A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

In these twenty Questions I have but endeavoured to prepare you to Believe, by showing you the very Light of Nature: But it is a lively faith in the word of God that effectually prevaileth against Infidelity: and therefore next let us come to that. I will not so much lose my time as to cite particular Texts of Scripture, for that which is the very work and drift of the Scripture. But because thou canst have no shift in the world for thy Brutish unbelief, but by denying the Scripture to be the Word of God, I refer thee to that which I have written in the Books forementioned to prove it: And at this time shall add to what is there said, but these few Questions.

In these twenty Questions I have but endeavoured to prepare you to Believe, by shewing you the very Light of Nature: But it is a lively faith in the word of God that effectually prevaileth against Infidelity: and therefore next let us come to that. I will not so much lose my time as to cite particular Texts of Scripture, for that which is the very work and drift of the Scripture. But because thou canst have no shift in the world for thy Brutish unbelief, but by denying the Scripture to be the Word of God, I referr thee to that which I have written in the Books forementioned to prove it: And at this time shall add to what is there said, but these few Questions.

Qu. 1. If the Scripture be not the Word of God, How could it tell us of the making of the world, and such like things, which none but God alone could tell? I know you will say, I know not whether it tell us true or not; or whether the world were not, as Aristotle thought, from eternity. But tell me this then (to pass by the rest now) How comes it to pass that in all the world, there are no Books or Monuments known of any longer standing then the time that Scripture assigneth to the Creation? It is not six thousand years since the Creation. If the world had lasted thousands and millions of years before, is it possible that all its Antiquities should be lost, ⟨p. 151⟩and not one to be seen, nor mentioned by man in all the world, (For the fabulous tales of some in China, without all proof, are not worth the mentioning.) Certainly some Book would have been saved, or some Cities, or lasting piles or stony monuments preserved, or some sign or tradition kept alive, of some of all those many thousand years.