38 THE REA.SON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
mind, and consolation thereon, than 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.
5. 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: — (1.) The persons by whom this doctrine was successfully carried on in the world; and, (2.) 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. (1.) 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 probability of success in such an undertaking. This the Jews marked in them with contempt, Acts iv. 13; and the Gentiles also generally despised them on the same account. As they afforded our apostle no better title than that of a "babbler," chap. xvii. 18, so for a long time they kept up the public vogue in the world, that Christianity was the religion of idiots and men illiterate. But God had another design in this order of things, which our apostle declares upon an admission of the inconsiderable meanness of them unto whom the dispensation of the gospel was com- mitted: 2 Cor. iv. 7, " We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us/' The rea- son why God would make use of such instruments only in so great a work was, that through their meanness his own glorious power might be more conspicuous. There is nothing more common among men, or more natural unto them, than to admire the excellencies of those of their own race and kind, and a willingness to have all evidences of a divine, supernatural power clouded and hidden from them. If, therefore, there had been such persons employed as instruments in this Avork, whose powers, abilities, qualifications, and endowments, might have been probably pretended as sufficient, and the immediate causes of such an effect, there would have been no observation of the divine power and glory of God. But he who is not able to discern them in the bringing about of so mighty a work by means so dis-
CHAP. III.] EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 39
proportionate thereunto, is under the power of the unrelievable pre- judices intimated by our apostle in this case, 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
(2.) The means which were to be used unto this end, — namely, the subduing of the world unto the faith and obedience of the gos- pel, so erecting the spiritual kingdom of Christ in the minds of men who before were under the power and dominion of his adversary, — must either he force and arms, or eloquence, in plausible, persuasive reasonings. And mighty works have been wrought by the one and the other of them. By the former have empires been set up and established in the world, and the superstition of Mohammed imposed on many nations. And the latter also hath had great effects on the minds of many. Wherefore, it might have been expected that those who had engaged themselves in so great a design and work as that mentioned should betake themselves unto the one or other of these means and ways; for the wit of man cannot contrive any way unto such an end but what may be reduced unto one of these two, seeing neither upon the principles of nature nor on the rules of human wis- dom or policy can any other be imagined. But even both these ways were abandoned by them, and they declared against the use of either of them : for as outward force, power, and authority, they had none, the use of all carnal weapons being utterly inconsistent with this work and design ; so the other way, of persuasive orations, of enticing words, of alluring arts and eloquence, with the like effects of human wisdom and skill, were all of them studiously declined by them in this work, as things extremely prejudicial to the success thereof, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. But this alone they betook themselves unto, — they went up and down, preaching to Jews and Gentiles "that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and rose again, according to the Scriptures/' chap. xv. 3, 4. And this they did by virtue of those spiritual gifts which were the hidden powers of the world to come, whose nature, virtue, and power, others were utterly unacquainted withal. This preaching of theirs, this preaching of the cross, both for the subject- matter and manner of it, without art, eloquence, or oratory, was looked on as a marvellous foolish thing, a sweaty kind of babbling, by all those who had got any reputation of learning or cunning amongst men. This our apostle at large discourseth, 1 Cor. i. 17-31. In this state of things, every thing was under as many improbabilities of success, unto all rational conjectures, as can be conceived. Be- sides, together with the doctrine of the gospel that they preached, which was new and uncouth unto the world, they taught observances of religious worship, in meetings, assemblies, or conventicles, to that end, which all the laws in the world did prohibit, Acts xvi. 21, xviii. 13. Hereupon, no sooner did the rulers and governors of the world begin to take notice of them and what they did, but they