Secondly, The immediate effects of this inspiration were, that those
132 OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT [BOOK II.
inspired were moved or acted by the Holy Ohost : " Holy men of God spake," i/TTo Hviv/jbarog ' Aykv fspofisvoi, 2 Pet. i. 21, — "moved" or acted " by the Holy Ghost." And two things are intended hereby : — First, The preparation and elevation of their intellectual faculties, their minds and understandings, wherein his revelations were to be re- ceived. He prepared them for to receive the impressions he made upon them, and confirmed their memories to retain them. He did not, indeed, so enlighten and raise their minds as to give them a distinct understanding and full comprehension of all the things them- selves that were declared unto them ; there was more in their in- spirations than they could search into the bottom of^ Hence, although the prophets under the Old Testament were made use of to communicate the clearest revelations and predictions concerning Jesus Christ, yet in the knowledge and understanding of the mean- ing of them they were all inferior to John Baptist, as he was in this matter to the meanest believer, or " least in the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, for their own illumination and edification did they dili- gently inquire, by the ordinary means of prayer and meditation, into the meaning of the Spirit of God in those prophecies which them- selves received by extraordinary revelation, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. Nor did Daniel, who had those express representations and glorious visions concerning the monarchies of the world, and the providential altera- tions which should be wrought in them, imderstand what and how things would be in their accomplishment. That account he doth give of himself in the close of his visions, chap. xii. 8, 9. But he so raised and prepared their minds as that they might be capable to receive and retain those impressions of things which he communi- cated unto them. So a man tunes the strings of an instrument, that it may in a due manner receive the impressions of his finger, and give out the sound he intends. He did not speak in them or by them, and leave it unto the use of their natural faculties, their minds, or memories, to understand and remember the things .spoken by him, and so declare them to others; but he himself acted their faculties,
1 And whereas the ancients contend, against the Ebionites, Jlarcionites, and Mon- tanists, (as Epiphanius, Advers. Hajres. lib. ii. torn. 1 ; Hseres. xlviii. ; Hiei'on. Prooem. Comment, in Isa.,) that the prophets were not used ecstatically, but understood the things that were spoken to them, they did not intend that they had, by virtue of their inspiration, a full comprehension of the whole sense of the revelations made unto them, but only that they were not in or by i^rophecy deprived of the use of their intellectual
faculties, as it befell satanical enthusiasts. Taura yao aXr,6wi ■xpo<P'/iTu\i h ayi&i ■rvsufian, ifpKi/nivtjv i^ovTav Thv 'Sirivmav kk) rnv ^I'SacrxaXiccv xai T-/jv OiaXoylav, as Epiphanius Speaks.
Whereibre, upon these words of Austin, " Per quosdam scientes, per quosdara nescientes, id quod ex adventu Christi usque nunc et deinceps agitur prasuunciaretur esse venturum," de Civitat. Dei, lib. vii. cap. 32, one well adds, " Prophetoe ncc omnes sua vaticinia intelligebant, nee qui intclligebant omnia intelligebant : non enim ex se loquebantur sed ex superiore Dei afilatu ; cujus consilia non omnia eis erant manifesta ; utebaturque Deus illis non vclut consultis futui'orum, sed iustrunientis quibus homines alloqueretur."
CHAP. I.] PREPARATORY TO THE NEW CREATION. 133
making use of them to express his words, not their own conceptions, j And herein, besides other things, consists the difference between the/ inspiration of the Holy Spirit and those so called of the devil. The I utmost that Satan can do, is to make strong impressions on the ima- ginations of men, or influence their faculties, by possessing, wrest- ing, distorting the organs of the body and spirits of the blood. The Holy Spirit is in the faculties, and useth them as his organs. And this he did, secondly, with that light and evidence of himself, of his power, truth, and holiness, as left them liable to no suspicion whether their minds were under his conduct and influence or no. Men are subject to fall so far under the power of their own imaginations, through the prevalency of a corrupt distempered fancy, as to suppose them supernatural revelations; and Satan may, and did of old, and perhaps doth so still, impose on the minds of some, and communicate unto them such a conception of his insinuations, as that they shall for a while think them to be from God himself. But in the inspi- rations of the Holy Spirit, and his actings of the minds of the holy men of old, he gave them infallible assurance that it was himself alone by whom they were acted, Jer. xxiii. 28. If any shall ask by what TBXfirjpia, or infallible tokens, they might know assuredly the in- spirations of the Holy Spirit, and be satisfied, with such a persuasion as was not liable to mistake, that they were not imposed upon, I must say plainly that I cannot tell, for these are things whereof we have no experience; nor is any thing of this nature, whatever some falsely and foolishly impute unto them who profess and avow an in- terest in the ordinary gracious workings of the Holy Ghost, pretended unto. What some phrenetical persons, in their distempers or under their delusions, have boasted of, no sober or wise man esteems worthy of any sedate consideration. But this I say, it was the design of the Holy Ghost to give those whom he did thus extraordinarily inspire an assurance, sufficient to bear them out in the discharge of their duty, that they were acted by himself alone; for in the pursuit of their work, which they were by him called unto, they were to en- counter various dangers, and some of them to lay down their lives for a testimony unto the truth of the message delivered by them. This they could not be engaged into without as full an evidence of his acting them as the nature of man in such cases is capable of. The case of Abraham fully confirms it. And it is impossible but that in those extraordinary workings there was such an impression of himself, his holiness, and authority, left on their minds, as did secure them from all fear of delusion. Even upon the word, as delivered by them unto others, he put those characters of divine truth, holiness, and power, as rendered it d^ic-Trigrov, " worthy to be believed," and not to be rejected without the highest sin by them unto whom it