The Works, vol. 6 (The Reasonableness of Christianity)
This volume contains three pieces by Locke on the reasonableness of Christian belief.
The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, (London: Rivington, 1824 12th ed.). Vol. 6.
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- Author: John Locke
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Table of Contents
- CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME.
- THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY, AS DELIVERED IN THE SCRIPTURES.
- THE PREFACE.
- THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY, AS DELIVERED IN THE SCRIPTURES.
- A VINDICATION OF THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY, c. FROM MR. EDWARDS’S REFLECTIONS.
- A SECOND VINDICATION OF THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY, c.
- PREFACE TO THE READER.
- To Mr. Bold.
- A SECOND VINDICATION OF THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY, c.
- I.: “That I have, over and over again, these formal words in my Reasonableness of christianity, viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any christian man, but this, That Jesus is the Messiah.”
- II.: “That the main business I set myself about, was to find but one article of faith.”
- III.: “That I contend for one article of faith, with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest.”
- IV.: “Where I urge, that there must be nothing in christianity, that is not plain, and exactly levelled to all men’s mother-wit, and every common apprehension.”
- V.: “That the very manner of every thing in christianity, must be clear and intelligible; every thing must immediately be comprehended by the weakest noddle; or else it is no part of religion, especially of christianity.”
- VI.: “I have represented all the rest as useless to the making a man a christian?” And how it appears, that “this is the design of my whole undertaking?”
- VII.: Where, in my “Reasonableness of christianity,” “I pretend that I contend for one single article, with the exclusion of all the rest, because all men ought to understand their religion.”
- VIII.: “That there must be nothing in christianity that is not plain and exactly level to all men’s mother-wit.”
- IX.: Those you called “fundamental doctrines,” in your “Thoughts concerning the causes of atheism,” or those christian principles, which belong to the very essence of christianity,” so many as you have given us of them in your “Socinianism unmasked,” (for you may take which of your two creeds you please,) are just those, neither more or less, that are every one of them required to be believed to make a man a christian, and such as, without the actual, or (since that word displeases you) the explicit belief whereof, he cannot be saved?
- X.: That what our Saviour and his apostles preached, and admitted men into the church for believing, is not all that is absolutely required to make a man a christian. Or, That the believing him to be the Messiah, was not the only article they insisted on, to those who acknowledged one God; and, upon the belief whereof Edition: current; Page: [227] they admitted converts into the church, in any one of those many places quoted by me out of the history of the New Testament.
- XI.: That this “proposition,” that Jesus is the Messiah, “is more intelligible, than any of those he has named.”
- XII.: That every one of his articles contains things so immediately relating to the “occasion, author, way, means, and issue of our redemption and salvation, that no-body can be saved, without understanding the texts from whence he draws them, in the very same sense that he does; and explicitly believing all these propositions that he has deduced, and all that he will deduce from scripture, when he shall please to complete his creed.”
- XIII.: Where the “world is told, in the treatise that I published, That the bare belief of a Messiah is all that is required of a christian.”
- XIV.: “That one cannot pass by any thing, without contempt of it.”
- XV.: That, “by the same argument, that I would persuade, that the fundamentals are not to be sought for in the epistles, he can prove that they are not to be sought for in the gospels and in the Acts; because even these were writ to those that believed.”
- XVI.: That “the epistles being writ to those that believed, was not an argument that I did make use of.”
- XVII.: Where it is that I say, “That it cannot be supposed, that there are fundamental articles in the epistles?”
- XVIIIth: proposition remaining upon him to prove, viz. “That there are fundamental articles necessary to be believed to make a man a christian taught in the epistles, which those, whom they were writ to, knew not before.”
- XVIII.: “To set down the marks, whereby the doctrines, delivered in the epistles, may easily and Edition: current; Page: [261] exactly be distinguished into fundamental, and not fundamental articles of faith.”
- XIX.: “Where it is that I command my reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts?”
- XX.: “That I pretend a design of my book, which was never so much as thought of, until I was solicited by my brethren to vindicate it.”
- XXI.: “Why these omissions in the apostles creed do not as well make that abstract, as my abridgment of faith, to be socinian?”
- XXII.: That that faith, which I have affirmed to be the faith, which is required to make a man a christian, is no other than what Turks believe, and is contained in the alcoran.
- XXIII.: That “Christ is not above the nature of a man,” or have made that a necessary article of the christian faith.
- XXIV.: “That I speak as meanly of Christ’s suffering on the cross, and death, as if there were no such thing.”
- XXV.: “That I make it my business to beat men off from taking notice of any divine truths?”
- XXVI.: That “I cry down all articles of christian faith but one?”
- XXVII.: That “I will not suffer mankind to look into christianity?”
- XXVIII.: That “I labour industriously to keep people in ignorance;” or tell them, that “there is no necessity of knowing any other doctrines of the bible?”
- XXIX.: “That I have corrupted men’s minds.”
- XXX.: “That I have depraved the gospel.”
- XXXI.: “That I have abused christianity.”
- XXXII.: “That, because the believing Jesus to be the Messias is the first step to christianity, therefore this article is frequently proposed in the New Testament, is sometimes proposed without the mentioning any other article, and always alone to unbelievers.”
- XXXIII.: “That because there is reason to think, and be persuaded, that at the same time that this one article was mentioned alone, (as it was sometimes,) other matters of faith were proposed: therefore this article was often proposed in the New Testament; sometimes proposed alone; and always proposed alone, in the preachings of our Saviour and his apostles to unbelievers.”
- XXXIV.: That because “the several parts of the members of the christian faith do not all occur in any one place of scripture,” therefore this article, that Jesus was the “Messias, was often proposed in the New Testament, sometimes proposed alone, and always proposed alone,” in the preachings of our Saviour and his apostles, through the history of the evangelists and the Acts.
- XXXV.: “That because christianity was erected by degrees, therefore this article, that Jesus was the Messias, was often proposed in the New Testament, sometimes proposed alone, and always proposed alone in the preachings of our Saviour and his apostles to unbelievers, recorded in the history of the evangelists and Acts.”
- XXXVI.: “In what place, either of the Gospels or of the Acts, other articles of faith are joined with this, and proposed as necessary to be believed to make men christians.”
- XXXVII.: Which those fundamental articles are, “which were obscurely published,” but not fully discovered in our Saviour’s time?
- XXXVIII.: Whether there are any articles necessary to be believed to make a man a christian, that were not discovered at all in our Saviour’s time: and which they are?
- XXXIX.: Whether or no all the articles, necessary now to be distinctly and explicitly believed, to make any man a christian, were distinctly and explicitly published or discovered in our Saviour’s time?
- XL.: A reason why they were not.
- XLI.: What those doctrines are, which are absolutely necessary to be proposed to every man to make him a christian?
- XLII.: 1. Whether they are all the truths of divine revelation contained in the Bible?
- XLIII.: 2. Or, whether it be only that one article, of Jesus being the Messiah, which the history of our Saviour and his apostles preaching has, with such a peculiar distinction, every-where proposed?
- XLIV.: 3. Or, whether the doctrines necessary to be proposed to every one to make him a christian, be any set of truths between the two?
- XLV.: What they are? that we may see, why those, rather than any other, contained in the New Testament, are necessary to be proposed to every man to make him a christian; and, if they are not every one proposed to him, and assented to by him, he cannot be a christian.
- XLVI.: Are not all the doctrines, necessary for our time, contained in his system?
- XLVII.: Can all the doctrines, necessary for our time, be proposed in the express words of the scripture?
- XLVIII.: That this is not as just a reasoning for my omitting them, as several other obvious passages and famous testimonies in the evangelists, which I there mention, for whose omission he does not blame me;
- XLIX.: How my understanding the Son of God to be a phrase used amongst the jews, in our Saviour’s time, to signify the Messiah, proves me to be a socinian?
- L.: That if the satisfaction of Christ be not mentioned in the place where the advantages of Christ’s coming are purposely treated of, then I am of opinion, that Christ came not to satisfy for us:
- LI.: Where it is that I deride mysteries?
- Vindication, p. 171.
- Socinianism Unmasked, p. 108.
- Vindication, p. 169.
- Socinianism Unmasked, p. 109.
- Vindication, p. 176.
- Socinianism Unmasked, p. 110.
- Vindication, p. 173.
- Socinianism Unmasked, p. 110.
- LII.: That Jesus Christ, or his apostles, have taught, that no man can be a christian, or can be saved, unless he hath an explicit knowledge of all these things which have an immediate respect to the occasion, author, way, means, and issue of our salvation, Edition: current; Page: [411] and which are necessary for our knowing the true nature and design of it.
- LIII.: That subjective faith is not inquired into, or spoken of, in the treatise of the Reasonableness of christianity, c.
- LIV.: That christian faith and christianity, considered subjectively, are the same.
- LV.: Why did Jesus Christ, and his apostles, require assent to, and belief of, this one article alone, viz. That Jesus is the Messiah, to make a man a christian, (as it is abundantly evident they did, from all their preaching, recorded throughout all the whole history of the Evangelists and the Acts,) if the belief of more articles be absolutely necessary to make a man a christian?
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