92 THE KEASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PAET I.
contrary asserted, — namely, that God, as the immediate author of the Scripture, hath left in the very word itself evident tokens and impressions of his wisdom, prescience, omniscience, power, goodness, holiness, truth, and other divine, infinite excellencies, sufficiently evidenced unto the enlightened minds of believers. Some, I confess, speak suspiciously herein, but until they will directly deny it, I shall not need farther to confirm it than I have done long since in another treatise.1 And I leave it to be considered whether, morally speak- ing, it be possible that God should immediately by himself, from the eternal counsels of his will, reveal himself, his mind, the thoughts and purposes of his heart, which had been hidden in himself from eternity, on purpose that we should believe them and yield obe- dience unto him, according to the declaration of himself so made, and yet not give with it or leave upon it any rsx^piov, any " infal- lible token," evidencing him to be the author of that revelation. Men who are not ashamed of their Christianity will not be so to pro- fess and seal that profession with their blood, and to rest their eternal concernments on that security herein which they have attained, — namely, that there is that manifestation made of the glorious pro- perties of God in and by the Scripture, as it is a divine revelation, which incomparably excels in evidence all that their reason receives concerning his power from the works of creation.
This is that whereon we believe the Scripture to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, if we believe it so at all : There is in itself that evidence of its divine original, from the cha- racters of divine excellencies left upon it by its author, the Holy Ghost, as faith quietly rests in and is resolved into; and this evi- dence is manifest unto the meanest and most unlearned, no less than unto the wisest philosophers. And the truth is, if rational argu- ments and external motives were the sole ground of receiving the Scripture to be the word of God, it could not be but that learned men and philosophers would have always been the forwardest and most ready to admit it, and most firmly to adhere unto it and its profession; for whereas all such arguments do prevail on the minds of men according as they are able aright to discern their force and judge of them, learned philosophers would have had the advantage incom- parably above others. And so some have of late affirmed that it was the wise, rational, and learned men who at first most readily received the gospel ! — an assertion which nothing but gross ignorance of the Scripture itself, and of all the writings concerning the original of Christianity, whether of Christians or heathens, could give the least countenance unto. See 1 Cor. i. 23, 26. From hence is the Scripture so often compared unto light, called light, "a light shin- 1 In the " Divine Original of Sacred Scripture." — Ed.
CHAP. VI.] THE NATURE OF DIVINE REVELATIONS. 93
ing in a dark place," which will evidence itself nnto all who are not blind, nor do wilfully shut their eyes, nor have their "eyes blinded by the god of this world, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them ; " which consider- ation I have handled at large elsewhere.
(2.) The Spirit of God evidenceth the divine original and authority of the Scripture by the power and authority which he puts forth in it and by it over the minds and consciences of men, with its operation of divine effects thereon. This the apostle expressly affirms to be the reason and cause of faith, 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25, " If all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship) God, and report that God is in you of a truth/' The acknowledg- ment and confession of God to be in them, or among them, is a pro- fession of faith in the word administered by them. Such persons assent unto its divine authority, or believe it to be the word of God. And on what evidence or ground of credibility they did so is ex- pressly declared. It was not upon the force of any external argu- ments produced and pleaded unto that purpose; it was not upon the testimony of this or that or any church whatever; "nor was it upon a conviction of any miracles which they saw wrought in its confirmation; yea, the ground of the faith and confession declared is opposed unto the efficacy and use of the miraculous gifts of tongues, verses 23, 24. Wherefore, the only evidence whereon they received the word, and acknowledged it to be of God, was that divine power and efficacy whereof they found and felt the experience in them- selves: "He is convinced of all, judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest;" whereon he falls down before it with an acknowledgment of its divine authority, finding the word to come upon his conscience with an irresistible power of conviction and judgment thereon. " He is convinced of all, judged of all;" he can- not but grant that there is §z?6v n, " a divine efficacy" in it or ac- companying of it. Especially his mind is influenced by this, that the " secrets of his heart are made manifest" by it; for all men must acknowledge this to be an effect of divine power, seeing God alone is xapdioyvuxtrrig, he who searcheth, knoweth, and judgeth the heart. And if the woman of Samaria believed that Jesus was the Christ because he " told her all things that ever she did," John iv. 29, there is reason to believe that word to be from God which makes mani- fest even the secrets of our hearts. And although I do conceive that by " The word of God," Heb. iv. 12, the living and eternal Word is principally intended, yet the power and efficacy there ascribed to him is that which he puts forth by the word of the gospel. And so that