Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	2,555	5	9.7977	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66408	The perfection of the evangelical revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 6, 1695/6, being the first of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2717; ESTC R38655	14,734	36

From which Case by a parity of Reason we may argue That whatever alters the Terms and Conditions of the Gospel and makes that necessary to Salvation which the Gospel has not made necessary or that unnecessary which the Gospel has made necessary is such a perverting it as makes it another Gospel For that is to set up that as a Divine Revelation which hath not the Divine Authority to confirm it For it is God alone that can appoint the Terms of Salvation and so what no man or Society of men has any Authority in to frame alter or revoke The necessary Articles of Faith and Instances of our Duty must have a Divine Establishment and so what we must learn either from the invariable Principles and Dictates of Human Nature or pure Revelation 2. That is another Gospel which pretends to a Revelation from God for its Authority when it is of Human invention or imagination And that whether for the matter of it it be true or false It may for the matter of it be true and yet not be a Revelation but proceed only from men and then to place that to the account of Revelation though it be for the matter of it true is a notorious falshood and Imposture But if for the matter of it it be false it 's a double Falshood as it pretends to a Revelation which is not Revelation and also calls in the Veracity of God to give testimony to a falsehood Supposing then that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary Transubstantiation and Purgatory are true yet to plead a Revelation for them as it is pleaded in the Church of Rome if there were no such Revelation doth fix such an indelible blot upon the pretended Infallible Church as all the Water of Tiber cannot cleanse But if it should prove false as those things certainly are then it is to add a sort of Blasphemy to the Imposture as it makes the God of Truth to justify a Falshood 3. That is another Gospel which doth establish another Rule or adds to or detracts from that which is established Rev. 22. 18. Now the Scripture is the Rule of Faith and Practice and then to alter the Rule by adding to it or taking from it is to alter the Gospel which that contains the Revelation of as they do in the Church of Rome who not only add the Apocrypha to the Canon but as the Pharisees of old give the same Authority to Unwritten Tradition as to the Scripture and require it to be received with the like pious regard according to the Council of Trent Lastly To alter to add to or diminish from the Fundamental Articles or Principles of it is to make it another Gospel as it is to deny Christ to be a Mediator or to appoint other Mediators than him such as Angels and Saints By so doing the Gospel is rendred as imperfect and the Scripture as an imperfect Revelation of it But this there is no occasion for as I shall now shew by proving That 3. The Gospel or Revelation made known to the World by Jesus Christ is always to continue th e same and no new or other Revelation is to be expected This was the Sum of the last Lecture and is to be the remaining Subject of this There have been such in several Ages of the Church both anciently and of late that have pretended to new Revelations and that there was a more perfect Dispensation to ensue than what was contained in the Gospel Of this Opinion were the Montanists of old and of this mind seems to have been Abbas Joachim who flourished about the Year 1200. And what was also expresly maintained in the Evangelium Aeternum or Everlasting Gospel chiefly taken out of the Works of Joachim and published by the Mendicant Fryars about 1254. Wherein it was affirmed That the Doctrine of that Abbot excelled that of Christ * That the Gospel of Christ was to give way to another Gospel called the Everlasting Gospel or Gospel of the Holy Ghost And this was a Doctrine spread far and near among the Beguardi in Germany the Alumbrados in Spain and the Fratricelli in Italy c. The Spawn of which continued for a long season in several parts and in some till Ann. Dom. 1560 who all agreed that their Doctrine came from God by as immediate Inspiration as ever the Gospel of Christ did I deny not but that there may be some particular Revelation or Inspiration with respect to some especial Case But as it may arise for ought we know from imagination so if it be not attended with great caution and circumspection may end in the Whims and Frenzies of a Brigit a Catharina or a Mother Juliana and what not Nay it may proceed to the disannulling the Gospel it self and to the preferring their own Inspirations as they will have it above it But supposing it to be true that there may be now some particular Inspirations from God in such special cases yet it is to be supposed that they are agreeable to the Gospel Revelation but if once they contradict it it can be no more a true Revelation than the Gospel can be false and yet such must be a Revelation that will make the Gospel to cease in its obligation and to be of no more Authority to Mankind than the Law of Moses When the obligation arises not from the nature of the thing but from positive Institution it is in the power of the Lawgiver to bind or loose to establish or evacuate a Law as he thinks fit And thus it was in the Law of Moses which consisted of things typical that had a special reference to that people and the place of their Habitation c. Such were the distribution of the Tribes the preservation of their Genealogies their three great Festivals their Sabbatical Year and Year of Jubile c. Of this temporary nature also were the Ceremonies of the Law which either had a relation to the Customs of the Nations conterminous to them or to a more perfect State that was in process of time to succeed it The Laws relating to which could not be supposed to be of any force when They were excluded that Land and the Tribes were lost and confounded no more than the Laws relating to the Wilderness and the Tabernable could oblige them when they were setled in Canaan and that they had a Temple erected there And therefore the phrase for ever when annexed to the Constitution must have a laxer interpretation accordingly allowed which was That it should continue to oblige as it follows often where that Phrase is used throughout their generations that is whilst they were that People so embodied and so situated And had the Gospel consisted of such things that were thus mutable in themselves or thus peculiar to any People Time or Place there might be reason to admit it to be temporary and to be evacuated when time should serve as the Law was But

The Perfection of the Evangelical Revelation A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields Jan. 6. 1695 6. BEING THE First 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 MDCXCVI GAL. I. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed THE People of the Jews having been all along trained up under the Law of Moses and by virtue of it possess'd of peculiar Advantages beyond any other Nation were apt to think it as lasting in its Obligation as Divine in its Original and that it was no more in the intention of Almighty God to have it abolished than it could be disproved to have come immediately from him This made them slow and backward to receive the Gospel by which their ancient Constitution would be disannulled and after they had believed it made them inclinable to hearken to such Sophisters as pretended to compound the Controversy and to join Moses and Christ the Law and the Gospel together so as to be both alike necessary to Salvation Which is in effect to set up another Gospel than what the Apostle had taught and they had received from him and therefore he expresses his resentment and indignation against it with the highest aggravations Verses 6 7 8. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel Which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed c. In discoursing upon which words I shall consider 1. What is understood by the Gospel which the Apostle had preached and they had received 2. What by another Gospel against which and the Preachers of it the Apostle so sharply inveighs and pronounces an Anathema 3. I shall shew that the Gospel is the only Revelation from God and that there is not another nor is any other to be expected 1. The Gospel is here opposed to the Law of Moses which there were some in the Churches of Galatia as well as in other places that would maintain to be necessary to Salvation if not alone yet in conjunction with the Gospel as aforesaid These two indeed were so far consistent that the Law was a prefiguration a Shadow and Type of the Gospel But being thus a Shadow and a Type of it That in reason and from the nature of the thing was to give way when the Substance came on and the Types were fulfilled And therefore though the Law was established at the first by Divine Authority yet in course was it to cease in its obligation when the reason of it ceased And consequently to plead for its Authority and Obligation whether in conjunction with or opposition to the Gospel was to say that the substance of those Shadows the completion of those Types was not accomplished that Jesus was not the Messiah nor the Gospel true In this sense these two that in a state of subordination were consistent by this means were made to be opposites to each other So the Apostle Chap. 5. 2. If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing V. 4. Ye are fallen from grace ye at the same time deny what you seem to confess it is a perverting the Gospel of Christ and establishing another Gospel But this is only a kind of a negative account of the Gospel therefore we are to proceed further in the consideration of it and then we are to understand by the Gospel the Christian Religion and more especially that part of it which is called Christian and for which the Professors of it are called Christians as distinguished from all Religons besides All mankind are not more of the same common Nature than they generally agree in the common Principles of Nature And that which is natural to all cannot be a Character by which one man is distinguished from another But when a Man or Institution is called Christian it is for somewhat peculiar and distinct from that which is common to all And therefore though the Law of Nature be a branch of the Christian Religion as it was of the Mosaical and is also in it self of a never failing obligation yet there is a supervenient Institution and somewhat besides that which denominates us to be Christians without the belief and practice of which we can no more be entitled to to that Character than that can be called a Natural Religion which excludes or is contradictory to the Laws of Nature and the just Reason of Mankind And of the number of such Principles which are necessary to the Constitution of Christianity and consequently to the Character of a Christian and are the Articles of his Faith are the Incarnation and Nativity the Death and Resurrection and Glorification of our Saviour 1. His Nativity and Incarnation So 1 John 4. 2 3. He that denieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 2. His Death as he died for Mankind and was a Sacrifice for Sin So St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3. I declare unto you the Gospel which also ye have heard and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures So that to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and as a Suffering Messiah was according to the Scriptures and by the belief of which we are to be saved 3. His Resurrection and what was consequent upon it his Glorification the reward of his Humiliation In which state he is constituted our Mediator From the connexion betwixt which two his Death and Intercession it is that we seldom read in Scripture of the one without the other These are constituent and essential Articles of Christianity and if these or any of these are omitted as it is not Christianity which is left and it would be another Gospel so it is what the Apostle's Anathema will be applicable to From whence we may be able to answer the next Question 2. What is to be understood by another Gospel When the Apostle speaks here of another Gospel he thereby means somewhat that is added to it and with it made necessary to Salvation as it was when the observation of the Law of Moses was maintained to be as obligatory to the Christians as ever it had been to the Jews

must be after our Saviour's second appearance But of that we have nothing to say Thus far as I have consider'd the Argument there may be very few supposed to be concerned that is such as set up another Revelation in opposition to the Gospel-Revelation or that maintain the Revelation of the Gospel to be only temporary and that it shall have its season in which it is to expire and be succeeded by another And it may seem to be scarcely worth the while to have spent so much time upon it with respect to such wild Enthusiasts as have been and still are in the World But however what has been hitherto said may be of further use with reference to another Case just mentioned before and that is the Case of personal and occasional Revelation which may be conceived only to serve to a more spiritual manifestation of the Revelation already received and so be no more derogatory to that Revelation than occasional or personal Revelation heretofore in the Mosaical State was to the Body of that Law which was of immediate and Divine Revelation and of universal obligation to that People I would not altogether deny this because I know not how far some Persons may in some cases be enlightned by a Spirit of Prophecy nor what particular directions they may receive in an extraordinary way in some special Cases with ●espect to themselves to others and the Church of God which may be like a special Providence to some particular persons But now as a man must govern himself by the general Rules of Divine Providence and not by particular and because he has sometimes met with Deliverances and Supplies and Directions beyond all his own foresight and reasoning must not forsake his own reasoning and care and wholly rely upon the Extraordinary So it is to be here a person may perhaps have some occasional Revelation some Divine Inspiration at some special Season or in some special Case but if he forsakes the Ordinary to depend upon the Extraordinary and expects Revelation in every case because he has had it in some particulars he will as much be subject to error and err no less dangerously than if he wholly relied upon Divine Providence and forsook all other means whatsoever And truly this is a way much liable to be abused and to mislead persons and is very suspicious and dangerous 1. It is a Case liable to imposture and abuse forasmuch as those that are under the influence of such a conception are not always if at all capable of making a certain judgment of it For it is all transacted within and the Imagination may be so much influenced by the Body and by an agitation of the Humours and Animal Spirits from an Enthusiastal and even a devout Temper by prepossessions and foreconceived Principles and even by the Circumstances of Life that it may be wholly natural as natural as Dreams or the Deliriums of a Fever which proceed from the ebullition of the Blood and such like ordinary Causes 2. Persons have been imposed upon and taken the effect of Imagination for Inspiration and Divine Illumination I am far from condemning all the Instances of this kind of Hypocrisy and of a design to deceive like Maria Visitationis in Portugal I will rather think more charitably That very often they have thought themselves thus moved and acted by the Spirit of God And yet notwithstanding all their Pretences and the opinion others have had of them it has been afterwards evident that it has been far from being a Divine Infusion and Illumination What shall we think of Teresa whose Life is full of her Visions and Revelations and of whom we are told by one of that Way That besides many other extatical Sights in the Kingdom of Heaven she often had the sight and company of the Holy Trinity of each person in particular that they spoke to her and she to them and used to ask and did obtain particular favours of each that God shew'd her how all Creatures are contained in his Divine Essence as in a Chrystal glass and that she saw therein the thoughts words and deeds of all men This and truly she had reason to think so she said was one of the greatest favours to her Now if we would but alter the place and for the Nunnery conceive her to be in a Hospital we should take it to be what that Author in a transport sometimes calls it a Phrenzy And what a Legend of Dreams would the World be furnished with if the Visions and Revelations of this kind were bundl'd up together as the Miracles of reputed Saints have sometimes been 3. They are very much to be suspected of Imposture 1. And that because we read so little of this way in Scripture even in the Apostolical Times and nothing to encourage us in the expectation of it afterwards We read nothing there of the Union of the Soul to the Divine Essence of its being absorpt and drowned over head and ears and ingulphed in the depth of Divinity so that it became one and the same with God by a true Deification We read there sparingly of some Extasies as one of St. Peter and one or two of St. Paul but with how much reserve and modesty doth the Holy Apostle speak when he comes to Visions and Revelations of the Lord when he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter But what can be greater if these of Teresia be true And where might we more expect to be entertained with the Relations of such Rapts as in the Gospel So that when they are there so unusual and here so frequent that even Societies are embodied and formed from it we have reason to suspect 2. It 's much to be suspected when that which is the proper means of judging and of distinguishing Imagination from Revelation is laid aside which is Reason and when all is resolved into the Person 's own testimony We are required in all Cases to search and to try which doth suppose the free exercise of our Reason and when this is rejected 't is a sign there is no truth in the thing pretended 3. It is suspicious when they exalt their own private Revelations to the same Authority with the Revelations of Holy Writ and seek to justify the one by the other 4. When they esteem the way of Religion as describ'd in Scripture to be mean in comparison of this that they are in and prefer this way of Contemplation and Inspiration above the plain Precepts of Christianity When it is a condescention in them to join in External Worship Thus it is given by Father Ubald as an instance of the attainment of one to some degree of this rapturous state that when the hour of Prayer was spent he could hardly be persuaded that it was so not knowing what Prayer he was in And the famous Quietist Molinos reports of Gregory Lopez That having for the space