Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. CREDENTIALS OF REVELATION. 21. Subject of the Chapter.?In the following chapter we shall explain the nature of Revelation, and show how its existence can be attested by miracles and prophecies. 22. Private Revelations.?We have seen (n. 18) that God can speak to His creature in such a way as to leave the recipient of the communication in no doubt as to the Source from which it comes; but such communications are exceptional, and do not now concern us, unless they are intended to be published and to command the acceptance of other persons. It belongs to Mystic Theology to discuss the precautions to be observed in order to guard against delusion in these cases; while Ascetic Theology discusses the continually occurring cases where the Creator speaks to His creatures, truly, but in a way which is not always easy to distinguish from the thoughts that are generated by the natural power of the mind. Those Divine communications which are intended for the benefit of the recipient alone, need no public credentials. 23. Public Revelations.?But it is quite otherwise with Public Revelations, the name given to those Revelations which are received by one person, but are intended to be communicated by him to others, and to command their submissive acceptance. This submission cannot reasonably be demanded unless the person who claims the character of a Divine messenger produce full proof that he has warrant for his claim. Belief in every message that purports to come from God, without proof that the messenger is neither deceiver nor deceived, so far from being a duty or even a virtue, may easily be a sin of imprudence; as true a sin, though not as great a sin, as that of the man who rejects a message that comes to him from God through a messenger who shows such proofs, of…
