What it is infallibly to believe the Scripture to be the word of God, affirmed.
My design requires that I should confine my discourse unto as narrow bounds as possible, and I shall so do, showing, —
I. What it is in general infallibly to believe the Scripture to be the word of God, and what is the ground and reason of our so doing; or, what it is to believe the Scripture to be the word of God, as we are required to believe it so to be in a way of duty:
II. That there are external arguments of the divine original of the Scripture, which are effectual motives to persuade us to give an unfeigned assent thereunto:
III. That yet, moreover, God requires of us that we believe them to be his word with faith divine, supernatural, and infallible:
IV. Evidence the grounds and reasons whereon we do so believe, and ought so to do.
Unto these heads most of what ensues in the first part of this discourse may be reduced.
It is meet that we should clear the foundation whereon we build, and the principles whereon we do proceed, that what we design to prove may be the better understood by all sorts of persons, whose edification we intend; for these things are the equal concernment of the learned and unlearned. Wherefore, some things must be insisted on which are generally known and granted; and our first inquiry is, What it is to believe the Scripture to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, according as it is our duty so to do.
1. And in our believing, or our faith, two things are to be considered:— (1.) What it is that we do believe; and, (2.) Wherefore we do so believe it. The first is the material object of our faith, — namely, the things which we do believe; the latter, the formal object of it, or the cause and reason why we do believe them. And these things are distinct. The material object of our faith is the things revealed in the Scripture, declared unto us in propositions of truth; for things must be so proposed unto us, or we cannot believe them. That God is one in three persons, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the like propositions of truth, are the material object of our faith, or the things that we do believe; and the reason why we do believe them is, because they are proposed in the Scripture. Thus the apostle expresseth the whole of what we intend: 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Christ’s death, and burial, and resurrection, are the things proposed unto us to be believed, and so the object of our faith; but the reason why we believe them is, because they are declared in the Scriptures: see Acts viii. 28–38. Sometimes, indeed, this expression of “believing the Scriptures,” by a metonymy, denotes both the formal and material objects of our faith, the Scriptures themselves as such, and the things contained in them: so John ii. 22, “They believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus said;” or the things delivered in the Scripture and farther declared by Christ, which before they understood not. And they did so believe what was declared in the Scriptures because it was so declared in them. Both are intended in the same expression, “They believed the Scripture,” under various considerations. So Acts xxvi. 27. The material object of our faith, therefore, are the articles of our creed, by whose enumeration we answer unto that question, “What do we believe?” giving an account of the hope that is in us, as the apostle doth, Acts xxvi. 22, 23. But if, moreover, we are asked a reason of our faith or hope, or why we believe the things we do profess, as God to be one in three persons, Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, we do not answer, “Because so it is, for this is that which we believe,” which were senseless; but we must give some other answer unto that inquiry, whether it be made by others or ourselves. The proper answer unto this question contains the formal reason and object of our faith, that which it rests upon and is resolved into; and this is that which we look after.
2. We do not, in this inquiry, intend any kind of persuasion or faith but that which is divine and infallible; both which it is from its formal reason or objective cause. Men may be able to give some kind of reasons why they believe what they profess so to do, that will not suffice or abide the trial in this case, although they themselves may rest in them. Some, it may be, can give no other account hereof but that they have been so instructed by them whom they have sufficient reason to give credit unto, or that they have so received them by tradition, from their fathers. Now, whatever persuasion these reasons may beget in the minds of men that the things which they profess to believe are true, yet if they are alone, it is not divine faith whereby they do believe, but that which is merely human, as being resolved into human testimony only, or an opinion on probable arguments; for no faith can be of any other kind than is the evidence it reflects on or ariseth from. I say it is so where they are alone; for I doubt not but that some who have never farther considered the reason of their believing than the teaching of their instructors have yet that evidence in their own souls of the truth and authority of God in what they believe that with respect thereunto their faith is divine and supernatural. The faith of most hath a beginning and progress not unlike that of the Samaritans, John iv. 40–42, as shall be afterwards declared.