in the Holy Scripture it must be either in the Matter of it or in the Proof of it And if it be in the Matter of it it must be either that it does not give us sufficient Directions what to do or that it does not propose sufficient Motives to persuade Men to do what it requires And therefore in speaking to this Head I shall shew 1. That the Holy Scripture gives us sufficient Directions what to do 2. That the Motives which the Scripture proposes are sufficient to persuade us to do what it requires And 3. That we have sufficient Reason given us to convince us of the Truth and Authority of the Holy Scripture and consequently of all the Doctrines which are taught by it 1. I shall shew that the Holy Scripture gives us sufficient Directions what to do And of this there can be little Doubt among those that believe the divine Inspiration and Authority of the Holy Scripture because to them its own Testimony of its own sufficiency is a Proof thereof beyond all Exception For if as the Apostle says 2. Tim. 3.16 it be profitable for Doctrine and for Reproof and for Correction and for Instruction in Rigteousness it is plainly profitable for all the Purposes for which we can desire a divine Revelation And if as he says in the next Verse it was given to make perfect the Man of God that is the Man whose Business it is to teach and instruct others and throughly to furnish him unto all good Works it cannot be deficient in delivering all such Rules and Directions as are necessary to be given by a Pastor to the People committed to his Care And if as the same Apostle had said at the 15th Verse of that Chapter it be able to make us wise unto Salvation we have no Reason to desire to be wiser than this excellent Book can make us And if all this could truly be said by the Apostle before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated if it could be said by him of those Holy Scriptures which Timothy had known from a Child that is of the Books of the Old Testament only much more may it be now said of the Books of both Testaments together But to speak at large of this Point at present would be too great a Digression from the Design of these Lectures which were intended only against Infidels not against any Sect of Christians and such they pretend to be such because they hold the Foundation Christ Jesus they may in Charity be allow'd to be who do chiefly differ from us in this Article and deny the sufficiency of Scripture only because they are resolved to maintain some gainful Doctrines and Practices of their own Church which they are sensible have no Warrant from Scripture and so can be maintained no other Way but by affirming that they have been delivered down to them by Tradition and that unwritten Tradition is a necessary Supplement to the written Word and of equal Authority with it For between us and Infidels who reject the Scripture the Sufficiency of the Scripture as a Rule of Faith and Manners is hardly Matter of Controversie for these do not reject the Scripture because it teaches too little but rather because it teaches too much because it teaches Doctrines above their Reason and commands such Duties as they do not like to practise and if it taught less than it does they would be more ready to own its divine Authority But nevertheless even these Men that they may leave no Stone unturned will be sometimes discoursing upon this Point and altho' those Books of Holy Scripture which are now extant and which are now generally receiv'd do teach much more than they themselves are willing to believe and practise yet that they may as much as they can unsettle the Belief of others do not stick to argue againast the Christian Religion from this Topick and to affirm that the Books of Holy Scripture which are now receiv'd do not contain the whole Will of God For there were say they in former times several other Gospels and Epistles and other Tracts designed to instruct Men in the Christian Religion which were written by the Apostles or other inspired Men and which were consequently of the same Authority in themselves with those which are now receiv'd into the Canon of which nevertheless we have nothing now left but the Names and Titles or some imperfect and uncertain Fragments so that it may well be doubted whether those few Books which are now remaining are sufficient to instruct us in all necessary Points of Knowledge and Practice And of this Matter of Fact there is they say some Evidence even from the Scripture its self For St. Luke in the Beginning of his Gospel takes Notice that many before him had taken in Hand to set forth a Declaration of those things which were surely believed among Christians that is had written and published Narratives of the Life Actions Miracles Preaching Death and Resurrection of our Saviour But there are no Histories of this Kind no Gospels now extant that were written before St. Luke's except only St. Matthew's and St. Mark 's and if there had been no more extant at that time it would have been very improper they say for the Evangelist to have said that many had written upon this Subject when he spake only of those two And that there was Matter enough for several such Narratives so that tho' they were very different Gospels they might nevertheless be all true we are told by St. John who wrote his Gospel the last of the Four Evangelists Joh. 20.30 Many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book and again Ch. 21. Vers 25. There are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the World its self could not contain the Books that should be written Now if it be true that there were several other Books formerly extant but which are now lost that were written by the Apostles and other inspired Men and consequently by divine Inspiration either these were needless when written and it is unreasonable to suppose that any Book written by divine Inspiration was needless or else the Loss of these Books is a Loss to Religion and we cannot be well assured that those which we have now remaining do sufficiently instruct us in all Points of Christian Faith and Practice But admit the Truth of this Matter of Fact viz. that more Books were written by the Apostles or inspired Men than are now extant which I will not now dispute because I think it needless because I think it may be granted without any Prejudice to the Christian Cause altho' there be none or at most but very slender Evidence of it nay admit more than is upon any good Grounds alledged viz. not only that several but that every one of the Apostles and immediate Disciples of
he thought he himself had written enough in his Gospel to persuade Men to believe in Christ and to direct them in the Way to eternal Life There being therefore in those Books of the New Testament which we now have several Abridgments of the whole Christian Doctrine it cannot with any Reason be pretended that all these Books together are not sufficient fully to instruct us therein Besides The Gospel of Christ that was preached suppose by St. Thomas in India or by St. Simon in Africa or by any other of the Apostles in Countries remote from Judea or without the Bounds of the Roman Empire was undoubtedly the very same Gospel that was preached by St. Peter and St. Paul or those other of the Apostles whose Books are now extant and received by the Catholick Church for they were all taught by the same Master Christ and were all enlightned by the same Holy Ghost so that if any of them did as 't is reported they did write any Gospels for the present Use of those particular Churches which they had planted tho' they might be somewhat different from any of the four Gospels which we now have in the Expression or perhaps in the Relation of some particular Passages of our Saviour's Life which our Evangelists have omitted just as the four Gospels which we now have do differ from one another yet for Substance they must needs have been the same with these and with one another if indeed they were all true Relations of the Matters of which the Authors thereof had been Witnesses so that if we had them all now they could all together teach us no other Doctrines than are taught in the Books of the New Testament Nevertheless I do not deny but that if we had more Books of this Kind than we have that if we had all the Books that were written by the Apostles or their immediate Successors who had been taught by them they might be of very good Use to us to help us to understand more readily and easily those Books which we have as now we receive from some Portions of Holy Scripture great Light to help us to understand and to put a right Interpretation upon others But perhaps it was for this very Reason that the Providence of God did order no more to be written than were written or has suffered those to be lost that are supposed to be lost that it might cost us some Pains and Study to understand our Religion that so our Knowledge as well as our Practice being in some Measure the Fruit of our own Industry might be a proper Subject of Reward In short That there were more Books in the first Age of Christianity written by Apostles or other inspired Men than are now extant or than if extant can be well proved to be of their Writing is a Point which I believe cannot be now upon any certain Evidence either affirmed or denied But if it be granted I say however there is no Reason to inferr from thence that those which we now have are not sufficient For if there be a God and a Providence and if there be any Truth in the Scripture Declarations of the Love of God to Mankind and that he would have all Men to be saved and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth most certainly the necessary Means of Mens Salvation is a proper Subject of the divine Care And if so it can't be thought but that the same good Providence which as is now supposed took Care for the writing of more Books when more might be necessary has likewise taken Care for the Preservation of so many of these Books as are now sufficient Or if the Men we are now arguing with will not grant that there is such a particular Providence of God yet if they will but allow that God is just that he is not a hard Master expecting to reap where he has not sown I think they must allow that all things necessary to our Salvation not knowable by Reason are taught in the Books of Holy Scripture which we now have because there are no other Books extant which we have reason to receive and accept as divine Revelation Or if they deny this it will lie upon them to produce those other Books which we ought to receive besides these and to give good Evidence to the World of their divine Authority Which when they have done or if they shall but only shew that there is as good Reason to receive them as these We must own our selves to blame if we shall not then take them also into the Canon of Scripture But till that shall be done what hath been already said is enough to shew that the Holy Scripture is a compleat Rule both of Faith and Manners Especially considering as was noted before that when-ever the Insufficiency of Scripture in this Respect is urged by those who do not believe the Scripture which are the Persons I have now to deal with it can be only for Cavilling sake the true Reason of their Backwardness to receive it as a divine Revelation being not because it teaches not enough but because it teaches more than they are willing to believe and commands more than they are disposed to practise For I cannot imagine that these Men do truly desire more Duty than is laid upon them in the Books of Scripture now received by the Christian Church But what they may most reasonably be thought to desire is either some better Encouragement to undertake that difficult Task which the Scripture lays upon them or some better Evidence that the Scripture is a divine Revelation I proceed now therefore to the second thing propounded which was 2. To shew that the Motives which the Scripture proposes are sufficient to persuade Men to do what it requires Now Hopes and Fears are the great Springs of Action and the greater the Good is we hope for or the Evil we fear the stronglier do they move and incline us to Action And therefore how difficult soever the Undertaking be so it be but possible if the Motives are proportioned to the Difficulty they must be granted to be sufficient Inducements to undertake it But that the Task or Business required of us is possible to be done needs not to be proved now because it must be granted by those who say they believe they should be persuaded to do what is required if they had better Encouragement for no Arguments or Motives whatsoever can reasonably persuade a Man to undertake a thing that he believes impossible Supposing it therefore possible I say that whatsoever Difficulty there really is or we may apprehend there is in a Christian Life if any Motives that could possibly be proposed to us can be thought sufficient to induce us to undertake it most evidently those Motives which the Gospel proposes are so because better or greater cannot be so much as conceived or imagined seeing both the good things which it promises to persuade us to Virtue and
1700. BEING The Seventh for the Year 1700 of the LECTURE Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By OFSPRING BLACKALL D. D. Rector of St. Mary Aldermary and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. St. LUKE XVI 29 30 31. Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead VVHEN I first began to Discourse on these Words I proposed to speak to these three Points I. To shew that the present Standing Revelation of God's Will contain'd in the Books of the Old and New Testament is abundantly sufficient to persuade Men to Repentance if they are not unreasonably blind and obstinate They have Moses and the Prophets I add they have also Christ and his Apostles let them hear them II. To shew that having already such good Grounds of Faith such full Directions for Practice and such strong Motives to Repentance it is an unreasonable Request to desire more Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And III. Lastly To shew that in case God should condescend to gratifie Men in this unreasonable Desire working every Day new Miracles before their Eyes or sending their deceased Friends to them from the dead to assure them of a future State and to warn them to prepare for it 't is highly probable that very few or none of those who do not believe and are not brought to Repentance by the Preaching and Standing Revelation of the Gospel would be persuaded by this means If they hear not Moses and the Prophets nor Christ and his Apostles neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead The first of these has been the subject of several former Discourses the second I design to speak to at this time viz. II. To shew that having already such good Grounds of Faith such full Directions for Practice and such strong Motives to Repentance as I have shewn we have in that Standing Revelation of God's Will which is contained in the Holy Scripture it is an unreasonable Request to desire more Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And the Unreasonableness of the Request which the Rich Man here makes in the behalf of his Brethren viz. That God would be pleased to send one from the dead to preach to them or in general how unreasonable it is for men now a-days to desire or look for more means of Conversion or Motives to Repentance than God has been pleased to afford us in the Standing Revelation of the Gospel will appear if we consider these following things 1. That the Principles of Faith and the Motives to Repentance which we have already being well grounded upon Matters of Fact which have been once already sufficiently prov'd and attested 't is altogether needless that any fresh or further Proof should be given of them and 't is what we never think reasonable to desire in other the like Cases That when God requires us to believe or do any thing and sends a special Messenger to acquaint us with his Will he should grant to this Messenger such Testimonials as are sufficient to satisfie reasonable Men that he is no Impostor but a Teacher sent from God is indeed a thing that may fairly be expected And if God should not do thus we should be excusable in not hearkning to such a Messenger because we could not know whether he was a true or a false Prophet and God does not require neither indeed is it reasonable that we should believe every Pretender to Revelation And the clearest Proof of any Man 's being sent from God to teach us any thing being a Power of doing such Miracles and Mighty Works as are manifestly above the skill and strength of a Man to do it was therefore highly requisite and what might reasonably be look'd for that God should grant such a Power as this to all those whom he has ever inspired with new Light and Commission'd to make any new Revelation of his Will to Mankind And this he has always done He gave this Power to Moses in a large measure because the Matters that Men were to trust him for were many and very considerable He gave it also to some of the succeeding Prophets but in a less measure because their Business for the most part was only to Interpret or to press the Observation of the Law of Moses which had been sufficiently prov'd before And he gave it in the largest measure of all to our Saviour and his Apostles because the Revelation made by them was of Truths very mysterious some of them above the Reach and Comprehension of Humane Reason It was also a Revelation in a manner wholly new even to the Jews themselves and much more to the Gentiles And besides it was a Revelation in many Points to appearance contrary to a former Divine Revelation inasmuch as it ordered the Abolition of many things which had been before enjoyned by divine Authority viz. all the Ritual and Ceremonial Law of Moses And therefore to gain Credit to their Testimony that they were inspired and sent by God to teach such things it was very requisite that they should produce more and more plain and undeniable Testimonials of their divine Mission than Moses himself had done And such Testimonials they had such they did produce working more Miracles and those as I may say more wonderful and Miraculous than Moses and all the Prophets together had wrought before But when these Testimonials had been once fairly produced and examined and by all reasonable Men allowed to be true and sufficient and when Christ and his Apostles had made and published all that Revelation which they were Commissioned to make And when to prevent all misunderstandings of it or mistakes concerning it they had committed it all to Writing and the Men that lived in those times and were capable of enquiring into the Truth of it were well assured that the Books said to be written by the Apostles and Evangelists were indeed theirs and contain'd in substance all the same things and no other which they had before declared by word of Mouth and confirmed by Miracles After this I say when the Divinity of the Revelation was thus once at the first Publishing of it so fully confirmed there was no need that it should be proved any more and all other Proof thereof would have been superfluous because the whole Matter both Doctrine and Proof being once faithfully recorded and those Records well attested there could afterwards be no reasonable Cause to call it again in Question So that the Reason of working Miracles being then ceased it was reasonable that the
Standing Revelation of the Gospel would be persuaded by this means If they hear not Moses and the Prophets I add nor Christ and his Apostles neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead And the Truth of this will I suppose sufficiently appear if these following things be considered 1. That we can't have better or stronger Motives to Obedience and a Holy Life than are already offered in the Holy Scripture to persuade us 2. That the Proof and Evidence already given us of the Truth of Religion is such as cannot be fairly excepted against and that there is no Proof thereof that could be offered but what is liable to Cavils and unreasonable Exceptions 3. That if God should gratifie all Men in this Request the Abundance and Commonness of the Miracles that must then be wrought would go near to destroy the Efficacy and Persuasiveness thereof And Lastly That it is Matter of Fact and Experience that new Miracles have been generally unsuccessful upon those who have not hearkned to nor been convinced by a Standing Revelation of God's Will 1. I say we can't possibly have as to the Matter of them stronger Motives to Obedience and a Holy Life than those which are already offered in the Holy Scripture to persuade us For there we have Life and Death set before us Blessing and Cursing on one Hand the Promise of this Life and of that which is to come and on the other Hand all the Evils that we can justly dread the wrath of him who is a consuming Fire who often punishes Transgressors with remarkable Judgments in this Life and has threatned to all impenitent Sinners Eternal Torments in the next Now if a new Revelation was to be made and we our selves were to contrive the Matter of it what stronger Motives than these could we think of Or if one should come from the dead to Preach to us if Lazarus were sent on purpose to persuade us what could he offer more towards it Could he give us Assurance of any thing better or more desirable than of God's Readiness to forgive us upon our Repentance and of compleat and perfect Happiness both of Body and Soul to all Eternity if we do Repent Or could he threaten any thing more like to deter us from Sin than intolerable and everlasting Misery If not to what Purpose should he be sent to us Or indeed to what Purpose should there be any new Revelation at all For these things are already promised and threatned clearly enough in the Holy Scripture Life and Immortality are already fully brought to Light by the Gospel And if the Hope of Eternal Life and Happiness and if the Dread of Everlasting and Intolerable Torments will not persuade us nothing certainly will or can persuade us All that I think could in any new Revelaâ—â—on be added to that Encouragement that is already given us in Scripture to Virtue and Godliness or to that Discouragement that is therein given as to Vice and Wickedness would be an Assurance that there should be always as remarkable a Difference made by the Providence of God between good and bad Men in this World as we are told in Scripture there will be by his righteous Judgment in that which is to come And a good Assurance given us of this by some new Revelation confirmed by our own constant Observation that it was always well with the Righteous and ill with the Wicked in this World we may think perhaps would do much more towards the Reformation of Mankind than only those Promises and Threatnings of future Happiness or Misery that we meet with in the Scripture have done or are ever like to do And this indeed might be But then 't is to be considered that a new Revelation to this Effect would be inconsistent with the Nature of Religion and would frustrate the Design of God in sending us into this World which was to prove and try us to see whether we love the Lord with all our Heart whether we can believe him for those things which we do not see and whether we are so wise as to prefer a greater future Good before a less that is present a Blessed and Glorious Immortality after this Life before the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season For if the Reward of Virtue and the Punishment of Vice were always visible and present there would be no Room left for Faith in God which is a firm Belief of the Truth of his Promises and Threatnings tho' we do not see a present Performance of them Heb. 11.1 Faith as the Apostle defines it is the Substance or (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Loc. confident Expectation of things hoped for the Evidence or (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conviction of things not seen And if all the good things both of this Life and of the next were the certain Portion of Virtue and all the evil things that can be suffered both in this World and in the other were the certain and never-failing Consequence of Sin there would be no room left for a virtuous and wise Choice nay indeed there would be hardly Matter for Choice at all for it can't be conceiv'd that a Creature that has Understanding and a Power of chusing and refusing should knowingly chuse all Misery rather than all Happiness Such a Revelation as this being therefore so evidently inconsistent with the Nature of Faith and Religion and with the Design of God in sending us into this World can't be expected And I say that bating this there can be nothing added to the Matter of the Scripture Revelation From whence therefore it plainly follows that such as are not persuaded by the Gospel Motives to Repentance are not capable of being persuaded by any such Motives as consistently with the Nature of Faith and Religion and Vertue could be offered to them And it can't be supposed that any true divine Revelation should ever offer any Motives to persuade us that are not such But it may be said perhaps that tho' better or stronger Motives to Repentance cannot be offered by any new Revelation than are offered already in Holy Scripture yet we might by a new Revelation have better Assurance given us of the Truth of the Gospel Motives and that if we had 't is very like they would be then more prevailing than they now are And this likewise I believe must be granted But then 't is to be considered that the Nature of Faith and Religion and of that State of Trial which we are now in requires that there should be a reasonable Boundary set to the clearness of that Evidence that is given to Men of the Truth of those Motives whereby they are to be persuaded as well as to the Force and Strength of the Motives themselves Because as I noted in my last Discourse such very clear and strong Evidence of the Truth of Religion as leaves no Room for a possibility of Doubting would destroy