Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	accurse_v	gospel_n	preach_v	3,369	5	7.5844	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66408	The perfection of the evangelical revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 6, 1695/6, being the first of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2717; ESTC R38655	14,734	36

The Perfection of the Evangelical Revelation A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields Jan. 6. 1695 6. BEING THE First of the LECTURE For this Present YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cockerill Sen r Jun r At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey MDCXCVI GAL. I. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed THE People of the Jews having been all along trained up under the Law of Moses and by virtue of it possess'd of peculiar Advantages beyond any other Nation were apt to think it as lasting in its Obligation as Divine in its Original and that it was no more in the intention of Almighty God to have it abolished than it could be disproved to have come immediately from him This made them slow and backward to receive the Gospel by which their ancient Constitution would be disannulled and after they had believed it made them inclinable to hearken to such Sophisters as pretended to compound the Controversy and to join Moses and Christ the Law and the Gospel together so as to be both alike necessary to Salvation Which is in effect to set up another Gospel than what the Apostle had taught and they had received from him and therefore he expresses his resentment and indignation against it with the highest aggravations Verses 6 7 8. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel Which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ But though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed c. In discoursing upon which words I shall consider 1. What is understood by the Gospel which the Apostle had preached and they had received 2. What by another Gospel against which and the Preachers of it the Apostle so sharply inveighs and pronounces an Anathema 3. I shall shew that the Gospel is the only Revelation from God and that there is not another nor is any other to be expected 1. The Gospel is here opposed to the Law of Moses which there were some in the Churches of Galatia as well as in other places that would maintain to be necessary to Salvation if not alone yet in conjunction with the Gospel as aforesaid These two indeed were so far consistent that the Law was a prefiguration a Shadow and Type of the Gospel But being thus a Shadow and a Type of it That in reason and from the nature of the thing was to give way when the Substance came on and the Types were fulfilled And therefore though the Law was established at the first by Divine Authority yet in course was it to cease in its obligation when the reason of it ceased And consequently to plead for its Authority and Obligation whether in conjunction with or opposition to the Gospel was to say that the substance of those Shadows the completion of those Types was not accomplished that Jesus was not the Messiah nor the Gospel true In this sense these two that in a state of subordination were consistent by this means were made to be opposites to each other So the Apostle Chap. 5. 2. If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing V. 4. Ye are fallen from grace ye at the same time deny what you seem to confess it is a perverting the Gospel of Christ and establishing another Gospel But this is only a kind of a negative account of the Gospel therefore we are to proceed further in the consideration of it and then we are to understand by the Gospel the Christian Religion and more especially that part of it which is called Christian and for which the Professors of it are called Christians as distinguished from all Religons besides All mankind are not more of the same common Nature than they generally agree in the common Principles of Nature And that which is natural to all cannot be a Character by which one man is distinguished from another But when a Man or Institution is called Christian it is for somewhat peculiar and distinct from that which is common to all And therefore though the Law of Nature be a branch of the Christian Religion as it was of the Mosaical and is also in it self of a never failing obligation yet there is a supervenient Institution and somewhat besides that which denominates us to be Christians without the belief and practice of which we can no more be entitled to to that Character than that can be called a Natural Religion which excludes or is contradictory to the Laws of Nature and the just Reason of Mankind And of the number of such Principles which are necessary to the Constitution of Christianity and consequently to the Character of a Christian and are the Articles of his Faith are the Incarnation and Nativity the Death and Resurrection and Glorification of our Saviour 1. His Nativity and Incarnation So 1 John 4. 2 3. He that denieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 2. His Death as he died for Mankind and was a Sacrifice for Sin So St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3. I declare unto you the Gospel which also ye have heard and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures So that to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and as a Suffering Messiah was according to the Scriptures and by the belief of which we are to be saved 3. His Resurrection and what was consequent upon it his Glorification the reward of his Humiliation In which state he is constituted our Mediator From the connexion betwixt which two his Death and Intercession it is that we seldom read in Scripture of the one without the other These are constituent and essential Articles of Christianity and if these or any of these are omitted as it is not Christianity which is left and it would be another Gospel so it is what the Apostle's Anathema will be applicable to From whence we may be able to answer the next Question 2. What is to be understood by another Gospel When the Apostle speaks here of another Gospel he thereby means somewhat that is added to it and with it made necessary to Salvation as it was when the observation of the Law of Moses was maintained to be as obligatory to the Christians as ever it had been to the Jews

there is nothing either in the nature of the thing nor is there any notification of the Divine Will concerning any time set for its expiration but rather the contrary and so there is not the same reason for a new Dispensation after the Evangelical as there was for the Evangelical after the Mosaical I grant that it is as possible in it self for God to reveal himself at some time hereafter as it was for him to have revealed himself heretofore And he that revealed himself under the Law and at the first Institution of the Gospel may if he so please after the same manner reveal himself at any time or times But he that will assert the futurity of this must have more to prove it than a possibility It is certain God has revealed himself and that the Gospel was by Revelation from him But there is not the like certainty for a Revelation after the Gospel or in after-times of the Gospel as there is that the Gospel it self was of Divine Revelation It is certain that the Gospel has been the only Revelation for above 1600 years past and that we have had no other Revelation than that contained in the Scripture And therefore whatever Pretences any Persons or Age made to it were apparently Mistakes and Impostures for that Dispensation of the Holy Ghost which each Sect fancied to be in their Age or near to it is yet to come if ever it is to be But to give some further light and force to this Argument I shall shew 1. That there is no proof of any other Revelation than the Gospel of our Saviour and now recorded and preserved in the Holy Scripture 2. That there is no need of any further Revelation 3. That the Scripture shuts up all Revelation with it self so that no other Revelation is to be expected beyond it 1. There is no proof of any other Revelation than what is contained in the Scripture If any one will contend that there either is or shall be such a Revelation he must have some Revelation to prove it And that must either be an antecedent Revelation such as Scripture is taken to be or it must be some personal Revelation made to himself or to some other credible Person or Persons But where is the Revelation of this Revelation If it be to be found in Scripture where is the Prediction of such a State That the Gospel shall be superannuated and another of greater perfection shall grow out of it Under the Law there was a plain signification of another Revelation to be in the time of the Messiah and of a more perfect state of things to ensue But where are the Proofs as plain under the Gospel for a New Revelation as there were for that of the Gospel under the Law Or where is it said of that as it is of the Law that it decayeth or is antiquated and waxeth old and so is ready to or shall at last vanish away Our Apostle here saith on the contrary If we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed If it be a personal Revelation then we may reasonably demand Where is the Evidence for such a Revelation All Revelation must have a sufficient Evidence and if it be a true Revelation and what obliges us to receive it as such it will be able to produce its Evidence And a New Revelation must suppose a better sort of Evidence than the former or at least equal to it There must be the like wonderful Works the Blind must as miraculously be made to see and the Lame to walk and the Diseased to be whole and the Dead to rise Nay Christ himself must again descend from Heaven and dye and rise and ascend or else the Miracles will fall short of what it is in competition with Nay it must proceed farther and its Evidence must not only be equal but superior also to that which it is to supplant It was not only fit that Moses's Rod should be turn'd into a Serpent but when the Magicians pretended to do the same to shew his Power to be greater than theirs his Serpentine Rod swallowed up theirs It was not enough that he brought forth Frogs when Jannes and Jambres produced the like but that he should do what they could not and so what would oblige them to acknowledge it to be the Finger of God And thus our Saviour being to advance a new Scheme of things did not only shew he was the Person described and prophesied of but also by his numerous Miracles and many of them such as never any neither Moses nor any Prophetical Person ever did work If then there be no such Evidence for such a new Revelation where there is a pretence to it we may conclude it to be another Gospel a supposititious Revelation and what is to have no credence given to it no regard paid to it It 's Anathema 2. There is no need of any further Revelation Revelation has somewhat in it of a Miracle it is a way extraordinary and as we cannot suppose God will work Miracles and break through the standing Laws of Nature when there is no occasion for it nor necessity to require it so we cannot suppose he will communicate himself by a way of Revelation and immediate Inspiration and much less break down an Established Order of his own appointment when there is as much reason for the Continuance of it as for the Institution and that it answers all the Ends for which a new Constitution can be framed or a new Revelation made The Apostle argues If the first Covenant had been faultless there should no place have been sought for the second And if there be a place for a Third there must be some fault or imperfection chargeable upon the Second But that I shall shew it to be freed from and that the Second Covenant or Gospel-Revelation is so perfect that there is no need of another For 1. There can be no more noble and useful Subject for a Revelation than that of the Gospel which is concerning God's Reconciliation to Mankind and their Redemption by the Death of his Son And where this is plainly revealed there is no place for a Second nor any need of a new Revelation 2. If we consider the Gospel-Revelation as a Covenant consisting of Promises and Conditions there cannot be more excellent and beneficial than those nor more necessary than these For what can be proposed of greater advantage unto Mankind than what the Gospel offers to those that believe and obey it It is no less than the favour of God the blessing and protection of his Providence the assistance of his Spirit and in the close of all Everlasting Life a translation out of this mortal uncomfortable and uncertain State to a State of unchangeable Happiness where Body and Soul shall again be united When this corruptible shall put on incorruption