recompence in this World upon the Sole Account of the Doctrine taught by themselves with all other circumstances innumerable that are pleadable to evince the sincerity and integrity of any witnesses whatever do all concur to prove that they did not follow cunningly devised Fables in what they declared concerning the Mind and Will of God as immediately from himself To confront this evidence with bare Surmizes incapable of any rational Countenance or Confirmation is only to manifest what bruitish impudence Infidelity and Atheism are forced to retreat unto for shelter 2. Their Stile and Manner of Writing deserves a peculiar consideration For there are impressed on it all those Characters of a divine Original that can be communicated unto such an outward Adjunct of divine Revelation Notwithstanding the distance of the Ages and Seasons wherein they lived the difference of the Languages wherein they wrote with the great variety of their Parts Abilities Education and other circumstances yet there is upon the whole and all the parts of their writing that Gravity Majesty and Authority mixed with plainness of speech and absolute freedom from all appearance of affectation of esteem or applause or any things else that derive from humane frailty as must excite an Admiration in all that seriously consider them But I have at large elsewhere insisted on this consideration And have also in the same place shewed that there is no other writing extant in the world that ever pretended unto a divine Original as the Apocriphal Books under the Old Testament and some fragments of spurious pieces pretended to be written in the days of the Apostles but they are not only from their matter but from the manner of their writing and the plain footsteps of humane Artifice and Weakness therein sufficient for their own conviction and do openly discover their own vain pretensions So must every thing necessarily do which being meerly humane pretends unto an immediate derivation from God When men have done all they can these things will have as evident a difference between them as there is between Wheat and Chaff between real and painted Fire Jer. 23. 28 29. 2. Unto the Testimony of the Divine Writers themselves we must add that of those who in all Ages have believed in Christ through their Word which is the description which the Lord Jesus Christ giveth of his Church Joh. 17. 20. This is the Church that is those who wrote the Scripture and those who believe in Christ through their word through all Ages which beareth witness to the divine Original of the Scripture and it may be added that we know this witness is true With these I had rather venture my Faith and eternal condition then with any Society any real or pretended Church whatever And among these there is an especial consideration to be had of those innumerable multitudes who in the primitive times witnessed this confession all the World over For they had many advantages above us to know the certainty of sundry matters of fact which the verity of our Religion depends upon And we are directed unto an especial regard of their Testimony which is signalized by Christ himself In the great Judgment that is to be passed on the World the first Appearance is of the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God Rev. 20. 4. And there is at present an especial regard unto them in Heaven upon the account of their Witness and Testimony Rev. 6. 9 10 11. These were they who with the loss of their lives by the Sword and other ways of violence gave testimony unto the Truth of the Word of God And to reduce these things unto a rational consideration who can have the least occasion to suspect all those persons of folly weakness credulity wickedness or conspiracy among themselves which such a diffused multitude was absolutely uncapable of Neither can any man undervalue their Testimony but he must comply with their Adversaries against them who were known generally to be of the worst of Men. And who is there that believes there is a God and an eternal future State that had not rather have his Soul with Paul than Nero with the Holy Martyrs than their bestial Persecutors Wherefore this Suffrage and Testimony begun from the first writing of the Scripture and carried on by the best of Men in all Ages and made conspicuously glorious in the primitive times of Christianity must needs be with all wise men unavoidably cogent at least unto a due and sedate consideration of what they bare witness unto and sufficient to scatter all such prejudices as Atheism or prophaneness may raise or suggest Secondly What it was they gave Testimony unto is duly to be considered And this was not that the Book of the Scripture was Good Holy and True in all the contents of it only but that the whole and every part of it was given by divine Inspiration as their Faith in this matter is expressed 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. On this account and no other did they themselves receive the Scripture as also believe and yeild Obedience unto the things contained in it Neither would they admit that their Testimony was received if the whole World would be content to allow of or obey the Scripture on any other or lower terms Nor will God himself allow of an Assent unto the Scripture under any other conception but as the Word which is immediately spoken by himself Hence they who refuse to give credit thereunto are said to bely the Lord and say it is not he Jer. 5. 2. Yea to make God a liar 1 Joh. 5. 10. If all mankind should agree together to receive and make use of this Book as that which taught nothing but what is Good useful and profitable to humane Society as that which is a compleat Directory unto men in all that they need to believe or do towards God the best means under Heaven to bring them to setlement satisfaction and assurance in the Knowledg of God and themselves as the safest Guide to eternal blessedness and therefore must needs be written and composed by persons Wise Holy and Honest above all comparison and such as had that Knowledg of God and his Will as is necessary unto such an undertaking yet all this answers not the Testimony given by the Church of Believers in all ages unto the Scriptures It was not lawful for them it is not for us so to compound this matter with the World That the whole Scripture was given by Inspiration from God that it was his Word his true and faithful sayings was that which in the first place they gave Testimony unto and we also are obliged so to do They never pretended unto any other Assurance of the things they professed nor any other Reason of their Faith and Obedience but that the Scripture wherein all these things are contained was given immediately from God or was his Word And therefore they were
property is to level the ground and to remove the rubbish of Objections out of the way that we may build the safer on the sure Foundation I shall mention some of those which I esteem justly pleadable in this cause And 1. The Antiquity of these Writings and of the divine Revelation contained in them is pleaded in Evidence of their divine Original And it may be so deservedly For where it is absolute it is unquestionable that which is most antient in any kind is most true God himself makes use of this plea against Idols Isa. 43. 10 11 12. Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour I have declared and have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange God amongst you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God That which he asserts is that he alone is God and no other This he calls the people to testify by this Argument that he was among them as God that is in the Church before any strange God was known or named And so it is justly pleaded in the behalf of this Revelation of the Mind of God in the Scripture it was in the World long before any other thing or writing pretended to be given unto the same end Whatever therefore ensued with the like design must either be set up in competition with it or opposition unto it above which it hath its advantage meerly from its Antiquity Whereas therefore this Writing in the first books of it is acknowledged to be antienter than any other that is extant in the World or indeed that ever was so and may be proved so to be it is beyond all reasonable apprehension that it should be of humane Original For we know how low weak and imperfect all humane Inventions were at the first how rude and unpolished in every kind until Time Observation following Additions and Diminutions had shaped formed and improved them But this Writing coming forth in the World absolutely the first in its kind directing us in the Knowledg of God and our selves was at first and at once so absolutely compleat and perfect that no Art Industry or Wisdom of Man could ever yet find any just defect in it or was able to add any thing unto it whereby it might be bettered or improved Neither from the beginning would it ever admit of any Additions unto it but what came from the same Fountain of divine Revelation and Inspirarion clearing it self in all Ages from all addition and superfetation of Men whatever This at least puts a singular character upon this Book and represents it with that reverend Awe and Majesty that it is the highest petulancy not to pay it a sacred respect This Argument is pursued by many at large as that which affordeth great variety of Historical and Chronological Observations And it hath been so scanned and improved that nothing but the giving of it a new dress remains for present or future Diligence But the real force of it lies in the consideration of the People by and amongst whom this Revelation first commenced in the World and the time wherein it did so When some Nations had so improved and cultivated the light of Nature as greatly to excel others in Wisdom and Knowledg they generally looked upon the people of the Jews as ignorant and barbarous And the more wise any of them conceived themselves the more they despised them And indeed they were utter Strangers unto all those Arts and Sciences whereby the faculties of mens Minds are naturally enlightned and enlarged Nor did they pretend unto any Wisdom whereby to stand iu competition with other Nations but only what they receiv'd by divine Revelations This alone God himself had taught them to look upon esteem as their only Wisdom before all the World Deut. 4. 6 7 8. Now we shall not need to consider what were the first Attempts of other Nations in expressing their conceptions concerning things Divine the Duty and Happiness of Man The Egyptians and Grecians were those who vied for Reputation in the improvement of this Wisdom But it is known and confessed that the utmost production of their endeavours were things foolish irrational and absurd contrary to the Being and Providence of God to the light of Nature leading mankind into a maze of folly and wickedness But we may consider what they attained unto in the fulness of time by their utmost improvement of Science Wisdom mutual Intelligence Experience Communication laborious Study and Observation When they had added and subducted to and from the Inventions of all former Ages from Time immemorial when they had used and improved the Reason Wisdom Invention and Conjectures of all that went before them in the study of this Wisdom and had discarded whatever they had found by experience unsuited to natural Light and the common Reason of mankind yet it must be acknowledged that the Apostle passeth a just censure on the utmost of their Attainments namely that they waxed vain in their Imaginations and the World in Wisdom knew not God Whence then was it that in one Nation esteemed barbarous and really so with respect unto that Wisdom those Arts and Sciences which enobled other Nations from that Antiquity wherein it is not pretended that Reason and Wisdom had received any considerable improvement without Converse Communication Learning or Experience there should at once proceed such a Law Doctrine and Instructions concerning God and Man so stable certain uniform as should not only incomparably excel all products of humane Wisdom unto that purpose however advantaged by Time and Experience but also abide invariable throughout all Generations so as that whatever hath been advanced in opposition unto it or but differing from it hath quickly sunk under the weight of its own unreasonableness and folly This one consideration unless Men have a Mind to be contentious gives sufficient satisfaction that this Book could have no other Original but what it pleads for it self namely an immediate Emanation from God 2. It is apparent that God in all Ages hath had a great Regard unto it and acted his Power and Care in its preservation Were not the Bible what it pretends to be there had been nothing more suitable to the Nature of God and more becoming divine Providence then long since to have blotted it out of the World For to suffer a Book to be in the World from the beginning of times falsly pretending his Name and Authority seducing so great a portion of Mankind into a pernitious and ruinous Apostacy from him as it must do and doth if it be not of a divine Original and exposing unconceivable multitudes of the best wisest and soberest amongst them unto all sorts of bloody miseries which they have undergone in the behalf of it seems not consonant unto that infinite Goodness Wisdom and care wherewith this World is govern'd from above But on the contrary whereas the malitious craft of
Satan and the prevalent power and rage of Mankind hath combined and been set at work to the ruine and utter Suppression of this Book proceeding sometimes so far as that there was no appearing way for its escape yet through the watchful care and Providence of God sometimes putting it self forth in miraculous Instances it hath been preserved unto this day and shall be so to the consummation of all things The event of that which was spoken by our Saviour Matth. 5. 18. doth invincibly prove the divine Approbation of this Book as that doth its divine Original Till Heaven and Earth pass away one Jot or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law Gods perpetual care over the Scriptures for so many Ages that not a letter of it should be utterly lost nothing that hath the least tendency towards its end should perish is evidence sufficient of his regard unto it Especially would it be so if we should consider with what remarkable Judgments and severe Reflections of Vengeance on its opposers this care hath been managed instances whereof might be easily multiplyed And if any will not ascribe this preservation of the Books of the Bible not only in their Being but in their purity and Integrity free from the least just suspition of corruption or the intermixture of any thing humane or heterogeneous unto the care of God it is incumbent on him to assign some other cause proportionate to such an effect whilst it was the interest of Heaven and the Endeavour of the Earth and Hell to have it corrupted and destroyed For my part I cannot but judg that he that seeth not an hand of divine Providence stretched out in the preservation of this Book and all that is in it its Words and Syllables for thousands of years through all the overthrows and deluges of Calamities that have befallen the World with the weakness of the means whereby it hath been preserved and the interest in some Ages of all those in whose power it was to have it corrupted as it was of the Apostate Churches of the Jews and Christians with the open opposition that hath been made unto it doth not believe there is any such thing as divine Providence at all It was first written in the very infancy of the Babylonian Empire with which it afterwards contemporized about 900 years By this Monarchy that people which alone had these Oracles of God committed unto them were oppressed destroyed and carried into captivity But this Book was then preserved amongst them whilst they were absolutely under the power of their Enemies although it condemned them and all their Gods and Religious Worship wherewith we know how horribly mankind is inraged Satan had enthroned himself as the Object of their Worship and the Author of all ways of divine veneration amongst them These they adhered unto as their principal interest as all People do unto that they esteem their Religion In the whole World there was nothing that judged condemned opposed him or them but this Book only which was now absolutely in their power If that by any means could have been destroyed then when it was in the hands but of a few and those for the most part flagitious in their lives hating the things contained in it and wholly under the power of their Adversaries the Interest of Satan and the whole World in Idolatry had been secured But through the meer provision of divine care it out-lived that Monarchy and saw the ruine of its greatest Adversaries So it did also during the continuance of the Persian Monarchy which succeeded whilst the people was still under the power of Idolaters against whom this was the only Testimony in the World By some branches of the Grecian Monarchy a most fierce and diligent attempt was made to have utterly destroyed it but still it was snatched by divine Power out of the Furnace not one hair of it being singed or the least detriment brought unto its perfection The Romans destroyed both the people and place designed until then for its preservation carrying the antient coppy of the Law in triumph to Rome on the conquest of Jerusalem And whilst all absolute power and dominion in the whole World where this Book was known or heard of was in their hands they exercised a rage against it for sundry Ages with the same success that former enemies had From the very first all the Endeavours of Mankind that professed an open enmity against it have been utterly frustrate And whereas also those unto whom it was outwardly committed as the Jews first and the Antichristian Church of Apostatized Christians afterwards not only fell into Opinions and Practices absolutely inconsistent with it but also built all their present and future Interests on those Opinions and Practices yet none of them durst ever attempt the corrupting of one Line in it but were forced to attempt their own Security by a pretence of Additional Traditions and keeping the Book it self as much as they durst out of the hands and knowledge of all not engaged in the same Interest with themselves Whence could all this proceed but from the watchful Care and Power of divine Providence And it is bruitish folly not to believe that what God doth so protect did originally proceed from Himself seeing it pleads and pretends so to do For every wise Man will take more Care of a Stranger than a Bastard falsly imposed on him unto his Dishonour 3. The Design of the whole and all the parts of it hath an impress on it of divine Wisdom and Authority And hereof there are two parts First to reveal God unto men and Secondly to direct men to come unto the enjoyment of God That these are the only two great Concerns of our nature of any rational Being were easy to prove but that it is acknowledged by all those with whom I treat Now never did any Book or Writing in the World any single or joynt endeavours of mankind or invisible Spirits in the way of Authority give out a Law Rule Guide and Light for all mankind universally in both these namely the Knowledge of God and our selves but this Book only and if any other it may be like the Alcoran did pretend in the least thereunto it quickly discovered its own folly and exposed it self to the contempt of all wise and considerate men The only Question is how it hath discharged it self in this Design for if it hath compleatly and perfectly accomplished it it is not only evident that it must be from God but also that it is the greatest Benefit and Kindness that divine Benignity and Goodness ever granted unto Mankind for without it all men universally must necessarily wander in an endless Maze of uncertainties without ever attaining Light Rest or Blessedness here or hereafter Wherefore 1. As it takes on it self to speak in the Name and Authority of God and delivers nothing commands nothing but what becomes his infinite Holiness Wisdom and Goodness so it makes that
Declaration of him in his Nature Being and Subsistence with the necessary Properties and Acts thereof his Will with all his voluntary Actings or Works wherein we may be or are concerned so as that we may know him aright and entertain true Notions and Apprehensions of him according to the utmost capacity of our finite limited Understanding Neither do we urge his Authority in this case but here and elsewhere resort unto the Evidence of his Reasonings compared with the Event or Matter of Fact What horrible Darkness Ignorance and Blindness was upon the whole World with respect unto the Knowledge of God what confusion and debasement of our Nature ensued thereon whilst God suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways and winked at the times of their Ignorance the Apostle declares at large Rom. 1. from the 19th verse to the end of the Chapter The Sum is That the only true God being become unknown to them as the wisest of them acknowledged Acts 17. 21. and as our Apostle proved against them the Devil that Murderer from the Beginning and Enemy of Mankind had under various pretences substituted himself in his Room and was become the God of this World as he is called 2 Cor. 4. 4. and had appropriated all the religious Devotion and Worship of the Generality of Mankind unto himself For the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed unto Devils and not unto God as our Apostle affirms 1 Cor. 10. 20. and as may easily be evinced and I have abundantly manifested it elsewhere It is acknowledged that some few speculative Men among the Heathens did seek after God in that horrid Darkness wherewith they were encompassed and laboured to reduce their Conceptions and Notions of his Being unto what Reason could apprehend of infinite Perfections and what the Works of Creation and Providence could suggest unto them but as they could never come unto any certainty or consistency of Notions in their own minds proceeding but a little beyond Conjecture as is the manner of them who seek after any thing in the dark much less with one another to propose any thing unto the World for the use of Mankind in these things by common consent so they could none of them either ever free themselves from the grossest practical Idolatry in worshipping the Devil the Head of their Apostacy from God nor in the least influence the minds of the Generality of Mankind with any due Apprehensions of the divine Nature This is the Subject and Substance of the Apostles Disputation against them Rom. 1. In this state of things what misery and confusion the World lived in for many Ages what an endless Labyrinth of foolish slavish Superstitions and Idolatries it had cast it self into I have in another Discourse particularly declared With respect hereunto the Scripture is well called by the Apostle Peter a Light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 11. 9. It gives unto all men at once a perfect clear steady uniform Declaration of God his Being Subsistence Properties Authority Rule and Actings which evidenceth it self unto the Minds and Consciences of all whom the God of this World hath not absolutely blinded by the power of prejudices and lusts confirming them in an Enmity unto and hatred of God himself There is indeed no more required to free Mankind from this horrible darkness and enormous conceptions about the Nature of God and the Worship of Idols but a sedate unprejudiced Consideration of the Revelation of these things in the Book of the Scripture We may say therefore to all the World with our Prophet When they say unto you Seek unto them who have familiar Spirits and unto Wizards that peep and mutter Should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Isa. 8. 19 20. And this also plainly manifests the Scripture to be of a divine Original For if this Declaration of God this Revelation of Himself and his Will is incomparably the greatest and most excellent Benefit that our Nature is capable of in this World more needful for and useful unto Mankind than the Sun in the Firmament as to the proper end of their Lives and Beings and if none of the wisest men in the World neither severally nor joyntly could attain unto themselves or make known unto others this Knowledge of God so that we may say with our Apostle that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God 1 Cor. 1. 21. And whereas those who attempted any such things yet waxed vain in their Imaginations and Conjectures so that no one person in the World dares own the Regulation of his Mind and Understanding by their Notions and Conceptions absolutely although they had all advantages of Wisdom and the Exercise of Reason above those at the least the most of them who wrote and published the Books of the Scripture it cannot with any pretence of Reason be questioned whether they were not given by Inspiration from God as they pretend and plead There is that done in them which all the World could not do and without the doing whereof all the World must have been eternally miserable and who could do this but God If any one shall judge that that Ignorance of God which was among the Heathens of old or is among the Indians at this day is not so miserable a matter as we make it or that there is any way to free them from it but by an Emanation of Light from the Scripture he dwells out of my present way upon the Confines of Atheism so that I shall not divert unto any Converse with him I shall only add That whatever Notions of Truth concâ—rning God and his Essence there may be found in those Philosophers who lived after the Preaching of the Gospel in the World or are at this day to be found among the Mahumetans or other false Worshippers in the World above those of the more ancient Pagans they all derive from the Fountain of the Scripture and were thence by various means traduced 2. The second End of this Doctrine is to direct Mankind in their proper Course of living unto God and attaining that Rest and Blessedness whereof they are capable and which they cannot but desire These things are necessary to our Nature so that without them it were better not to be for it is better to have no Being in the World than whiles we have it always to wander and never to act towards its proper end seeing all that is really good unto us consists in our Tendency thereunto and our Attainment of it Now as these things were never stated in the minds of the Community of Mankind but that they lived in perpetual confusion so the Enquiries of the Philosophers about the chief end of Man the Nature of Felicity or Blessedness the ways of attaining it are nothing but
Place that the Plea hitherto insisted on cannot be managed without great Disadvantage to Christian Religion For if we take away the Rational Grounds on which we believe the Doctrine of Christ to be True and Divine and the whole Evidence of the Truth of it be laid on things not only derided by Men of Atheistical Spirits but in themselves such as cannot be discerned by any but such as do believe on what Grounds can we proceed to convince an Unbeliever Answer 1. By the way it is one thing to prove and believe the Doctrine of Christ to be True and Divine another to prove and believe the Scripture to be given by Inspiration of God or the Divine Authority of the Scripture which alone was proposed unto Consideration A Doctrine True and Divine may be written in and proposed unto us by Writings that were not divinely and infallibly inspired and so might the Doctrine of Christ have been but not without the unspeakable Disadvantage of the Church And there are sundry Arguments which forcibly and effectually prove the Doctrine of Christ to have been True and Divine which are not of any Efficacy to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures though on the other hand whatever doth prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures doth equally prove the Divine Truth of the Doctrine of Christ. 2. There are two Ways of convincing Vnbelievers the one insisted on by the Apostles and their Followers the other by some learned Men since their Days The Way principally insisted on by the Apostles was by preaching the Word it self unto them in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit by the Power whereof manifesting the Authority of God in it they were convinced and falling down acknowledged God to be in it of a Truth 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. ch 14. 25 26. It is likely that in this their Proposal of the Gospel the Doctrine and Truths contained in it unto Unbelievers that those of Atheistical Spirits would both deride them and it and so indeed it came to pass many esteeming themselves to be Bablers and their Doctrine to be errant Folly But yet they desisted not from pursuing their Work in the same way whereunto God gave success The other VVay is to prove unto Vnbelievers that the Scripture is True and Divine by rational Arguments wherein some learned Persons have laboured especially in these last Ages to very good purpose And certainly their Labours are greatly to be commended whilst they attend unto these Rules 1. That they produce no Arguments but such as are cogent and not liable unto just Exceptions For if to manifest their own Skill or Learning they plead such Reasons as are capable of an Answer and Solution they exceedingly prejudice the Truth by subjecting it unto dubious Disputations whereas in it self it is Clear Firm and Sacred 2. That they do not pretend their rational Grounds and Arguments to be the Sole Foundation that Faith hath to rest upon or which it is resolved into For this were the ready way to set up an Opinion instead of Faith Supernatural and Divine Accept but of these two Limitations and it is acknowledged that the rational Grounds and Arguments intended may be rationally pleaded and ought so to be unto the Conviction of Gainsayers For no Man doth so plead the self-evidencing Power of the Scripture as to deny that the Use of other external Motives and Arguments is necessary to stop the Mouths of Atheists as also unto the further Establishment of them who do believe These Things are subordinate and no way inconsistent The Truth is if we will attend unto our own and the Experience of the whole Church of God the way whereby we come to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ordinarily is this and no other God having first given his Word as the Foundation of our Faith and Obedience hath appointed the Ministry of Men at first extraordinary afterwards ordinary to propose unto us the Doctrines Truths Precepts Promises and Threatnings contained therein Together with this Proposition of them they are appointed to declare that these things are not from themselves nor of their own Invention 2 Tim. 3. 14 15 16 17. And this is done variously Unto some the VVord of God in this Ministry thus comes or is thus proposed preached or declared whilst they are in a Condition not only utterly unacquainted with the Mysteries of it but filled with contrary Apprehensions and consequently Prejudices against it Thus it came of old unto the Pagan World and must do so unto such Persons and Nations as are yet in the same state with them Unto these the first Preachers of the Gospel did not produce the Book of the Scriptures and tell them that it was the Word of God and that it would evidence it self unto them so to be For this had been to despise the Wisdom and Authority of God in their own Ministry But they preached the Doctrines of it unto them grounding themselves on the Divine Revelation contained therein And this Proposition of the Truth or Preaching of the Gospel was not left of God to work it self into the Reasons of Men by the Suitableness of it thereunto but being his own Institution for their Illumination and Conversion he accompanied it with Divine Power and made it effectual unto the Ends designed Rom. 1. 16. And the Event hereof among Mankind was that by some this new Doctrine was derided and scorned by others whose Hearts God opened to attend unto it it was embraced and submitted unto Among those who after the Propagation of the Gospel are born as they say within the Pale of the Church the same Doctrine is variously instilled into Persons according unto the several Duties and Concerns of others to instruct them Principally the Ministry of the Word is ordained of God unto that End wheron the Church is the Ground and Pillar of Truth Those of both Sorts unto whom the Doctrine mentioned is preached or proposed are directed unto the Scriptures as the Sacred Repository thereof For they are told that these things come by Revelation from God and that Revelation is contained in the Bible which is his Word Upon this Proposal with Enquiry into it and Consideration of it God co-operating by his Spirit there is that Evidence of its Divine Original communicated unto their Minds through its Power and Efficacy with the Characters of Divine Wisdom and Holiness implanted on it which they are now enabled to discern that they believe it and rest in it as the immediate Word of God Thus was it in the Case of the Woman of Samaria and the Inhabitants of Sychar with respect unto their Faith in Christ Jesus John 4. 42. This is the way whereby Men ordinarily are brought to believe the Word of God Rom. 10. 14 15. and that neither by external Arguments or Motives which no one Soul was ever converted unto God by nor by any meer naked Proposal and Offer of the Book unto them