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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	good_a	reason_n	1,534	5	4.5930	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28272	No reason to desire new revelations a sermon preach'd at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul, October 7th, 1700, being the seventh for the year 1700, of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by Ofspring Blackall ...	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing B3047; ESTC R18677	36,532	66

No Reason to desire NEW REVELATIONS A SERMON Preach'd at the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH of St. Paul October 7th 1700. BEING The Seventh for the Year 1700 of the LECTURE Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq By OFSPRING BLACKALL D. D. Rector of St. Mary Aldermary and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1700. St. LUKE XVI 29 30 31. Abraham saith unto him They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead WHEN I first began to Discourse on these Words I proposed to speak to these three Points I. To shew that the present Standing Revelation of God's Will contain'd in the Books of the Old and New Testament is abundantly sufficient to persuade Men to Repentance if they are not unreasonably blind and obstinate They have Moses and the Prophets I add they have also Christ and his Apostles let them hear them II. To shew that having already such good Grounds of Faith such full Directions for Practice and such strong Motives to Repentance it is an unreasonable Request to desire more Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And III. Lastly To shew that in case God should condescend to gratifie Men in this unreasonable Desire working every Day new Miracles before their Eyes or sending their deceased Friends to them from the dead to assure them of a future State and to warn them to prepare for it 't is highly probable that very few or none of those who do not believe and are not brought to Repentance by the Preaching and Standing Revelation of the Gospel would be persuaded by this means If they hear not Moses and the Prophets nor Christ and his Apostles neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead The first of these has been the subject of several former Discourses the second I design to speak to at this time viz. II. To shew that having already such good Grounds of Faith such full Directions for Practice and such strong Motives to Repentance as I have shewn we have in that Standing Revelation of God's Will which is contained in the Holy Scripture it is an unreasonable Request to desire more Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And the Unreasonableness of the Request which the Rich Man here makes in the behalf of his Brethren viz. That God would be pleased to send one from the dead to preach to them or in general how unreasonable it is for men now a-days to desire or look for more means of Conversion or Motives to Repentance than God has been pleased to afford us in the Standing Revelation of the Gospel will appear if we consider these following things 1. That the Principles of Faith and the Motives to Repentance which we have already being well grounded upon Matters of Fact which have been once already sufficiently prov'd and attested 't is altogether needless that any fresh or further Proof should be given of them and 't is what we never think reasonable to desire in other the like Cases That when God requires us to believe or do any thing and sends a special Messenger to acquaint us with his Will he should grant to this Messenger such Testimonials as are sufficient to satisfie reasonable Men that he is no Impostor but a Teacher sent from God is indeed a thing that may fairly be expected And if God should not do thus we should be excusable in not hearkning to such a Messenger because we could not know whether he was a true or a false Prophet and God does not require neither indeed is it reasonable that we should believe every Pretender to Revelation And the clearest Proof of any Man 's being sent from God to teach us any thing being a Power of doing such Miracles and Mighty Works as are manifestly above the skill and strength of a Man to do it was therefore highly requisite and what might reasonably be look'd for that God should grant such a Power as this to all those whom he has ever inspired with new Light and Commission'd to make any new Revelation of his Will to Mankind And this he has always done He gave this Power to Moses in a large measure because the Matters that Men were to trust him for were many and very considerable He gave it also to some of the succeeding Prophets but in a less measure because their Business for the most part was only to Interpret or to press the Observation of the Law of Moses which had been sufficiently prov'd before And he gave it in the largest measure of all to our Saviour and his Apostles because the Revelation made by them was of Truths very mysterious some of them above the Reach and Comprehension of Humane Reason It was also a Revelation in a manner wholly new even to the Jews themselves and much more to the Gentiles And besides it was a Revelation in many Points to appearance contrary to a former Divine Revelation inasmuch as it ordered the Abolition of many things which had been before enjoyned by divine Authority viz. all the Ritual and Ceremonial Law of Moses And therefore to gain Credit to their Testimony that they were inspired and sent by God to teach such things it was very requisite that they should produce more and more plain and undeniable Testimonials of their divine Mission than Moses himself had done And such Testimonials they had such they did produce working more Miracles and those as I may say more wonderful and Miraculous than Moses and all the Prophets together had wrought before But when these Testimonials had been once fairly produced and examined and by all reasonable Men allowed to be true and sufficient and when Christ and his Apostles had made and published all that Revelation which they were Commissioned to make And when to prevent all misunderstandings of it or mistakes concerning it they had committed it all to Writing and the Men that lived in those times and were capable of enquiring into the Truth of it were well assured that the Books said to be written by the Apostles and Evangelists were indeed theirs and contain'd in substance all the same things and no other which they had before declared by word of Mouth and confirmed by Miracles After this I say when the Divinity of the Revelation was thus once at the first Publishing of it so fully confirmed there was no need that it should be proved any more and all other Proof thereof would have been superfluous because the whole Matter both Doctrine and Proof being once faithfully recorded and those Records well attested there could afterwards be no reasonable Cause to call it

again in Question So that the Reason of working Miracles being then ceased it was reasonable that the Power of working Miracles should cease too at least till such time as God should think fit to make some Alteration in or Addition to his former Revelations which we have good Reason to think he will never do or 'till he should please to undertake the Conversion of those Nations to the Christian Faith to whom the Knowledge of the former Miracles that had been wrought for its Confirmation could not be so well communicated by credible History as it is to us For as was hinted before Credible History is all the Proof and Evidence that we ever think reasonable to require in other Cases of the like Nature As for instance When a new Law is made concerning any Matter it is requisite according to the Custom of our Country that it should pass both Houses of Parliament and that the King should ratifie and confirm it and that afterwards it should be some way so published and promulged that all the Subjects that are then alive should have sufficient Assurance given them that such a Law is made But after this Law has been once so passed and ratified and promulged it is passed and ratified and promulged for ever and no Man is so unreasonable as to expect that every Parliament that is called afterwards should read and pass over again all the Laws that have been made before their Time or that every King that succeeds to the Throne should afresh ratifie and publish all the Laws that were made by all his Predecessors But all the Proof that we ever require of the Authority of any ancient Law is a true Copy of it and a good History or Record of its being made at such a time by such a King confirmed by the Tradition of all the intermediate Ages to our Time which have allowed of its Authority by citing it as a Law of the Land by Pleading from it and by giving Judgment according to it And he who will not allow of the same Proof and Evidence of the Authority of the Christian Institution so many hundred years ago established but would needs have new Miracles and new Revelations to confirm the former is every whit as unreasonable as that Criminal would be who being Indicted upon some Ancient Statute should refuse to plead to his Indictment upon Pretence that he knew not whether there was any such Law or not it being made if ever it was made long before his Time and there being none now alive that were present at the making of it Shew him the Law in the Statute Book why how does he know he 'd say but that the Printers had a mind to put a Cheat upon the Nation by Printing a Law of their own making as a Law made by some of our ancient Kings nay shew him the Original Record still he 'd say There have been abundance of Forgeries in the World and how does he know but that this is one The Record he 'd own perhaps looks like an Ancient Deed and has all the Marks of such Antiquity as it pretends to but after all 't is possible it may be and therefore he cannot be sure it is not a Forgery and 'till he is assured of this he will not plead to an Indictment that is grounded upon it But if the King and Parliament that now are will be pleased to declare that this is a good Law and if he himself may be allowed to be by when they shall declare it or if at least two or three Witnesses that he can trust shall testifie upon Oath that they were present when it was passed into a Law then he will allow it to be a good Law and after that will be content to suffer the Punishment of it if he shall ever again be a Transgressor Now what Man is there that would think this a reasonable Demand Or what Judge or Court would ever allow of such a Plea And yet as unreasonable as it is it is just the same with theirs who pretending to be more wise and cautious than their Neighbours will not allow of the same sort of Proof tho' indeed much better in its kind of the Truth of the Christian Religion but tho' we have as Authentick Histories as any are in the World such Histories as the greatest Adversaries of Christianity have not been able to say any thing to invalidate the Truth of which declare that Christ and his Apostles taught such and such Doctrines and wrought such and such Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Doctrine yet will not believe that the Doctrine of Christianity is true and Divine unless they may have special Messengers sent to them to declare a-fresh all the same things which the Apostles once did and those endued with a Power of working in their sight and presence the same Miracles over again that are said to have been formerly done by Christ and his Apostles to confirm the Testimony that they gave 2. The Unreasonableness of that Request which the Rich Man here makes in the Behalf of his Brethren viz. That God would make a new Revelation for their particular Conversion or in general The Unreasonableness of our now desiring fresh Revelations new Miracles or Apparitions of Men from the dead to confirm the Truth of those things which are already sufficiently proved to us by the Standing Revelation of the Gospel will further appear if we consider That to us who live now in Christian Countries other Grounds of Faith or stronger Motives to Repentance than we have already in the standing Revelation of the Gospel might be inconsistent with the Excellency of Faith might destroy the Virtue of Believing and might be too great a Force and Constraint upon us such as would in a manner take away our Liberty of Choice For there is no Virtue at all in Believing what we see there is no Praise or Thanks at all due for doing what we are driven or forced to do and for us who have already abundantly sufficient Grounds to believe and embrace Christianity to have fresh Miracles wrought every day before our own eyes such Miracles as we could not possibly doubt the Truth of to confirm those Doctrines which are already sufficiently confirmed would not be to persuade us but to force us to be Christians so that then the State we are now in would not be as God designed it should be a State of Trial for the Trial of Wisdom is when there are some Reasons on both sides and he is the Wise Man who in that Case gives Judgment on that side on which the Reasons are strongest But against what I have now said perhaps it may be objected That the Evidence which we desire of the Truth of Religion is no more than we are told has been already given to some Men particularly to those who lived in our Saviour's and his Apostle's times and we can't see why it would be more inconsistent

Isa 41.21 Produce your Cause as the Prophet speaks and bring forth your strong Reasons by them it may be if you propound them seriously you may convince us that we are in a mistake but we are now in too grave an Humour to be wrought upon by a Jest and how strong soever your Objections against Religion are by a light and trifling way of expressing them you will make them lose all their Force But indeed 3. To what purpose is it for you to make it your Business any ways or by any Arguments to endeavour to proselyte Men to Atheism and Infidelity For whether our Religion be true or false it is better for you as well as for all the World besides that it should be generally believed and that Men should think themselves obliged to live according to the Rules and Precepts of it You can't surely be so unacquainted with the World if you have lived any time in it or read any thing of History but that you must needs know that before the Principles of Atheism and Deism prevail'd so much as they have done of late Years there was a great deal more Truth and Justice and Honesty and fair Dealing in the World than there is now So that if you should succeed in your Endeavour if you should be able either to reason or to laugh Religion quite out of the World the most probable nay the most certain Consequence of it would be that when the Godly Man ceased Ps 12.1 2. the faithful would also fail from among the Children of Men that then they would speak Vanity every one with his Neighbour with flattering Lips and with a double Heart would they speak That then Strength would be the Law of Justice Wisd 2.11 and that which is feeble would be found nothing worth If therefore you have as you think perhaps you have found out the Cheat of Religion 't is your best Prudence however to keep your Discovery to your selves Delight your selves as much as you will with the Contemplation of your own Happiness above other Men in that you are now freed from the Terrors of Conscience and the Fears of another World by means of that notable Discovery which you have made of the Vanity of Religion please your selves as much as you will with thinking that you are not now as others are tied to speak truth when 't is to your disadvantage to suffer any thing in this World for Conscience sake or to be just and honest in your Dealings when you can get considerably by Fraud and Oppression and can order the Matter so secretly as to be safe from Discovery and consequently from all Shame and Punishment from Men But be the Advantage which you have gained to your selves by discovering the Cheat of Religion never so great yet the greater it is and the greater you think it so much the more cautious you ought to be not to make known to others what you have so happily discovered for when once others shall come to know as much as you think you do viz. That all Religion is a Cheat all your Advantage above them will cease they will then be all upon the same Terms with you they will then be all as much at Liberty to defraud oppress or otherwise injure you as you are now to defraud oppress or injure them You ought not therefore in Prudence to try to convince them of their Mistake tho' you were sure it was a Mistake for why should you make it your Business to cut in sunder those Cords of Religion by which they are now tied up from doing you mischief In a word either Religion is true and well grounded or it is not and which soever it be it is better both for them that do believe the Truth of it and for you also that they should continue in the Belief of it why then should you be at Pains only to do mischief For put Case first that Religion is vain and groundless it must be confessed however that it is of some present Advantage to them that do believe it because it serves to bear them up under the unavoidable Pains and Troubles and Misery of this Mortal Life with the comfortable Hope of a blessed Immortality and it will be no Disadvantage to them hereafter for when they are dead if indeed there be no Life after this they will be as if they had never been they will not be then in a Capacity of grieving for their Disappointment And it is also for your present Advantage that they that are mistaken in believing the Truth of Religion should continue in their Mistake because it makes them better to you in every Relation than they would otherwise be more Just and Merciful Governours more Loyal and Obedient Subjects more Loving Parents more Dutiful Children more Gentle Masters more Faithful Servants and more Just Honest and Loving Neighbours why then should you be at any Pains to Cure that Mistake if it be a Mistake which does them no harm but rather good and which is likewise so profitable for you Especially when you can't be so vain as to expect to merit Heaven if indeed there be no Heaven by your Zeal for the Truth of Atheism But if indeed Religion be true and you can't be sure it is not how deficient soever you may think our Proofs of it are as I shall not need to say that it will be better for them that believe it that they should persist in their Belief of it so I shall not need to say much to shew that it will in the Event be better for you that you should not endeavour to pervert them for certainly if there be a Hell they will be condemned to the hottest place in it who not only withdrew themselves from their Subjection to Almighty God and would not suffer him to reign over them but made it also their Business to corrupt others to form a Party against Heaven and to raise an Universal Rebellion against God These things and more to the like Purpose I would say to the Atheists if I thought they were here to hear me And I should not be without Hope that altho' what was said before in the foregoing Discourses was not sufficient to cure their Infidelity what has been now said might serve to convince them that it is the wisest Course to keep their Infidelity to themselves that how little soever they believe of the Truth of Religion it is not Prudence to tell the World that they are Men of no Principles and consequently not fit to be employed or trusted that 't is not good Manners to make a Jest of Serious and Sacred things and to affront the common Reason and Judgment of Mankind and that 't is not for their Interest to endeavour to bring other Men over to their side because if none had more Religion than themselves they could not be near so safe and secure in their Rights and Possessions and in their Lives the only