Seeing then all prophecy supposeth vision or dream (which two,when they be natural,are the same),or some especial gift of God so rarely observed in mankind as to be admired where observed;and seeing as well such gifts as the most extraordinary dreams and visions may proceed from God,not only by His supernatural and immediate,but also by his natural operation,and by mediation of second causes;there is need of reason and judgement to discern between natural and supernatural gifts,and between natural and supernatural visions or dreams.And consequently men had need to be very circumspect,and wary,in obeying the voice of man that,pretending himself to be a prophet,requires us to obey God in that way which he in God's name telleth us to be the way to happiness.For he that pretends to teach men the way of so great felicity pretends to govern them;that is to say,rule and reign over them;which is a thing that all men naturally desire,and is therefore worthy to be suspected of ambition and imposture;and consequently ought be examined and tried by every man before he yield them obedience,unless he have yielded it them already in the institution of a Commonwealth;as when the prophet is the civil sovereign,or by the civil sovereign authorized.And if this examination of prophets and spirits were not allowed to every one of the people,it had been to no purpose to set out the marks by which every man might be able to distinguish between those whom they ought,and those whom they ought not to follow.Seeing therefore such marks are set out to know a prophet by,and to know a spirit by;and seeing there is so much prophesying in the Old Testament,and so much preaching in the New Testament against prophets,and so much greater a number ordinarily of false prophets than of true;every one is to beware of obeying their directions at their own peril.And first,that there were many more false than true prophets appears by this,that when Ahab consulted four hundred prophets,they were all false impostors,but only one Micaiah.And a little before the time of the Captivity the prophets were generally liars."The prophets,"saith the Lord by Jeremiah,"prophesy lies in my name.I sent them not,neither have I commanded them,nor spake unto them:they prophesy to you a false vision,a thing of naught,and the deceit of their heart."Insomuch as God commanded the people by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah not to obey them."Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy to you.They make you vain:they speak a vision of their own heart,and not out of the mouth of the Lord."Seeing then there was in the time of the Old Testament such quarrels amongst the visionary prophets,one contesting with another,and asking,"When departed the spirit from me,to go to thee?"as between Micaiah and the rest of the four hundred;and such giving of the lie to one another,as in Jeremiah,14.14,and such controversies in the new Testament this day amongst the spiritual prophets:every man then was,and now is,bound to make use of his natural reason to apply to all prophecy those rules which God hath given us to discern the true from the false.Of which rules,in the Old Testament,one was conformable doctrine to that which Moses the sovereign prophet had taught them;and the other,the miraculous power of foretelling what God would bring to pass,as I have already shown out of Deuteronomy,13.1,etc.And in the New Testament there was but one only mark,and that was the preaching of this doctrine that Jesus is the Christ,that is,the King of the Jews,promised in the Old Testament.Whosoever denied that article,he was a false prophet,whatsoever miracles he might seem to work;and he that taught it was a true prophet.For St.John,speaking expressly of the means to examine spirits,whether they be of God or not,after he had told them that there would arise false prophets,saith thus,"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,is of God";that is,is approved and allowed as a prophet of God:not that he is a godly man,or one of the elect for this that he confesseth,professeth,or preacheth Jesus to be the Christ,but for that he is a prophet avowed.For God sometimes speaketh by prophets whose persons He hath not accepted;as He did by Baalam,and as He foretold Saul of his death by the Witch of Endor.
Again in the next verse,"Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,is not of Christ.And this is the spirit of Antichrist."So that the rule is perfect rule is perfect on both sides:that he is a true prophet which preacheth the Messiah already come,in the person of Jesus;and he a false one that denieth him come,and looketh for him in some future impostor that shall take upon him that honour falsely,whom the Apostle there properly calleth Antichrist.Every man therefore ought to consider who is the sovereign prophet;that is to say,who it is that is God's vicegerent on earth,and hath next under God the authority of governing Christian men;and to observe for a rule that doctrine which in the name of God he hath commanded to be taught,and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those doctrines which pretended prophets,with miracle or without,shall at any time advance:and if they find it contrary to that rule,to do as they did that came to Moses and complained that there were some that prophesied in the camp whose authority so to do they doubted of;and leave to the sovereign,as they did to Moses,to uphold or to forbid them,as he should see cause;and if he disavow them,then no more to obey their voice,or if he approve them,then to obey them as men to whom God hath given a part of the spirit of their sovereign.For when Christian men take not their Christian sovereign for God's prophet,they must either take their own dreams for the prophecy they mean to be governed by,and the tumour of their own hearts for the Spirit of God;or they must suffer themselves to be lead by some strange prince,or by some of their fellow subjects that can bewitch them by slander of the government into rebellion,without other miracle to confirm their calling than sometimes an extraordinary success and impunity;and by this means destroying all laws,both divine and human,reduce all order,government,and society to the first chaos of violence and civil war.
