CHAP. VI.] THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN THE COMPOSING OF SCRIPTURE. 195
depths of the mystery of the incarnation, and the like, — men do but " darken counsel by words without knowledge/' and talk of what they neither do nor can understand. But yet the wisdom of the Holy Spirit hath in these two ways provided that we shall not suffer from our own weakness: —
[1.] In that whatever is necessary for us to believe concerning these things is plainly and clearly revealed in the Scripture, and that revelation declared in such propositions and expressions as are obvious unto our understandings. And he who thinks we can believe nothing as unto its truth but what we can comprehend as unto its nature overthrows all faith and reason also; and propositions may be clear unto us in their sense, when their subject-matter is incompre- hensible. For instance, consider the incarnation of the Son of God, and the hypostatical union therein of the divine and human natures ; it is a thing above our reason and comprehension : but in the Scrip- ture it is plainly asserted and declared that "the Word, which was God, and was with God," was " made flesh;" that " God was manifest in the flesh;" that "the Son of God was made of a woman, made under the law;" that "he took on him the seed of Abraham;" that "he came of the Jews according to the flesh," and " is over all, God blessed for ever;" and that so "God redeemed his church with his own blood." Thus plainly and perspicuously is this great matter, 'as it is the object of our faith, as it is proposed unto us to be believed, de- clared and expressed unto us. If any one shall now say that he will not believe that to be the sense of these expressions which the words do plainly and undeniably manifest so to be, and are withal incapable of any other sense or construction, because he cannot understand or comprehend the thing itself which is signified thereby, it is plainly to say that he will believe nothing on the authority and veracity of God revealing it, but what he can comprehend by his own reason that he will believe; which is to overthrow all faith divine. The reason of our believing, if we believe at all, is God's revelation of the truth, and not our understanding of the nature of the things revealed. Thereinto is our faith resolved, when our reason reacheth not unto the nature and existence of the things themselves. -And the work of the Spirit it is to bring into captivity unto the obedience of the faith every thought that might arise from our ignorance, or the im- potency of our minds to comprehend the things to be believed. And that new religion of Socinianism, which pretends to reduce all to reason, is wholly built upon the most irrational principle that ever befell the minds of men. It is this alone : " What we cannot compre- hend in tilings divine and infinite, as unto their own nature, that we are not to believe in their revelation." On this ground alone do the men of that persuasion reject the doctrine of the Trinity, of the
196 CAUSES, WAYS, AND MEANS, ETC. [BOOK VI., PART II.
incarnation of the Son of God, of the resurrection of the dead, and the like mysteries of faith. Whatever testimony the Scripture gives unto them, because their reason cannot comprehend them, they pro- fess they will not believe them; — a principle wild and irrational, and which leads unto atheism, seeing the being of God itself is absolutely incomprehensible.
[2.] That degree of knowledge which we can attain in and about these things is every way sufficient with respect unto the end of the revelation itself. If they were so proposed unto us as that, if we could not fully comprehend them, we should have no benefit or ad- vantage by them, the revelation itself would be lost, and the end of God frustrated therein. But this could not become divine wisdom and goodness, to make such propositions unto us: for this defect ariseth not from any blamable depravation of our nature as corrupted, but from the very essence and being of it as created ; for being finite and limited, it cannot perfectly comprehend things infinite. But what- ever believers are able to attain unto, in that variety of the degrees of knowledge which in their several circumstances they do attain, is sufficient unto the end whereunto it is designed; that is, sufficient to ingenerate, cherish, increase, and preserve faith, and love, and reverence, with holy obedience, in them, in such a way and manner as will assuredly bring them unto the end of all supernatural revela- tion in the enjoyment of God.
(2.) There are in the Scripture nvdt, dutipfiyvsura, some things that are " hard to be interpreted;" not from the nature of the things revealed, but from the manner of their revelation. Such are many allegories, parables, mystical stories, allusions, unfulfilled 'prophe- cies and predictions, references unto the then present customs, persons, and places, computation of times, genealogies, the signifi- cation of some single words seldom or but once used in the Scripture, the names of divers birds and beasts unknown to us. Such things have a difficulty in them from the manner of their declaration; and it is hard to find out, and it may be in some instances impossible, unto any determinate certainty, the proper, genuine sense of them in the places where they occur. But herein also we have a relief pro- vided, in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in giving the whole Scrip- ture for our instruction, against any disadvantage unto our faith or obedience; for, —