Chapter 5

Now three ways may a man receive, and be assured that he has received this divine mission, or know that he is called of God, to the preaching of the Word: I mean not that persuasion of divine concurrence, which is necessary also for them, that are partakers of an ordinary vocation, but which is required in extraordinary cases to them, in whom all outward calling is wanting.

1. By immediate Revelation.

2. By a concurrence of Scripture rules, directory for such occasions.

3. By some outward acts of providence necessitating him thereunto.

For the first, not to speak of light prophetical, whether it consists in a habit, or rather in a transient irradiating motion, nor to discourse of the species, whereby supernatural things are conveyed to the natural faculty, with the several ways of divine Revelation, (for Saint Paul affirms it to have been [in non-Latin alphabet] as well as [in non-Latin alphabet]) with the sundry appellations it received, from the manner whereby it came; I shall only show, what assurance such a one as is thus called may have in himself, that he is so called, and how he may manifest it to others. That men receiving any revelation from God, had always an assurance that such it was, to me seems most certain: neither could I ever approve the note of Gregory on the 1. of Ezekiel, namely, that Prophets being accustomed to prophesying, did oftentimes speak of their own spirit, supposing that it proceeded from the spirit of Prophesy. What is this but to question the truth of all prophetical revelations, and to shake the faith that is built upon it? Surely the Prophet Jeremiah had an infallible assurance of the author of his message, when he pleaded for himself before the Princes, of a truth the Lord has sent me to you, to speak all these words in your ears (Jeremiah 26:15). And Abraham certainly had need of a good assurance from where that motion did proceed, which made him address himself, to the sacrificing the son of promise. And that all other Prophets had the like evidence of knowledge, concerning the divine verity of their revelations is unquestionable; hence are those allusions in the Scripture, whereby it is compared to things whereof we may be most certain by the assurance of sense. So Amos 3:8: The Lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy? And Jeremiah 20:9: His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, things sensible enough. Happily Satan may so far delude false Prophets, as to make them suppose their lying vanities are from above: from where they are said to be Prophets of the deceit of their own heart (Jeremiah 23:26), being deceived, as well as deceivers; thinking in themselves, as well as speaking to others, he says (verse 31), but that any true Prophets should not know a true Revelation, from a motion of their own hearts, wants not much of blasphemy. The Lord surely supposes that assurance of discerning, when he gives that command: the Prophet that has a Dream, let him tell a Dream, and he that has my Word, let him speak my Word faithfully; what is the chaff to the wheat (Jeremiah 23:28)? He must be both blind and mad, that shall mistake wheat for chaff, and on the contrary, what some men speak of a hidden instinct from God, moving the minds of men, yet so, as they know not whether it be from him, or no, may better serve to illustrate Plutarch's discourse of Socrates' Daemon, than any passage in holy Writ. Saint Austin says, his Mother would affirm, that though she could not express it, yet she could discern the difference between God's Revelation, and her own Dreams: in which relation, I doubt not but the learned Father took advantage from the good old woman's words of what she could do, to declare what might be done, of every one that had such immediate revelations. Briefly then, the spirit of God, never so extraordinarily moves the mind of man to apprehend any thing of this kind whereof we speak, but it also illustrates it with a knowledge, and assurance, that it is divinely moved to this apprehension. Now because it is agreed on all sides, that light prophetical is no permanent habit in the mind of the Prophets, but a transient impression, of itself, not apt to give any such assurance, it may be questioned from what other principle it does proceed. But not to pry into things perhaps not fully revealed, and seeing Saint Paul shows us that in such heavenly raptures, there are some things unutterable of them, and incomprehensible of us, we may let this rest, among those [in non-Latin alphabet]. It appears then from the preceding discourse, that, a man pretending to extraordinary vocation, by immediate revelation, in respect of self-persuasion, of the truth of his call, he must be as ascertained of it, as he could be, of a burning fire in his bones, if there shut up.