Account rational Creatures, plunged in Misery, became fit Objects of the divine Care and Compassion. For though natural Light convinces us of the Existence of a Deity, and shews us how reasonable it is to pay our Adorations to that Power that created and preserves us, yet it does not sufficiently direct us in the Way and Manner of performing it; though it gives us some Hopes of Pardon upon our Repentance, from the general Notion of God's Goodness, yet it prescribes us no certain Method for the obtaining our Reconciliation. So that Revelation was necessary both to relieve the Wants of Men in a natural State, and to recover the Lustre and Brightness of their natural Principles, sullied and impaired by the Degeneracy of Mankind; and farther to add such Improvements, as might be perfective of human Nature, and instruct Men in the Method of appeasing an offended Deity. All the Pretences of the Heathen Law-givers, as Lycurgus, Numa, &c. to have received their Laws from some Divinity, was a tacit Confession that Revelation was necessary and expedient to conduct Men to Happiness. Q. What are the several Kinds of Revelation? A. The several Kinds of Revelation, whereof some are mentioned by the Jews, and others recorded in Holy Scripture, are Inspiration, Visions, Dreams, Prophecy, Oracle, Voices, particularly the Bath-Col, and that which the Jews reckon peculiar to Moses, which they called Gradus Mosaicus. Q. What do you mean by Inspiration? A. Inspiration is a Revelation which is insensibly communicated and breathed as it were into the Soul of a Man, so that the inspired Person does not think his own Thoughts, nor order his own Conceptions, nor form his own Notions so far as he is inspired. But this doth not exclude the Exercise of his own Reason in these Operations: but these Infusions not proceeding from any Reasoning in themselves, but from an external and supernatural Cause, it is by that Cause determined to the Matter that is inspired. 17, 18. ix. 4. xxvi. 13. 1 Cor. xv. 8. Q. What do you mean by Visions? A. A Vision is the supernatural Representation of an Object to a Man when waking, as in a Glass which places the Visage before him; by which he has as clear a View of the Things thus represented, as if they were the Things themselves, and not the Acts xxii. Images and Appearances of them. 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 our Saviour actually and visibly appeared to him at Mid-day, on the Way to Damascus. By this Means what Sight, Presence, and Knowledge is to us in Things sensible when we are awake, that Vision is to such as are in an Extacy. So that when the Name of Vision is given in Scripture to this Way of Revelation, it is not from any Use made of corporeal Sight, or that the Eye is entertained with corporeal Objects, but because of the Clearness and Evidence of what is represented, and by Reason of the Conformity it therein bears to outward and corporeal Sense. Q. What is Revelation by Dreams? A. A Revelation by a Dream was the Representation of an Object made to a Man in his Sleep, and though it be as natural to Man to dream as to sleep, yet in this Case the Dream or Revelation was supernatural. For to dream of such Things then doing, or of such Things to come, as are altogether independent upon the Body, nor by any Methods of Nature or presumptive Arts, 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 passed under that Character; but by such a Dream to be made to understand, that there should be successively seven Years of great Plenty, and then seven Years of Famine, could proceed only from a divine Revelation. Q. What do you mean by Prophecy? A. The foretelling of Things to come, which might be communicated either by Vision or Dream; for the Numb. Jews observe that Prophecy was always received one of these two Ways; grounding their Opinion upon the Declaration of God himself: If there be a Prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known toxii. 6. him in a Vision, and speak to him in a Dream. The Jewish Doctors farther tell us, that Prophecy was a clearer Revelation, and carried greater Assurance along with it than either a Vision or Dream without Prophecy; and that this was common to all the three, that there was something of Ecstacy or Transport of Mind in them. Indeed, the primary Notion of a Prophet seems to lie in declaring and interpreting to the World the Mind of God, which he receives by immediate Revelation; and hence it is that in Scripture the Patriarchs, as Abraham and others, are called Prophets, who were not so famous for any Predictions uttered by them, as for declaring the Mind of God from the frequent Revelations they received. For it is altogether accidental and extrinsical to the Nature of Prophecy what Time it has a respect to, whether past, present, or to come; but because future Contingencies are the farthest out of the Reach of human Understanding, therefore the foretelling of Things to come hath been chiefly looked upon as the main Note and Character of a Prophet, as being apprehended to be the strongest Evidence of the Truth of divine Revelation. Q. What was the Punishment of counterfeiting a prophetic Spirit under the Law? A. To deter Men from counterfeiting a prophetic Spirit, or from hearkening to such as did, God appointed that every such Pretender, upon legal Conviction, should be put to Death. But the Prophet Deut. which shall presume to speak a Word in my Name which xviii. 20. I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the Name of other Gods, shall surely die. The Jews generally understand this of strangling, as they do always in the Law, when the particular Manner of the Death is not expressed. And by this Punishment the false Prophet was distinguished from the Deut. xiii. 6, 10. Exod. xxxiii. 11. Gen. xxi. 17, &c. Mat. iii. 17. Maim. Mor. Nev. par. 2, c. 42. Seducer, who was to be stoned to Death by a sufficient Testimony; the Seducer being a Person who sought by cunning Persuasions and plausible Arguments, to draw Men off from the Worship of the true God, but the false Prophets always pretended divine Revelation. Q. What is Revelation by Oracle? A. This was called Urim and Thummim, which was a rendering Answers to Questions by the High Priest, placed before the Mercy-Seat, looking upon the Stones in the Breast-Plate; which, how it was done, is not agreed by those who have treated of this Matter. Q. What is Revelation by a Voice? A. When the Matter of the Revelation was communicated immediately or occasionally by a Voice. The former of these was vouchsafed to Abraham, and above all to Moses, to whom God is said to have spoke Face to Face, as a Man speaketh to his Friend. The other, which was altogether occasional, was for some particular Direction, as to Hagar and others; or for Testimony, or Confirmation, as was that mentioned in the Gospel, when it was audibly proclaimed from Heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Q. What do you mean by the Bath-Col? Or A. This was counted by the Jews the lowest Degree of Revelation, which was called the Daughter of a Voice, Echo, in relation to the Oracle of Urim and Thummim, as some think; for whereas that was a Voice, given from the Mercy-Seat within the Veil; this, upon the ceasing of that Oracle, being supposed to come in its Place, might not unfitly or improperly be called a Daughter, or Successor of that Voice, which the Jews pretend, continued among them from the Days of the Prophet Malachi to the Time of our Saviour, and which, after a Sort, they conceived was to supply the ceasing of Prophecy among them. But many learned Men have reduced those numberless Stories that occur in the Writings 225 Vol. ii. p. 128, 129. of the Jewish Doctors, concerning the Bath-Col, to Lightf. Q. What do you mean by the Gradus Mosaicus ? A. This the Jews esteemed the highest Degree of Revelation, to which Maimonides attributes these Characters: That God manifested himself to Moses when he was awake, though to other Prophets in Dreams and Visions: That the Influence was derived immediately from God himself, without the Mediation of any Angelical Power, without any Fear, Amazement, or Fainting, which were incident to other Prophets; and that the Spirit of Prophecy rested upon him, so that he could make Use of it when he would. Thus much is certain, that the Revelation made to Moses had some singular Prero- Numb. xii. gatives above those of other Prophets, as is plain 6, 7, 8. from Scripture; but that it was always by an immediate Communication from God, without the Mediation of Angels, seems not so agreeable to what St. Stephen tells us, that, The Law was given Acts vii. by the Disposition of Angels; nor to what St. Paul 53. affirms, That it was ordained by Angels, in the 19. Hands of a Mediator, which was Moses. Q. Are these Divine Revelations collected together, and have we any authentic Instrument and Record of them? A. Most of the fore-mentioned Sorts and Degrees of Revelation, which God hath made of himself to the World, are collected together in the Holy Scriptures; by which the Things revealed any of these Ways are transmitted to us, and therefore called the Word of God, as containing those Things which God in several Ages had spoken to the World; which are necessary to be known by Men, in order to their eternal Happiness. And this being now the great Standard of Revelations from God, which is to continue to the End of the World, we are all ૨ Gal. iii. |