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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	church_n	testimony_n	1,705	5	7.9883	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62634	Several discourses viz. Proving Jesus to be the Messias. The prejudices against Jesus and his religion consider'd. Jesus the Son of God, proved by his Resurrection. The danger of apostacy from Christianity. Christ the author: obedience the condition of salvation. The possibility and necessity of gospel obedience, and its consistence with free grace. The authority of Jesus Christ, with the commission and promise which he gave to his apostles. The difficulties of a Christian life consider'd. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Children of this world wiser than the children of light. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the fifth volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708,	1698 (1698)	Wing T1262A; ESTC R222204	187,258	485

own Books and Writers but even of the Adversaries of our Religion What Reformation Christianity at first wrought in the Manners of Men we have clear and full Testimony from what the Apostles wrote concerning the several Churches which they planted in several Parts of the World What hearty Unity and Affection there was among Christians even to that Degree as to make Men bring in their private Estates and Possessions for the common Support of their Brethren we may read in the History of the Acts of the Apostles The City of Corinth by the Account which Strabo gives of it was a very vicious and luxurious place as most in the World and yet we see by St. Paul what a strange Reformation the Christian Religion made in the Lives and Manners of many of them 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor effeminate nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And such were some of you But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And surely it is no small matter to reclaim Men from such a profligate course of Life The Apostle instanceth in Crimes and Vices of the first Rate from which yet he tells us many were cleansed and purified by the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God that is by the Power and Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine together with the Co-operation of Gods Holy Spirit After the Apostles the Ancient Fathers in their Apologies for Christianity give us a large Account of the great Power and Efficacy of the Christian Doctrine upon the Lives and Manners of Men. Tertullian tells the Roman Governours that their Prisons were full of Malefactors committed for several Crimes but they were all Heathens De vestris semper aestuat carcer Their Prisons were thronged with Criminals of their own Religion But there were no Christians to be found committed there for such Crimes Nemo illic Christianus nisi hoc tantùm c. There were no Christians in their Prisons but only upon account of their Religion Or if there were any Malefactors that had been Christians they left their Religion when they fell into those Enormities And afterwards he adds that if Christians were irregular in their Lives they were no longer accounted Christians but were banisht from their Communion as unworthy of it And they appealed to the Heathens what a sudden and strange change Christianity had made in several of the most lewd and vicious and debauched Persons and what a visible Reformation there presently appeared in the Lives of the worst Men after they had once entertained the Christian Doctrine And these Testimonies are so much the stronger because they are Publick Appeals to our Adversaries which it is not likely they who were so persecuted and hated as the Christians were would have had the Confidence to have made if they had not been notoriously true even their Enemies themselves being Judges And that they were so we have the Confession of the Heathen themselves I shall produce two remarkable Testimonies to this Purpose and one of them from the Pen of one of the bitterest Enemies that the Christian Religion ever had Pliny in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperour gives him an Account That having examined the Christians setting aside the Superstition of their way he could find no Fault and that this was the Sum of their Errour that they were wont to meet before Day and sing a Hymn to Christ and to bind themselves by a Solemn Oath or Sacrament not to any wicked Purpose but not to steal nor rob nor commit Adultery nor break their Faith nor detain the Pledge So that it seems the Sum of their Errour was to oblige themselves in the strictest manner against the greatest Vices and Crimes Which methinks is a great Testimony from an Enemy and a Judge one who would have been ready to discover their Faults and had Opportunity of enquiring into them My other Witness is Julian the Emperour and Apostate who in one of his Epistles tells us The Christians did severely punish Sedition and Impiety And afterwards exhorting the Heathen Priests to all Offices of Humanity and especially Alms towards the Poor he tells them they ought to be more careful in this particular and to mend this Fault Because says he the Galileans taking advantage of our Neglect in this kind have very much strengthned their Impiety for so he calls their Religion by being very intent upon these Offices and exemplary in their Charity to the Poor whereby they gained many over to them And in his 49th Epist to Arsacius the High-Priest of Galatia he recommends to him among other Means for the Advancement of Paganism the building of Hospitals and great Liberality to the Poor not only of their own Religion but others For says he it is a Shame that the impious Galileans should not only maintain their own poor but ours also wherefore let us not suffer them to out-do us in this Virtue Nothing but the force of Truth could have extorted so full an Acknowledgment of the great Humanity and Charity of the Christians from so bitter an Enemy of our Religion as Julian was If he owned it we may be sure it was very great and exemplary So that you see that the Christian Religion had a very great Power and Efficacy upon the Lives and Manners of Men when it first appeared in the World And the true Spirit and Genius of any Religion the Force of any Institution is best seen in the primitive Effects of it before it be weakned and dispirited by those Corruptions which in time are apt to insinuate themselves into the best things For all Laws and Institutions are commonly more vigorous and have greater Effects at first than afterwards and the best things are apt in time to degenerate and to contract Soil and Rust And it cannot in Reason be expected otherwise So that though it be a thing to be bewailed and by the greatest Care and Diligence to be resisted yet it is not so extremely to be wonder'd at if Christianity in the space of Sixteen Hundred Years hath abated much of its first Strength and Vigour Especially considering that there were several Circumstances that gave Christianity mighty Advantages at first especially the miraculous Powers which did accompany the first Publication of the Gospel which must needs be full of Conviction to those who saw the wonderful Effects of it The extraordinary Operation of the Spirit of God upon the Minds of Men to dispose them to the receiving of it The persecuted and suffering State that Christians were generally in which made those who embraced the Profession to be generally serious and in good earnest in it and kept up a continual Heat and Zeal in the Minds of Men for that Religion which cost them so dear and for which they suffer'd

shall be revealed in us The consideration whereof was that which made the Primitive Christians to triumph in their Sufferings and in the midst of all their Tribulations to rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God because their Sufferings did really prepare and make way for their Glory So the same Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 4. 17. 18. Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 3dly and lastly The assurance of our future Reward is a mighty Encouragement to Obedience and a Holy Life What greater Encouragement can we have than this that all the good which we do in this World will accompany us into the other That when we rest from our labours our works will follow us That when we shall be stript of other things and parted from them these will still remain with us and bear us company Our Riches and Honours our sensual Pleasures and Enjoyments will all take their leave of us when we leave this World nay many times they do not accompany us so far as the Grave but take occasion to forsake us when we have the greatest need and use of them but Piety and Virtue are that better part which cannot be taken from us All the good actions which we do in this World will go along with us into the other and through the Merits of our Redeemer procure for us at the hands of a Gracious and Merciful God a Glorious and Eternal Reward not according to the meanness of our Services but according to the Bounty of his Mind and the vastness of his Treasures and Estate Now what an encouragement is this to Holiness and Obedience to consider that it will all be our own another day to be assured that whoever serves God faithfully and does suffer for him patiently does lay up so much Treasure for himself in another World and provides lasting Comforts for himself and faithful and constant Companions that will never leave him nor forsake him Let us then do all the good we can while we have opportunity and serve God with all our might knowing that no good action that we do shall be lost and fall to the ground that every Grace and Virtue that we exercise in this life and every degree of them shall receive their full recompence at the Resurrection of the Just How should this inspire us with Resolution and Zeal and Industry in the Service of God to have such a Reward continually in our Eye how should it tempt us to our Duty to have a Crown and a Kingdom offered to us Joys unspeakable and full of Glory such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man And such are the things which God hath laid up for them who love him heartily and serve him faithfully in this World SERMON V. The danger of Apostacy from Christianity HEB. VI. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy-Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame THESE words are full of difficulties and the misunderstanding of them hath not only been an occasion of a great deal of trouble and even despair to particular persons but one of the chief Reasons why the Church of Rome did for a long time reject the Authority of this Book which by the way I cannot but take notice of as a demonstrative Instance both of the fallible Judgment of that Church and of the fallibility of Oral Tradition for St. Jerome more than once expresly tells us that in his time which was about 400 years after Christ the Church of Rome did not receive this Epistle for Canonical But it is plain that since that time whether moved by the Evidence of the thing or which is more probable by the Consent and Authority of other Churches they have received it and do at this day acknowledge it for Canonical from whence one of these two things will necessarily follow either that they were in an error for 400 years together while they rejected it or that they have since erred for a longer time in receiving it One of these is unavoidable for if the Book be Canonical now it was so from the beginning for Bellarmine himself confesseth and if he had not confessed it it is nevertheless true and certain that the Church cannot make a Book Canonical which was not so before if it was not Canonical at first it cannot be made so afterward so that let them chuse which part they will it is evident beyond all denyal that the Church of Rome hath actually erred in her Judgment concerning the Authority of this Book and one error of this kind is enough to destroy her Infallibility there being no greater Evidence that a Church is not Infallible than if it plainly appear that she hath been deceived And this also is a convincing instance of the Fallibility of Oral Tradition For if that be Infallible in delivering down to us the Canonical Books of Scripture it necessarily follows that whatever Books were delivered down to us for Canonical in one Age must have been so in all Ages and whatever was rejected in any Age must always have been rejected but we plainly see the contrary from the instance of this Epistle concerning which the Church of Rome which pretends to be the great and faithful Preserver of Tradition hath in several Ages deliver'd several things This is a peremptory instance both of the Fallibility of the Roman Church and of her Oral Tradition Having observed this by the way which I could not well pass by upon so fair an occasion I shall betake my self to the explication of these words towards which it will be no small advantage to consider the particular Phrases and Expressions in the Text. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned that is were solemnly admitted into the Church by Baptism and embraced the profession of Christianity Nothing was more frequent among the Ancients than to call Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illumination and those who were baptized were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlightned Persons because of that Divine Illumination which was convey'd to the minds of Men by the knowledge of Christianity the Doctrine whereof they made Profession of at their Baptism And therefore Justin Martyr tells us that by calling upon God the Father and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the name of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the enlightned Person is washed and again more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Laver

of it This Book of the Scriptures may with ordinary human Care be transmitted intire and free from any material Error to all succeeding Ages But Revelations unwritten if they have any lasting and considerable Effect they must at least in every Age be renewed and repeated otherwise in a very short space either through the unfaithfulness or carelessness and frailty of Men they will either be quite lost or so corrupted and depraved that they will signifie nothing From all which it appears that we have so little cause to murmur and repine at the Providence of God which in these later Ages of the World does not make those more immediate Discoveries and Manifestations of himself to us that he did to former Ages that we have rather great reason to admire the Wisdom and Goodness of God's Providence which hath privileged us with this standing Revelation of his written Word which hath so many ways the Advantage of frequent and extraordinary Revelation and in respect of the generality of Mankind is much more useful and effectual to its end I know there are some that have endeavour'd to perswade the World that Doctrines may much better be preserved by common Rumor and Report than by Writing and Record but I hope there is no Man so destitute of common Sense as to believe them contrary to the Experience of all Men. I come now to the 4th thing I propos'd to be consider'd namely That there is sufficient Evidence of the Divinity of the Scriptures By the Divinity of the Scriptures I mean that they were revealed by God and that the things contained in them were not invented by Men but discovered to Men by God and that the Pen-men of these Books did not write their own private Conceptions but were inspired by the Holy Ghost Now if we can be satisfied of this we ought to receive the Scriptures with the same Reverence as if an Angel from Heaven should declare these things unto us or as if God should immediately reveal them to our Minds for nothing can come with greater Authority than this that we believe it to be revealed by God and provided we be assured of this it matters not which way the thing hath the same Authority Now that we have sufficient Evidence of the Divinity of the Scriptures will best appear by considering what is sufficient to give Authority to a Book so that no prudent or reasonable Man can question but that the Book was writ by him whose Name it bears For what Evidence we would accept of for the Authority of other Books we must not refuse in this case for the Scriptures if we do we deal unequally and it is a sign that we do not want Evidence for the Authority of the Scriptures but that we have no mind to believe them Now the utmost Authority that any Book is capable of is that it hath been transmitted down to us by the general and uncontroll'd Testimony of all Ages and that the Authority of it was never questioned in that Age wherein it was written nor invalidated ever since And this Evidence we have for the Authority of the Scriptures As for the Old Testament I shall not now labor in the proof of that by Arguments proper to it self but shall take the Divinity of them upon the Authority of the New which if it be proved is sufficient Evidence for it tho' there were no other Now for the Scriptures of the New Testament I desire but these two things to be granted to me at first 1. That all were written by those Persons whose Names they bear and for this we have as much Authority as for any Books in the World and so much as may satisfie Men in other cases and therefore not to be rejected in this 2. That those who wrote those Books were Men of Integrity and did not wilfully falsifie in any thing and this cannot reasonably be denyed because these very Persons gave the utmost Evidence that Men could give of their Integrity The highest Attestation that any Man can give of the Truth of what he relates is to lay down his Life for the Testimony of it and this the Apostles did Now if this be granted that they did not falsifie in their Relations concerning the Miracles of Christ and his Resurrection and the miraculous Gifts which were bestowed upon the Apostles after his Ascension this is as great an Evidence as the World can give and as the thing is capable of that our Saviour was a Teacher come from God and that the Apostles were extraordinarily assisted by the Holy Ghost and if this be granted what can be desired more to prove the Divinity of their Writings But it may be said that tho' the Apostles were granted to be Men of Integrity and that they did not wilfully falsifie in their Relations yet they might be mistaken about those Matters But that they were not we have as much Evidence as can be for any thing of this Nature namely that the things which are related are plain sensible matters of Fact about which no Man need mistake unless he will and they did not write things upon the report of others who might possibly have designs to deceive but upon the surest Evidence in the World their own Knowledge and the Testimony of their Senses the things that we have seen and heard testifie we unto you So that if they were mistaken in these things no Man can be sure of any thing and by the same Reason that we disbelieve the Authority of the Scriptures upon this account we must believe nothing at all This is in short the whole force of the Argument for the Divinity of the Scriptures which I might have enlarged infinitely upon but I design now only briefly to represent to you that we who live at the distance of so many Ages from the time of this Revelation are not destitute of sufficient Evidence for the Authority of the Scriptures and such Evidence as they who reject in other Cases are esteemed unreasonable I should come now to the 5th and last Thing namely that it is unreasonable to expect that God should do more for our Conviction than to afford us a standing Revelation of his Mind and Will such as the Books of the holy Scriptures are But this I shall refer to another Oportunity in a particular Discourse upon the 31 verse which contains the main Design the Sum and Substance of this whole Parable SERMON XII The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Sermon III. Preach'd at Whitehall Anno 1678. LUKE XVI 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded tho' one rose from the dead THESE Words are the Conclusion of that excellent Parable of our Saviour concerning the Rich Man and Lazarus and they are the final Answer which Abraham gives to the Rich Man's last Request who being in great Torment and not able to obtain any Ease for himself is represented as concerned for his Relations whom