Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	jesus_n	lord_n	see_v	7,565	5	3.6443	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80008	The hinge of faith and religion or, a proof of the deity against atheists and profane persons, by reason, and the testimony of Holy Scripture: the divinity of which is demonstrated, / by L. Cappel, Doctour and Professour in Divinity ; translated out of French by Philip Marinel, M.A. and fellow of Pembroke-College in Oxford.; Piuot de la foy et religion. English	Cappel, Louis, 1585-1658.; Marinel, Philip.	1660 (1660)	Wing C482; Thomason E1845_2; Thomason E2265_1; ESTC R209659	84,739	200

most noted Heathen Philosophers comes nothing near that sinful and corrupted man as he is naturally inclined to evil could not have invented so perfect a Rule to live by as that which is shewed unto us there Much less is the Devil Authour of chese things who is so great an enemy to all Virtue and Holiness that he would not have recommended or taught it unto men Besides if Damons are granted to be it must be consequently acknowledged That there is a God as hath been shewed before Whence it appears that these things proceed necessarily from Divine Revelation As to the Narrations and Histories they are so tyed and connexed unto the Doctrines that they cannot be separated one from another So that if the Histories are true and no forged things the Doctrines which are annexed to them must needs also be true For in every part of them you have a God Creatour and Governour of Heaven and Earth represented to you who doth see conduct and order all things a Judge of men who punisheth and chastiseth the one and doth reward and recompense the others who worketh wonders above and beyond all Natures Power who stiles and in effect shews himself to be such as he is there described viz. Eternal Infinite Immortal Invisible Incomprehensible Almighty VVise Good Just and Mercifull c. VVe see in the New Testament a man Jesus Christ our Lord stiling himself The Son of God and The Saviour of the World shewing and evidencing by his Miracles that he was indeed such a one dying for mens salvation arising again ascending into Heaven and there sitting at the right hand of God his Father and sending from thence the Holy Spirit upon his Apostles There he is seen ministred to by Angels preached to the Gentiles believed in the World and by the strength of his Spirit bearing down all Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition demolishing the empire of the Devil and triumphing gloriously over Sathan and over all his Power These Narrations are not Fables artificially invented as those of Homer and those of the Old and New Romancès of all sorts but are true Histories and genuine Relations of things which have really and certainly came to pass so as they are there related to us Which appears First by the Connexion and admirable contexture of these Relations which do strengthen follow and maintain one another with so exact and just an agreement that there is nothing there unjoynted or that doth bely any other matter therein contained Which in so great a multitude and variety of Narrations so well continued with all their Circumstances of Times Places and Persons and of which we do see many Traces and Footsteps in the most authentical and certain Monuments of Antiquity and so well continued by so many Ages from the Beginning of the World to our Lord Jesus for the space of four thousand years add to this the connexion and coherence there is between the Relations and Doctrines of the New Testament with those of the Old cannot have been compiled nor so admirably invented by any humane Industry though such a Writer had been as subtile and ingenious as it may be although one man alone which is not true had undertaken to write and continue such a design which he had before invented out of his own brain Much less could it be that so many and so different Writers as to Time and Place some in the Desart others in Judea others in Babylon others in Samaria two Kingdomes so contrary and Enemies one to the other some Jews other Christians two people so different in such a wonderfull variety of matters and so differing arguments of their Writings as are Histories Laws Political and Ecclesiastical Ordinances Moral Precepts Prophesies of many kinds Epistles Discourses Disputes of so differing stiles the one low genuine and popular the other figurate and sublime to which all humane Eloquence cannot attain the one terse and polished the other harsh and unpleasing it is I say impossible that so many and so different heads which have neither seen known nor combined together should have so well agreed in all points to divulge and put forth and give credit to a Fable so well continued and to suit so wonderfully all the Narrations Doctrines and Precepts which they lay there before us Secondly it appears That these are not sabulous Narrations and Tales made to deceive the VVorld because the Nation of the Jews the Origin and History of which is held forth to us in the Old Testament and is continued for the space of two thousand years and which is almost all the subject matter of all the Books of the Old Testament and makes a good part of the Books of the New Testament is and doth subsist yet at this day scattered upon the face of the Earth even so as their own Prophets had fore-told them Their Sanctions Customes Ceremonies and Religion the very same as was prescribed to them by their Law-giver Moses and by the Prophets It cannot be denied that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have been and have Preached in the World since that their Doctrine and their Writings are received and held by so many millions of Christians which have been for these 1600. years upon the Earth known and noted among men But it may be it wil be objected that the ground and basis of these Histories is true and hath some reality in it that there have been a Moses Joshua Judges and Kings of Israel a David a Solomon c. but that these Histories have been sluffed and garnished with Fictitious Tales as Homer's Iliad and Odyssea the Foundation of which is Historical since that once Troy Priam Hector Achilles had a real being but they have not done all that Homer tells and writes of them and as the Romances of Roland and Regnault who once were but never did that which the Romances written of them tell us So the Miracles and Wonders of Egypt of the Desart of Joshua of the Judges of the Kings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles are Ornaments invented by these Writers to set an higher value on what they present there to us Let us see whether there is any ground of Reason in this First Moses writes himself his own History and that of the people of the Jews which he had drawn from Egypt and led through the Desart for the space of fourty years with so incomparable an ingenuity and so far from suspicion of fraud or deceit that he notes there his own defects and faults and doth not bestow the most Honourable charges of this People the Priesthood or Royalty upon any of his Posterity And a little before his death he makes a long Sermon to them which is all the Book of Deuteronomy where he represents to them all things that had befallen them in the Desart and a little before their going out of Egypt just in the same manner as he relates it in the Books of Exodus Leviticus and Numbers Was it then any

which really came to pass And this is evident because they do note all the crcumstances and particularities which are observed in true Histories and by which we are wont to discern Romances and Poetical Fictions from true Narrations They would have us to hold and believe those Narrations for very truths and things which have really and certainly happened To what end should this be if their Narrations are but Dreams Do those good VVriters that will instruct and profit use such means In no wise And although one would write some Moraliz'd Romance to instruct men yet would not he publish it for a true History Besides that we have noted before that these Sacred Histories have none of the stile and garb of Romances And as to the Doctrines Sayings and Sentences of which the Sacred Books are full will the Atheists say that they are Paradoxes wild and extravagant opinions If it is so I will ask them To what good end could such things have been forged and invented For we have shewed heretofore that they could not be invented to any ill intent or pernicious design If they are meer Inventions and that there is no reality in them to what good end can they have been invented Moreover these Sacred Authours do propose these Doctrines that men may stedfastly believe them and that they may be held for undoubted truths can there be any good or reasonable end in this if these things are in effect but Extravagancies VVill they say that these Persons being willing to win men to the exercise of Virtue Justice Temperance Fortitude Truth Faithfullness Friendship Charity Patience Honour Respect Obedience Observation of the Laws of Humane Society c. did think that the perswasion though a false one of a God Creatour and Governour of this Universe Judge Avenger and Remuneratour of the good and evill and that the examples though but fictitious and false of Vices and Virtues which are rewarded or punished by a Providence would be a Powerfull motive to induce men to attain this end And that this is it which hath made them to invent this opinion of a Providence with all the consequences of it and to compile all these Stories to Patronize Vices and Virtues Almost as Horace doth pretend in that Epistle which begins Trojani belli Scriptorem Maxime L●lli that Homer in his Iliad and Odyssea doth tell us all these fine Tales and Stories to serve as Morall documents unto all men It is very true that the beliefe of a God such as he is represented to us in the Sacred Writings is the true and only meanes and the most strong and efficacious motive to induce men to true Virtue as it appears by the Examples of the Lives of the truely-faithfull under both the Testaments in comparison of which the most splendid Virtue of the Heathen is but dross and dung As an exact comparison of them would easily verifie And the first Christian Fathers that have writ against the vanity of the Heathen shewed this evidently as Tertullian Minutius Felix and others But it is also very true that if this perswasion of a Deity and Providence such as it is represented to us by the Christian Religion was false and imaginary it could not produce such an effect as to induce men to exercise the true Virtue And we may not Object that an opinion though false if it be believed for true and certain doth produce the same effect as if it were really true as many Examples do testifie For those false impressions which the mind receives do last but for a little while They deceive only for a small time It is as paint upon a face which for a time doth give some lustre but abideth not But this belief of a Deity and Providence is stable and as constant and unalterable as the Heavens And it is not a Fiction of the Holy Writers For those that never heard of them or saw their Writings have had and yet have this perswasion for we have shewed heretofore that all men in all ages were perswaded there was a Deity and a Providence There is also too manifest and palpable a difference between the Fables and Poetical Fictions of Homer and the Narrations of Holy Writ It was not Homer's intention if his design was such as Horace tells us it was viz. to instruct and please men by his Fables that we should take his Fables for Truths Nor hath he divulged these Fictions for true Histories but composed only a fine Moraliz'd Romance But as we have said the Sacred Writers do tell us their Histories as certain and indubitable things And as to the false Deities of Homer and to all those things he tells of them I think that there is none of the strong Wits at this day dares maintaine without blushing but that which the Christian Religion doth teach of a God Creatour Preserver Judge and Governour of all this Universe of his Cult and Service and of the meanes to attain to true happiness by Jesus Christ alone is farr more agreeable to the Deity if there is any and also more conformable to right Reason then all the fabulous Tales of the false Gods of Homer yea then what he hath best and more refined concerning the Deity So then it is unreasonable to say of the Sacred VVriters of the Old and New Testament that they have invented or got from some others that preceded them the things that they reach us in their VVritings All manner of reason is against this To these I will add some few remarks which may serve as a Modell for any one who will treat of this matter more at large as well it may be done CHAP. XIV Wherein there follow some more Proofs of the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures THose things which are contained in Scripture are two-fold viz. Doctrines and Histories Neither of these can proceed from man's or Devils inventions The Doctrines also are two fold 1. Dogmata so properly called because they are delivered as the objects of our faith and knowledge as that there is a God a Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour and Redeemer of the VVorld 2. Moral Doctrines which are conversant in the regulating of life and exercise of Virtue These Doctrines which respect Faith and Knowledge are so high so sublime so excellent so admirable so profound and abstruse especially those Mysteries of the Trinity Incarnation and Redemption that the Soul of man is not at all capable to comprehend them so as to have invented or divined such things and they are so contrary to the humour nature and Genius of the Devil that he could not nor would not have thought or invented any such things much less would he have taught them unto men And if these things are false good Angels would not have invented them such a Fiction being wholy repugnant to their integrity And as to the Moral Precepts they contain so exact perfect and incomparable a form of holiness to which all the Virtues of the

not against pure and right Reason enlightned by this Revelation though it cannot fathom the depth of them And what wonder is it if our Reason which is short weak and blind even about Natural things that the greatest of Philosophers hath compar'd it to the sight of Owls at mid-day cannot reach so far as perfectly to apprehend and understand so high a Mystery which is all that is most sublime in the Divine Nature which of it self is Spiritual Immaterial Infinite Eternal Invisible and Incomprehensible It is farr a greater wonder if the Opinion of the Atheists is true who acknowledge neither God nor Angel nor Spirit that so high so wonderfull and sublime a thought should have entered into the spirit of man wallowing in the mud and who cannot nor ought not according to their Opinion to raise himself above corporeal senses being as they think altogether corporeal and sensual How comes it to pass that so wonderfull Wisdom which shineth in all the Dogmes of Christian Religion and particularly appears in these two Mysteries which are so wonderfully linked with the rest of the Doctrine how is it I say that this can be the product of such a vile and low soul as they would have the soul of man to be which is as they think composed of little Atoms and Indivisible Bodies or which is nothing but a little refined Air which by Death vanisheth into nothing As to Atheism it is so far from being free from Extravagancies and Absurdities that it is altogether full of them as it appears evidently by what we have said before wherein we have convinced by many Arguments this monstrous Opinion Against which Arguments nothing but Extravagancies Absurdities and Impertinencies can be excepted What Madness and Extravagancy is it to imagine with Epicurus that this VVorld is framed and composed by the fortuitous concourse of Atoms or small Indivisible Bodies Or with some others to imagine that it is without any beginning or ending the same at this day as it was 600000. millions of years before which Opinion draws after it all the imaginable Absurdities and Contradictions that may be as it hath been shewed before And what an Impertinency is it to attribute the Government of this admirable work and the Conduct of this VVorld and of the Affairs of all Humane kind to two blind and opposite Governours viz. the insensible Fate and the temerary Hazard inconsiderate Fortune in which there is not a whit of Understanding Prudence or Knowledg What Absurdity Impertinency is it to attribute more sense and understanding to the most stupid of men to the least of all Animals then to that which doth move and conduct all this great Fabrick For what is Fate in it self but a Chimaera wanting all true existence And what is the pretended satal order of Nature but a brutish thing sui nescia There are not to say truth in the Atheists Profession any of these ridiculous absurd impertinent and wild extravagancies practises and uses which the ignorance temerity and superstition of men hath introduced in most of the false Religions but that which is more wild monstrous in them is that they as much as in them lies abolish and extinguish out of the world all true Religion and piety and drown men in impiety profaness irreligion which comprehends in it all sorts of imaginable Monstrosities For what is a man that hath no sense knowledge nor fear reverence nor love nor respect for the Deity but the most abominable monster that can be imagin'd What honesty good what virtue or civility can be hoped for or expected from a man that thinks that all the difference there is between good and evil vice virtue is nought else but an imagination and depends meerly from mans fancy which would have it so and not from the most perfect immutable eternal pattern of the Deity the only model of all perfection as well moral as Physical Is not it evident that this Maxim and opinion of the Atheists leads men directly to all kind of vice pollution evil and Injustice to which their concupiscence the pleasure of their carnal sense may carry them without any remorse of conscience or fear of any other punishment then that which may be inflicted on them by men which if any one of them shall hope or think to escape he will let himself loose to whatsoever his sense shall dictate to him For according to their Principles Reason which dictates this to be good and that to be evil setting aside the consideration of the Deity which is the pattern of Good is nothing else according to their opinion but a meer phantasie which may be chang'd and which obligeth none but to what they please to do And doth not this lead directly to the overthrowing of all humane society and to the subversion of all estates bodies commonalties in the whole world so to the confusion and ruine of all humane kind and to the most horrible Chaos that ever was feigned or imagined That God who is Gracious and Just who resideth in the highest Heaven grant in his great Compassions that those who fear and reverence him may be kept from this abominable precipice Let him open the eyes of those who are led blind-fold by their sensuality and the vanity of their corrupted Reason in this dangerous Abyss that they may see and know how terrible this Precipice is Let him give Repentance Acknowledgment of their errour to the one and Wisdom to the other that so they may never fall into it and to overy one the right knowledge fear and reverence of his Holy Name that he may be praised served and glorified by all as Honour Fear and Reverence is most due unto him by all men eternally Amen FINIS