As the issue of this whole discourse, it is affirmed that our faith is built on and resolved into the Scripture itself, which carries with it its own evidence of being a divine revelation ; and therefore doth that faith ultimately rest on the truth and authority of God alone,
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82 THE EEASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
and not on any human testimony, such as is that of the church, nor on any rational arguments or motives that are absolutely fallible.
CHAPTER VI.
The nature of divine revelations — Their self-evidencing power considered, particularly that of the Scriptures as the word of God.
It may be said that if the Scripture thus evidence itself to be the word of God, as the sun manifesteth itself by light and fire by heat, or as the first principles of reason are evident in themselves without farther proof or testimony, then every one, and all men, upon the proposal of the Scripture unto them, and its own bare assertion that it is the word of God, would necessarily, on that evidence alone, assent thereunto, and believe it so to be. But this is not so ; all experience lieth against it; nor is there any pleadable ground of reason that so it is, or that so it ought to be.
In answer unto this objection I shall do these two things: —
1. I shall show what it is, what power, what faculty in the minds of men, whereunto this revelation is proposed, and whereby we assent unto the truth of it; wherein the mistakes whereon this objection proceedeth will be discovered.
2. I shall mention some of those things whereby the Holy Ghost testifieth and giveth evidence unto the Scripture in and by itself, so as that our faith may be immediately resolved into the veracity of God alone.
1. And, in the first place, we may consider that there are three ways whereby we assent unto any thing that is proposed unto us as true, and receive it as such : —
(1.) By inbred principles of natural light, and the first rational actings of our minds. This in reason answers instinct in irrational creatures. Hence God complains that his people did neglect and sin against their own natural light and first dictates of reason, whereas brute creatures would not forsake the conduct of the instinct of their natures, Isa. i. 3. In general, the mind is necessarily determined to an assent unto the proper objects of these principles; it cannot do otherwise. It cannot but assent unto the prime dictates of the light of nature, yea, those dictates are nothing but its assent. Its first apprehension of the things which the light of nature embraceth, without either express reasonings or farther consideration, is this assent. Thus doth the mind embrace in itself the general notions of moral good and evil, with the difference between them, however it practically complies not with what they guide unto, Jude 10. And
CHAP. VI.] THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATIONS. 83
so doth it assent unto many principles of reason, as that the whole is greater than the part, without admitting any debate about them.
(2.) By rational consideration of things externally proposed unto us. Herein the mind exerciseth its discursive faculty, gathering one thing out of another, and concluding one thing from another; and hereon is it able to assent unto what is proposed unto it in various degrees of certainty, according unto the nature and degree of the evidence it proceeds upon. Hence it hath a certain knowledge of some things; of others, an opinion or persuasion prevalent against the objections to the contrary, which it knows, and whose force it understands, which may be true or false.
(p) By faith. This respects that power" of our minds whereby we are able to assent unto any thing as true which we have no first principles concerning, no inbred notions of, nor can from more known principles make unto ourselves any certain rational conclusions con- cerning them. This is our assent upon testimony, whereon we be- lieve many things which no sense, inbred principles, nor reasonings of our own, could either give us an acquaintance with or an assurance of. And this assent also hath not only various degrees, but is also of divers kinds, according as the testimony is which it ariseth from and resteth on; as being human if that be human, and divine if that be so also.
According to these distinct faculties and powers of our souls, God is pleased to reveal or make known himself, his mind or will, three ways unto us: for he hath implanted no power in our minds, but the principal use and exercise of it are to be with respect unto himself and our living unto him, which is the end of them all; and a ne- glect of the improvement of them unto this end is the highest aggra- vation of sin. It is an aggravation of sin when men use the crea- tures of God otherwise than he hath appointed, or in not using them to his glory, — when they take his corn, and wine, and oil, and spend them on their lusts, Hosea ii. 8. It is a higher aggravation, when men in sinning abuse and dishonour their own bodies; for these are the principal external workmanship of God, being made for eternity, and whose preservation unto his glory is committed unto us in an especial manner. This the apostle declareth to be the peculiar aggra- vation of the sin of fornication, and un cleanness of any kind, 1 Cor. vi. 18, 19. But the height of impiety consists in the abuse of the faculties and powers of the soul, wherewith we are endowed purposely and immediately for the glorifying of God. Hence proceed unbelief, profaneness, blasphemy, atheism, and the like pollutions of the spirit or mind. And these are sins of the highest provocation; for the powers and faculties of our minds being given us only to enable us