A53726:195
The reason of faith, or, An answer unto that enquiry, wherefore we believe the…
The reason of faith, or, An answer unto that enquiry, wherefore we believe the scripture to be the word of God with the causes and nature of that faith wherewith we do so : wherein the grounds whereon the Holy Scripture is believed to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, are declared and vindicated / by John Owen ...
London: printed for Nathaniel Ponder, 1677
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. It was before granted, that there is required as subservient unto believing, as a means of it, or the Resolution of our Faith into the Authority of God in the Scriptures, the ministerial Proposal of the Scriptures and the Truths contained in them, with the Command of God for Obedience unto them, Rom. 16. 25. 26. This Ministry of the Church, either extraordinary or ordinary, God hath appointed unto this End, and ordinarily it is indispensable thereunto, Rom. 10. 14, 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a Preacher, and how shall they preach unless they are sent? Without this ordinarily we cannot believe the Scripture to be the Word of God, nor the things contained in ⟨p. 128⟩it to be from him, though we do not believe either the one or the other for it. I do grant that in extraordinary cases outward Providences may supply the room of this Ministerial Proposal; for it is all one as unto our Duty by what means the Scripture is brought unto us. But upon a Supposition of this Ministerial Proposal of the Word, which ordinarily includes the whole Duty of the Church in its Testimony and Declaration of the Truth, I desire to know whether those unto whom it is proposed are obliged without further external Evidence to receive it as the Word of God, to rest their Faith in it, and submit their Consciences unto it? The Rule seems plain, that they are obliged so to do, Mark 16. 16. We may consider this under the distinct ways of its Proposal extraordinary, and ordinary.
3. It was before granted, that there is required as subservient unto believing, as a means of it, or the Resolution of our Faith into the Authority of God in the Scriptures, the ministerial Proposal of the Scriptures and the Truths contained in them, with the Command of God for Obedience unto them, Rom. 16. 25. 26. This Ministry of the Church, either extraordinary or ordinary, God hath appointed unto this End, and ordinarily it is indispensible thereunto,