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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

an immediate Communication from God without the Mediation of Angels seems not to be true for St. Stephen tells us that the Law was given by the disposition of Angels Acts 7. 53. And St. Paul that it was ordained by the Angels in the hand of a Mediator that is Moses Gal. 3. 19. But that the Revelation which was made to him had some singular Prerogatives above those of other Prophets is plain from Scripture Numb 12. 5 6 7 8. when Aaron and Miriam contended with Moses as being equal to him God tells them that there was a vast difference between him and other Prophets Hear now my Words if there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream My Servant Moses is not so With him will I speak Mouth to Mouth even apparently and not in dark Speeches c. Exod. 33. 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a Man speaketh unto his Friend Deut. 34. 10. And there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face All which signifies at least this that God made the clearest and most familiar and most perfect Discoveries to Moses of any of the Prophets only our Lord Jesus Christ by whom God hath discovered his Will to us under the New Testament did excel Moses Moses being but a faithful Servant that is humilis amicus a meaner sort of Friend but the Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God who came from the bosom of his Father and was intimately acquainted with the secrets of his Will and had not the Spirit given him by measure but the most plentiful Effusion of it being anointed above his Fellows Now these being the several sorts and degrees of Revelation which God hath made of himself to the World the Holy Scriptures are a System or Collection of these the authentick Instrument or Record by which the things revealed any of these ways are transmitted to us and is therefore call'd the Word of God as containing those things which God in several Ages hath spoken to the World that is matters of Divine Revelation which are necessary to be known by Men in order to their Eternal Happiness And this being now the great and standing Revelation of God which is to continue to the end of the World I intend to limit my Discourse solely to this as being the only Revelation which we are concern'd to enquire after And therefore in the 3d Place to shew you what Advantages this standing Revelation of the Scriptures hath above private Revelations made to particular Persons and frequently repeated and renewed in several Ages that so it may appear both agreable to the Wisdom of God to settle Revelations in this way as being more commodious and likewise to his Goodness it being a real Priviledge which these later Ages of the World enjoy that they have a more fixt and certain way of being acquainted with the Will of God than those Ages had which were govern'd by such private Revelations as were now and then made to particular Persons And the Advantages are these 1. It is a more certain way of conveyance of things and more secure and free from Imposture Suppose a Revelation made to a particular Person which is of general Concernment that this may have a general and lasting effect he must impart it to others as many as he can and give them the best Assurance he can of it and these must relate it to others and so it must pass from hand to hand to be delivered from Parents to their Children Now this way of conveying a Revelation by Oral Report must needs be liable to many Uncertainties both by involuntary Mistakes through Weakness of Memory or Understanding and wilful Falsifications and Impostures out of Malice and Design So that the effect of an unrecorded Revelation can neither be large nor lasting it can but reach a few Persons and continue a little while in its full Credibility and the further it goes the weaker like Circles made in Water which the more they inlarge themselves and the longer they continue the less discernible they are 'till at length they quite disappear Whereas being once recorded by Persons secured from Error by Supernatural and Divine Assistance they are not liable to those easie Falsifications or Mistakes which traditional Reports and Relations are necessarily through human Malice or Weakness liable to 2. It is a more general and universal way of Conveyance Which is evident from the common Experience of the World who have pitched upon this way of writing things in Books as that which doth most easily convey the knowledge and notice of things to the generality of Men. 3. It is a more uniform way of Conveyance that is things that are once written and propagated that way lye equally open to all and come in a manner with equal Credit to all it being not morally possible that a common Book that passeth through all hands and which is of vast Importance and Concernment should be liable to any material Corruption without a general Conspiracy and Agreement which cannot be but that it must be generally known So that considering the commonness and universal Concernment of this Book of the Scriptures all Men are in a manner equally that is every Man is sufficiently and competently assur'd of the credit of it that is that we are not in any material thing imposed upon by false Copies But in traditional Revelation it is quite otherwise Tradition being a very unequal and ununiform way of Conveyance For seeing it may be of general Concernment and all cannot have it at the first hand that is immediately from him to whom it was made but some at the second others at the third fourth or fifth hand or much further off the Credit of it will be necessarily weakned by every Remove A Report that comes through many Hands being like the Argument we call Induction and as the Strength and Goodness of that depends upon the Truth of every one of those Instances that make it up so that if any of them fail the whole Argument is naught so the credit of a Report that passeth through twenty hands depends upon the Integrity and Sufficiency of all the Relators and whatever there is either of Falsehood and Malice or of Incapacity of Understanding or Frailty of Memory in any of the Relators so much Weakness is derived into the Report or Testimony and consequently the assurance which we can have of a private Revelation which is deliver'd traditionally through a great many Persons must needs be very unequal 4. It is a more lasting way of Conveyance Which likewise appears by Experience we having now nothing at all of the History of ancient times but what is conveyed down to us in Writing 5. It is a more human way of Conveyance which requires less of Miracle and supernatural Interposition for the Preservation

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

Reason of this is plain because that Principle in worldly and sensual Men which pursues earthly things is in those who are unregenerate entire and undivided and consequently the Affections and Inclinations of the whole Man do all tend one way and run out towards those things in a full and undivided Stream Whereas good Men are but regenerate in part and tho' they have a principle of spiritual Life in them yet their Affections are divided and there is a great strugling and conslict between flesh and Spirit and it is a great while before the spiritual Principle doth clearly prevail and get a perfect Victory over our sensual Appetites and Inclinations Mens Affections to the World are entire and unbroken and therefore they pursue these things with all their might But the best Men are but good in part and that heavenly Principle which is in them is very much hindred in its Operations by a contrary Principle our earthly and sensual Inclinations which are hardly ever perfectly subdu'd and brought under in this World 3dly The worldly Man's Faith and Hope and Fear of present and sensible things is commonly stronger than a good Man's Faith and Hope and Fear of things future and eternal Now Faith and Hope and Fear are the great Principles which govern and bear sway in the Actions and lives of Men. If a Man be once firmly perswaded of the reality of a thing and that it is good for him and possest with good hopes of obtaining it and great fears and apprehensions of the Danger of missing it this Man may almost be put upon any thing The Merchant trafficks and the Husbandman plows and sows in Faith and Hope because he is convinced that Bread is necessary to the support of Life and hopes that God will so bless his Labours that he shall reap the fruit of them and plainly sees that if he do not take this Pains he must starve But how few are there that believe and hope and fear concerning the things of another World as the Children of this world do concerning the things of this World If any Man asks me how I know this I appeal to Experience it is plain and visible in the Lives and Actions and Endeavours of Men. Good Men are seldom so effectually and throughly perswaded of the Principles of Religion and the truth of the Sayings contained in the holy Scriptures as the men of the World are of their own Sayings and Proverbs Men do not believe that Honesty is the best Policy or as Solomon expresseth it that he that walketh uprightly walketh surely as the Men of the World believe their own Maxims that a Man may be too honest to live that plain Dealing is a Jewel but he that wears it shall die a Beggar Few Men's hopes of Heaven are so powerful and vigorous and have so sensible an effect upon their Lives as the worldly Man's hopes of Gain and Advantage Men are not so afraid to swear as they are to speak Treason they ae not so firmly perswaded of the danger of Sin to their Souls and Bodies in another World as of the danger to which some Crimes against the Laws of Men do expose their Temporal Lives and Safety and therefore they will many times venture to offend God rather than incur the Penalty of human Laws 4thly The Men of the World have but one Design and are wholly intent upon it and this is a great Advantage he that hath but one things to mind may easily be skill'd and excel it When a Man makes one thing his whole business no wonder if he be very knowing and wise in that Now the Men of the World mind worldly things and have no care and concernment for any thing else It is a saying I think of Thomas Aquinas Cave ab illo qui unicum legit librum He is a dangerous Man that reads but one Book he that gives his Mind but to one thing must needs be too hard for any Man at that Application to one thing especially in matters of Practice gains a Man perfect Experience in it and Experience furnisheth him with Observations about it and these make him wise and prudent in that thing But good Men tho' they have a great affection for Heaven and heavenly things yet the business and necessities of this Life do very much divert and take them off from the Care of better Things they are divided between the Concernments of this Life and the other and tho' there be but one thing necessary in comparison yet the Conveniencies of this Life are to be regarded and tho' our Souls be our main care yet some Consideration must be had of our Bodies that they may be fit for the service of our Souls some Provision must be made for their present Support so long as we continue in these earthy Tabernacles and this will necessarily ingage us in the World so that we cannot always and wholly apply our selves to heavenly things and mind them as the Men of the World do the Things of this World 5thly and lastly The Men of the World have a greater Compass and Liberty in the Pursuit of their worldly Designs than good Men have in the Prosecution of their Interest The Children of Light are limited and confined to the use of lawful Means for the compassing of their ends but the Men of the World are not so strait laced quocunque modo rem they are resolved upon the Point and will stick at no Means to compass their End They do not stand upon the nice Distinctions of good and evil of right and wrong invented by speculative and scrupulous Men to puzle business and to hinder and disappoint great Designs If Ahab have a Mind to Naboth's Vineyard and Naboth will not let him be honest and have it for a valuable Consideration he will trie to get it a cheaper way Naboth shall by false Witness be made a Traitor and his Vineyard by this Means shall be forfeited to him And thus the unjust Steward in the Parable provided for himself he wronged his Lord to secure a retreat to himself in the time of his Distress The Third and last thing only remains to make some Inferences from what hath been said by way of Application And 1st Notwithstanding the Commendation which hath been given of the Wisdom of this World yet upon the whole matter it is not much to be valued and admired It is indeed great in its way and kind but it is applied to little and low Purposes imployed about the Concernments of a short Time and a few Days about the worst and meanest part of our selves and accompanied with the neglect of greater and better things such as concern our Soul and our whole Duration even our Happiness to all Eternity And therefore that which the World admires and cries up for Wisdom is in the esteem of God who judgeth of things according to Truth but Vanity and Folly The wisdom of the world saith St. Paul is