to make way for revelation, puts out the light of both, and does much-what the fame, as if he would perfuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the remote light of an invisible star by a telescope.

$5. Rife of Enthufiafm.

IMMEDIATE revelation being a much easier way for men to establish their opinions, and regulate their conduct, than the tedious and not always fuccefsful labour of ftrict reasoning, it is no wonder that fome have been very apt to pretend to revelation, and to perfuade themfelves that they are under the peculiar guidance of Heaven in their actions and opinions, especially in those of them which they cannot account for by the ordinary methods of knowledge, and principles of reason. Hence we fee, that in all ages, men, in whom melancholy has mixed with devotion, or whofe conceit of them felves has raised them into an opinion of a greater familiarity with GOD, and a nearer admittance to his favour than is afforded to others, have often flattered themselves with a perfuafion of an immediate intercoufe with the Deity, and frequent communications from the Divine Spirit. GOD, I own, cannot be denied to be able to enlighten the understanding by a ray darted into the mind immediately from the Fountain of light: This they underftand he has promised to do; and who then has fo good a title to expect it as thofe who are his peculiar people, chosen by him, and depending on him?

$6. Enthufiafm.

THEIR minds being thus prepared, whatever groundless opinion comes to fettle itself ftrongly upon their fancies, is an illumination from the fpirit of GOD, and prefently of divine authority; and whatsoever odd action they find in themselves a strong inclination to do, that impulfe is concluded to be a call or direction from Heaven, and must be obeyed; it is a commission from above, and they cannot err in executing it.

$7.

THIS I take to be properly enthufiafm, which, though founded neither on reafon nor divine revelation, but rifing from the conceits of a warmed or overweening brain,

works yet, where it once gets footing, more powerfully on the perfuafions and actions of men, than either of thofe two, or both together; men being most forwardly obedient to the impulfes they receive from themselves, and the whole man is fure to act more vigorously, where the whole man is carried by a natural motion; for ftrong conceit, like a new principle, carries all easily with it, when got above common fense; and freed from all restraint of reafon, and check of reflection, it is heightened into a divine authority, in concurrence with our own temper and inclination.

§ 8. Enthufiafm mistaken for seeing and feeling. THOUGH the odd opinions and extravagant actions enthusiasm has run men into, were enough to warn them againit this wrong principle, fo apt to mifguide them both in their belief and conduct; yet the love of something extraordinary, the ease and glory it is to be inspired, and be above the common and natural ways of knowledge, fo flatters many mens lazinefs, ignorance and vanity, that when once they are got into this way of immediate revelation, of illumination without fearch, and of certainty without proof and without examination, it is a hard matter to get them out of it. Reason is loft. upon them, they are above it; they fee the light infused into their understandings, and cannot be mistaken; it is clear and visible there, like the light of bright funshine, fhows itself, and needs no other proof but its own evidence; they feel the hand of GOD moving them within, and the impulfes of the Spirit, and cannot be miftaken in what they feel. Thus they support themselves, and are fure reafon hath nothing to do with what they fee and feel in themselves; what they have a fenfible: experience of, admits no doubt, needs no probation.. Would he not be ridiculous, who fhould require to have: it proved to him that the light fhines, and that he fees: it? It is its own proof, and can have no other. When the Spirit brings light into our minds, it difpels darkness;, we fee it, as we do that of the fun at noon, and need! not the twilight of reason to show it us. This light: from Heaven is ftrong, clear, and pure, carries its own

demonstration with it; and we may as rationally take a glow-worm to affift us to discover the fun, as to examine the celestial ray by our dim candle, reason.

§ 9.

THIS is the way of talking of these men; they are fure because they are fure, and their perfuafions are right only because they are ftrong in them; for when what they fay is ftripped of the metaphor of feeing and feeling, this is all it amounts to, and yet these fimiles fo impofe on them, that they ferve them for certainty in themselves, and demonstration to others.

$10. Enthufiafm, how to be difcovered.

BUT to examine a little foberly this internal light, and this feeling on which they build fo much; thefe men have, they fay, clear light, and they fee; they have an awakened fenfe, and they feel; this cannot, they are fure, be difputed them; for when a man fays he fees or he feels, nobody can deny it him that he does fo. But here let me alk, This feeing, is it the perception of the truth of the propofition, or of this, that it is a revelation from GOD? This feeling, is it a perception of an inclination or fancy to do fomething, or of the fpirit of GOD moving that inclination? Thefe are two very different perceptions, and must be carefully diftinguished, if we would not impofe upon ourselves. I may perceive the truth of a propofition, and yet not perceive that it is an immediate revelation from GOD; I may perceive the truth of a propofition in Euclid, without its being, or my perceiving it to be a revelation; nay, I may perceive I came not by this knowledge in a natural way, and to may conclude it revealed, without perceiving that it is a revelation from GOD; because there be fpirits, which, without being divinely commiffioned, may excite thofe ideas in me, and lay them in fuch order before my mind, that I may perceive their connection; fo that the knowledge of any propofition coming into my mind I know not how, is not a perception that it is from GOD, much lefs is a ftrong perfuafion that it is true, a perception that it is from GOD, or fo much as true; but however it be called light and feeing, I

fo

suppose it is at most but belief and affurance; and the propofition taken for a revelation, is not fuch as they know to be true, but take to be true; for where a propofition is known to be true, revelation is needlefs; and it is hard to conceive how there can be a revelation to any one of what he knows already. If, therefore, it be a propofition which they are perfuaded, but do not know to be true, whatever they may call it, it is not feeing, but believing; for these are two ways, whereby truth comes into the mind wholly distinct, fo that one is not the other. What I fee, I know to be fo by the evidence of the thing itself; what I believe, I take to be fo upon the teftimony of another: But this testimony I must know to be given, or elfe what ground have I of believing? I muft fee that it is GOD that reveals this to me, or else I see nothing. The question then here is, how do I know that GOD is the revealer of this to me; that this impreffion is made upon my mind by his holy Spirit, and that therefore I ought to obey it? If I know not this, how great foever the affurance is that I am poffeffed with, it is groundlefs; whatever light I pretend to, it is but enthufiafm; for whether the propofition fuppofed to he revealed, be in itself evidently true or visibly probable, or by the natural ways of knowledge uncertain, the propofition that must be well grounded, and manifefted to be true, is this, that GOD is the revealer of it, and that what I take to be a revelation is certainly put into my mind by him, and is not an illufion dropped in by fome other fpirit, or raifed by my own fancy; for if I mistake not, these men receive it for true, because they prefume GOD revealed it. Does it not then stand them upon, to examine on what grounds they prefume it to be a revelation from GOD? or elfe all their confidence is mere prefumption, and this light they are fo dazzled with is nothing but an ignis fatuus that leads them continually round in this circle; it is a revelation, because they firmly believe it; and they believe it, because it is a revelation.

Enthufiafm fails of Evidence, that the Propofition is from GOD.

IN all that is of divine revelation, there is need of no other proof but that it is an infpiration from GOD; for he can neither deceive, nor be deceived. But how shall it be known, that any propofition in our minds is a truth. infufed by GOD; a truth that is revealed to us by him, which he declares to us, and therefore we ought to believe? Here it is that enthufiofm fails of the evidence it pretends to; for men thus poffeffed boaft of a light, whereby they fay they are enlightened, and brought into the knowledge of this or that truth. But if they know it to be a truth, they must know it to be fo, either by its own felf-evidence to natural reafon, or by the rational proofs that make it out to be fo. If they fee and know it to be a truth, either of thefe two ways, they in vain fuppofe it to be a revelation; for they know it to be true by the fame way that any other man naturally may know that it is fo without the help of revelation; for thus all the truths, of what kind foever, that men uninfpired are enlightened with, came into their minds, and are eftablifhed there. If they fay they know it to be true, because it is a revelation from GOD, the reason is good; but then it will be demanded how they know it to be a revelation from GOD? If they fay, by the light it brings with it, which fhines bright in their minds, and they cannot refift; I beseech them to confider, whether this be any more than what we have taken notice of already, viz. that it is a revelation, because they strongly believe it to be true; for all the light they fpeak of is but a ftrong, though ungrounded, perfuafion of their own minds, that it is a truth; for rational grounds from proofs that it is a truth, they must acknowledge to have none; for then it is not received as a revelation, but upon the ordinary grounds that other truths are received; and if they believe it to be true because it is a revelation, and have no other reafon for its being a revelation but because they are fully perfuaded without any other reafon that it is true, they believe it to be a revelation only because they strongly believe it to be a revelation;