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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

to the Relations themselves or the manner and circumstances of them but what should no more prejudice us against the truth and certainty of the things related and much less of the whole than the Difficulties of Divine Providence should warrant us to deny it and for want of not understanding some of its Operations or Events we should take encouragement to deny what we do understand 'T is an excellent Saying of St. Austin De Doctrina l. 4. c. 6. speaking of the Divine Writers Where I do understand them there is nothing seems to me more wisely or more eloquently expressed But where I do not understand them there to me appears less of their Eloquence but yet I do not doubt it to be such as it is where I understand it We ought rather to suspend our Censure with the modesty of this Father and for the sake of what we do understand think the more favourably of what we do not And therefore as when we have uncontroulable Reason to believe a Providence the difficulties about it are no sufficient reason to call the Doctrine of Divine Providence into question So when we have so great reason to believe the Scripture's Relation of things to be true the Difficulties about it ought not to derogate from its Veracity nor give us the confidence any more to question the Truth of Scripture than the Certainty of Providence For by this way of proceeding not only the Truth of Scripture but of all other Books whatsoever will be overthrown nay the plainest and most obvious appearances in Nature And yet of this kind are many of the Objections that are brought into the Field and are made to serve in the Cause of Impiety Such as these That we don't know into whose hands those Books have fallen nor in what Copies such various Readings have been found or whether there are not more of that kind in other hands Theol. Polit. c. 7. The issue of all which is That if this will invalidate the Truth of Scripture it will also invalidate that of all Writings whatsoever and so is no more to be regarded than an Argument against Motion which is rather to be contemned than answered 'T is but reasonable then that we should give the same quarter to the Scripture that we allow to other Writings And therefore all Objections levell'd against the Scriptures which will equally be managed against any others ought not to be allowed unless we will give credit to nothing but what we our selves hear and see And then to carry on the Cause We must recede again since there are thousands of Cases happen where even our own Senses may be subject to Error and Mistake II. Another Character for the proof or discovery of the truth of History is Self-consistence and Agreement This is a necessary Character and absolutely requisite to all true History for nothing more shews the weakness and injudiciousness of a Writer than that he comprehends not his own Design and 't is a sign he doth not comprehend it that contradicts himself and makes one part to disagree with another I grant that this alone is not an infallible Character of Truth that it is self-consistent for where the Plat is wholly fictitious and imaginary there may be an exact agreement throughout the whole The Model may be so regularly squared and laid out that there may be a becoming Symetry and Place and Time and all Circumstances made to concur to set it off with the greater advantage But though this may be where Truth is not yet that cannot be true which is without it Truth being always consistent with it self But there is this above all others observable in Scripture That it is a System of several Books wrote by several Persons in several Ages on several Subjects and yet however different in Style and Phrase Method and Order are like the several Features in the Face that besides the sweetness in each alone there is what we call Beauty that arises from the mixture of all Thus it is in the Sacred History which has a great variety in it of matter dispersed up and down sometimes to quicken the Appetite and excite the Diligence of the Reader where each has its Order and Use But when considered in one complex Body and compared and shewn together there is such a wonderful Agreement between the Old Testament and the New the Types and Anti-Types the Predictions and the Events c. that it makes a very beauteous lively and admirable Appearance without any such inconsistencies as may make it liable to have its Veracity questioned if duly consider'd and seriously examined I say if duly consider'd and seriously examin'd for else it must be acknowledged that there are some appearances of this kind 1. But I account not those to be Inconsistencies which in other Authors may justly be esteemed Errors of the Transcribers and for which no Author suffers in his Reputation As for instance When the Famous Historian Herodotus in one place saith That Homer lived about Four hundred Years before his Time and in another place That it was about Six hundred This escape doth not lessen his Reputation among Judicious Persons but for all that he preserves the Character of Pater Historiarum and is esteemed as no injudicious or careless Writer And so if a greater number in Scripture is taken for a less or a less for a greater when there are sufficient Directions therein for the Correction of it 't is not reasonable to charge this as an inconsistency and to urge it as a reason for the overthrowing the Credit and Veracity of it If it be said How doth it appear that they are the Faults of the Transcriber A. I Answer 'T is apparently so sometimes as may be observed in the various Readings which could not be were there not such mistakes in the Transcriber And where it doth not appear so to be we ought in reason so to judge where there are all the appearances of Faithfulness Diligence and Observation in the Writers themselves As for instance What can be more exactly Penn'd than the Book of Joshua in which there is a punctual account of the Scituation and bounds of each Tribe as it was set out and describ'd by Joshua himself the Chief Arbiter and Director of all and if there should be found in his Book any Literal Errors one Name put for another or a different Reading of the same Names we cannot in reason judge it to be an oversight of so Sufficient and so Careful a Writer but that it might proceed from some one that Transcribed it after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Original Copy in some successive Generations and which in reason 't is impossible wholly to prevent 'T is not here necessary for me to enter upon a debate how far the Providence of God doth herein concern it self in preserving the Text free from all Corruptions I am now Treating upon this Argument humanly speaking and of the Truth of