Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	law_n	nature_n	power_n	4,564	5	5.3735	4	true

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

still where that Revelation has not been known And therefore if we would know what the force of those Principles are and how far they operated by their own power and of themselves the way is not to judge of it as it appears to us where the Gospel-Revelation is but as it was in the state of pure Heathenism not excepting the finer part of it as it flourished in Greece it self and as it is now in some of the remote parts of the world as in the West-Indies c. For Gentilism it self apparently mended upon the Publication of the Gospel and then their Moralists wrote with another strein than those of their own Sect did before that time For in the Scripture there is such an entire and compleat System of all things requisite to the perfection of Human Nature as far as in this state it is capable of it that nothing is wanting for direction and obligation There we find the most Natural Characters of Good and Evil traced along from the first rise in all their tendencies and the just bounds of both described There we have on one hand the most enforcing Encouragements to Virtue and Goodness and on the other the most necessary Cautions and Admonitions against Sin and both fortified with proper Instances and Examples There we find the noblest Principles and exactest Rules and the great Lines of our Duty plainly set forth in their utmost extent and that as well for the Regulation of the Thoughts and Desires as the Government of our Actions There we find that Duty enforced by the highest Obligation by no less Authority than that of God himself whose Precepts and Injunctions they are declared to be and not the mere results of our own Nature and Reason And whereas Nature falls as short in its Sanctions having only Conscience to enforce them as its Authority when these Moral Principles become God's Laws they have Rewards and Punishments of another kind annexed to them and as everlasting as our Souls to bind them upon us So that as far as Nature thus directed and excited can go we have the most effectual means in our power for the amendment and purification of it But because it is only so far in our own power and that in the issue we prove too remiss in the exerting of it and that after all Nature flags and recoils and is too much Nature still Therefore 3. There is a Supernatural Means to render the other effectual and to give encouragement and success to our endeavours and that is a Power as Divine as the Authority which is the assistance of the Holy Spirit of God Look we upon the Morality of the greatest Philosophers how poor is that to the Doctrine of our Saviour and the Apostles Look we upon the fruits of it and there we shall find them short of their Principles and that the case was much with them as with the Stoical Posidonius that would not allow Passions in Human Nature that when invaded by the Gout might chide both that and himself for his sensation of it but the Disease and Nature kept on their course and would own no such Authority So it was with them that had only Nature to correct Nature that while they pretended to be the Physicians of it could not cure themselves nor alter so much as Custom which had alter'd that The Instances they give of a Philosophical Cure are as rare as the Miracles they pretend to have been wrought in the Temple of Aesculapius or by a Vespasian few and questionable a Phoedon or a Polemon to credit the Schools of a Socrates or a Xenocrates But the Instances of such as were converted by our Saviour and Apostolical Persons were like his Miracles numberless and not to be disputed When the Gospel flew like Lightning through the earth and became as successful in reforming as teaching the world Nature by it was changed and the Temper became subject to the Divine Power So that the Doctrine of Christ did turn those that were immersed in wickedness to a life agreeable to Reason and the practice of all Virtue as Origen shews and appeals to his Adversary in And what was then done would always be done if there were not some obstruction on our part either as to asking that Assistance or in the not improving it according to that of our Saviour Matth. 13. 12 Whosoever hath and useth it to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance 2dly It is worthy of God and becoming the most Benevolent as well as the most powerful of Beings to consult what may be for the happiness of the reasonable Nature and to propound this as an encouragement to them in the Performance of that Service he expects and requires of them And what can make them happy if the Order and Method of Salvation revealed in Scripture be not sufficient for it Whereby they are not only assured of the Protection and Blessing of Divine Providence in this Life but also of a State of Immortality in the Life to come Where they shall be taken into the Enjoyment of their Ever-blessed Creator and be fitted both in Body and Soul by the Divine Power for such a Participation To which I may add That it is as worthy of God to reveal the Way by which that Happiness is to be attained I grant that by the use and power of Reason and the sense we have of the difference between Good and Evil we may learn though obscurely and very imperfectly what is acceptable to God But yet without Revelation we are much in the dark and can as little know what is on our part necessary toward the attainment of that Happiness as we do what the Condition of the Future State is and wherein the Happiness of it consists There is as much difference between what is only supposed and what is necessary as there is between what we hope for and what is certain And therefore as there needs a Revelation to assure us of that which without Revelation we only hoped for so there is as much need of Revelation to inform us of what is necessary to our Acceptance with God and to our Happiness in another world and without which we are left to Conjecture only So that as far as Certainty is to be preferr'd beyond Hope and Imagination and the Knowledge of what is necessary is beyond Conjecture so much is the Comfort of Revelation beyond that of Nature and so much is it becoming Almighty God who gave us our Nature and Being to acquaint us with what may both make us happy and lead us to it Especially was this necessary considering how far the World had wandred out of the right way and what superstitious and infamous Rites had been taken up and what Practices dishonourable to the Deity and Human Nature had been used And this way to Happiness the Scripture has plainly reveal'd 3dly It is a Design worthy of God to reveal Himself to the World and to

Now who is there that upon a Review of these several Particulars that do constitute the Christian Religion and make up the chief Subject of Scriptural Revelation can pretend that this was to be found out by Human Consideration and Enquiry or rather that must not grant it proceeded from God Especially if it be observed what a wonderful Intermixture there is in this Scheme of the Divine Mercy and Justice of his Mercy in pardoning the Sinner and of his Justice in requiring an Atonement What a representation of his Hatred to Sin on one hand when God established so valuable an Atonement as the Blood of his own Son and of his Favour and Love to Mankind when he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all What a foundation for our Hope on one hand when he accepted of the Propitiation and what a dread of offending is there on the other when he that knew no sin was made a sin offering for us All which laid together do confirm the Truth of this Character and the Title that the Scripture-Revelation hath to it But there is somewhat further to be added in Proof of this Point That it was a Revelation from God and that is The many Prophecies that are interwoven with it in Scripture which could proceed from none but Him who alone has all Causes and Events in his Power and so alone could foretell how those Causes would operate and what should be the Events of such Operation These being the chief part of the Revelation concerning the whole Scheme of Man's Salvation confirm what I have before said That it was from God and from Him alone But this must be reserved to its proper place under the Third General Head To go on II. A Character necessarily belonging to Divine Revelation is That it be worthy of God and what becomes the Majesty of Heaven to make known to Mankind When we say it is to be worthy of him thereby is meant that it is suitable to the Perfections of his Nature to his Holiness and Justice his Goodness and Mercy his Wisdom and Power c. To which and all of which a Revelation truly so can no more be repugnant than God himself can be other than he is and destitute of those Perfections which are essential to him In discoursing upon which we may observe 1. That it cannot be denied but the Revelation of himself to Mankind is worthy of God though it be an Infinite Condescension It was an Infinite Condescension in the Deity that had all in himself to make such a Creature as Man and it is no more unworthy of God to reveal himself to him than it was to make him For what other reason was there for the making such a Creature and the enduing him with the Light of Reason but that he might own honour and serve the Author of his Being And since to know and acknowledge God is the chief end for which Man was made it is as much becoming Almighty God to reveal himself to him as it was to make him for the knowledge of himself 2. That is a thing worthy of God to reveal which is a thing worthy of God to do And such is the Recovery and Restoration of Man to the like condition he was created in and unhappily fell from for that is a kind of Re-making him and giving him a New Being And since a New Being is to a Depraved Being what Being was to No Being it is as much becoming Almighty God from a depraved state to raise him to a state of Purity and Holiness as it was at the first to give Him a Being that before had none And this is the great Subject of what we call Divine Revelation which as it respects Man may come under a Twofold Consideration and that is the Perfection of Human Nature and the Happiness of Mankind It will be a needless undertaking to prove that these Ends are worthy of God but that which rather becomes us is to shew That as it is the great design of the Scriptural Revelation to represent this and to acquaint us with the Method that the Almighty Wisdom and Goodness thought fit to observe so the Method as there laid down is worthy of such Wisdom and Goodness as I shall now proceed to shew in the two Instances given 1st The Method Almighty God is in Scripture said to take for the purifying and the perfecting Human Nature is highly worthy of so glorious a Being and that is Threefold Cautionary Moral and Supernatural 1. That which I call Cautionary is the way Almighty God was pleased to take for the representing his Displeasure against Sin and to make Mankind cautious of offending The Means made use of before the Fall was a Penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye But because that had proved of so little force to restrain mankind and for fear lest when God had received them into Favour after such a Threatning his Mercy and Indulgence might be abused and become an Encouragement to Sin God added thereunto an Expiation as has been before said and that to be made by his own Son who from the Dignity of his Person and the voluntary Oblation of himself should be reputed as a Representative of the whole and the whole be esteemed to suffer with him By which means as God's Mercy would be abundantly testified in a design for redeeming them so his Justice would be exemplified when he that had no sin of his own should yet be made a Sin-offering and suffer for them For how could they presume after this to offend the Almighty Father when rather than suffer his Laws to be violated his Authority slighted his Holiness and Justice disparaged or leave Mankind under a temptation so to do he would express his hatred against sin and his resolution to punish it by requiring and substituting such a Sacrifice as that of his Son in their stead This is the apparent Reason of such an Institution and both the Institution and Reason of it are worthy of the Divine Counsel since there is no way in which these things can be represented to greater advantage than by the Scripture-Scheme of Man's Redemption 2. There is the Moral Means that serves the same end viz. the purifying and perfecting Human Nature to which Revelation gave the last and finishing hand It is true these Moral Principles are no other than Natural Maxims and which were Nature unassisted sufficient for might have been extracted out of it But Mankind were no more able to attain to that skill of themselves than an unexperienced person and unacquainted with the Art of Chymistry can extract such Exalted and Generous Spirits out of the Bodies of Plants and Animals as upon trial we find they are endued with It is another Light we view Nature by since the communicating of the Evangelical Revelation to the world Nature and Reason now are not the Nature and the Reason they were before or are