Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	jesus_n	lord_n	4,121	5	3.4974	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59551	The reasonableness of believing without seeing a sermon preach'd before the King in St. James's Chappel, on Palm-Sunday, March 24, 1699/700 / by the Most Reverend Father in God, John Lord Archbishop of York.	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing S2979; ESTC R10684	13,424	33

the Truth of what they had written gave Testimony to them since they built their Faith upon the Matters of Fact they had delivered If therefore you suppose these Writers to be sincere honest men it is certain that what they recorded concerning our Lord Jesus and his Doctrines and his Actions must be true On the other side if you suppose them to have had Designs of imposing upon the world with a false Story you must at the same time suppose a great number of People of whom there is no ground for such a suspicion to be perfect Fools or Mad-men who gave so much Credit to all that matter which they related concerning our Saviour that they laid down their Lives to attest the Truth of it I know nothing to be said against this unless it be That though they could not well be supposed to be mistaken in the Matters of Fact which they relate concerning our Saviour yet they might in the Matter of his Doctrines These they might misrepresent and consequently their Writings ought not to be of that Authority with us as that we should be bound to believe all that they say But to this I give a very short Answer If we do admit them to be true Reporters of Matters of Fact we must also of necessity admit them to be true Reporters nay I say more Infallible Reporters of our Saviour's Doctrine so as that their Declarations of it must for ever conclude all Christians And the reason is this The Authors of these Writings were either Apostles or Apostolick Men as has been said before and it is one of the matters of Fact reported in these Writings that our Saviour did so assist these men with his Holy Spirit that they were enabled faithfully and infallibly to Preach that Doctrine to others which he had delivered to them Now if we be sure they were inspired in what they Preached we may be as much assured they were inspired in putting what they Preached into writing since it was the same Doctrine that they Preached and that they Wrote and especially since after it was written it was to remain to all succeeding Generations and to be a Rule of mens Faith so long as the world should last And further we are sure that all the Christians of those days did look upon those Writings to have a stamp of divine Authority upon them and distinguished them from all other human Compositions And to Evidence this they made these Writings to be the Standard of their Belief the Measure by which they tryed all Opinions and Doctrines in Religion So that whatever was not found in these Scriptures was not accounted as necessary to Salvation and whatever was found disagreeing from these Scriptures was rejected as an Innovation or an Error in Christianity And of this we have sufficient Evidence from Antiquity Well but how shall we know whether these Scriptures be faithfully transmitted down to us How do we know but that they may have been corrupted since the time they were written and made to speak different things now from what they did at the first This is the last Question upon this Argument and in Answer to it I say in the Sixth Place If the Providence of God as I told you before was ever concerned to preserve any Writings from being depraved or corrupted it was certainly more especially concerned to do it as to the Writings we are now speaking of they being of such vast Importance to all the Generations of Mankind But I do not leave the matter so There is Evidence of Fact as well as Reason to be offered in this Case Let the Books of the New Testament as we now have them be tryed by the severest Rules of Criticism Let the Copies both Ancient and Modern which are extant of them be compared Let the several Versions of them likewise that were made in the earliest times be examined Lastly Let all the Ecclesiastical Writers from the beginning of Christianity to this day who have either commented upon them or proved any Doctrine from them or but occasionally quoted them in their Writings be searched into It will appear by all these ways of Tryal that our Scriptures are the same at this day that they were at the beginning without any material difference Indeed considering the multitude of Copies that were taken of these Books and the several Translations that were made of them into other Languages even shortly after the time they were first published we cannot imagine it possible that in After-ages any thing could be foisted into them to serve the Turn of any Party but the Imposture would have been presently discovered And accordingly we find that when any Attempts of this kind have been made there were not wanting those who took care to detect and expose them I do not when I say this deny that there are many differences and various readings to be met with in the ancient Copies of these Books occasioned by the negligence or mistakes of Transcribers Nay and some few Passages may be wanting in some Copies that are found in others But then I desire it may be observed that these differences are of such small moment that it is of no Importance to the Christian Faith which of the Readings be right and which of them be wrong For they all agree in all the Matters which concern either our Saviour's Doctrines or his Precepts or the Proofs he gave of his Divine Mission And farther agreement than this I think none needs to desire Indeed if slight and verbal differences in Copies be a good Argument against the Genuineness of a Writing we have no Genuine Writing of any ancient Author at this day For the same thing has happened to all old Books whatsoever that have been often transcribed And to suppose that it should be otherwise in the Books of the Scripture is to suppose that God ought in every age as immediately and infallibly to guide the Pen of every Transcriber of them as he did the Minds of their first Authors To make now a little Reflection on what I have said about the Scriptures of the New Testament It is urged by our Deists as a very hard thing That whereas when the Gospel was first preached men had opportunities of being convinced by their senses of the Truth of it or at least it is pretended they had such Opportunities we now are only referred to a Book that gives us an account of these matters Why I desire to know what other way they would have had an account of them but by Books Would they have had our Saviour to come down from Heaven every Fifty or Threescore years and to Preach the same Doctrine and Confirm it by the same Miracles to the men of that Generation that he once did among the Iews Yet this it must be supposed necessary for him to do if Men cannot otherwise be convinced of the Truth of his Religion but by their Senses Nay that would not be enough He must