenders to it such as the Donatists were and plead upon the same accounts as we do now against the necessity of it We see then no reason in the world for miracles to be continued where the doctrine of faith is setled as being confirmed by miracles in the first preachers of it There are only these two cases then wherein miracles may justly and with reason be expected First when any person comes as by an extraordinary commission from God to the world either to deliver some peculiar message or to do some more then ordinary service Secondly When something that hath been before established by Divine Law is to be repealed and some other way of worship established in stead of it First When any comes upon an extraordinary message to the world in the name of and by commission from God then it is but reason to require some more then ordinary evidence of such authority Because of the main importance of the duty of giving credit to such a person and the great sin of being guilty of rejecting that divine authority which appears in him And in this case we cannot think that God would require it as a duty to believe where he doth not give sufficient arguments for faith nor that he will punish persons for such a fault which an invincible ignorance was the cause of Indeed God doth not use to necessitate faith as to the act of it but he doth so clearly propound the object of it with all arguments inducing to it as may sufficiently justifie a Believers choice in point of reason and prudence and may leave all unbelievers without excuse I cannot see what account a man can give to himself of his faith much less what Apology he can make to others for it unless he be sufficiently convinced in point of the highest reason that it was his duty to believe and in order to that conviction there must be some clear evidence given that what is spoken hath the impress of Divine authority upon it Now what convictions there can be to any sober mind concerning Divine authority in any person without such a power of miracles going along with him when he is to deliver some new doctrine to the world to be believed I confess I cannot understand For although I doubt not but where ever God doth reveal any thing to any person immediately he gives demonstrable evidence to the inward senses of the soul that it comes from himself yet this inward sense can be no ground to another person to believe his doctrine divine because no man can be a competent judge of the actings of anothers senses and it is impossible to another person to distinguish the actings of the divine Spirit from strong impressions of fancy by the force and energy of them If it be said that we are bound to believe those who say they are fully satisfied of their Divine Commission I answer First this will expose us to all delusions imaginable for if we are bound to believe them because they say so we are bound to believe all which say so and none are more confident pretenders to this then the greatest deceivers as the experience of our age will sufficiently witness Secondly Men must necessarly be bound to believe contradictions for nothing more ordinary then for such confident pretenders to a Divine Spirit to contradict one another and it may be the same person in a little time contradict himself and must we still be bound to believe all they say If so no Philosophers would be so much in request as those Aristotle disputes against in his Metaphysicks who thought a thing might be and not be at the same time Thirdly The ground of faith at last will be but a meer humane testimony as far as the person who is to believe is capable of judging of it For the Question being Whether the person I am to believe hath divine authority for what he saith What ground can I have to believe that he hath so Must I take his bare affirmation for it If so then a meer humane testimony must be the ground of divine faith and that which it is last resolved into if it be said that I am to believe the divine authority by which he speaks when he speaks in the name of God I answer the question will again return how I shall know he speaks this from divine authority and so there must be a progress in infinitum or founding divine faith on a meer humane testimony if I am to believe divine revelation meerly on the account of the persons affirmation who pretends unto it For in this case it holds good non apparentis non existentis eadem est ratio if he be divinely inspired and there be no ground inducing me to believe that he is so I shall be excused if I believe him not if my wilfulness and laziness be not the cause of my unbelief If it be said that God will satisfie the minds of good men concerning the truth of divine revelation I grant it to be wonderfully true but all the question is de modo how God will satisfie them whether meerly by inspiration of his own spirit in them assuring them that it is God that speaks in such persons or by giving them rational evidence convincing them of sufficient grounds to believe it If we assert the former way we run into these inconveniences First we make as immediate a revelation in all those who believe as in those who are to reveal divine truths to us for there is a new revelation of an object immediately to the mind viz. that such a person is inspired of God and so is not after the common way of the Spirits illumination in Believers which is by inlightning the faculty without the proposition of any new object as it
put too great a restraint upon the boundless spirit of God For sometimes as will appear afterwards God sent the Prophets upon extraordinary messages and then furnished them with sufficient evidence of their Divine commission without being beholding to the Testimonials of the Schools of the Prophets But besides these God had a kind of Leiger-Prophets among his people such were the most of those whom we read of in Scripture which were no pen-men of the sacred Scripture such in Davids time we may conceive Gad and Nathan and afterwards we read of many other Prophets and Seers among them to whom the people made their resort Now these in probability were such as had been trained up in the Prophetick Schools wherein the spirit of God did appear but in a more fixed and setled way then in the extraordinary Prophets whom God did call out on some more signal occasions such as Isaiah and Ieremiah were We have a clear foundation for such a distinction of Prophets in those words of Amos to Amaziah Amos 7. 14 15. I was no Prophet neither was I a Prophets son but I was a herdman and a gatherer of Sycamore fruits And the Lord took me as I followed the stock and the Lord said unto me Go prophecie to my people Israel Some understand the first words I was not a Prophet that he was not born a Prophet as Ieremiah was not designed and set apart to it from his mothers womb but I rather think by his not being a Prophet he means he was none of those resident Prophets in the Colledges or Schools of them not any of those who had led a prophetick life and withdrawn themselves from converse with the world nor was I saith he the son of a Prophet i. e. not brought up in discipleship under those Prophets and thereby trained up in order to the prophetick function Non didici inter discipulos Prophetarum as Pellican renders it nec institutione qua filii Prophetarum quasi ad donum Prâ—phetiae à parentibus praeparabantur saith Estius Non à puero educatus in Schol is Propheticis so Calvin and most other modern Interpreters understand it as well as Abarbinel and the Jewish Writers Whereby it is evident that Gods ordinary way for the Prophets was to take such as had been trained up and educated in order to that end although God did not tye up hmself to this method but sometimes called one from the Court as he did Isaiah sometimes one from the herds as here he did Amos and bid them go prophecie to the house of Israel There was then a kind of a standing Colledge of Prophets among the Israelites who shined as fixed Stars in the Firmament and there were others who had a more planetary motion and withall a more lively and resplendent illumination from the fountain of prophetick light And further it seems that the spirit of prophecie did not ordinarily seize on any but such whose institution was in order to that end by the great admiration which was caused among the people at Sauls so sudden prophecying that it became a proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets which had not given the least foundation for an adage for a strange and unwonted thing unless the most common appearances of the spirit of Prophecie had been among those who were trained up in order to it Thus I suppose we have fully cleared the first reason why there was no necessity for the ordinary Prophets whose chief office was instruction of the people to prove their commission by miracles because God had promised a succession of Prophets by Moses and these were brought up ordinarily to that end among them so that all prejudices were sufficiently removed from their persons without any such extraordinary power as that of miracles CHAP. V. The tryal of Prophetical Doctrine Rules of trying Prophets established in the Law of Moses The punishment of pretenders The several sorts of false Prophets The case of the Prophet at Bethel discussed The tryâ—l of false Prophets belonging to the great Sanhedrin The particular rules whereby the Doctrine of Prophets was judged The proper notion of a Prophet not forâ—telling future contingencies but having immediate Divine revelation Several principles laid down for clearing the doctrine of the Prophets 1. That immediate dictates of natural light are not to be the measure of Divine revelation Several grounds for Divine revelation from natural light 2. What ever is directly repugnant to the dictates of nature cannot be of Divine revelation 3. No Divine revelation doth contradict a Divine positive Law without sufficient evidence of Gods intention to repeal that Law 4. Divine revelation in the Prophets was not to be measured by the words of the Law but by the intention and reason of it The Prophetical office a kind of Chancery to the Law of Moses THE second reason why those Prophets whose main office was instruction of the people or meerly foretelling future events needed not to confirm their doctrine by mirales is because they had certain rules of tryal by their Law whereby to discern the false Prophets from the true So that if they were deceived by them it was their own oscitancy and inadvertency which was the cause of it God in that Law which was confirmed by miracles undoubtedly Divine had established a Court of tryal for Prophetick Spirits and given such certain rules of procedure in it that no men needed to be deceived unless they would themselves And there was a greater necessity of such a certain way of tryal among them because it could not otherwise be expected but in a Nation where a Prophetick Spirit was so common there would be very many pretenders to it who might much endanger the faith of the people unless there were some certain way to find them out And the more effectually to deterre men either from counterfeiting a Prophetick Spirit or from hearkâ—ning to such as did God appointed a severe punishment for every such pretender viz. upon legal conviction that he be punished with death Deut. 18. 20. But the Prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other Gods shall surely dye The Iews generally understand this of strangling as they do alwayes in the Law when the particular manner of death is not expressed And therein a salse Prophet and a seducer were distinguished each from other that a meer seducer was to be stoned to death under sufficient testimony Deut. 13. 6 10. But the false Prophet is there said in general only to be put to death Deut. 13. 1 5. The main difference between the seducer and false Prophet was that the seducer sought by cunning perswasions and plausible arguments to draw them off from the worship of the true God but the false Prophet alwayes pretended Divine revelation for what he perswaded them to whether he gave out that he had that revelation
not executed upon him So Ahabs humiliation Hezekiah his earnest prayer the Ninivites repentance all interposed between sentence and execution whereby we may be fully satisfied of the reason why these denunciations did not take effect But where the persons continue the same after threatnings that they were before there is no reason why the sentence should be suspended unless we should suppose it to be a meer effect of the patience and long-suffering of God leading men to repentance and amendment of life Which is the ground the Iews give why the not fulfilling of denunciations of judgement was never accounted sufficient to prove a man a false Prophet to which purpose these words of Maimonides are observable in his Iesude Thâ—rah where he treats particularly on the subject of prophecies If a Prophet foretel sad things as the death of any one or famine or War or the like if these things come not to pass he shall not be accounted a false Prophet neither let them say hehold he hath foretold and it comes not to pass for eurblessed God is slow to anger and rich in mercy and repenteth of the evil and it may be that they repent and God may spare them as he did the Ninivites or defer the punishment as he did Hezekiah's Thus we see that Prophetical comminations do not express Gods internal purposes and therefore the event may not come to pass and yet the Prophet be a true Prophet 2. Predictions concerning temporal blessings do not always absolutely speak the certainty of the event but what God is ready to do if they to whom they are made continue faithful to him For which we have sufficient ground from that place of Ieremiah 18. 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them So Isaiah 1. 19 20. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Whereby we see it evident that all promises of temporal blessings are not to be taken absolutely but with the condition of obedience But this the Iews can by no means digest whose rule is that all prophecies of good things to come must necessarily come to pass or he was no true Prophet who spake them For saith Maimon Whatever good thing God hath promised although it be promised under a condition he never revokes it and we never find that God repented him of any good thing promised but in the destruction of the first Temple when God had promised to the rightâ—ous they should not die with the wicked but it repented him of his words But it is very plain to any one that considers the Iewish Interpretations of Scripture that in them they have always an eye to themselves and will be sure not to understand those Scriptures which seem to thwart their own interest as is most apparent in the present case for the grand reason why the Iews insist so much on the punctual accomplishment of all promises of good to be the sign of a true Prophet is to uphold their own interest in those temporal blessings which are prophecyed of concerning them in the old Testament although one would think the want of correspondency in the event in reference to themselves might make them a little more tender of the honour of those Prophecies which they acknowledge to be divine and have appeared to be so in nothing more then the full accompllshmenâ— of all those threatnings which are denounced against them for their disobedience even by the mouth of Moses himself Deut. 28. from the 15. to the end Can any thing be more plain and evident then that the enjoyment of all the priviledges conferred upon them did depend upon the condition of their continuing faithful to Gods Covenant The only place of Scripture produced by them with any plausibility is that Ierem. 28. 9. The Prophet which prophecieth of peace when the word of the Prophet shall come to pass then shall the Prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him For reconciling of which place with those already mentioned we are to understand that here was a particular contest between two Prophets Hananiah and Ieremiah Ieremiah he foretold evil to come though unwillingly v 6. Hananiah he prophecied peace Now Ieremiah according to Gods peculiar directions and inspiration appeals to the event to determine whose Prophecie was the truest Now saith Jeremiah if the Prophecy of Hananiah concerning peace be fulfilled then he is the true Prophet and I the false And in this case when two Prophets Prophecy contrary things it stands to reason that God will not reveal any thing by the mouth of his own Prophet which shall not infallibly come to pass that thereby the truth of his own Prophet may be fully manifested Besides Ieremiah refers not meerly to the event foretold but gives a sudden specimon of his own truth in another Prophecy concerning the death of Hananiah which was punctually accomplished the same year ver 17. And which is most considerable to our purpose both these Prophets considered the same people under the same circumstances and with the same conditions and so Ieremiah because of their incorrigibleness foretells desolation certainly to come notwithstanding this Hananiah foretells peace and safety which was contrary directly to Gods method of proceeding and so the falsity of his Prophecy would infallibly be discovered by the event So that notwithstanding this instance it appears evident that predictions of temporal blessings do suppose conditions and so have not alwayes the event fulfilled when the people do not perform their condition of obedience And thus we have now laid down the rules whereby the truth of Prophecyes was to be judged by which it appears what little need the constant Prophets had to appeal to miracles to manifest the certainty of Divine revelation in them So we have finished our first proposition concerning the manner of trying Divine revelation in the Prophets God sent among his people We now come to the second general proposition concerning the Prophets Those Prophets whom God did imploy upon some extraordinary message for confirming the truth of the religion established by him had a power of miracles conferd upon them in order to that end So that we must distinguish the ordinary imployment of Prophets which was either instruction or prediction of future events among Gods own people from their peculiar messages when they were sent to give evidence to the truth of that way of religion which was then setled by Gods own appointment Now the Prophets generally did suppose the truth of their religion as owned by those they were sent to and therefore it had been very needless imploying a power of miracles among them to
Ceremonial Law and if he makes any scruple of deciding on which side the over-weight lies we may have cause to suspect him forsaken of that little reason which gave him the name of man Let but the fifth of Matthew be laid against the whole book of Leviticus and then see whether contains the more excellent precepts and more suitable to the Divine nature I speak not this to disparage any thing which had once God for the Author of it but to let us see how far God was from the necessity of natural agents to act to the height of his strength in that discovery of his Will. God is wise as well as righteous in all his wayes as he can command nothing but what was just so he will command nothing but what is good nay excellent in its kind But though all the Starrâ— be in the same firmament yet one star differs from another in glory though they may be all pearls yet some may be more orient then others are every place of holy Scripture may have its crown but some may have their aureolae a greater excellency a fuller and larger capacity then the other hath every parcel of Divine revelation may have some perfection in its kind yet there may be some monstra perfectionis in Scaligers expression that may far outvy the glory and excellency of the rest Can we think the mists and umbrages of the Law could ever cast so glorious a light as the Sun of righteousness himself in his Meridian elevation As well may we think a dark shady passage more magnificent and glorious then the most Princely Pallace a picture drawn in Charcoale more exquisite and curious then the lines of Apelles some imperfect rudiments more exact and accurate then the most elabarate work as go about to compare the Law of Moses with the Gospel of Iesus Christ in point of excellency and perfection Let the Iews then boast never so much of their gradus Mosaicus and how much it exceeded the degree of revelation in other Prophets we know if his light be compared with what the Gospel communicates Moses himself saw but as in a glass darkly and not in speculo lucido as the Iews are wont to speak We honour Moses much but we have learnt to honour him at whose transfiguration he was present more neither can that be thought any disparagement to him who accounted the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt But it may be though the Law in its self be not so absolutely perfect yet God may have declared he will never alter it and then it is not consistent with Divine wisdom to repeal it Very true God will never alter what he hath said he will not but where is it that he hath thus bound up himself Is it in that noted place to this purpose Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it So indeed Maimonides argues but therein more like a Iew then himself and yet one of his own Nation therein far more ingenuous then he gives a most sufficient answer to it which is R. Ios. Albo whose words are thus produced by Vorstius and others the Scripture only admonisheth us that we should not add to nor diminish from Gods commands according to our own wills but what hinders saith he but God himself may according to his own wisdom add or diminish what he pleaseth But are they in good earnest when they say God bound up himself by this speech whence came then all the Prophetical revelations among the Iews did these add nothing to the Law of Moses which was as much the will of God when revealed by them as any thing was revealed by Moses himself or will they say that all those things were contained for the substance in the Law of Moses as to what concerned practice very true but not in the Ceremonial but the Moral Law and so we shall not stick to grant that the whole duty of man may be reduced to that But if adding to the precepts be the doing of Gods commands in another way then he hath prescribed and diminishing from them be meerly not to do what God hath commanded as some conceive then these words are still more remote from the sense affixed on them by the incredulous Iews For why may not God himself add to his own Laws or alter the form of them although we are alwayes bound directly to follow Gods declared will May not God enlarge his own will and bring his Schollars from the rudiments of their nonage to the higher knowledge of those who are full grown or must the world of necessity do that which the old Roman so much abhorred senescere in elementis wax gray in learning this A B C or was the Ceremonial Law like the China Characters that the world râ—ight spend its age in conning of them But it appears that there was no other meaning in that strict prohibition then that men should not of their own heads offer to finde out new ways of worship as Ieroboam did but that Gods revelation of his own will in all its different degrees was to be the adaequate rule of the way and parts of his own worship And I would fain know of the Iews whether their own severe and strict prohibitions of things not at all forbidden in the Law of God and that on a religious account as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boundary to the Law come not nearer the adding to Gods Law then Gods own further declaration of his will doth All the dispute then must be not whether God may add to his own Law but whether the Gospel be a prohibited addition to the Law of Moses that is whether it be only the invention of men or it be the express declaration of the will of God As to which controversie he is no true Christian who dare not readily joyn issue with them and undertake to prove by all the arguments by which they believe the Law of Moses to have been of Divine revelation that the Gospel of Christ is a clear manifestation of the Will of God But of that afterwards From hence it is evident that God hath not by this place tyed up himself from any surther manifestation of his mind beyond the Law of Moses but it may be they may put greater confidence in those expressions which seem necessarily to imply a perpetual and unalterable obligation in the Law of Moses For saith the late learned Rabbi Manasse Ben Israel If by such expressions as those are used in Scripture which seem to import the perpetuity of the Law of Moses somewhat â—lse should be meant then they seem to express what did Moses and the Prophets in using them but lay a stumbling block in the wayes of men whereas they might have spoken clearly and told us there should a time come when the Ceremonial Law should oblige no longer This being a charge of so high a nature must not be dismissed without a particular enquiry
that when a Divine testimony is already confirmed by miracles undoubtedly Divine that new miracles should be wrought in the Church to assure us of the truth of it So Chrysostome fully expresseth himself concerning miracles speaking of the first ages of the Christian Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miracles were very useful then and not at all useful now for now we manifest the truth of what we speak from the Sacred Scriptures and the miracles wrought in confirmation of them Which that excellent author there fully manifests in a discourse on this subject why miracles were necessary in the beginning of the Christian Church and are not now To the same purpose St. Austin speaks where he discourseth of the truth of religion Accepimus majores nostros visibilia miracula secutos esse per quos id actum est ut necessaria non essent posteris because the world believed by the miracles which were wrought at the first preaching of the Gospel therefore miracles are no longer necessary For we cannot conceive how the world should be at first induced to believe without manifest and uncontrouled miracles For as Chrysostome speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the greatest miracle of all if the world should believe without miracles Which the Poet Dante 's hath well expressed in the twenty fourth Canto of Paradise For when the Apostle is there brought in asking the Poet upon what account he took the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God his answer is Probatio quae verum hoc mihi recludit Sunt opera quae secuta sunt ad quae Natura Non candefecit ferrum unquam aut percussit incudem i. e. the evidence of that is the Divine power of miracles which was in those who delivered these things to the world And when the Apostle catechiseth him further how he knew those miracles were such as they pretend to be viz. that they were true and Divine his answer is Si orbis terrae sese convertit ad Christianismum Inquiebam ego sine miraculis hoc unum Est tale ut reliqua non sint ejus cente sima pars i. e. If the world should be converted to the Christian faith without miracles this would be so great a miracle that others were not to be compared with it I conclude this then with that known saying of St. Austin Quisquis adhuc prodigia ut credat inquirit magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit He that seeks for miracles still to induce him to faith when the world is converted to the Christian faith he needs not seek for prodigies abroad he wants only a looking glass to discover one For as he goes on unde temporibus erudit is omne quod fieri non potest respuentibus sine ullis miraculis nimium mirabiliter incredibiliter credidit mundus whence came it to pass that in so learned and wary an age as that was which the Apostles preached in the world without miracles should be brought to believe things so strangely incredible as those were which Christ and his Apostles preached So that by this it appears that the intention of miracles was to confirm a Divine testimony to the world and to make that appear credible which otherwise would have seemed incredible but to what end now when this Divine testimony is believed in the world should miracles be continued among those who believe the doctrine to be Divine the miracles wrought for the confirmation of it to have been true and the Scriptures which contain both to be the undoubted Word of God To what purpose then the huge outery of miracles in the Roman Church is hard to conceive unless it be to make it appear how ambitions that Church is of being called by the name of him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved For had they received the Love of the Truth of the Gospel they would have believed it on the account of those miracles and signs and wonders which were wrought for the confirmation of it by Christ and his Apostles and not have gone about by their juglings and impostures in stead of bringing men to believe the Gospel to make them question the truth of the first miracles when they see so many counterfeits had we not great assurance the Apostles were men of other designs and interests then Popish Priests are and that there is not now any such necessity of miracles as there was then when a Divine testimony revealing the truth of Christian religion was confirmed by them Those miracles cannot be Divine which are done now for the confirmation of any thing contrary to that Divine testimony which is confirmed by uncontrouled Divine miracles The case is not the same now which was before the coming of Christ for then though the Law of Moses was confirmed by miracles yet though the doctrine of Christ did null the obligation of that Law the miracles of Christ were to be looked on as Divine because God did not intend the Ceremonial Law to be perpetual and there were many Prophesies which could not have their accomplishment but under a new state But now under the Gospel God hath declared this to be the last revelation of his mind and will to the world by his Son that now the Prophesies of the old Testament are accomplished and the Prophesies of the New respect only the various conditions of the Christian Church without any the least intimation of any further revelation of Gods mind and will to the world So that now the Scriptures are our adaequate rule of faith and that according to which we are to judge all pretenders to inspiration or miracles And according to this rule we are to proceed in any thing which is propounded to us to believe by any persons upon any pretences whatsoever Under the Law after the establishment of the Law its self by the miracles of Moses the rule of judging all pretenders to miracles was by the worship of the true God If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the Wonder come to pass whereof he spake to thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Whereby it is plain that after the true doctrine is confirmed by Divine miracles God may give the Devil or false Prophets power to work if not real miracles yet such as men cannot judge by the things themselves whether they be real or no and