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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66429	The truth of the Holy Scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martin's in the Fields, April 1, 1695 : being the fourth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1695 (1695)	Wing W2736; ESTC R7718	13,649	37

D r WILLIAMS's FOURTH SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE'S Lecture 1695. IMPRIMATUR April 1. 1695. Guil. Lancaster The Truth of the Holy Scriptures A SERMON Preached at St. Martin's in the Fields April 1. 1695. BEING THE Fourth of the LECTURE For this present YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill Sen r Jun r At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey M DCXC V. HEB. I. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. IN these words there is contained as I have before shewed 1. A description of Revelation 't is God's speaking 2. The Certainty of it 't is by way of declaration God who at sundry times c. 3. The Order observed in delivering this Revelation it was at sundry times c. 4. The perfection and conclusion of all 't is in these last days by his Son Under the Second I have shewed 1. That God has actually revealed his Will at sundry times and in divers manners 2. What are the Characters of true Revelation 3. I am now in order to prove that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament do contain the Matter of Divine Revelation and have upon them the Characters belonging to it For the better disposing of what I have to say under this Head of Discourse I shall observe 1. 'T is one thing to assert and prove the matter of Scripture to be true and another to prove it to be of Divine Revelation 2. 'T is one thing to prove the matter of Scripture to be of Divine Revelation and another to prove these Books to be of Divine Inspiration 3. 'T is one thing to assert that there were once such Books so inspired and another thing to prove this Set of Books which now make up and compose the Canon of the Old and New Testament to be those very Books From hence arise Four Questions viz. Quest 1. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to be true Q. 2. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to be of Divine Revelation Books of mere Human Composition may contain nothing but Truth without any Supernatural Assistance and therefore though we were never so well able to maintain and prove the Truth of the Matter that is not sufficient unless we can advance higher and prove the Authority and Divinity of the Matter Q. 3. How we can prove those Books to be of Divine Inspiration The Epistle of Clemens Romanus was sometime read in the Church as the Apocrypha anciently was and is now with us because of the Excellency and Profitableness of the Matter but yet it was not esteemed to be Canonical and of immediate Inspiration from God Q 4. How we prove these Books that are now extant and received by the Christian Church as Canonical to be those Books which were once in time past wrote by Inspiration from God It will be of some use to us in the prosecution of this Argument to consider the First Question concerning the Truth of the Matter of Scripture by it self and apart from the Divine Authority of it Now the Matter of Scripture is of various nature such as Morality Doctrinal Revelation Institution Prophecy and History Of which the greatest part will be here set aside For it is not necessary to prove the Truth of the Moral part of it which is no other than the Dictate of Nature and therefore though explain'd confirmed and illustrated in Scripture by many useful Rules Principles and Observations needs no proof That of Doctrine and Institution falls in with the Divine Authority and so belongs to the Second Question Prophecy if yet to be accomplished is not capable of other proof than Revelation and if already fulfilled by the Event following and correspondent to the Prediction it is the proof of it self So that the Part now remaining to be proved more especially is Scripture History which is a Relation of matter of Fact of what has happened been declared or done in the several Periods and Ages of the World for Four thousand Years together and upwards Under which Notion I do not question but it may be made appear That there is more to be said for the truth of Scripture-History than for any thing of that kind in the whole World I don't question again but it may be made appear that no Authors had greater advantages for Information in the Subjects they treat of nor were there ever any Writings that bore upon them more ample marks of Ability Impartiality and Care So that if after all that is to be suspected nothing of that kind is certain and we call in question all matters of the like nature whatsoever But this is further to be inquired into Now of this kind there are some things to be found only in Scripture and no where else In which case we have no other way to judge of the truth of it than by the Credibility of the matter the Self-agreement its Concordance with time place and other circumstances of Action together with the Credit and Reputation of the Pen-men of it But there are other things which fall in with other Writings and then besides the former way of trial we are to have recourse to such Books to compare them and determine concerning the truth by such a comparison So that we have three sorts of Proof before us or so many Characters by which we may judge concerning the Truth of what the Scripture relates viz. 1. The Credibility of the Matter therein revealed 2. Self consistence and Self agreement 3. It s concordance with other Books of good and sufficient Authority where such there are And if this be made out we have as much Evidence for the Truth of Scripture as is possible to have in our circumstances and where the Matters related were transacted in place and time far remote from us For all the Evidence we can have is to be resolved into Testimony and that Testimony into the Credibility of the Relators or of the Matters related And if we have as much Evidence of this kind as the nature of the thing will bear and admit we have as much as is reasonable in it self and sufficient to ground a certainty upon For according as the nature of the thing is and the ground upon which its Proof and Evidence depends such is the Certainty And as in things Mathematical Demonstration is the Proof and in things Natural and Sensible Sense is the Proof and in things Rational and Moral Reason and Argument are the Proof so in Matters of Fact where we our selves are not present Testimony and Records are the Proof though for a further confirmation of it there is the collateral proof of Moral Evidence viz. the credibility of the Matter

and the Persons into whose Testimony and Veracity the Matters are finally resolved And beyond this we cannot go in the Evidence for the truth of the Matters of Fact and consequently if we have this Evidence we have as great a certainty in things of this nature as Demonstration is in things Mathematical and Sense in things sensible I say beyond this we cannot go unless we advance to supernatural Evidence but that belongs not to this place So that here we have no reason to doubt and where there is no reason to doubt there is certainty And if we can be certain of any thing we our selves have not seen or been present at we may be certain of what is recorded in the Scripture Since there is no Evidence for any thing of that kind which we have not for the Truth of Scripture and I may say we have that Evidence for it which no Matters of Fact besides have If then there be any certainty in such things if any credit be to be given to them then there is here a sufficient Evidence to ground that Certainty and our Belief of it upon And if there be no certainty in them and no ground to believe them then there is no certainty in the world and no credit to be given to whatever is or has been allow'd by others in the world Then there is no more credit to be given to the Commentaries of Caesar which he wrote himself nor to the Histories of the Four Empires nay to those of our own Nation than there is to Achilles Tatius or Heliodorus than to the Vainest Romances the Fables of Poets or the Legends of the most Superstitious and Credulous Ages of the world And with all our Histories though never so famed and commonly received we are in no better a condition than if Varro's fabulous and obscure Age had been continued and all the Ages were now this day what it was before the Olympiads wrapt up in Invention and Conjecture But if there be any credit to be given to such Memorials and that we read approved Histories with another sort of appetite and assurance than we do Fables and that we read Lucan a Poetical Historian with another sort of relish than Ovid's Metamorphoses then the like Credit is to be given to the Scriptures as to any and so much the more as the Evidence proper to its kind is beyond the Evidence we have for any other Writings whatsoever And this I shall undertake and prosecute by proving 1. That the Scripture has sufficient Evidence of that kind to ground a certainty upon 2. That it has all the Evidence that any Writings or Matters of this kind have and more In order to which it may well serve as an Introduction to what is to follow briefly to reflect upon the Writers themselves and their Qualifications upon whose Credit and Authority there must be confessedly sometimes an absolute reliance Since the Relators of matters of Fact profess not to Write out of their own Heads but to receive what they Write from a constant and uninterrupted Tradition or to Collect from the best Records and Memorials or to set down what is of their own Knowledge and Observation And therefore the Reputation of their Reports and Narratives doth very much depend upon their Skill and Judgment that they be not abused by false Informations and upon their Honesty and Integrity in not putting abuses upon the World As for the ways of Information there is nothing of that kind wanting in the Sacred Pen-men For the First Writer Moses lived so near upon the Traditionary Age and the things he Writes of are of such a nature as may well be supposed to be deliver'd down without any difficulty from Progenitors to Posterity had there been no other means of Conveyance and especially as has been before suggested Sermon II. if we consider the few hands they were to pass through when at the most Eight Persons only in succession continued the Line of above Two thousand five hundred years from the Deluge to the time of Moses and that the Matters were snch as all those held themselves concerned to deliver them down as they had received them Forasmuch as all the Prophecies they had receiv'd which concerned the Good of Mankind and of their Posterity depended upon the careful and faithful preservation of these Memorials both as to Time and Pedigrees as well as the Matters which the Series of Times and Descents were to be the great Supporters of From hence it was afterwards that these Chronological Tables and Genealogical Rolls were in all times exactly kept and which upon occasion they might have recourse to and that there were Annals in future Ages that were looked upon as Sacred Repositories And from whence the Holy Writers drew their Materials and to which they do Refer as may be observed in the Books of Kings and Chronicles But if we add hereunto That a great part of what is the Subject of Holy Writ was what the Writers themselves had the Personal Knowledge of bore a part in and what happened in their own Times it gives the greater Authority to what they have Written And this was the case of Moses as to the Four last of his Books of Joshua of Samuel of the Prophets and of the Evangelical Writers So that if we will grant any thing to be allowed to Tradition to Records of Ages to Reports of Eye and Ear-Witnesses there is the highest Credit to be given to the Divine Authors in what they have Collected and made Report of And what has been done with so much Faithfulness Impartiality and Judgment as their Composers testify that even that what tends to the disparagement of their Nation and Ancestors their Families and Persons is not concealed when it might tend to the Glory of God the Reasons of the Divine Proceedings towards them or the giving any Life to the Matters they Relate A practice rarely to be observed in other Authors and when it is doth give Credit to what they Report But the chief thing is the Credibility of the Matter which I shall now proceed to 1. The Credibility of the Matter which is a standing Character that we are to judge of the Truth of a Relation by But then we must judge aright concerning the Credibility of it For that at first sight may seem to be Incredible which upon farther consideration and examination may prove to be Credible As St. Paul saith to Agrippa Acts ●6 8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead It might seem a thing Incredible at the first proposal as it did to the Athenians Acts 17. 32. but the Apostle states the Case right 1 Cor. 15. 35. in Answer to that Question Some man will say How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that

the Names and instead of Saturn read Adam and instead of Pandora Eve instead of the Garden of Jupiter Eden instead of Ogyges or Deucalion Noah c. for we should find more of the Truth under the disguise of the Fable than at the first appears and that the former gave occasion frequently to the later But over and above this we have a great part of the Ancient History of Scripture confirm'd by the express Testimony of some of their gravest and strictest Writers as the Collection that has been made in that way by several of the Learned shews To go no further than that of Moses who is placed by some of them in the first rank of the chiefest Lawgivers and whose Wonders in Egypt and at the Red-Sea are not obscurely referr'd to by them 4. When there is a Disagreement between the Scripture and other Authors there is sufficient reason to prefer the former before the later and to rectify these by that As for the first 3000 Years it is acknowledged That there was elsewhere little else than Fable and Conjecture Confusion and uncertain Tradition as has been before observed And who is there that is not able to see the difference between an Adam and a Saturn a Noah and Bacchus a Moses and Mercury between the Building of the Babylonish Tower and the War of the Giants with the gods that is between the true History and the Fable Who can observe the various Accounts amongst the Pagan Writers their inconsistencies one with another their apparent ignorance of what they write about especially when it concerns other Nations or Ages than those in which themselves liv'd but must needs surrender up the Cause and own that the one has much the advantage of the other in point of Credibility So that setting aside the Divine Authority of Scripture yet it has upon it all the Characters of Truth which any Book or Books in the World can pretend And if there be any thing necessary more than what those have to establish its certainty and Credibility that is not wanting In conclusion After all the attempt made to weaken its Authority it is with no better success than that of Celsus or Hierocles who endeavoured to set up an Aristeas or an Appollonius in Competition with our Blessed Saviour and opposed their pitiful Shifts and Impostures to his approved and incontestable Miracles But there is somewhat farther to be respected Hitherto we have consider'd the Scripture as able and sufficient to support it self without any supernatural Aid and by the sole evidence of Humane Testimony and such Characters as belong to other Writings in common with that But there is a further point in reserve and which I had chiefly in my Eye and that is an Authority superior to all others and peculiar to Scripture That I mean of Divine Revelation and what for the matter of it was inspired from above And this the due Consideration of it as an excellent History will open a way to when we find not only all the Principles Precepts and Means that are necessary to a virtuous Life therein taught and prescribed but also admirable Examples of it in Fact that nothing might be wanting to animate and incourage us to the like practice See it in the Noah's the Abraham's the Joseph's the Job's the Moses's the David's and all the Patriarchs of old See it in the Holy Apostles the Martyrs and Confessors but above all in the Example of Examples our Blessed Saviour Here is a History that fills the Mind with the best Ideas and Images of things that represents the Instances of our Duty with all the advantage to our Thoughts that recommends it self to our Attention by the importance and profitableness of the Argument as well as the force of its Authority Upon this therefore let us dwell and make it the delightful Subject of our most serious Hours which will abundantly reward all our Pains and is sufficient to furnish us throughly unto all good Works FINIS ERRATA PAge 11. l. 19. for Composers r. Composures ibid. l. 23. after Glory of God add to the manifestation of p. 16. l 19. for them r. the Jews p. 18. l. 3. after events add therein Euterpe c. 53. Vita Hom. Bochart Huetius Dr. Stillingfleet c.