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

Answ. 1. Cannot a Statute tell you what Parliament made it, and what matters of fact were the occasion, and also what shall be your duty upon pain of death? so that the Makers and facts shall give force unto the Law, and yet the Law reveal the makers and facts? Do not Church Constitutions do the same? The Scripture hath two parts: the History and the Doctrine. May not the History confirm the doctrine, and that doctrine oblige us to our duty?

Answ. 1. Cannot a Statute tell you what Parliament made it, and what matters of fact were the occasion, and also what shal be your duty upon pain of death? so that the Makers and facts shall give force unto the Law, and yet the Law reveal the makers and facts? Do not Church Constitutions do the same? The Scripture hath two parts: the History and the Doctrine. May not the History confirm the doctrine, and that doctrine oblige us to our duty?

2. But you suppose that the Miracles and facts can only be known by a Divine belief of the History? But that is false. The common Evidence that all Statutes, Histories, and Actions in the world have to make them certain to posterity, (as Cicero's or Virgils Writings, or Caesars Reign, &c.) the same have the Books and Miracles of Scripture to us. And by these we can know them de facto to be such, before we believe them by a Divine faith. And as the Scripture is a History that hath the same Evidence as the best of Histories have, so it may concur with abundance of other Evidence (which I have recited in my my Determination against Infidelity, and in my Key for Catholics,) to prove the Facts: and then those Facts will fully prove ⟨p. 158⟩the Truth of all the Doctrines which they attest, and consequently, we shall add to our humane Faith and Knowledge, a Divine faith concerning the History it self.

2. But you suppose that the Miracles and facts can only be known by a Divine belief of the History? But that is false. The common Evidence that all Statutes, Histories, and Actions in the world have to make them certain to posterity, (as Cicero's or Virgils Writings, or Caesars Reign, &c.) the same have the Books and Miracles of Scripture to us. And by these we can know them de facto to be such, before we believe them by a Divine faith. And as the Scripture is a History that hath the same Evidence as the best of Histories have, so it may concur with abundance of other Evidence (which I have recited in my my Determination against Infidelity, and in my Key for Catholicks,) to prove the Facts: and then those Facts will fully prove