"the God of truth." And under the New Teftament, the 3 It was before granted, that there is required as fubfervient unto believing, as a means of it, or the refolution of our faith into the authority of God in the Scriptures, thẻ ministerial propofal of the Scriptures and the truths con tained in them, with the command of God for obedience unto them, Rom. xvi. 25, 26. This miniftry of the thurch, either extraordinary or ordinary, God hath ap. pointed unto this end, and ordinarily it is indifpenfible thereunto, Rom. x. 14, 15. "How fhall they believe in 1 "him of whom they have not heard? and how fhall they "hear without a preacher, and how fhall they preach un«lefs they are fent?" 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 cafes outward providences may fupply the room of this ministerial propofal; for it is all one as unto our duty by what means the Scripture is brought unto us. But upon a fuppofition of this minifterial propofal of the word, which ordinarily includes the whole duty of the church in its teftimony and declar tion of the truth, I defire to know whether thofe unto whom it is propofed, are obliged, without further external evidence, to receive it as the word of God, to reft their faith in it, and fubmit their confciences unto it? The rule feems plain, that they are obliged fo to do, Mark xvi. 16. We may confider this under the diftinct ways of its propofal extraordinary, and ordinary. Upon the preaching of any of the prophets by immediate infpiration of the Holy Ghoft, or on their declaration of any new revelation they had from God, by preaching or writing, fuppofe Ifaiah or Jeremiah, I defire to know whether or no all perfons were bound to receive their doctrine as from God, to believe and fubmit unto the authority of God in the revelation made by him, without any external motives or arguments, or the teftimony or authority of the church witneffing thereunto? If they were not, then were they all excufed as guiltlefs, who refused to believe the meffage they declared in the name of God, and in defpifing the warnings and inftructions which they gave them. For external motives they ufed not, and the prefent church mostly condemned them and their minstry; as is plain, and the cafe of Jeremiah. Now it is impious to imagine that thofe to whom they fpake in the name of God were not obliged to believe them, and it tends to the over throw of all religion. If we fhail fay that they were o bliged to believe them, and that under the penalty of divine displeasure, and fo to receive the revelation made by them, or their declaration of it, as the word of God; then it must contain in it the formal reason of believing, or the full and entire cause. Reason and' ground why they ought to believe with faith divine and supernatural. Or let another ground of faith in this case be affigned. Suppose the propofal be made in the ordinary miniftry of the church. Hereby the Scripture is declared unto imen to be the word of God; they are acquainted with it, and what God requires of them therein, and they are charged in the name of God to receive and believe it. Doth any obligation unto believing hence arife? It may be fome will fay that immediately there is not; only they will grant that men are bound hereon to enquire into fuch reafons and motives, as are propofed unto them for its reception and admiffion. I fay, there is no doubt but that men are obliged to confider all things of that nature which are propofed unto them, and not to receive it with brutish implicit belief. For the receiving of it is to be an act of men's own minds or understandings, on the best grounds and evidences which the nature of the thing propofed is capable of. But fuppofing men to do their duty in their diligent enquiries into the whole matter, I defire to know, whether by the proposal mentioned there come upon men an obligation to believe? If there do not, then are all men perfectly innocent, who refufe to receive the gofpel in the preaching of it, as to any respect unto that preaching; which to fay, is to overthrow the whole difpenfation of the ministry. If they are obliged to believe upon the preaching of it, then hath the word in itself thofe evidences of its divine original and authority, which are a fufficient ground of faith, or reafon of believing; for what God requires us to believe upon, hath fo always. As the iffue of this whole difcourfe, it is affirmed, that our faith is built on and refolved into the Scripture itself, which carries with it its own evidence of being a divine re P velation. And therefore doth that faith ultimately reft in the truth and authority of God alone, and not in any human teftimony, fuch as is that of the church, nor in any rational arguments or motives that are abfolutely fallible CHAP. VI. The Nature of Divine Revelations. Their felf-evidencing power confidered: particularly that of the Scriptares af the Word of God. IT T may be faid that if the Scripture thus evidence itself to be the word of God, as the fun manifefteth itself by light, and fire by heat, or as the first principles of reason are evident in themselves without further proof or testimony; then every one, and all men, upon the propofal of the Scripture unto them, and its own bare affertion, that it is the word of God, would neceffarily on that evidence alone affent thereunto, and believe it so to be. But this is not fo, all experience lieth again it; nor is there any pleadable ground of reason that so it is, or that fo it ought to be. In anfwer unto this objection I fhall do thefe two things, 1. I fhall fhew what it is, what power, what faculty in the minds of men, whereunto this revelation is propofed, and whereby we affent unto the truth of it, wherein the mistakes whereon this objection proceedeth will be dif covered. 2. I shall mention fome of those things, whereby the Holy Ghoft teftifieth and giveth evidence unto the Scripture in and by itself, fo as that our faith may be immediately refolved into the veracity of God alone. 1. And in the first place we may confider, that there are three ways whereby we affent unto any thing that is proposed unto us as true, and receive it as fuch. 1. By inbred principles of natural light, and the first rational actings of our minds. This in reafon answers inftinct in irrational creatures. Hence God complains that his people did neglect and fin against their own natural light, and first dictates of reason, whereas brute creatures would not forfake the conduct of the inftinct of their natures, Ifa. i. 3. In general, the mind is neceffarily determined to an affent unto the proper objects of these prin ciples; it cannot do otherwife It cannot but affent unto the prime dictates of the light of nature, yea thofe dictates are nothing but its affent. Its first apprehenfion of the things which the light of nature embraceth, without either exprefs reafonings or further confideration, are this affent. Thus doth the mind embrace in itfe:f the general notions of moral good and evil, with the difference between them, however it practically complies not with what they guile unto; Jude ver. 10. And fo doth it affent unto many priaciples of reason, as that the whole is greater than the part, without admitting any debate about them. 2. By rational confiderations of things externally propofed unto us. Herein the mind exercifeth its difcurfive faculty, gathering one thing out of another, and concluding one thing from another. And hereon is it able to affent unto what is propofed unto it in various degrees of certainty, according unto the nature and degree of the evidence it proceeds upon. Hence it hath a certain knowledge of fome things, of others an opinion or perfuafion prevalent against the objections to the contrary, which it knows, and whofe force it underftands, which may be true or faife. 3. By faith. This refpects that power of our minds, whereby we are able to affent unto any thing as tru, which we have no firft principles concerning, no inbred notions of, nor can from more known principles make ur to ourfelves any certain rational conclufions concerning them. This is our affent upon teftimony, whereon we believe many things, which no fenfe, inbred principles nor reaLonings of our own, could either give us an acquaintance Ра |