which Natural Religion and Mora- V. In what Senfe this Faith or Perfwafion of the Principles of Natural Religion may be faid to be Divine? In these two refpects. 1. In refpect of the Object of it, or Matters to be believed, which are Divine, and do immediately concern Religion, in oppofition to that which I call a Civil and Humane Faith, which is of fuch things as do not immediately concern God and Religion. 2. In refpect of the Divine Effects of it, which are to make Men Religious, and like God. And a Faith may as properly be faid to be. Divine in refpect of the Object of it, as in refpect of the Argument where by Sermon I. by it is wrought: fo that a Faith of Volume the Principles of Natural Religion XII. is as truly Divine, tho' it be not wrought in us by the Arguments of Divine Teftimony and Authority, as a Faith of the Matters of Divine Revelation contain❜d in the Holy Scriptures: for why a Faith may not as well be faid to be Divine for its relation to God as the Object of it, as for its relation to the Teftimony of God as the Cause of it, I cannot understand. Secondly, The Second fort of Faith, which I call Divine or Religious, is a perfwafion of things Supernaturally Revcal'd, of things which are not known by Natural Light, but by fome more immediate manifeftation and difcovery from God. Thus we find our Saviour, Matth. xvi. 15, 16, 17. oppofeth Divine Revelation to the difcovery of Natural Reafon and Light. He asks his Difciples whom they believed him to be, Whom fay that I am? And Simon Peter anye fwer'd and faid, Thou art the Chrift, (that is, the Meffias) the Son of the living God. And Jefus anfwered and faid unto him, Bleffed art thou Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee; but my Father which is in Heaven; where a Revelation or Discovery from Flesh and Blood, is oppofed to a Revelation from God, Flefb and Blood being a Hebrew Phrase or manner of fpeaking, fignifying a meer Man, or fomething meerly Humane. So we find the Phrafe ufed, Eph. vi. 12. We wrestle not against Flesh and Blood; but against Principalities, and Powers, and Spiritual Wickedness; that is, the Enemies we are to contend with, are not only Men, but Devils; and which is nearer to our purpofe, Gal. i. 16. where the Apoftle would express to us, that he receiv'd not his Commiffion from Men; but immediately from the Lord Jefus Chrift; he tells us, that when it pleafed God, who feparated him from his Mothers womb, and called him by his grace, to reveal his Son in him, that he might Preach him among the Heathen, immediately he conferred not with Flesh and Blood, the word is προσανεθέμην, I did not apply my felf to Flesh and Blood; that is, I did not go to Men to receive my Sermon II. my Commiffion from them: for fo he Vone explains it in the next words, Neither XII. went I up to Jerufalem, to them that were Apostles before me; that is, I did not apply my felf to the Apoftles, to derive any Authority from them to preach the Gofpel, because he had no need of that, being called immediately by Chrift to this Work; which words are nothing elfe but a farther explication of what he had faid before, ver. 11, 12. I certife you Brethren, that the Gospel which was preach'd by me, is not after Man: for I neither receiv'd it of Man, neither was taught it, but by the Revelation of Jefus Chrift. So accordingly here our Saviour tells Peter that this truth, That Chrift was the Meffias, the Son of the living God, was not revealed to him by Man, nor by any meer Humane Principle or Testimony, but by his Father which was in Heaven; that is, by the Teftimony which God himself gave of him in the Holy and Divine Gofpel which he taught, and thofe Miracles which he wrought in confirmation of it. So that this kind of Faith is a perfwasion of fuch things as are not known by · I. by Natural Light, nor discover'd to us by Men; but fome way or other Sermon reveal'd by God; I fay fome way or other; for the ways of God's revealing and manifefting himself to us are various, and arbitrary. God may chufe what ways he pleafeth to dif- · cover himself to us by. So the Apofle tells us, Heb. i. 1. God, who at fundry times, and in divers manners Spake in times paft unto the Fathers by the Prophets. God revealed himself as at feveral times, by feveral fieps and degrees: fo in various manners; fometimes by Vifions, fometimes by Dreams, fometimes by Oracles, fometimes by a Spirit of Prophecy, and fornetimes by a Voice from Heaven, fometimes by a fecret and gentle Infpiration. Now it matters not which of thefe ways God chufeth to reveal himself to us, provided we have fufficient Evidence and ground of Affurance that the thing is revealed by God. As to us these extraordinary ways of Revelation are now ceafed, and we have a fix'd and ftanding Revelation, that is, the Records of those Revelations which God formerly made to |