80 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
And for the revelations which they superadded, they pleaded that they had them immediately from God "by Jesus Christ," Gal. i. 1. And this was accompanied with such an infallible assurance in them that received them as to be preferred above a supposition of the high- est miracle to confirm any thing to the contrary, chap. i. 8 ; for if an angel from heaven should have preached any other doctrine than what they revealed and proposed in the name and authority of God, they were to esteem him accursed. For this cause they still insisted on their apostolical authority and mission, which included infallible inspiration and direction, as the reason of the faith of them unto whom they preached and wrote. And as for those who were not them- selves divinely inspired, or wherein those that were so did not act by immediate inspiration, they proved the truth of what they delivered by its consonancy unto the Scriptures already written, referring the minds and consciences of men unto them for their ultimate satisfac- tion, Acts xviii. 28, xxviii. 23.
It was before granted that there is required, as subservient unto believing, as a means of it, or for the resolution of our faith into the authority of God in the Scriptures, the ministerial proposal of the Scriptures and the truths contained in them, with the command of God for obedience unto them, Rom. xvi. 25, 26. This ministry of the church, either extraordinary or ordinary, God hath appointed unto this end, and ordinarily it is indispensable thereunto: chap. x. 14, 15, " How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Without this ordinarily we cannot believe the Scripture to be the word of God, nor the things contained in it to be from him, though we do not believe either the one or the other for it. I do grant that in extraordinary cases outward provi- dences may supply the room of this ministerial proposal ; for it is all one, as unto our duty, by what means the Scripture is brought unto us. But upon a supposition of this ministerial proposal of the word, which ordinarily includes the whole duty of the church in its testi- mony and declaration of the truth, I desire to know whether those unto whom it is proposed are obliged, without farther external evi- dence, to receive it as the word of God, to rest their faith on it, and submit their consciences unto it? The rule seems plain, that they are obliged so to do, Mark xvi. 16. We may consider this under the distinct ways of its proposal, extraordinary and ordinary.
Upon the preaching of any of the prophets by immediate inspira- tion of the Holy Ghost, or on their declaration of any neiv revelation they had from God, by preaching or writing, suppose Isaiah or Jeremiah, I desire to know whether or no all persons were bound to receive their doctrine as from God, to believe and submit unto the
CHAP V.] THE ONLY FOUNDATION AND REASON OF FAITH. 81
authority of God in the revelation made by him, without any exter- nal motives or arguments, or the testimony or authority of the church witnessing thereunto? If they were not, then were they all excused as guiltless who refused to believe the message they declared in the name of God, and in despising the warnings and instrtictions which they gave them ; for external motives they used not, and the -present church mostly condemned them and their ministry, as is plain in the case of Jeremiah. Now, it is impious to imagine that those to whom they spake in the name of God were not obliged to believe them, and it tends to the overthrow of all religion. If we shall say that they were obliged to believe them, and that under the penalty of divine displeasure, and so to receive the revelation made by them, on their declaration of it, as the word of God, then it must contain in it the formal reason of believing, or the full and entire cause, reason, and ground why they ought to believe with faith divine and supernatural. Or let another ground of faith in this case be assigned.
Suppose the proposal be made in the ordinary ministry of the church. Hereby the Scripture is declared unto men to be the word of God; they are acquainted with it, and with what God requires of them therein ; and the}' are charged in the name of God to receive and believe it. Doth any obligation unto believing hence arise? It may be some will say that immediately there is not; only they will grant that men are bound hereon to inquire into such reasons and motives as are proposed unto them for its reception and admission. I say there is no doubt but that men are obliged to consider all things of that nature which are proposed unto them, and not to receive it with brutish, implicit belief; for the receiving of it is to be an act of men's own minds or understandings, on the best grounds and evi- dences which the nature of the thing proposed is capable of. But supposing men to do their duty in their diligent inquiries into the whole matter, I desire to know whether, by the proposal mentioned, there come upon men an obligation to believe? If there do not, then are all men perfectly innocent who refuse to receive the gospel in the preaching of it, as to any respect unto that preaching ; which to say is to overthrow the whole dispensation of the ministry. If they are obliged to believe upon the preaching of it, then hath the word in itself those evidences of its divine original and authority which are a sufficient ground of faith or reason of believing; for what God requires us to believe upon hath so always.