But yet we plead not for external immediate revelations, such as were granted unto the prophets, apostles, and other penmen of the Scripture. The revelation we intend differs from them both in its especial subject and formal reason or nature, — that is, in the whole kind; for, 1. The subject-matter of divine, prophetical revela- tion by a SeoTvsvGria, or " immediate divine inspiration," are things not made known before. Things they were " hid in God," or the counsels of his will, and " revealed unto the apostles and prophets by the Spirit," Eph. iii. 5, 9, 10. Whether they were doctrines or things, they were, at least as unto their present circumstances, made known from the counsels of God by their revelation. But the matter and subject of the revelation we treat of is nothing but what is already revealed. It is an internal revelation of that which is outward and antecedent unto it ; beyond the bounds thereof it is not to be ex- tended. And if any pretend unto immediate revelations of things not before revealed, we have no concernment in their pretences. 2. They differ likewise in their nature or kind : for immediate, divine, prophetical revelation, consisted in an immediate inspiration or affla- tus, or in visions and voices from heaven, with a power of the Holy Ghost transiently affecting their minds and guiding their tongues and hands to whom they were granted, whereby they received and represented divine impressions, as an instrument of music doth the skill of the hand whereby it is moved ; the nature of which revelation I have more fully discoursed elsewhere; — but this revelation of the
60 THE EEASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
Spirit consists in his effectual operation, freeing our minds from darkness, ignorance, and prejudice, enabling them to discern spiritual things in a due manner. And such a Spirit of revelation is neces- sary unto them who would believe aright the Scripture, or any thing else that is divine and supernatural contained therein. And if men who, through the power of temptations and prejudices, are in the dark, or at a loss as to the great and fundamental principle of all re- ligion,— namely, the divine original and authority of the Scripture, — will absolutely lean unto their own understandings, and have the whole difference determined by the natural powers and faculties of their own souls, without seeking after divine aid and assistance, or earnest prayer for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to open the eyes of their understandings, they must be content to abide in their uncertainties, or to come off from them without any advantage to their souls. Not that I would deny unto men, or take them off from, the use of their reason in this matter ; for what is their reason given unto them for, unless it be to use it in those things which are of the greatest importance unto them? only, I must crave leave to say that it is not sufficient of itself to enable us to the performance of this duty, without the immediate aid and assistance of the Holy Spirit of God.
If any one, upon these principles, shall now ask us ivherefore we believe the Scripture to be the word of God; we do not answer, " It is because the Holy Ghost hath enlightened our minds, wrought faith in us, and enabled us to believe it." Without this, we say, indeed, did not the Spirit of God so work in us and upon us, we neither should nor could believe with faith divine and supernatural. If God had not opened the heart of Lydia, she would not have attended unto the things preached by Paul, so as to have received them. And with- out it the light oftentimes shines in darkness, but the darkness com- prehends it not. But this neither is nor can be the formal object of our faith, or the reason why we believe the Scripture to be of God, or any thing else; neither do we nor can we rationally answer by it unto this question, why we do believe. This reason must be some- thing external and evidently proposed unto us; for whatever ability of spiritual assent there be in the understanding, which is thus wrought in it by the Holy Ghost, yet the understanding cannot as- sent unto any thing with any kind of assent, natural or supernatural, but what is outwardly proposed unto it as true, and that with suffi- cient evidence that it is so. That, therefore, which proposeth any thing unto us as true, with evidence of that truth, is the formal ob- ject of our faith, or the reason why we do believe, and what is so proposed must be evidenced to be true, or we cannot believe it ; and according to the nature of that evidence such is our faith, — human if
CHAP. IV.] MORAL CERTAINTY INSUFFICIENT. 61
that be human, and divine if that be so. Now, nothing of this is done by that saving light which is infused into our minds ; and it is, therefore, not the reason why we believe what we do so.
Whereas, therefore, some, who seem to conceive that the only general ground of believing the Scripture to be the word of God doth consist in rational arguments and motives of credibility, do grant that private persons may have their assurance hereof from the illumination of the Holy Ghost, though it be not pleadable to others, they grant what is not, that I know of, desired by any, and which in itself is not true; for this work consisting solely in enabling the mind unto that kind of assent which is faith divine and supernatural, on supposition of an external formal reason of it duly proposed, is not the reason why any do believe, nor the ground whereinto their faith is resolved.