shall be thy prophet;"
implying that, since in interpreting Moses' words to Pharaoh, Aaron
acted the part of a prophet, Moses would be to Pharaoh as a god, or in
the attitude of a god....

Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy really
includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our
natural faculties depends on our knowledge of God and His eternal laws;
but ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on
foundations which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after
rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so
that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to
be included. Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called
Divine, for God's nature, in so far as we share therein, and God's laws,
dictate it to us; nor does it suffer from that to which we give the
preeminence, except in so far as the latter transcends its limits and
cannot be accounted for by natural laws taken in themselves. In respect
to the certainty it involves, and the source from which it is derived,
_i.e._, God, ordinary knowledge is no whit inferior to prophetic, unless
indeed we believe, or rather dream, that the prophets had human bodies
but superhuman minds, and therefore that their sensations and
consciousness were entirely different from our own.

But, although ordinary knowledge is Divine, its professors cannot be
called prophets, for they teach what the rest of mankind could perceive
and apprehend, not merely by simple faith, but as surely and honorably
as themselves.

Seeing then that our mind subjectively contains in itself and partakes
of the nature of God, and solely from this cause is enabled to form
notions explaining natural phenomena and inculcating morality, it
follows that we may rightly assert the nature of the human mind (in so
far as it is thus conceived) to be a primary cause of Divine revelation.
All that we clearly and distinctly understand is dictated to us, as I
have just pointed out, by the idea and nature of God; not indeed through
words, but in a way far more excellent and agreeing perfectly with the
nature of the mind, as all who have enjoyed intellectual certainty will
doubtless attest. Here, however, my chief purpose is to speak of
matters having reference to Scripture, so these few words on the light
of reason will suffice.

I will now pass on to, and treat more fully, the other ways and