Wherefore, that we may believe the Scriptures to be the word of God according to our duty, as God requireth it of us, in a useful, profitable, and saving manner, above and beyond that natural, human 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 avpo<sbi6vu<sa, " out of place/' and impertinent unto our present purpose ; for while we are inquiring on what grounds we believe the Scripture to be the word of God, we seem to flee 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
56 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
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 inquire 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 ourselves, and is not wrought in us by the Holy Ghost. The first of these hath been already disproved, and shall be farther evicted afterward, 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 acknowledge. And as to the second, what is so, it 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 m 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. " Exter- na omnes et humanse persuasiones non sunt satis ad credendum, quantumcunque ab hominibus competenter ea quse sunt fidei pro- ponantur. Sed necessaria est insuper causa interior, hoc est divinum quoddam lumen incitans ad credendum, et oculi quidam interni Dei beneficio ad videndum dati," saith Canus, Loc. Theol., lib. ii. cap. 8 ; nor is there any of the divines of that church which dissent herein. We do not, therefore, assert any such divine formal reason of be- lieving, as that the mind should not stand in need of supernatural assistance enabling it to assent thereunto ; nay, we affirm that with- out this there is in no man any true faith at all^et 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 light of the sun, nor any persuasive 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 con- tradiction, 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 accepted with God as such, is the work of the Spirit of God in us, or is bestowed on us by
CHAP. IV.] MORAL CERTAINTY INSUFFICIENT. 57
him, cannot be questioned by any who own the gospel. I have also proved it elsewhere so fully and largely 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.
2. The work of the Holy Ghost unto this purpose consists in the saving illumination of the mind ; and the effect of it is a super- natural light, whereby the mind is renewed: see Rom. xii. 2; Eph. i. 18, 19, hi. 16-19. It is called a "heart to understand, eyes to see, ears to hear," Deut. xxix. 4; the "opening of the eyes of our understanding," Eph. i. 18; the " giving of an understanding," 1 John v. 20. Hereby we are enabled to discern the evidences of the divine original and authority of the Scripture that are in itself, as well as assent unto the truth contained in it ; and without it we cannot do so, for " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," 1 Cor. ii. 14; and unto this end it is written in the prophets that " we shall be all taught of God," John vi. 45. That there is a divine and heavenly excel- lency in the Scripture cannot be denied by any who, on any grounds or motives whatever, do own its divine original : for all the works of God do set forth his praise, and it is impossible that any thing should proceed immediately from him but that there will be express cha- racters of divine excellencies upon it ; and as to the communication of these characters of himself, he hath " magnified his word above all his name." But these we cannot discern, be they in themselves never so illustrious, without the effectual communication of the light mentioned unto our minds, — that is, without divine, supernatural illumination.