Chaldâ—ea had the state of Jerusalem as it was then in fact set before him whither he was brought in the visions of God and as evidently saw all things that were at that time transacted in the Temple as if he had been actually there And even the secret practices of the Elders and Priests in the most retired corners were at that distance exactly represented to him so that if he had been personally with them they had not been more visible to him There he beheld the Idols pourtrayed on the wall and the Seventy Men or Sanhedrim and Jaazaniah their Head in the midst of them with every Man his Censer in his hand and all the particulars as there described 3. In Vision things future are as evidently represented as if they were present Thus Saul when deprived of his Sight saw in a Vision Ananias coming in and by Imposition of hands restoring him to it and by which means as described to him before-hand he as perfectly knew Ananias when he came to see as if he had afore time been conversant with him From whence we may observe 1. That Vision is Supernatural so in the Old Testament Ezekiel saith The hand of the Lord was upon me And in the New St. John saith He was in the Spirit 2. That it is Internal when the Soul tho' in the Body yet for the present is as out of it as to corporeal Sensations and sees perceives and understands nothing by the external organs Thus it was with St. Paul in his wonderful Rapture when his Soul was in such an abstracted and elevated state that he himself could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body So that when the Name of Vision is given in Scripture to this way of Divine Communication it is not from any use made of corporeal sight or that it is entertain'd with any external objects but because of the clearness and evidence of it and a conformity it therein bears to outward and corporeal Sense By which it is distinguished from external Representations which were also very frequent in those times of Revelation of which there were two sorts more especially viz. 1. That which the Jews call the Shechinah which was God's manifestation of himself in a visible Glory and Majesty without any form as he did to the Patriarchs and afterwards it was the token of his special residence among his people the Jews called therefore his dwelling between the cherubins 2. Another way of appearance was by Angels when they took upon them a humane form by way of condescension to mankind and for a freer conversation with them and from which form and umbrage the Scripture terms them Men but besides what the Sequel of Scripture and common Sense shews the Apostle hath taught us that they were Divine Messengers sent immediately from God upon especial occasions and emergencies But the Schechinah called The Glory of the Lord was a Manifestation of the Divine Presence and not a Revelation and the Angels were only Messengers of a Revelation And so neither of them belong properly to this place 3. Another way of Revelation was by Dreams There is so far an agreement between Vision and Dreams that in both the external Senses were bound up so that a Vision may be called a supernatural Dream and a Dream may be said to be a natural Vision and so in Job they seem to be taken for one and the same God speaketh in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumbrings upon the bed But the Scripture otherwise usually speaks of them as two distinct ways of Revelation So Num. 12.6 If there be a prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream So Joel 2.28 And the difference between them seems to be 1. That Vision properly speaking was generally if not always when the Visionary was awake whether by night or day but Dreams as the nature of the thing shews were when the external Senses were asleep and Reason as to its present operation was bound up with them 2. In a Vision the whole was supernatural without any humane predisposition or concurrence as the Scripture-phrase doth shew as St. John was said to be carried in the spirit into the wilderness and a Trance is said to fall upon St. Peter But to dream is a natural Motion of the Spirits and Disposition of Body which the Spirit of God or an Angel the usual Minister employ'd in such conveyances made use of both as the Mind was then in a state of repose and by the rest of the Body relaxed from the business of the day and also as what was suggested in that way made a stronger impression upon the Mind when not diverted by outward objects and occasions and that there was a cessation from all external and sensible operations For it seemed necessary naturally speaking that in all Revelations there should be a sedate disposition of Mind and an abstraction from all other Conceptions and therefore it was either sound so as in Dreams or made so by some Angelical and Divine Operation as in a Vision or Trance In both the Senses were therefore bound up but in a Vision by a supernatural Agency in Sleep or Dreams by the meer effect of Nature And if it be asked How then is there a Revelation by Dream when Revelation is supernatural and a Dream natural I answer Though it be as natural to dream as to sleep and a Dream is a Consequent if not a constant Concomitant of Sleep yet in this case which we are speaking of the Revelation or Dream was supernatural As to think or speak is natural to man but so to think or speak as is above the capacity of the Agent and what he of himself could never have thought or spoken shews that he is not so much an Agent as a Recipient and the Instrument made use of in the conveyance Thus it was no more natural for Balaam several Ages before to foretel what the children of Israel should do to the Moabites in the latter days than it was for his Ass to speak So to dream is natural but to dream of such things then in doing or of such things to come as are altogether independent on the Body nor by any methods of Nature or presumptive Art to be known or foreseen is supernatural Thus to dream was natural to Pharaoh as to others and his Dream of the Seven fat and lean Kine might have pass'd for the fruit of a nocturnal Imagination but by a Dream to be made understand that there should be successively Seven years of great Plenty and then Seven years of Famine could proceed only from a Divine Revelation And this will further appear in the process of this Discourse when I am to consider the difference between what is Natural and what is Divine c. 4. Another
D r WILLIAMS's SEVENTH SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE'S Lecture 1695. The several Ways of Revelation A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields Octob. 7. 1695. BEING THE Seventh of the LECTURE For the said YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill Sen r Jun r At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey M DC XC VI. HEB. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. IN these words we have as I have before shewed 1. A description of Revelation 't is God's speaking or declaring his Will to Mankind 2. The Certainty of that Revelation 't is by way of Declaration God who at sundry times c. spake 3. The Order observed in that Revelation as to Time Manner and Persons In time past by the Prophets and in the last days by his Son 4. The Perfection and Completion of all 't is in these last days by his Son It 's the Third that I am at this time to enter upon viz. The Order observed in that Revelation c. Where according to the Method laid down in the beginning of these Lectures 1. I am to consider the several ways by which God did reveal himself in time past by the Prophets as by Inspirations Visions c. 2. I am to shew the difference between Divine Inspirations on one hand and Diabolical Illusions Natural Impressions and Delusory Imaginations on the other 3. I am to consider the several Periods of Divine Revelation before the Law under the Law and under the Gospel and the gradual Progress of it from first to last from the lower to the higher degree and the perpetual respect one had to the other 4. I am to shew why God did thus gradually and at sundry times proceed in revealing his Will to Mankind and not at first as fully and perfectly as by his Son 1. I am to consider the several Ways by which God did reveal himself in time past by the Prophets When we are treating of Revelation we are to consider that it is like Light to be known by it self and that the best way therefore is to take the Scripture it self for our Guide in the matters belonging thereunto without which how Learnedly soever men may discourse upon this Argument 't is to as little purpose as if we should go about to compile a History of the Invisible World and of all the Transactions in it from time to time which we have no Conversation nor Acquaintance with We see how Vain though Ingenious the Attempts of many Inquisitive Persons have been notwithstanding the Improvements by Telescopes c. for their assistance to give us any tolerable Account of the Solar and Lunary Worlds and after much and indefatigable Pains they are not able to say this is Land and that Water or whether neither of the two And we talk as much at random when we leave the beaten Track of Scripture and think to find out by our own Reason what we must understand by Revelation alone We can only think and discourse of such Subjects as we keep that Clue in our hand and therefore laying aside all manner of Conjectures and the Speculations of the Jewish or Christian Rabbies upon the Argument in hand I shall solely keep my self to the Rule of Scripture All I pretend is to compare Scripture with it self and to try if by putting these things together and laying them in order I can contribute any thing to the Explication of so obscure and intricate an Argument There are several Terms made use of in Scripture with reference to this Subject and for the signification of the way by which God did reveal and make himself known to Mankind and they are Inspiration Vision Dreams and Voices 1. Inspiration So Job 32.8 saith The inspiration of the Almighty gave them men understanding And the Scripture is said to have been given by Inspiration of God 1 Tim. 3.16 Now it seems to be called Inspiration because it is insensibly communicated and breathed as it were into the Soul as the Soul was into the Body to which the Phrase in Job has a plain reference where the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used which is used Gen. 2.7 when God is said to breathe into Adam the breath of life And by which term it is properly and evidently distinguished from all the other Species of Divine Communications For all the rest are sensible ways whether by Representation as Visions or Dreams or by Action as Voices but this comes as Life came into the Body or Air comes into the Lungs without any such kind of Perception or Sensation Now there is a Threefold Inspiration 1. That which is purely Natural So 't is said of God who hath put wisdom into the inward parts Job 38.16 And he is said to instruct the plowman to discretion Isa. 28.26 This is no other than a Disposition infused and connatural with the Soul it self and that afterward in process of time ripens and comes to be a Power or Principle and even a Habit by action and observation 2. There is a Providential Inspiration when God by some After-Act of his Providence and for some special Service doth either give Life to such a Natural Power and Inherent Disposition or else infuses a new Disposition or Power into the Soul This seems to have been the Case of Bezaleel and Aboliab and others into whom God is said to have put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of Work and yet of the same persons 't is said whose heart stirred them up Exod. 32.1 2. That is God did chuse them out as being of themselves well disposed and fitted for that Employment and after an Extraordinary Manner and by a Supernatural Assistance qualified them further for it And from the Consideration of the difference between Men and Men and indeed between a Man and himself when from some imperceptible beginning he comes to advance beyond others and even beyond himself in Knowledge Wisdom and Success the World has been inclin'd to think there was somewhat of a peculiar Inspiration in it Whence that Saying of the Heathen Orator Nemo Vir Magnus sine afflatu Divino unquà m fuit No one ever came to be a Great Man or attained to any extraordinary Eminence in Knowledge or Skill but by a Divine Illumination 3. There is an Inspiration purely Supernatural that is immediately wholly and only from God Of this sort is that Divine Influx commonly known by the term of Regeneration when God so changes the Heart by the Powerful Operation of his Holy Spirit that it 's said to be New Ezek. 36.26 But that which is more to our purpose is when God in Daniel's Phrase chap.
2.22 revealeth the deep and secret things and doth communicate his Will so that the Person conceives and thinks and acts as the Divine Power would have him conceive think and act It being here as with the Soul in the Body which is the Principle of all Vital Motion for though the Body be in its contrivance admirably adapted for all Offices to which the Organs of it are to serve if there were a Soul in it yet it is the Soul that must make the Eye to see and the Foot to move and the Tongue to speak or else there will be no Sight Motion nor Speech So it is here in Divine Inspiration of this sort where the Spirit of God is to the Soul what the Soul is to the Body and must make all those Impressions upon it must infuse the Power of conceiving and thinking or rather those Conceptions and Thoughts those Notions and Ideas of Things nay that Matter So that the Person Inspired doth not think his own Thoughts nor order his own Conceptions nor form his own Notions nor use his own Words where these are Inspired as far as he is Inspired Not that his Reason is not in operation as it is in Raptures Visions and Dreams where the Rational Powers are bound up as it were by Sleep for the present but that these Infusions proceeding not from any Reasoning in themselves but from an External and Supernatural Cause it is by that Cause determined to the Matter that is Inspired As a Prompter doth suggest the Matter or dictate the Words to the Interpreter he makes use of which are not to be esteemed the Words or Thoughts of the Interpreter but of the Suggester As our Saviour saith to his Disciples When they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you Matth. 10.19 10. Now as it was the Spirit of God speaking in them that did in that case dictate and guide them in all they said so that they spake with such Authority and Ability such Wisdom and Elocution without any Premeditation as all their Adversaries were not able to gainsay or resist Luke 21.15 as we find in the Instance of St. Stephen Acts 6.10 So it was after the same manner that the Divine Spirit did breathe upon the mind as our Saviour on the Apostles in an external way the signification of the internal John 20.22 in a way imperceptible and did so insinuate it self that it became as it were one Spirit with theirs and they thought as the Spirit dispos'd them to think as well as spake as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts 2.4 This was thinking and speaking by Inspiration And this being the most eminent way of God's communicating his Will to Mankind is call'd Revelation in the New Testament especially it being immediate without the intervention of Visions or Extasies or Voices or any other means than it self and this was the way by which the Apostles received their Revelation called a Revealing by the Spirit 2. Another way by which God revealed himself was Vision or Sight This was so common that all the ways of Revelation are sometimes set forth by this term A Vision is the Representation of an Object as in a Glass which places the Visage before us and by which we have as clear a view of the things thus represented as if they were the things themselves and not the Images or appearances of them And therefore though the external senses are herein bound up and as it were laid asleep in a Trance yet the things presented at that time to the imagination and intended as a Revelation of something to happen or to be done are as plain and evident as sensible Objects that lie open to the sense Thus Balaam describes it as to himself who saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance but having his eyes open Numb 24.16 that is though he had not the exercise of his outward senses and so his eyes were of no more use to him when open than if they were shut yet he evidently saw whatever was presented to his mind Thus St. Paul as clearly saw our Saviour by a Representation or Vision when he was in a Trance in the Temple as he did when he actually and visibly appear'd to him at Mid-day on the way to Damascus In this case things imaginary are as if they were real remote as if they were near future as if present and secret as if open that is what sight presence and knowledge is to us in things sensible when we are awake and have the full exercise of our outward senses that is Vision to the Visionaries to such as are in an Extasy This will be farther illustrated by a reflection upon these several particulars to which if I mistake not all the instances of this kind may be reduced As 1. In Vision things imaginary and internal are represented as evidently as if they were real and external Thus much is intimated in the case of St. Peter of whom 't is said when the Angel smote him and the chains fell off from his hands he wist not that it was true which was done by the angel but thought be saw a vision From whence it follows that all this which he found to be real when he came to himself might have been represented by way of Vision and things thereby represented are as evidently proposed to the Mind as outward Objects can be to the Eye Thus it was with the same Apostle when he fell into a Trance and saw heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth c. Acts 10.10 c. Of this kind of Vision were Jeremiah's wearing a linnen Girdle and his hiding it afterwards in a hole by Euphrates and his taking a cup of fury at the Lord's hand and causing all Nations to drink of it Of the same kind were Ezekiel's eating of the Roll his typical laying Siege to Jerusalem and an hundred things more in that and other Prophetical Books In which cases when the things represented are wholly imaginary and never existent what is in Phrase positively said of them is to be supplied with as it were as in the aforesaid Vision of St. Peter when it is said Peter saw heaven opened and a sheet descending c. it being not a thing really done but only by Representation it is to be understood That he as it were saw Heaven opened 2. In Vision things remote are represented as present and the Visionary has all the advantage of sight in things presented to the Eye without the use of sight or change of place So Ezekiel when a Captive in
should prove a Prediction of seven Years Plenty and Famine or the felling of the Tree be an Emblem of Nebuchaâ—nezzar's dethronization or that a Cake of Bread tumbling into the Host and overturning a Tent should presignify the Sword and Success of Gideon and that into his hand God would deliver the host of Midian was utterly unaccountable if it were not as Joseph said to Pharaoh that God himself thereby shewed what he was about to do and that it came from him who is a Revealer of Secrets as Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged Lastly The like may be said of a Revelation by Voice which if internal is the same with a Dream or Vision as going along with it and so has the same sort of evidence If external it is its own evidence as was that from Heaven to give testimony to our Saviour Or it was by way of Oracle and then the Authority of the Voices was justified by the numerous Predictions the design they apparently promoted of encouraging the good of admonishing and reforming the bad and in all of promoting Vertue and true Religion in the world and to whose veracity future Ages have given Testimony by sutable Events Whereas those of the Heathens were very suspicâ—ous and doubtful and often detected to be only Forgery and a Conspiracy and disowned at that time when in vulgar estimation by the wisest among themselves and the reputation of which at last as well utterly fell as the pretence to them did So that were the Case to be put upon this issue and to be decided by the measures before laid down we may safely venture the whole Cause of Revelation upon it when there is nothing wanting that can reasonably be desired toward the justification of its veracity and that there is no manner of pretence for applying the same terms of evidence and sincerity to Imagination as to Inspiration or to Imposture whether Enthusiastical or Diabolical as is to Revelation For when was it known that Imagination or Nature did ever empower persons to speak all Languages and to discourse readily at once with the Parthians Medes and Elamites c. in their several Tongues When did Imagination or Nature enable persons without any skill to cure Diseases naturally incurable and such as had no Humane Learning to talk like Philosophers of the sublimest Arguments and with as much freedom as they used the Speech of the Foreign Nations they instructed Further What Imagination or Nature or Art could inspirit Moses with such a supernatural Power as to turn his Rod into a Serpent and to devour those of the Magicians and by a stroke of it to fetch water out of the Rock and stop the mighty Current of the Sea What Imagination could form such Idea's in the minds of a Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar or inspire a Joseph and a Daniel to give such an Interpretation of them as justified it self to be true by a correspondent Event When did Imagination give life to a Fly or do the least Act out of it self When did that or Nature or Imposture raise the dead with Elisha call for Fire from Heaven with Elijah or foretel what shall happen a hundred or a thousand years after or so much as what a Person shall think to morrow Here we may challenge all the Magicians of a Pharaoh and a Nebuchadnezzar all the Men of Art and Science all the Enthusiasts and Impostors in the World to talk as the Persons Inspired did talk to do as they did and to produce those Testimonies as those upon occasion produced in their own justification and for the confirmation of their Mission from God From all which we see what evidence we have for the Truth of our Revelation by the various ways of its manifestation If we had such Inspirations such Visions of things future and remote c. what evidence could we desire more to attest and bear witness to what we are to believe and receive And what Absurdities must we be cast upon if we would venture to call those matters of Fact in question which though peculiar to those times lose not their evidence and force because they are not in ours nor have been for several Ages nor are to be in the Christian Church However there are those manifestations of the Divine Presence and Power which we are all capable of and may obtain by Prayer to God and which shall be more beneficial to us than if we our selves could work Miracles and were the Inspired Persons to whom God did thus make known himself as he did in time past to the Prophets and those are the Grace and Assistance of his Holy Spirit and the doing his Will Qualifications that will render us more acceptable to him and make us more capable of his favour and all the advantages of it in this world and that to come than if we could divide the Sea with Moses or stop the Sun in its course with Joshua or raise the dead with Elisha For then though without those miraculous Donations we may be received with a Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant to us all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS Cic. l. 2. de Nat. Deor. Rom. 16.25 26. Gal. 1.12 1 Cor 2.10 Ephes. 3.3 5 6. 1 Thes. 4.8 Acts 22.17 18. Acts 9.4 c. 26.13 1 Cor. 15.8 Acts 12.9 Jerem. 13.1 c. 25.15 Ezek. ch 3.4.5 c. Ezek. 1.1 8.3 c. Acts 9.12 Ezek. 8.1 Revel 1.10 2 Cor. 12.1 Gen. 17.1 c. Psal. 80.1 Gen. 18.1 19.1 Hebr. 13.2 Num 16.42 c. Job 33.14 15.4.13 Revel 17.13 21.20 Acts 10.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 24.14 Gen. 4â— â— Exod. 33.9 11. 1 Sam. 28.6 2 Pet. 1.17 Ezek. 21.21 Deut. 18.10 c. Serm. 3. p. 7. Jer. 20.9 Ezek. 3.14 Judg. 6.21 37. 7.13 14. Exod. 4.3 6. Serm. 3. p. 13. Exod. 8.18 1 Kings 19.24 36. 1 Kings 22.28 29. Joh. 10. ver 41. Joh. 5.31 36. 1 Kings 22.19 Gen. 20.3 Mat. 3.17 Vid. Ser. 2. p. 36.