(124) Inasmuch as imagination is fleeting and inconstant, we find that the
power of prophecy did not remain with a prophet for long, nor manifest
itself frequently, but was very rare; manifesting itself only in a few men,
and in them not often.

(125)We must necessarily inquire how the prophets became assured of the
truth of what they perceived by imagination, and not by sure mental laws;
but our investigation must be confined to Scripture, for the subject is one
on which we cannot acquire certain knowledge, and which we cannot explain by
the immediate causes. (126) Scripture teaching about the assurance of
prophets I will treat of in the next chapter.




CHAPTER II. - OF PROPHETS.

(1) It follows from the last chapter that, as I have said, the prophets were
endowed with unusually vivid imaginations, and not with unusually, perfect
minds. (2) This conclusion is amply sustained by Scripture, for we are told
that Solomon was the wisest of men, but had no special faculty of prophecy.
(3) Heman, Calcol, and Dara, though men of great talent, were not prophets,
whereas uneducated countrymen, nay, even women, such as Hagar, Abraham's
handmaid, were thus gifted. (4) Nor is this contrary to ordinary experience
and reason. (5) Men of great imaginative power are less fitted for abstract
reasoning, whereas those who excel in intellect and its use keep their
imagination more restrained and controlled, holding it in subjection, so to
speak, lest it should usurp the place of reason.