1 John i. 5. them but as in a glass or through a cloud: but God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: he seeth without any obscurity, and whatsoever is propounded to his understanding is most Heb. iv. 13. clear and evident; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Wherefore being all things are within the compass of his knowledge, being all things which are so, are most clear and evident unto him, being the knowledge he hath of them is most certain and infallible, it inevitably followeth that he cannot be deceived in any thing.

Deut. xxxii. 4.

Secondly, The justice of God is equal to his knowledge, nor is his holiness inferior to his wisdom: A God of truth, saith Moses, and without iniquity, just and right is he. From which internal, essential and infinite rectitude, goodness and holiness, followeth an impossibility to declare or deliver that for truth which he knoweth not to be true. For if it be against that finite purity and integrity which is required of Man, to lie, and therefore sinful, then must we conceive it absolutely inconsistent with that transcendent purity and infinite integrity which is essential unto God. Although therefore the power of God be infinite, though he can do all things; yet we may safely say, without any (m) prejudice to his omnipotency, that he (n) cannot speak that for truth which he knoweth to be otherwise. For the perfections of his will are as necessarily infinite as those of his understanding; neither can he be unholy or unjust more 2 Tim. ii. than he can be ignorant or unwise. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Which words of the Apostle, though properly belonging to the promises of God, yet are as true in respect of his assertions; neither should he more deny himself in violating his fidelity, than in contradicting his Heb. vi. 17, veracity. It is true, that God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation: but it is as true, that all this confirmation is only for our consolation; otherwise it is as impossible for God to lie, without an Heb. vi. 13. oath, as with one: for being he can swear by no greater, he sweareth only by himself, and so the strength even of the oath of God relieth upon the veracity of God. Wherefore being God, as God, is of infinite rectitude, goodness and holiness, being it is manifestly repugnant to his purity, and inconsistent

13.

18.

with his integrity, to deliver any thing contrary to his knowledge, it clearly followeth that he cannot deceive any man.

:

It is therefore most infallibly certain, that God being infinitely wise, cannot (o) be deceived; being infinitely good, cannot (p) deceive and upon these two immovable pillars standeth the authority of the testimony of God. For since we cannot doubt of the witness of any one, but by questioning his ability, as one who may be ignorant of that which he affirmeth, and so deceived; or by excepting against his integrity, as one who may affirm that which he knoweth to be false, and so have a purpose to deceive us where there is no place for either of these exceptions, there can be no doubt of the truth of the testimony. But where there is an intrinsical (q) repugnancy of being deceived in the understanding, and of deceiving in the will, as there certainly is in the understanding and will of God, there can be no place for either of those exceptions, and consequently there can be no doubt of the truth of that which God testifieth. And whosoever thinketh any thing comes from him, and assenteth not unto it, must necessarily deny him to be wise or holy: He that believeth not God, saith the Apostle, hath made him a 1 John v. liar. That truth then which is testified by God, hath a divine 10. credibility and an assent unto it as so credible, is Divine Faith. In which the material object is the doctrine which God delivereth, the formal object is that credibility founded on the (r) authority of the deliverer. And this I conceive the true nature of Divine Faith in general.

Now being the credibility of all which we believe is founded upon the testimony of God, we can never be sufficiently instructed in the notion of Faith, till we first understand how this testimony is given to those truths which we now believe. To which end it will be necessary to give notice that the testimony of God is not given unto truths before questioned or debated; nor are they such things as are first propounded and doubted of by Man, and then resolved and confirmed by interposing the authority of God: but he is then said to witness when he doth propound, and his testimony is given by way of Revelation, which is nothing else but the delivery or speech of God unto his creatures. And therefore upon a diversity of delivery must follow a difference, though not of Faith itself, yet of the means and manner of Assent.

Wherefore it will be further necessary to observe, that Divine

b Isa. xxii.

14.

15.

d 1 Sam. iii. I

7.

e יהוה גלה

את און

Revelation is of two kinds, either immediate or mediate. An immediate Revelation is that by which God delivereth himself to man by himself, without the intervention of man. A mediate Revelation is the conveyance of the counsel of God unto man by man. By the first he spake unto the Prophets; by the second in the Prophets, and by them unto us. Being then there is this difference between the revealing of God unto the Prophets and to others, being the Faith both of Prophets, and others, relieth wholly upon Divine Revelation, the (s) difference of the manner of Assent in these several kinds of Believers will be very observable for the explanation of the nature of our Faith.

a

Those then to whom God did immediately speak himself, or by an Angel representing God, and so being in his stead, and bearing his name (of which I shall need here to make no distinction), those persons, I say, to whom God did so reveal himself, did by virtue of the same revelation, perceive, know, and assure themselves, that he which spake to them was God; so that at the same time they clearly understood both what was delivered, and by whom otherwise we cannot imagine that Abraham would have slain his Son, or have been commended for such a resolution, had he not been most assured that it was God CI Sam. ix. who by an immediate revelation of his will clearly commanded it. Thus by faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, to the saving of his house: which (t) warning of God was a clear revelation of God's determination to drown the world, of his will to save him and Κύριος ἀπεKave To his family, and of his command for that end to build an ark. wrlov Za- And this Noah so received from God, as that he knew it to be μουήλ. f 1 Sam. iii. an Oracle of God, and was as well assured of the Author, as informed of the command. Thus the judgments hanging over Judah were revealed in the ears of Isaiah bby the Lord of Hosts. Пply àro- Thus the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh: at first aurua indeed he knew him not; that is, when the Lord spake, he Κυρίου. 1 Sam. iii. knew it not to be the voice of God; Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him; but after that he knew him, and was assured that it "Апека- was he which spake unto him, the Scripture teaching us that λύφθη Κύ. the e ears of Samuel were revealed, and the word of God reριος πρὸς Zapovh. vealed, and God himself revealed to him. By all which we can understand no less, than that Samuel was so illuminated in his

7.

I

טרם יגלה

καλυφθῆναι

21.

g נגלה יהוה אל שמואל

1 Sam. iii. 21.

d

prophecies, that he fully understood the words or things themselves which were delivered, and as certainly knew that the deliverer was God: so Samuel the Seer, so the rest of the Prophets believed those truths revealed to them by such a faith as was a firm assent unto an object credible upon the immediate testimony of God.

But those faithful people to whom the Prophets spake, believed the same truth, and upon the testimony of the same God, delivered unto them not by God, but by those Prophets, whose words they therefore assented unto as certain truths, because they were assured that what the Prophets spake was immediately revealed to them by God himself, without which assurance no faith could be expected from them. When God appeared unto Exod. iii. 2. Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and there immediately revealed to him first himself, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and then his will, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, Moses clearly believed God both in the revelation of himself and of his will, and was fully satisfied that the Israelites should be delivered, because he was assured it was God who promised their deliverance: yet notwithstanding still he doubted whether the Israelites would believe the same truth, when it should be delivered to them, not immediately by God, but by Moses; And Moses answered and said, Exod. iv. 1. But behold they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Which words of his first suppose, that if they had heard the voice of God, as he had, they would have assented to the truth upon a testimony divine; and then as rationally affirm, that it was improbable they should believe, except they were assured it was God who promised, or think that God had promised by Moses, only because Moses said so. Which rational objection was clearly taken away, when God endued Moses with power of evident and undoubted miracles; for then the rod which he carried in his hand was as infallible a sign to the Israelites, that God had appeared unto him, as the flaming bush was to himself; and therefore they which saw in his hand God's omnipotency, could not suspect in his tongue God's veracity; insomuch as when Aaron became to Moses instead of a mouth, and Exod. iv. Moses to Aaron instead of God, Aaron spake all the words 16.30, 31. which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the

sight of the people, and the people believed. For being persuaded by a lively and active presence of omnipotency that God had appeared unto Moses, and what was delivered to them by him. came to him from God; and being sufficiently assured out of the very sense and notion of a Deity, that whatsoever God should speak, must of necessity be true, they presently assented, Exod. xiv. and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses; Moses, as the immediate propounder; God, as the original revealer: they believed Moses that God had revealed it, and they believed the promise, because God had revealed it. So that the Faith both of Moses and the Israelites was grounded upon the same testimony or revelation of God, and differed only in the proposition or application of the testimony; Moses receiving it immediately from God himself, the Israelites mediately by the ministry of Moses.

31.

2 Sam. xxiii. 2.

1 Kings

viii. 53. xiv. 18.

In the like manner the succeeding Prophets were the instruments of Divine Revelation, which they first believed as revealed to them, and then the people as revealed by them: for what they delivered was not the testimony of man, but the Luke i. 70. testimony of God delivered by man. It was he who spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began the mouth, the instrument, the articulation was theirs ; but the words were God's. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, saith David, and his word was in my tongue. It was the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of Moses, and by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Prophet. The hand the general instrument of man, the mouth the particular instrument of speech, both attributed to the Prophets as merely instrumental in their prophecies. The words which Balaam's ass spake were as much the ass's words, as those which Baalam spake were his; for the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth; and not only so, but a bridle with that word, only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. The Prophets, as they did not frame the notions or conceptions themselves of those truths which they delivered from God, so did they not loosen their own tongues of their own instinct, or upon their own motion, but as moved, impelled, and acted by God. So we may in correspondence to the antecedent and subsequent words interpret 2 Pet. i. 20. those words of St. Peter, that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation: that is, that no Prophecy which is written did so proceed from the Prophet which spake or wrote

Numb.

xxii. 28.

xxiii. 5.

xxii. 35.

Ἰδίας ἐπιλύ

σεως.