Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	world_n	wrought_v	218	4	7.6175	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87160	A vindication of the Holy Scriptures. Or the manifestation of Jesus Christ the true Messiah already come. Being the Christians antidote against the poysons of Judaisme and atheisme of this present age. Proved out of sacred scripture, ancient historians, and Jewish Rabbins. / By that learned, and late eminent divine, John Harrison.	Harrison, John, of the Inner Temple.	1656 (1656)	Wing H896; Thomason E1685_1; ESTC R209168	62,938	174

right hand of God David saith Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men c. And in another place The Lord said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand c. which is the place alledged by our Saviour wherewith he put the Jews to silence both as touching the Deity and the Humanity of the Messiah for saith he If David call him Lord how is he then his Son Where we may see David acknowledgeth him his Lord and consequently his God even the Son of God sitting at the right hand of God for the present as touching his Divinity afterwards to be accomplished also in his Humanity which David believed as verily should come to pass and foresaw by the eye of Faith as did Thomas when it was come to pass putting his hand into his side and crying My Lord and my God so saith David here my Lord The Lord said unto my Lord c. I say this article of our Faith as touching his Ascension it followeth necessarily to be concluded upon his Resurrection it needeth no other proof For that whosoever seeth and acknowledgeth that Jesus being dead could raise himself to life again will easily believe also that he was able to ascend up to heaven at his pleasure And hereof we have also all his Apostles and Disciples for witnesses eye witnesses in whose presence and sight he ascended as it is in that place They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went and in witness thereof gave up their lives and sealed the same with their blood Therefore I conclude upon all these premisses so necessarily following and depending one upon another to wit his birth life doctrine actions death resurrection ascension seeing nothing hath hapned in the same which was not foretold by the Prophets of God nor any thing foretold by the same Prophets concerning the Messiah which was not fulfilled most exactly in the person of our Saviour We may most certainly assure our selves that as God is truth and therefore can neither foretel an untruth nor yeild testimony to the same so it cannot be but that these things which have been shewed to be so manifestly fore prophesied and so evidently accomplished in the person of this our blessed Lord and Saviour must needs I say assure us Christians that he was indeed the true Messiah and quite confound the Jews in their vain imagination and expectation of another The sending of the holy Ghost with the first Plantation and wonderful increase of the Church NOw for those things that followed after his Ascension as arguments and effects of his Divine power they were also foretold by the Prophets to wit the sending of the holy Ghost that Comforter from on high with the sudden strange and miraculous increase of his Church throughout the world even against all worldly power and policy by the only power and ministry of his word confirmed with signs and wonders that followed wrought by his Apostles Disciples and other his faithful servants and witnesses in the Primitive Church then the which there can be no greater argument in the world of the truth of Christian Religion if we consider how all other Religions in the world have grown and been maintained by force of Arms Fire and Sword this only by the preaching of Christ crucified in all Nations hath encreased and multiplyed and shal do more and more to the end of the world this must increase all others decrease howsoever the Turks have possessed the greatest part of the world at this day yet our Saviours prophesie in the end shall be found true this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a witness unto all Nations Now for the first increase of it How small a number were there gathered together after the ascension at Jerusalem from whence they were to march even the twelve Apostles no great army God wot to conquer the world as it is in that place The Law shall go forth from Zion and the Word of God from Jerusalem There was the Rendevous there they stayed there they rested there they continued in prayer and fasting till such time as Christ after his ascension according to his promise sent them the Comforter even the holy Ghost enduing them with power from on high and arming them at all points for so great a work When and where being gathered together all with one accord in one place suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind and filled all the house where they sate And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as there is mentioned And with these fiery cloven tongues these twelve silly souls without any means men money or munition in a very short time conquered a great part of the world insomuch that at one Sermon of S. Peter at the same time there were added to the Church three thousand souls and so multiplyed successively from time to time and from place to place spreading it self from one Country to another and from one Nation to another and so at length into all Nations There is neither Speech nor Language where their voice is not heard Their line is gone forth through all the earth and their words into the ends of the world as we see it is come to pass this day Of which coming of the holy Ghost in the time of the Messiah Joel prophesied saying And it shall be in the last days that I will pour out my spirit c. and on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out my spirit c. It filled all the house where they sate and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Here is a deluge of Gods grace poured upon the world immediately upon the ascension of our Lord and Saviour First upon his Apostles and Disciples of those times in greater measure as the first fruits of his spirit by the which they wrought miracles spake all manner of languages healed all manner of diseases cast out Divels raised the dead and lastly sealed the same with their blood Poor Fishermen and such like of no reputation in the world without learning without credit without means as before yet by this means conquered the world to the subjection of their master Christ that stone cast aside of the Builders but now become the head-stone of the corner this the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The sincerity of the Evangelists NOw for the Evangelists or writers of the Gospel that is to say the registers of his Birth Life Doctrine and Death It is to be noted that our Saviour being God took a different way from the custome of man in delivering unto us his Laws and Precepts For that men who have been law-makers unto the world

work be of men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot destroy it lest ye be found even fighters against God Wherefore to conclude at length this main point of the time of Christs appearing which cutteth the very throat of the Jews vain expectation seeing at or about that time there concurred so many signs and arguments together as 1 the establishment of the Roman Empire newly erected for then by Daniels prophesie was the God of heaven to set up his Kingdom 2. The departure of the Rod or Scepter from the house of Juda. 3. The destruction of the second Temple foretold by our Saviour and comming to pass accordingly even in that age 4. The just calculation of Daniels Hebdomades or weeks of years 5. The observation of Rabbins 6. The publique fame and expectation of all the Jews together with the palpable experience of more then sixteen hundred years past since Jesus appeared wherein we see the Jewish people in vain do expect another Messiah they being dispersed over all the world without Temple Sacrifice Prophet or any other pledge at all of Gods favour which never happened to them till after the death of our Saviour for that in all other their banishments captivities and afflictions they had some prophesie consolation or promise left to them for their comfort but now they wander up and down God having set a mark upon them as he did upon Cain as a people forlorn and abandoned both of God and Men His Linage or Pedegre SEcondly the Messiah by the Scripture was to be born of the Tribe of Judah and to descend lineally from the house of David There shall come a rod out of the stock of Ishai c. So did our Saviour as appeareth by his Genealogy set down by his Evangelists Mat. 1. Luk. 3. as also by the Thalmud it self which saith That Jesus of Nazareth crucified was of the blood royal from Zerabbabel of the house of David confirmed by the going up of Joseph and Mary his Mother to Bethlehem to be taxed ' Which was the City of David who was born there as also it is manifest for that the Scribes and the Pharisees who objected many matters of much less importance against him as that he was a Carpenters Son c. yet never objected they against him that he was not of the house of David which could they have proved would quickly have ended the whole controversie His Birth with the Circumstances thereof THirdly the Messiah by the Scripture was to be born of a Virgin so saith Isaiah Behold a Virgin shal conceive and bring forth a son the Hebrew is He emphaticum the Virgin And Isaiah appointeth this to Achaz for a wonderful and strange sign from God therefore saith he The Lord himself will give you a sign behold which he could not have done in reason if the Hebrew word in that place had signified a young woman only as some latter Rabbins will affirm for that is no such sign nor strange thing but very common and ordinary for young women to conceive and bring forth Children and so did the elder Jews understand it as Rabbi Simeon noteth And Rabbi Moses Haddersan upon those words Truth shall bud forth of the Earth saith thus Here Rabbis Joden noteth that it is not said Truth shall be engendered but Truth shall bud forth to signifie that the Messiah who is meant by the word Truth shall not be begotten as other men are in carnal copulation To the same effect and after the same manner to be interpreted is that of Jeremy The Lord hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man And Rabbi Haccadosch proveth by Cabala out of many places of Scripture not only that the Mother of the Messiah must be a Virgin but also that her name shall be Mary Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus c that is to say after this strange and extraordinary manner therefore must he needs be the true and undoubted Messiah The Messiah by the Scripture was to born at Bethlehem in Judea for so it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethlehem Ephrathah art little to be among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that shall be the Ruler of Israel c. which place the chief Priests themselves quoted to that purpose to Herod demanding of them where Christ should be born and they answered him at Bethlehem in Judea for so it is written by the Prophet as before So also David after much restless study and industrious search to find out this mystery c. I will not enter into the Tabernacle of my house nor come upon my pallet or bed nor suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eyelids to slumber until I find out a place for the Lord c. At length the mystery being revealed unto him he doth as it were point to the very place in the words following Lo we heard of it at Ephratah which is Bethlehem Gen. 35.19 and found it in the fields of the Forrest Then addeth ' We will enter into his Tabernacle and worship before his footstoole foreshewing that divine worship there afterwards done to Jesus by those Magi or wise men who came from the East to worship him in that place even in the Cratch and before his footstoole Presenting unto him gifts of Gold Frankincense and mirrh as was also prophesied in another place that presents and gifts should be brought unto him from far countries and by great personages The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shal bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring gifts Cyprian saith it is an old tradition of the Church that those Magi or wise men were Kings or rather little Lords of particular places which is to be understood such little Kings as Josuah slew thirty in one battel howsoever it is manifest they were men of place and reputation in their countries neither are prophesies always so strictly and literally to be understood They brought with them a great treasure Gold Frankincense and Mirrh yea both Herod and all Jerusalem took notice of their comming They had private conference with the King as touching the star that appeared unto them leading them to that most bright morning star whereof Balaam long before prophesied saying I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not neer there shal come a star of Jacob c. Jesus then being born at Bethlehem in Judea as was prophesied long before the Messiah should be and indeed it standeth with great reason that he that was to be the Son of David should also be born in the City of David the circumstances also of his birth duely considered both before and after first the Angels salutation to his Mother Mary foretelling that his name should be Jesus before ever he was conceived So Esdras prophesied in the person of God himselfe

laugh but often to weep of such humility as being the Son of God yet scarce took upon him the dignity of a servant of so mild and sweet a nature as all the injuries of his enemies never wrested from him an angry word but on the contrary prayers and tears in their behalfs In prayer often the day he spent in the Temple and elsewhere preaching to the broken hearted doing good to all men healing all manner of diseases as the Prophets foretold the Messiah should do the night on mount Olivet and other places in prayer In fastings often forty days and forty nights together that the Jews might know he was more then a man Finally he was such a one as was described by God in Isaiah so many ages before he was born Behold my servant c. he shall not cry A bruised reed he shall not break As also in Zachary Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation lowly c. Such an one I say was our Saviour as touching his integrity sanctity piety humility and all other vertues even by the testimony of his greatest enemies Porphyry and others yea of the Divels themselves Ergo His Miracles FOr his miracles which he wrought for the confirmation of his doctrine and approbation of his person as sent from God the Jews themselves do grant and record the same in divers places of their Thalmud yea they make mention of many wonderful things that Jesus did which are not written by our Evangelists So doth Mahomet in his Alcoran affirming him to have been a great Prophet and to have wrought his miracles by the only power and spirit of God and they were such as first were foretold by the Prophets that the Messiah should work as namely to give sight to the blind to open the ears of the deaf to make the lame to leap the dumb to speak c. Secondly such as were altogether unpossible for any mortal man to effect but by the meer power and finger of God as the raising of the dead to life again as he did Lazarus after he had lain four days stinking in the grave Jairus his daughter a chief Ruler of the Synagogue The widdows son before the gates of the City Nain in the presence of a multitude of people there assembled to the funeral with many other strange miracles recorded by such faithful witnesses the Evangelists I mean four in number though two or three had been sufficient in Law who afterwards sealed the truth thereof even with their dearest blood as did infinite others after them Neither could the Jews of those times compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses ever deny the truth thereof the parties themselves then living and conversing amongst them upon whom they were wrought They had no other evasion but this to say and that most blasphemously contrary to their own knowledge and conscience and therefore our Saviour layeth it to their charge as that fearful sin against the holy Ghost not to be prayed for that he wrought these his miracles by the help of Beelzebub the Prince of Divels Whereas it is most apparent the Divel himself had never that power given him to raise one from the dead and though he had yet would he sooner by his good will take away both life and breath from all men at once if it were possible wishing all men in the world had but one head or neck like that cruel Tyrant in Rome rather then give life to any one for he is a murtherer from the beginning And yet the Jews themselves in their Thalmud do acknowledge that the Messiah at his coming shall be most wonderful in working miracles And in their publike commentary upon Ecclesiastes they have these words All the former miracles of the Prophets or Saints shall be nothing to the miracles of the Messiah when he cometh But such were the miracles of our Saviour the whole multitude applauding hereunto the like was never seen in Israel he hath done all things well never man spake leke this man Seeing also it is impossible yea blasphemy to think that God should give testimony to any untruth it must needs follow that all was true which Jesus affirmed and therefore seeing he affirmed himself to be the Son of God and the Messiah it must needs follow I say by these his miracles that he was so indeed according to that speech of his to the Jews the works that I do in my Fathers name they bear witness of me And again If I do not the works of my Father believe me not but if I do them though ye believe not me yet believe my works As also that answer of his to Johns Disciples sent to enquire of him as touching that mysterie of the Messiah Art thou he that shall come c. Jesus answered Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard the blinde see the halt go the Lepers are cleansed the deaf hear and the dead rise again c. The calling of his Apostles HEreunto as an Appendix to his miracles I may well annex the calling of his Apostles Disciples and Followers whereof Josephus maketh mention as of a great miracle who being of divers callings states and conditions in the world yet all on the sudden upon his call left both Father Mother Wife Children and other temporal respects and followed him who had nothing to give or promise them in this world but crosses and afflictions He that will be my Disciple let him take up his cross and follow me A man that never spake them fair but ever crossed them in their humors favouring of flesh and blood Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me His doctrine ever harsh hard and repugnant to flesh and blood This is an hard saying who can hear it A man in disgrace with the higher Powers the Rulers high Priests Scribes and Pharisees Do any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believe in him A man that had neither friends in the world to bear him out nor a house to put his head in The foxes have kotes and the Fowls of the heaven have nests but the Son of man hath not whereon to rest his head And yet notwithstanding all this that worldly men and women and some also notorious sinners and loose livers before should leave all their worldly hopes ease profit pleasure and their sweet sins too to follow such a man with so great inconveniences losses dangers and disgraces as they did and should continue with him in all his afflictions temptations and persecutions and be content to die and lose their lives rather then forsake him or abandon his service this I say is such a miracle as never in the world fell out the like and must needs be granted by the enemy to be supernatural We read of an Emperour that taking in hand to conquer the world made this Proclamation for winning men

heard declare we unto you And S. Peter For we followed no deceivable Fables when we opened unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but with our eyes we saw his Majesty This Doctrine I say of the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour whereof they were so fully perswaded they did not only profess it with their mouths yea even before Kings and were not ashamed as God saith to Paul as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem so must thou bear witness also at Rome thou must be brought before Caesar but in witness thereof they gave up their lives and by their deaths sealed and delivered to the world the truth of that which in their lives they professed they have sealed that God is true These are witnesses worthy to be believed these are Martyrs Next to these are all those holy Disciples of theirs all those holy Confessors of the Primitive Church put to death with most exquisite torments under those cruel Roman Tyrants during those ten famous persecutions upon record called the ten persecutions Catexochen in respect of the rage fury and cruelty thereof and all against poor harmless and innocent Christians daylie torn in pieces and butchered by those Wolves as Sheep appointed for the slaughter whereof our Saviour long before had forewarned his Disciples Behold I send you as Lambs among Wolves c. persecuted even to the death for the Word of God and for the testimony which they maintained In which extream and most incredible sufferings of Christians three points are worthy of great consideration The first what infinite multitudes of all estates conditions sexes qualities and age did suffer daylie for testimony of this truth The second what intolerable and unaccustomed torments not heard of in the world before were devised by Tyrants for afflicting this kind of people Thirdly and lastly What invincible courage and unspeakable alacrity these Christians shewed in bearing out these afflictions and torments which the enemies themselves could not attribute but to some Divine power and supernatural assistance The subjection of Spirits ANother consideration followeth of his Divine power and omnipotency declared and exercised upon the spirits infernal which in those days spake in the Oracles and till that time had possessed and deluded all Nations Hear the complaint of one of them Hei mihi cogemiscite hei mihi hei mihi Oraculorum defecit me clari●as Wo unto mes lament ye with me wo wo to me for that the honour of Oracles hath now forsaken me Which woful complaint is nothing else but a plain confession that Jesus was he of whom a Prophet said divers ages before He shall consume all the Gods of the earth and every man shall worship him from his place even all the Isles of the Heathen This confessed also the wicked spirits themselves when at Christs appearing in Jewry they came and did their homage to him and besought him not to afflict or torment them before the time nor command them presently to return to hell but rather to permit them some little time of entertainment in the Sea or Mountains or among herds of Swine or the like which confession they made openly before all men and declared the same afterwards by their deeds For presently upon Christ his death and upon the preaching of his Name and Gospel throughout the World the Oracles in all places ceased whereof the Poets themselves bear witness Cessant Oracula D●lphis Whereupon Plutarch that lived within an hundred yeers after Christ made a special Treatise to sift out the causes why the Oracles of the Gods as they deemed them were ceased in his time And after much turning and winding many ways at length resolved upon two principal points or causes thereof The first for that in his time there was more store of wise men then before whose answers might stand insteed of Oracles and the other for that perhaps the Spirits accustomed to yeild Oracles were by length of time grown old and dead Both which reasons in the common sense of all men must needs be false and by Plutarch himself cannot stand with probability For first in his Books which he wrote of the Lives of Famous Men he confesseth that in such kind of wisdom as he most esteemed they had not their equals among their posterity Secondly in his Treatise of Phylosophy he passeth it for a ground that Spirits cannot die or wax old And therefore of necessity there must be some other cause yeilded of the ceasing of these Oracles which cannot be but the presence and commandment of some higher Power according to that saying of S. John for to this end and purpose appeared the Son of God to wit that he might destroy the works of the Divel Neither did Jesus this alone in his own person but gave also power and authority to his Disciples and Followers to do the like according to that their Commission in the Gospel Then called he the twelve Disciples together and gave them power over all Divels c. And not only to these twelve did he give this absolute power and authority over unclean Spirits but to the rest likewise as may appear in the next chapter following upon the return of their Commission And the seventy returned with joy saying Lord even the Divels are subdued to us through thy Name And he said unto them I saw Sathan like lightning fall down from heaven and so reneweth their Commission saying Behold I give you power to tread on Serpents and Scorpions and over all the power of the enemy that is to say the Divel Nevertheless saith he in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subdued unto you but rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven And this authority over the Spirits Infernal given by Jesus to his Disciples in the primitive Church extended it self so far that not only their words and commandments but even their very presence did shut the mouths and drive into fear the miserable Spirits as both Lactantius and others do witness whence it proceeded that in all Sacrifices Conjurations and other Mysteries of the Gentiles there was brought in that phrase recorded by scoffing Lucian exeant Christiani Let Christians depart for that while they were present nothing could be well accomplished And that professed enemy of Christianity Porphyry who of all other most earnestly endeavoured to impugne us Christians and to hold up the honour of his enfeebled Idols yet discoursing of the great plague that reigned most furiously in the City of Messi●a in Sicily where he dwelt yeildeth this reason why Aesculapius the god of Physick much adored in that place was not able to help them in that extremity It is no marvel saith he if this City so many yeers be vexed with the plague seeing that both Aesculapius and all other gods be now departed from it by the coming of Christians for since that men have begun to worship