Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A67574
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Seven sermons preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum.
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Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing W830; ESTC R38484
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145,660
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578
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to reject them for want of such evidence is repugnant to the Reason of mankind I proceed therefore to my second assertion that the Belief of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures is most agreable to reason That the Divine Authority of all the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are undeniably concluded from supposition of the truth of the Relation or History of matters of fact in the New Testament I have already shewn And that the rejection of all History is against the Reason of mankind is evident because all mankind receive some History or other wherefore I shall briefly shew 1. That the History of the New Testament hath all those advantages whereof any History is capable 2. That it hath greater advantages than any other History 1. The Arguments inducing men to the belief of any historical Relation are all of them Either Ab intra Internal from the 1. Credibility and Scibility of the Object 2. The Knowledge and Integrity of the Writers 3. The way and manner of writing Ab extra External from the 1. Reception of it in the world 2. Concurrent testimonies of strangers 3. Concessions of Adversaries and the like In all which particulars no History in the world can justly pretend any advantage above that of the New Testament 1. For the credibility of the Object and Cognoscibility of it 1. To say that instances of supernatural Power and wisdom are impossible is to deny the power of God and his providence in governing the world And to say that such things are incredible as are and have been actually believed in all times and by all sorts of persons Jews and Gentiles Christians and Mahometans a few Atheistical persons only accepted is an absurdity The History that we speak of pretends to no intrigues or Cabalistick Counsels or Myisteries of State but conteins it self within the limits of things Visible and Audible things that were done or spoken so that no History can have advantage over it respectu objecti 2. As for Knowledge in the deliverers I shall shew it by a brief Induction The whole New Testament consists of the Books of the Revelation Epistles Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels The Authors of the Epistles and the Revelation in the Narrative parts of them deliver the things done or spoken to or by themselves and could not be ignorant of their own experiences The Book of the Acts contains some things done by or to the rest of the Apostles but chiefly the concernments of Paul and it was written by Luke who was an individual Companion of Paul and intimately conversant with the rest of the Apostles For the things Related in the Gospel of St. Luke he saith they were delivered to him by those who from the beginning were Eye witnesses of the works and Ministers of the Word and his History agrees with the other Evangelists The Gospel of St. Mark hath nothing which is not in St. Matthew or St. John and was dictated by St. Peter the Head of the Apostles St. Matthew was an Apostle and St. John the Bosom Apostle of Christ. The Apostles were chosen by him for Witnesses of his Words and Actions they were with him from the beginning of his Ministry continued with him till his death couversed with him till his ascension That which they had heard which they had seen with their Eyes which they had looked on which their hands had handled of the word of life that they delivered in writing to the World And more than this no Writer or Relater of History can pretend to 2. For Arguments of their sincerity they have left Precepts of Veracity and prohibitions of lying under pain of Hell torments the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone They have protested that they did not follow cunningly devised Fables that they did things sincerely as in the sight of God They have appealed to the searcher of hearts The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knoweth that I lie not The things which I write unto you behold before God I lye not Gal. 1. 20. saith St. Paul They have left behind them various instances of their simplicity and Godly sincerity in representing their failings to the world and of candour and ingenuity in distinguishing the dictates of their own Reason from the inspirations of the Holy Spirit I speak by permission not by commandment of the Lord This say I not the Lord Thus it is according to my judgment c. 1 Cor. 7. But besides all this let the matter be estimated according to common reason If these men did devise a Fable and impose it upon the world what end could they propound to themselves in so doing was there any profit in being destitute of all things or pleasure in being persecuted afflicted and tormented or honour in being counted Fools and Mad-men Before they began to publish the Stories whereof we speak their Master was gone and all worldly hopes were gone away with him If they were not bound in Conscience and in Spirit what obligation had he laid upon them to labour and suffer for his honour as they did To omit the severity of his behaviour to them He called them off from their Vocations Peter and Andrew James and John from their Fishing Mattbew from his Customers place the rest accordingly They forsook their Nets their Ships their Relations and all their interests and followed him And this they did clearly and plainly believing that he was to be a Great Temporal Prince and in hopes of preferment under him In this Expectation they continued to the last minute of his conversation with them upon Earth and he permitted them so to do Their last words to him were delivered in this question Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom unto Israel Of the thing it self they never doubted they only desire to be informed of the time Now after so long expectation Consider his Answer His Answer was this It is not for you to know the times c. but ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses of me unto the utmost parts of the earth and immediately he vanished away Was this an answer to their Question or a satisfaction to their expectation Was this an Obligation laid upon them If he had not sent down the Holy Ghost this would have moved them indeed but it would have been to rage and indignation this would have obliged them indeed but it would have been to detest and abhor the name and memory of him that had abused them But for the honour of his name not their own they did and suffered all things and gloried in it An irrefragable argument of their sincerity in the things which they delivered 3. Of the internal Arguments for the belief of History there remains only the Consideration of the way and manner of writing Histories then carry their own credentials in them when the principal parts
up in chains that he should exclude them from the benefit of Repentance and reserve them to the Judgement of the Great Day That he should allow this priviledge to lapsed men that he should reveal himself to them that he should make them understand their duty and their interest that he should set before them good and evil happiness and misery the desire and the detestation of humane nature that he should by all means court and wooe them to that which all men naturally desire and discourage and divert them from that which they naturally abhorr That after all this he should not prevail in such a case as this that they should scornfully reject the end of all their hopes that they should studiously pursue the object of all their fears This is that rational wonder that I am now to lay before you To manifest this wonder a little more explicitely let us consider the advantages of Nature and the Motives from Scripture to bring men to repentance The grounds and fundamental elements of the Doctrine of Repentance are these The Being Attributes of God The immortality of the Souls of men The principles of Synteresis The terrours of natural Conscience The forecasts of vengeance The apprehension and desire of an Attonement And all these are manifest from the Dictates and discoveries of the Light of Nature The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work They speak it loud they spread it largely they proclaim it constantly Their sound is gone out into all the world there is no speech or language but their voice is heard among them The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen even his eternal power and God-head Concerning his providence in governing the world St. Paul tells the men of Lyftra and the Priest of Jupiter that he did not leave himself without witness amongst the Heathen The whole earth is full of his righteousness and all the people see his glory So that a man shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth He is not far from any one of us in whom we live and move and have our being He is the Father of Spirits and we are his off-spring Surely there is a spirit within a man and that spirit immortal deriving from Him who only hath immortality And these things have asserted themselves with so great evidence that they have been generally acknowledged by all sorts of heathen Authors Philosophers Historians Orators and Poets Moreover they shew the Lam of Synteresis written in their hearts they have consciences accusing or excusing they find themselves concluded under sin and are perplexed and tormented under the apprehensions of an offended God For Conscience condemned by its own witness is very timorous and always fore-casteth grievous things The starting of Alexander when he had killed his friend and of Nero when he had destroyed his mother The confusions of Tiberius when he wrote from Capreae to the Senate concerning the death of Sejanus The fore tastes of an avenging Nemesis described by heathen Orators and Historians The passions ascribed to Medea and Hercules and Orestes c. by the Poets The Rites and Sacrifices of all the Pagan world The prodigious ways of expiations devised to make their attonement with their imaginary Deities offended They were all of them the products of natural Conscience exerting it self in such a disquisition as is delivered by the Prophet Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord or bow my self before the high God shall I come fore him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul All these and many more are the Indications of Nature the incitements and provocations of natural Conscience to bring men to repentance But beside these common Motives the persons of the Text whether they were the Jews and Inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of it by Titus and Vespasian or any that called themselves Christians they had a clearer and more glorious light to guide them they had far more efficacious and noble Motives to 〈◊〉 and urge them to repentance the Light and Motives of the Holy Scriptures There it is that the Power and Wisdom and Goodness and Severity of God are gloriously displayed the immortal Nature and sinful condition of the souls of men the rewards and punishments of this life and of the world to come are clearly discovered The elements of the Doctrine of Repentance the Motives to it are there explained and applyed mixt and combined a 1000 several ways The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are nothing else but a Systeme of various powerful Methods to bring men to repentance This is the general aim and common scope of all the Doctrines the Histories the Logick and Rhetorick of the Book of God This was Noah's Text upon which he preached to the old world 120 years Upon this errand God sent all the Prophets rising early and sending them they said Turn again now every one from his evil way This was the message of him that was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand Our Lord Christ and his seventy Disciples and his twelve Apostles they all with one voice infisted upon this Theme and when the Holy Ghost himself descended he likewise drove at this conclusion Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The time would fail me if I fhould attempt in any measure to lay before you the declarations promises threatnings exhortations dehortations reasonings expostulations instances of mercies and of judgements delivered in the Scriptures to bring men to repentance To this end God hath declared himself slow to anger gracious and merciful He hath said that he would have no man perish He hath sworn that he doth not desire the death of the wicked but had rather that he should turn and live He considers our frame and his ways are equal He is ready to pardon to pardon iniquity transgression and sin though they are as scarlet to make them white as snow if they be a cloud to scatter them like a cloud Wherefore let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous his imaginations and return unto the Lord. On the other side to break the hardness of the hearts of men to rouze them up from their impenitency he declares his justice and asserts his propriety in vengeance Vengeance is mine and I will repay it He protests that he will by no means acquit the guilty that he is of