Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,130	5	9.1915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43959	The reasonableness and necessity of the Christian faith manifested in a sermon / preach'd before the right honourable the lord mayor at Guild-Hall Chapel, Oct. 17, 1697, by John Hitchcock ...	Hitchcock, John.	1697 (1697)	Wing H2193; ESTC R178053	8,732	26

The Reasonableness and Necessity of the Christian Faith Manifested IN A SERMON Preach'd before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor At GUILD-HALL Chapel Oct. 17. 1697. By JOHN HITCHCOCK M. A. LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop ' s-Head in St. Paul 's Church-Yard 1697. Heb. xi 6. the former Part of the Verse But without Faith it is impossible to please him THis Chapter is a Panegyrick upon Faith and all its holy Champions and Martyrs from the very beginning of the World down to the Apostles time In the first Verse we have a description of Faith in its general Notion It is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is Faith is a confident expectation of those good things we hope for by vertue of a Promise from God and a firm perswasion of the truth of those things whereof we have no sensible Evidence by vertue of a Revelation from God In the four following Verses we have a more particular account of Faith and how pleasing it is to God in some eminent acts and examples And then this Proposition is laid down as a standing Maxim in Religion which concerns every Man and will hold true to the end of the World Without Faith it is impossible to please God My Discourse upon this subject shall consist of these four Parts I. I will explain the Nature of Religious Faith II. Evince the Reasonableness of such a Faith III. Shew the Necessity of it to render us acceptable to God IV. Represent the Power and Influence of Faith upon our Lives I. As to the nature of Religious Faith it is no more than the Assent of the Mind to the truth of any Revealed Religion This takes in the Revelation of God by Moses to the Jews and also that other by Christ to all the World both which are contained in the Writings of the Old and New Testament I will speak to the latter at this time being the last and perfect Revelation of God's Will to Mankind and that in which we Christians are more especially concerned And that we have all the reason in the World to believe this Revelation to entertain the Christian Religion in our Minds with a firm belief of the truth of it I shall now make appear which was the second Thing Proposed And I will only mention a few Arguments which I think are clear and convincing First The whole Jewish Religion proves the truth of the Christian For all the Types and Prophecies relating to the Messias were compleatly verified and fulfilled in Christ And it is impossible they should ever be applied to any other Person Which is an unanswerable Argument for his being the Messias and consequently for the Truth of his Religion Secondly The History of our Saviour's Life and Miracles comes to us as well attested and with as good Authority as any History in the World It was Penned partly by such as were his constant Companions and Eye-Witnesses of his Actions and partly by such as had the matters of Fact from Eye-Witnesses And these were all Men of unquestioned Integrity Nay they had the Testimony of God himself the Power of working Miracles for their Honesty And at last for a confirmation of the Truth of what they had said they willingly laid down their Lives Thirdly The Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists were carefully preserved by the First Christians Copies of them were faithfully taken and Translations diligently made And if the Tradition of the whole Church be of any weight we are sure that we have the Writings which contain our Religion without any Loss or Corruption Fourthly The Religion of Christ prospered in the World to the ruin of all other Religions Neither Jews nor Gentiles neither Learning nor Power could stop its progress but it made its way through the strongest opposition Conquered all the Prejudices and Interests of Mankind and triumph'd over all the Malice the Cunning and Force of its Enemies Which it could never have done if the Providence of God had not most illustriously appeared for it and attended the Preaching of it with an Extraordinary Blessing and Influence upon the Minds of Men. Lastly The Christian Religion carries the Evidence of its Divine Original in its own Nature and Constitution For it proposeth a Spiritual and Rational Worship such as is most agreeable to the Nature of God and Reason of Man in opposition to all Idolatry and useless Ceremonies It prescribes the best Rules of Life teaches us internal Righteousness and perfect Vertue which if we practise we must be Happy And then it offers the strongest Motives to the performance of our Duty Everlasting Rewards and Punishments All this it does with the greatest accommodation and simplicity the Doctrine being framed for the use of all Men is adapted to the Understandings of all 't is suited to all Relations and fitted to all Capacities No Man is left to seek his Duty or a loss to understand it What now can be more worthy of our Belief and Entertainment than this Excellent Religion of the Truth whereof we have the highest Moral Evidence the best Proof that the thing will bear and it is very unreasonable to expect any other He that will not believe a thing that is only morally certain and does not exclude all doubt must reject all ancient History and believe nothing but what he sees which is contrary to the Judgment and Practice of Mankind And if Scepticks were to manage their Temporal Affairs with the same humour that they treat Religion they would be lookt upon as Men out of their Wits and only fit to live in a dark room by themselves Besides a Faith that is grounded upon sensible Evidence and excludes all manner of doubt has nothing in it that is excellent or rewardable I can see no more Vertue in such a Faith than in believing the truth of Colours or Mathematical Demonstratious There is no resisting such evident Truths and a Man cannot but believe them Which is the reason that I do not wonder at those Mens believing in Christ who heard him speak and saw him act after his Divine and astonishing manner And Christ himself seem'd to make but little account of such a Faith when he said unto Thomas Joh. 20.29 Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed Intimating that such a Faith as Thomas's is no more than a Mans believing his Senses and deserves no Commendation or Reward But since the Proofs of our Religion are only Moral sufficient to induce but not to inforce an Assent Since the things proposed to our belief require a diligent application and study before we can well understand them our selves or give a good account of them to others This makes our Faith to be a considerate and free act of the Mind and as such to be praise-worthy and capable of reward We cannot give a reason of our Faith to others

as the Apostle adviseth unless we understand the grounds and reasons of it our selves And we cannot do this without the exercise of our Faculties in the examination of them as comparing the Quality of our Saviour's Person with the Character of the Messias delivered by the Prophets weighing the credibility of the Apostles Testimony and the Authority of the Church's Tradition by which the Revelation of Christ was handed down to us These and the other Arguments of our Religion must be duly examined before we can be convinced of the Truth of it and believe it as Men. An Implicit is an irrational Faith and a blind Assent to Religion is a contempt of Reason God indeed does not expect the same use of Reason and the same degree of conviction in matters of Religion from all Men because their Faculties and Education are both different He considers the weakness of understanding in many and the want of Education in more But yet he expects that Men make use of that Reason which he has given them and examine the Arguments as far as they are able which attend the Religion he has revealed And if Men would do this with an honest Mind and a sincere desire to know God's Will they would see no just cause to doubt of Christianity but would embrace it with a rational choice and in that choice think themselves happy As to the offence that some take at a Poor and Crucified Saviour I have this to say That there is nothing in it that is unseemly of unbecoming the Majesty of the Son of God but that it is rather such a state as was both necessary and suitable to the office of our Redeemer For the clearing whereof two things are to be considered 1. That the Justice of God was to be satisfied for the Sins of Mankind And that was to be done by the Death of a Divine Person in our Nature according to the Declaration of the Divine Will God himself foretold by his Prophets that the Redemption of the World should be wrought by his Incarnate Son under the Mystical Name of Immanuel and that this Great Work should be effected in a way of Expiation Christ did all that could be done to prove himself the Person design'd of old for this Office of Redeemer He manifested his Divinity by illustrious Miracles and the satisfaction of his Death upon the Cross by his Triumphant Resurrection 2. It is also to be considered that a Perfect Pattern of Vertue was to be set for the imitation of Mankind and that must have been done in a state of Poverty and Suffering Men are naturally more apt to live by Example than by Rule because Example is a visible thing and does powerfully incline the Will through the Senses The Beauty of Vertue is more lively and charming in Practice than in Idea And therefore an Example of Consummate Vertue was highly requisite and useful to Men for the more correct Conduct of their Lives And such an Example was the Life of Christ It was a Perfect Original of all Vertue He was humble and condescending though he was he Son of God He complied with the Infirmities and Weaknesses of Humane Nature was meek and patient under affronts and injuries did the greatest Good for the greatest Evil resign'd himself up to the disposal of his Heavenly Father and submitted to his Will in every thing All which excellent and useful Vertues Christ could not have exercised if he had not lived in a mean Condition and undergone want and pain The Person of a Prince and a Prosperous Condition would not have suited the Design of Christ in giving an Example to Mankind But by appearing under such Circumstances as he did by being the Son of God in the form of a Servant he was an Example to the Great and Rich as well as to the Poor and Distressed he practised the Vertues that belong to every Condition and led every Man the way to the performance of Duty As to those Doctrines which go under the name of Mysteries viz. the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Incarnation why should we dislike them the worse for being Mysteries when there is nothing in the World but what has something in it unknown to us Nay although we could perfectly understand the natures of all Created Beings yet the Nature of God would still remain Incomprehensible There is an infinite distance and disproportion between his Perfections and our Faculties and it is as impossible for us to comprehend God us for a Bucket to contain the Ocean It is not then a Doctrine's being above reason but contrary to reason that makes it unreasonable for us to believe it All the Parts of Revelation are equally True and an obscure Doctrine has as good Authority as a Plainer Since therefore the Gospel discovers to us that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead the Father Son and Holy Ghost to which the Name and Attributes of God are expresly given and also that the second Person in this Blessed Trinity did freely take our Nature that he might be our Redeemer and so is both God and Man in one Person we have the same reason and obligation to believe these Doctrines as any other Doctrine in the Gospel Thus much to the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith I proceed in the third place to shew the Necessity of this Faith to render us acceptable to God Without Faith it is impossible to please God Now the necessity of this Faith is founded in a necessity of the Gospel Revelation And this will be made evident by clearing these two Points 1. The necessity of a Revelation in general 2. The Insufficiency of all Revelation before the Gospel for the Salvation of Mankind 1. The necessity of a Revelation in general appears from the impossibility of pleasing God and obtaining Happiness without one For by Sin we lost the Favour of God and forfeited Immortal Life And although we know by the Light of Nature that God must be Atoned before we could be Restored yet we could not from thence learn whether God would be Atoned or not and what kind of Atonement he would accept of This depended upon his Free Grace and therefore could only be discover'd to us by himself Had we continued Innocent there would have been no need of any Revelation for the Light of Nature was then a sure guide both to Duty and Immortality But by breaking the Law of our Creation we incurr'd the Divine Displeasure and became Mortal And how to get out of this unhappy condition nature could not teach us There was no other way but to begin again upon a New Covenant which was wholly at the pleasure and in the breast of God and so was a matter of pure Revelation Men may talk of Natural Knowledge in the business of Religion and magnifie it as much as they think fit but it will serve only in a state of Innocence When Sin and Corruption take place Natural Knowledge