Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	deny_v	teach_v	ungodliness_n	4,302	5	11.7286	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66409	The possibility, expediency, and necessity of divine revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 7. 1694/5 : at the beginning of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1695 (1695)	Wing W2718; ESTC R2129	12,841	37

State who because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God but became vain in their imaginations their foolish heart was darkned Rom. 1. 21. Of which darkness and confusion in matters of the greatest importance the World the Commonalty as well as the Philosophical part of Mankind was sensible and of the necessity of a Revelation or somewhat beyond Nature Reason and Argumentation to remove these difficulties to inform them of what they could not otherwise know and to clear up to them what they did know but imperfectly Of which I shall offer some undeniable Instances 1. They universally complained of the loss they were at and of the insufficiency of all their Maxims and Principles of all their Enquiries and Speculations to give them any tolerable satisfaction so that they were in nothing more divided than about what Happiness is as St. Austin from Varro has shew'd And therefore there was somewhat further necessary to satisfy them or else they must for ever remain unsatisfied 2. There was nothing more desired than a Revelation and therefore they were prone to hearken to all pretences to it and when they conceived or were made to believe it was a Revelation they were in nothing more obsequious and pliable So that to gain Authority to his Laws and to keep the People Quiet and Orderly Numa Pompilius did then as Mahomet of latter years pretend he had all by Revelation from the Nymph Egeria And of such Authority was this pretence that as Tully saith There was nothing so absurd which was not maintained by some of the Philosophers so I may say There was nothing so foolish or wicked which was not an ingredient in the Worship they gave to their Deities Insomuch as the nature of things should be perverted Reason and Humanity should be abandoned and God himself be made worse than those that Worshipped him in compliance with their pretended Revelations What Beastiality and Lewdness what Savage and Barbarous Practices and Rites were allowed and required The Blood of Captives and of their own Children must be a Libation nay even Suicide was not only Honourable but a Religious Martyrdome if the Oracle commanded it and they chose rather to be unnatural to the highest degree than not to be Obedient to Divine Revelation Now of what authority must that be which should over-rule the Laws of Nature and so infatuate Mankind that they should not be able to espy the Imposture And what could thus impose upon them if they were not sensible of the imperfect state they were in and the need they stood in of some higher Principle and greater Light to direct them than that of Nature 3. There was no Nation without a Revelation that is without some pretence to it and which they generally vouched for their Rites and Religious Observances from whence it was that there was scarcely a People of any note in the more Civilized parts of the World that had not their Sibyls such as were accounted to be the mouth of their God to be sure none in any part of the known world without an Oracle that they repaired to and whose Injunctions they readily Obeyed The use I make of all this is to show what a sense Mankind had of a Revelation and what all the World has thought Expedient if not Necessary which was the thing to be proved From what has been said we may observe I. What a Happiness it is to have a Revelation by which Mankind are brought out of darkness into a marvellous light and from an endless and fruitless Enquiry Who will shew us my good are placed in a quiet and full possession of it If there be no Revelation we are as it were with ut God in the world and know not whether that Divine Power be our Friend or our Enemy or whether it shall be exerted to our Good or our Ruine If there be no Revelation we are still in our sins and have no Sanctuary against the accusation of our own embittered Consciences the fears of our own guilty Minds or the Justice of an incensed Deity If there be no Revelation we have no hope and can have no comfort in our Death and no assurance of Immortality after it If there be no Revelation we are in a perpetual maze as if we were at Sea without Star or Compass and knew not what course to take to gain our Harbour So thoughtful and pensive so confounded and lost is Mankind without this that if I were to chuse whether I would have no Revelation or a false one for the quiet of my own mind did I believe the false one to be true I would rather chuse the content of the latter than the distraction of the former and leave it to my own reason to rectify the manifest mistakes in it rather than have my hovering Reason to be my constant affliction under the want of Revelation But Blessed be God that there is no cause for such a supposition and that we have all the reason in the world to believe there is a Revelation a Revelation that is such as all Mankind would desire that touches upon all points necessary to our comfort and entire satisfaction as to the Nature and Will of God the Present and Future State of Mankind the Providence that Governs this World and the Rewards of another A Revelation where all the parts of it agree together and bear a conformity to the Nature of things to the Holiness Justice and Mercy of God and to the Reason of Mankind where there is a System of the best Principles and a Scheme of the best Rules and Directions and which like the Book of Nature the more it 's viewed and consulted the more do the lively Characters of a Divine Hand and Wisdom appear in the Composure A Character this is that the Book of Scripture exactly answers For what holy Precepts what heavenly Promises what useful Examples what excellent Encouragements do the Sacred Pages abound in Such as are sufficient to direct us in every point of our Duty to inform us in every necessary Truth to establish our Hearts in every condition of Life to enable us to encounter all the difficulties of it with Resolution and to bear all the evil of it with Patience Here behold God Reconciled to Mankind the trembling Sinner Pardoned the Weak sustained the Doubtful satisfied and nothing wanting on God's part to make us Happy if we are not wanting in a fit disposition of Mind to receive it So that if there be any Revelation it is the Christian if that be not a Revelation from God there is no Revelation in the World And if that be a Revelation that only is so and there can be no other II. Such as the Revelation is such is the Obligation the Authority it receives from God the Obligation lies upon us to Obey as well as Believe it The times of ignorance God winked at and overlook'd but now he commandeth all men every where to repent Acts 17. 30 He hath commanded them by a Revelation which is of universal concernment and extends its Authority over the World So that a Bad man is no better or safer for a Revelation how perfect soever it be and how great soever the advantages of it are than he that is without Revelation nay so much the worse as the latter is a state of Unbelief the former of Disobedience this errs without his will but the other with it And therefore if the Heathens who had only the Book of Nature to read and a blundering Reason for their Guide were yet so far inexcusable because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 2. 21. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first was spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by those that heard him God also bearing them witness c. Heb. 2. 3 4. What remains then but since the Grace of God in the Revelation of the Gospel hath appeared unto all men that we be thereby taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world And then we may comfortably look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 11. FINIS Books Printed for Richard Chiswell and Thomas Cockerill RVshworth's Historical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes Containing the Principal matters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament November 3 1640. to the end of the Year 164● 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