The above witnesses are exhibited, not for the want of more, (for more than a hundred have seen the Spectre, or have heard her words,) but because repetition is tedious.
Our opponents now, we expect, will admit our inquiry of what they have to say against these attestations, whether any thing false—whether any thing even wearing a deceptive color has been presented to public notice.
It would have been my peculiar pleasure to have given more satisfaction with regard to the superior ends of the messages, subservient, no doubt, to still greater ends, if it had been lawful. But for the present, they are immediately interesting only to a few persons. The knowledge which many would improve, others would abuse. If the answer of the oracle intended for the personal safety of David and his men, is immediately published, Saul will know it.
When a creature professedly brings us a message from God, be this message ever so small, ever so strange, ever so unexpected; yet, if it does not oppose his word, we have not the least evidence that the profession is counterfeit, unless we obtain it by other means; because we are as yet ignorant of its connections, and God’s thoughts and plans are not like ours.
Some say, if the message appear not in the scriptures, that will sufficiently condemn it and the messenger too, whatever be the credentials, “I will obey nothing but what I see in the scriptures.”[54] But may I not say, with Doctor Owen, that they unwarrantably limit the Holy One of Israel? In absolute monarchies the people dare not say, “I will obey no precept from the king, unless I find it in the public code.” Such language would breathe rebellion. And dare we treat thus the King of kings, who is an absolute monarch, and by his propriety in the universe has a right to be such? Will the scriptures themselves warrant this behavior? Can we despise the message and them who heard it, and them who obeyed it, and the angels who brought it, and yet stand guiltless before Him who sent it? until we obtain proof that he did not send it, and that the credentials are forgery? And are we one inch nearer to this point, than we were twenty-six years ago? Do we perceive now any more than twenty-six years ago, how the deceiver talked in open space, by a voice inimitable, clearly understood by some, and not at all by others, with means of intelligence every way equal? Our blessed Lord, to prove that he was not a Spectre, said, “Handle me and see.” That is implicitly to say, if you handle me and find no substance, then you may conclude that I am a spirit. Our Spectre said, “Handle me and see.” And earnestly insisted on this experiment time after time. Can we tell now, why that very argument and mode of evidence which Christ himself used, is not valid and genuine, any more than we could twenty-six years ago? If not, let me be cautious, whatever be the conduct of this enlightened age, how I accuse my neighbors of folly or villainy, merely because they enjoyed interviews with a departed friend; lest I be found among those who speak evil of things which they understand not.
The Jews, besides their public code of revelation, had their Urim and Thummim for the particulars of duty. Is it certain? Is it even rational to suppose that the few answers of that oracle mentioned in the scriptures, are the only ones ever communicated? Prophets, too, were sent to manifest the particulars of duty, and angels, some of whom might be the spirits of just men. And we have no reason to doubt but Moses was a Spectre when he conversed with Christ on the Holy Mount; notwithstanding that old fiction of his resurrection, which has dishonored the antiquities of Josephus.
Now the question is, what person ever yet demonstrated that no such occasional revelation was ever wanted in any hour since the completion of the scriptures? Certainly this completion never precluded spectral missions in the view of the christian fathers. And their continuation has been the constant faith of christians in general, down to this day of deism. And the war of the deists against this opinion is easily accounted for: because the admission of Spectres is the admission of miracle; and the admission of occasional revelation, brings a question to their door which would be a troublesome neighbor. Why then should not a revelation be needful for the public? Great is their obligation to modern christians for their assistance in this warfare. It may be asked, if these missions have been thus continued, why have they generally been attended with so few witnesses? But if there be evidence enough for him, or those who are interested in the message, it is sufficient for their purpose, whether others believe it or not.
When David was told by the Urim that the men of Keilah would deliver him into the hand of Saul, no person appears to have been present but Abiather; but if the oracle was attended with the evidence described by Josephus, there was evidence enough for the purpose of David and his men, whether five other persons in the whole nation believed it or not.
After all, it is not our duty to expect apparitions, for they never come to gratify curiosity; nor to pray for their coming, unless our case be peculiar as that of Manoah; nor to entertain the idea that their speaking to us, would make a more durable impression than the preaching of the living. Such conduct and apprehensions are erroneous, and expose us to greater delusion. Our Lord has expressly taught us that, if we believe not Moses and the prophets, neither shall we be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. And accordingly the affectionate and persuasive addresses of the Spectre in this place, which drew tears from every eye, had no happy, durable influence on the unregenerate character in a single instance.
It was necessary that religion should appear in all her conduct and conversation, otherwise her profession would have been justly suspected. But on that Lord’s day morning, mentioned in several testimonies, she did not say to the people, Tarry and hear me. No, but “Retire to your homes, read the bible, pray and keep the day holy.”[55] That is to say, attend to those ample and most suitable means of grace which God has appointed for you in his written word.