Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A44636
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The Trinity asserted a sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at the cathedral church of St. Paul, upon Trinity-Sunday, Anno Dom. 1700 / John Howard.
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Howard, John, 1647-1729?
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1700
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Wing H2983; ESTC R15897
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20,219
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the meanest Production in Nature and may find a thousand things in themselves to baffle their Reason and therefore it must be very unfit to judge of the Divine Nature and Sibsseveral timesstence And if we observe what ways they take to evade those plain Scriptures before-mention'd we shall quickly see their Reason is not very formidable in Matters of Faith whatsoever it may be in other things For some of them they deny to be Scripture as they do these Words of my Text others they put such strain'd and foreign Interpretations upon and use such miserable Shifts to escape the Force of them that one would think they are passionately in love with Heresie that defend it at this rate But these Things have been answer'd to their Shame by several worthy Authors and I hope also to the Conviction of some of them Their Exception against the Word Person as applied to these Three in my Text is also impertinent For he to whom those Names Actions and Prerogatives before-mention'd do belong must be a Person tho' he were not call'd so in Holy Scripture Heb. 1.3 But the Father is there term'd a Person when the Son is call'd the express Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Person and it 's hard if a Son who hath all the Perfections of his Father may not be call'd a Person too But whether these captious Men will or no the Scripture hath given him that Denomination with respect to his Divinity 2 Cor. 2.10 If I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Person of Christ Where the Apostle affirms that when he forgave or absolv'd a Penitent he did it in the Person of Christ that is in his Name as his Deputy and Representative who as God hath Power to forgive Sins From these Places there is Warrant for those Terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek Fathers commonly us'd to signifie a Person in the Trinity And when we find them thus applied to the Father and the Son who can deny them to the Holy Ghost since the Glorious Properties and Works of the Deity are also ascrib'd to him Thus have I given you some Account of the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is discover'd to us in Holy Scriptures which hath been constantly believ'd and defended by the Churches of Christ in all Ages And seeing we have such Evidence from Scripture and so General a Consent for the Truth of this Doctrine we may with great Satisfaction believe and confess it And because our Faith in the Trinity is of the greatest moment to us as we are assur'd also from the Scripture and very much for the Honour of our Religion and the Author of it we ought zealously to defend it against those Antichrists in our Days as St. John calls them who deny the Father and the Son 1 John 2.22 2. I should now say something of the Record that these Three bear that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God But this will not require much Proof after that which hath been given oâ—â—â—â—ly concerning his Divine Nature and doth consist of Testimonies from the Three several Persons of the Trinity Therefore to these I shall only add That this is witnessed by them to the Saints and Angels in Heaven who have the Beatisick Vision of the Glorious Trinity and particularly of the Divinity of Christ united with his Human Nature It hath been attested from Heaven by the Voice of God the Father at our Saviour's Baptism and Transfiguration asserted by Christ himself several times who said also that he came from God and was one with him and manifested by the Holy Ghost when he descended upon Christ in a visible Shape at his Baptism and upon the Disciples in a miraculous manner according to our Saviour's Promise From whence it appears that as these Three are One in their Essence or Nature so also in their Testimony concerning the Messias which some think is only meant by those Words These Three are One But because they are true in an higher Sense as I have prov'd to you and the Words are in a General Form they ought chiefly to be understood of that and from hence an Unity in their Record or Testimony will necessarily follow The Holy Ghost doth also constantly give this Testimony in the Holy Scriptures and in his Effects upon the Hearts of his People Which may probably be meant of that Witness which he is said to bear in Earth at the 8th Verse of this Chapter and one of these Effects is afterwards mention'd Ver. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself Let us therefore daily pray to God for this excellent Grace which will assure us of the Truth of such Doctrines as we cannot comprehend And that we may receive it together with an Improvement in all Divine Knowledge let us sincerely do all those Duties God requires of us and then he will certainly discover himself and the Mysteries of Salvation more to us Now to the Ever-blessed and Glorious Trinity the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One Eternal and Only Wise God be all Honour Praise and Dominion both now and for ever Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry Two Sermons by the Reverend Mr. John Howard THE True Interest of a Nation Or The Duty of Magistrates Ministers and People in order to the further Settlement and Prosperity of these Kingdoms A Sermon preach'd at the Assizes held at Buckingham July the 5th 1692. The Evil of our Days with the Remedy of it A Sermon preach'd at a Visitation at Ruthwel in Northamptonshire Octob. 12.1697 MR. Pool's English Annotations on the Whole Bible wherein the Sacred Text is inserted together with the various Readings and Parallel Scriptures c. In Two Volumes Folio The Works of the late Reverend Mr. Stephen Charnock In Two Volumes Iolio The Life of the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter with the History of the Times he lived in Written by himself and published by Mr. Matthew Sylvester In Folio Mr. Lorrimer's Apology for the Ministers who subscribed only unto the Stating of the Truths and Errors in Mr. Williams's Book from the Exceptions made against them by Mr. Trail Quarto His Remarks on Mr. Goodwin's Discourse Proving That the Gospel-Covenant is a Law of Grace And answering the Objections to the contrary c. Quarto Mr. Shower's Thanksgiving-Sermon on the Discovery of the Assassination-Plot April the 16th 1696. Quarto His Mourners Companion Or Funeral Discourses on several Texts The Second Edition In Two Parts Octavo His Sermons on Isaiah 55.7 8 9. God's Thoughts and Ways above ours especially in the Forgiveness of Sins Octavo His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Nath. Oldfield Dec. 31. 1696. Octavo A Preservative against Deism Shewing the great Advantage of Revelation above Reason in the two Great Points Pardon of Sin and a Future State of Happiness With an Appendix in Answer to a Letter of A. W. against Revealed Religion in the Oracles of Reason Octavo A Discourse of the Nature and Necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ With an Answer to the Pleas of our modern Vnitarians for the Sufficiency of bare Morality or meer Charity to Salvation Octavo A Brief Discourse of Infant Baptism Twelves These Three last by the Reverend Mr. Nathanael Taylor The Whole Duty of Man Epitomiz'd for the Benefit of the Poor with select Prayers suited to every Petition In Twenty fours Price bound Six Pence
Mr. HOWARD's SERMON Preach'd Before The Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of the City of LONDON AT THE Cathedral Church of St. PAVL upon Trinity-Sunday Anno Dom. 1700. Levett Mayor Jovis 20 die Junii 1700. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. Duodecimo THIS Court doth Desire Mr. Howard to Print his Sermon Preach'd on Trinity-Sunday last before the Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of this City at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's Goodfellow The TRINITY Asserted A SERMON PREACH'D BEFORE The Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of the City of LONDON AT THE Cathedral Church of St. PAVL upon Trinity-Sunday Anno Dom. 1700. By JOHN HOWARD M. A. Rector of Marston-Trussel in Northamptonshire LONDON Printed for J. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1700. To the Right Honourable Sir Richard Levett Lord-Mayor of the City of London My LORD IN Obedience to the Order I receiv'd from your Lordship and the Court of Aldermen I have now Publish'd the Sermon lately preach'd before you with the Addition of some Things which through the Straitness of my Time were then omitted and do most humbly present it to your Lordship I should not have thought it fit for Publick View after so many Excellent Discourses as have been printed within a few Years in Defence of the Doctrine of the Trinity neither would I have ventur'd to preach to such an Auditory upon so Great and Venerable a Mystery if the Time to which I was confin'd by a Particular Providence had not requir'd it But as that Providence will I hope Justifie me in Choosing such a Subject so the Authority of your Lordship and your Honourable Brethren will Vindicate me in Publishing my Discourse upon it I pray God convince those Vnhappy Men in our Days who have deserted the Faith they were baptized into and deny the Lord that bought them for I am sure a meer Man could never do it that they may escape the Destruction he hath threaten'd to them And that the same God would continually bless your Lordship and give Success to your Pious Endeavours to suppress Error and Wickedness in an Age and Place that need all your Authority and Zeal to that End is also the hearty Prayer of My LORD Your Lordship 's most Humble and Faithful Servant John Howard 1 JOHN V. 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one BEFORE I speak to the Doctrine contain'd in these Words it will be necessary to say something towards the removing an Objection that hath been made against them as if they were not a Genuine Part of this Chapter because they are omitted in some Greek Copies In Answer to which It might be enough to satisfie unprejudic'd Men to say that they are in the Best and most Ancient Greek Manuscripts and have been constantly retain'd in the Vulgar Latin as several worthy Authors assure us and they might more easily be left out in some Copies by an Oversight in the Transcribers than fraudulently inserted into others Yet because it hath been said by some who would have the World think so that this Verse was added in Opposition to the Arians I must say farther that this could not be De Vnit Eccles because we find it quoted by St. Cyprian before â—rius his Time And indeed the Orthodox as they had no need to do this having the Scripture so plainly and fully on their side in many other Places so they must have ventur'd such an Hazard in it as no wise Men would expose themselves to For the Detection of such a Forgery which they would have Reason enough to fear would have done a great Injury to their Reputation and to a Cause which they valued more than their Lives It is therefore more Reasonable to suppose that the Arians raz'd this Verse out of such Copies as they could come by for their desperate Cause did more need the miserable Supports of Fraud and Sacrilege and the Men were fitter for the Practice of them Socr. Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 32. And some of the Ancients complain of their corrupting several Places of Scripture and particularly of this Epistle and there is no Expression in it they could take more Offence at than this Hist Tripart l. 12. c. 4. though there are several others that plainly condemn them and their impious Doctrines Besides these Testimonies the Verse it self doth I think sufficiently assert its Right to this Place by the Agreement it hath with the foregoing and following Verses The Apostle's main Design in this Chapter is to prove that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God that is the Eternal Son of God of the same Nature with the Father as well as Man as I shall prove in the following Discourse and this he doth by the Witnesses mention'd at the 6 7 and 8 Verses But the Water and the Blood in two of those Verses whether we understand them literally as they came out of our Saviour's Side when his Body was pierc'd upon the Cross or in a figurative Sense for his Holiness and Sufferings can prove no more than the Truth of his Human Nature nor the Spirit that is join'd with them if it be meant of his Soul which he yielded up to the Father upon the Cross as some understand it And if we take it for the Spirit of God as it was given to our Saviour in an extraordinary measure it doth not necessarily prove any more than the Excellency of his Person as a Man and that he was highly in Favour with God the Father Though there are other Things to be said indeed concerning the Spirit that infallibly prove the Divinity of Christ which will more properly be spoken of him as he is mentioned in my Text. Now if nothing more had been said by the Apostle in this Place than what is asserted concerning these Three Witnesses in the 6 and 8 Verses they would have afforded us but a dark Proof at the best of what he mainly intends but his adding Three more at the 7th Verse puts the Matter out of all doubt I might further shew the Agreement between this and the other two Verses and how Defective the Sense of this Place will be without it but I hope what hath been said already is sufficient to prove the Divine Authority of these Words and I am so far from thinking the worse of them for the Violence done to them by sacrilegious Hands in some ancient Copies that I cannot but have a greater Veneration for them in that they have suffer'd a kind of Martyrdom in that Glorious Cause which they assert In speaking to these Words I shall I. Endeavour to shew you what these Three are that are here mentioned II. Give some Account of the Record they bear concerning the Messias I. I shall endeavour to shew you what these Three are in the following Particulars 1. Every One of these is the Great and Most High God 2. They are not