Now, these false prophets of old were of two sorts, both mentioned^ Deut. xviii. 20 : — First, Such as professedly served other gods, direct- ing all their prophetic actings unto the promotion of their worship. Such were the prophets of Baal, in whose name expressly they pro- phesied, and whose assistance they invocated : " They called on the name of Baal, saying, O Baal, hear us," 1 Kings xviii. 26-29. Many of these were slain by Elijah, and the whole race of them afterward extirpated by Jehu, 2 Kings x. 18-28. This put an end to his deity, for it is said, " he destroyed Baal out of Israel," false gods having no existence but in the deceived minds of their worshippers. It may be asked why these are called " proj)hets?" and so, in general, of all the false prophets mentioned in the Scripture. Was it because they merely pretended and counterfeited a spirit of prophecy, or had they really any such ? I answer, that I no way doubt but that they were of both sorts. These prophets of Baal were such as worshipped the sun, after the manner of the Tyrians. Herein they invented many hellish mysteries, ceremonies, and sacrifices ; these they taught the people by whom they were hired. Being thus engaged in the service of the devil, he actually possessed their minds " as a spirit of divina- tion," and enabled them to declare things unknown unto other men. They, in the meantime, really finding themselves acted by a power supeinor to them, took and owned that to be the power of their god; and thereby became immediate worshippers of the devil. This our apostle declares, 1 Cor. x. 20. Whatever those who left the true God aimed at to worship, the devil interposed himself between that and them, as the object of their adoration. Hereby he became the " god of this world," 2 Cor. iv, 4, — he whom in all their idols they
CHAP. I.] THE HOLY SPIEIT AND HIS WORK. 81
worshipped and adored. With a spirit of divination from him were many of the false prophets acted, which they thought to be the spirit of their god; for they found themselves acted by a superior povv^er, which they could neither excuse nor resist.^ Others of them were mere pretenders and counterfeits, that deceived the foolish multitude with vain, false predictions. Of these more will be spoken afterward.
Secondly, Others there were who spake in the name, and, as they falsely professed, by the inspiration of the Spirit, of the holy God. With this sort of men Jeremiah had great contests; for in that apostatizing age of the church, they had got such an interest and reputation among the rulers and people as not only to confi'ont his prophecies with contrary predictions, chap, xxviii. 1-4, but also to traduce him as a false prophet, and to urge his punishment according to the law, chap. xxix. 25-27. And with the like confidence did Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah carry it towards Micaiah, 1 Kings xxii. 24 ; for he scornfully asks him, " Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?" that is, "Whereas assuredly he speaketh in me, how came he to inspire thee with a contrary revela- tion?" Ezekiel, at the same time with Jeremiah, was exercised and perplexed with them, chap. xiii. and xiv. ; for this sort of persons, — ■ namely, false pretenders unto divine extraordinary revelations, — did of old usually abound in times of danger and approaching desolations. The devil stirred them up to fill men with vain hopes, to keep them in sin and security, that destruction might seize upon them at un- awares: and whoever take the same course in the time of deserved, threatened, impendent judgments, though they use not the same mea.ns, yet they also do the work of the devil ; for whatever encou- rageth men to be secure in their sins is a false divination, Jer. V. 30, 31. And this sort of men is characterized by the prophet Jeremiah, chap, xxiii., from verse 9 to 83 ; where any one may read their sin and judgment. And yet this false pretending unto the spirit of prophecy was very far from casting any contemj)t on tlie real gift of the Holy Ghost therein; nay, it gave it the greater glory and lustre. God never more honoured his true prophets than when there were most false ones; neither shall ever any false pretence to the Spirit of grace render him less dear unto those that are partakers of him, or his gifts of less use unto the church.
It was thus also under the New Testament, at the first preaching of the gospel. The doctrine of it at first was declared from the im- mediate revelation of the Spirit, preached by the assistance of the
E^SfSav yap TiXiraT; Tin xa) ftayyccvtiai; xariSfiirt %cc'i//,ivd ti; iig clv^fiuTov, xce) lua-jTiviTo ixiivo;, xai fiav-tvofiivcf ippirrTiro, xa) iffwapamTo, xa) ivtyxuv rod laificvo; TJjv cp[/.riv oux riovvaro ccXX' e^eXXs oiaffVui/.ivo; ouroig avoWuffiai, tois to. miaura f^ay- yavivouiri <P'/itri.
Auffari XofTov a.va.Kra, (iporo; &io\i cvx in x^f'^- — ClirySOSt. in 1 Cor. xii.
32 GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING [BOOK L
Spirit, made effectual by his work and power, [and] was accompanied in many by outward miraculous works and effects of the Spirit ; whence the whole of what peculiarly belonged unto it, in opposition to the law, was called " The ministration of the Spirit/' These things being owned and acknowledged by all, those who had any false opinions or dotages of their own to broach, or any other deceit to put upon Christians, could think of no more expedite means for the compass- ing of their ends than by pretending to immediate revelations of the Spirit; for without some kind of credibility given them from hence, they knew that their fond imaginations would not be taken into the least consideration. Hence the apostle Peter, having treated con- cerning the revelation of God by his Spirit in prophecy, under the Old Testament and the New, 2 Epist., chap. i. 19-21, adds, as an inference from that discourse, a comparison between the false pro- phets that were under the Old Testament and the false teachers under the New, chap. ii. 1 : " But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you." And the reason of it is, because that as they pretended to the Spirit of the Lord in their prophecies, saying, "Thus saith the Lord," when he sent them not, so these ascribed all their abominable heresies to the inspiration of the Spirit, by whom they were not assisted.