is;;] WAS PROPHECY SUPERNATURAL ? 351 



Catholics, who have no doctrine of assurance apart from 

 use of sacraments with their opus operatum}. (2) Be 

 cause there are truly converted men who have never 

 passed through such experiences whose conversion 

 being, as it is, a purely transcendental transaction with 

 God has never been manifested in a definite time and 

 place. Here, then, is an instance of a transcendental 

 religious reality surpassing induction as in fact all true 

 cognition of God, so far as it becomes a personal thing, 

 and all true personal knowledge, even of our fellow-men, 

 is above inductive science. The well-known scepticism 

 of Hume shows how no inductive philosophy can prove 

 the existence of persons and personal relations. If 

 prophecy, then, is by its own profession one phase of the 

 personal fellowship of God with man, we must expect 

 that it also will be found to transcend induction. 



And so, as a matter of fact, the opponents of Revelation, 

 whose main victories have always been gained by getting 

 leave to set questions in their own way, have found it to 

 their advantage to take up a purely inductive method 

 of investigating into prophecy. They first take up the 

 form of prophetic inspiration, and show that dreams, 

 visions, ecstasies, are not necessarily supernatural occur 

 rences. They then proceed (I follow the argument as it 

 is worked out by Kuenen, Profeten, i. p. 105 sq.) to ask 

 whether we can simply accept the testimony of the 

 prophets when they express to us their own conviction 

 of their divine inspiration. The modern rationalism of 

 Kuenen does not attempt to invalidate the self-witness of 

 the prophets by casting any doubt upon their honesty. 

 But it urges that the dilemma, &quot; sent by God or else 

 deceivers,&quot; is superficial, and cannot be applied to any 

 ancient religion. We must, says Kuenen, take the 

 prophetic word itself and find some test of its supernatural 

 character. 



The only test of an empirical character which can be 

 applied is then assumed to be the fulfilment of prophetic 



