84 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART L
to live unto God, the diverting of their principal exercise unto other ends is an act of enmity against him and affront unto him.
(1.) He makes himself known unto us by the innate principles of our nature, unto which he hath communicated, as a power of appre- hending, so an indelible sense of his being, his authority, and his will, so far as our natural dependence on him and moral subjection unto him do require: for whereas there are two things in this na- tural light and these first dictates of reason ; first, a power of con- ceiving, discerning, and assenting; and, secondly, & power of judging and determining upon the things so discerned and assented unto, — by the one God makes known his being and essential properties, and by the other his sovereign authority over all.
As to the first, the apostle affirms that rh yvojgrbv rou Qzov tpunpov hnv h avroTg, Rom. i. 19, — " that which may be known of God" (his essence, being, subsistence, his natural, necessary, essential properties) "is manifest in them;" that is, it hath a self-evidencing power, act- ing itself in the minds of all men endued with natural light and rea- son. And as unto his sovereign authority, he doth evidence it in and by the consciences of men; which are the judgment that they make, and cannot but make, of themselves and their actions, with respect unto the authority and judgment of God, Rom. ii. 14, 15. And thus the mind doth assent unto the principles of God's being and autho- rity, antecedently unto any actual exercise of the discursive faculty of reason, or other testimony whatever.
(6T) He doth it unto our reason in its exercise, by proposing such things unto its consideration as from whence it may and cannot but conclude in an assent unto the truth of what God intends to reveal unto us that way. This he doth by the works of creation and pro- vidence, which present themselves unavoidably unto reason in its exercise, to instruct us in the nature, being, and properties of God. Thus " the heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard," Ps. xix. 1-3. But yet they do not thus declare, evidence, and reveal the glory of God unto the first principles and notions of natural light without the actual exercise of reason. They only do so " when we consider his heavens, the work of his fingers, the moon and the stars, which he hath ordained," as the same psalmist speaks, Ps. viii. 3. A rational consideration of them, their greatness, order, beauty, and use, is required unto that testimony and evidence which God gives in them and by them unto himself, his glorious being and power. To this purpose the apostle discourseth at large concerning the works of creation, Rom. i. 20, 21, as also of those of providence, Acts xiv. 15-17, xvii. 24-28, and the
CHAP. VI.] THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATIONS. 85
rational use we are to make of them, verse 29. So God calls unto men for the exercise of their reason about these things, reproaching them with stupidity and brutishness where they are wanting therein, Isa. xlvi. 5-8, xliv. 18-20.
(8.) God reveals himself unto our faith, or that power of our souls whereby we are able to assent unto the truth of what is proposed unto us upon testimony. And this he doth by his word, or the Scriptures, proposed unto us in the manner and way before expressed.
He doth not reveal himself by his word unto the principles of natural light, nor unto reason in its exercise; but yet these prin- ciples, and reason itself, with all the faculties of our minds, are con- sequentially affected with that revelation, and are drawn forth into their proper exercise by it. But in the gospel the " righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith," Rom. i. 17, — not to natural light, sense, or reason, in the first place ; and it is faith that is " the evidence of things not seen," as revealed in the word, Heb. xi. 1. Unto this kind of revelation, " Thus saith the Lord " is the only ground and reason of our assent; and that assent is the assent of faith, because it is resolved into testimony alone.
And concerning these several ways of the communication or reve- lation of the knowledge of God, it must be always observed that there is a perfect consonancy in the things revealed by them all. If any thing pretends from the one what is absolutely contradictory unto the other, or our senses as the means of them, it is not to be received.
The foundation of the whole, as of all the actings of our souls, is in the inbred principles of natural light, or first necessary dictates of our intellectual, rational nature. This, so far as it extends, is a rule unto our apprehension in all that follows. Wherefore, if any pre- tend, in the exercise of reason, to conclude unto any thing concerning the nature, being, or will of God, that is directly contradictory unto those principles and dictates, it is no divine revelation unto our rea- son, but a paralogism from the defect of reason in its exercise. This is that which the apostle chargeth on and vehemently urgeth against the heathen philosophers. Inbred notions they had in themselves of the being and eternal power of God ; and these were so manifest in them thereby that they could not but own them. Hereon they set their rational, discursive faculty at work in the consideration of God and his being; but herein were they so vain and foolish as to draw conclusions directly contrary unto the first principles of natural light, and the unavoidable notions which they had of the eternal being of God, Rom. i. 21-25. And many, upon their pretended ra- tional consideration of the promiscuous event of things in the world, have foolishly concluded that all things had a fortuitous beginning,