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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	see_v	word_n	write_v	4,744	5	5.2335	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59560	A sermon preached at White-hall, in Lent on Friday, March 20, 1684/5 / by John Sharp ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1685 (1685)	Wing S2988; ESTC R7068	17,221	41

A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL IN LENT On Friday March 20. 1684 5. BY IOHN SHARP D. D. Dean of Norwich LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL LUKE XVI 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead THE Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel is so well known that it is needless to relate the Particulars of it These Words are the Conclusion of that Parable and they are made the Words of Abraham who being in Paradise is brought in as speaking them to the Rich man in Hell The Occasion was this This now Poor man not being able to obtain the least Comfort or Refreshment for himself under that unsupportable anguish he endured bethinks himself of his Friends and Relations in the World and casts about how to prevent their coming to that sad condition And for this purpose he begs of Abraham that he would be pleased to send the Happy Lazarus into the World again to testifie to his Brethren what he knew and had seen concerning the State of the other Life and to exhort them to a timely Repentance lest they should come into that place of Torment in which he was To this Request Abraham thus answers They had Moses and the Prophets which did plainly enough testifie against their Sins and offered sufficient Motives to them to repent and therefore there was no need of such extraordinary Means as he desired But this Answer did not satisfie the miserable man Still he pursues his former Request Nay Father Abraham saith he but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent There was no resisting such an Argument as that If Lazarus whom they all had known living and now knew to be dead should rise again and personally come to them and tell them in what a sad condition he had seen their Friend and that they must all expect to run the same Fortune if they did not change their Course of Living This would come close to them and be more convincing than a hundred Arguments drawn from the Books of Moses and the Prophets which were written many Ages before their time and so consequently could not be presumed to have so great a force as an Argument drawn from their own Sense and Experience To this Reply of the Rich man Abraham peremptorily rejoins in the Words of the Text. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead To omit lesser Matters that may be observed from these Words the Point which primarily and most naturally seems to be offered to our Consideration from them is this That those who give no credit to a setled standing Revelation of God once well attested or are not thereby prevailed upon to reform their Evil manners neither in all probability would they be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought by God in order to their Conversion as for instance though one should rise from the dead and appear to them Now to satisfie every one of the Truth of this Proposition it will be abundantly sufficient to make out these two things First That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God such as that was by Moses and the Prophets here mentioned to convince men or to reclaim them than there can be in a Private Miracle though I see it with my Eyes And secondly Though God should be pleased to work a Miracle or to send an Apparition for the Conviction of an obstinate Unbeliever or vicious Person yet such a one would as easily find out shifts and ways to evade the force of such an Argument and to hinder the Effect it ought to have upon him as he formerly did to put off the ordinary standing Motives and Arguments of Religion And consequently there is little probability that he who is not gained by the former will be wrought upon by the latter I begin with the first of these things That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God to convince men or to reclaim them than there can be supposed to be in a Private single Miracle though a man sees it with his Eyes Or than there can be in an Apparition from the dead if God should think fit to vouchsafe such a thing In speaking to this I mean not to concern my self or you with the Revelation of Moses and the Prophets though that be the Revelation which the Text here speaks of I think it will be more suitable and useful to us to consider the Proposition with relation to Christianity or the Revelation of our Saviour and his Apostles That being the Dispensation we are now under and in which we are more immediately concerned Understanding therefore our Proposition of that Especial Revelation which we call the Gospel two things there are to be offered which will undeniably make it out First Those Persons that lived in the Times of our Saviour when this Publick Revelation of the Gospel was made and attested had greater Evidences and Motives to bring them over to the Belief and Practice of Religion than if any particular Miracle had been wrought in order to their Conversion Secondly We at this day all things considered have as strong Arguments to convince us as powerful Motives to persuade us as those that lived in the Times of our Saviour and were Witnesses of what he did and taught The unavoidable Consequences of which two Points are these That those who lived in the time of our Saviour and were not persuaded by his Gospel would not have been persuaded though one had been sent to them from the dead And those that are now alive and are not persuaded by the Evidences and Motives of Christianity which we now have among us would not have been persuaded if they had lived in the Times of our Saviour So that in all Ages of Christianity the Proposition will hold true That those who give no credit to the standing Revelation of the Gospel or are not thereby induced to lead their Lives according to it would not be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought for their Conversion First then Our Saviour's Gospel at the first publishing of it was a more effectual Means for the Conversion of any Man then living than the sending to him one from the dead Let us suppose the Parable we are now upon to be a true History and that this Rich man had five Brethren living at Ierusalem at the time when our Saviour spoke it and they were all wicked lewd Atheistical Persons and God Almighty in pity to their Souls is pleased to grant that Request which the Rich man here makes to Abraham on their behalf and accordingly sends Lazarus from the dead to preach Repentance to them We cannot doubt but such a Sermon from such a Man and in