36 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VL, PART I.
pretended unto any other assurance of the things they professed, nor any other reason of their faith and obedience, but that the Scripture, wherein all these things are contained, was given immediately from God, or was his word ; and, therefore, they were always esteemed no less traitors to Christianity who gave up their Bibles to persecutors than those who denied Jesus Christ.
[3.] The manner wherein this testimony was given adds to the importance of it; for, — 1st. Many of them, especially in some seasons, gave it in, with sundry miraculous operations. This our apostle pleadeth as a corroboration of the witness given by the first preach- ers of the gospel unto the truths of it, Heb. ii. 4, as the same was done by all the apostles together, Acts v. 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 that the end of miracles is to be an immediate witness from heaven, or God's attestation to their persons and ministry by whom they were wrought. His presence with them and approbation of their doctrine were publicly 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 itself, 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 lieth 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 col- lateral security also.
2dly. Many of them confirmed their testimony with their suffer- ings, being not only witnesses but martyrs, in the peculiar church notion of that word, grounded on the Scripture, Acts xxii. 20 ; Rev. ii. 13, xvii. 6. 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 what- ever is evil, dreadful, or destructive to human nature, in all its tem-
CHAP. III.] EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 37
porary 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 " substance of things hoped for, and the evi- dence of things not seen," verse 1, — that is, such an assent 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 establish- ment therein, he produceth a long catalogue of those who did, suffered, and obtained great things thereby. That which he princi- pally insists upon is, the hardships, miseries, cruelties, tortures, and several sorts of deaths, which they underwent, especially from verse 33 to the end. These he calleth a "cloud of witnesses," wherewith "we are compassed about," chap. xii. 1, giving testimony unto what we do believe, that is, divine revelation, and in an especial manner to 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.
3dly. They gave not their testimony casually, or on some extra- ordinary occasion only, or by some one solemn act, or in some one certain ivay, as other testimonies are given, nor can be given other- wise; 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 be- liever continueth to do at this day. For a man, when he is occasion- ally called out, to give a verbal testimony unto the divine original of the Scripture, ordering in the meantime the whole course of his con- versation, his hopes, designs, aims, 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 con- sciences, living, doing, suffering, and dying in peace, assurance of