5. Rise of enthusiasm.
Immediate revelation being a much easier way for men to establish their opinions and
regulate their conduct than the tedious and not always successful labour of strict reasoning, it is no wonder that
some have been very apt to pretend to revelation, and to persuade themselves that they are under the peculiar
guidance of heaven in their actions and opinions, especially in those of them which they cannot account for by the
ordinary methods of knowledge and principles of reason. Hence we see that, in all ages, men in whom melancholy
has mixed with devotion, or whose conceit of themselves has raised them into an opinion of a greater familiarity
with God, and a nearer admittance to his favour than is afforded to others, have often flattered themselves with a
persuasion of an immediate intercourse with the Deity, and frequent communications from the Divine Spirit. God,
I own, cannot be denied to be able to enlighten the understanding by a ray darted into the mind immediately from
the fountain of light: this they understand he has promised to do, and who then has so good a title to expect it as
those who are his peculiar people, chosen by him, and depending on him?
