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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

swear in his Wrath that we shall not enter into his rest I proceed to a Sixth Observation that a standing Revelation of God is Evidence sufficient for Divine things They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them that is they have the Books of Moses and the Prophets written by Men divinely inspired these do sufficiently declare to them the Will of God and their Duty and it is unreasonable to demand or expect that God should do more for their Conviction and Satisfaction I know very well the Text speaks only of the Scriptures of the Old Testament those of the New being not then extant when this Parable was deliver'd But what is here said concerning the Scriptures of the Old Testament is equally applicable to the New and tho' Abraham do only recommend Moses and the Prophets there is no doubt but he would have said the same concerning Christ and his Apostles if the Books of the New Testament had been then extant So that what I shall say upon this Observation does indifferently concern the whole Scripture And that I may make out this Observation more fully I shall take these Five things into consideration 1st What we are to understand by a Divine Revelation 2dly Give a brief Account of the several kinds of it 3dly Shew what Advantage this standing Revelation of the Scriptures hath above any other way of conveying the Will of God to the World 4thly That there is sufficient Evidence for the Divinity of the Scriptures 5thly That it is unreasonable to expect that God should do more for our Conviction than to afford such a standing Revelation of his Mind and Will I shall go over these as briefly as I can I begin with the 1st What we are to understand by a Divine Revelation By a Divine Revelation we are to understand a supernatural Discovery or Manifestation of any thing to us I say supernatural because it may either be immediately by God or by the mediation of Angels as most if not all the Revelations of the Old Testament were A supernatural Discovery or Manifestation either immediately to our Minds by our Understandings and inward Faculties for I do not so well undestand the distinction between Understanding and Imagination as to be careful to take notice of it or else mediately to our Understandings by the mediation of our outward Senses as by an external Appearance to our bodily Eyes or by a Voice and Sound to the Sense of Hearing A Discovery or Manifestation of a thing whether it be such as cannot be known at all by the use of our natural Reason and Understanding or such as may be discovered by natural Light but is more clearly revealed or made known or we are awakened to a more particular and attentive consideration of it For it is not at all unsuitable to the Wisdom of God to make a supernatural Discovery to us of such things as may be known by the light of Nature either to give us a clearer manifestation of such Truths as were more obscurely known and did as it were lie buried in our Undestandings or else to quicken our Minds to a more serious and lively consideration of those Truths 2dly For the several kinds of Divine Revelation That they were various the Apostle to the Hebrews tell us ch 1. 1. God who at sundry times and in several manners spake to the Fathers by the Prophets where by Prophets we are to understand not only those who did foretel future things but any Person that was divinely inspired and to whom God was pleased to make any supernatural Discovery of himself Now the several Kinds of Revelation taken notice of by the Jews are Visions Dreams Prophesie Oracle Inspiration or that which they call the Holy Ghost voice Bath-col or that which was the highest of all which they call gradus Mosaicus the degree of Revelation which was peculiar to Moses The Jewish Writers especially Maimonides have many subtil Observations about the differences of these several kinds of Revelation which depend upon subtil and Philosophical Distinctions of the Faculties of Perception as that some of these Revelations were by impression only upon the Understanding some only upon the Imagination some upon both some upon the outward Senses But the simple and plain difference between them so far as there is any ground in Scripture to distinguish them seems to be this Vision was a Representation of something to a Man when he was waking in opposition to Dreams which were Representations made to Men in their Sleep Prophesie might be either Dream or Vision and the Jews observe that it was always one of these two ways which they grounded upon Numb 12. 6. If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known to him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream But Prophesie in the strict Notion of it had this peculiarly belonging to it that it was not only monitory or instructive but did foretel some Event of Concernment to others and the Jewish Doctors tell us that it was a clearer Revelation and carried greater assurance along with it and that this was common to all the three that there was something of Extasie and Transport of Mind in all these The fourth sort of Revelation which was by Oracle which is call'd Vrim and Thummim was a rendring of Answers to Questions by the High-Priest looking upon the Stones in the Breast-plate which how it was done is uncertain The fifth sort of Revelation is that which they call the Holy Ghost which was a more calm and gentle Inspiration without any extraordinary Transport of Mind or Extasie such as David had in the writing of the Psalms The lowest of all was that which they call'd Bath-col which was by a Voice from Heaven and this is the Way of Revelation which the Jews observed did only continue among them from the Days of the Prophet Malachi to our Saviour The highest of all was that which they call'd gradus Mosaicus to which the Jews give several Prerogatives above all the other ways of Revelation as that it was done by Impression merely upon the Understanding without Extasie or Rapture or Transport when he was waking and in his ordinary Temper and his Senses not bound up either by Extasie or Sleep that it was a Revelation immediately from God himself and not by the Mediation of Angels without any Fear or Amazement or Fainting which was incident to other Prophets and the Spirit of Prophesie rested upon him and he could exert it arbitrarily and put it forth when he would Of which thus much is evidently true from the Story of him that the Spirit of Prophesie did rest more constantly upon him and that he could exert it with greater freedom and without any discernable Amazement or Transport from his ordinary Temper But that it was by Impression merely upon his Understanding as that is a distinct Faculty from the Imagination is not so certain that it was always by

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