Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	speak_v	spirit_n	true_a	4,053	5	5.1525	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26150	The Christian religion increas'd by miracle a sermon before the Queen at White-Hall, October 21, 1694 / by Francis Atterbury ...	Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.	1694 (1694)	Wing A4147; ESTC R700	11,551	28

Evidently assure us that the Preaching of the Apostles was in the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as if we had heard them speaking with Strange Tongues seen them Healing the Blind and Lame and Reviving the Dead Which Truth that we may be yet Further confirm'd in let us consider as I propos'd in the Third Place what Shifts the Enemies of the Gospel make use of to evade the force of This Argument This then is the utmost that Any of them pretend to say 'T is true they will own Christianity multiply'd very fast and This Increase of it was in some sense Miraculous That is it was wonderful as every Unusual Thing is to those who do not know or consider the Causes of it But to a man they say that will dare to go out of the Common road and to think for himself it will appear that there were at That Time natural Causes a foot sufficient to produce this Effect without needing a Recourse to something Divine and Supernatural The Apostles indeed were Twelve plain Illiterate Men that had not in Themselves force or skill enough to bring about Such an Event but Their Natural Inability was supply'd by a Lucky Confluence of Other Causes and by several Accidental Advantages that mightily help'd on the Work As for Example The Sufferings of those poor bigotted Creatures the Martyrs made mighty impressions upon Men especially upon Those of the same Rank with the Sufferers the Common people who never fail to take the side of the Oppress'd and to think that Cause good let it be what it will for the Profession of which Men are us'dill Then the Purity of the Christian Morals was a mighty Argument to bring in the Men of Probity and Vertue into the Interests of the Gospel And so Also was the Analogy of some of its Mystical Truths to the Doctrines of Plato then in great esteem and vogue a very good Bait to the Men of Philosophy and Learning The Distribution of Goods which the first Christians made and their Living together in Common was a good Reason for many mens embracing That Truth which they were sure would maintain them The Casual Cessation of Oracles was immediately turn'd to the advantage of the Christian Religiou as if That had procur'd it And the destruction of the Jewish State contributed greatly to the encrease of the Christian Numbers because it seem'd to have been foretold by Christ and therefore luckily coming to pass about that time rais'd an high Opinion in Men of his Person and Doctrine and made them willing to think that the Christian Estabishment now newly set up was design'd by God to come into the Room of the Jewish one which then hapned to be pull'd down And thus say they several Extraordinary and Accidental Advantages conspiring to advance the Growth of Christianity it grew indeed mightily and prevail'd as a little River will swell high and spread itself wide and run far if a great many other Streams should at once happen to empty themselves into it and These second Causes they think had of themselves force enough without our having recourse to a first to solve the appearance But now in opposition to this that These Causes assign'd were utterly insufficient to produce the Event for which they are assign'd a short Review of them I think and the time will allow of but a short one will easily satisfie us The Blood of the Martyrs was indeed according to that well known saying the Seed of the Church But how Not surely by alluring Men to the Profession of Christianity at the Time when those Martyrs suffer'd for certainly nothing was more apt to frighten and discourage men from professing the Gospel then to find they should be persecuted for it But the meaning of that saying is that the Sufferings and Torments which the first Christians underwent so willingly and so bravely were a strong Evidence of the Truth of that Doctrine which could inspire its followers with so much Courage Constancy and Resolution and dispos'd men mightily to embrace the Religion of Christ afterwards in better and more quiet Times But before This Motive could have any great force and influence the Gospel had allready spread and settled itself every where and therefore nothing can well be accounted for on This Head but the Accession that was made to Christianity after it was sufficiently establish'd and This had confessedly nothing extraordinary in it and is not the Thing which we are at present Enquiring after The same Answer serves to that Other pretended account of this Increase from the Destruction of the Jewish State It did indeed add to the Numbers of Christian Converts when it hapned but it hapned not till near forty Years after the Death of Christ and by That time Christianity was strong enough of itself and needed no Aids And then even at that time thô Several Jews promoted the Interests of the Gospel by owning the Faith yet the Obstinate Part of them that stood out did it abundantly more harm then the Complying Ones did it good For They were not satisfy'd in rejecting Christianity themselves but made it their business to render it odious suspected and contemptible to the Heathens also in all the Corners of the Earth to which they were driven The Purity of the Christian Morals and the answerable Lives of Christian Converts was indeed what would be apt to make men admire and value the Doctrine of Christ but by no means to come under the Yoke of it For thô most Men have an Esteem for strict Rules and strict Livers yet few care to practise the one or to Imitate the other And nothing I think could be contriv'd so effectual next to the former wise Motive from the Sufferings of the Martyrs to deterr men from Christianity as to tell them that when they took it upon them they must renounce their dearest Appetites and Passions and deny their very Selves And I desire the Men who raise these Objections against the Divinity of the Gospel to tell us fairly whether if They had liv'd at that time they think They should have come in upon This Principle I am sure they would not because it is This Principle alone that they must part with their Satisfactions and Pleasures if they do that keeps them out of it now Therefore neither can This be any Sufficient reason for the sudden and wide Growth of Christianity The Analogy of some mystical Truths of Christianity to the Doctrine of Plato is a yet a weaker plea. For This Motive is Calculated to touch but very few onely the Philosophers of the Academic School And with Those it could have no Great weight surely or at least not enough to over ballance that Scorn and Contempt which upon other accounts they had of the Christian Religion and its Promulgers of That for its short Unphilosophical way of proposing its Truths without Demonstration and Reasoning and of Those for their Ignorance and the Meanness of their