Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	confess_v	resurrection_n	unchristian_a	20	3	15.9982	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44416	A sermon preached before the Queen at Whitehall on Sunday, Jan. 25, 1690/1 by George Hooper ...	Hooper, George, 1640-1727.	1691 (1691)	Wing H2707; ESTC R4458	11,295	30

Fathers by Moses and the Prophets has laid open to us the World to come and given the free prospect of Heaven and Hell declar'd more of the Future State in this single Parable than was to be read in all those Writings to which Abraham refers What too is said here to be denied he did effect and rais'd one Lazarus from the Grave And when by that rescue of another from Death he had only hastned his own His very Disciples not so well perswaded by that and so many other Miracles as not to forsake nay to deny him he was pleas'd himself to rise from the Dead finally to instruct and to warn Men. This Gospel he Commission'd chosen Men to publish and impower'd them to confirm it with Signs and Wonders Multitudes of his Servants continually declaring by the zeal of the Lives and the constancy of their Death the truth of their Master's Resurrection and their assurance of their own By such evident Testimonies the World found it self oblig'd to admit and to confess his Doctrine but neither is it so perswaded It hears and pretends to believe but goes on still in its old course and lives after the Unchristian manner sometimes it wants a sign or an infallible Proponent or a scientifick demonstration glad to know how to except and object and resolv'd not to obey not to be fully perswaded it seems should all the Dead arise or the whole Host of Heaven come down So true has this Affirmation of Abraham's since prov'd and so little Faith has our Saviour found At his Death he left not much and he makes it a question after whether at his return he shall find any any proportionable to the clearness of the Message and to the Greatness and Dignity of the Reporter The Event he has not only intimated in the Parable but foretold expresly neither is the Revelation he has made disparag'd but verified by it We are not surpriz'd to find that there are such who neglect or contradict These are those of whom we have been warn'd those that will not be perswaded neither should any give themselves the vain pleasure to think that they can disgrace the Gospel or disappoint its Author His word will certainly serve to the purpose to which it was ordain'd and his honour is as secure as his Happiness It is the Unbeliever only who will suffer The Notice we have is so plain and evident that reasonably and in duty we cannot demand more however more will not be granted If the sign of Jonas has not had any effect no other shall be given nor any more rise from the Dead till we our selves do to Judgment The Book is seal'd as the Gulph below is fix'd and those that will not be prevail'd with by this method they will not they shall not by any other If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets the Son of God and his Apostles there will be no further endeavour to perswade them If the Gospel be hid it is hid to those that are lost Make we use therefore of the last and only Help a greater than which we cannot we must not hope for Take we heed how we despise the Admonition of him that is Risen from the Dead and now speaks from Heaven who will once more shake not the Earth only our Maker our Redeemer and our Judge This Life is the time to hear the Directions of God and to comply with his design for our Salvation hereafter we shall be only call'd to hear his Sentence and to confess its Justice And then a knowing Age will be the most improper to plead Ignorance nor will a Christian of this Country dare to say that he wanted Notice The Assertion of the Parable concerning the Unbelief of Men we see how true and exact it is as really fullfill'd will the Narrative part be concerning its Consequence and Issue The perswaded and the unperswaded will then have their different Portions and be set at a wide distance And we shall all hereafter be in the condition of this Unhappy Person or of that Lazarus either Comforted or Tormented God grant that according to that other Parable our Improvement may be in proportion to the number of our multiplied Talents and that we may so hear all our other warnings and this present Admonition that we may be found with Faithful Abraham in the Joy of our Master To whom with the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for Ever FINIS

are bound in Duty to Him to the utmost of our Endeavours To complain of our Bountiful Maker is unjust and highly ungrateful but to recriminate upon him and to charge him with our Faults will be a very bold and a fatal Defence a Plea more guilty than all our former Presumptions and which will not prevent but finish our Condemnation Such an imputation as this though covertly offer'd Abraham in the Parable cut short a Reflection not to be born by the Servants of God by Moses and the Prophets They had not fail'd to testify and had discharg'd their Office but these Brethren may they say these for whom more Revelation is ask'd what of their known duty have they done Do they act in proportion to what they have already from us Or do they live as Men and such as were indued with Reason Do they indeed desire a clearer Evidence Or for the sake of their belov'd Vices do they not rather dread a convincing Discovery Those who have neglected so much warning how little do they deserve more or to what purpose should it be given That Rich Man must confess that all the Insupportable Torment he labours under he endures not for any Transgression Involuntary and of which he was not abundantly premonish'd He had too much warning given him and therefore those Coals of Fire are so heap'd He does therefore in truth make a very dangerous request for his Brethren and out of favour to them it may be deny'd by Abraham More knowledge perhaps may only help to condemn them more and put them into a worse place than that in which he himself lies If Lazarus added to Moses and the Prophets cannot Perswade them he will be join'd then only to Testify against them And this is the Possibility the Text imports in the second place and which we are now going to consider II. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither Possibly will they be perswaded though one rose c. Should God be pleas'd to change his Decreed Methods the Sacred Order of his All-wise Providence for the sake of this Family to expose more of his Mercy and Goodness to such unworthy Affronts should Lazarus be content to leave the Bosom of Abraham and the Happiness of Heaven to go once more upon the miserable Earth and to those inhospitable Doors What assurance has this Person to give that the Messenger shall be heard or that the Divine Endeavours shall not be again frustrated and meet with another Repulse Will he ty caution for the success and answer for the expence of the Miracle Be contented that this Trial should be made and God tempted and wearied at his further Peril No doubt but those of the Gentiles too that are in Hell those from Tyre or Sidon who are guilty of the same Crimes are condemn'd in proportion to their knowledge to the like Torment no doubt I say but those full of the sense of their present Misery and forgetting the powerful influence of past Pleasures may likewise lament their own unhappy Lot and vainly wish that they had been bless'd with the opportunity of some more express Information that some single Prophet had been address'd to their Fathers with the least verbal Intimation from their Maker had such Revelations descended to them their Duty so clearly explain'd and so movingly inforc'd how Attentive and Obedient should they have been never certainly have come into this Place Amaz'd they may be at the Negligence or Infidelity of this Jew and subscribe to the Divine Sentence that His Damnation is just But this Son of Abraham sensibly knows how much mistaken such conceits are and how little Extraordinary Advertisements and plain Declarations may be able to effect He can tell them that not only the Light of Reason may be esteem'd an Ignis Fatuus and its dictates nothing but Education and Prepossession at least be easily obscur'd and over-rul'd but that other supernatural and clearer informations may be entertain'd with the same Prejudices stirr'd up at the sollicitation of Mens Lusts or Interests may be alike neglected and thrown by or cavill'd at slighted and condemn'd that the past Revelations may be turn'd into Fables and the Present into Dreams This Person therefore may easily reflect from the Practice of his Nation and his own Life that new Obedience is not always inferr'd from new Notice and may himself best conceive what sort of reception Lazarus may find Whatever wonder on the Earth his Appearance may be it will be none there should the Message he brings miscarry much Discourse and Dispute may be rais'd upon it but no Reformation follow And so might this Apparition be look'd on by the Friends of his House as a Phantome only and Illusion the sickness of some Melancholick and distemper'd Imagination How can a Man return again from the Grave And how came that Beggar to be sent Had Abraham no other to take into his Bosom and to imploy to his chiefest Sons Let them not disgrace their Family by such an Ignominious report concerning their Brother and brought by such a Messenger For if Angels and Spirits in the Philosophy of those times had the favour to be allow'd a Being yet what should this be but some wandring one of the Air falsely pretending to a higher Sphere The old Vagabond that has no certain place of Residence now and comes out of Envy or Malice to haunt and disturb the Happy Some Banquet therefore or other divertive Entertainment was to be provided to chear up this Melancholy some more real and better Company than a Ghost and part of the ill-got Riches to be spent in the defence of the rest So very possibly might this returning Lazarus be no more harkned to now when Testifying than before when Begging But little might this Vision be minded afterwards however regarded at first the thoughts and apprehensions of it vanishing in some time and following the shadow so that if it was not reputed a Dream yet it might pass away like one and the Image of it by degrees grow faint and disappear effac'd by the constant force of other sensible impressions from more agreeable and still present objects Scar'd his Brethren might be at first and disorder'd but at length recover return to themselves and their old Course brought first to neglect then to forget and may be at last to disbelieve even what had appear'd unto themselves Such effects as these though strange in speculation yet are frequent in Practice commonly wrought by our stupid addiction to the Present by the charms of Pleasure the carelessness of the Mind and the willfullness of our Passions And so we know that repeated Admonitions from Friends or Magistrates and miserable or terrible Examples are not of force to disswade some Men from falling under the same Calamities and incurring the like Condemnation Notwithstanding all that can be advis'd or proclaim'd there are those who will continue the same ruinous Prodigality and Excess and venture upon the