01.01.0000. THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THE main scope of this work, being to offer some assistance towards the explaining and finding out the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures, it will be convenient, according to our promise in our specimen of this undertaking, to premise something touching the divine authority of -that blessed book. For though it be commonly owned by Christians to be the word of God, yet since on the one hand, there are, especially in this atheistical age, too many amongst us, whose love of sin, and resolutions to continue therein, tempt them to seek for shelter in bold contempt of, or subtle cavils against those heavenly oracles; and on the other hand, not a few poor souls are sometimes shaken with temptations, and know not how to discharge themselves from the ensnaring questions that they are often attacked with, touching the divine original and authority of those sacred records; not so much for want of assent thereunto, as of a right understanding or consideration of the grounds of that assent, and the true formal reason thereof; therefore that with a perfect security to our present and future welfare, we may rely on that book, as the infallible storehouse of heavenly verities, that great and only revelation, whereby God does inform, rule, and will judge the world; we shall set forth some considerations evincing this most important truth: but finding that divers able and worthy men have of late written most learnedly and excellently upon this subject, we shall upon that account be the more concise; and though we have said but little, yet we hope enough to satisfy any rational considering man, and confute the vain cavils of the adversary; for all along in this essay we strive to join perspicuity with brevity, and to speak so plainly and familiarly, that the weakest capacity may with ease gather it up; the neglect hereof having rendered the labours of some others On the same subject less serviceable to the vulgar unlearned reader. It being our great design to endeavour the help and establishment of the unskilful, and to assist weak. Christians; knowing, that if Satan can once bring them into a diffidence of the truth and authority of God’s Word, he at the same instant shakes the very foundation of all their hope and religion: "And if the foundation fail, what shall the righteous do?" Psalms 11:3. That the Scripture or book called the Bible, is of divine original, inspired by the Spirit of God, and therefore of infallible truth and authority, appears.
I. By the contents, or matters therein discovered and treated of, which are so trailscendently sublime and mysterious that they could never be the product of human invention, or discovery; and therefore though written by men, as instruments, must needs be revealed from above: for what human brain could ever have imagined a Trinity in the Deity, Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7; or such an existence of one simple essence as this book acquaints us withal? It describes the person of Christ, so plainly, fitly, and excellently, that if the mind of man consider it attentively, of necessity it must needs acknowledge, it doth far exceed the reach of a finite understanding. It discovers unto us the misery and corruption of man by nature, together with that general defect of the whole creation, which though some of the heathen had some glimpse of, yet could never find out the cause, nor how it came to pass; no finite intellect could ever have travelled into such heights and depths, touching the nature of God and his eternal counsels, that stupendous contrivement for the salvation of men, that the second Person should descend from, heaven, and assume human nature into a conjunction with the divine, take upon him in his own Person the sin of manland, and die for the world, thereby making a satisfaction proportionate to infinite a, justice, so that God may show the utmost act of mercy, in a conjunction with the highest exercise, of justice: nothing less than an infinite understanding could have found out expedients to reconcile those two infinite attributes, in his dealings with an apostate creature. It unfolds the covenant of grace, which God made after the fall, all which can he drawn from no other fountain but divine Revelation, 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 3:4-5. It contains the law of God, which is wise and just, the Gentiles themselves being judges, Daniel 4:5-7. In its precepts shines forth its divinity; 1. The surpassing excellency of the act, requiring that we should deny ourselves in all those things which the corrupt nature of man cleaveth to, and hateth to forego. 2. The wonderful equity that doth appear in every command. 3. The admirable strangeness of some acts, which a natural man would account foolishness, and yet prescribed as absolutely necessary, John 3:36; John 8:24 : shows its divine original. 4. The manner how obedience is required, viz., that it proceeds from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, Deuteronomy 6:5; 1 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 1:4-5. Take a view of the ten commandments, are they not plain, brief, perfect, just, extending to all, binding the conscience, and reaching to the very thoughts? And do not all these things commend unto us the justice, wisdom, holiness, omnipotence, omniscience, perfection, and absolute sovereignty of the Law-maker.
It is a book that comprehends an universal history of the world, past, present, and to come: its contents reach as far as the first foundations of the earth and heavens, give us an account of God’s Revelations to man ever since his first make, and the particulars of an intercourse between God and the world, for near upon two thousand and five hundred years, before they were any where extant upon record; what other book, since the world began, so much as pretended to do this? A book which as it was sixteen hundred years a writing, (for so long it was from the time of Moses, till John closed it with the Revelations;) so the matters it treats of, are of the most excellent nature and highest concernment. To give the world a satisfactory account not only of its original, but of its end too; to bring man acquainted with his true sovereign happiness, and a most wonderful and astonishing method of reconciliation with his Maker: its promises are everlasting glory, and never-fading crowns: its precepts perfect righteousness, Galatians 3:10, and altogether such as tend most to the honour of God, the happiness of a man’s self, and the quiet of the world: its threatenings are of miseries that are endless: its whole tendency is to a prospect beyond the grave: what heathen ever so much as dreamed of the resurrection? Who but the Lord could be author of such laws, that only can give eternal life, and inflict eternal death? These things can move the "conscience of none, but such who acknowledge the precepts thereof to be divine. In a word, its general subjects are mysteries nowhere else to be heard of, and without such a manifestation, inconceivable. Now considering the premises, what less than infinite wisdom, can be the supposed author of such a book?
II. By its antiquity. The Books of Moses, wherein in promises, prophecies, types, (and shadows, the sum and substance of all the rest of the Bible is comprised, were the I first writings in the world, next to those by the finger of God on Mount Sinai. This is fully proved by Justin Martyr, an ancient writer, that lived within one hundred and thirty years after Christ, in his Paraenetic to the Greeks; who comparing the times of all human writers, poets, philosophers, historians, and lawgivers, esteemed most ancient, demonstrates them all to be but punies to Moses. Eusebius also, who followed Justin Martyr at about two hundred years distance, in the second and third books of his evangelical preparation, prosecutes the same argument at large, and from abundance of testimonies and confessions, out of the best and most authentic Heathen authors themselves, undeniably evinces, that Moses was the most ancient of all the writers that were known or named amongst them. And Tertullian so confidently upbraids the Gentiles in this matter, that we think it not amiss to recite his words, in the 19th chapter of his apology. "Our religion," saith he, speaking to the Heathens, "far outdoes all that you can boast of in that kind: for the books of one of our prophets only, viz., Moses, wherein it seems God hath enclosed, as in a treasury, all the Christian religion preceding so many ages together, reach beyond the ancientest you have, even all your public monuments, the antiquity of your originals, the establishments of your estates, the foundations of your cities, all that are most advanced by you in all ages in history, and memory of times: the invention even of the characters, which are interpreters of sciences, and the guardians of all things excellent: I think I may say more, they are elder than your very gods, your temples, oracles, and sacrifices. Have you not heard mention made of that great prophet, Moses? He was cotemporary with Inachus, and preceded Danaus, (the ancientest of all that have a name in your histories,) 393 years": he lived some hundreds of years before the ruin of Troy. [And Homer, the eldest writer amongst the Grecians, lived, as Pliny saith, 250 years after the subversion of that city.] Every of the other prophets succeeded Moses, and yet the last of them was of the same age as your prime wise-men, law-givers, and historians were." So that it is a thing out of dispute, that for antiquity, neither the writings of Orpheus, or Homer, or Trismegistus, or Pythagoras, or Berosus, nor any other, can compare with the Pentateuch. These gray-hairs show them to be the offspring of the Ancient of days; for truth is always the first-born. And if we consider, how low, how mean, and imperfect all human inventions were in those times; and what foolish, irrational, and absurd conceptions, both the Egyptians and Grecians, nations most celebrated for wisdom, had of things divine, and the duty and happiness of man; we cannot but conclude, that so clear an account of the world’s beginning, depravation, destruction by the flood, and re-peopling; such a most excellent law and doctrine, in reference both to God and man, &c., could not be of human extract, but must needs be in truth, which it pretends itself to be, a divine revelation. Besides, who can believe the first religion should be the worst, or the most timely notions of God the falsest? Were this so, and the Bible not a divine book, but composed by impostors, then it follows, that the most primitive account we have of religion is counterfeit; that the devil set up his chapel, before God built his church; that in the earliest notices we have of God, of the world’s original, man’s fall, and the way of his recovery, the world is deceived and abused; and that God suffered the devil, in the first place, (and without any thing publicly extant from him, either before or since, to contradict it,) in his name, and under pretence of his authority, to delude and mislead mankind, with a false account of all those things which they are most concerned to know, and upon the right knowledge of which then* present and future happiness depends: all which, as it is unworthy of God, so it is no less repugnant to the dictates of reason. But on the contrary, it is most rational to believe, that God’s revelations were as early as man’s necessities; and that the Bible being the most ancient, as well as the wisest book in the world, is also the truest, and proceeded from the God of Truth.
III. This royal descent, or divinity of the Scriptures, further appears by that majesty and authoritativeness of the Spirit of God speaking in them, and that extraordinary and inimitable style wherein they are written. As it is said of our blessed Lord, Matthew 7:29, "That he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes:" so the Scriptures teach with an awful authority. The style of the sacred Scripture is singular, and has peculiar properties, not elsewhere to be found; its simplicity is joined with majesty, commanding the veneration of all serious men. Augustine says,
IV. That excellent spirit of holiness, which every where breathes in and from the Scriptures, is another fair lineament of the hand of God in the framing them. To this holiness they most powerfully persuade men, by express commands. "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy," Leviticus 11:44. "As he who hath called you is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation," 1 Peter 1:15. And by threatenings, "Without holiness no man shall see God," Hebrews 12:1; Hebrews 12:4. And by a multitude of examples of holy men, as Abraham, David, and all the prophets and apostles, and especially of that immaculate Lamb of God, the blessed JESUS. As on the other side, it sets before us the dreadful vengeance that attends all profaneness, unrighteousness, uncleanness, pride, and worldly lusts; requires not only an abstinence from the gross outward acts of sin, but searches the heart, and condemns the very thoughts and inclinations: "He that hateth his brother is a murderer." "He that lusteth after a woman, hath committed adultery." The doctrine taught everywhere in this book, is directly opposite to the whole corporation of debauched and wicked men; destructive to all impiety, and corrupt doctrines and practices whatsoever, and perfectly ruinous and destructive to the interests of the devil in the world; a doctrine that has visibly the highest tendency to those two great ends of all religion, the honour of God, and man’s present and future happiness. What pitiful, crooked, and imperfect lines have the wisest and best of mere men, as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Tully, Seneca, Plutarch, or any others, drawn in their fairest documents, both moral and divine, compared with this complete and transcendent rule of holy living! What undefiled religion, what pure and spiritual worship is here! How suitable to the holy nature of God! What superlative piety and virtue, without any spot of vice! What punctual and perpetual truth and honesty is here required! yet without the least taint of base means, or unworthy sordid ends! No vain-glory! no esteem of men! no corrupt advantages! But on the contrary, what charity is here required! What repeated commands not to offend weak ones! What mutual forgiveness! What provocations to love! With what patience and meekness, justice and modesty, are we taught to behave ourselves! In a word, it is such a doctrine as makes a man perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work; which brings men to the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying. Now must not such pure streams needs flow from the Fountain of all perfection? Does such a serious and effectual advancement of holiness in the world, look like an intrigue of polluted man, or any unclean spirit? How can we better judge of a law, that declares it proceeds from God, and is of divine obligation, than by its nature, tendency, and influence on human life? Whether it be suitable to those pretensions, and such an adorable and unspotted original? And when we find so holy and excellent a design, as appears throughout this whole book, for the honour of God, and completing the happiness of men, by methods so agreeable, and yet above the reach of human invention; what can we judge, unless we will be obstinately perverse, but that such a book’s testimony of itself is true, and that it is indeed of God, and not of men?
V. The sweet and admirable agreement, consent, dependence, and harmony, that we find ha all and every part of Scripture, though there are so many books thereof, written by so many different persons, of various conditions, many ages removed, in several places, and in different languages, yet all agreeing with each other, and every part with the whole, which could not be foreseen or contrived by any human wisdom or cunning, in the writing of any one part; for all the histories, prophecies, promises, types, and doctrines, in an orderly connection, tend to promote the same thing; and every age proves a fresh interpreter, and reveals to us more and more of this admirable concord, which could not be the effect of human artifice, nor of any other cause, but an infinite comprehension and foresight, and that the several writers of this book were in all times guided in what they wrote by the supreme wisdom of that one God, who is always constant to himself, "And the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."
VI. This further appears from the credit and sincerity of those that were the penmen. If the Scriptures were not what they pretend to be, viz., the Word of God, and dictated! to the writers thereof by his Holy Spirit, it would be the greatest affront to the Divine Majesty, and the grossest cheat towards mankind, that ever was put upon the world. But * if we consider the penmen thereof, we shall find them all of undoubted credit, generally esteemed holy and good men in the ages they lived in, so no way to be suspected of imposture. Some of them were kings, and of the deepest learning, not likely to be guilty of such a mean-spirited baseness, as lying and forgery. Many of the prophets, and most of the apostles were men illiterate, of parts and education so mean, that of themselves they seem no way capable to write so profoundly, or lay so deep a contrivance for deluding the world. And as it is incredible, that so many men, of such distant times, qualities, and abilities, should all agree in the same imposture, and so harmonize in promoting it; so neither could any interest or ambition prompt them thereunto; for as the main tendency of this book is, to mortify men’s ambitions and lusts; so most of them exposed themselves, by publishing these writings, to great hazards and persecutions. Nor have several of them been shy to record the great failings and imperfections of themselves, or their brethren. Thus Moses, Exodus 3:1-22, and Exodus 4:1-31, relates his own infidelity, and averseness to submit to the extraordinary call of God. In another place, Numbers 11:21, he records the shame of his distrustfulness, or at least the carnality of his conceit or apprehension of the power of God. Again, Numbers 20:12, he inserts God’s heavy sentence, and the ground hereof, against him. The same Moses did not set up any of his own posterity to succeed him in the guidance of Israel, but left Joshua to succeed him, &c., and placed the kingly superiority over that people in another tribe from his own, viz., the tribe of Judah. Indeed, throughout the whole book there is a visible antipathy to all self-seeking flattery or compliance: God alone is exalted, and all men’s persons, actions, and reputations are laid in the dust, in respect of his honour, and the truths therein delivered. Besides, these very writers appear themselves to be under a subjection to the doctrine they taught, and no way masters of it, as their own. All which plainly shows, that they were inspired from above, and wrote not their own words, or for their own honour, but as inspired, and for the honour of God.
VII. Another demonstration or proof, that the Scriptures are from God, is the exact and punctual fulfilling of the prophecies therein contained. To foretell events, is the prerogative of God, Isaiah 41:22. "Let them bring forth, (saith God, the Lord expostulating with his people about the vanity of idols) and show us, what shall happen, show us the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are god’s."Now the body of the scriptures is enlivened with the Spirit of prophecy, almost, throughout. That of Jacob, recorded by Moses, Genesis 49:10, "That the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and to him shall the gathering of the people be;" was not completely fulfilled till well near two thousand years after, though made good during a great part of that time, viz., from the entrance of the tribe of Judah upon the government, in king David, until the going of it out again in the person of Hircanus, whom Herod slew, as Josephus testifies. But when the time appointed was expired, the prophecy itself was completely fulfilled: for when Herod, a stranger, and of another nation, had cut off the house and line of Judah from the government of Jewry, then and at that time Shiloh, the long expected Messiah, our Lord Christ, punctually came into the world; for that by Shiloh is meant the Messiah, the Jewish Rabbis do not deny. Now at the time of Jacob’s uttering these words, there was little probability, that any of his posterity should have a sceptre, or any kingly power, being poor, few, and in a strange land; or, if they should thrive so as to become a kingdom, or nation, why should Judah have the government, seeing there were three elder brothers, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi? Nor was there likelihood of this prophecy’s being accomplished, when Moses set it down in writing; for then he himself, who was of the tribe of Levi, was in the actual possession of the government, and put into it by God himself, who appointed for his successor, Joshua, not of the tribe of Judah, but of Ephraim. Whence we have a notable evidence of the truth and sincerity of this prediction; for had not Jacob really uttered it, we cannot imagine Moses would have put such a prophecy in writing, to the disparagement of his own tribe. How accurately are the four great monarchies of the world described by Daniel? Daniel 7:3, so lively, as if he had lived under them, and had that experience of them all respectively, which the world hath since had of them. How wonderful is that prophecy of Isaiah, at the end of his 44th, (Isaiah 44:1-28) and the beginning of the 45th chapter (Isaiah 45:1-25), touching Cyrus, delivered at least an hundred years, some say, two hundred, before he was born, wherein yet he is not only expressly named, "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed Cyrus;"but it is foretold, he should conquer Babylon, and rebuild the temple of Jerusalem: which came to pass accordingly. Nor can this prophecy be suspected of forgery, or to be suppositions in any kind, since it was pronounced openly, as other prophecies were, in the hearing of all the people, and so divulged into many hands, before the captivity, and then also carried into Babylon, where no doubt it was pursued by many, long before the accomplishment of it. And that there was such a man as Cyrus many years afterwards, that so conquered Babylon, and restored the Jews from their captivity, and furthered the building of the temple, all heathen authors, that write of those] times, do affirm. And indeed one great inducement of his kindness to the Jews, was, because he understood how his successes had been thus prophesied of, so long before, by one of that nation. So that it appears the said prophecy was then publicly known, and its truth and authenticity no way doubted of. How manifestly are the many prophecies of the Old Testament, concerning our Saviour, fulfilled. And how dreadfully his prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, was made good about forty years after his crucifixion, we find in the history of Josephus, exactly corresponding to what is foretold in Matthew 24:1-51. And how many other prophecies of the New Testament, and especially of the Revelations, do we daily find verified in and by the apostasy, and wicked usurpations of the church of Rome. Since therefore to foretell so plainly, particulars and events so remote, and depending on the mere motions and acts of the wills of particular persons, yet unborn, is an evident mark of omnisciency; we cannot but conclude that the Scriptures, which are filled with so many evident and certain predictions, must certainly proceed from the finger of God.
VIII. Those writings, and that doctrine, which were confirmed by many and real miracles, must needs be of God: but the books and doctrines of canonical Scriptures were so confirmed. Many and great wonders, such as Satan himself cannot imitate, such as exceed the power of any, yea, of all the creatures in the world; such as the most malicious enemies could not deny to be divine, hath the Lord openly wrought by the hands of Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, for the confirmation of this truth, Numbers 11:9; Exodus 19:16; 1 Kings 17:24; Mark 16:20; Acts 5:12. These miracles are recorded and attested by persons of unquestionable credit, that were eye and ear witnesses. The things done, as raising the dead to life, curing the blind, &c., were matters of fact, easy to be discerned. They were not done once or twice, but very often; not in the night, or in a corner, but in the open light, in the midst of the people, in the presence of great multitudes, who were generally enemies to those that wrought these miracles: so that if the relations of them were false, they would presently have disproved them; or if there had been any deceit, they would soon have detected it.
"When God puts forth his miracle-working power, in the confirmation of any word or doctrine, he avows it to be of and from himself, to be absolutely and infallibly true; setting the fullest and openest seal unto it, which men, who cannot discern his essence or being, are capable of receiving or discerning. And therefore when any doctrine, which in itself is such as becometh the holiness and righteousness of God, is confirmed by the emanation of his divine power in working of miracles, there can no greater assurance, even by God himself, be given to confirm the truth of it.
"And as we have the testimony of the evangelists, to confirm the many miracles that Jesus did: we also plead the notoriety of those miracles wrought by him, and the traditions delivering them down to us: they were openly wrought, and were all or most of them performed before the eyes of multitudes, who envied, hated, and persecuted him, and that in the most knowing days of the world, when reason and learning had improved the light of the minds of men to the utmost of their capacity; in and upon multitudes for sundry years together, being all of them, sifted by his adversaries, to try if they could discover anything of deceit in them."
Besides, the very enemies have not had the impudence to deny such notorious matters of fact, as our Saviour’s miracles; only they ascribe them to other causes.
IX. To these astonishing miracles we may fitly add, the preservation of these holy /writings for so many ages, being itself little less than miraculous, and such as is a great argument, that they belong to God, as the Author and Parent of them: it being reasonable to derive that from God, as a book of his own dictates, about which he has exercised a peculiar care. Were not the Bible what it pretends to be, there had been nothing more suitable to the nature of God, and more becoming divine Providence, than long since to have blotted it out of the world: for why should He suffer a book to continue from the beginning of times, falsely pretending his name and authority? How do learned men accuse time of injuries, for swallowing up the works of many excellent authors; and bewail the loss of divers of Livy’s decades, and other choice books, which are now no where to be found! Nay, though the Romans were so careful for the preservation of the books of the Sybils, that they locked them up in places of greatest safety, and appointed special officers to look after them; yet many ages since they are gone and perished, and only some few fragments do now remain. Whereas, on the contrary, the Bible, notwithstanding part of it was the first book in the world, (as we proved in the second argument) and though the craft of Satan, and the rage. of mankind, have from time to time combined utterly to suppress it; yet it has borne up its head, and remains not only extant, but whole and entire, without the least mutilation or corruption. Antiochus Ephiphanes, when he set up the abomination of desolation in the Jewish temple, in the days of Maccabees, with utmost diligence made search after their law, and wheresoever he found it, immediately burnt or destroyed it, and threatened death, with exquisite tortures, to any that should conceal or retain it. In like manner, since Christ, the tyrant Dioclesian, about the year 300, with a full purpose to root out Christianity for ever out of the world, publishes an edict, that the Scriptures should everywhere be burnt and destroyed; and whosoever should presume to keep them, should be most severely tormented: yet God permitted them not to quench the light of these divine laws. But the Old Testament, above two hundred years before the incarnation of Christ, was translated into Greek, the most flourishing and spreading language at that time in the world: and about thirty years before Christ, it was paraphrased into (Jhaldee; and at this day, both Old and New Testaments are extant, not only in their original languages, but in most other tongues and languages that are spoken upon the face of the earth, which no other book can pretend to. So that all endeavours that have from the very first been bent against it, have been vanquished; and remarkable judgments and vengeance showed on all such as have been the most violent oppressors of it. And further, whereas even those to whom it was outwardly committed, as the Jews first, and the antiChristian church of apostatized Rome afterwards, not only fell into opinions and practices absolutely inconsistent with it, but also built all their present and future interests on those opinions and practices; yet none of them could ever obliterate one line in it, not even of those places which make most against their obstinate errors and defections: but for their own plea, they both are forced to pretend additional traditions, for the Mishna, Talmud, and Cubala of the Jews, and the oral traditions of the Papists, all proceed from one and the same ground, viz., a -wicked pretence, that the Scriptures, though divine truths, and the Word of God, yet do not contain all God’s will; but that there are these other unwritten verities handed down, one says from Moses, and the other says from St. Peter, &c., by word of mouth.
Since therefore the Bihle has thus wonderfully surmounted all difficulties and oppositions, for so many generations, and in so many dangers, and against so many endeavours to root it out of the world, we may, (according to that maxim in philosophy, Eadem est causa procreans et conservans; the procreating and conserving cause of things, is one and the same) conclude, that the same God is the Author of it, who hath thus by his special providence preserved it, and faithfully promised, and cannot lie, that heaven and earth shall pass away, hut one iota or tittle of his word shall not pass away.
X. The Scriptures did not only survive, but have triumphed over, all the oppositions of the devil and the world. That success wherewith the Gospel was attended even in its infancy, the mighty and marvellous prevailings of it wherever it came, notwithstanding the; many and great disadvantages it was to encounter, are a strong and irresistible argument that it was from heaven. That a doctrine directly opposite to the whole corrupt interest of human nature, and to the wisdom and will of man, 1 Corinthians 1:21; Romans 8:7, carried on and published by but a few, and those, to outward appearance, weak, ignorant, and simple persons, illiterate fishermen, tent-makers, &c., without any force of arms, or temporal support, but on the contrary against both wind and tide, the cruelties of raging powers, and affronts of vaunting wisdom; a doctrine against which the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, perfectly concurred, those hating it as a stumbling block, and these counting it foolishness; that such an improbable and unpleasing, such a friendless, unwelcome, slighted, opposed doctrine, by such instruments, and under such circumstances, should make its way in the world, and subject so many nations to the obedience of the cross, and make those who today persecuted it, to-morrow ready to lay down their lives in defence and justification of it: evidently shows it to be owned by omnipotency, and not to be of human extract.
XI. But besides these outward and more visible trophies of the sacred Scriptures how marvellous is their empire, efficacy, and power within, upon the hearts and consciences of men! It is this that converts the soul, enlightens the eye, Psalms 19:7; discovers sin, Romans 7:7; convinces gainsayers, 2 Timothy 3:16; killeth and terrifieth, 2 Corinthians 3:6; rejoiceth the heart,. Psalms 19:8; Psalms 119:103; quickeneth, Psalms 119:50; comforteth, Romans 15:4; manifesteth the thoughts, overthrows false religions, casteth down strongholds, and subverts the whole kingdom of Satan, 2 Corinthians 10:4. What consolations at some times! What terrors at others, do proceed from the sacred book! How are the poor souls of men by it mightily refreshed! Their weak hearts wonderfully strengthened! Their dead spirits raised, and made to live again! Those that sat in darkness, and the shadow of death, are enlightened! Many that were in chains and fetters, of fears and terrors of soul, are delivered and set at liberty! Is it reasonable to conceive that a tree that bears such wonderful fruit, was planted by any other hand than that of God? Who can speak words that shall restrain and repel all powers of darkness, when falling in to make havoc and desolation in the souls of men? That shall be able to give laws to the terrors of death, nay, eternal death, when they have taken hold, of the consciences of sinners? Are not all these wonders performed by the holy Scriptures? And do they not often, on the other side, breathe thunder and lightnings? throw down the mighty from their seats, and destroy the thrones of the proud and confident? Do they not turn the security of many into trembling and horror, and make their consciences to burn as if the fire of hell had already taken hold of them? These things are evident from the experience of thousands that have felt and’undergone such powerful effects of the word: nay, I verily believe, there are few that have read the Scriptures with attention and seriousness, but can more or less witness the same: and whence should such mighty operations proceed, but because the Almighty Author has endued them with such virtue through the Spirit, whereby they become the power of God unto salvation.
XII. Add to all these arguments, the testimony of the Church, and her holy martyrs, who have sealed this truth with their blood. By the Church we do not mean the Pope, whom the Papists call the Church virtual, nor his cardinals, bishops, &c., met in general council, whom they call the Church representative: but the whole company of believers in all ages who have professed the true faith. The penman of the Scriptures, good, pious, honest, holy men, delivered it out as the Word of the Lord, and ever since there have been thousands, and hundreds of thousands, that have believed and testified the same down from age to age in a continual uninterrupted succession; the Church of the Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, Romans 8:3, professed the doctrine and received the books of the Old Testament, and testified of them that they were divine, and in great misery they have constantly confessed the same; when as by the only denying thereof, they might have been partakers both of liberty and rule. And remarkable it is, both, that notwithstanding the high priests and others of that nation persecuted the prophets while they lived, yet received their writings as prophetical and divine; as also, that since the spirit of blindness and obstinancy is come upon Israel, and notwithstanding their great hatred to the Christian religion, the holy Scripture of the Old Testament is kept pure and uncorrupt amongst them, even in those places which do evidently confirm the truth of the Christian religion, as Isaiah 53:3. And as for the Christian Church, it hath with great constancy and sweet consent, received and acknowledged the books of the Old and New Testament for the universal church, which from the beginning thereof until these times professed the Christian religion to be divine, did and doth also profess that these books are of God: and the several primitive churches which first received the books of the Old Testament, and the gospels, the epistles written from the Apostles to them, their pastors, or some they knew, did receive them as the oracles of God, and delivered them afterwards under the same title to their successors and other churches: and all the pastors and doctors, who being furnished with skill both in the languages and matters, have tried and searched into them, and all pious Christians, who by experience have felt their divine operation, on their own. souls, have asserted the same. So that whoever rejects the Bible, obliges himself to believe no other books in the world whatsoever; for since none of them have any such great and universal attestations, if he shall credit them, and not this, it will show apparent disingenuity and peevish obstinancy. And secondly, he that does credit the Author of this book, with the same credit wherewith he credits other authors, whom he supposes men of common honesty that would not knowingly write an untruth, cannot then refuse to receive this as a book divine and infallible, upon as good terms of credibility, as he believes any the best human author in its kind to be true; because they themselves tell us that it is so, (which were it otherwise, without most apparent falsehood they would not do;) they affirming that God himself inspired them to write it, and that it was no product of their own, but every part of it the genuine dictate of the Holy Ghost. And this argument is abundantly reinforced and strengthened from the consideration of that glorious company of martyrs, those innumerable multitudes, who in the flames and rage of persecution, have with the loss of their lives maintained the Scriptures to be the sacred "Word of God, and had the same in such veneration, that in the primitive ages the traditors, (deliverers up of their Bibles to the Heathen to be destroyed,) were always esteemed as bad as professed apostates. Since therefore they did so constantly, and with such hazards affirm this truth, what shadow of reason is there to suspect such a cloud of witnesses of folly, weakness, credulity, wickedness, or conspiracy among themselves, which such a diffused multitude was absolutely incapable of? Nor can we suppose that popular esteem on earth, and vain glory, could be the ground upon which they suffered, since they gave up their lives for a religion, which both utterly condemned such vanity, and was every where in the world at that time odious and detestable, and whose profession brought nothing but outward shame and contempt.
XIII. But the doctrines and matters of fact in the Scriptures, which if true, its divine original will be undeniable, and not only avouched by its own votaries, but many most considerable parts of it acknowledged by its enemies: as appears by this brief induction of particulars. The creation of the world is intimated by Ovid in his Metamorphosis, lib. 1. The extraordinary long lives of the patriarchs in the first ages of the Avorld, by Manetho the Egyptian, Berosus the Chaldean, and others; who add, that they were ordered to live so long that they might study sciences, and invent arts, especially that they might observe the celestial motions, and enrich the world with the knowledge of astronomy; wherein, say they, they would have done little good, if they had lived less than six hundred years, because the great year, as they call it, is so long in going about and coming to a period. The flood is mentioned by the same Berosus, whose words are recited by Josephus. lib. 1. antiq. cap. 4. Of Noah, under the notion of bifronted Janus, because he lived in both worlds, we read in Berosus and Herodotus: and of the ark sailing over America, and the letting forth of birds that found no dry ground, in Polyhistor, and others. Of the destruction of Sodom; or the asphaltic Lake, we have some account in Pliny, lib. 5. cap. 16, and Justin, lib. 36. That there was such a man as Moses, such a people as the Israelites; that this Moses was their Captain, and led them out of Egypt, wrote their story, and gave them laws, s testified by the most ancient records of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and Grecians. And Manetho speaks very particularly both of -their coming into Egypt, and departure thence. Of circumcision, Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, Siculus, and Tacitus, lib. 2. Of the coming of the Israelites into Canaan, Procopius, lib. 4. Of Solomon, we read in Dionysius Cassius; of the slaughter of Sennacherib, in Herodotus, lib. 2. The great Koman Historian Tacitus, in his annals, speaking of the Christians being persecuted by Nero, on pretence of burning of Kome, which he set on fire himself, says expressly,
XIV. He that disowns the Bible to be of divine authority, must either think there is some revelation from God to the world, how he will be worshipped, and how they ought to conduct themselves; or he thinks there is none: if he thinks there is none, he Slot only gives the lie to the Christian and Jewish, but generally to all religion, that has been, or is in the world: for they all have pretended, and do allege the same as their foundation. And besides, he must confess, that God, (who has made man the noblest of creatures, and lord of the whole world), has left him in a worse condition, in the present posture we find him, than the meanest creatures, to whom he has given sufficient means to attain the highest end of their beings: but that infinite wisdom should deal thus, is absurd and unreasonable to conceive. If he grant, there is any where a revelation from God to the world, let it be produced, and judge if it be any way able to vie with the Scriptures, for all those glorious characters and marks of divine authority, power, and excellency, which we have enumerated.
XV. If the Scriptures be neither the invention of devils nor men, then it can be jfrom none but God: but they are not from devils; for neither could they work miracles, nor deliver true prophecies to confirm them; nor would it consist with God’s sovereignty over them, or with his goodness, wisdom, or faithfulness of governing the world; nor would Satan speak so much for God, nor lay such a design for man’s salvation, and against his own kingdom, nor be so industrious to draw the world to unbelief of it. Nor were the Scriptures the invention of men; for they must be either good men, or bad men: good men they could not be; for nothing could be more opposite to goodness, nay, even common honesty, than to assume the name of God falsely, feign miracles, and cheat people with promises of another world. And then on the other side, it is as impossible ill men could be the devisers of so holy a book: for can any rational man think, that wicked deceivers would so highly advance the glory of God? would they so villify themselves, and brand and stigmatize their own practices? Could such an admirable undeniable spirit of holiness, righteousness, and self-denial, as runs through every vein of Scripture, proceed from the invention of the wicked? would they ever have extolled their enemies, the godly, and framed such perfect spiritual laws? or laid such a design against the flesh, and all their worldly happiness, as everywhere the scope of the Scripture doth carry on? If we cannot gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles, then may we be assured, that no ill men had an hand in writing and promoting this good and holy book.
XVI. The divine composition of this blessed book is not a little manifested by the continual rage of the devil against it, which appears not only in stirring up his instruments utterly to suppress it, (for what book in the world ever met with such opposition? as aforesaid), but also in those temptations with which he assaults the hearts of men, when they apply themselves to the serious study of it. We can read any other history, and readily entertain and credit it; but when we once come to the Bible, strange objections, doubts, and curiosities arise, and presently we are apt to question the truth and possibility of every passage: these are the suggestions of Satan, to render that holy book ineffectual to us, the scope and purport of which he knows tends directly to the overthrow of his kingdom of darkness.
Some of the most frequent objections against the Bible, are these that follow:
Objection 1. How men, in the respective ages wherein the several parts of the Bible were written, could know that they were written by an infallible Spirit; and so distinguish them from other writings?
Deuteronomy 19:20. Secondly, if the matter came not to pass, as we have it in the next verse save one; "when a prophet speaketh in the* name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously." And a final decision, what was to be received for the Old Testament, God was pleased to make, after the Bahylonish captivity, in the days of Ezra, and that famous synagogue, several of the last prophets heing personally present, where by a divine direction, all the parts of the Old Testament were collected, and a separation made, not only between the works of true prophets and false; and such writings as came by divine inspiration, from those that were of divine extraction; and such as were to be a perpetual rule to the Church, from such as relating only to particular cases, were not so. And in this settlement the Jewish Church did acquiesce, and from that time to this have had no further disputes, but received those very books, and none others, for those called Apocrypha, which the papists would obtrude upon us, were never received as canonical by the Jews. Then as for the books of the New Testament, they were all written either by apostles, or apostolical men, known by their being called to that office, and the gift of tongues, and power of working miracles, to be guided by the Holy Ghost. And as the writing of the Old Testament ended with the prophets, (for after Malachi, to the time of John the Baptist, which was near four hundred years, there arose not a prophet in Israel;) so the New Testament begins with the accomplishment of Malachi’s prophecy, by the birth of the said John, predicted under the type of Elias, and ends with the apostles, for John, who wrote the Revelation, outlived all the rest of the apostles, for he died not till the time of Trajan, in the ( J9th year of "our Lord, and almost thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and he closes the canon of the New Testament with a denunciation of a curse "to any that should add thereunto," Revelation 22:18.
Objection 2. But how are we sure that we have now at this day all the books that were anciently esteemed canonical? it seems not: for there is mention made of Solomon’s three thousand parables or proverbs, and songs an hundred and five, 1 Kings 4:32; of Nathan the prophet, and of Gad the seer, 2 Chronicles 29:29; the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the visions of Iddo the seer, 2 Chronicles 9:1-31. And in the New Testament, of the epistle to the Laodiceans, Colossians 4:16. Now where are any of these extant?
Answer: Those books mentioned in the Old Testament, were either books of a common nature, and not divinely inspired: or else they are yet extant under another name: for how do we know, but the books called Samuel might be written partly by himself, whilst he lived, and partly by Gad and Nathan, after his death? And for the other writings of Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo, they may very probably be the same that we call the books of the kings. And for that epistle to the Laodiceans the original is, ek Laodikeiav, [from] not [to] as some transactions would have it, Laodicea: and it is probable it was some letter written from the Laodiceans to Paul, wherein there, might be something that concerned the Colossians, and therefore the apostle advised them to read it. But the Papists say, that the very fountains, the Hebrew and Greek originals themselves, are corrupted, depraved, and troubled; and if so, how shall we be at any certainty?
Answer: It is true, they do say so, but most falsely and wickedly, only to the dishonour of the Word of God, to make way for their own traditions, and the authority of their church; though by this suggestion they blaspheme the providence of God, and also lay an insufferable scandal on the Church; for if the Scriptures were committed to her charge, and she hath suffered any part of them to be either lost or corrupted, has she not grossly abused her trust? But they are not able to give one instance where any such corruption has happened. As for the Old Testament, it is well enough known how strictly careful the Jews were, and are to this day, to preserve it, insomuch that they took an account how oft every letter in the alphabet was used in every book thereof. And Philo the Jew, an ancient, learned, and approved author of that nation, affirms, "That from the giving of the law to his time, which was above two thousand years, there was not so much as one word changed or varied; yea, that there was not any Jew, but would rather die a thousand times over, than suffer their law to be changed in the least."And Arius Montanus, a person extremely skilled in the Hebrew, in his preface to the interlineary Bible, assures us, that as in these Hebrew Bibles which are without vowels, we find a certain constant agreement of all the manuscripts and prints, and a like writing in each: so in all those too that have the points added, we have not observed the least variation or difference of pointing: nor is there any man can affirm, that he ever in any place saw different exemplars of the Hebrew text. And indeed had the Jews ever corrupted any part of it, no doubt they would have done it in those texts that plainly refer to our Saviour; and had any Christians done it, the Jews would soon have discovered the forgery. But neither of these things have happened, therefore to say the same is any way corrupted, is false. And for the New Testament, it is true, there have in ancient manuscripts some various readings been observed, but not such as to cause any dispute touching the sum or substance of the doctrine therein delivered, or considerably to alter the sense of the text.
Objection 4. But suppose the originals be pure, how shall the unlearned, who are the far greater part of mankind, be sure that the translations they have, and can only make use of, are well and honestly done, and do contain the word of God?
Answer: The Word of God is the doctrine and revelation of God’s will, the sense and meaning, not barely or strictly the words, letters, and syllables. This is contained exactly and most purely in the originals, and in all translations, so far as they agree therewith. Now though some translations may exceed others in propriety, and significant rendering, the originals; yet they generally, (even the most imperfect that we know of,) express and hold forth so much of the mind, will, and counsel of God, as is sufficient, by the blessing of God upon a conscientious reading thereof, to acquaint a man with the mysteries of salvation, to work in a true faith, and bring him to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world, and to salvation in the next. The translators generally, as they have been men of learning, so likewise have they been honest, and for the most part godly men. and therefore would not, for their own honour’s sake, and much more for conscience sake, abuse the world with any wilful false versions, to lead souls into error, in a matter of that importance: Or, if some should have been so wicked, others as learned, and of better principles, would soon have discovered the imposture. Now if we consider how many men of different persuasions, have translated the Bible, and harmoniously agree in all things of moment, is it possible to imagine they should all combine, so impertinently, as well as wickedly, to put a fallacy on mankind, which every one, that has but bestowed a very few years in the study of the languages, can presently detect?
Objection 5. How can we think the whole Bible to be of divine inspiration, when some parts of it contradict others? The divine Spirit cannot be contrary to itself; yet is there any thing more opposite than the two evangelists, in reckoning up our Saviour’s genealogy? Matthew 1:16, says, "Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary;" and Luke 3:23, says, "Joseph the son of Eli."
Answer: The seeming contradictions of Scripture, for they are really no more, are an argument, that in the writing of this book there was no corrupt design or confederacy to engage the opinions of men; and upon a due scrutiny, there will appear in them a deep and unthought-of concord, and an unanimous tendency towards the great end of the whole. It is our inadvertency, or shallow apprehension, makes us think the Scripture is at variance with itself. In the two texts cited, a natural father is one thing, a legal father another; for you must know, that Joseph and Mary were both of one house and family; he descended from David by Solomon, she by Nathan, but in the posterity of Zerobabel they were divided into two several families, whereof one was the royal race, and that lineage Joseph was of, which Matthew follows: the other family Luke follows, whereof Mary was, whom Joseph marries, and by that means is called the son of her father Eli. So that here is no contradiction, but on the contrary, an excellent discovery of our Saviour’s line drawn down on both sides, whereby it appears, that as he was Joseph’s reputed Son, so he had a title to be King of the Jews: and as he was born of Mary, so likewise on her side he descended from David, as was promised of the Messias. But for reconciling all such seeming contradictions, see Mr. S treat’s book, entitled, "The dividing of the hoof," a very useful piece, and worthy perusal.
I have but one argument more to add, from a very learned author, and then I shall close up all with the testimony of the reverend and learned Mr. John Calvin.
XVII. And now it may not be amiss to add one thing more, which I could not pass by, i.e. notwithstanding the great force and strength of external arguments and motives to evince the divine authority of the holy Scripture: yet it is absolutely necessary, to the stability and assurance of our faith, in order to eternal life, to have the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts, or the effectual operations thereof; for if he does no otherwise work in and upon our hearts, but by the common communication of spiritual light into our minds, enabling us to discern the evidences that are in the Scripture of its own divine original, we should be often shaken in our assent, and moved from our stability. Therefore considering the great darkness and blindness which remains upon the minds of men, all things believed having some sort of obscurity attending them, besides the manifold temptations of Satan, who strives to disturb our peace, and weaken our faith, and cause doubtings: happy are such who can experience the powerful establishment and assurance of the Holy Ghost, who gives them a spiritual sense of the power and reality of those things believed, whereby their faith is greatly confirmed. This is that which brings us unto the riches of the full assurance of understanding, Colossians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:5, and on the account of this spiritual experience is our perception of spiritual things, so often expressed by acts of sense, as tasting, seeing, feeling, &c., which are the greatest evidences of the property of things natural. It is the Holy Spirit that assists, helps, and relieves us against temptations that may arise in us, so that they shall not be prevalent. And indeed without this, our first prime assent unto the divine authority of the Scriptures will not secure us; but the influence and assistance of the Spirit in the midst of dangers, so strengthens the sincere Christian, that it makes him stand as firm as a rock, who has no skill to defend the truth by force of arguments, against those subtle and sophistical artificers, who on all occasions strive to insinuate objections against it, from its obscurity, imperfection, want of order, difficulties, and seeming contradictions contained therein, &c. Moreover, there are other special and gracious actings of the Holy Ghost on the minds of believers, which belong also to this internal testimony, whereby their faith is established, viz., his anointing and sealing of them, his witnessing with them, and his being an earnest in them. Wherefore although no internal work of the Spirit can be the formal reason of our faith, or that which it is resolved into; yet it is such, as without it we can never sincerely believe as we ought, nor be established in believing, against the temptation of. the devil, and objections of evil men.
"It hath been already declared, (saith Dr. Owen,) that it is the authority and veracity of God, revealing themselves in the Scripture, and by it, that is, the formal reason of our faith, or supernatural assent unto it, as it is the word of God.
"It remains only that we enquire, in the second place, into the way and means whereby they evidence themselves unto us, and the Scriptures thereby to be of God, so as that we may undoubtedly and infallibly believe them so to be. Now because faith, as we have showed, is an assent upon testimony; and consequently, divine faith is an assent upon divine testimony; there must be some testimony or witness in this case, whereon faith doth rest: and this, we say, is the testimony of the Holy Ghost, the Author of the Scriptures. And this work and testimony of the Spirit may be reduced into two heads, &c.
"The impressions or characters, which are subjectively left in the Scripture, and upon it, by the Holy Ghost its Author, of all the divine excellencies or properties of the divine nature, are the first means evidencing that testimony of the Spirit which our faith rests upon, or they give the first evidence of its divine original, whereon we do believe it. The way whereby we learn the eternal power and deity of God from the works of creation, is no otherwise, but by those marks, tokens, and impressions of his divine power, wisdom, and goodness that are upon them; for from the consideration of their subsistence, greatness, order, and use, reason doth necessarily conclude an infinite subsisting Being, of whose power and wisdom these things are the manifest effects: these are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made, so that we need no other arguments to prove that God made the world, but itself, &c., Psalms 104:1-35.
"Now there are greater and more evident impressions of divine excellencies left on the written word, from the infinite wisdom of the Author of it, than any that are communicated unto the works of God in the creation of the world. Hence David comparing the works and word of God, as to their instructive efficacy, doth prefer the word incomparably before them, Psalms 19:1; Psalms 19:10. And these do manifest the word to our faith to be his, more clearly than the other do the works to be his, to our reason, &c. God, as the immediate Author of the Scriptures 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, &c." This is that whereon we believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, with a faith k divine and supernatural. And this evidence is manifest unto the meanest and most unlearned, no less than unto the wisest philosophers; and the truth is, if rational arguments and external motives were the sole ground of receiving the Scripture to be the word God, it could not be but the learned men and philosophers would always have been the forwardest and most ready to admit it, and most firmly to adhere unto it; because such arguments do prevail on the minds of men, according as they are able aright to discern their force, and judge of them. But how apparent the contrary is, is evident; "You see your calling, brethren; not many wise men after the flesh," &c., 1 Corinthians 1:26.
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 Corinthians 14:24-25, "And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest," &c. It was not the force of external arguments, it was not the testimony of this or that Church, nor was it the use of miracles, that wrought upon them, 1 Corinthians 14:23-24. "Wherefore the only evidence whereon they received the Word, and acknowledged it to be of God, was that divine power and efficacy in themselves. "He is convinced of all, and thus the secrets of his heart are made manifest," &c. He cannot deny but there is a divine efficacy in it, or accompanying of it. And thus the woman of Samaria was convinced of the truth of Christ’s words, and believed in him, i.e., because "He told her all things that ever she did," John 4:29; 1 John 5:10. The Word of God is, as all sincere souls find, quick and powerful, &c., so that "He that believeth, hath the witness in himself," John 7:16-17. "Jesus answered them, and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
"In a word, let it be granted, that all who are really converted unto God, by the power of the "Word, have that infallible evidence and testimony of its divine original, authority, and power in their own souls and consciences, that they thereon believe it with faith divine and supernatural, in conjunction with the other evidences before mentioned, and largely demonstrated, as parts of the same divine testimony; and it is all I aim at herein." This testimony, though it is not common unto all, nor can it convince another, yet is it very forcible to those who experience the virtue and efficacy thereof, which we, having in another place more largely opened, we shall conclude this last argument, entreating all to labour after a taste of its divine, powerful, and soul-changing operations, and then they will need no further arguments to prove it is of God.
We shall therefore conclude this brief discourse on this subject, with those excellent words of a learned man upon the same occasion: "Let this remain and be received as an established truth, that those whom the Spirit hath inwardly taught, do solidly acquiesce in the Scripture; and that the same is (autopizon) self-credible, or for its own sake worthy of belief, and that it obtains that certainty which it justly deserves with us, by the testimony of the Spirit. For though its own majesty does of itself conciliate a reverence, yet then only does it seriously affect us, when by the Spirit it is sealed in and upon our hearts. With whose truth being enlightened, we no longer believe that the Scripture is from God by our own judgment, or that of other men, but most certainly above all human judgments, we are assured thereof no otherwise, than as if there we beheld the very voice of God by the ministry of men, flowing from the mouth of God to us. No longer do we then seek for arguments, and probable proofs, whereon our judgments may rely, but subject our judgment and understanding thereunto, as to a matter already out of all doubt or debate; yet not so, as wretched men are wont to addict their captive minds to superstitions, but because we find and feel the undoubted power of God there to breathe and flourish; to obey which, we are drawn and inflamed, knowingly and willingly, but more lively and efficaciously/than either human ivill or knowledge could affect us. It is therefore such a persuasion as does not require reasons, (and yet it does not want them neither) such a knowledge, to which the best reason appears and agrees, as being such as therein the mind can acquiesce more securely and constantly, than in any reasons. It is, in fine, such a sense, such a taste, as can proceed from nothing, but a revelation divine. Nor do I speak any thing but what every true believer can bear witness to from his own experience, save only that words are too short and unable to express a just explication of the thing." Calv. Instit. lib. 2.