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our Saviour, (John, 44.) How can ye believe, which receive honour of one another, and seek not that honour that cometh from God only? Hence we are to infer, that they are not persons of the most distinguished natural talents, or scientifical attainments, that lie most open to that conviction which truth carries with it, but men of defaecate, unprejudiced minds, and of a child-like simplicity in the fear of the Lord, to whom is given this high commendation in Scripture, (Mark x. 14.) that of such is the kingdom of God.
“The establishment of a Divine Revelation, even by God' himself does not appear to have been designed, in any age of the Church, to supersede the vouchsafement of particular revelations to particular persons, at different times, and on certain occasions; and credible it is, that seers of visions, and extraordinary messengers, variously gifted, will be occasionally commissioned for the benefit and comfort of the Church in the future times of it; and if in reply to this it should be asked, to what purpose then is the establishment of a Divine Revelation, if it answers not all human requirements in Religion, on every occasion? be it answered, that though an established system of Divine Institutes' be of the highest importance and benefit to mankind, as it serves for a common and safe directory, both for faith and practice, and so to all the purposes of life and Godliness, yet through a deplorable propensity in our nature to degenerate, it has so happened, that every Church has by degrees departed from its primitive purity, and either through the ease and temptations of civil establishments, or other manifold causes, sadly apostatised from virtue and piety, to the love of the world, infidelity, and impiety: In this case a people stands in a different and degraded relation to their God, who, of his infinite compassion, is graciously pleased to grant them extraordinary means for their warning and conversion, where, through their own fault, the ordinary ones have failed of their due influence.
“Another important use of the established institutes of a revealed Religion, in connection with the vouchsafement of extraordinary dispensations to particular persons, is that of their serving as a criterion or test, whereby to try the spirits whether they are of God; for in our present state of probation we stand betwixt the two worlds of light and darkness, truth and error, and as we have good spirits to befriend us, so there are evil spirits to mislead and delude us: The Prophet Isaiah has laid down the following rule of distinguishing in such doubtful cases, where any were liable to be deceived by wizards, and such as had familiar spirits: (Isaiah viii. 20.) To the law and the testimony: If they speak not accordiug to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Our application of this rule is to bring every doctrine, to the test of the Gospel of Christ, and whatever agrees not with this divine standard is to be rejected as false; for He is the way, the truth, and the life.
