444 Of a `Religious and Vivine Faith. Vol. 11. 2. The private Affùrance ana Satisfa&ion of another concerning a Revelation made tohim, can fignifie nothing at all to me, to affure me of it. For what fa- tisfaEtion is it to me, that another may fay, he bath a Revelation, un1c1 t have force Means to be aßäred that what he fays is true ? For if l muff believe every Spirit, that is, every Man that lays he is infpired, I lie open to all poffiblc (lures and Delufions, and mutt believe every one that either foolishly conceit or falfely pretends that he bath a Revelation : for both the conceited and preteened Enthufaaft will fay they have Revelations, with as much confidence as thofe who are truly and divinely Infpired : and to take everyMan's word in matters of fuch huge Confequence and importance, as Revelation from God ought to be prefumed to be, would not be Faith, but Credulity, that is, an ungrounded Perfwafion ; which how. feverely God punifh'd, you may fee in that famous inftance,t King r I. where the Prophet that was lent to Bethel, is upon his return torn in pieces by .a Lion, becaufe of his Credulity and eafie Belief of a pretended Revelation. i cor. fefs this cafe is fomewhat differentfrom theirs who limply believe a pretended Re. velation, as being complicated with force other aggravating Circumftances. For he had had an immediate Revelation from God, not to eat, nor drink at Bethel ; acr to return the fame. way that he came : upon his return an old Prophet meets him, and tells him that an Angel had appeared to him, and had bid him to bring him back, and to caufe. him to Eat and Drink ; he believes him, and turns in with him. Now this was the Aggravation of his Incredulity, that whenhe him.. felf had had an exprefs Revelation from God, concerning whichhe was fatisfied, he hearkned to the pretended Revelation of another, concerning which he had no Affurance, in contradiction to a Divine Revelation, which he knew to be fuch. Not but that the Command which God had given him was in its own Nature revocable, and God might have countermanded it byanother immediate Revela . tion to him, or by an equivalent, that is a Miracle wrought by the Prophet whö pretended to countermand it fromGod. Vnumquodque difJolvitur ea modo quo li-. gatur,; the Obligation which was brought upon him by an immediate Revelation, could not be diffolved but by another immediate Revelation, or Evidence equiva- lent to it. However, this Inftance ferves in thegeneral, to my purpofe, that a Man may be faulty by Credulity as well as by Unbelief : and as a Man ought not to disbelieve where there is fufficient Evidence ; fo neither ought he to believeany thing without fufficient Grounds of Affurance. 3. That Miracles wrought for the confirmation of any Divine Teftimony or Revelation made to another, are a fufficient Means, whereby thofe who have not the Divine Revelation immediately made to them, may be affured that it is Divine ; I fay thefe are fufficient Means of affurance in this Cafe. I do not fay they are the only Means: (for it does not become Men to limit the Power and Wifdom of God) but I do not know of any other Means of Affurance, upon which Men can fecurely rely ;, and it is a great Prefumption that this is the belt and fitteft, if not the only Means, becaufe the Wifdom of God bath always pitched upon it, and conflantly made ufe of it, and no other. Under Miracles I comprehend the Pre- diétionof Future Events, which God claims as a peculiar Prerogative to himfelf, becaufe fuck things'are cut of the reach of any created underftanding ; and there- fore in the Prophet Ifaiah he challengeth the Idols of the Heathens to give this Tc- flimony, cr Argument of their Divinity ; Shew us things that are to come, that we may knew that ye are Gods. But here we mutt diftinguifh between doubefel and unqu.flionable Miracles. I call thofe doubtful Miracles, which, tho' a Man cannot tell how they can be done by any natural Power, yet do not carry that full Conviétion with them, as to be univerfally own'd and acknowledged for Arguments of a Divine Power. Such were thole which the Magicians did by their lnchantments. I call thofe unqueflio- liable,. which confidering their Quality and Number, and the publick manner of doing of them, are out of all Queftion. Such were the Miracles of Mofes, and our Saviour. Now a doubtful, and a frngle, and a private Wonder, or Miracle, as i may call it, can give no confirmation to any thing in oppofition to a Revela- tion, or a Doctrine confirmed by many, and publick, and unqueJlionable Miracles. Upon
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