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	spirit_n	2,517	5	4.9028	4	true

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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

seriously laid out themselves in the Service of Iesus Christ and lived up to his Religion that ever grudged the Pains they took about it or repented themselves that they believed or practised as they did The more any Man has been a Christian still the more he hath thanked God for it still the more Quiet of Mind and Peace of Conscience he hath possessed the more he hath enjoyed himself and the less he hath feared Death and all other outward Calamities If ever any Christian hath repented of any thing it is that he hath not been Christian enough that he hath not so heartily believed in our Saviour and obeyed his Precepts as he should have done This we all know and must be sensible of and it is a mighty Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of the Religion we profess We now can try our Religion and give our Approbation of it by the same Standard and Measures by which we try and approve of our Customs and Common Laws After long experience we find the Usefulness and the Conveniency of it and to put another in its place would involve us in horrible Mischiefs and Dangers and Perplexities But this Argument for Christianity those that were the first Converts to it could not have and therefore in this respect also we have the advantage of them Thirdly and lastly There is another very Considerable standing Argument for the Truth of the Christian Revelation which those in our Saviour's time were uncapable of and that is the Events which he by the Spirit of Prophecy foretold should after his death come to pass in the World most of which have punctually hapned as he predicted them and the rest in due time we doubt not will be accomplished I have not leisure to prosecute this Argument particularly onely two things I cannot pass by without mention in both of which our Lord shewed himself as wonderful and as true a Prophet as ever appeared in the World The one is the Destruction of Ierusalem and the Temple which he foretold with all the Circumstances imaginable both as to Time and Manner Now all that he said concerning that Destruction was punctually verified even according to the Accounts that the Iewish Historian gives us of that Matter And when afterwards Iulian the Emperour with a design to blast the Credit of our Saviour's Prophecy resolved to reedifie that Temple and set Men on work for that purpose he was soon forced to desist from his Enterprise by Earthquakes and Globes of Fire issuing from out of the Foundations As the Writers of that time both Christian and Pagan do assure us The other Instance I mention is our Saviour's Prophecy of the Rejection of the Iews and that they should be carried Captive into all Nations till the Times of the Gentiles were fulfilled Now this we see hath been accomplished for many Ages and still continues to be so in our days That Nation of the Iews who were once the Peculiar People of God setled in the Land of Canaan by his own immediate Hand are now dispersed all the World over but no where incorporated into a Nation Yet which indeed is wonderful they continue Iews still a People that mingle not with the rest of the World and that are still as zealous for the Scriptures from whence we fetch the Grounds of our Christianity as ever they were So that they are a standing Monument of God's Vengeance upon a People for rejecting the Gospel and a standing Testimony of the Truth of our Saviour's Prophecies These things now with others that I might name are very considerable Evidences of the Truth of our Religion which those that were Contemporary with our Saviour could not have so that putting all these things together I think we may safely draw our Conclusion viz. That we now have as great or greater Arguments to convince us of the truth of Christs Revelation as or than they had who were Witnesses of what he did and taught And consequently those that are not perswaded now by the Evidence of it would not have been perswaded though they had seen with their Eyes or heard with their Ears the Publication of the Gospel Which is in effect to say They would not have been perswaded though one had risen from the dead But notwithstanding all this that I have said it is to be feared the thing will not easily go down with many of us but still with the Rich Man in the Parable after all that Abraham had said concerning Moses and the Prophets we will insist on our former Notion Nay but if one came to us from the Dead we should repent The Motives that are offered to us in the Gospel are old and stale to us we find by long experience that they make no great impressions upon us But if we were visited in such an extraordinary way as the Rich man here desired for his Brethren we should then undoubtedly be prevailed upon Thus I believe several of us think But that we have little ground for such a fancy nay indeed if we were tried in this way that it is ten to one we should find our selves mistaken this may further convince us viz. If God should indeed vouchsafe to work a Miracle or to send an Apparition for the Conviction of an Obstinate Unbeliver 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 effects it ought to have upon him as he formerly did to put off the standing Motives and Arguments of Religion And consequently there is little probability that he who is deaf to Moses and the Prophets will be perswaded by one from the dead This is the second Point I laid down for the proof of our Saviours Proposition and I come now to speak to it I deny not indeed but if an Apparition should be made to a wicked Person among us If for instance One of our Companions should after he is dead in a terrible manner come to any of us and in a doleful tone and language tell us how it goes with him in the other World tell us that there is indeed a God that judges the Earth that there is a Heaven that there is a Hell all which things he as well as we made it our business to banish out of our minds as much as we could and acquaint us what an infinite unspeakable happiness he hath lost by living loosely and carelesly as we now do and that he is damned irrecoverably and for ever damned for that Infidelity and those lewd courses we shared with him in the guilt of and do still continue to pursue that all those Revels we had together all those Pranks and Debauches we were joint Actors in do now as to him end in unsupportable anguish and pains in the gnawings of a Worm that never dies and in a life of everlasting Burnings and that this shall certainly be our portion as well as his unless we do