Christian Classics
‹ A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God
Contents
DedicationThe Preface.IntroductionProposition I.Proposition II. There must have existed from eternity one independent being.Proposition III. The one independent Being must be necessarily existing.Proposition IV: The essence of the self-existent Being [is] incomprehensible.Proposition V. That the self-existent being must be eternal.Proposition VI. That the self-existent being must be infinite and omnipresent.Proposition VII. That the self-existent being can be but one.Proposition VIII. That the self-existent being must be intelligent.Proposition IX. That the self-existent being must be a free agent.Proposition X. That the self-existent being must be all-powerful.Proposition XI. That the supreme cause and author of all things must of necessity be infinitely wise.Proposition XII. The supreme author of all things must be infinitely good, just, and true.A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation. Being Eight Sermons Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in the Year 1705, at the Lecture Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq.DedicationThe Preface.Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainity of the Christian Revelation.The Introduction.Proposition I. · Part 1Proposition I. · Part 2Proposition I. · Part 3Proposition I. · Part 4Proposition II.Proposition III.Proposition IV.Proposition V.Proposition VI.Proposition VII.Proposition VIII.Proposition IX.Proposition X.Proposition XI.Proposition XII.Proposition XIII.Proposition XIV. · Part 1Proposition XIV. · Part 2Proposition XIV. · Part 3Proposition XIV. · Part 4Proposition XIV. · Part 5Proposition XV.The First LetterThe Answer to the First Letter.The Second LetterThe Answer to the Second Letter.The Third Letter.The Answer to the Third Letter.The Fourth Letter.The Answer to the Fourth Letter.The Fifth Letter.The Answer to the Fifth Letter.The Answer to a Sixth Letter.The Answer to a Seventh Letter.

Samuel Clarke · 41 of 54

Proposition XIV. · Part 5

If in the days of St Paul, and St John, there was any footstep of such a sort of power as this in the world; or if there ever had been any such power in the world; or if there was then any appearance of probability that could make it enter into the heart of man to imagine that there ever could be any such kind of power in the world, much less in (2 Thess. ii. 4.) the temple or church of God; and if there be not now such a power actually and conspicuously exercised in the world; and if any picture of this power drawn, after the event, can now describe it more plainly and exactly than it was originally described in the words of the prophecy; then may it with some degree of plausibleness be suggested that the prophecies are nothing more than enthusiastic imaginations.

Thirdly; Of the testimony of our Saviour’s disciples as an evidence of the truth of the Christian revelation. The chief evidence of the facts on which the truth and certainty of the Christian revelation depend, to us who live now at this distance of time, is the testimony of our Saviour’s followers; which, in all its circumstances, was the most credible, certain, and convincing evidence that ever was given to any matter of fact in the world.

To make the testimony of our Saviour’s followers a sufficient evidence to us in this case, there can be required but these three things: What things are requisite to make the testimony of our Saviour’s disciples a complete evidence. 1. That it be certain the apostles could not be imposed upon themselves: 2. That it be certain they neither had nor could have any design to impose upon others: And, 3. That it be certain their testimony is truly conveyed down to us unto this day. All which things are indeed abundantly certain, and clear enough to satisfy any reasonable and unprejudiced person.

For 1. That the apostles could not be imposed upon themselves. That the apostles could not be imposed upon themselves, is evident from what has been already said concerning the nature, and number, and publicness, of our Saviour’s miracles: They conversed from the beginning with our Saviour himself; they heard with their ears, and saw with their eyes; they looked upon, and they handled with their hands of the word of life, as St John expresses it, (1 John, i. 1.) They saw all the prophecies of the Old Testament precisely fulfilled in his life and doctrine, his sufferings and death: They saw him confirm what he taught, with such mighty and evident miracles, as his bitterest and most malicious enemies could not but confess to be supernatural, even at the same time that they obstinately blasphemed the Holy Spirit that worked them: They saw him alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs; he appearing, not only to one or two, but to all the eleven, several times, and once to above five hundred together. And this, not merely in a transient manner, but they conversed with him familiarly for no less than forty days, and at last they beheld him ascend visibly into heaven; and soon after they received the Spirit, according to his promise. These were such sensible demonstrations of his being a teacher sent from heaven, and, consequently, that his doctrine was an immediate and express revelation of the will of God, that, if the apostles, even though they had been men of the weakest judgments and strongest imaginations that can be supposed, could be all and every one of them deceived in all these several instances; men can have no use of their senses, nor any possible proof of any facts whatsoever, nor any means to distinguish the best attested truths in the world, from enthusiastic imaginations.

2. That the apostles could have no design of imposing upon others. It is certain the apostles neither had nor could have any design of imposing upon others. This is evident both from the nature of the things they did and suffered, and from the characters of the persons themselves: They confirmed what they taught by signs and miracles; they lived according to the doctrine they preached, though manifestly contrary to all the interests and pleasures of this present world; and, which deceivers can never be supposed to do, they died with all imaginable cheerfulness and joy of mind, for the testimony of their doctrine and the confirmation of their religion. This, I say, is what deceivers can never possibly be supposed to do: For it is very remarkable the apostles did not lay down their lives for their opinions, (which enthusiasts may possibly be supposed to do,) but in attestation to facts of their own knowledge: They were innocent and plain men, that had no bad ends to serve, nor preferment to hope for in the world: Their religion itself taught them to expect, not dominion and glory, not the praise of men, not riches and honour, not power and ease, not pleasure nor profit,—but poverty and want, trouble and vexation, persecution and oppression, imprisonments, banishments, and death: These things are not the marks and tokens of impostors. Besides the success and event of their undertaking, that plain and illiterate men should be able to preach their doctrine to many different nations, of different languages, and prevail also in establishing the belief of it; that they should all agree exactly in their testimony, and none of them be prevailed upon, either by hopes or fears, to desert their companions, and discover the imposture, if there had been any; these things plainly show that their doctrine was more than human, and not a contrivance to impose upon the world. This argument is excellently urged by Eusebius: Is it a thing possible to be conceived, saith he, that deceivers and unlearned men, men that understood no other language but their mother tongue, should ever think of attempting so extravagant a thing as to travel over all nations? and not only so, but that they should be able also to accomplish their design, and establish their doctrine in all parts of the world? Consider, moreover, how remarkable a thing it is, that they should in no respect disagree one from another in the account they gave of the actions of Christ. For if, in all questions of fact, and in all trials at law, and in all ordinary disputes, the agreement of several witnesses is always accounted sufficient to determine satisfactorily the matter in question; is it not an abundant evidence of the truth in this case, that twelve apostles, and seventy disciples, and innumerable other believers, have borne witness to the actions of Christ, with the most exact and perfect agreement among themselves; and not only so, but have endured also all kinds of torments, and even death itself, to confirm their testimony? Again, that illiterate men, saith he, should preach the name of Christ in all parts of the world, some of them in Rome itself, the imperial city, others in Persia, others in Armenia, others in Parthia, others in Scythia, others in India, and the farthest parts of the world, and others beyond the sea, in the British isles: This I cannot but think to be a thing far exceeding the power of man, much more the power of ignorant and unlearned men, and still much more the power of cheats and deceivers. And again: No one of them, saith he, being ever terrified at the torments and deaths of others, forsook his companions, or ever preached contrary to them, and detected the forgery. Nay, on the contrary, that one, who did forsake his master in his life-time, and betray him to his enemies, being self-condemned, destroyed himself with his own hands. And much more to the same purpose, may be found, excellently said by the same author, in the seventh chapter of the third book of his Demonstratio Evangelica.

3. That the apostle’s testimony had been truly conveyed down to us. It is very certain, that the apostles’ testimony concerning the works and doctrine of Christ is truly and without corruption conveyed down to us, even unto this day; for they left this their testimony in their writings: Which writings have been delivered down to us by an uninterrupted succession, through all intermediate ages. Their books were all translated very early into several languages, and dispersed through all parts of the world; and have most of them been acknowledged to be the genuine writings of those whose names they bear, even by the bitterest enemies of Christianity in all ages. Passages, containing the most material doctrines, have been cited out of them by numberless authors, who lived in every age, from the very days of the apostles unto this time; so that there is no room or possibility of any considerable corruption, such as might in any wise diminish our certainty of the truth of the whole. In sum; there is no matter of fact in the world, attested in any history, with so many circumstances of credibility, with so many collateral evidences, and in every respect attended with so many marks of truth, as this concerning the doctrine and works of Christ.

Of the authority of the books of Holy Scripture. And here, by the way, it is to be observed, that the peculiar authority which we attribute to the books of Holy Scripture contained in the New Testament, is founded in this; that they were written or dictated by the apostles themselves. The apostles were indued with the miraculous gifts of the , at Pentecost: And this not only enabled them to preach the doctrine of Christ with power, but also effectually secured them from making any error, mistake, or false representation of it. And the very same authority, that by this singular privilege was added to their preaching, it is manifest, ought, for the same reason, to be equally attributed to their writings also. Now, all the books of the New Testament were either written by the apostles; or, which is the very same thing, approved and authorized by them. Most of the books were uncontrovertedly written by the apostles themselves, St Paul having been made one of that number by a commission from heaven, no less visible and sensible than that which was granted to the rest at Pentecost. And those books which were written by the companions of the apostles were either dictated, or at least approved and authorised by the apostles themselves. Thus, Eusebius expressly tells us, that St Peter reviewed and approved the gospel of St Mark, and that it was this approbation that authorised it to be received by the churches. And Irenæus; that what St Mark wrote was dictated by St Peter;and that the gospel of St Luke was only a transcript of St Paul’s preaching. And Tertullian in like manner; St Mark was only St Peter’s scribe, and St Luke St Paul’s. And Eusebius; that St John also reviewed the Gospels of St Mark and St Luke, and confirmed the truth of them. And, to mention no more, the same historian tells us, that (besides some smaller reasons drawn from some mistaken passages in the book itself) the chief reason why the authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews was questioned by some, was because they thought it not to be written by St Paul himself.