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
posse affirmat absque illumi natione et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti qui dat omnibus suavitatem consentiendo et credendo veritati haeretico fallitur Spiritu It is still granted that the Arguments intended that is all of them which ar true indeed and will endure a strict Examination for some are frequently made use of in this Cause which will not endure a Trial are of good use in their place and unto their proper end that is to beget such an Assent unto the Truth as they are capable of effecting For although this be not that which is required of us in a way of Duty but inferior to it yet the mind is prepared and disposed by them unto the receiving of the Truth in its proper Evidence 3. Our Assent can be of no other Nature than the Arguments and Motives whereon it is built or by which it is wrought in us as in Degree it cannot exceed their Evidence Now these Arguments are all humane and fallible exalt them unto the greatest esteem possible yet because they are not Demonstrations nor do necessarily beget a certain Knowledg in us which indeed if they did there were no room left for Faith or our Obedience therein they produce an Opinion only though in the highest kind of Probability and firm against Objections For we will allow the utmost Assurance that can be claimed upon them But this is exclusive of all divine Faith as to any Article Thing Matter or Object to be believed For Instance a man professeth that he believes Jesus Christ to be the Son of God Demand the Reason why he doth so and he will say because God who cannot lie hath revealed and declared him so to be proceed yet further and ask him where or how God hath revealed and declared this so to be and he will answer in the Scripture which is his Word enquire now further of him which is necessary wherefore he believes this Scripture to be the Word of God or an immediate Revelation given out from him for hereunto we must come and have somewhat that we may ultimately rest in excluding in its own Nature all further Enquiries or we can have neither certainty nor stability in our Faith On this Supposition his answer must be that he hath many cogent Arguments that render it highly propable so to be such as have prevailed with him to judg it so to be and whereon he is fully perswaded as having the highest Assurance hereof that the matter will bear and so doth firmly believe them to be the Word of God Yea but it will be replied all these Arguments are in their kind or Nature humane and therefore fallible such as it is possible they may be false for every thing may be so that is not immediately from the first essential Verity This Assent therefore unto the Scriptures as the Word of God is humane fallible and such as wherein we may be deceived And our Assent unto the things revealed can be of no other kind than that we give unto the Revelation it self For thereinto it is resolved and thereunto it must be reduced these waters will rise no higher than their Fountain And thus at length we come to believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God with a Faith humane and fallible and which at last may deceive us which is to receive the Word of God as the Word of Men and not as it is in truth the Word of God contrary to the Apostle 1 Thes. 2. 13. Wherefore 4. If I believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with an humane Faith only I do no otherwise believe whatever is contained in it which overthrows all Faith properly so called And if I believe what is contained in the Scripture with Faith divine and supernatural I cannot but by the same Faith believe the Scripture it self which removes the moral Certainty treated of out of our way And the Reason of this is that we must believe the Revelation and the things revealed with the same kind of Faith or we bring confusion on the whole work of believing No man living can distinguish in his Experience between that Faith wherewith he lieves the Scripture and that wherewith he believes the Doctrine of it or the things contained in it nor is there any such Distinction or Difference intimated in the Scripture it self but all our believing is absolutely resolved into the Authority of God revealing Nor can it be rationally apprehended that our Assent unto the things revealed should be of a kind and nature superior unto that which we yield unto the Revelation it self For let the Arguments which it is resolved into be never so evident and cogent let the Assent it self be as firm and certain as can be imagined yet is it humane still and natural and therein is inferior unto that which is divine and supernatural And yet on this Supposition that which is of a superior kind and nature is wholly resolved into that which is of an inferior and must be take it self on all occasions thereunto for relief and confirmation For the Faith whereby we believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God is on all occasions absolutely melted down into that whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God But none of these things are my present especial Design and therefore I have insisted long enough upon them I am not enquiring what Grounds men may have to build an Opinion or any kind of humane Perswasion upon that the Scriptures are the the Word of God no nor yet how we may prove or maintain them so to be unto Gainsayers but what is required hereunto that we may believe them to be so with Faith divine and supernatural and what is the Work of the Spirit of God therein But it may be further said that these external Arguments and Motives are not of themselves and considered separately from the Doctrine which they testify unto the sole Ground and Reason of our Believing For if it were possible that a thousand Arguments of a like cogency with them were offered to confirm any Truth or Doctrine if it had not a divine Worth and Excellency in it self they could give the mind no Assurance of it Wherefore it is the Truth it self or Doctrine contained in the Scripture which they testify unto that animates them and gives them their Efficacy For there is such a Majesty Holiness and Excellency in the Doctrine of the Gospel and moreover such a Suitableness in them unto unprejudiced Reason and such an Answerableness unto all the rational Desires and Expectations of the Soul as evidence their Procedure from the Fountain of infinite Wisdom and Goodness It cannot but be conceived impossible that such excellent heavenly Mysteries of such use and benefit unto all Mankind should be the Product of any created Industry Let but a man know himself his State and Condition in any measure with a desire of that Blessedness which his nature is capable of
is that whereby we can give an Assent unto the Truth upon the Testimony of the Proposer whereof we have no other Evidence And this is the principal and most noble Faculty and Power of our Natures There is an Instinct in brute Creatures that hath some Resemblance unto our inbred natural Principles and they will act that Instinct improved by Experience into a great likeness of Reason in its Exercise although it be not so But as unto the Power or Faculty of giving an Assent unto Things on Witness or Testimony there is nothing in the Nature of irrational Creatures that hath the least Shadow of it or Likeness unto it And if our Souls did want but this one Faculty of assenting unto Truth upon Testimony all that remains would not be sufficient to conduct us through the affairs of this natural Life This therefore being the most noble Faculty of our Minds is that whereunto the highest Way of Divine Revelation is proposed 4. That our Minds in this especial Case to make our Assent to be according unto the Mind of God and such as is required of us in a way of Duty are to be prepared and assisted by the Holy Ghost we have declared and proved before On this Supposition the Revelation which God makes of himself by his Word doth no less evidence it self unto our Minds in the Exercise of Faith to be from him or gives no less infallible Evidence as a Ground and Reason why we should believe it to be from him than his Revelation of himself by the Works of Creation and Providence doth manifest it self unto our Minds in the Exercise of Reason to be from him nor with less Assurance that what we assent unto in and by the Dictates of natural Light And when God revealeth himself that is his Eternal Power and Godhead by the things that are made the Works of Creation the Heavens declaring his Glory and the Firmament shewing his handy-work the Reason of Men stirred up and brought into Exercise thereby doth infallibly conclude upon the Evidence that is in that Revelation that there is a God and he eternally Powerful and Wise without any further Arguments to prove the Revelation to be true So when God by his Word reveals himself unto the Minds of Men thereby exciting and bringing forth Faith into Exercise or the Power of the Soul to assent unto Truth upon Testimony that Revelation doth no less infallibly evidence it self to be Divine or from God without any external Arguments to prove it so to be If I shall say unto a man that the Sun is risen and shineth on the Earth if he question or deny it and ask how I will prove it it is a sufficient Answer to say that it manifesteth it self in and by its own Light and if he add that this is no proof to him for he doth not discern it suppose that to be so it is a satisfactory Answer to tell him that he is blind and if he be not so that it is to no purpose to argue with him who contradicts his own Sense for he leaves no Rule whereby what is spoken may be tried or judged on And if I tell a Man that the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-Work or that the Invisible Things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are made and he shall demand how I prove it it is a sufficient Answer to say that these things in and by themselves do manifest unto the Reason of every man in its due and proper Exercise that there is an Eternal infinitely Wise and Powerful Being by whom they were caused produced and made so as that whosoever knoweth how to use and exercise his reasonable Faculty in the Consideration of them their Original Order Nature and Use must necessarily conclude that so it is If he shall say that it doth not so appear unto him that the Being of God is so revealed by them It is a sufficient Reply in case he be so indeed to say he is Phrenetick and hath not the Use of his Reason and if he be not so that he argues in express Contradiction unto his own Reason as may be demonstrated This the Heathen Philosophers granted Quid potest saith Cicero esse tam apertum tamque perspicuum cum Coelum suspeximus coelestiaque contemplati sumus quam esse aliquod Numen praestantissimae mentis quo haec reguntur quod qui dubitat haud sane intelligo cur non idem Sol sit an nullus sit dubitare possit De Natura Deor. lib. 2. And if I declare unto any one that the Scripture is the Word of God a Divine Revelation and that it doth evidence and manifest it self so to be If he shall say that he hath the Use and Exercise of his Sense and Reason as well as others and yet it doth not appear unto him so to be it is as unto the present Enquiry a sufficient Reply for the Security of the Authority of the Scriptures though other means may be used for his Conviction to say that all men have not Faith by which alone the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures is discoverable in the Light whereof alone we can read those Characters of its Divine Extract which are impressed on it and communicated unto it If it be not so seeing it is a Divine Revelation and it is our Duty to believe it so to be it must be either because our Faith is not fitted suited nor able to receive such an Evidence suppose God would give it unto the Revelation of himself by his Word as he hath done unto those by the Light of Nature and Works of Providence or because God would not or could not give such an Evidence unto his Word as might manifest it self so to be And neither of these can be affirmed without an high Reflection on the Wisdom and Goodness of God That our Faith is capable of giving such an Assent is evident from hence because God works it in us and bestows it upon us for this very End And God requireth of us that we should infallibly believe what he proposeth unto us at least when we have infallible evidence that it is from him And as he appointeth Faith unto this end and approveth of its Exercise so he doth both judg and condemn them who fail therein 2 Chron. 20. 20. Isa. 7. 9. Mark 16. 16. Yea our Faith is capable of giving an Assent though of another kind more firm and accompanied with more Assurance than any is given by Reason in the best of its Conclusions And the Reason is because the Power of the Mind to give Assent upon Testimony which is its most noble Faculty is elevated and strengthned by the Divine Supernatural Work of the Holy Ghost before described To say that God either could not or would not give such a Power unto the Revelation of himself by his Word as