52 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
resolved into that which is of an inferior, and must betake itself on all occasions thereunto for relief and confirmation; for the faith whereby we believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God is on all oc- casions absolutely melted down into that whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the word of God.
But none of these things are my present especial design, and therefore I have insisted long enough upon them. I am not inquir- ing what grounds men may have to build an opinion or any kind of human persuasion upon that the Scriptures are the word of God, no, nor yet how we may prove or maintain them so to be unto gain- sayers ; but what is required hereunto that we may believe them to be so with faith divine and supernatural, and what is the work of the Spirit of God therein.
But it may be farther said, " That these external arguments and motives are not of themselves, and considered separately from the doctrine which they testify unto, the sole ground and reason of our believing; for if it were possible that a thousand arguments of a like cogency with them were offered to confirm any truth or doctrine, if it had not a divine worth and excellency in itself, they could give the mind no assurance of it. Wherefore it is the truth itself, or doc- trine contained in the Scripture, which they testify unto, that ani- mates them and gives them their efficacy ; for there is such a majesty, holiness, and excellency, in the doctrines of the gospel, and, moreover, such a suitableness in them unto unprejudiced reason, and such an answerableness unto all the rational desires and expectations of the soul, as evidence their procedure from the fountain of infinite wisdom and goodness. It cannot but be conceived impossible that such excellent, heavenly mysteries, of such use and benefit unto all mankind, should be the product of any created industry. Let but a man know himself, his state and condition, in any measure, with a desire of that blessedness which his nature is capable of, 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 autho- rity of God as will prevail with him to believe it to be a divine re- velation. And this persuasion 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 threatenings of it thereunto, there is no other faith required of us but what is suffi- cient to oblige us unto that obedience."
CHAP. IV.] MORAL CERTAINTY INSUFFICIENT. 53
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 ex- amined. And I say here, as on other occasions, that I should rejoice 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 doc- trine and the truth of the promises and threatenings 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 itself is also to be inquired after diligently.
This opinion, therefore, either supposeth what we shall immediately declare, — namely, the necessity of an internal, effectual work of the Holy Spirit, in the illumination of our minds, so enabling us to be- lieve with faith divine and supernatural, — or it doth not. If it do, it will be found, as I suppose, for the substance of it, to be coincident with what we shall afterward 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 distinguished 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 na- ture 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 farther contend about it, but only say that the authority of God, and so his veracity, do manifest them- selves primarily in the revelation itself, before they do so in the things revealed ; which is that we plead for.