The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…

But if it be demanded, How did the next Christians of the second age, receive all this from the first Churches, who received it from the Apostles? I answer, by the same evidence, and with some advantages. For 1. They had the credible humane testimony of all their Pastors, Neighbours, Parents, who told them but what they saw and heard. 2. They had a greater evidence of natural infallible certainty: For 1. The doctrine was now delivered to them in the records of the sacred Scriptures, and so less liable to the misreports of the ignorant, forgetful or erroneous. 2. The reporters were now more numerous, and the miracles reported more numerous also. 3. They were persons now dispersed over much of the world, and could not possibly agree together to deceive. 4. The deceit would now have been yet more easily detected and abhorred.

3. But besides this, they had also the supernatural testimony of God: For the Apostles converts received the same spirit as they had themselves: And though the miracles of other persons were not so numerous as those of the Apostles; yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought them: All this is asserted in the Scripture it self; as Gal. 3.3, 4. ⟨p. 128⟩1 Cor. 14. & 12. and many places: And he that should have told them falsely that they themselves had the spirit of extraordinary gifts and miracles, would hardly have been believed by them. And all this also the following Ages have themselves asserted unto us.

3. But besides this, they had also the supernatural testimony of God: For the Apostles converts received the same spirit as they had themselves: And though the miracles of other persons were not so numerous as those of the Apostles; yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought them: All this is asserted in the Scripture it self; as