The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~210,000 words · 995 passages
Cite this work
- APAJohn Locke. (n.d.). The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-locke/the-reasonableness-of-christianity-as-delivered-in-the-scriptures
- MLAJohn Locke. The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-locke/the-reasonableness-of-christianity-as-delivered-in-the-scriptures.
- ChicagoJohn Locke. The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/john-locke/the-reasonableness-of-christianity-as-delivered-in-the-scriptures.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Locke's attempt to reduce Christianity to what actually has to be believed, by reading the Gospels to see what was required of the first converts.
Context and history
Published unsigned in 1695, and with reason: the conclusion is that what is essential is to believe Jesus is the Messiah and to amend one's life, and that the rest is addition. It brought him an immediate charge of Socinianism — that is, of denying the Trinity — and a controversy that ran for years. Locke never acknowledged the book as his in his lifetime. It belongs to the argument about toleration as much as to theology: if the minimum one must believe is small, so is what may be required by law.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
And the righteous, as our Saviour says, Matt. xxv. 46, shall go into eternal life. Nor shall any one miss it, who 10 The Reasonableness of Christianity ', has done, what our Saviour directed the lawyer, who asked, Luke x. 25, What he should do to inherit eternal life ? " Do this," i. e. what is required by the law, " and thou shalt live." On the other side, it seems the unalterable purpose of the divine justice, that no unrighteous person, no one that is guilty of any breach of the law, should be in pa radise : but that the wages of sin should be to every man, as it was to Adam, an exclusion of him out of that happy state of immortality, and bring death upon him. And this is so conformable to the eternal and established law of right and wrong, that it is spoken of too, as if it could not be otherwise. St. James says, chap. i. 15, " Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth " death," as it were, by a natural and necessary pro duction. " Sin entered into the world, and death by « sin," says St. Paul, Rom. v. 12 : and vi. 23, " The " wages of sin is death." Death is the purchase of any, of every sin. Gal. iii. 10, " Cursed is every one, " who continueth not in all things which are written " in the book of the law to do them." And of this St. James gives a reason, chap. ii. 10, 11, " Whosoever " shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, " he is guilty of all: for he that said, Do not commit " adultery, said also, Do not kill :" i. e. he that offends in any one point, sins against the authority which esta blished the law.