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	doctrine_n	prophet_n	1,605	5	6.3263	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59560	A sermon preached at White-hall, in Lent on Friday, March 20, 1684/5 / by John Sharp ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1685 (1685)	Wing S2988; ESTC R7068	17,221	41

from the Dead may be evaded But now none of these Pretences can be made against the Evidence of a Publick Revelation so attested and confirmed and conveyed down to us as that of Christianity is And besides there are many Arguments to be drawn from such a Revelation to shew the Credibility of it which are altogether wanting to such a Private Miracle as we speak of Secondly We may learn from hence what little need there is of any new modern Miracles for the confirming to us any Doctrine of Christianity which was long ago in all the Articles of it so well attested by the Illustrious Miracles of Christ and his Apostles And more especially we may learn from hence what little credit is to be given to those Miracles that are wrought or pretended to be wrought for the proof of such Doctrines as are really contrary to that Revelation of our Lord as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures We are sure that Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles taught nothing but the Truth of God he having so publickly and so convincingly set his Seal to all their Doctrines And we are sure likewise that the Scripture contains nothing in it but what was taught by them and consequently must be the truth of God also And therefore if any Doctrine or Article of Religion be at any time recommended to our belief that doth not agree with these Holy Writings or doth contradict them either directly or by plain unavoidable consequence we may be equally sure that that Doctrine cannot be true nor is to be received by us though we are told of never so many Private Miracles that have been wrought for the confirmation of it Our Rule in these Cases is To the Law and to the Testimony To the Publick and Undoubted Oracles of God in the Old and New Testament Whatever Doctrine can be proved out of them we are bound to embrace it without a new Miracle On the other side Whatever Doctrine is inconsistent with them we must reject it though an Angel from Heaven or one from the Dead should come and preach it to us Thirdly From hence we see the Vanity and Unreasonableness of those Men that not content with the Ordinary Means of Grace are always wishing for Extraordinaries There are a great many of us that will be saved by Methods of our own chusing otherwise we will not be saved at all As it was in St. Paul's time the Iews they required a Sign the Greeks they were for Wisdom and Philosophy and perhaps a third sort of Men were for another kind of means of Conviction So it is among us Here is one Man would have a particular Miracle wrought for his Conversion If he could see a Spirit or a Ghost he would believe there was another World If God would send an Angel from Heaven to preach to him he thinks he should become a New Man Here is another would believe the Gospel if every point of it could be demonstrated by Reason and a clear and plain account be given of all the Mysteries of it but till that be done he is of the Religion of the Philosophers Here is another Man waits for Immediate Impulses and Inspirations The ordinary Assistances of the Spirit that accompany the Word and Sacraments will not do his business But let us not deceive our selves All these Imaginations are vain and foolish If God should grant us our several desires and give one of us a Sign another of us a Demonstration another of us a powerful Conviction upon our Minds from his Holy Spirit and that in an extraordinary way Yet it is still very doubtful whether for all this the Business of our Conversion would be effected None was more confident than the Rich man in the Parable that if to the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets was superadded a new Miracle his Brethren would certainly be persuaded But yet you see our Saviour affirms the direct contrary Oh let us all close with the standing Publick Methods which God hath established in the Church for the bringing us to Vertue and eternal Happiness and not be hankering after new and fanciful ways of our own chusing Most certainly the Ordinary Means of Grace are sufficient for the Salvation of all our Souls and will be effectual to that End if we be not wanting to our selves And if any Extraordinaries be at any time needful God without doubt will supply us with them also Fourthly and lastly From what hath been said we see the horrible Guilt and the utter Inexcusableness of those Men that notwithstanding the Gospel-means of Salvation that have been so long afforded them do still continue Infidels in their Judgment or Immoral in their Lives What will these Men be able to say for themselves when they come to appear before the Judge of the World at the great Day of Accounts Will they pretend there was not force enough in the Gospel-evidence to convince them or weight enough in its Motives to reclaim them Ah! their own Hearts will give them the Lie They can no longer be able to deceive themselves There will be no Unbelievers no feared Consciences in the other State They will then be clearly convinced that God for his part did all that was necessary nay all that was fit to be done in order to their Salvation But they were resolved to shut their Eyes and harden their Hearts against the gracious Means that were tendred them Oh how will the Rich man and his five Brethren in Hell rise up in Judgment against these Men For they onely refused to hear Moses and the Prophets But these besides them have obstinately refused to hear Christ and his Apostles who brought abundantly greater Light into the World than the former did Much more How will the poor ignorant Heathens rise up in Judgment against them Who were destitute both of Moses and Christ and yet to the shame of Christians it may be spoken have several of them lived better Lives than many of us do May not we justly and sadly apply that Woe which our Saviour pronounced of Chorazin and Bethsaida to Thousands among us Woe unto you Unbelievers Woe unto you O obstinate and irreclaimable Sinners for if the mighty Means of Grace the mighty Evidence of Truth had been afforded to Tyre and Sidon to Sodom and Gomorrha to Mahometans and Pagans that have been afforded unto you they would long ago have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for all these in the day of Iudgment than for you God Almighty give us all Grace seriously to consider these things that we may by a timely and hearty closing with his Methods and Designs for our Salvation prevent the dismal Consequences of Infidelity and a Vicious Life that so it may not be our Condemnation at the last day That Light is come into the World and we have loved Darkness rather than Light FINIS

A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL IN LENT On Friday March 20. 1684 5. BY IOHN SHARP D. D. Dean of Norwich LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL LUKE XVI 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead THE Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel is so well known that it is needless to relate the Particulars of it These Words are the Conclusion of that Parable and they are made the Words of Abraham who being in Paradise is brought in as speaking them to the Rich man in Hell The Occasion was this This now Poor man not being able to obtain the least Comfort or Refreshment for himself under that unsupportable anguish he endured bethinks himself of his Friends and Relations in the World and casts about how to prevent their coming to that sad condition And for this purpose he begs of Abraham that he would be pleased to send the Happy Lazarus into the World again to testifie to his Brethren what he knew and had seen concerning the State of the other Life and to exhort them to a timely Repentance lest they should come into that place of Torment in which he was To this Request Abraham thus answers They had Moses and the Prophets which did plainly enough testifie against their Sins and offered sufficient Motives to them to repent and therefore there was no need of such extraordinary Means as he desired But this Answer did not satisfie the miserable man Still he pursues his former Request Nay Father Abraham saith he but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent There was no resisting such an Argument as that If Lazarus whom they all had known living and now knew to be dead should rise again and personally come to them and tell them in what a sad condition he had seen their Friend and that they must all expect to run the same Fortune if they did not change their Course of Living This would come close to them and be more convincing than a hundred Arguments drawn from the Books of Moses and the Prophets which were written many Ages before their time and so consequently could not be presumed to have so great a force as an Argument drawn from their own Sense and Experience To this Reply of the Rich man Abraham peremptorily rejoins in the Words of the Text. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead To omit lesser Matters that may be observed from these Words the Point which primarily and most naturally seems to be offered to our Consideration from them is this That those who give no credit to a setled standing Revelation of God once well attested or are not thereby prevailed upon to reform their Evil manners neither in all probability would they be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought by God in order to their Conversion as for instance though one should rise from the dead and appear to them Now to satisfie every one of the Truth of this Proposition it will be abundantly sufficient to make out these two things First That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God such as that was by Moses and the Prophets here mentioned to convince men or to reclaim them than there can be in a Private Miracle though I see it with my Eyes And secondly Though God should be pleased to work a Miracle or to send an Apparition for the Conviction of an obstinate Unbeliever or vicious Person yet such a one would as easily find out shifts and ways to evade the force of such an Argument and to hinder the Effect it ought to have upon him as he formerly did to put off the ordinary standing Motives and Arguments of Religion And consequently there is little probability that he who is not gained by the former will be wrought upon by the latter I begin with the first of these things That there is really more force and weight in a Publick standing Revelation of God to convince men or to reclaim them than there can be supposed to be in a Private single Miracle though a man sees it with his Eyes Or than there can be in an Apparition from the dead if God should think fit to vouchsafe such a thing In speaking to this I mean not to concern my self or you with the Revelation of Moses and the Prophets though that be the Revelation which the Text here speaks of I think it will be more suitable and useful to us to consider the Proposition with relation to Christianity or the Revelation of our Saviour and his Apostles That being the Dispensation we are now under and in which we are more immediately concerned Understanding therefore our Proposition of that Especial Revelation which we call the Gospel two things there are to be offered which will undeniably make it out First Those Persons that lived in the Times of our Saviour when this Publick Revelation of the Gospel was made and attested had greater Evidences and Motives to bring them over to the Belief and Practice of Religion than if any particular Miracle had been wrought in order to their Conversion Secondly We at this day all things considered have as strong Arguments to convince us as powerful Motives to persuade us as those that lived in the Times of our Saviour and were Witnesses of what he did and taught The unavoidable Consequences of which two Points are these That those who lived in the time of our Saviour and were not persuaded by his Gospel would not have been persuaded though one had been sent to them from the dead And those that are now alive and are not persuaded by the Evidences and Motives of Christianity which we now have among us would not have been persuaded if they had lived in the Times of our Saviour So that in all Ages of Christianity the Proposition will hold true That those who give no credit to the standing Revelation of the Gospel or are not thereby induced to lead their Lives according to it would not be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought for their Conversion First then Our Saviour's Gospel at the first publishing of it was a more effectual Means for the Conversion of any Man then living than the sending to him one from the dead Let us suppose the Parable we are now upon to be a true History and that this Rich man had five Brethren living at Ierusalem at the time when our Saviour spoke it and they were all wicked lewd Atheistical Persons and God Almighty in pity to their Souls is pleased to grant that Request which the Rich man here makes to Abraham on their behalf and accordingly sends Lazarus from the dead to preach Repentance to them We cannot doubt but such a Sermon from such a Man and in