called sons of God.

This reference of things wonderful to God was not peculiar to the Jews.
Pharaoh, on hearing the interpretation of his dream, exclaimed that the
mind of the gods was in Joseph. Nebuchadnezzar told Daniel that he
possessed the mind of the holy gods; so also in Latin anything well made
is often said to be wrought with Divine hands, which is equivalent to
the Hebrew phrase, wrought with the hand of God.

... We find that the Scriptural phrases, "The Spirit of the Lord was
upon a prophet," "The Lord breathed His Spirit into men," "Men were
filled with the Spirit of God, with the Holy Spirit," etc., are quite
clear to us, and mean that the prophets were endowed with a peculiar and
extraordinary power, and devoted themselves to piety with especial
constancy; that thus they perceived the mind or the thought of God, for
we have shown [elsewhere] that God's spirit signifies in Hebrew God's
mind or thought, and that the law which shows His mind and thought is
called His Spirit; hence that the imagination of the prophets, inasmuch
as through it were revealed the decrees of God, may equally be called
the mind of God, and the prophets be said to have possessed the mind of
God. On our minds also the mind of God and His eternal thoughts are
impressed; but this being the same for all men is less taken into
account, especially by the Hebrews, who claimed a preeminence, and
despised other men and other men's knowledge.

[Also] the prophets were said to possess the Spirit of God because men
knew not the cause of prophetic knowledge, and in their wonder referred
it with other marvels directly to the Deity, styling it Divine
knowledge.

We need no longer scruple to affirm that the prophets only perceived
God's revelation by the aid of imagination, that is, by words and
figures either real or imaginary. We find no other means mentioned in
Scripture, and therefore must not invent any. As to the particular law
of Nature by which the communications took place, I confess my
ignorance. I might, indeed, say as others do, that they took place by
the power of God; but this would be mere trifling, and no better than
explaining some unique specimen by a transcendental term. Everything
takes place by the power of God. Nature herself is the power of God
under another name, and our ignorance of the power of God is
co-extensive with our ignorance of Nature. It is absolutely folly,
therefore, to ascribe an event to the power of God