This Meditation carries me to consider, How do I know the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God! And that which makes the consideration more agreeable, is, That this Word, is called, Jer.20 9. A Burning Fire. It is a Thing of more than ordinary consequence unto every Christian, to be well established in this point, How may a Christian indeed know, That our Bible is the Word of God, or, a Book of Truth, and a Rule of Life, given by Inspiration from Heaven? For, the influence of the Bible, on our whole Behaviour here, and Blessedness hereafter, depends on our Faith of this point; & our grand Enemy labours nothing more, than to keep our Faith hereof as Feeble as ever he can To confirm our Faith of our Bibles being the Word of God, we are, not unfurnished with moral Arguments enough to silence the contradiction of Sinners. It is infinitely reasonable to Believe, That the most High God has committed unto Writing, some where or other, what He would have us Think, and to Do, in order to our Glorifying of Him. ⟨p. 45⟩Now, if our Bible, be not the Writing, where in the Will of God is to be found, it is no where to be found at all; for there is none that can stand in competition with i• there is no where else to be met withal, any Scheme of the way for our coming to the Enjoyment of God, that can give any tolerable […] is action to a Reasonable mind And who else but God, could be the Author of it? […] men, and Ill Angels, would never have conceived a System of such an Holy and Heavenly Tenor, and so opposite, yea so Torturous, unto their own vicious Inclinations. Good men, and Good Angels would not have Lied for God, and have imposed their own Inventions upon their Maker. And indeed, the Remarkable Providence of God, in preserving our Bible, so uncorrupt for so many Ages, notwithstanding the horrible plots of Earth and Hell, to have utterly extinguished it, (which can't be said of any other Composure) This proclaims, That it is dear to God, yea, that God Himself espouses it, as being the Author of it. The Bible testifies very many other Things, and at the same time testifies to its own Divine Original: Tis found infallibly True in all its other Testimonies; it is a Tried Word, and it never fails: Why should it not then be owned as True in this one Article also, when it asserts its own Divinity?
This Meditation carries me to consider, How do I know the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God! And that which makes the consideration more agreeable, is, That this Word, is called, Jer.20 9. A Burning Fire. It is a Thing of more than ordinary consequence unto every Christian, to be well established in this point, How may a Christian indeed know, That our Bible is the Word of God, or, a Book of Truth, and a Rule of Life, given by Inspiration from Heaven? For, the influence of the Bible, on our whole Behaviour here, and Blessedness hereafter, depends on our Faith of this point; & our grand Enemy labours nothing more, than to keep our Faith hereof as Feeble as ever he can To confirm our Faith of our Bibles being the Word of God, we are, not unfurnished with moral Arguments enough to silence the contradiction of Sinners. It is infinitely reasonable to Believe, That the most High God has committed unto Writing, some where or other, what He would have us Think, and to Do, in order to our Glorifying of Him. ⟨p. 45⟩Now, if our Bible, be not the Writing, where in the Will of God is to be found, it is no where to be found at all; for there is none that can stand in competition with i• there is no where else to be met withal, any Scheme of the way for our coming to the Enjoyment of God, that can give any tolerable 〈…〉 is action to a Reasonable mind And who else but God, could be the Author of it? 〈…〉 men, and Ill Angels, would never have conceived a System of such an Holy and Heavenly Tenour, and so opposite, yea so Torturous, unto their own vicious Inclinations. Good men, and Good Angels would not have Lyed for God, and have imposed their own Inventions upon their Maker. And indeed, the Remarkable Providence of God, in preserving our Bible, so uncorrupt for so many Ages, notwithstanding the horrible plots of Earth and Hell, to have utterly extinguished it, (which can't be said of any other Composure) This proclaims, That it is dear to God, yea, that God Himself espouses it, as being the Author of it. The Bible testifies very many other Things, and at the same time testifies to its own Divine Original: Tis found infallibly True in all its other Testimonies; it is a Tried Word, and it never fails: Why should it not then be own'd as True in this one Article also, when it asserts its own Divinity?
