Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	apostle_n	prophet_n	write_v	2,138	5	5.7555	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48836	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, on Decemb. 1, M.DC.LXVII, being the first Sunday in Advent by William Lloyd ...	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1668 (1668)	Wing L2702; ESTC R20395	16,283	37

disposition for it no activity but what is Supernaturally given it in all such cases a work is said to be Miraculous This kind of work God is pleased to make use of as the Seal of his Commission to any Person as the Attestation of his hand to any Doctrine so that if any Person or Doctrine be Blameless in other respects and only Questionable for its Authority it sufficiently clears its Authority to be from God that he sends it or suffers it to come to us with the Testimony of Miracles Thus Moses being sent from God to the people of Israel was appointed to take two or three Witnesses along with him namely two or three Signs to assure that captious people that he was truly a Prophet sent from God First he turns his Rod into a Serpent and then that Serpent into a Rod again he makes his hand in an instant become leprous and immediately restores it again he takes up water out of the River and poures it out perfect blood upon the ground Thus also that Prophet like unto Moses Deut xviii 15. was promised to come with signs like him Verse 21 22. To the same effect are many other Texts of the old Testament But I think that one is enough if I can show that the Jews did believe it that they depended upon it and were ready on all occasions to exact this proof of a Messias It is not unlike that the Devil himself who is certainly a great Textuary had some thought of this when he tempted our Saviour to command the stones to become bread But as for the Jews it was unquestionably their way which St. Paul observes 1 Cor. i. 21. the Iews require a sign tell them of their Prophet and presently they call for a Sign How often were they upon these termes with our Saviour He could be no Messias for them unless he would shew 'em a Sign Though some of them before hand were resolv'd not to be convinc'd with it yet none of 'em were to be satisfied without it nay not without many signs as he tells them Joh. i. 5. Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe And 't is observable of Barcozba that famous Impostor who set up for a Messias their own way pretending to make 'em a great flourishing People which so won him their hearts that for a while they generally adher'd to him yet at last distrusting him for want of success they put him to death only for want of a sign Which though Maimonides denies as also he does this Doctrine for fear of being prest with the undeniable Miracles of our Saviour yet the Talmud affirms both these as to that of Barcozba IV. 4. 11. And as to this Doctrine I. 1. 1. as also the Midrash Coheleth c. 1. teaching that all past Miracles shall be as nothing in comparison of the Miracles of the Messias Which being the antient Tradition of the Jews founded in the promises of God deriv'd to them in the prophesies of Scripture which Scriptures were read to them every Sabbath day it is no wonder that the Jews did set their hearts on this way of tryal It remains to shew how Christ did answer their Expectation Who as he was a Prophet above all other Prophets so his Miracles were farr above all other Miracles Never any one did Miracles like him even his Enemies being Judges no nor all that ever were before him according to their own computation For whereas all the Prophets before him in three or four thousand years did but 74 Miracles besides Moses who did 76 if their reckoning were true Our Saviour alone in three or four years time at most did more than it was possible to keep account of insomuch that as St. Iohn says in a proverbial expression if they were all to be reckoned together the whole world could not contain the Books that should be written Whatsoever any man else did of this kind whether Prophet or Apostle he did it by a borrowed and limited Power which he could neither communicate to others nor exercise it himself but by Gods especial appointment but for Christ who had the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him he did what he pleased and when he pleased by himself or by others being determin'd by nothing but by his own Goodness and Wisdom What part of the Creation doth not afford us an instance of his Power who had the blessed Angels at his call and the damned Spirits subject to his will who commanded the seas and the winds and they obeyed him who guided the Fishes in the deep which way he pleased but especially for men that were his peculiar charge he provided against all their necessities and wants their infirmities and miseries He fed them by Miracle he heal'd them by Miracle of sundry diseases which were otherwise incurable of inveterate Dropsies and Leprosies of a Palsie of 38 years of Blindness from ones birth what could one do more but to raise men from the dead and thus he did divers particularly Lazarus who had lain four daies buried in the grave And these things he effected as well absent as present in an instant as by sensible degrees by the applying of his hand by the touch of his garment by the word of his mouth by the motion of his will to shew that any means would serve that no means were necessary that all times and places were alike to the Soveraign vertue that he imploy'd in the working of his Miracles Which works being so evident testimonies of a Divine Authority and being design'd for so universal a Benefit it was necessary that they should be as evidently and universally known And this our Saviour seems to have considered in all his Miracles If any of them were done Privately which were but few in comparison he commanded them not to be spoken of that there might be no suspicion of Imposture But for the generality of his works he did them Openly and publiquely before multitudes or in throngs at Feasts or in Synagogues or in the streets and in the open Sun many of them in the Temple and that at Passeover times in the face of his watchful Enemies and before a whole Nation of witnesses This Miracle in my Text was done in a Desert but it was in the presence of 5000 persons whom the Fame of Christs works had drawn thither to observe him and therefore they could not well be surprized in the manner of it nor could they be deceived in the Action it self for they saw and felt and tasted the effects of it He fully satisfied their hunger and so farr their hopes that they determined to look for no other Messias being assur'd that this was He This of a Truth is that Prophet that should come into the world I have done with the reason of their Judgment and should next proceed to the Use of it but that I am sensible of an Objection in the way which some have started at