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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	divine_a	trinity_n	unity_n	2,602	5	9.3119	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67574	Seven sermons preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.	1674 (1674)	Wing W830; ESTC R38484	145,660	578

Declarations Commendations Exhortations concerning being not ashamed 2. I pass therefore to the second thing propounded to enquire what is the special Object of these Prejudices or what are those things contained in the Gospel whereof in an especial manner it is imagined that we ought to be ashamed Though the whole System of the Gospel lies under Prejudices yet not all parts of it alike some more than other and some by reason of the other The whole Gospel is generally dividable into 1. Historical Narrations 2. Moral Institutions and Motives 3. Dogmatical Mysteries These are delivered sometimes distinctly and severally and sometimes they are combined and mixed together That there was such a person as Christ that he was born of Mary that Joseph was his reputed Father The manner of his Life and of his Death his Actions and his Teachings are matters meerly Historical That this reputed Son of Joseph was indeed the Son of God conceived by the Holy Ghost born of a Virgin and the like have in them a Combination of the Mystery together with the History of the Gospel I stand not to shew how the Morality is sometimes simply delivered and sometimes in Combination with the Mysterious parts of the Gospel 1. Now concerning those parts of the Gospel which are merely and simply Historical and Moral I suppose they cannot be here intended Because that to such persons as the Romans were men pretending to Reason and Philosophy they afford no colour for an imagination that a Minister or Christian ought to be ashamed Supposing the truth of what is there delivered whereof I have spoken heretofore what was there in the Birth or Life or Death the Conversation or Actions ordinary or extraordinary of Christ or his Apostles whereof in the opinion of a Philosopher a Christian ought to be ashamed Was it the meanness of Christs Nativity That he was the reputed Son of Joseph who was of a mean and despicable Occupation Was it that he lived an Ambulatory kinde of life teaching and disputing concerning good and evil happiness and unhappiness in the Synagogues and in the Temple and the Streets and Markets and in the Wilderness every where Preaching the Doctrine of the Kingdom Or lastly Was it because of the occasion and manner of his Death because he was Condemned and Executed by his Countrey-men upon an accusation of corrupting the People and making an Innovation in Religion upon pretence of holding intercourse with God Every one of these circumstances had been coincident in Socrates long before the time of the writing of this Epistle to the Romans He was the Son of Sophroniscus as poor a man as Joseph a Carver of Images in Stone his Mother was a Midwife His Conversation was Ambulatory discourfing and reasoning at all times and in all places in Academia in Lycaeo in Foro in places of walking and of publick Exercise when he ate or drank or played in the Camp the Market or the Prison with all the men he met withall concerning Virtue and Vice and the summum bonum concerning Wisdom and Folly And he had been condemned and executed by the Athenians upon the very same pretences which were objected against our Saviour Yet all these disadvantages had not hindred Socrates at that time after about 500 years from the Admiration and almost Adoration of all men pretending to Philosophy and Wisdom not only amongst all the rest of the Gentile World but even amongst the Romans also And therefore the mere Historical part of the Gospel could minister no colour of suspicion why a Minister or a Christian should be ashamed of it 2. Moreover the same may be said of those parts of the Gospel which are merely Practical and Moral The Precepts concerning Piety and Justice and Temperance in all the several branches of them and the motives to them The Morality of the Gospel infinitely excells the Institutions of any of the Heathen Philosophers all that they could object against it was its too great purity and holiness that it puts a violence and stretch upon Humane Nature causing men to strain after degrees of purity and sanctity unpracticable and unattainable It excells all the Precepts and Institutes of the Jews Christ made a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even of the Moral Law of Moses and tells us that the Righteousness of Christians must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and the Apostle comparing the entire Systems of the Mosaical and Christian Oeconomies in reference to Christian Duties and the motives to them justly pronounces that the Christian hath received a better Covenant founded upon better Promises 3. It remains therefore that the peculiar and special Object of those Prejudicate imaginations whereby it is concluded that Ministers and Christians ought to be ashamed are the Articles of mere Belief Dogmatical Mysteries of the Gospel At the expence of your time and patience in a long discourse to tell you what are the Mysteries of the Gospel were to suppose that in compliance with the barbarity of later times you had neglected to be instructed in your Catechism and had need that one should teach you what are the first Elements of Christianity My design engages me no further than only to name them and that also very briefly In the two first Chapters to the Corinthians we finde our Apostle handling this Argument largely and ex professo And there he reduces the whole mystery to two words namely the Cross of Christ he tells them 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 Jesus 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 Jews 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

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 in nature impossible to perform and senceless to require To prove any thing concerning the Essence and Nature of God per causas by Arguments à Priori supposes causes precedent to the Essence of God himself and implies a Contradiction So then the Grecanick or Philosophical Postulatum proceeds from Ignorance and want of Learning and is at best disingenuous and Theoretically absurd 2. Again secondly concerning the Judaical or Semeiotical Postulatum After numerous or rather innumerable Attestations by Signs and Wonders notoriously known and by themselves acknowledged or sufficiently and authentically proved or delivered down by uncontroulable and irreproveable Tradition yet still to demand and require more Signs Signs of their own election accompanied with circumstances of their own prescription Is not this to tempt and limit the Almighty To make themselves Arbiters of the Emanations of his Power and Wisdom To suppose that those ought to be subservient to their wanton curiosity Is it not to expect that God himself should Lacquey after them to make him a doer of Tricks at their senceless and impudent demand Is not this an A sinine and an impious stupidity A composition of the highest degrees of Intellectual and Moral Absurdity which is imaginable Now therefore that this was and is and to the end of the world must ever now be the case of the Jewish or Semeiotical Postulatum is a so plain and evident In Confirmation of the Gospel Christ and his Apostles wrought far more and