Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n darkness_n light_n world_n 4,608 5 5.1919 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41440 The leaven of pharisaism and sadducism purged out a sermon preached before the Court of Aldermen and city of London at their Guild-hall Chappel on Sunday Decemb. 16, 1688 / by J. Goodman. Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690. 1689 (1689) Wing G1110; ESTC R37399 15,173 36

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Errand they came not to be Converted but to be hardened they had a mind not to believe and seek only a colour for their unbelief they ask him therefore for that which they verily thought he would not grant them that they might have some pretence for their Infidelity Now therefore our Saviour having discovered their Design and detected their Hypocrisie in the 2 3 and 4 Verses in my Text turns himself towards his Disciples and gives them this serious caution against them and all such kinds of Men Take heed and Beware c. For the full opening of which I will briefly inquire into these Four things First What is the Importance of this Metaphorical expression Leaven and what our Saviour means by the Leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees Secondly More particularly we will inquire what was the peculiar Leaven of these two Sects so often mentioned in the New-Testament Thirdly We will consider what was the danger of that Leaven and its contrariety to the Doctrine and Design of our Saviour Fourthly and Lastly We will inquire what this Caution of our Saviour implies and what he would have his Disciples to do when he bids them Take heed and beware c. And by that time I have given Account of these Four things I shall not only have opened the full scope of the Text but I hope every attentive Auditor will be satisfied of the seasonableness of this subject for the present Time. I begin with the First viz. What our Saviour means by Leaven In the Words following my Text Verse 7. We find that the Disciples took our Saviour Literally and reflecting on themselves for their Omission to provide Bread and necessaries for the Voyage which they were now entring upon though he had obliquely reproved their carelesness in that particular and that he had thence took occasion to interdict them all Trade and Civil commerce with those two Sects of Men. But by the 12. Verse they understand their Master's mind better and knew at Length That he spake not of the Leaven of Bread but of the Doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees Indeed it is usual with our Saviour by that Metaphor to represent Doctrine whether good or bad for Matth. chap. 13. 33. He compares his own Institution to it saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like Leaven which a Woman took and hid in two Measures of Meal till the whole was Leavened c. And the resemblance is very fit and Natural for as it is the nature of Leaven that it works insensibly quickly insinuates it self and Universally diffuses its Efficacy over the whole Mass into which it is put so in like manner Doctrine works upon the minds of Men and gives a Tincture of its own Nature and Temper to them Insomuch as that such as a Mans persuasions and Principles are such ordinarily at least will his Life and Practice be It is true indeed that sometimes Mens Lives are better than their Principles and sometimes also worse For it may fall out that Men of very unhappy and mischievous Opinions may yet live virtuously when the Probity of their Temper is such as that it Antidotes them against the Malignity and Venome of their persuasions And on the other side it is no infrequent tho' an unhappy spectacle to behold others of very Noble and Generous principles as to Doctrine yet to live very Lewd and Profligate Lives such Men with-holding the Truth in unrighteousness as the Apostles Phrase is or out-facing the Light and Debauching their Consciences in compliance with their Lusts and carnal or secular Interests But as I said ordinarily it is otherwise for such a state of contradiction to Principles must needs be violent and unnatural and the lives and actions of Men do as reasonably bear proportion to the Principles of their Minds and Consciences as it is Natural for the stream to rise as high as its Source and Fountain and no higher Hence it is that our Saviour Matth. 12. 33. saith Either make the Tree good and his Fruit good or the Tree Corrupt and the Fruit Corrupt And again Matth. 6. 23. He pronounces If the Light that is in Thee be Darkness that Darkness must be great and intolerable To the truth of which Observation the general experience of all the World bares ample Testimony amongst several instances of which I cannot but remark a very pertinent passage of an Heathen Historian in the Life of that wicked Emperour Tiberius his Words concerning him are these Erat circa Deos negligentior quippe Mathematicae addictus persuasionisque plenus omnia sato agi Which I render thus q. d. Tiberius was a profane Prince careless of Religion and without any Devotion towards God and no wonder for he was an admirer of Astrology and full of the Opinion that the Starrs or Fate governed the World and not God. And in short this is the true Reason of all Education and of all the Care and Diligence that evil and good Men use in Propounding and Propagating good Doctrine and preventing the contrary not that they think God is pleased with dry opinions and speculations but because they are aware that Principles draw on Practices and that evil opinions Corrupt good Manners But somuch for that I proceed In the second place to inquire what was the peculiar Leaven of these Pharisees and Sadducees which our Saviour thus cuations against And for this the Learned Jewish Historian Josephus in his 13th Book of Antiquities and in his 2d Book of the Jewish Warrs hath given us a very exact Account of all the Sects of Religion amongst that People and from him I shall present this Auditory with the substance of what he delivers touching the Pharisees and Sadducees wherein we are at present concerned And first it is notorious that the Sect of the Sadducees utterly denied the being of Angels and Spirits or of all Spiritual substances and acknowledged nothing but Matter or Body in the whole Universe and consequently hereof they must also renounce the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and Eternal Life in the World to come Whereas on the contrary the Pharisees acknowledged all the aforesaid great Articles as we Learn Acts 23. 8. Only this is to be added withal That these latter entertained so many Legendary Stories about these great Points and had such very crasie notions of them that they thereby rendred the very Doctrines ridiculous and incredible Again the Sadducees were gross Idolaters of the Letter and as they received only the Law of Moses excluding the Prophets and all other sacred Writings so they understood the Books of the Law in the most crass and litteral sense and admitted not of any interpretation or consequence from it though never so clearly and naturally deduced On the other side the Pharisees not only received the whole Scripture of the Old Testament but besides were great Patrones of Oral Tradition and allowed as great or greater authority to it than the written Word and