so many uncertain and fierce Digladiations wherein not any one Truth is asserted nor any one Duty prescribed that is not spoiled and vitiated by its Circumstances and Ends besides they never rose up so much as to a Surmise of or about the most important matters of Religion without which it is demonstrable by reason that it is impossible we should ever attain the End for which we are made nor the Blessedness whereof we are capable No account could they ever give of our Apostacy from God of the Depravation of our Nature of the Cause or necessary Cure of it In this lost and wandring Condition of Mankind the Scripture presenteth it self as a Light Rule and Guide unto all to direct them in their whole Course unto their end and to bring them unto the enjoyment of God and this it doth with that clearness and evidence as to dispel all the Darkness and put an end unto all the Confusions of the minds of Men as the Sun with rising doth the shades of the Night unless they wilfully shut their eyes against it loving Darkness rather than Light because their deeds are evil For all the Confusion of the minds of men to extricate themselves from whence they found out and immixed themselves in endless Questions to no purpose arose from their Ignorance of what we were originally of what we now are and how we came so to be by what way or means we may be delivered or relieved what are the Duties of Life or what is required of us in order to our living to God as our chiefest end and wherein the Blessedness of our Nature doth consist All the World was never able to give an Answer tolerably satisfactory unto any one of these Enquiries yet unless they are all infallibly determined we are not capable of the least Rest or Happiness above the Beasts that perish But now all these things are so clearly declared and stated in the Scripture that it comes with an Evidence like a Light from Heaven on the Minds and Consciences of unprejudiced Persons What was the Condition of our Nature in its first Creation and Constitution with the Blessedness and Advantage of that Condition how we fell from it and what was the Cause what is the Nature and what the Consequents and Effects of our present Depravation and Apostacy from God how Help and Relief is provided for us herein by infinite Wisdom Grace and Bounty what that Help is how we may be interested in it and made partakers of it what is that System of Duties or Course of Obedience unto God which is required of us and wherein our eternal Felicity doth consist are all of them so plainly and clearly revealed in the Scripture as in general to leave Mankind no ground for Doubt Enquiry or Conjecture set aside inveterate Prejudices from Tradition Education false Notions into the Mould whereof the mind is cast the Love of Sin and the Conduct of Lust which things have an inconceivable power over the Minds Souls and Affections of Men and the Light of the Scripture in these things is like that of the Sun at Noon-day which shuts up the way unto all further Enquiry and efficaciously necessitates unto an Acquiescency in it And in particular in that Direction which it gives unto the Lives of Men in order unto that Obedience which they ow to God and that Reward which they expect from him there is no instance conceivable of any thing conducing thereunto which is not prescribed therein nor of any thing which is contrary unto it that falls not under its Prohibition Those therefore whose Desire or Interest it is that the Bounds and Differences of Good and Evil should be unfixed and confounded who are afraid to know what they were what they are or what they shall come unto who care to know neither God nor themselves their Duty nor their Reward may despise this Book and deny its divine Original others will retain a sacred Veneration of it as of the Off-spring of God 4. The Testimony of the Church may in like manner be pleaded unto the same purpose and I shall also insist upon it partly to manifest wherein its true Nature and Efficacy doth consist and partly to evince the vanity of the old Pretence that even we also who are departed from the Church of Rome do receive the Scripture upon the Authority thereof whence it is further pretended that on the same Ground and Reason we ought to receive whatever else it proposeth unto us 1. The Church is said to be the Ground and Pillar of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. Which is the only Text pleaded with any Sobriety to give countenance unto the Assertion of the Authority of the Scripture with respect unto us to depend on the Authority of the Church But the Weakness of a Plea to that purpose from hence hath been so fully manifested by many already that it needs no more to be insisted on In short it cannot be so the Ground and Pillar of Truth that the Truth should be as it were built and rest upon it as its Foundation for this is directly contrary to the same Apostle who teacheth us that the Church it self is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone Eph. 2. 20. The Church cannot be the Ground of Truth and Truth the Ground of the Church in the same sense or kind Wherefore the Church is the Ground and Pillar of Truth in that it holds up and declares the Scriptures and the things contained therein so to be 2. In receiving any thing from a Church we may consider the Authority of it or its Ministry By the Authority of the Church in this matter we intend no more but the weight and importance that is in its Testimony as Testimonies do vary according to the Worth Gravity Honesty Honour and Reputation of them by whom they are given For to suppose an Authority properly so called in any Church or all the Churches of the World whereon our Reception of the Scripture should depend as that which gives its Authority towards us and a sufficient Warranty to our Faith is a nice Imagination For the Authority and Truth of God stand not in need nor are capable of any such Attestation from Men all they will admit of from the children of Men is that they do humbly submit unto them and testify their so doing with the Reasons of it The Ministry of the Church in this matter is that Duty of the Church whereby it proposeth and declareth the Scripture to be the Word of God and that as it hath occasion to all the World And this Ministry also may be considered either formally as 't is appointed of God unto this End and blessed by him or materially only as the thing is done though the Grounds whereon it is done and the manner of doing it be not divinely approved We wholly deny that we receive the Scripture or ever
insisted on Especially ought they to be pleaded when the Scripture is attacked by an Atheism arising from the Love and Practice of those Lusts and Sins which are severely condemned therein and threatned with the utmost Vengeance With others they may be considered as previous inducements unto believing or concomitant means of strengthning Faith in them that do believe In the first way I confess to the best of my Observation of things past and present their Use is not great nor ever hath been in the Church of God For assuredly the most that do sincerely believe the divine Original and Authority of the Scripture do it without any great Consideration of them or being much influenced by them And there are many who as Austin speaks are saved simplicitate credendi and not subtilitate disputandi that are not able to enquire much into them nor yet to apprehend much of their Force and Efficacy when they are proposed unto them Most Persons therefore are effectually converted to God and have saving Faith whereby they believe the Scripture and virtually all that is contained in it before they have ever once considered them And God forbid we should think that none believe the Scripture aright but those who are able to apprehend and manage the subtil Arguments of learned men produced in their Confirmation Yea we affirm on the contrary that those who believe them on no other Grounds have indeed no true Divine Faith at all Hence they were not of old insisted on for the ingenerating of Faith in them to whom the Word was preached nor ordinarily are so to this day by any who understand what is their Work and Duty But in the second way wherever there is occasion from Objections Oppositions or Temptations they may be pleaded to good use and purpose And they may do well to be furnished with them who are unavoidably exposed unto trials of that Nature For as for that Course which some take in all places and at all times to be disputing about the Scriptures and their Authority it is a Practice giving countenance unto Atheism and is to be abhorred of all that fear God and the Consequents of it are sufficiently manifest 2. The Ministry of the Church as it is the Ground and Pillar of Truth holding it up and declaring it is in an ordinary way previously necessary unto Believing For Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God We believe the Scripture to be the Word of God for it self alone but not by it self alone The Ministry of the Word is the means which God hath appointed for the Declaration and making known the Testimony which the Holy Spirit gives in the Scripture unto its Divine Original And this is the ordinary way whereby men are brought to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God The Church in its Ministry owning witnessing and avowing it so to be instructing all sorts of Persons out of it there is together with a sense and apprehension of the Truth and Power of the things taught and revealed in it Faith in it self as the Word of God ingenerated in them 3. We do also here suppose the internal effectual Work of the Spirit begetting Faith in us as was before declared without which we can believe neither the Scripture nor any Thing else with Faith divine not for want of Evidence in them but of Faith in our selves These things being supposed we do affirm that it is the Authority and Truth of God as manifesting themselves in the supernatural Revelation made in the Scripture that our Faith ariseth from and is resolved into And herein consists that Testimony which the Spirit gives unto the Word of God that it is so for it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth The Holy Ghost being the immediate Author of the whole Scripture doth therein and thereby give Testimony unto the Divine Truth and Original of it by the Characters of Divine Authority and Veracity impressed on it and evidencing themselves in its Power and Efficacy And let it be observed that what we assert respects the Revelation it self the Scripture the Writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not meerly the things written or contained in it The Arguments produced by some to prove the Truth of the Doctrines of the Scripture reach not the Cause in hand For our Enquiry is not about believing the Truths revealed but about believing the Revelation it self the Scripture it self to be Divine And this we do only because of the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer that is of God himself manifesting themselves therein To manifest this fully I shall do these things 1. Prove that our Faith is so resolved into the Scripture as a Divine Revelation and not into any thing else that is we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God for its own sake and not for the sake of any thing else either external Arguments or authoritative Testimony of men whatever 2. Shew how or by what means the Scripture doth evidence its own divine Original or the Authority of God is so evidenced in it and by it as that we need no other formal Cause or Reason of our Faith whatever Motives or Means of Believing we may make use of And as to the first of these 1. That is the formal Reason whereon we do believe which the Scripture proposeth as the only Reason why we should so do why it is our Duty to do so and whereunto it requireth our Assent Now this is to it self as it is the Word of God and because it is so Or it proposeth the Authority of God in it self and that alone which we are to acquiesce in and the Truth of God and that alone which our Faith is to rest on and is resolved into It doth not require us to believe it upon the Testimony of any Church or on any other Arguments that it gives us to prove that it is from God but speaks unto us immediately in his name and thereon requires Faith and Obedience Some it may be will ask Whether this prove the Scripture to be the Word of God because it says so of it self when any other Writing may say the same But we are not now giving Arguments to prove unto others the Scripture to be the Word of God but only proving and shewing what our own Faith resteth on and is resolved into or at least ought so to be How it evidenceth it self unto our Faith to be the Word of God we shall afterwards declare It is sufficient unto our present purpose that God requires us to believe the Scripture for no other Reason but because it is his Word or a Divine Revelation from him and if so his Authority and Truth are the formal Reason why we believe the Scripture or any thing contained in it To this purpose do Testimonies abound in particular besides that general Attestation which is given unto it in that sole Preface of divine Revelations Thus saith the
them Some it may be can give no other Account hereof but that they have been so instructed by them whom they have sufficient reason to give credit unto or that they have so received them by Tradition from their Fathers Now whatever Perswasion these Reasons may beget in the minds of men that the things which they profess to believe are true yet if they are alone it is not divine Faith whereby they do believe but that which is meerly humane as being resolved into humane Testimony only or an Opinion on probable Arguments for no Faith can be of any other kind than is the Evidence it reflects on or ariseth from I say it is so where they are alone for I doubt not but that some who have never further considered the reason of their believing than the teaching of their Instructors have yet that Evidence in their own souls of the Truth and Authority of God in what they believe that with respect thereunto their Faith is divine and supernatural The Faith of most hath a beginning and progress not unlike that of the Samaritans John 4. 40 41 42. as shall be afterwards declared 3. When we enquire after Faith that is infallible or believing infallibly which as we shall shew hereafter is necessary in this case we do not intend an inherent quality in the Subject as though he that believes with Faith infallible must himself also be infallible much less do we speak of Infallibility absolutely which is a property of God who alone from the perfection of his Nature can neither deceive nor be deceived But it is that Property or Adjunct of the Assent of our Minds unto divine Truths or supernatural Revelations whereby it is differenced from all other kinds of Assent whatever And this it hath from its formal Object or the Evidence whereon we give this Assent For the nature of every Assent is given unto it by the nature of the Evidence which it proceedeth from or relyeth on This in divine Faith is divine Revelation which being infallible renders the Faith that rests on it and is resolved into it infallible also No man can believe that which is false or which may be false with divine Faith for that which renders it divine is the divine Truth and Infallibility of the Ground and Evidence which it is built upon But a man may believe that which is true infallibly so and yet his Faith not be infallible That the Scripture is the Word of God is infallibly true yet the Faith whereby a man believes it so to be may be fallible for it is such as his Evidence is and no other He may believe it to be so on Tradition or the Testimony of the Church of Rome only or on outward Arguments all which being fallible his Faith is so also although the things he assents unto be infallibly true Wherefore unto this Faith divine and infallible it is not required that the Person in whom it is be infallible nor is it enough that the thing it self believed be infallibly true but moreover that the Evidence whereon he doth believe it be infallible also So it was with them who received divine Revelations immediately from God It was not enough that the things revealed unto them were infallibly true but they were to have infallible Evidence of the Revelation it self then was their Faith infallible though their persons were fallible With this Faith then a man can believe nothing but what is divinely true and therefore it is infallible and the reason is because Gods Veracity who is the God of Truth is the only Object of it Hence saith the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 20. 20. Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established or that Faith which is in God and his Word is fixed on Truth or is infallible Hence the Enquiry in this case is what is the Reason why we believe any thing with this faith divine or supernatural or what it is the believing whereof makes our Faith divine infallible and supernatural Wherefore 4. The Authority and Veracity of God revealing the material Objects of our Faith or what it is our Duty to believe is the formal Object and Reason of our Faith from whence it ariseth and whereinto it is ultimately resolved That is the only Reason why we do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that God is one single Essence subsisting in three Persons is because that God who is Truth the God of Truth Deut. 32. 4. who cannot lye Tit. 1. 2. and whose Word is Truth John 17. 17. and the Spirit which gave it out is Truth 1 John 5 6. hath revealed these things to be so and our believing these things on that ground renders our Faith divine and supernatural Supposing also a Respect unto the subjective Efficiency of the Holy Ghost inspiring it into our minds whereof afterwards For to speak distinctly our Faith is supernatural with respect unto the production of it in our minds by the Holy Ghost and infallible with respect unto the formal Reason of it which is divine Revelation and is divine in opposition unto what is meerly humane on both accounts As things are proposed unto us to be believed as true Faith in its Assent respects only the Truth or Veracity of God but whereas this Faith is required of us in a way of Obedience and is considered not only physically in its nature but morally also as our Duty it respects also the Authority of God which I therefore joyn with the Truth of God as the formal Reason of our Faith see 2 Sam. 7. 28. And these things the Scripture pleads and and argues when Faith is required of us in the way of Obedience Thus saith the Lord is that which is proposed unto us as the Reason why we should believe what is spoken whereunto often times other divine Names and Titles are added signifying his Authority who requires us to believe Thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel Isa. 30. 15. Thus saith the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy Isa. 57. 15. Believe the Lord your God 2 Chron. 20. 20. The Word of the Lord precedeth most Revelations in the Prophets and other Reason why we should believe the Scripture proposeth none Heb. 1. 1 2. yea the Interposition of any other Authority between the things to be believed and our Souls and Consciences besides the Authority of God overthrows the nature of divine Faith I do not say the Interposition of any other means whereby we should believe of which sort God hath appointed many but the interposition of anyother Authority upon which we should believe as that pretended in and by the Church of Rome No men can be Lords of our Faith though they may be helpers of our Joy 5. The Authority and Truth of God considered in themselves absolutely are not the immediate formal Object of our Faith though they are the ultimate whereinto it is resolved
For we can believe nothing on their Account unless it be evidenced unto us and this Evidence of them is in that Revelation which God is pleased to make of himself for that is the only means whereby our Consciences and Minds are affected with his Truth and Authority We do therefore no otherwise rest on the Truth and Veracity of God in any thing than we rest on the Revelation which he makes unto us for that is the only way whereby we are affected with them Not the Lord is true absolutely but Thus saith the Lord and the Lord hath spoken is that which we have immediate regard unto Hereby alone are our minds affected with the Authority and Veracity of God and by what way soever it is made unto us it is sufficient and able so to affect us At first as hath been shewed it was given immediately to some Persons and preserved for the use of others in an oral Ministry but now all Revelation as hath also been declared is contained in the Scriptures only 6. It follows that our Faith whereby we believe any divine supernatural Truth is resolved into the Scripture as the only means of divine Revelation affecting our Minds and Consciences with the Authority and Truth of God or the Scripture as the only immediate divine infallible Revelation of the Mind and Will of God is the first immediate formal Object of our Faith the sole Reason why and ground whereon we do believe the things that are revealed with Faith Divine Supernatural and Infallible We do believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God Why do we so do on what ground or reason It is because of the Authority of God commanding us so to do and the Truth of God testifying thereunto But how or by what means are our Minds and Consciences affected with the Authority and Truth of God so as to believe with respect unto them which makes our Faith Divine and Supernatural It is alone the Divine Supernatural Infallible Revelation that he hath made of this sacred Truth and of his Will that we should believe it But what is this Revelation or where is it to be found It is the Scripture alone which contains the entire Revelation that God hath made of himself in all things which he will have us to believe or do Hence 7. The last Enquiry ariseth how or on what ground for what Reasons do we believe the Scripture to be a divine Revelation proceeding immediately from God or to be that Word of God which is Truth divine and infallible Whereunto we answer it is solely on the Evidence that the Spirit of God in and by the Scripture it self gives unto us that it was given by immediate Inspiration from God Or the Ground and Reason whereon we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God are the Authority and Truth of God evidencing themselves in and by it unto the Minds and Consciences of Men. Hereon as whatever we assent unto as proposed in the Scripture our Faith rests on and is resolved into the Veracity and Faithfulness of God so is it also in this of believing the Scripture it self to be the infallible Word of God seeing we do it on no other Grounds but its own Evidence that so it is This is that which is principally to be proved and therefore to prepare for it and to remove prejudices something is to be spoken to prepare the way thereunto 1. There are sundry cogent Arguments which are taken from External considerations of the Scripture that evince it on rational Grounds to be from God All these are motives of credibility or effectual perswasives to account and esteem it to be the Word of God And although they neither are nor is it possible they ever should be the Ground and Reason whereon we believe it so to be with Faith Divine and Supernatural yet are they necessary unto the confirmation of our Faith herein against Temptations Oppositions and Objections These Arguments have been pleaded by many and that usefully and therefore it is not needful for me to insist upon them And they are the same for the substance of them in antient and modern Writers however managed by some with more Learning Dexterity and force of Reasoning than by others It may not be expected therefore that in this short discourse designed unto another purpose I should give them much improvement However I shall a little touch on those which seem to be most cogent and that in them wherein in my Apprehention their strength doth lye And I shall do this to manifest that although we plead that no Man can believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God with Faith Divine Supernatural and Infallible but upon its own internal Divine Evidence and Efficacy yet we allow and make use of all those external Arguments of its sacred Truth and divine Original which are pleaded by others ascribing unto them as much weight and cogency as they can do acknowledging the perswasion which they beget and effect to be as firm as they can pretend it to be Only we do not judg them to contain the whole of the Evidence which we have for Faith to rest in or to be resolved into yea not that at all which renders it Divine Supernatural and Infallible The Rational Arguments we say which are or may be used in this matter with the humane Testimonies whereby they are corroborated may and ought to be made use of and insisted on And it is but vainly pretended that their use is superseded by our other Assertions as though where Faith is required all the subservient use of Reason were absolutely discarded and our Faith thereby rendred irrational And the assent unto the divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures which the mind ought to give upon them we grant to be of as high a nature as is pretended to be namely a moral certainty Moreover the Conclusion which unprejudiced Reason will make upon these Arguments is more firm better grounded and more pleadable than that which is built meerly on the sole Authority of any Church whatever But this we assert that there is an assent of another kind unto the divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures required of us namely that of Faith divine and supernatural Of this none will say that it can be effected by or resolved into the best and most cogent of rational Arguments and external Testimonies which are absolutely humane and fallible For it doth imply a contradiction to believe infallibly upon fallible evidence Wherefore I shall prove that beyond all these Arguments and their effect upon our minds there is an Assent unto the Scripture as the Word of God required of us with Faith divine Supernatural and Infallible and therefore there must be a divine Evidence which is the Formal Object and Reason of it which alone it rests on and is resolved into which shall also be declared and proved But yet as was said in the first place because their
always esteemed no less Traytors to Christianity who gave up their Bibles to Persecutors than those who denyed Jesus Christ. 3. The manner wherein this Testimony was given adds to the importance of it For 1. Many of them especially in some seasons gave it in and with sundry miraculous operations This our Apostle pleadeth as a corroboration of the witness given by the first preachers of the Gospel unto the Truths of it Heb. 2. 4. as the same was done by all the Apostles together Act. 5. 32. It must be granted that these Miracles were not wrought immediately to confirm this single Truth that the Scripture was given by inspiration of God But the end of miracles is to be an immediate witness from Heaven or Gods attestation to their Persons and Ministry by whom they were wrought His Presence with them and Approbation of their Doctrine were publickly declared by them But the miracles wrought by the Lord Christ and his Apostles whereby God gave immediate Testimony unto the divine Mission of their Persons and infallible truth of their Doctrine might either not have been written as most of them were not or they might have been written and their doctrine recorded in Books not given by inspiration from God Besides as to the miracles wrought by Christ himself and most of those of the Apostles they were wrought among them by whom the Books of the Old Testament were acknowledged as the oracles of God and before the writing of those of the New So that they could not be wrought in the immediate confirmation of the one or the other Neither have we any infallible Testimony concerning these Miracles but the Scripture it self wherein they are recorded whence it is necessary that we should believe the Scripture to be infallibly true before we can believe on grounds infallible the miracles therein recorded to be so Wherefore I grant that the whole force of this consideration lyeth in this alone that those who gave Testimony to the Scripture to be the Word of God had an Attestation given unto their Ministry by these miraculous operations concerning which we have good collateral security also 2. Many of them confirmed their Testimony with their Sufferings being not only witnesses but Martyrs in the peculiar Church notion of that word grounded on the Scripture Act. 22. 20. Rev. 2. 13. Chap. 17. 7. So far were they from any Worldly advantage by the Profession they made and the Testimony they gave as that in the confirmation of them they willingly and cheerfully underwent whatever is evil dreadful or destructive to humane nature in all its temporary concerns It is therefore unquestionable that they had the highest Assurance of the Truth in these things which the Mind of Man is capable of The management of this Argument is the principal design of the Apostle in the whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews For having declared the nature of faith in general namely that it is the subsistence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen ver 1. That is such an â—ssent unto and confidence of invisible things things capable of no demonstration from Sense or Reason as respects divine Revelation only whereinto alone it is resolved for our encouragement thereunto and establishment therein he produceth a long Catalogue of those who did suffered and obtained great things thereby That which he principally insists upon is the Hardships Miseries Cruelties Tortures and several sorts of Deaths which they underwent especially from ver 35. to the end These he calleth a Cloud of Witnesses wherewith we are compassed about Chap. 12. 1. giving Testimony unto what we do believe that is divine Revelation and in an especial manner the promises therein contained unto our encouragement in the same duty as he there declares And certainly what was thus testified unto by so many Great Wise and Holy Persons and that in such a way and manner hath as great an outward evidence of its Truth as any thing of that nature is capable of in this World 3. They gave not their Testimony casually or on some extraordinary Occasion only or by some one solemn act or in some one certain way as other Testimonies are given nor can be given otherwise but they gave their Testimony in this cause in their whole course in all that they thought spake or did in the World and in the whole disposal of their ways lives and actions as every true Believer continueth to do at this day For a man when he is occasionally called out to give a verbal Testimony unto the divine original of the Scripture ordering in the mean time the whole course of his conversation his hopes designs ayms and ends without any eminent respect or regard unto it his Testimony is of no value nor can have any influence on the minds of sober and considerate men But when men do manifest and evince that the Declaration of the mind of God in the Scripture hath a Sovereign divine Authority over their Souls and Consciences absolutely and in all things then is their Witness cogent and efficacious There is to me a thousand times more force and weight in the Testimony to this purpose of some holy persons who universally and in all things with respect unto this World and their future eternal condition in all their thoughts words actions and ways do really experiment in themselves and express to others the power and Authority of this Word of God in their Souls and Consciences living doing suffering and dying in peace assurance of mind and consolation thereon then in the verbal declaration of the most splendid numerous Church in the World who evidence not such an inward sense of its power and Efficacy There is therefore that force in the real Testimony which hath been given in all Ages by all this sort of persons not one excepted unto the divine Authority of the Scripture that it is highly arrogant for any one to question the Truth of it without evident convictions of its imposture which no person of any tolerable Sobriety did ever yet pretend unto I shall add in the last place the consideration of that Success which the doctrine derived solely from the Scripture and resolved thereinto hath had in the World upon the Minds and Lives of Men especially upon the first preaching of the Gospel And two things offer themselves hereon immediately unto our consideration First the Persons by whom this doctrine was successfully carried on in the World and Secondly the Way and Manner of the propagation of it Both which the Scripture takes notice of in particular as evidences of that divine power which the Word was really accompanied withal For the persons unto whom this work was committed I mean the Apostles and first Evangelists were as to their outward condition in the World Poor Low and every way despised and as unto the endowments of their minds destitute of all those Abilities and Advantages which might give them either Reputation or
believe it so to be and then to believe the things contained in it For this Proposition that the Scripture is the Word of God is a divine Revelation and so to be believed But God no where requires nor ever did that we should believe any divine Revelation upon such Grounds much less on such Grounds and Motives only They are left unto us as consequential unto our Believing to plead with others in behalf of what we profess and for the Justification of it unto the World But that which requires our Faith and Obedience unto in the receiving of divine Revelations whether immediately given and declared or as recorded in the Scripture is his own Authority and Veracity I am the Lord the High and Lofty One. Thus saith the Lord. To the Law and to the Testimony This is my Son hear him All Scripture is given by Inspiration from God Believe the Lord and his Prophets This alone is that which he requires us to resolve our Faith into So when he gave unto us the Law of our Lives the eternal and unchangeable Rule of our Obedience unto him in the ten Commandments he gives no other Reason to oblige us thereunto but this only I am the Lord thy God The sole formal Reason of all our Obedience is taken from his own Nature and our Relation unto him Nor doth he propose any other Reason why we should believe him or the Revelation which he makes of his Mind and Will And our Faith is part of our Obedience the Root and principal Part of it therefore the Reason of both is the same Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever make use of such Arguments or Motives for the ingenerating of Faith in the minds of men nor have they given Directions for the use of any such Arguments to this End and Purpose But when they were accused to have followed cunningly devised Fables they appealed unto Moses and the Prophets to the Revelations they had themselves received and those that were before recorded It is true they wrought Miracles in confirmation of their own divine Mission and of the Doctrine which they taught But the Miracles of our Saviour were all of them wrought amongst those who believed the whole Scripture then given to be the Word of God and those of the Apostles were before the Writings of the Books of the New Testament Their Doctrine therefore materially considered and their Warranty to teach it was sufficiently yea abundantly confirmed by them But Divine Revelation formally considered and as written was left upon the old Foundation of the Authority of God who gave it No such Method is prescribed no such Example is proposed unto us in the Scripture to make use of these Arguments and Motives for the Conversion of the Souls of men unto God and the ingenerating of Faith in them Yea in some Cases the use of such means is decryed as unprofitable and the Sole Authority of God putting forth his Power in and by his Word is appealed unto 1 Cor. 2. 4 5 13. chap. 14. 26 27. 2 Cor. 4. 7. But yet in a way of Preparation subservient unto the receiving the Scripture as the Word of God and for the Defence of it against Gainsayers and their Objections their use hath been granted and proved But from first to last in the Old and New Testament the Authority and Truth of God are constantly and uniformly proposed as the immediate Ground and Reason of Believing his Revelations nor can it be proved that he doth accept or approve of any kind of Faith or Assent but what is built thereon and resolved thereinto The Sum is We are obliged in a way of Duty to believe the Scriptures to be a Divine Revelation when they are ministerially or providentially proposed unto us whereof afterwards The Ground whereon we are to receive them is the Authority and Veracity of God speaking in them we believe them because they are the Word of God Now this Faith whereby we so believe is Divine and Supernatural because the mal Reason of it is so namely Gods Truth and Authority Wherefore we do not nor ought to believe the Scripture as highly probable or with a moral Perswasion and Assurance built upon Arguments absolutely fallible and humane only For if this be the formal Reason of Faith namely the Veracity and Authority of God if we believe not with Faith divine and supernatural we believe not at all 2. The moral Certainty treated of is a meer Effect of Reason There is no more required unto it but that the Reasons proposed for the Assent required be such as the mind judgeth to be convincing and prevalent whence an inferiour Kind of Knowledge or a firm Opinion or some kind of Perswasion which hath not yet gotten an intelligible Name doth necessarily ensue There is therefore on this Supposition no need of any Work of the Holy Ghost to enable us to believe or to work Faith in us for no more is required herein but what necessarily ariseth from a naked Exercise of Reason If it be said that the Enquiry is not about what is the Work of the Spirit of God in us but concerning the Reasons and Motives to Believing that are proposed unto us I answer it is granted but that we urge herein is that the Act which is exerted on such Motives or the Perswasion which is begotten in our minds by them is purely natural and such as requires no especial Work of the Holy Ghost in us for the effecting of it Now this is not Faith nor can we be said in the Scripture sense to believe thereby and so in particular not the Scriptures to be the Word of God For Faith is the Gift of God and is not of our selves Ephes 2. 8. It is given unto some on the behalf of Christ Phil. 1. 29. and not unto others Mat. 11. 29. chap. 13. 11. But this Assent on external Arguments and Motives is of our selves equally common and exposed unto all No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. But he who believeth the Scripture truly aright and according to his Duty doth say so No man cometh to Christ but he that hath heard and learned of the Father John 6. 45. And as this is contrary to the Scripture so it is expresly condemned by the ancient Church particularly by the second Arausican Council Can. 5. 7. Si quis sicut augmentum ita etià m initium Fidei ipsumque credulitatis affectum non per gratiae donum id est per inspirationem Spiritus Sancti corrigentem voluntatem nostram ab infidelitate ad fidem ab impietate ad pietatem sed naturalitèr nobis inesse dicit Apostolicis Dogmatibus adversarius approbatur And plainly Can. 7. Si quis per naturae vigorem bonum aliquod quod ad Salutem pertinet vitae eternae cogitare ut expedit aut eligere sive salutari id est evangelicae Praedicaiioni consentire
and which he cannot but design when the Scripture is proposed unto him in the Ministry of the Church attested by the Arguments insisted on there will appear unto him in the Truths and Doctrines of it or in the things contained in it such an Evidence of the Majesty and Authority of God as will prevail with him to believe it to be a divine Revelation And this Perswasion is such that the mind is established in its Assent unto the Truth so as to yield Obedience unto all that is required of us And whereas our Belief of the Scripture is in order only to the right Performance of our Duty or all that Obedience which God expecteth from us our minds being guided by the Precepts and Directions and duly influenced by the Promises and Threatnings of it thereunto there is no other Faith required of us but what is sufficient to oblige us unto that Obedience This being so far as I can apprehend the Substance of what is by some learned men proposed and adhered unto it shall be briefly examined And I say here as on other occasions that I should rejoyce to see more of such a Faith in the World as would effectually oblige men unto Obedience out of a Conviction of the Excellency of the Doctrine the Truth of the Promises and Threatnings of the Word though learned men should never agree about the formal Reason of Faith Such Notions of Truth when most diligently inquired into are but as sacrifice compared with Obedience But the Truth it self is also to be enquired after diligently This Opinion therefore either supposeth what we shall immediatly declare namely the necessity of an internal effectual Work of the Holy Spirit in the Illumination of our minds so enabling us to believe with Faith divine and supernatural or it doth not If it doth it will be found as I suppose for the Substance of it to be co-incident with what we shall afterwards assert and prove to be the formal Reason of Believing However as it is usually proposed I cannot absolutely comply with it for these two Reasons among others 1. It belongs unto the Nature of Faith of what sort soever it be that it be built on and resolved into Testimony This is that which distinguisheth it from any other Conception Knowledge or Assent of our minds on other Reasons and Causes And if this Testimony be divine so is that Faith whereby we give assent unto it on the part of the Object But the Doctrines contained in the Scripture or the subject Matter of the Truth to be believed have not in them the Nature of a Testimony but are the material not formal Objects of Faith which must always differ If it be said that these Truths or Doctrines do so evidence themselves to be from God as that in and by them we have the Witness and Authority of God himself proposed unto us to resolve our Faith into I will not further contend about it but only say that the Authority of God and so his Veracity do manifest themselves primarily in the Revelation it self before they do so in the things revealed which is that we plead for 2. The Excellency of the Doctrine or things revealed in the Scriptures respects not so much the Truth of them in speculation as their Goodness and Suitableness unto the Souls of Men as to their present Condition and eternal End Now things under that Consideration respect not so much Faith as spiritual Sense and Experience Neither can any man have a due Apprehension of such a goodness suitable unto our Constitution and Condition with absolute usefulness in the Truth of the Scripture but on a Supposition of that antecedent Assent of the mind unto them which is Believing which therefore cannot be the Reason why we do believe But if this Opinion proceed not upon the aforesaid Supposition immediately to be proved but requires no more unto our satisfaction in the Truth of the Scripture and Assent thereon but the due Exercise of Reason or the natural Faculties of our Minds about them when proposed unto us then I suppose it to be most remote from the Truth and that amongst many other Reasons for these that ensue 1. On this Supposition the whole Work of Believing would be a Work of Reason Be it so say some nor is it meet it should be otherwise conceived But if so then the Object of it must be things so evident in themselves and their own Nature as that the Mind is as it were compelled by that Evidence unto an Assent and cannot do otherwise If there be such a Light and Evidence in the things themselves with respect unto our Reason in the right use and exercise of it then is the Mind thereby necessitated unto its Assent which both overthrows the Nature of Faith substituting an Assent upon natural Evidence in the room thereof and is absolutely exclusive of the necessity or use of any Work of the Holy Ghost in our Believing which sober Christians will scarce comply withal 2. There are some Doctrines revealed in the Scripture and those of the most Importance that are so revealed which concern and contain things so above our Reason that without some previous supernatural Dispositions of Mind they carry in them no Evidence of Truth unto meer Reason nor of Suitableness unto our Constitution and End There is required unto such an Apprehension both the spiritual Elevation of the Mind by supernatural Illumination and a divine Assent unto the Authority of the Revelation thereon before Reason can be so much as satisfied in the Truth and Excellency of such Doctrines Such are those concerning the Holy Trinity or the Subsistence of one singular Essence in three distinct Persons the Incarnation of the Son of God the Resurrection of the dead and sundry other that are the most proper Subjects of divine Revelation There is an heavenly Glory in some of these things which as Reason can never throughly apprehend because it is finite and limited so as 't is in us by Nature it can neither receive them nor delight in them as doctrinally proposed unto us with all the Aids and Assistance before mentioned Flesh and Blood reveals not these thisgs unto our minds but our Father which is in Heaven Nor doth any man know these Mysteries of the Kingdom of God but he unto whom it is given nor do any learn these things aright but those that are taught of God 3. Take our Reason singly without the Consideration of divine Grace and Illumination and it is not only weak and limited but depraved and corrupted And the carnal mind cannot subject it self unto the Authority of God in any supernatural Revelation whatever Wherefore the Truth is that the Doctrines of the Gospel which are purely and absolutely so are so far from having a convincing Evidence in themselves of their divine Truth Excellency and Goodness unto the Reason of men as unrenewed by the Holy Ghost as that they are foolishness and most undesirable
unto it as I have elsewhere proved at large We shall therefore proceed There are two Things considerable with respect unto our Believing the Scriptures to be the Word of God in a due manner or according to our Duty The first respects the Subject or the mind of man how it is enabled thereunto the other the Object to be believed with the true Reason why we do believe the Scripture with Faith divine and supernatural The first of these must of necessity fall under our Consideration herein as that without which what ever Reasons Evidences or Motives are proposed unto us we shall never believe in a due manner For whereas the mind of man or the minds of all men are by nature depraved corrupt carnal and enmity against God they cannot of themselves or by virtue of any innate Ability of their own understand or assent unto spiritual things in a spiritual manner which we have sufficiently proved and confirmed before Wherefore that Assent which is wrought in us by meer external Arguments consisting in the rational Conclusion and Judgment which we make upon their Truth and Evidence is not that Faith wherewith we ought to believe the Word of God Wherefore that we may believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God according to our Duty as God requireth it of us in an useful profitable and saving manner above and beyond that natural humane Faith and Assent which is the Effect of the Arguments and Motives of Credibility before insisted on with all others of the like kind there is and must be wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost Faith supernatural and divine whereby we are enabled so to do or rather whereby we do so This Work of the Spirit of God as it is distinct from so in order of Nature it is antecedent unto all divine objective Evidence of the Scriptures being the Word of God or the formal Reason moving us to believe it wherefore without it whatever Arguments or Motives are proposed unto us we cannot believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God in a due manner and as it is in duty required of us Some it may be will suppose these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and impertinent unto our present purpose For while we are enquiring on what Grounds we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God we seem to fly to the Work of the Holy Ghost in our own minds which is irrational But we must not be ashamed of the Gospel nor of the Truth of it because some do not understand or will not duly consider what is proposed It is necessary that we should return unto the Work of the Holy Spirit not with peculiar respect unto the Scriptures that are to be believed but unto our own Minds and that Faith wherewith they are to be believed For it is not the Reason why we believe the Scriptures but the Power whereby we are enabled so to do which at present we enquire after 1. That the Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost can be denied only on two Principles or Suppositions 1. That it is not Faith divine and supernatural whereby we believe them so to be but only we have other moral Assurance thereof 2. That this Faith divine and supernatural is of our selves and is not wrought in us by the Holy Ghost The first of these hath been already disproved and shall be further evicted afterwards and it may be they are very few who are of that Judgment For generally whatever men suppose the prime Object principal Motive and formal Reason of that Faith to be yet that it is Divine and Supernatural they all acknowledg And as to the second what is so 't is of the Operation of the Spirit of God For to say it is divine and supernatural is to say that it is not of our selves but that it is the Grace and Gift of the Spirit of God wrought in us by his divine and supernatural Power And those of the Church of Rome who would resolve our Faith in this matter objectively into the Authority of their Church yet subjectively acknowledge the Work of the Holy Spirit ingenerating Faith in us and that Work to be necessary to our Believing the Scripture in a due manner Externae omnes humanae persuasiones non sunt satis ad credendum quantumcunque ab hominibus competenter ea quae sunt fidei proponantur Sed necessaria est insuper causa interior hoc est divinum quoddam lumen incitans ad credendum oculi quidam interni Dei beneficio ad videndum dati saith Canus Loc. Theol. lib. 2. cap. 8. Nor is there any of the Divines of that Church which dissent herein We do not therefore assert any such divine formal Reoson of Believing as that the mind should not stand in need of supernatural Assistance enabling it to assent thereunto Nay we affirm that without this there is in no man any true Faith at all let the Arguments and Motives whereon he believes be as forcible and pregnant with Evidence as can be imagined It is in this Case as in things natural neither the the Light of the Sun nor any perswasive Arguments unto men to look up unto it will enable them to discern it unless they are endued with a due visive Faculty And this the Scripture is express in beyond all possibility of Contradiction Neither is it that I know of by any as yet in express terms denied For indeed that all which is properly called Faith with respect unto divine Revelation and is acceptted with God as such is the Work of the Spirit of God in us or is bestowed on us by him cannot be questioned by any who own the Gospel I have also proved it elsewhere so fully and largly as that I shall give it at present no other Confirmation but what will necessarily fall in with the Description of the Nature of that Faith whereby we do believe and the Way or Manner of its being wrought in us The Work of the Holy Ghost unto this purpose consists in the saving Illumination of the Mind and the Effect of it is a supernatural Light whereby the Mind is renewed see Rom. 12. 1. Ephes. 1. 18 19. chap. 3. 16 17 18 19. It is called an Heart to understand Eyes to see Ears to hear Deut. 29. 4. The opening of the Eyes of our Vunderstanding Ephes. 1. 18. The giving of an Vnderstanding 1 John 5. 20. Hereby we are enabled to discern the Evidences of the divine Original and Authority of the Scripture that are in it self as well as assent unto the Truth contained in it and without it we cannot do so For the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And unto this end it is written in the Prophets that we
the divine Witness whereunto our Faith is ultimately resolved doth not consist herein yet it is the greatest corroborating Testimony whereof we are capable This is that which brings us unto the Riches of the full Assurance of Vnderstanding Col. 2. 2. as also 1 Thes. 1. 5. And on the Account of this Spiritual Experience is our perception of Spiritual Things so often expressed by Acts of Sense as tasting seeing feeling and the like means of Assurance in things natural And when Believers have attained hereunto they do find the divine Wisdom Goodness and Authority of God so present unto them as that they need neither Argument nor Motive nor any thing else to perswade them unto or confirm them in believing And whereas this spiritual Experience which Believers obtain through the Holy Ghost is such as cannot rationally be contended about seeing those who have received it cannot fully express it and those who have not cannot understand it nor the Efficacy which it hath to secure and establish the mind it is left to be determined on by them alone who have their Senses exercised to discern Good aad Evil. And this belongs unto the internal subjective Testimony of the Holy Ghost 2. He assists helps and relieves us against Temptations to the contrary so as that they shall not be prevalent Our first prime Assent unto the divine Authority of the Scripture upon its proper Grounds and Reasons will not secure us against future Objections and Temptations unto the contrary from all manner of Causes and Occasions David's Faith was so assaulted by them as that he said in his hast that all men were liars And Abraham himself after he had received the Promise that in his Seed all Nations should be blessed was reduced unto that anxious Enquiry Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless Gen 15. 2. And Peter was so winnowed by Satan that although his Faith failed not yet he greatly failed and fainted in its Exercise And we all know what fears from within what fightings from without we are exposed unto in this matter And of this sort are all those Atheistical Objections against the Scripture which these Days abound withal which the Devil useth as fiery Darts to enflame the Souls of men and to destroy their Faith and indeed this is that Work which the Powers of Hell are principally ingaged in at this day Having lopt off many Branches they now lay their Ax to the Root of Faith and thence in the midst of the Profession of Christian Religion there is no greater Controversy than whether the Scriptures are the Word of God or not Against all these Temptations doth the Holy Ghost give in such a continual supply of spiritual Strength and Assistance unto Believers as that they shall at no time prevail nor their Faith totally fail In such cases the Lord Christ intercedes for us that our Faith fail not and Gods Grace is sufficient against the buffetings of these Temptations And herein the Truth of Christs Intercession with the Grace of God and its Efficacy are communicated unto us by the Holy Ghost What are those internal Aids whereby he establisheth and assureth our Minds against the Force and Prevalency of Objections and Temptations against the Divine Authority of the Scripture how they are communicated unto us and received by us this is no place to declare in particular It is in vain for any to pretend unto the name of Christians by whom they are denied And these also have the nature of an internal real Testimony whereby Faith is established And because it is somewhat strange that after a long quiet Possession of the professed Faith and Assent of the Generality of the Minds of Men thereunto there should now arise among us such an open Opposition unto the divine Authority of the Scriptures as we find there is by Experience it may not be amiss in our passage to name the principal Causes or Occasions thereof For if we should bring them all into one Reckoning as justly we may who either openly oppose it and reject it or who use it or neglect it at their pleasure or who set up other Guides in Competition with it or above it or otherwise declare that they have no sense of the immediate Authority of God therein we shall find them to be like the Moors or Slaves in some Countries or Plantations they are so great in number and force above their Rulers and other Inhabitants that it is only want of Communication with Confidence and some distinct Interests that keep them from casting off their Yoak and Restraint I shall name three Causes only of this surprizing and perillous Event 1. A long continued outward Profession of the Truth of the Scripture without an inward Experience of its Power betrays men at length to question the Truth it self at least not to regard it as divine The Owning of the Scriptures to be the Word of God bespeaks a divine Majesty Authority and Power to be present in it and with it Wherefore after men who have for a long time so professed do find that they never had any real Experience of such a divine Presence in it by any Effects upon their own Minds they grow insensibly regardless of it or to allow it a very common place in their thoughts When they have worn off the Impressions that were on their mind from Tradition Education and Custom they do for the future rather not oppose it than in any way believe it And when once a Reverence unto the Word of God on the Account of its Authority is lost an Assent unto it on the Account of Truth will not long abide And all such Persons under a Concurrence of Temptations and outward Occasions will either reject it or prefer other Gnides before it 2. The Power of Lust rising up unto a Resolution of living in those Sins whereunto the Scripture doth unavoidably annex eternal Ruine hath prevailed with many to cast off its Authority For whilst they are resolved to live in an Outrage of Sin to allow a divine Truth and Power in the Scripture is to cast themselves under a present Torment as well as to ascertain their future Misery for no other can be his Condition who is perpetually sensible that God always condemns him in all that he doth and will assuredly take vengeance of him which is the constant language of the Scripture concerning such Persons Wherefore although they will not immediately fall into an open Atheistical Opposition unto it as that which it may be is not consistent with their Interest and Reputation in the World yet looking upon it as the Devils did on Jesus Christ as that which comes to torment them before their time they keep it at the greatest distance from their thoughts and minds until they have habituated themselves unto a Contempt of it There being therefore an utter impossibility of giving any pretence of Reconciliation between the Owning of the Scriptures to be the Word of God
nempe in qua securius constantiusque mens qui scat quam in ullis rationibus talis denique sensus qui nisi ex caelesti Revelatione nequeat Non aliud loquor quam quod apud se experitur fidelium unusquisque nisi quod longe infra justam rei explicationem verba subsidunt Calv. Instit. lib. 2. cap. 7 8 9. And we may here briefly call over what we have attained or passed through For 1. We have shewed in general both what is the Nature of divine Revelation and divine Illumination with their mutual Respect unto one another 2. What are the principal external Arguments or Motives of Credibility whereby the Scripture may be proved to bâ— of a divine Original 3. What kind of Perswasion is the Effect of them or what is the Assent which we give unto the Truth of the Scriptures on their Account 4. What objective Evidence there is unto Reason in the Doctrine of the Scriptures to induce the mind to assent unto them 5. What is the Nature of that Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God and how it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost 6. What is that Internal Testimony which is given unto the divine Authority of the Scriptures by the holy Spirit what is the Force and Use thereof The Principal Part of our Work doth yet remain That which we have thus far made way for and which is now our only remaining Enquiry is What is the Work of the Holy Ghost with respect unto the objective Evidence which we have concerning the Scripture that it is the Word of God which is the formal Reason of our Faith and whereinto it is resolved that is we come to enquire and to give a direct Answer unto that Question Why we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God what it is that our Faith rests upon herein and what it is that makes it the Duty of every man to believe it so to be unto whom it is proposed And the Reason why I shall be the briefer herein is because I have long since in another Discourse cleared this Argument and I shall not here again call over any thing that was delivered therein because what hath been unto this day gainsaid unto it or excepted against it hath been of little Weight or Consideration Unto this great Enquiry therefore I say We believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with divine Faith for its own sake only or our Faith is resolved into the Authority and Truth of God only as revealing himself unto us therein and thereby And this Authority and Veracity of God do infallibly manifest or evince themselves unto our Faith or our Minds in the exercise of it by the Revelation it self in the Scripture and no otherwise Or Thus saith the Lord is the Reason why we ought to believe and why we do so why we believe at all in general and why we believe any thing in particular And this we call the formal Object or Reason of Faith And it is evident that this is not God himself absolutely considered for so he is only the material Object of our Faith He that cometh unto God must believe that he is Heb. 11. 6. Nor is it the Truth of God absolutely for that we believe as we do other essential Properties of his Nature But it is the Truth of God revealing himself his mind and will unto us in the Scripture This is the sole Reason why we believe any thing with Divine Faith It is or may be enquired wherefore we do believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God or that God is one in Nature subsisting in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Spirit I answer it is because God himself the first Truth who cannot lie hath revealed and declared these things so to be and he who is our All requireth us so to believe If it be asked how wherein or whereby God hath revealed and declared these things so to be or what is that Revelation which God hath made hereof I answer It is the Scripture and that only And if it be asked how I know this Scripture to be a Divine Revelation to be the Word of God I answer 1. I do not know it demonstratively upon rational scientifical Principles because such a Divine Revelation is not capable of such a Demonstration 1. Cor. 2. 9. 2. I do not assent unto it or think it to be so upon Arguments and Motives highly probable or morally uncontroulable only as I am assuredly perswaded of many other things whereof I can have no certain Demonstration 1 Thes. 2. 15. But I believe it so to be with Faith divine and supernatural resting on and resolved into the Authority and Veracity of God himself evidencing themselves unto my Mind my Soul and Conscience by this Revelation it self and not otherwise Here we rest and deny that we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God formally for any other Reason but it self which assureth us of its Divine Authority And if we rest not here we must run on the Rock of a moral Certainty only which shakes the Foundation of all Divine Faith or fall into the Gulf and Labyrinth of an endless Circle in proving two things mutually by one another as the Church by the Scripture and the Scripture by the Church in an everlasting Rotation Unless we intend so to wander we must come to something wherein we may rest for its own sake and that not with a strong and firm Opinion but with Divine Faith And nothing can rationally pretend unto this Priviledge but the Truth of God manifesting it self in the Scripture And therefore those who will not allow it hereunto do some of them wisely deny that the Scriptures being the Word of God is the Object of Divine Faith directly but only of a moral Perswasion from eternal Arguments and Considerations And I do believe that they will grant that if the Scripture be so to be believed it must be for its own sake For those who would have us to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God upon the Authority of the Church proposing it unto us and witnessing so to be though they make a fair appearance of a ready and easy way for the exercise of Faith yet when things come to be sifted and tried they do so confound all sorts of things that they know not where to stand or abide But it is not now my Business to examine their Pretences I have done it elsewhere I shall therefore prove and establish the Assertion laid down after I have made way to it by one or two previous Observations 1. We suppose herein all the Motives of Credibity before mentioned that is all the Arguments ab extra which vehemently perswade the Scripture to be the Word of God and wherewith it may be protected against Objections and Temptations to the contrary They have all of them their Use and may in their proper place be
Lord and therefore they are to be believed Some of them we must mention Deut. 31. 11 12 13. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing Gather the people together Men Women and Children and the Stranger that is within thy Gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the Works of this Law and that their Children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God It is plain that God here requireth Faith and Obedience of the whole people Men Women and Children The Enquiry is what he requireth it unto It is to this Law to this Law written in the Books of Moses which was to be read unto them out of the Book at the hearing of which they were obliged to believe and obey To evidence that Law to be his he proposeth nothing but it self But it will be said that Generation was sufficiently convinced that the Law was from God by the Miracles which they beheld in the giving of it But moreover it is ordered to be proposed unto Children of future Generations who knew nothing that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord. That which by the Appointment of God is to be proposed unto them that know nothing that they may believe that is unto them the formal Reason of their Believing But this is the written Word Thou shalt read this Law unto them who have known nothing that they may hear and learn c. Whatever use therefore there may be of other Motives or Testimonies to commend the Law unto us of the Ministry of the Church especially which is here required unto the Proposal of the Word unto men it is the Law it self or the written Word which is the Object of our Faith and which we believe for its own sake see also chap. 29. 29. where revealed things are said to belong unto us and our Children that we might do them that is receive them on the Account of their Divine Revelation Isa. 8. 19 20. And when they shall say unto you Seek unto them that 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 The Enquiry is by what means men may come to satisfaction in their Minds and Consciences or what their Faith and Trust is in Two Things are proposed unto this end 1. Immediate diabolical Revelations real or pretended 2. The written Word of God the Law and the Testimony Hereunto are we sent and that upon the Account of its own Authority alone in opposition unto all other pretences of Assurance or Security And the sole Reason why any one doth not acquiesce by Faith in the written Word is because he hath no Mornings or Light of Truth shining on him But how shall we know the Law and Testimony this written Word to be the Word of God and believe it so to be and distinguish it from every other pretended Divine Revelation that is not so This is declared Jerem. 23. 28 29. The Prophet that hath a Dream let him tell a Dream and he that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully What is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord Is not my Word like as fire saith the Lord and like an Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces It is supposed that there are two Persons in Reputation for Divine Revelations esteemed Prophets one of them only pretends so to be and declares the Dreams of his own Fancy or the Divinations of his own Mind as the Word of God The other hath the Word of God and declares it faithfully from him Yea but how shall we know the one from the other Even as men know Wheat from Chaff by their different Natures and Effects For as false pretended Revelations are but as Chaff which every Wind will scatter so the true Word of God is like a Fire and like an Hammer is accompanied with that Light Efficacy and Power that it manifests it self unto the Consciences of men so to be Hereon doth God call us to rest our Faith on it in opposition unto all other Pretences whatever But is it of this Authority and Efficacy in it self See Luk. 16. 27 28 29 30 31. Then said he the rich Man in Hell I pray thee therefore Father that thou wouldest send him Lazarus who was dead unto my Fathers house for I have five Brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment Abraham saith unto him they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they would repent and he said unto him if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The Question here between Abraham and the rich Man in this Parable indeed between the Wisdom of God and the superstitious Contrivances of Men is about the way and means of bringing those who are Unbelievers and impenitent unto Faith and Repentance He who was in Hell apprehended that nothing would make them believe but a Miracle one rising from the dead and speaking unto them which or the like marvellous Operations many at this day think would have mighty power and influence upon them to settle their minds and change their lives should they see one rise from the dead and come and converse with them this would convince them of the Immortality of the Soul of future Rewards and Punishments as giving them sufficient Evidence thereof so that they would assuredly repent and change their Lives but as things are stated they have no sufficient evidence of these things so that they doubt so far about them as that they are not really influenced by them give them but one real Miracle and you shall have them for ever This I say was the Opinion and Judgment of him who was represented in Hell as it is of many who are posting thither apace He who was in Heaven thought otherwise wherein we have the immediate Judgment of Jesus Christ given in this matter determining this Controversy The Question is about sufficient Evidence and Efficacy to cause us to believe Things divine and supernatural and this he determines to be in the written Word Moses and the Prophets If he that will not believe on the single Evidence of the written Word to be from God or a Divine Revelation of his Will will never believe upon the Evidence of Miracles nor any other Motives then that written Word contains in it self the entire formal Reason of Faith or all that Evidence of the Authority and Truth of God in it which Faith divine
and supernatural rests upon that is it is to be believed for its own sake But saith our Lord Jesus Christ himself if men will not hear that is believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead and come and preach unto them a greater Miracle than which they could not desire Now this could not be spoken if the Scripture did not contain in it self the whole entire formal Reason of Believing for if it have not this something necessary unto believing would be wanting though that were enjoyed And this is directly affirmed John 20. 30 31. And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have life through his Name The Signs which Christ wrought did evidence him to be the Son of God But how come we to know and believe these Signs what is the way and means thereof Saith the blessed Apostle these things are written that you may believe this writing of them by Divine Inspiration is so far sufficient to beget and assure Faith in you as that thereby you may have eternal life through Jesus Christ. For if the writing of Divine Things and Revelations be the means appointed of God to cause men to believe unto eternal life then it must as such carry along with it sufficient Reason why we should believe and Grounds whereon we should do so And in like manner is this matter determined by the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18 19 20 21. For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a Light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts Knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost The Question is about the Gospel or the Declaration of the powerful Coming of Jesus Christ whether it were to be believed or no and if it were upon what Grounds Some said it was a cunningly devised Fable others that it was a fanatical Story of mad men as Festus thought of it when preached by Paul Acts 26. 24. and very many are of the same mind still The Apostles on the contrary averred that what was spoken concerning him were Words of truth and soberness yea faithful Sayings and worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. that is to be believed for its Worth and Truth The Grounds and Reasons hereof are two 1. The Testimony of the Apostles who not only conversed with Jesus Christ and were eye Witnesses of his Majesty beholding his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth John 1. 14. which they gave in Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel 1 John 1. 1. But also heard a miraculous Testimony given unto him immediately from God in Heaven ver 17. 18. This gave them indeed sufficient Assurance but whereinto shall they resolve their Faith who heard not this Testimony Why they have a more sure that is a most sure Word of Prophecy that is the written Word of God that is sufficient of it self to secure their Faith in this matter especially as confirmed by the Testimony of the Apostles whereby the Church comes to be built in its Faith on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Ephes. 2. 20. But why should we believe this Word of Prophecy may not that also be a cunningly devised Fable and the whole Scripture be but the Suggestions of mens private Spirits as is objected Ver. 20. All is finally resolved into this that the Writers of it were immediately moved and acted by the Holy Ghost from which Divine Original it carrieth along its own Evidence with it Plainly that which the Apostle teacheth us is that we believe all other Divine Truths for the Scriptures sake or because they are declared therein but the Scripture we believe for its own sake or because holy men of God wrote it as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So is the whole Object of Faith proposed by the same Apostle 2 Pet. 3. 2. The Words that were spoken before by the holy Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour And because our Faith is resolved into them we are said to be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles as was said Eph. 2. 20. that is our Faith rests solely as on its proper Foundation which bears the weight of it on the Authority and Truth of God in their Writings Hereunto we may add that of Paul Rom. 16. 25 26. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known unto all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The matter to be beleived is the Mystery of the Gospel which was kept secret since the World began or from the giving of the first Promise not absolutely but with respect unto that full manifestation which it hath now received This God commands to be believed the everlasting God he who hath sovereign Authority over all requires Faith in a way of Obedience hereunto But what Ground or Reason have we to believe it This alone is proposed namely the Divine Revelation made in the Preaching of the Apostles and Writings of the Prophets for Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10. 17. This Course and no other did our Saviour even after his Resurrection take to beget and confirm Faith in the Disciples Luk. 24. 25 26 27. That great Testimony to this purpose 2 Tim. 3. 14 15 16 17. I do not plead in particular because I have so fully insisted on it in another Discourse From these and many other Testimonies to the same purpose which might be produced it is evident 1. That it is the Scripture it self the Word or Will of God as revealed or written which is proposed unto us as the Object of our Faith and Obedience which we are to receive and believe with Faith divine and supernatural 2. That no other Reason is proposed unto us either as a Motive to encourage us or as an Argument to assure us that we shall not
be mistaken but only its own Divine Original and Authority making our Duty necessary and securing our Faith infallibly And those Testimonies are with me of more weight a thousand times than the plausible Reasonings of any to the contrary With some indeed it is grown a matter of contempt to quote or cite the Scripture in our Writings such Reverence have they for the Ancient Fathers some of whose Writings are nothing else but a perpetual Contexture of Scripture But for such who pretend to despise those Testimonies in this Case it is because either they do not understand what they are produced to confirm or cannot answer the Proof that is in them For it is not unlikely but that some Persons well conceited of their own Understanding in things wherein they are most ignorant will pride and please themselves in the Ridiculousness of proving the Scripture to be the Word of God by Testimonies taken out of it But as was said we must not forgo the Truth because either they will not or cannot understand what we discourse about 2. Our Assertion is confirmed by the uniform Practice of the Prophets and Apostles and all the Penmen of the Scripture in proposing these Divine Revelations which they received by immediate Inspiration from God For that which was the Reason of their Faith unto whom they first declared those Divine Revelations is the Reason of our Faith now they are recorded in the Scripture For the writing of it being by God's Appointment it comes into the room and supplies the place of their Oral Ministry On what Ground soever men were obliged to receive and believe Divine Revelations when made unto them by the Prophets and Apostles on the same are we obliged to receive and believe them now they are made unto us in the Scripture the VVriting being by divine Inspiration and appointed as the Means and Cause of our Faith It is true God was pleased sometimes to bear witness unto their personal Ministry by Miracles or Signs and Wonders as Heb. 2. 4. God bearing them witness But this was only at some seasons and with some of them That which they universally insisted on whether they wrought any Miracles or no was that the Word which they preached declared wrote was not the Word of man came not by any private Suggestion or from any Invention of their own but was indeed the Word of God 1 Thes. 2. 13. and declared by them as they were acted by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Under the Old Testament although the Prophets sometimes referred Persons unto the Word already written as that which their Faith was to acquiesce in Isa. 8. 20 Mal. 4. 4. setting out its Power and Excellency for all the ends of Faith and Obedience Psal. 19. 7 8 9. Psal. 119. and not to any thing else nor to any other Motives or Arguments to beget and require Faith but it s own Authority only yet as to their own especial Messages and Revelations they laid the Foundation of all the Faith and Obedience which they required in this alone Thus saith the Lord the God of Truth And under the New Testament the infallible Preachers and Writers thereof do in the first place propose the Writings of the Old Testament to be received for their own sake or on the Account of their Divine Original see John 45. 46 47. Luk. 16. 29 31. Mat. 21. 42. Acts 18. 24 25 28. Acts 24. 14. chap. 26. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 21. Hence are they called the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. And Oracles always required an Assent for their own sakes and other Evidence they pleaded none And for the Revelations which they superadded they pleaded that they had them immediately from God by Jesus Christ Gal. 1. 1. And this was accompanied with such an infallible Assurance in them that received it as to be preferred above a Supposition of the highest Miracle to confirm any thing to the contrary Gal. 1. 8. For if an Angel from Heaven should have preached any other Doctrine than what they revealed and proposed in the Name and Authority of God they were to esteem him accursed For this Cause they still insisted on their Apostolical Authority and Mission which included infallible Inspiration and Directions as the Reason of the Faith of them unto whom they preached and wrote And as for those who were not themselves divinely inspired or wherein those that were so did not act by immediate Inspiration they proved the Truth of what they delivered by its consonancy unto the Scriptures already written referring the Minds and Consciences of Men unto them for their ultimate Satisfaction Acts 18. 28. chap. 28. 33. 3. It was before granted that there is required as subservient unto believing as a means of it or the Resolution of our Faith into the Authority of God in the Scriptures the ministerial Proposal of the Scriptures and the Truths contained in them with the Command of God for Obedience unto them Rom. 16. 25. 26. This Ministry of the Church either extraordinary or ordinary God hath appointed unto this End and ordinarily it is indispensible thereunto Rom. 10. 14 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach unless they are sent Without this ordinarily we cannot believe the Scripture to be the Word of God nor the things contained in it to be from him though we do not believe either the one or the other for it I do grant that in extraordinary cases outward Providences may supply the room of this Ministerial Proposal for it is all one as unto our Duty by what means the Scripture is brought unto us But upon a Supposition of this Ministerial Proposal of the Word which ordinarily includes the whole Duty of the Church in its Testimony and Declaration of the Truth I desire to know whether those unto whom it is proposed are obliged without further external Evidence to receive it as the Word of God to rest their Faith in it and submit their Consciences unto it The Rule seems plain that they are obliged so to do Mark 16. 16. We may consider this under the distinct ways of its Proposal extraordinary and ordinary Upon the Preaching of any of the Prophets by immediate Inspiration of the Holy Ghost or on their Declaration of any new Revelation they had from God by preaching or writing suppose Isaiah or Jeremiah I desire to know whether or no all Persons were bound to receive their Doctrine as from God to believe and submit unto the Authority of God in the Revelation made by him without any external Motives or Arguments or the Testimony or Authority of the Church witnessing thereunto If they were not then were they all excused as guiltless who refused to believe the Message they declared in the Name of God and in despising the Warnings and Instructions which they gave them For external Motives they used not and the present Church mostly
them on their Lusts Hos. 2. 8. It is an higher Aggravation when men in sinning abuse and dishonour their own Bodies for these are the principal external Workmanship of God being made for Eternity and whose Preservation unto his Glory is committed unto us in an especial manner This the Apostle declareth to be the peculiar Aggravation of the Sin of Fornication and Uncleanness in any kind 1 Cor. 6. 18 19. But the Height of Impiety consists in the Abuse of the Faculties aud Powers of the Soul wherewith we are endowed purposely and immediately for the glorifying of God Hence proceed Unbelief Prophaness Blasphemy Atheism and the like Pollutions of the Spirit of Mind And these are Sins of the highest Provocation For the Powers and Faculties of our Minds being given us only to enable us to live unto God the diverting of their principal Exercise unto other Ends is an Act of Enmity against him and Affront unto him 1. He makes himself known unto us by the innate Principles of our Nature unto which he hath communicated as a Power of apprehending so an indelible Sense of his Being his Authority and his Will so far as our natural Dependance on him and moral Subjection unto him do require For whereas there are two things in this natural Light and first Dictates of Reason first a Power of Conceiving Discerning and Assenting and secondly a Power of Judging and Determining upon the things so discerned and assented unto by the one God makes known his Being and Essential Properties by the other his Sovereign Authority over all As to the first the Apostle affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 19. That which may be known of God his Essence Being Subsistence his natural necessary essential Properties is manifest in them that is it hath a self evidencing Power acting it self in the Minds of all Men indued with natural Light and Reason And as unto his Sovereign Authority he doth evidence it in and by the Consciences of men which are the Judgment that they make and cannot but make of themselves and their Actions with respect unto the Authority and Judgment of God Rom. 2. 14 15. And thus the Mind doth assent unto the Principles of God's Being and Authority antecedently unto any actual Exercise of the discursive Faculty of Reason or other Testimony whatever 2. He doth it unto our Reason in its Exercise by proposing such things unto its Consideration as from whence it may and cannot but conclude in an Assent unto the Truth of what God intends to reveal unto us that way This he doth by the Works of Creation and Providence which present themselves unavoidably unto Reason in its Exercise to instruct us in the Nature Being and Properties of God Thus the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-Work Day unto Day uttereth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard Psal. 19. 1 2 3. But yet they do not thus declare evidence and reveal the Glory of God unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light without the actual Exercise of Reason Only they do so when we consider his Heavens the Work of his Fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained as the same Psalmist speaks Psal. 8. 3. A rational Consideration of them their Greatness Order Beauty and Use is required unto that Testimony and Evidence which God gives in them and by them unto Himself his glorious Being Power To this purpose the Apostle discourseth at large concerning the Works of Creation Rom. 1. 20 21 22. as also of those of Providence Acts 14. 15 16 17. chap. 17. 24 25 26 27 28. and the rational Use we are to make of them verse 29. So God calls unto Men for the Exercise of their Reason about these Things reproaching them with Stupidity and Brutishness where they are wanting therein Isa 46. 7 8 9. chap. 44. 18 19. 20. 3. God reveals himself unto our Faith or that Power of our Souls whereby we are able to assâ—nt unto the Truth of what is proposed unto us upon Testimony And this he doth by his Word or the Scriptures proposed unto us in the manner and way before expressed He doth not reveal himself by his Word unto the Principles of natural Light nor unto Reason in its Exercise But yet these Principles and Reason it self with all the Faculties of our Minds are consequentially affected with that Revelation and are drawn forth into their proper Exercise by it But in the Gospel the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. not to natural Light Sense or Reason in the first place And it is Faith that is the Evidence of things not seen as revealed in the Word Heb. 11. 1. Unto this kind of Revelation Thus saith the Lord is the only Ground and Reason of our Assent and that Assent is the Assent of Faith because it is resolved into Testimony alone And concerning these several ways of the Communication or Revelation of the Knowledge of God it must be always observed that there is a perfect consonancy in the things revealed by them all If any thing pretends from the one what is absolutely contradictory unto the other or our Senses as the means of them it is not to be received The Foundation of the whole as of all the actings of our Souls is in the inbred Principles of natural Light or first necessary Dictates of our intellectual rational Nature This so far as it extends is a Rule unto our Apprehension in all that follows Wherefore if any pretend in the Exercise of Reason to conclude unto any thing concerning the Nature Being or Will of God that is directly contradictory unto those Principles and Dictates it is no Divine Revelation unto our Reason but a Paralogism from the defect of Reason in its Exercise This is that which the Apostle chargeth on and vehemently urgeth against the Heathen Philosophers Inbred Notions they had in themselves of the Being and Eternal Power of God and these were so manifest in them thereby that they could not but own them Hereon they set their rational discursive Faculty at work in the Consideration of God and his Being But herein were they so vain and foolish as to draw Conclusions directly contrary unto the first Principles of natural Light and the unavoidable Notions which they had of the Eternal Being of God Rom. 1. 21 22 23 24. And many upon their pretended rational Consideration of the promiscuous Event of things in the World have foolishly concluded that all things had a fortuitous Beginning and have fortuitous Events or such as from a Concatenation of antecedent Causes are fatally necessarily and are not disposed by an infinitely Wise Unerring Holy Providence And this also is directly contradictory unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light whereby it openly proclaims it self not to be an Effect of Reason in its due
Minds and Consciences of Men with its Operation of Divine Effects thereon This the Apostle expresly affirms to be the Reason and Cause of Faith 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. If all prophesy and there comes in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest and so falling down on his Face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a Truth The Acknowledgment and Confession of God to be in them or among them is a Profession of Faith in the Word administred by them Such Persons assent unto its Divine Authority or believe it to be the Word of God And on what Evidence or Ground of Credibility they did so is expresly declared It was not upon the Force of any external Arguments produced and pleaded unto that Purpose It was not upon the Testimony of this or that or any Church whatever nor was it upon a Conviction of any Miracles which they saw wrought in its Confirmation Yea the Ground of the Faith and Confession declared is opposed unto the Efficacy and Use of the Miraculous Gift of Tongues v. 23 24. Wherefore the only Evidence whereon they received the Word and acknowledged it to be of God was that Divine Power and Efficacy whereof they found and felt the Experience in themselves He is convinced of all judged of all and thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest whereon he falls down before it with an Acknowledgment of its Divine Authority finding the VVord to come upon his Conscience with an irresistible Power of Conviction and Judgment thereon He is convinced of all judged of all He cannot but grant that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Efficacy in it or accompanying of it Especially his Mind is influenced by this that the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest by it For all Men must acknowledge this to be an Effect of Divine Power seeing God alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he who searcheth knoweth and judgeth the Heart And if the VVoman of Samaria believed that Jesus was the Christ because he told her all things that ever she did John 4. 29. there is Reason to believe that VVord to be from God which makes manifest even the Secrets of our Hearts And although I do conceive that by the Word of God Heb. 4. 12. the Living and Eternal Word is principally intended yet the Power and Efficacy there ascribed to him is that which he puts forth by the VVord of the Gospel And so that VVord also in its Place and use pierceth to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit of the Joynts and Marrew and is a Discerner or passeth a critical Judgment on the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart or makes manifest the Secrets of mens Hearts as it is here expressed Hereby then doth the Holy Ghost so evidence the Divine Authority of the Word namely by that Divine Power which it hath upon our Souls and Consciences that we do assuredly acquiesce in it to be from God So the Thessalonians are commended that they received the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually works in them that believe 1 Thess. 2. 15. It distinguisheth it self from the Word of Men and evidences it self to be indeed the Word of God by its effectual Operation in them that believe And he who hath this Testimony in himself hath a higher and more firm Assurance of the Truth than what can be attained by the Force of external Arguments or the Credit of Humane Testimony VVherefore I say in general that the Holy Spirit giveth Testimony unto and evinceth the Divine Authority of the Word by its Powerful Operations and Divine Effects on the Souls of them that do believe So that although it be weakness and foolishness unto others yet as is Christ himself unto them that are called it is the Power of God and the VVisdom of God And I must say that although a Man be furnished with external Arguments of all Sorts concerning the Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures although he esteem his Motives of Credibility to be effectually perswasive and have the Authority of any or all the Churches in the VVorld to confirm his Perswasion yet if he have no Experience in himself of its Divine Power Authority and Efficacy he neither doth nor can believe it to be the Word of God in a due manner with Faith Divine and Supernatural But he that hath this Experience hath that Testimony in himself which will never fail This will be the more manifest if we consider some few of those many Instances wherein it exerts its Power or the Effects which are produced thereby The Principal Divine Effect of the Word of God is in the Conversion of the Souls of Sinners unto God The Greatness and Glory of this Work we have elsewhere declared at large And all those who are acquainted with it as it is declared in the Scripture and have any Experience of it in their own Hearts do constantly give it as an Instance of the exceeding Greatness of the Power of God It may be they speak not improperly who prefer the Work of the New Creation before the Work of the Old for the express Evidences of Almighty Power contained in it as some of the Ancients do Now of this Great and Glorious Effect the Word is the only Instrumental Cause whereby the Divine Power operates and is expressive of it self For we are born again born of God not of Corruptible Seed but of Incorruptible by the Word of God which abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 21. For of his own Will doth God beget us with the Word of Truth Jam. 1. 18. The Word is the Seed of the New Creature in us that whereby our whole Natures our Souls and all their Faculties are changed and renewed into the Image and Likeness of God And by the same Word is this new Nature kept and preserved 1 Pet. 2. 2. and the whole Soul carried on unto the Enjoyment of God It is unto Believers an Ingrafted Word which is able to save their Souls James 1. 21. The Word of God's Grace which is able to build us up and give us an Inheritance among them that are sanctified Acts 20. 32. And that because it is the Power of God unto Salvation unto them that do believe Rom. 1. 16. All the Power which God puts forth and exerts in the Communication of that Grace and Mercy unto Believers whereby they are gradually carried on and prepared unto Salvation he doth it by the Word Therein in an especial manner is the Divine Authority of the Word evidenced by the Divine Power and Efficacy given unto it by the Holy Ghost The VVork which is effected by it in the Regeneration Conversion and Sanctification of the Souls of Believers doth evidence it infallibly unto their Consciences that it is not the VVord
upon them that they cannot see nor discern Spiritual Things no not when they are externally proposed unto them as I have at large evinced elsewhere And no Man can give a greater Evidence that it is so than he who denies it so to be With Respect unto both these Kinds of Darkness the Scripture is a Light and accompanied with a Spiritual Illuminating Efficacy thereby evidencing it self to be a Divine Revelation For what but Divine Truth could recall the Minds of Men from all their wandrings in Error Superstition and other Effects of Darkness which of themselves they love more than Truth All Things being filled with Vanity Error Confusion Misapprehensions about God and our selves our Duty and End our Misery and Blessedness the Scripture where it is communicated by the Providence of God comes in as a Light into a Dark Place discovering all Things clearly and steadily that concern either God or our selves our present or future Condition causing all the Ghosts and false Images of Things which Men had framed and fancied unto themselves in the Dark to vanish and disappear Digitus Dei this is none other but the Power of God But principally it evidenceth this its Divine Efficacy by that Spiritual Saving Light which it conveighs into and implants on the Minds of Believers Hence there is none of them who have gained any Experience by the Observation of God's Dealings with them but shall although they know not the Ways and Methods of the Spirits Operations by the Word yea can say with the Man unto whom the Lord Jesus restored his Sight One thing I know that whereas I was born blind now I see This Power of the Word as the Instrument of the Spirit of God for the Communication of Saving Light and Knowledge unto the Minds of Men the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 3. 18. chap. 4. 4 6. By the Efficacy of this Power doth he evidence the Scripture to be the Word of God Those who believe find by it a Glorious Supernatural Light introduced into their Minds whereby they who before saw nothing in a distinct affecting manner in Spirituals do now clearly discern the Truth the Glory the Beauty and Excellency of Heavenly Mysteries and have their Minds transformed into their Image and LikeLineness And there is no Person who hath the Witness in himself of the kindling of this Heavenly Light in his Mind by the Word but hath also the Evidence in himself of its Divine Original 3. It doth in like manner evidence its Divine Authority by the Awe which it puts on the Minds of the Generality of Mankind unto whom it is made known that they dare not absolutely reject it Multitudes there are unto whom the Word is declared who hate all its Precepts despise all its Promises abhor all its Threatnings like nothing approve of nothing of what it declares or proposes and yet dare not absolutely refuse or reject it They deal with it as they do with God Himself whom they hate also according to the Revelation which he hath made of Himself in his Word They wish he were not sometimes they hope he is not would be glad to be free of his Rule but yet dare not cannot absolutely deny and disown Him because of that Testimony for Himself which he keeps alive in them whether they will or no. The same is the Frame of their Hearts and Minds towards the Scripture and that for no other Reason but because it is the Word of God and manifesteth it selfsso to be They hate it wish it were not hope it is not true but are not by any Means able to shake off a Disquiet in the Sense of its Divine Authority This Testimony it hath fixed in the Hearts of Multitudes of its Enemies Psal. 45. 5. 4. It evidences its Divine Power in administring strong Consolations in the deepest and most unrelievable Distresses Some such there are and such many Men fall into wherein all Means and Hopes of Relief may be utterly removed and taken away So is it when the Miseries of Men are not known unto any that will so much as pity them or wish them Relief or if they have been known and there hath been an Eye to pity them yet there hath been no Hand to help them Such hath been the Condition of innumerable Souls as on other Accounts so in particular under the power of Persecutors when they have been shut up in filthy and nasty Dungeons not to be brought out but unto Death by the most exquisite Tortures that the Malice of Hell could invent or the bloody Cruelty of Man inflict Yet in these and the like Distresses doth the Word of God by its Divine Power and Efficacy break through all interposing Difficulties all dark and discouraging Circumstances supporting refreshing and comforting such poor distressed Sufferers yea commonly filling them under overwhelming Calamities with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Though they are in Bonds yet is the Word of God not bound neither can all the Power of Hell nor all the Diligence or Fury of Men keep out the Word from entring into Prisons Dungeons Flames and to administer strong Consolations against all Fears Pains Wants Dangers Deaths or whatever we may in this mortal Life be exposed unto And sundry other Instances of the like Nature might be pleaded wherein the Word gives evident Demonstrations unto the Minds and Consciences of Men of its own Divine Power and Authority which is the second Way whereby the Holy Ghost its Author gives Testimony unto its Original But it is not meerly the Grounds and Reasons whereon we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God which we designed to declare The whole Work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to believe them so to be was proposed unto Consideration And beyond what we have insisted on there is yet a further peculiar Work of his whereby he effectually ascertains our minds of the Scriptures being the Word of God whereby we are ultimately established in the Faith thereof And I cannot but both admire and bewail that this should be denied by any that would be esteemed Christians Wherefore if there be any Necessity thereof I shall take Occasion in the Second Part of this Discourse further to confirm this Part of the Truth thus far debated namely that God by his Holy Spirit doth secretly and effectually perswade and satisfy the Minds and Souls of Believers in the Divine Truth and Authority of the Scriptures whereby he infallibly secures their Faith against all Objections and Temptations whatsoever so that they can safely and comfortably dispose of their Souls in all their Concernments with respect unto this Life and Eternity according unto the undeceivable Truth and Guidance of it But I shall no further insist on these Things at present Three Things do offer themselves unto Consideration from what hath been discoursed 1. What is the Ground and Reason why the meanest and most unlearned Sort of Believers do assent unto this Truth that the Scriptures are
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
nor by Miracles nor by Immediate Revelation or private subjective Testimony of the Spirit nor is their Faith a Perswasion of Mind that they can give no Reason of but only that they are so perswaded But it will be yet further objected that if there be such clear Evidences in the thing it self that is in the Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures that none who freely use their Reason can deny it then it lies either in the naked Proposal of the Things unto the understanding and if so then every one that assents unto this Proposition that the whole is greater than the part must likewise assent unto this that the Scripture is the Word of God or the Evidence must not ly in the naked Proposal but in the Efficacy of the Spirit of God in the minds of them unto whom it is proposed Answ. 1. I know no Divine Ancient or Modern Popish or Protestant who doth not assert that tere is a work of the Holy Ghost on the minds of men necessary unto a due Belief of the Scriptures to be the VVord of God And the Consideration hereof ought not by any Christian to be excluded But they say not that this is the Objective Testimony or Evidence on which we believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God concerning which alone is our Enquiry 2. We do not dispute how far or by what means this Proposition the Scripture is the Word of God may be evidenced meerly unto our Reason but unto our understanding as capable of giving an Assent upon Testimony It is not said that this is a first Principle of Reason though it be of Faith nor that it is capable of a Mathematical Demonstration That the whole is greater than the part is self-evident unto our Reason upon its first Proposal but such none pretends to be in the Scripture because it is a Subject not capable of it Nor do those who denying the self-evidence of the Scripture pretend by their Arguments for its Divine Authority to give such an Evidence of it unto Reason as is in first Principles or Mathematical Demonstrations but content themselves with that which they call a Moral Certainty But it is by Faith we are obliged to receive the Truth of this Proposition which respects the Power of our Minds of assent unto Truth upon Testimony infallibly on that which is infallible And hereunto it evidenceth its own Truth not with the same but with an Evidence and Certainty of an higher nature and nobler kind than that of the strictest Demonstration in things natural or the most forcible Argumens in things moral 3. It will be objected that if this be so then none can be obliged to receive the Scripture as the Word of God who hath not Faith and none have Faith but those in whom it is wrought by the Spirit of God and thereinto all will be resolved at last Answ. 1. Indeed there is no Room for this Objection for the whole Work of the Spirit is pleaded only as he is the efficient Cause of Believing and not the objective or Reason why we do believe But 2. We must not be ashamed to resolve all we do well spiritually and in obedience to the Command of God unto the Efficacious Operation of the Holy Ghost in us unless we intend to be ashamed of the Gospel But this still makes his internal Operation to be the efficient and not his internal Testimony to be the formal Reason of our Faith 3. It is another Question whether all Obligation unto Duty is and must be proportionate unto our own Strength without Divine Assistance which we deny and affirm that we are obliged unto many things by virtue of Gods Command which we have no power to answer but by virtue of his Grace 4. Where the Proposal of the Scripture is made in the way before described those unto whom it is proposed are obliged to receive it as the Word of God upon the Evidence which it gives of it self so to be Yea every Real True Divine Revelation made unto Men or every Proposal of the Scripture by Divine Providence hath that Evidence of its being from God accompanying of it as is sufficient to oblige them unto whom it was made to believe it on pain of his Displeasure If this were otherwise then either were God obliged to confirm every particular Divine Revelation with a Miracle which as to its Obligation unto Believing wants not its difficulty which he did not as in many of the Prophets nor doth at this day at the first Proposal of the Gospel to the Heathen or else when he requires Faith and Obedience in such ways as in his Wisdom he judgeth meet that is in the ordinary Ministry of the Word they are not obliged thereby nor is it their Sin to refuse a Compliance with his Will 5. If this Difficulty can be no otherwise avoided but by affirming that the Faith which God requires of us with respect unto his VVord is nothing but a natural Assent unto it upon rational Arguments and Considerations which we have an Ability for without any spiritual Aid of the Holy Ghost or respect unto his Testimony as before described which overthrows all Faith especially that which is Divine I shall rather ten thousand times allow of all the just Consequences that can follow on the Supposition mentioned than admit of this Relief But of those Consequences this is none that any unto whom the Scripture is proposed are excepted from an Obligation unto Believing In like manner there is no difficulty in the usual Objection which respects particular Books of the Scripture why we receive them as Canonical and reject others as namely the Book of Proverbs and not of Wisdom of Ecclesiastes and not Ecclesiasticus For 1. As to the Books of the Old Testament we have the Canon of them given us in the New where it is affirmed that unto the Church of the Jews were committed the Oracles of God which both confirms all that we receive and excludes all that we exclude And unto the New there are no Pretenders nor ever were to the least Exercise of the Faith of any 2. All Books whatever that have either themselves pretended unto a Divine Original or have been pleaded by others to be of that Extract have been and may be from themselves without further help evicted of falshood in that pretence They have all of them hitherto in matter or manner in plain Confessions or other sufficient Evidence manifested themselves to be of an human Original And much Danger is not to be feared from any that for the future shall set forth with the same pretence 3. VVe are not bound to refuse the Ministry of the Church or the Advantages of Providence whereby the Scripture is brought unto us with the Testimonies which either directly or collaterally any one Part of it gives unto another Although the Scripture be to believed for it self yet it is not ordinarily to be believed by it self without
Scripture to be the VVord of God in a way of Duty For it is not to be meerly Human how firm soever the Perswasions in it may be but Divine and Supernatural of the same kind with that whereby we believe the things themselves contained in the Scripture 7. VVe cannot thus believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God nor any Divine Truth therein contained without the effectual Illumination of our Minds by the Holy Ghost And to exclude the Consideration of his VVork herein is to cast the whole Enquiry out of the Limits of Christian Religion 8. Yet is not this VVork of the Holy Spirit in the Illumination of our Minds whereby we are enabled to believe in a way of Duty with Faith Supernatural and Divine the Ground and Reason why we do believe or the Evidence whereon we do so nor is our Faith resolved thereinto 9. VVhereas also there are sundry other Acts of the Holy Spirit in and upon our minds establishing this Faith against Temptations unto the contrary and further ascertaining us of the Divine Original of the Scripture or testifying it unto us yet are they none of them severally nor all of them joyntly the formal Reason of our Faith nor the Ground which we believe upon Yet are they such as that as without the first VVork of Divine Illumination we cannot believe at all in a due manner so without his other consequent Operations we cannot believe stedfastly against Temptations and Oppositions VVherefore 10. Those only can believe the Scripture aright to be the VVord of God in a way of Duty whose minds are enlightned and who are enabled to believe by the Holy Ghost 11. Those who believe not are of two Sorts for they are either such as oppose and gainsay the VVord as a cunningly devised Fable or such as are willing without prejudice to attend unto the consideration of it The former Sort may be resisted opposed and rebuked by external Arguments and such moral Considerations as vehemently perswade the Divine Original of the Scripture and from the same Principles may their mouths be stopped as to their Cavils and Exceptions against it The other Sort are to be led on unto believing by the Ministry of the Church in the dispensation of the VVord it self which is the Ordinance of God unto that purpose But 12. Neither sort do ever come truly to believe either meerly induced thereunto by force of moral Arguments only or upon the Authority of that Church by whose Ministry the Scripture is proposed unto them to be believed VVherefore 13. The formal Reason of Faith Divine and Supernatural whereby we believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God in the way of Duty and as it is required of us is the Authority and Veracity of God alone evidencing themselves unto our Minds and Consciences in and by the Scripture it self And herein consisteth that Divine Testimony of the Holy Ghost which as it is a Testimony gives our Assent unto the Scriptures the general nature of Faith and as it is a Divine Testimony gives it the especial nature of Faith Divine and Supernatural 14. This Divine Testimony given unto the Divine Original of the Scripture in and by it self whereinto our Faith is ultimately resolved is evidenced and made known as by the Characters of the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature that are in it and upon it so by the Authority Power and Efficacy over and upon the Souls and Consciences of Men and the Satisfactory Excellency of the Truths contained therein wherewith it is accompanied 15. Wherefore although there be many cogent external Arguments whereby a moral stedfast Perwasion of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures may be attained and it be the principal Duty of the true Church in all Ages to give Testimony thereunto which it hath done successively at all all times since first it was intrusted with it and so although there be many other Means whereby we are induced perswaded and enabled to believe it yet is it for its own sake only efficaciously manifesting it self to be the Word of God or upon the Divine Testimony that is given in it and by it thereunto that we believe it to be so with Faith Divine and Supernatural Corel Those who either deny the necessity of an internal subjective Work of the Holy Ghost enabling us to believe or the objective Testimony of the Holy Spirit given unto the Scripture in and by it self or do deny their joynt concurrence in and unto our Believing do deny all Faith properly Divine and Supernatural This being the Substance of what is declared and pleaded for in the preceding Treatise to prevent the Obloquy of some and confirm the Judgment of others I shall add the Suffrage of Antient and Modern Writers given unto the principal Parts of it and whereon all other things asserted in it do depend Clemens Alexandrinus discourseth at large unto this purpose Stromat 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have the Lord himself for the Principle or Beginning of Doctrine who by the Prophets the Gospel and blessed Apostles in various manners and by divers degrees goeth before us or leads us unto knowledg This is that which we lay down as the Reason and Ground of Faith namely the Authority of the Lord himself instructing us by the Scriptures So he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if any one suppose that he needeth any oâ—her Principle the Principle will not be kept that is if we need any other Principle whereinto to resolve our Faith the Word of God is no more a Principle unto us But he who is faithful from himself is worthy to be believed in his Sovereign Writing and Voice which as it appeareth is administred by the Lord for the benefit of men And certainly we use it as a Rule of judging for the invention of things But whatever is judged is not credible or to be believed until it is judged and that is no Principle which stands in need to be judged The Intention of his Words is that God who alone is to believed for himself hath given us his Word as the Rule whereby we are to judg of all things And this Word is so to be believed as not to be subject unto any other Judgment because if it be so it cannot be either a Principle or a Rule And so he proceeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it is meet that embracing by Faith the most sufficient indemonstrable Principle and taking the Demonstrations of the Principle from the Principle it self we are instructed by the Voice of the Lord himself unto the acknowledgment of the Truth In few Words he declares the Substance of what we have pleaded for No more do we maintain in this Cause but what Clemens doth here assert namely that we believe the Scripture for it self as that which needeth no antecedent or external Demonstration but all the Evidence and Demonstration of its Divine Original is to be taken from it self alone which yet
he further confirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we would not attend or give credit simply to the definitions of Men seeing we have right also to define in contradiction unto them And seeing it is not sufficient meerly to say or assert what appears to be Truth but to beget a belief also of what is spoken we expect not the Testimony of Men but confirm that which is enquired about with the voice of the Lord which is more full and firm than any Demonstration yea which rather is the only Demonstration Thus we taking our Demonstrations of the Scripture out of the Scripture are assured by Faith as by Demonstration And in other places as Strom. 4. he plainly affirms that the way of Christians was to prove the Scripture by it self and all other things by the Scripture Basilius speaks to the same purpose on Psal. 115. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith which draws the Soul to assent above all methods of Reasonings Faith which is not the Effect of Geometrical Demonstrations but of the Efficacy of the Spirit The Nature Cause and Efficacy of that Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God are asserted by him Nemesius de Homin cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Doctrine of the Divine Oracles hath its credibility from it self because of its Divine Inspiration The Words of Austin though taken notice of by all yet may here be again reported Confess lib. II. cap. 3. Audiam intelligam quo modo fecisti Coelum Terram Scripsit hoc Moses scripsit abiit transivit hinc ad te neque enim nunc ante me est Nam si esset tenerem eum rogarem eum per te obsecrarem ut mihi ista panderet praeberem aures corporis mei sonis erumpentibus ex ore ejus At si Hebraea voce loqueretur frustra pulsaret sensum meum nec inde mentem meam quicquam tangeret Si autem Latinè scirem quid diceret sed unde scirem an verum diceret quod etsi hoc scirem num ab illo scirem Intus utique mihi intus in domicilio cogitationis nec hebraea nec graeca nec latina nec barbara veritas sine oris linguae organis sine strepitu syllabarum diceret verum dicit at ego statim erectus confidenter illi homini tuo dicerem verum dicis Cum ergo illum interrogare non possim te quo plenus vera dixit Veritas te Deus meus rogo parce peccatis meis qui illi servo tuo dedisti haec dicere da mihi haec intelligere I would hear I would understand how thou madest the Heaven and the Earth Moses wrote this he wrote it and is gone hence to thee for he is not now before me for if he were I would hold him and ask him and beseech him for thy sake that he would open these things unto me and I would apply the ears of my body to the sounds breaking forth from his mouth But if he should use the Hebrew Language in vain should he affect my sense for he would not at all touch my mind if he should speak Latin I should know what he said but whence should I know that he spake the Truth and if I should know this also should I know it of him Within me in the habitation of my own thoughts Truth neither in Hebrew Greek Latin nor any barbarous Language without the Organs of mouth or tongue without the Noise of syllables would say he speaks the Truth and I being immediately assured or certain of it would say unto that servant of thine thou speakest Truth Whereas therefore I cannot ask him I ask thee O Truth with which he being filled spake the things that are true O my God I ask of thee pardon my sins and thou who gavest unto this thy servant to speak these things give unto me to understand them That which is most remarkable in these Words is that he plainly affirms that Faith would not ensue on the declaration of the Prophets themselves if they were present with us unless there be an internal Work of the Holy Spirit upon our minds to enable us and perswade them thereunto And indeed he seems to place all Assurance of the Truth of Divine Revelations in the inward Assurance which God gives us of them by his Spirit which we have before considered The second Arausican Council gives full Testimony unto the necessity of the internal Grace of the Spirit that we may believe Can. 7. Siquis Evangelicae proedicationi consentire posse confirmat absque Illuminatione Inspiratione Spiritus Sancti haeretico fallitur Spiritu To descend unto later times wherein these things have been much disputed yet the Truth hath beam'd such Light into the eyes of many as to enforce an Acknowledgment from them when they have examined themselves about it The Words of Baptista Mantuanus are remarkable de Patient lib. 3. cap. 2. Saepe mecum cogitavi unde tam suadibilis sit ipsa Scriptura unde tam potenter influat in animos auditorum unde tantum habeat Energiae ut non ad opinandum tantum sed ad solide credendum omnes inflectat Non est hoc imputandum rationum evidentiae quas non adducit non artis industriae aut verbis suavibus ad persuadendum accomodatis quibus non utitur sed vide an id in causa sit quod persuasi sumus eam a prima veritate fluxisse sed unde sumus ita persuasi nisi ab ipsa quasi ad ei credendum nos suiipsius contrahat authoritas Sed unde oro hanc authoritatem sibi vendicavit neque enim vidimus nos Deum concionantem scribentem docentem tamen ac si vidissemus credimus tenemus a Spiritu Sancto fluxisse quae legimus forsan fuerit haec ratio firmiter adhaerendi quod in ea veritas sit solidior quamvis non clarior habet enim omnis veritas vim inclinativam major majorem maxima maximam sed cur ergo non omnes credunt Evangelio Respond quod non omnes trahuntur a Deo Sed longa opus est disputatione firmiter sacris Scripturis ideo credimus quod divinam Inspirationem intus accipimus I have often thought with my self whence the Scripture it self is so perswasive from whence it doth so powerfully influence the minds of its hearers that it inclines or leads them not only to receive an Opinion but surely to believe This is not to be imputed to the Evidence of Reasons which it doth not produce nor unto the Industry of Art with words smooth and fit to perswade which it useth not see then if this be not the cause of it that we are perswaded that it comes from the first Truth or Verity But whence are we so perswaded but from it self alone as if its own Authority should effectually draw us to believe it But whence I pray hath it this Authority we saw not
God preaching writing or teaching of it but yet as if we had seen him we believe and firmly hold that the things which we read proceeded from the Holy Ghost It may be this is the Reason why we so firmly adhere unto it that truth is more solid in it though not more clear than in other writings for all Truth hath a perswasive power the greater Truth the greater power and that which is greatest the greatest Efficacy of all But why then do not all believe the Gospel Answ. Because all are not drawn of God But what need is there of any long disputation we therefore firmly believe the Scriptures because we have received a Divine Inspiration assuring of us And in what Sense this is allowed hath been declared in the preceding Discourse I shall close the whole with the Testimony of them by whom the Truth which we assert is most vehemently opposed when it riseth in opposition unto an especial interest of their own Two things there are which are principally excepted against in the Doctrine of Protestants concerning our belief of the Scripture The first is with respect unto the Holy Spirit as the efficient cause of Faith for whereas they teach that no man can believe the Scripture to be the Word of God in a due manner and according unto his duty without the real internal Aid and Operation of the Holy Ghost however it be proposed unto him and with what Arguments soever the Truth of its Divine Original be confirmed this is charged on them as an Error and a Crime And secondly whereas they also affirm that there is an inward Testimony or Witness of the Holy Spirit whereby he assures and confirms the minds of men in the Faith of the Scriptures with an Efficacy exceeding all the perswasive Evidence of outward Arguments and Motives this also by some they are traduced for And yet those of the Roman Church who are looked on as most averse from that Resolution of Faith which most Protestants acquiesce in do expresly maintain both these Assertions The Design of Stapleton de principiis Fidei controver 4. lib. 8. cap. 1. is to prove impossibile esse sine speciali gratia ac dono fidei divinitùs infuso actum verae fidei producere aut ex veri nominis fide credere Which he there proves with sundry Arguments namely that it is impossible to produce any act of Faith or to believe with Faith rightly so called without special Grace and the Divine Infusion of the Gift of Faith And Bellarmin speaks to the same purpose Argumenta quae articulos fidei nostrae credibiles faciunt non talia sunt ut fidem omnino indubitatam reddant nisi mens divinitùs adjuvetur De Grat. lib. Arbit lib. 6. cap. 3. The Arguments which render the Articles of our Faith credible are not such as produce an undoubted Faith unless the mind be divinely assisted Melchior Canus loc Theol. lib. 2. cap. 8. disputes expresly to this purpose Id statuendum est authoritatem humanam incitamenta omnia illa praedicta sive alia quaecunque adhibita ab eo qui proponit fidem non esse sufficientes causas ad credendum ut credere tenemur sed praeterea opus esse interiori causa efficiente id est Dei speciali auxilio moventis ad credendum This is firmly to be held that human Authority and all the Motives before mentioned nor any other which may be used by him who proposeth the Object of Faith to be believed are not sufficient causes of believing as we are obliged to believe but there is moreover necessary an internal efficient Cause moving us to believe which is the especial Help or Aid of God And a little after he speaks yet more plainly Externae igitur omnes humanae persuasiones non sunt satis ad credendum quantumcunque ab hominibus competenter ea quae sunt fidei proponantur sed necessaria est insuper causa interior hoc est divinum quoddam lumen incitans ad credendum oculi quidam interiores Dei beneficio ad videndum dati Wherefore all external human Perswasions or Arguments are not sufficient Causes of Faith however the things of Faith may be sufficiently proposed by Men there is moreover necessary an internal Cause that is a certain Divine Light inciting to believe or certain internal Eyes to see given us by the Grace of God Yea all other learned men of the same Profession do speak to the same purpose The other Assertion also they do no less comply withal Arcanum divini Spiritus Testimonium prorsus necessarium est ut quis Ecclesiae Testimonio ac Judicio circa Scripturarum approbationem credat saith Stapleton The secret Testimony of the Spirit is altogether necessary that a Man may believe the Testimony and Judgment of the Church about the Scriptures And the Words of Gregory de Valentia are remarkable Cum hactenus ejusmodi Argumenta pro authoritate Christianae Doctrinae fecerimus quae per seipsa satis prudentibus esse debeant ut animum inducant velle credere tamen nescio an non sit argumentum iis omnibus majus quod qui vere Christiani sunt ita se animo affectos esse quod ad fidem attinet sentiunt ut praecipue quidem propter nullum Argumentum quod vel hactenus fecimus vel ratione similiter excogitari possit sed propter aliud nescio quid quod alio quodam modo longe fortius quam ulla Argumenta persuadet at ad firmiter credendum se intelligant Tom. 3. in Thom. Disp. 7. Qu. 1. punc 4. §. 2. Let any man compare these Words with those of Calvin Institut lib. 1. cap. 7. sect 5. which as I remember I have cited before and he will know whence the sense of them was taken Whereas saith he we have hitherto pleaded Arguments for the Authority of Christian Doctrine which even by themselves ought to suffice prudent persons to induce their minds to belief yet I know not whether there be not an Argument greater than they all namely that those who are truly Christians do find or feel by experience their minds so affected in this matter of Faith that they are moved and obliged firmly to believe neither for any Argument that we have used nor for any of the like sort that can be found out by Reason but for somewhat else which perswades our minds in another manner and far more effectually than any Arguments whatever And to shew what he means by this internal Argument and Perswasion he affirms elsewhere that Deus ipse imprimis est qui Christianam Doctrinam atque adeo Scripturam sacram veram esse voce Revelationis suae interno quodam instinctu impulsu humanis mentibus contestatur It is God Himself who by the voice of his Revelation and by a certain internal Instinct and Impulse witnesseth unto the minds of Men the Truth of Christian Doctrine or of the Holy Scripture These few Testimonies have I produced amongst the many that might be urged to the same purpose not to confirm the Truth which we have pleaded for which stands on far surer foundations but only to obviate Prejudices in the minds of some who being not much conversant in things of this Nature are ready to charge what hath been delivered unto this purpose with Singularity FINIS De Naturae Theologiae lib. 3. ‖ De Naturae Theologiae lib. cap. * Vbi supra de Origine Progressu Idololatriae * Exercitat on the Epist. to the Heb. Exer. 1.