fons, I fay, to whom God did fo reveal himself, did by virtue of the fame revelation, perceive, know, and affure themselves, that he which spake to them was God; fo that at the fame time they clearly understood both what was delivered, and by whom : otherwise we cannot imagine that Abraham would have flain his Son, or have been commended for fuch a refolution, had he not been moft affured that it was God who by an immediate revelation of his will clearly commanded it. Thus by Faith Noah Heb. xi. 7. being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, to the faving of his houfe: which warning of God was a clear revelation of God's determination to drown the world, of his will to fave him and his family, and of his command for that end to build an ark. And this Noah fo received from God, as that he knew it to be an Oracle of God, and was as well affured of the Author as informed of the command. Thus the judgments hanging over Judah were revealed in the ears of Ifaiah by the Lord of Hofts. Thus the Lord re- Ifa.xxii. 1 vealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh: at firft indeed 1 Sam. iii. he knew him not; that is, when the Lord fpake, 1 Sam.iii. 7. he knew it not to be the voice of God; Now Sana m muel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word N of the Lord yet revealed unto him; but after that he Kipios antknew him, and was affured that it was he which autò spake unto him, the Scripture teaching us that the . Sam. ears of Samuel were revealed, and the word of ix. 15. God revealed, and God himself revealed to him. By all which we can underftand no less, than that Samuel was fo illuminated in his prophecies, that iv hawexahe fully understood the words or things themselves to pμa Kuwhich were delivered, and as certainly knew that pi. Sam. the deliverer was God: fo Samuel the Seer, so the reft of those Prophets believed those truths revealed to them by fuch a faith as was a firm affent unto an object credible upon the immediate teftimony of God. But 21. שמואל Ωτίον Σαμπα טרם λυφθῆναι αὐτ iii. 7. נגלה שמואל Κύριος πρὸς 21. But thofe faithful people to whom the Prophets fpake, believed the fame truth, and upon the teftimony of the fame God, delivered unto them not by God, but by thofe Prophets, whofe words they therefore affented unto as certain truths, because they were affured that what the Prophets fpake was immediately revealed to them by God himself, without which affurance no faith could be expected Exod. iii. z. from them. When God appeared unto Mofes in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and there immediately revealed to him first himself, saying, I am the God of thy Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, and then his will to bring the children of Ifrael out of the land of Egypt, Mofes clearly believed God both in the revelation of himself and of his will, and was fully fatisfied that the Ifraelites fhould be delivered, because he was affured it was God who promised their deliverance: yet notwithstanding still he doubted whether the Ifraelites would believe the fame truth, when it should be delivered to them, not imExod. iv. 1. mediately by God, but by Mofes; And Mofes anfwered and faid, But behold they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will fay, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Which words of his firft fuppofe, that if they had heard the voice of God, as he had, they would have affented to the truth upon a teftimony divine; and then as rationally affirm, that it was improbable they should believe, except they were affured it was God who promifed, or think that God had promised by Mofes, only because Mofes faid fo. Which rational objection was clearly taken away, when God endued Mofes with power of evident and undoubted miracles; for then the rod which he carried in his hand was as infallible a fign to the Ifraelites, that God had appeared unto him, as the flaming bush was to himself; and therefore they which faw in his hand God's omnipotency, could not fufpect in his tongue God's 3x. God's veracity; infomuch as when Aaron became to Mofes inftead of a mouth, and Mofes to Aaron infead of God, Aaron fpake all the words which the Lord Exod.iv. 16 bad fpoken unto Mofes, and did the figns in the fight of the people, and the people believed. For being perfuaded by a lively and active presence of omnipotency that God had appeared unto Mofes, and what was delivered to them by him came to him from God, and being fufficiently affured out of the very fense and notion of a Deity, that whatsoever God should speak, muft of neceffity be true, they prefently affented, and believed the Lord, and his fervant Exod. xiv. Mofes; Mofes, as the immediate propounder; God, 31. as the original revealer: they believed Mofes that God had revealed it, and they believed the promise, because God had revealed it. So that the Faith both of Mofes and the Ifraelites was grounded upon the fame teftimony or revelation of God, and differed only in the propofition or application of the teftimony; Mofes receiving it immediately from God himself, the Ifraelites mediately by the miniftry of Mofes. In the like manner the fucceeding Prophets were the inftruments of Divine Revelation, which they first believed as revealed to them, and then the people as revealed by them: for what they delivered was not the testimony of Man, but the teftimony of God delivered by Man. It was he who fpake by Luke i. 70. the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been fince the world began: the mouth, the inftrument, the articulation was theirs; but the words were God's. The 2Sam.xxiii. Spirit of the Lord fpake by me, faith David, and his word was in my tongue. It was the word of the Lord, 53which he spake by the band of Mofes, and by the hand 1 K. xiv. of his fervant Ahijab the Prophet. The hand the general inftrument of man, the mouth the particular inftrument of speech, both attributed to the Prophets as merely inftrumental in their prophecies. The words which Balaam's afs fpake were as much Numb xxii. 2. 1 K. viii. I 18. the 20. Numb. xxiii. 5. $5. Ιδίως ἐπιλύσ σεως. the afs's words, as those which Balaam fpake were his; for the Lord opened the mouth of the afs, and the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth; and not only Num. xxii. fo, but a bridle with that word, only the word that I fhall fpeak unto thee, that thou shalt fpeak. The Prophets, as they did not frame the notions or conceptions themselves of those truths which they delivered from God, fo did they not loosen their own tongues of their own inftinct, or upon their own motion, but as moved, impelled, and acted by God. So we may in correfpondence to the antecedent and fubfequent words interpret those words of St. Peter, 2 Pet. i. 20. that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation: that is, that no Prophecy which is written did fo proceed from the Prophet which fpake or wrote it, that he of himself or by his own inftinct did open his mouth to prophecy; but that all prophetical revelations came from God alone, and that whofoever firft delivered them was antecedently inspired by him, as it followeth, for the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man, but holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft. That therefore which they delivered was the Word, the Revelation of God; which they affented unto as to a certain and infallible truth, credible upon the immediate teftimony of God, and to which the reft of the Believers afsented upon the fame teftimony of God mediately delivered by the hands of. the Prophets. Heb. i. 1. Verfe 2. Thus God, who at fundry times, and in divers manners, fpake in times paft unto the Fathers by the Prophets, and by fo fpeaking propounded the object of Faith both to the Prophets and the Fathers, bath in these last days fpoken unto us by his Son, and by so speaking hath enlarged the object of Faith to us by him, by which means it comes to be the Faith of Fefus. Thus the only-begotten Son, who was in the bofom of Heb. i. 3. the Father, the exprefs Image of his Perfon, he in whom Col. i. 19. it pleased the Father that all fulness fhould dwell, Rev. xiv. 12. John i. 18. he 17 he in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Cal. il. 9. bodily, revealed the will of God to the Apostles, who being affured that he knew all things, and convinced John xvi. that he came forth from God, gave a full and clear 3o. affent unto those things which he delivered, and grounded their Faith upon his words as upon the immediate teftimony of God. I have given unto Johnxvii.3. them, faith Chrift unto his Father, the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known furely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst fend me. Besides this delivery of these words by Chrift to the Apoftles, they received the promise of the Spirit of Truth, which John xvi, fhould guide them into all truth, and teach them all 13. John xiv. things, and bring all things into their remembrance what- 26. foever Chrift had faid unto them. So clearly, fo fully, fo conftantly were they furnished with divine Illuminations and Revelations from God, upon which they grounded their own Faith; that each of them might well make that profeffion of St. Paul, I know 2 Tim.i.12% whom I have believed. Thus the Faith of the Apoftles, as of Mofes and the Prophets, was grounded 'upon the immediate Revelations of God. But those Believers to whom the Apostles preached, and whom they converted to the Faith, believed the fame truths which were revealed to the Apostles, though they were not fo revealed to them as they were unto the Apostles, that is, immediately from God. But, as the Ifraelites believed those truths which Mofes fpake, to come from God, being convinced by the conftant fupply of miracles wrought by the rod which he carried in his hand: fo the bleffed Apostles, being fo plentifully endued from above with the power of miracles, gave fufficient teftimony that it was God which fpake by their mouths, who fo evidently wrought by their hands. They which heard St. Peter call a lame man unto his legs, fpeak a dead man alive, and strike a living man to death with his tongue, as he did Ananias VOL. I. C and 1 |