106 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
3. It will be objected, " That if this be so, then none can be obliged to receive the Scripture as the word of God who hath not faith, and none have faith but those in whom it is wrought by the Spirit of God, and thereinto all will be resolved at last."
Ans. 1. Indeed there is no room for this objection, for the whole work of the Spirit is pleaded only as he is the efficient cause of be- lieving, and not the objective, or reason why we do believe. But, —
2. We must not be ashamed to resolve all we do well spiritually, and in obedience to the command of God, into the efficacious opera- tion of the Holy Ghost in us, unless we intend to be ashamed. of the gospel. But this still makes his internal operation to be the effi- cient, and not his internal testimony to be the formal, reason of our faith.
3. It is another question, whether all obligation unto duty is and must be proportionate unto our own strength without divine assist- ance; which we deny, and affirm that we are obliged unto many things by virtue of God's command which we have no power io answer but by virtue of his grace.
4. Where the proposal of the Scripture is made in the way before described, those unto whom it is proposed are obliged to receive it as the word of God, upon the evidence which it gives of itself so to be; yea, every real, true, divine revelation made unto men, or every proposal of the Scripture by divine providence, hath that evidence of its being from God accompanying it as is sufficient to oblige them unto whom it was made to believe it, on pain of his displeasure. If this were otherwise, then either were God obliged to confirm every particular divine revelation with a miracle (which, as to its obligation unto believing, wants not its difficulty), which he did not, as in many of the prophets, nor doth at this day at the first proposal of the gos- pel to the heathen ; or else, when he requires faith and obedience in such ways as in his wisdom he judgeth meet, — that is, in the ordinary ministry of the word, — they are not obliged thereby, nor is it their sin to refuse a compliance with his will.
5. If this difficulty can be no otherwise avoided but by affirming that the faith which God requires of us with respect unto his word is nothing but a natural assent unto it upon rational arguments, and considerations, which we have an ability for, without any spiri- tual aid of the Holy Ghost, or respect unto his testimony, as before described, — which overthrows all faith, especially that which is divine, — I shall rather ten thousand times allow of all the just consequences that can follow on the supposition mentioned than admit of this re- lief. But of those consequences this is none, that any unto whom the Scripture is proposed are exempted from an obligation unto be- lieving.
CHAP. VII.] INFERENCES AND OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 107
In like manner, there is no difficulty in the usual objection which respects particular books of the Scripture, why we receive them as canonical and reject others; as, namely, the Booh of Proverbs, and not of Wisdom, of Ecclesiastes, and not Ecclesiasticus : for, —
1. As to the books of the Old Testament, we have the canon of them given us in the New, where it is affirmed that unto the church of the Jews were committed the oracles of God; which both con- firms all that we receive and excludes all that we exclude. And unto the New there are no pretenders, nor ever were, to the least exercise of the faith of any.
2. All books whatever that have either themselves pretended unto a divine original, or have been pleaded by others to be of that extract, have been, and may be from themselves, without farther help, evicted of falsehood in that pretence. They have all of them hitherto, in matter or manner, in plain confessions or other sufficient evidence, manifested themselves to be of a human original. And much danger is not to be feared from any that for the future shall be set forth with the same pretence.
3. We are not bound to refuse the ministry of the church, or the advantages of providence whereby the Scripture is brought unto us, with the testimonies which, either directly or collaterally, any one part of it gives unto another. Although the Scripture be to be believed for itself, yet it is not ordinarily to be believed by itself, without the help of other means.
4. On these suppositions I fear not to affirm that there are on every individual book of the Scripture, particularly those named, those divine characters and criteria which are sufficient to differ- ence them from all other writings whatever, and to testify their divine authority unto the minds and consciences of believers. I say of believers, for we inquire not on what ground unbelievers, or those who do not believe, do believe the word of God, nor yet directly on what outward motives such persons may be induced so to do ; but our sole inquiry at present is, what the faith of them who do believe is resolved into. It is not, therefore, said that when our Lord Jesus Christ (for we acknowledge that there is the same reason of the first giving out of divine revelations as is of the Scripture) came and preached unto the Jews, that these mere words, " I am the light of the world," or the like, had all this evidence in them or with them; for nothing he said of that kind may be separated from its circum- stances. But supposing the testimonies given in the Scripture before- hand to his person, work, time, and manner of coming, with the evidence of the presence of God with him in the declaration that he made of his doctrine and himself to be the Messiah, the Jews were bound to believe what he taught, and himself to be the Son of God.