Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A67561
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An apology for the mysteries of the Gospel being a sermon preached at White-Hall, Feb. 16, 1672/3 / by Seth, Lord Bishop of Sarum.
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Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing W815; ESTC R38484
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24,128
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100
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that he was sent to Preach and not to Baptize that this was that which Christ sent him to Preach and that he determined to know nothing else among them but Iesus Christ and him Crucified and in Chap. 1. v. 23. he declares this to have been the occasion of the Scandal taken both by Jews and Gentiles I Preach Christ Crucified to the Iews a stumbling-block c. The Scandal taken was against the Mysteries of the Gospel and the Nature and Mediatorian Office the Character and Personal Concernment of Christ and work of Redemption by his blood spilt upon the Cross are the two great and comprehensive heads to which the whole Mystery of the Gospel is easily naturally and immediately reducible The Justification Sanctification entire Oeconomy of the salvation of man depends immediately upon the work of Redemption by the blood of Christ. The value and efficacy of his blood resolves into the Excellency of his Person and of his Nature That he was the Son of God the Father Conceived by the Holy Ghost which Father Son and Holy Ghost are one So that in the last resolution the conjunction of the Divine and Humane Natures in the Unity of the Person of Christ and the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Nature of the Godhead is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gospel And this is also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great thing whereof it is imagined that a Christian or a Preacher ought to be ashamed Which will be yet more evident if we shall make a brief reflection upon the Nature and Symptoms of the Prejudices against the Gospel and the Character of the persons more especially obnoxious to these Prejudices 3. Beside the consideration of Interest real or imaginary and the disappointment of mens desires and expectations an ordinary eminent and predominant ingredient in the prejudices of all men there are two things which in men pretending to prudence and vertue or to reason and understanding are apt to create a distaste against any way of Institution or any Doctrine wherein they are supposed or presumed to be 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apprehension of Turpitude or dishonesty either intrinsecally contained in that which is propounded or consequentially involved with it 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apprehension of some Absurdity or unreasonableness in it 1. Of the former sort are Principles of Atheism Irreligion Immorality the Doctrines of Diagoras who denyed the being of God of Carneades concerning good and evil of Diogenes concerning Incest c. which have an Intrinsick and immediate turpitude The Doctrine of Epicurus concerning the Mortality of the Soul a consequential Principle of all Impiety Injustice and Debauchery if that be the case Let us eat and drink c. These are injurious to the Interest of Mankinde and they put an indignity upon the practical reason and principles of men and are apt to be distastefull and offensive instances whereof there are very many among the Heathens as among others that of the Athenians who banished Protagoras and caused his Books to be burnt in the open Market-place because he wrote doubtfully concerning the being of a God But as for these it hath not been in the power of malice to fasten them upon the Gospel or in the compass of mistake to suppose them in it so that it hath been clearly exempted from this Prejudice 2. The other thing that creates an aversion against any Doctrine is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apprehension of absurdity or unreasonableness in the things propounded wherein the Wit and Theoretick Reason or Understanding of men takes it self no matter whether it be justly or unjustly to be affronted and this is as distastefull as the former An Instance whereof we have in the sixth of St. Iohn where when Christ told those that followed him of eating his flesh and drinking his blood speaking in a figure not obvious to their vulgar understanding they cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was a hard saying and taking themselves to be abused they finally forsook him I say that the apprehension of Moral turpitude or Logical absurdity are equally distasteful But in their more peculiar Subjects and Symptoms and Aptitude to mistake and Prejudice they differ The former aversion hath its peculiar seat and residence in Vertuous and Prudent men the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and discovers it self in Zeal and Indignation as against things dangerous and pernicious the later is subjected in persons who are or take themselves to be men of Wit and Learning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Symptoms of it are scorn and contempt as of things absurd and nonsensical foolish and irrational And in matters of this nature men are more inclinable to fall into mistake and Prejudice than in the former The Notions of Truth and Falshood lie more abstruse than those of Good and Evil and men are more apt to be deceived in their wit than in their honesty No Truths are so liable to mistake and prejudice as the professedly Mysterious and without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness The ground of this Prejudice is an Impotency to distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt Truth and Clearness Obscurity and Absurdity Being inconceivable and incredible Being incomprehensible and Being unaccountable 4. This Impotency is an Infirmity to which the Brisk and the sudden the forward and impatient the talkative and disputatious all such as scorn the dulness of consideration and think themselves above the drudgery of thinking that is to say the Wits and Beaux esprits are of all men living the most obnoxious And from hence it is that by persons of this Character to be despised hath alwayes been the fortune of the Gospel The condition of the Gospel amongst our selves I shall not in this place at this time labour to declare I come not hither to accuse my Nation But that it was thus in the Apostles time we have sufficient assurance He tells us that the most eminent despisers the Contemptores legitimi of the Gospel were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tropical Rhetorician and the Flanting Orator the Jibing Satyrist and Scurrilous Comedian the Sophistical Philosopher and Everlasting Disputant the Conceited Scribe and Pharisaical Opiniator Where saith the Apostle is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this World The entertainment which the Gospel found at the hands of such as these was generally that of scorn and contempt Speaking in the person of men of this Character whether Iews or Gentiles our Apostle in the compass of two Chapters doth nine times call the Mysteries of the Gospel foolishness and foolish things things weak ignoble and despised and
that Local Motion was a thing impossible one of his Auditors rose up and silently and sliely walked about the School and so confuted him The most pervious most clear and comprehensible of all humane Sciences are the pure and unmixed Mathematicks yet even in Geometry and Arithmetick how many things are forceably concluded to be true which are inexplicable unimaginable incomprehensible I shall instance in a very few So few as not to need an Apology to the unlearned in those Sciences So trivial as not to admit of an Explication to the Learned That the least imaginable space should be equal to another upon the same Base of the same Altitude whose sides are protracted in infinitum or a Finite greater than an Infinite The equality of all Circular Angles of Contact The everlasting approximation and impossible concourse of Asymptots The affections of surd and irrational Quantities c. are undeniably demonstrated to be true yet all these and many more are inexplicable incomprehensible unintelligible They say they cannot explicate or imagine they cannot conceive or comprehend the Mystery of the Trinity and Unity of the Godhead and therefore they despise it as a mere fictitious imagination Do they therefore clearly understand and fully comprehend and can they express and explicate the Affections of Unity and Trinity in Numbers That there should be a Quantity in Nature one and not another which with its infinite ascending powers and descending roots are all of them equal or rather one and the same among themselves Can they explicate or imagine or comprehend any one of the infinite potential roots of the Number Three They say they cannot understand how Christ should be conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a Virgin and therefore they deride it Can they therefore understand how they themselves have been conceived and born and nourished up And are they able to explain how and by what progress from a little water spilt upon a too luxurious ground there should spring forth such a Race of Titans such a Gigantick brood of fighters against Heaven of Scoffers at Religion Briefly they say they cannot comprehend how God and Man should be one Christ and therefore they contemn the Gospel and the Believers of it Can they therefore understand how the reasonable Soul and Flesh should be one man Either they themselves consist of two natures the one Corporeal the other Spiritual and Incorporeal or they do not If they have nothing in them Incorporeal can they understand and explain how sensless Atoms how stupid Matter and Local Motion should work themselves up to Sense and Cogitation Reflection and Discourse to Wit and Gallantry so as to make Jests and Ballads upon the Gospels If they consist not only of a Body but of a Soul a spiritual Soul also Can they explain by what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these two natures have been brought together by what bands and ligaments they are united and how the Communication betwixt them is performed In one word Can they explicate the Phenomena of Sense Imagination Memory Reason Wit and Bravery If they are able to perform these things let the world be made happy by their labours and let them receive the Paeans and Acclamations the Crowns and Garlands denyed to all that were before them But if they must be forced to confess that all these things are inexplicable unimaginable unintelligible and incomprehensible and will yet continue to despise the Mysteries of the Gospel only for that reason because they are inexplicable unintelligible incomprehensible let them not be offended at a poor despised Minister of the Gospel if he shall declare and testifie to all the World that these are not the Wits or Beaux Esprits or Forts Esprits that they are Flesh and not Spirit mere ordinary mortal Wights as others are that all their boasting is but empty noise and all they have to shew is a mere Deceptio visus that they may be Masters of some devices that are pretty skilfull in the Arts and Mysteries of Circulation and disguise but they are not such dreadfull Archimago's such mighty Conjurers as they pretend Let them therefore abandon their unreasonable Principle and be ashamed 2. But secondly as is the Principle upon which they contemn such are their Postulata the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosophers and Mathematicians call them that is to say the terms or demands upon which they pretend that they would cease to despise the Gospel and for want of which they do contemn it These Postulata are reducible to two Heads 1. Philosophical Demonstration Or 2. The sight of Miracles Signs and Wonders at their demand This is the pretence of the Wits of these Times if the truth of the Mysteries of the Gospel might be proved to them by Demonstration or if they might see a Sign they would believe This was the pretence at the time of the writing of my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews required a Sign the Greeks i. e. the Gentiles sought after Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because they were disappointed of these the mystery of Christ Crucified was to the Jews a Scandal to the Greeks foolishness For brevity let us name these two 1. The Grecanick or Philosophical Postulatum 2. The Judaick or Semiotical Postulatum Now that the former of these proceeds from Ignorance and want of Learning and Understanding the later from Pride and Arrogance joyned with a blockish Stupidity That the former is disingenious the later disingenuous that both of them are irrational and absurd is evident 1. And first for the Grecanical Postulatum In the case of any Doctrine or question to refuse a proof that is Cogent and sufficient the only proof whereof a thing is capable and to hanker or seek after a Proof impossible or improper such as implies a Contradiction or such as the nature of the question will not bear This I say proceeds from Ignorance from want of Learning and Understanding and this is the case of the Grecanick or Philosophical Postulatum To give a rational or Philosophical Demonstration of the truth of the Gospel there are but three wayes imaginable in Nature By Arguments either 1. A Priori from the common Principles of Intelligence Or 2. A Posteriori from experiment and sensible observations And this latter way of arguing must be drawn either 1. From instances of things Novel and Anomalous in Nature things purposely designed for such Arguments Or else 2. It must be taken from the common and ordinary the standing and perpetnal Phenomena of Nature A Demonstration à posteriori by particular Instances of the Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness purposely designed for that end was the proof offered by Christ and his Apostles This they rejected To prove particular Mysteries Mysteries hidden from Ages and so declared and professed to be by the Promulgers by general and perpetual Phenomena of Nature is