Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A45356
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A discourse of the excellency of Christianity
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Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?
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1671
(1671)
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Wing H461; ESTC R25404
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37,770
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96
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the World to testifie which his Apotheosis he sends down his holy Spirit upon his Apostles and enables them to speak with Tongues and do Miracles which Scheme of Providence doth so palpably evince the Interposition and Efficiency of a Deity and that all these things hapned by his actual concurrence that he must on purpose blind his eyes who will not see it 2. All the place of doubting which is left to us in the Belief of the Promises of the Gospel is no other than what may be in the highest moral Certainty imaginable It only leaves a Possibility that notwithstanding all the Arguments brought to confirm it it may yet be otherwise Every thing is not capable of a Mathematical Demonstration but the ways of Probation are different according to the Diversity of Subjects And certainly he will be a very imprudent man that will neglect an important Affair to the Undertaking of which he hath highly probable Reasons only because 't is possible it may be otherwise 3. It was a great piece of Divine Wisdom so to order the Gospel that the Promises of Life and Salvation should not be so evident as those things that are known by Sense or Demonstration but only so far as might conciliate Faith in a rational Person that thereby the wicked Tempers and Dispositions of men might the more plainly be discovered If the Gospel had been so demonstratively certain so as to exclude all Doubting i. e. Possibility to the contrary all men would have been forced and necessarily good and all that Praise which is due to the embracing of Virtue would have been lost but now that men believe when notwithstanding there is a Possibility to the contrary the Trial of their Faith will be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ For what Praise is due unto him that believes not out of Choice but from the necessary and demonstrative Truth of the Thing itself Let not any man therefore flatter himself with hopes that this will patronize and defend his Infidelity that it was possible the Evangelical Promises might be uncertain but let him consider upon what account his Faith induces him to act in the Affairs of the World Will a human Faith be sufficient to perswade the Merchant to commit his Life and Fortunes to the flattering Waves when he knows not but a merciless Pyrat or the next succeeding Storm may bereave him of both Will the Souldier march all day scalded with Heat or pinched with the Northern Cold and expose his Body to a Storm of Bullets and Swords drunk with his Companions Blood and all for the Spoils of an uncertain Conquest Shall this be able to put us upon Action and shall not the Belief of the Gospel which is not half so uncertain or inevident as this We need no such firm ground to build our Faith upon in matters of the World and therefore we are utterly inexcusable if we do not believe in the Son of God who hath brought Life and Immortality to light FINIS Lib. 7. contra Celsum 1 Cor. 2.13 1.27 1 John 2.12 c. Lib. 4 contra Celsum Euseb Praepar lib. 5. De Praesc adv Haereticos Lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ why born of a Virgin Of the Star * The same the Colledge of Priests affirmed of the Comet that appeared at the Ludi Veneris Genetâ—icis instituted by Augustus Plin. l. 2 c. 25. And Virg. Ecl 4. Ecce Dionaei processit Caesaris Astrum Of the VVise Men. Christ God and Man
and this Truth being of so high and great concern we not only believe but are ready to give all possible Satisfaction to the Jew and Heathen To the Jew we say that it was long ago declared by their own Prophets Isa ix 6. For unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace This the more antient Rabbins always interpreted of the Messias and 't is but a groundless Conceit of R. Solomon's to transfer it to Hezekiah for who sees not that these Appellations of the mighty God and the everlasting Father cannot possibly agree to Hezekiah Again Chap. vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel i. e. God with us God dwelling and conversing in Human Nature And by the Heathens this Mystery was not thought impossible since Julian believes that Aesculapius the Son of Jupiter descended from Heaven and was incarnate appearing first at Epidaurum then in many other places that he might cure the Bodies and restore the Souls of men to their pristine Rectitude and Perfection And is there any greater Difficulty in believing that the Word the blessed Son of God was once incarnate and dwelt among us But further to make out this great Truth to those that already believe the Histories of the Gospel to be true 1. We may take a view of those many Operations Jesus performed in the Nature he assumed some of which were incommunicable and only proper to the Deity such are to work a true and real Miracle to forgive Sins and to institute true and religious Worship He was hungry which shewed him to be a man and yet fed above five thousand with five loaves and two fishes whereby he manifested his Divinity He thirsted yet to others he gave rivers of living waters to fertilize their Souls and quench and allay their Thirst He was weary yet he calls to him all those that are weary and heavy laden and promises Refreshment though he were dumb and opened not his mouth yet was he that Word by which all things were made He lays down his Life yet had he Power to take it up again 2. There is nothing in the Divine Nature to contradict or prejudice this Union but very much to be drawn from thence for it For Divine Goodness willing universally to communicate itself in measures and degrees assisted by an eternal Wisdom found out this way of Union with Human Nature as most fit for an Universal Communication wherein the Divine Life is perfectly exhibited and all Perfection is as it were epitomized 3. There is a mighty Congruity and Sutableness in this Mystery with the Design of perfecting and restoring lapsed Souls For the eternal Logos bringing out of his Ideal Fecundity into actual Existence the whole Rational Creation it is highly agreeable with Divine Wisdom that by the same Word all fallen Beings should be again restored that the first and blessed Cause of their Existence should also be the Author of their Recovery and Return to the perfect Law of Gods own Nature And if beside we consider that all the Creatures are but the Effects and Emanations of that mighty and potent Word outwardly produced and brought into actual Life and Being the Conjunction and Union of the eternal Mind with Human Nature will appear exceeding congruous 4. No Dishonour can accrue to the blessed Nature of God by such a state in which there is no Evil Turpitude or Defilement The Brightness of the Divine Sun is no whit obscured by the adjunction of the Humanity but the Humanity is made more glorious and transcendent by being exalted into the Fellowship of the Divinity 5. The Obscurity and Incomprehensibleness of this Mystery ought not to prejudice our Belief of it since that many things in Nature are in the dark to us and that faint and glimmering Knowledge which we have of them is only cojnectural not demonstrative we know there is an Union between Soul and Body but the manner of it is unknown and hid from us and if we believe no further than we can comprehend we must be Scepticks in Religion as well as Philosophy Yet somthing we may collect from the Union of Soul and Body as also of other Natural Compositions that forasmuch as they are extremely distant and unlike in their Nature and Proprieties and yet united to the making of one Compositum therefore the Immensity of the Divinity can be no hindrance from taking Humanity into an Union and Association with it 6 We cannot doubt but that God who is immense and omnipresent may manifest a peculiar Presence in this or the other particular place as seems best to himself That infinite Nature which pervades and is extended through the vast Capacities of immense Space can as easily actuate inhabit and fill a Human Soul and Body nor is the Divinity contracted or diminished by being united to a Creature but being diffused through all places manifests itself by a more special Inhabitation in the sacred Temple of the Soul of Jesus We see the Soul of Man dilating itself through our corporeal Fabrick expressing its Activity and Presence by the exceeding quick Sensibility of every part and yet hath its peculiar Center and Residence in the Brain and cannot God in whom are found all possible Perfections manifest his peculiar and Divine Presence to the ever faithful and obedient Soul of the Messias Hitherto I have declared the great Excellency and Becomingness of the Truths of the Gospel and shall conclude this general Head with the Recitation of two or three Objections more made by the Jews against our Saviour and recorded in the Histories of the Gospel Object 1. The first we find in John vii 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this People who knoweth not the Law are cursed Answ 1. To this I return that inasmuch as the great Synagogue and Rulers of the Jews rejected Jesus and would not acknowledge him to be the expected Messias the more reason had others to believe in him for their own Prophets long ago predicted the Rejection of the Messias by the Jewish Nation who should be so obstinately blind that they should not know him when he came into the world as we read in Psal cxviii 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner so likewise in Isa vi 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed To which purpose is that Saying of R. Judas in the Talmud That when the Son of David shall come there shall be few wise men in Israel and the wisdom of the Scribes shall stink and the Schools of the Prophets shall