Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	deed_n	light_n	reprove_v	2,125	5	10.3012	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66395	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon peached at St. Martin's in the Fields, May 4. 1695 : being the fifth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1695 (1695)	Wing W2703; ESTC R1958	15,579	40

sufficient Evidence can never be convinced of the Truth of any Revelation For what better Evidence can be given as to the Matter the Persons Inspired the Supernatural Proofs of Miracles and Prophecy c. than what we have for the Scripture Admit then that there is or ever was or may be a Divine Revelation we may be certain that the Matter contained in Scripture is of that nature But though this must be allowed to be a good step toward the Proof of the Divine Authority of Scripture yet it remains to consider what that Evidence is which is thus peculiar to Scripture-Revelation and that none besides ever have or can have And this is the Subject of the Second General Which is to consider 2. The Characters belonging to Revelation upon which that Claim is grounded That Revelation may be distinguished from Imposture and mere Pretence there must be proper Characters that are essential to Revelation without which Marks of distinction we must do by it as few have done and totally reject it or else as the Romans did by the Deities of other Countries that admitted all into their Calendar we must refuse none But since there has been a Revelation as all Mankind have been inclined to believe and several Pretences to it as the experience of all Ages has shewed we must follow the direction of Scripture which not only warns us of false Prophets and exhorts us to try the Spirits but doth also furnish us with such Characters as will enable us to distinguish the true from the false And this direction methinks may pass for one Character according to that of our Saviour Joh. 3. 20 21. Every one that doth evil or speaketh falsly hateth the light lest his deeds should be reproved and his Pretences discovered But he that doeth and speaketh truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God or that what he saith may appear to be a Revelation from him Now when the Revelation so called doth thus offer it self to an impartial trial and exhorts and requires all persons to examine and make enquiry and lays down such Rules Principles and Characters as in the opinion of all men are sufficient to distinguish the true from the false 't is an undoubted sign that it is able to justify it self and to make out its Claim to a Divine Authority by a correspondence to those Characters By this the Scripture is distinguished from all others for though there were several among the Heathen Lawgivers that pretended to derive their Laws from the direction of their gods yet it was rather to prevent Enquiry than encourage it and to oblige the people to an absolute submission For who might dispute that which the gods commanded Or who durst so much as enquire where the Fear of Religion restrained them But to expose it self to a trial and to require that men examine before they receive and believe and to give them such signs as shall serve to describe the Truth and detect Imposture is peculiar to the Scripture From thence therefore it is that I shall produce such Characters as will give that a Title to Divine Authority and oblige us to a belief of it And what are such if these are not viz. That it could come only from God is worthy of him and has a Divine and Supernatural Evidence to attest it Where these are there is a Divine Authority there is a Revelation And these I shall shew do belong to what the Scripture proposes as such 1. It is a Character belonging to Revelation and a sign of the Truth of it when it apparently has God for the Author and can proceed from none but him This is a Character I presume will upon examination be found to belong to Scripture As I shall now attempt to prove by considering that which is the chief subject of it and that is the Revelation of God's Will to Mankind Here I shall premise and take for granted 1. That God having created Man created him in a state of Innocency and Purity for being infinitely Good it is not to be conceived that he made any thing evil in it self 2. That Man fell from this happy state of innocent he became guilty of a pure he became a depraved creature as the experience of all Ages shews him now to be 3. That Almighty God was disposed to pardon and admit him again to favour Upon this state of things the Scripture proceeds And because it was impossible for Man to find out of himself the way and means by which he might be restored there needed a Revelation to inform him in it I grant there is a Natural Means and what the reason of the thing supposes to be necessary to our Reconciliation and that is Repentance But that this is of it self a Means sufficient and upon which alone God will be reconciled to the Offenders has been always doubted of as is evident from the several ways of Atonement and especially of Sacrifices practised in all parts of the world For since God is the Governor of the world it seems no more reconcilable with his Justice and consistent with that Authority he is to maintain to pardon all Offenders upon Repentance than it is consistent with the ends of Government among men to accept of the Offenders Penitence as a full Satisfaction to the Law and to remit the Penalty threatned We have an Instance to the contrary in this very case when notwithstanding a supposed Repentance in Mankind God inflicted the Penalty threatned In the day thou eatest therof thou shalt dye Now therefore since the natural Means of propitiating Almighty God was not sufficient there is somewhat further in reserve and what that is none could tell but he who had it in his own power what to accept and what to refuse it was for him to reveal that was to institute And if we take a view of the Scheme of what the Scripture sets before us as to this matter it will abundantly confirm what I have proposed as a Character of Revelation and that is That it is from God and only from him The Sum of which is That since Mankind had thus lapsed into a Preternatural State in which through the Infirmity and Corruption of their Nature they themselves neither were nor could do what was acceptable to God in order to a Restitution and Reconciliation it was designed that the Son of God himself should become a Mediator by a present Stipulation and in a prefixed time by an actual Undertaking to dye for us That accordingly in testimony of God's acceptance of the Atonement and of his Reconciliation the Son rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven is there our Intercessor and the Dispenser of all those Gifts and that supervenient Grace which is necessary to the reforming Mankind and the fitting them for that state he is now invested in and has promised to bestow upon such as are qualified for it