Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	write_v	year_n	1,737	5	4.5984	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66386	The certainty of divine revelation A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Feb. 4. 1694/5. Being the second of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire. By John Williams, D.D. chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2695A; ESTC R220000	17,645	44

is the same Power that can foretell what shall happen to morrow could if he so pleased as easily foretell what shall happen a Thousand Years hence since all things are alike naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do Now this sort of Knowledge can proceed from nothing less than him who as he knows all things so has all Causes in his own Power and can foresee how they will operate and what shall be the Event of such Operations or can dispose them to it as he pleaseth whatever the Causes be whether as we usually say they are Voluntary Necessary or Contingent and being thus peculiar to him and his sole Prerogative 't is no less than a Species of Divine Revelation And therefore as none can know the Certainty of such Futurities and Events but God so none can foretell them but such as he is pleased to reveal them to From whence it was that Plato somewhere calls Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Communication or Fellowship with God For suppose now we should set before us any Epocha or Character of Time which the Prophecy respects the 160. Years from Isaiah's naming of Cyrus to his Decree for building Jerusalem Isa. 44. 28. Or the 350. Years from the Prophet's naming Josiah to the time he defiled those Idolatrous Places 1 Kings 13. 2. 2 Kings 23. 16. Or the 490. Years in Daniel's Weeks from his time to the Death of Messiah Dan. 9. 2. 4. What an infinite number of intercurrent Passages must there be before it be brought in its proper season to its accomplishment And how amazing a sight would it be if we could lay our hand upon the Clue of the Prophecy at its first setting out and follow it making its way through all Oppositions and Interferings to the last Period and Completion But then if we turn our Thoughts to the chief Subject of Revelation the Prophecy of the Incarnation of our Saviour as it began immediately upon the Fall and passed along through the 61 Generations for 4000 Years together it would be like the dispersed Parts of a Human Body to the Time and State of the Resurrection that are carried safe and entire through all Transformations and at last when the Sea and the Grave are called upon to give up their dead all the Atoms and Particles are recalled from their several Vehicles or Tribes they were joined to and fall into the same Composition as before in this present state Much such a Subject have we before us which after various Windings and Turnings and an Infinite Succession of Causes and Events we read That it might be fulfilled and as it was spoken by the mouth of the holy Prophets which have been since the world began Luk. 1. 70. So that as many Prophecies as we have or the world ever had so many Evidences have we of a Supernatural and Divine Revelation And this all Mankind have had a belief of as is manifest from the Oracles they consulted upon all emergent occasions many of which were very ancient as Herodotus tells us that of Jupiter Hammon in Lybia was I acknowledge that these were full of Imposture and were despised for it by the Wiser part of the Heathens such as Tully Lib. 1 2. de Divinat and detected as Eusebius shews Praepar Evang. l. 4. Init. l. 9. c. 5. And I mention these not that I esteem them of any Authority rather the contrary but to shew what the World thought of Prophecy and that even those Philosophers who diverted themselves with the Mistakes and Impostures of their own Oracles never questioned whether ever there were any true Prophecy but always allowed it and took it for granted So that the Impostures of their own Pretenders never engaged them so far as to call in question the Veracity of all Prophecy or to deny it where it was able to justify it self 2. Sort of Supernatural Evidence is Miracles But of that God willing I shall Discourse afterwards Thus far I have endeavoured to shew That there has been a Revelation antecedent to or where there was no Written Revelation And the Arguments and Instances have been such as were proper to those Circumstances such as we are led to by the Light of Nature and Human Observation And therefore though they receive Light and Confirmation from a Written Revelation are not supposed to depend upon it for their Evidence And if this Point has been hereby made out and proved we then find that God has at sundry times and in divers maners revealed himself to mankind by the Prophets and inspired Persons from the beginning through the Ante-diluvian and Post-diluvian Times till the Promulgation of a Written Law by Moses If it be said That these are far from amounting to a Certainty and from giving us an Infallible Assurance of a Revelation since some of them are disputed even among those that own a Revelation as the Original of the Sabbath and Sacrifices and at the most are but Probable Arguments 1. I answer Probability is a fair Step to Certainty and I may after all affirm That the Account here offered is the best that can be given o those Instances 2. There are such Arguments as are taken from the Consideration of God's Nature and there cannot be a stronger than what is fetch'd from the nature of things 3. There are other Instances that are equivalent to a Revelation and can proceed from no lower a Principle such are Speech and Common Notions the former of which in the Circumstances before recited must be from Divine Inspiration and the latter from a Divine Impression 4. There are those things which when they accompany what we call a Revelation prove the Truth and Certainty of it and being recorded in a Written Revelation become of the Body of it and they are Miracles 5. There are others that are the Matter of Revelation and they are Prophecies especially such as are carried along in a continued Train and mutually confirm each other 6. There are others that are not only consonant to what we own to be a Revelation but to Human Testimonies and being confirmed by both are of great Authority All which laid together give us I may say unquestionable Evidence That there has been a Revelation or that God has made himself and his Will known to the World by Persons chosen out and inspired and commissioned by him And this is a good Preparative and Introduction for what is to follow viz. That there is a special Revelation and that Revelation recorded and transmitted by Writing to the World which is a Point in Reserve and that will in order be discoursed of FINIS BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell and Thomas Cockerill RVshworth's Historical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes containing the Principal Matters which happen'd from the Meeting of the Parliament November 3. 1640. to the End of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Fol. 1692. Dr. John Conant's Sermons Octavo Published by Dr. Williams The Possibility Expediency and Necessity of Divine Revelation A Sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields Jan. 7. 169 4 5. at the Beginning of the Lecture for the Ensuing Year Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire By John Williams D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 4to D r WILLIAMS's THIRD SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE'S Lecture 1695. * V. Postellus lib. de Orig. c. 4. † Herodotus Enterpe c. 2. Ad Nicom l. 4. c. 5. l. 5. c. 9. l. 8. c. 1. Rhet. l. 1. c. 10 13 15. Pro Milone L. 1. de Nat. Deor. L 2. de Legib. Pro Cluentio * Clio. cap. 36 37. Enterp cap. 104. V Bochart Geogr. Saci Phaleg l. 4. c. 31. * Praepar l. 13. c. 12 p. 667 Psalm 50 13. Euseb. Praepar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. Sect. 58. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Theodotion Gen. 4. 20. Gen. 4. 25. Gen. 9. 26. Jude 14. 2 Pet. 2. 5. Gen. 3. 4. Gen. 14. 18. 20.

as well as them because he rested and for a reason existent from the first as well as in the time when it was instituted at Sinai 'T is highly unreasonable to add one Prolepsis to another and to heap Figure upon Figure when there is no necessity for it contrary to all the Rules of a Just Interpretation Now if this be an Original and Primaeval Institution we have one Instance of a Divine Revelation so far as the Scripture is of Authority and surely we may demand in its behalf to have as much regard paid to it as we give to Prophane Histories But however we are not without a concurrent Testimony from them also in this particular For it is manifest that there hath been of great Antiquity such a Distribution of Time as we call a Week of Seven Days and which is more to our purpose That the Seventh Day was a Festival and Religious Day This Lucian doth more than intimate and long before him Solon who calls it Most Holy Day in his Elegies quoted by Eusebius and one earlier than he Homer who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Day But Calimachus Homer and Linus are still more particular for they say it was because all the Works of Creation were then finished So Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 't is therefore called by Linus The Birth-day of the World Now there is nothing in Nature to point to this for there is no more to be observed from the Motion of the Heavens for such a Septenary distribution of Time or Division into Weeks than there is for the dividing of a Day into Hours And consequently it must proceed from some Institution and from a very early Institution because of what I have observed from the fore-cited Authors who are of great Antiquity especially Homer and Linus For Homer is supposed to have lived in or about the time of Saul in the Year of the World 2940 and Linus in the time of the Judges about the Year 2570. The consideration of which doth make it probable that these Ancient Poets owed their Information to the general Tradition of the World rather than to the Jews Indeed Aristobulus the Jew from whom Eusebius drew the abovesaid Testimonies saith these Poets had borrowed them from the Jewish Books But if it be consider'd how little the Jewish Books the Scriptures were known to the World before the Translation of them by the Seventy into Greek which was about 300 Years before the Birth of our Saviour or how little the Opinions of the Jews themselves before the Captivity were known abroad it will hardly be conceived that these things should be known so early and spoke of so positively by the Greek Poets Homer and Linus within so short a time after the Institution of the Sabbath at Sinai as these two lived for Linus must have lived within less than half an hundred Years after the time of Moses and Homer in less than 400. Where if we take the lowest term that of Homer the Jews were hardly in a setled State and no more in a Condition than they were disposed in their Temper or permitted by their Religion to inform other Nations in the Articles or Mysteries of their Religion So that it seems very evident that the Observation of the Seventh day for the Service of God was an ancient and general Opinion and especially of those who may be best presumed to understand what had been the sense of Mankind in the Ages before or those in which they lived And if this was the Opinion of those early Times conformable to the History of Scripture we have sufficient reason to offer this as an Instance of a Revelation 2. Another instance of Revelation is Sacrifices and especially those of Expiation Amongst all the Rites and Usages relating to Divine Worship there are none that exceed these in their Antiquity except the Sabbath or Extent For we no sooner read of God's Reconciliation to Mankind but that they offer'd Sacrifice no sooner of Noah's Deliverance and Escape out of the Deluge but he offer'd Sacrifice And without doubt as it begun so it continued and was as much dispersed and observed among Mankind before the Flood as after it But how probable soever it is that this Rite was thus universally observed before yet That we are not so certain of as we are of the Observation of it after the Flood when there was no Age nor Nation where it was not to be found how dispersed soever they were of which no tolerable Account is to be given unless it be allowed to have been in use before the Dispersion at Babel and that it was of Divine Institution It must have been I say in use before that Dispersion for how could all Nations fall into one and the same Practice and have the same Opinion of Sacrifices when there is nothing in the Nature of the thing to lead them to it if it had not been that they had all descended from one Blood from one Family from one Body by which means it was conveyed into all the several Branches issuing from it and went along with them where ever they went Now the question is Whence this should arise and what gave it this universal Acceptance and Authority whether the Invention of some Eminent Persons suppose in those early Times or whether it was by Revelation from God and of his special Institution There seems no great reason to think this Service should proceed merely from the Invention of Men even of those pious and well-disposed Persons since as I have said there is nothing in the nature of the thing to lead to it For how could it be supposed that this should be acceptable to Almighty God which in it self holds no Conformity nor is at all suitable to his Nature Will I eat the flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats is a true representation of it It might become a sanguinary sort of Daemons or false Gods and wicked Spirits to be pleased with the Fumes and Reakings of the Bleeding Sacrifice as the Heathens generally thought But men of any understanding would rather chuse a reasonable Service for the God that made them reasonable Creatures and might presume another sort of Sacrifice would be more acceptable to him than this and acceptable without it viz. a Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer of a pure Mind and a good Life which the wiser Heathens did in their Opinion exceedingly prefer But as for the Sacrifices and Blood of Beasts such Philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato spoke of them often with regret and displeasure and others wonder'd how they first came into the World as Porphyry that wrote expresly against them What Expression could thereby be given suppose of mens gratitude to God for their Being and their Preservation Who of all Mankind is fo stupidly credulous so foolish that can think the Gods delighted with such a present of Bows Gall and Blood which a hungry Dog would