Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A52533
|
A sermon preached at the publick commencement at Cambridge Sunday in the forenoon, July iii, 1698 / by Peter Nourse ...
|
Nourse, Peter, 1663-1723.
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing N1415; ESTC R181111
|
10,105
|
34
|
something of this Heresy has been kept on foot maintain'd and improv'd with all the force and subtelty of Wit and Learning but the Truth which it opposeth is of so great moment that the main stress of the Gospel lies upon it for what does that word import but the glad tidings of Salvation purchased for us by CHRIST JESUS who had he not been the True and Eternal Son of the Living God could not have made a full Attonement or Satisfaction for our sins neither could we justify our selves in paying him that worship and adoration which the Scriptures do declare and the Church of God hath ever taught to be due to him It is a very great Argument to confirm us that we are in the Right and we may justly glory in it though it be but of little force to convince our Adversaries namely that our belief of these Fundamental Truths is not only grounded upon clear and express words of Scripture frequently repeated but it hath also been the Doctrine of the Church in all Ages and Places so that if this Gospel be hid to us in our sense and interpretation of it it hath been hid likewise to all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs but it would be the greatest impiety to suppose this if we draw as we must do the Apostles inference then they which are fallen asleep in JESUS they who have lay'd down their lives for him are all perish'd But notwithstanding the blindness or rather the willfulness and craft of our Adversaries the True and Heavenly Wisdom ever has been and ever will be justify'd by her Children But Secondly The Gospel may be said to be hid in respect of its Power By the Power of the Gospel I mean its Efficacy to work in us that Holiness which is necessary to fit us for the benefit of its Promises Thus the Gospel is call'd by St. Paul the Power of God unto Salvation Epist to the Rom. chap. 1. v. 16. This being the end and design of it to purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the Living God The power of doing this consists in the means by which it is effected such are the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our Souls the Grace of Repentance the Efficacy of the Sacraments a stedfast Faith in God from which there flows a dread of his Threatnings and a lively hope of his Promises he who contemns and rejects these means and causes of a Holy Life and becomes barren and unfruitful in his Duty be he never so well skill'd in the Mind and Interpretation of God's Word yet the Scripture pronounceth that he is blind and that he knoweth nothing as he ought to know For the Kingdom of God which signifies the Gospel the Apostle tells us doth not consist in Word but in Power 1 Epist to the Cor. chap. 4. v. 20. There is that Force that Conviction of Truth in it that it is impossible it should be really receiv'd where it is not obey'd but it is not as many imagine by Knowledge that we receive this Power of the Gospel but by Faith for Knowledge of Divine as well as Natural Truths may serve only to puff men up with Pride and Vanity A natural Man may discern his Duty in the Scripture and acknowledge it for Truth but as one who seeth his Face in the Glass knows his likeness whilst he looks upon it but when he goes from thence he presently forgets what manner of Person he is so Knowledge will force assent to Truth whilst our minds are upon it but if we turn away our thoughts immediately we forget our Duty but Faith is such an Evidence of things not seen that the impressions from it are deep and lasting 't is too strong a principle for the hopes of pleasures here or the fear of dangers to overcome it it makes Heaven and Hell as it were present to our View which is the best Guard against Temptations and the strongest motive to Obedience Experience shews us what great difference there is between Faith and Knowledge of the Scriptures they often times arise from quite different ends and motives Ambition or Avarice may set men to understand the Gospel but only a Conscience that is or would be void of offence can encourage them to Believe it The influence also of these two Principles are as different for there are many men who understand their Duty so well that they perfectly comprehend its whole connexion they are able to demonstrate each part of it by reducing it to some Principle in Natural Reason but yet their lives are Vicious and Profane whereas there are many others who neither can demonstrate any thing at all of this neither do they pretend to it only they Believe that what God has said is True and what he has commanded is to be Obey'd and upon that Principle alone they firmly adhere to their Duty no Argument of the subtilest Disputant can shake their Integrity no temptation of the World can seduce them from it but they will persevere to do Justice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with their God But if a Covetous or an Ambitious Person a Drunkard or a Whoremonger will hear or read the Gospel and is not so convinced of the hainousness and danger of his sin as to be touch'd in Conscience for it and be resolv'd to forsake it the Gospel may truly be said to be hidden from him but how is it hid not in the Letter but in the Power of it for men may hear and not understand they may understand and yet not believe and the Author to the Hebrews tells us chap. 4. v. 2. That the Word Preached did not proffit the Israelites being not mix'd with Faith in them that heard it As for those to whom the Gospel is thus hid in respect of its Power their numbers are too great out of all parties in Religion the Subject is too melancholy to insist upon Strange it is that men should shew their heat and zeal only for those Opinions and speculative Notions wherein they differ from each other many of which are of little moment to the great business of Religion and are so regardless of that the necessity of which they are all agreed in namely the practice of Virtue and Holiness I know 't is so common a Topick and has ever been so for men to declaim against the Vices of the Age they live in as if every one 's own times were the worst that it is lookt upon as a thing of course and custom and seldom does any good towards a Reformation yet I may safely affirm that the Characters of the Vices of this present Age have something peculiar in them to make us conclude that we live not only in the worst but in the last of times which should make men that have any disposition towards goodness or concern for their safety to take heed least they perish in the common ruin The ground of our complaint is not only what
A SERMON PREACHED at the Publick Commencement AT CAMBRIDGE SUNDAY in the Forenoon July iij. 1698. By PETER NOURSE D. D. Fellow of S. John's College CAMBRIDGE Printed for Edward Hall Bookseller in Cambridge and are to be Sold by Luke Meredith at the Star in St. Paul's Church-yard London 1698. II COR. CHAP. IV. V. iij. But if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost THE Gospel in the largest signification of the word comprehends the Writings both of the Old and New Testament which are the perfect and compleat Will of God reveal'd to Mankind in order to their future Happiness But there is a more limited Sense of the word Gospel in which it is opposed to the Law and the Prophets it began from Galilee after the Baptism which John preached Acts 10. v. 37. and in this stricter Sense it is to be understood in the Text the Apostle calling it our Gospel meaning his own Sermons and Writings and together with them the whole Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles It is necessary for our present purpose thus to distinguish for how near soever the Agreement is between the Old and New Testament in substance and design yet in this they differ exceedingly that the Truths contain'd in the Law were veil'd under Types and Figures dark and mysterious Representations so that it was difficult for the wisest Jew to see to the end of that Faith by which alone he could be saved namely the Sufferings and Death of the Messiah and Moral Duties were so mingled even in their Prophets with Legal Observances that the best and sincerest men of that Religion could not easily discern the different obligations that were due to the one and to the other so that a Jew might have a great deal to say for himself in Excuse of his Ignorance and Unbelief But this Gospel which St. Paul speaks of is so clear and open it shines with that strength and brightness that no Professor of it can be Ignorant of its Truths or withstand its Power without doing the greatest Violence to his own Conscience and Understanding if it be hid to any that have had the Means of being instructed in it it is hid to such as are lost and that not only to Vertue and Religion but even to common Sense and Reason It would take up too much of this Discourse to shew the great Happiness and Advantages we Christians enjoy by comparing the Grace and Truth which came by JESUS CHRIST with the Law that was given by Moses in that particular of the Plainness and Perspicuity of the one above the other and it would be needless to speak any thing upon this Head since our greatest Adversaries confess it as well as our Selves and there is no one thing in which the different Parties in Religion except those of the Church of Rome do so much agree as in this that the Gospel of CHRIST in all things that are necessary to Salvation is very plain and easy to be understood Taking it therefore for granted that it is so I shall only inquire into these two things First How or in what Respect the Gospel may be hid Secondly How just their Condemnation is to whom it is hid the Text tells us they are lost First The Gospel may be hid either in Respect of that Faith which it delivers or Secondly in Respect of its Power The Faith deliver'd in the Gospel takes in all those Truths that are reveal'd in it but particularly those which we receive only from Revelation which the Light of Nature could neither have let us into nor can it yet comprehend them so that Faith is an Evidence of things not understood as well as of things not seen Whosoever therefore are either Ignorant of or will not believe what the Gospel discovers to us to those it is certainly hid not that all kinds of ignorance do necessarily bring men under the Apostles censure in the Text but such only as is voluntary and in other cases criminal It would be the worst sort of judging those that are without if we should pronounce all those men absolutely lost who have not yet receiv'd the Gospel there have been and without doubt still are some men of Piety and Virtue even amongst the Heathen whose Hearts are well disposed for the receiving it if it should please God to impart it to them these are not such as the God of this World has blinded but the Providence of the eternal God who has determin'd the bounds of Man's habitation has placed them at so great a distance from this Light that it is morally impossible it should shine unto them Neither can we pronounce all those to be lost to whom some of the Gospel Truths are hid for though we believe every word of it to have proceeded out of the Mouth of God yet all its Truths are not of equal moment for our Salvation and considering the Nature of Mankind it is impossible but Errors and Divisions will spring up amongst them and in many cases great allowances must be made for the prejudices or for the want of Education and even for the incapacities of some men to judge in the plainest matters God Almighty considers all this and will not be so severe upon us as we are upon one another our heats and animosities generally rise highest where the grounds of difference are the most inconsiderable but God looks upon things in another manner and is as ready to pass by some Errors in our Faith as he is to pardon sins of infirmity in our practice for they both arise from the same causes the strength of our passions and inadvertency But those who are left without all excuse are such as wholly reject the Gospel when they have had sufficient means of being instructed in it or pervert the end of our Faith as the Gnoslicks did who turned the Grace of God into Lasciviousness making the Gospel which was design'd to purify us from sin to justify and patronize it or else they are such as endeavour to ruin the Foundations of our Faith which is done more effectually by secretly undermining it with false Interpretations than if they should with bare face disown it And of all those Truths that are Fundamental in our Religion nothing is more plainly and peculiarly so than that JESUS CHRIST is the Son of the living God This is that Rock upon which and not upon him who Confessed it our Lord declared that he would Build his Church and the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it it is too bold an attempt even for Hell it self openly to Assault this Truth because it stands so clearly reveal'd in many places of Scripture but never were the powers of darkness more industrious in any thing than to subvert it by false expositions which was once done with that success that one of the Fathers tells us The World groan'd and was surpriz'd to see it self turn'd Arrian In every Age of the Church