3. Things to be done, as matter of action, or duty;
JOHN OWEN
if the Scriptures appear to be both useful in the highest degree and infallibly true, it must needs speak to the very great perfection of those sacred writings. They may be distinguished into four parts according as they contain:
1. Things related, or matter of history; 2. Things foretold, or matter of prophecy;
3. Things to be done, as matter of action, or duty; 4. Things to be believed, or matter of faith.
As for the historical part of that book, how has it bidden defiance to time to discover any just exception! Nay, even the enemies of truth have owned and confirmed the matters of fact therein contained. And many profane writers, who either knew not of, or have not rightly acknowledged the Scriptures, have nevertheless inserted into their own stories the same things therein contained, as is well known, and has been oft observed by those that look into books. And though the divine history bears such authority and majesty in its style that it needs not the confirmation of profane ones, yet the testimony of adversaries against themselves is always considerable.
And has not much of the prophetic part been verified to the amazement of all those that duly consider it? How many, and how punctually, were the prophecies concerning our redemption by Christ? How plain was that concerning the type thereof, namely,
Israel's deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Gen. 15:13-14), and yet how wonderfully fulfilled, many hundreds of years after they were foretold? But I am not at leisure to enlarge upon these things; many learned men have done it, more especially the incomparable Sir
Charles Wolseley.
And then for the preceptive part, containing rules of life and manners, it is so rooted in the nature of things, so obvious to sense, so agreeable to reason, so beneficial to the world, and so confirmed by the experience of all men, whose faculties are not depraved, that heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle thereof shall fail or be found deficient.
Lastly, the Divine Mysteries therein revealed, such as the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Blessed Jesus, etc., though they are beyond our capacity to explain the nature of them, yet