2. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things
contained in the word of God a conviction of the truth and reality of
them; and that either directly or indirectly.

First, indirectly, and that two ways.

(1) As the prejudices that are in the heart, against the truth of
divine things, are hereby removed; so that the mind becomes susceptive
of the due force of rational arguments for their truth. The mind
of man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine
things: it is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel;
which is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth, and
causes them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has
discovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this
destroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the
reason, and causes it to lie open to the force of arguments for their
truth.

Hence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince
the disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and
Pharisees. Not that they had a stronger reason, or had their reason
more improved; but their reason was sanctified, and those blinding
prejudices, that the scribes and Pharisees were under, were removed by
the sense they had of the excellency of Christ and His doctrine.

(2) It not only removes the hindrances of reason, but positively helps
reason. It makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It
engages the attention of the mind, with the more fixedness and
intenseness to that kind of objects; which causes it to have a
clearer view of them, and enables it more clearly to see their mutual