what fulness of rational evidence they are attested, we cannot have a due sense of their divine excellence and fitness, until we possess the divine life and capacities: that there must be the inward powers of discerning, as well as a clear presentation of the objects before the mind; that the Holy Ghost alone bestows on us this life and these capacities;* that this is done by an immediate operation on the human soul; that there is no room for the intervention of a second cause in this step of the work; for it is equivalent to an act of "raising the dead," and of "creating" something new; and such acts are the acts of Omnipotent power: that every secondary cause being necessarily inferior to the first cause, in other words being inferior to Omnipotence, of course no secondary cause can possess creating energy; that this doctrine is rational, and the doctrine of the Bible.t They seem also not to have been aware, that the church draws a deep line of distinction between this immediate operation on the mind and immediate revelations. In the latter, something new and unknown before, is supposed to be conveyed by an immediate impulse. In the former, nothing of this kind does take place. The renewed soul raises its eye to the written oracles of God, which contain the last and the only revelation that shall ever be conveyed from the throne of light. This doctrine of the church is, therefore, radically different from the immediate revelations of the society and it distinctly recognises the various gifts of the Holy Ghost in his special influences.‡ : The church, moreover, bears her testimony of gratitude that Eph. ii. 1, 5, 10, &c. * John iii. 3, 5. † Matth. xi. 25. Psalm cxix. 18. 2 Cor. iv. 6. See the Dutch Annot, on Revel. iii. 18. President Edward's Serm. on Math. xvi. 17. Saurin vol. vii. serm. i. Homily i. of the Church of England. Calv. Instit. lib. 1, cap. 8. So also Beza, and Owen, and Bullinger; and P. Martyr. Loc. Com. p. 2. cap. 18. See W. Perkins, the English Calvin's Works, vol. iii. p. 336. fol. A. D. 1609. Presbyterian Confes. of Faith, chap. 1. sect. 5. And we add to these all the fathers quoted by Barclay, and unfairly bent to his purpose. They held no sentiments foreign to those of the church-on this point. Are we to set down as the ebullition of ignorance, or the accusations of slander, "all that cant that has been canted" in the society from Barclay to this day, about "apostate christians," and "degenerate christians,' and" carnal christians" who "flout at the motions and actings of the spirit," (Barcl. Apol. Prop. ii. sect. 1, &c.) simply because as conscientious christians, they frown from them the fanatical doctrine of immediate revelations? See Bennet's Confut. of Quak. pp. 12, 13, &c. her Lord "baptized her with the Holy Ghost." In this baptism the Spirit was bestowed in his two extraordinary operations. The first was the principal. The second was subordinate to the first.* The first was for general instruction in truth: the second for the confirming of the heavenly origin of that truth: the first was the extension of the gift of revelation, which rested on the ancient prophets the second embraced his supernatural and physical gifts. Under the first class, we rank the gifts of the apostle and the evangelist, and the prophet; who brought forward those doctrines which were not taught before, or were but obscurely known: and which went to the completion of the gospel of Christ, and who appointed in the churches which they planted, pastors and governments. Under the second class we rank those who healed all manner of diseases: and those who had "the inworking of powers:" and those who taught and occasionally predicted future events and those who discerned spirits: and those who spoke miraculously in divers tongues: and those who interpreted these tongues. The grand resources of both classes of these gifts were directed to two points. First: the completion of the sacred canon. Second: the establishment of christianity in the world. The first was affected by delivering to the church, in a public manner, their inspired writings: and by confirming the evidences of these writings by miraculous powers. The second was accomplished by organizing churches; and by placing them under their respective ministers and governments; and the moral energies of all the divine doctrines and institutions of Christ. These, in proportion, as they accomplished their end, were to be withdrawn. This was done by degrees. The office of the apostle became extinct at the decease of those who were invested with it. Then the class of superior prophets and of evangelists gradually vanished away. The second class of gifts was vouchsafed to the church for a longer period. The reasons are obvious. On every new field of its display, the gospel had to encounter the same * It is not denied, that both orders might be found in one and the same person. † Erogynuara Suvausv. See McKnight's New Transl. of the Epist. on 1 Cor. xi. 10. Gal. ch. 1. See Campbell's Eccles. Lectures. v. sect. 3 and 4. public and ferocious enemies, which opposed it from the first. It needed the aid of those miraculous powers to bring its blessing sooner to the nations. Hence around the wide circle, over which christianity had spread its influences, we can trace the vestiges of these gifts to the second, and the third, and the fourth, and even to the fifth centuries.* But these have, at last, one by one been withdrawn. And there are left the ordinary and ample class of the officers, and the institutions of God's house; and the special gifts of the Holy Spirit, in the full play of successful operation. There is, indeed, something which seems to me to bear a resemblance to the remains of the supernatural gifts of ancient times: or, shall I rank it under the doctrine of communion with God? Or shall I place it in the ministration of angels? Or under certain operations of the Divine Comforter, I allude to "the secret of the Lord being sometimes disclosed to them that love him." Call it by the name of presentiments, or premonitions if you please. It is something different from "objective revelations.” These were bestowed for public benefit: and to have concealed them would have been highly criminal. But the former were personal, and were attended by evidence sufficient only to satisfy the individual. These, if we may credit the best of men, have been vouchsafed to some on the approach of calamities: or under the pressure of heavy afflictions: or on the eve of their dissolution. They were tendered by the ministration of angels, through the medium of some of the external senses; or by some impression left on the mind by invisible agency. -This is a subject of peculiar delicacy. But it is something truly sublime. And the mind of the coolest and most dispassionate philosopher will bend over it with feelings of uncommon interest. There is nothing common between these premonitions and the * Niceph. Eccles. Hist. vol. i. lib. iv. c. 24, 25. Euseb. adv. Hierocl. cap. 4. Mosh. Hist. vol. i. cent. 4. part 1. sect. 23. Wits. Miscel. Sacra. lib. i. cap. 24. Bern. De Moore, vol. i. cap. 1. sect. 33. Miracles were witnessed by Just. Martyr in the second century; by Tertullian, by Origen and by Minutius Felix in the third; by Lactantius in the fourth ; and in the beginning of the fifth by Augustine. Their words may be seen in Pol. Synopsis, vol. iv. part 1, p. 835. See also Dr. Owen on spiritual gifts, chap. v. I beg leave, also, to refer to Zach. Brooke, Defensio Miraculorum post temp. apost. no. 634, quarto pamphl. Philad. Publ. Library. And on the other side of the question, to Dodwell's arguments against miracles in the times after the apostles, no. 3358, octavo pamphl. Tract. third. Phil. Library. dreamy visions which the pride of the fanatic pours into every man's ear; or brings forward, with mischievous solemnity, to prostrate religion and piety. They constitute a part of that high intercourse that obtains between kindred spirits: that obtains be. tween the Almighty and "the souls which he has made." They are the soothing whispers of redeeming love to the pious soul throbbing with agony. They are the interposing aid of an invisible arm stretched out to a soul sinking in the deep waters of sorrow. They are the movements of the soft hand of mercy, wiping off the cold dew of agony from the brow of the dying christian and the suffering patriot; and of the sainted martyr, "baptized in blood." Surely it is no enthusiasm to believe that, in this sense," the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." If it be, it is a delightful enthusiasm! But, no! when we look over the recorded evidence in the history of our martyred fathers, in times that happily have passed away, we cannot work our minds up into a state of philosophical insensibility cold enough to oppose it, or even to doubt it.* § 2. In the history of the human mind, there are certain phenomena, which have been reduced by some, under the class of supernatural impulses. We may divide these into two kinds, apparent and real. First: apparent. The usual operations of a calm, and espe *Those who wish to pursue this idea further, I beg leave to refer to Niceph. Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. lib. x. cap. 35, fol. Archbish. Usher's Life, fol. p. 33. Bishop Brown's sayings of the Jesuits, quoted (out of the Harleian Miscell. vol. v. p. 566,) by M'Lain in Mosh. vol. iv. cent. 16. chap. 1. Lempr. Biog. Dict. article, lord Lyttleton. Bishop Newton on the Proph. vol. iii. p. 47, duod. edit. Le Clerc, Sept. Relig. of the Greeks, p. 249. Spencer on Prodigies and Vulgar Proph. no. 3626, octavo. Phil. Publ. Library. La Harpe's Narrat. of the singular prediction of Mons. Cazotte. Analect. Mag. for A. D. 1815, p. 258. Our divines admit this doctrine; while they sternly frown from them the spirit of enthusiasm. Bern. De Moore, vol. i. cap. 1. sect. 33, and Wits. Miscel. Sac. lib. i. cap. 24. "Homines pii, ad propiorem amicitiam Numinis admissi, ab ipso edoceantur de rebus futuris-ad excitationem pietatis, ad animi consolationem, &c." A Synod of the Reformed church in Germany, A. D. 1633, being moved by some learned divines to declare against all prophecies and revelations of this nature, declined it, adding : "Nondum ullam Ecclesiam, aut consistorium, vel academiam, novas id genus prophetias penitus rejecisse, aut condemnasse-nos cur primi esse velimus ?" Hist. of Revel. by J. A. C. quoted by Spencer ut supra, p. 111. See also, Jortin's Remarks on Eccles. Hist. and M'Crie's Life of Knox, p. 391. 393. New York edit. cially of a distracted mind, are sometimes interrupted by strong impressions suddenly and unaccountably conveyed. The credulous and weak pronounce them without hesitation, to be revelations. Its But 1. These may originate in the operations of conscience. This moral power passes sentence on the actions of men. operations cannot be always calm and undisturbed. For they play in the bosom of the guilty. When the Divine Spirit reveals to man his guilt, in the lightning of his law, convictions flash through the soul. Terrors fill his heart. His frame is agitated. His sensations, and language, and actions are strangely changed. But whatever may be the phenomena here displayed, they may all be sufficiently explained, or at least accounted for, without resorting to impulses or revelations. These are found in the first process of the work of grace on every christian's heart. But they are not confined to them. They were discovered in the bosom of Judas: and they never cease in the regions of despair! They display the convulsive throes of soul and conscience, struggling painfully to raise itself up, under an insupportable weight of guilt and despair. This offers a sufficient cause for the suddenness and terribleness of the conceptions thrown into the mind. 2. These phenomena are most strikingly revealed in periods when civil broils convulse church and state. Every human passion is wrought to its highest pitch; and men's ears tingle with dismal rumours and deeds of horror. Over these the gloomy imagination broods long and deeply: it collects every minute detail of circumstance which harrows up the soul. His mind becomes strongly agitated; he cannot divert his thoughts from the subject; it is his waking and his sleeping dream. Certain awful conceptions, embodied in the venerated language of sacred writ, and adapted, it may be, in a wonderful manner, to the circumstances of the time and place, are created suddenly and forcibly in his mind. The suitableness of the conception, its unexpected and sudden appearance, must convince every body, he thinks, that it is no creation of his mind; that it is nothing less than supernatural. He broods over this eternally. The dark chaos of his mind is peopled with these aerial creatures of fancy: the disease increases by the same causes which produced it. The im |