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water_n	fish_n	great_a	sea_n	3,519	5	6.8793	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28280	The sufficiency of a standing revelation in general, and of the Scripture revelation in particular both as to the matter of it and as to the proof of it : and that new revelations cannot reasonably be desired and would probably be unsuccessful in eight sermons preach'd in the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul, London, at the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., in the year MDCC / by Ofspring Blackall ...	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing B3055; ESTC R6615	150,254	268

places it And by the same concurrent Testimony of all History we learn that in a very short time in less than forty Years after it was Preached in all the Provinces of the Roman Empire and in all other Countries of the World that were then known and of which we have any History left and that wherever it was Preached it made a very swift Progress insomuch that in a few Years the number of Christians became very considerable and bare a great Proportion to the People of all other Religions For it was not much above threescore Years after the Apostles had dispersed themselves in order to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles when Pliny Proconsul of Bithynia wrote that Epistle to the Emperor Trajan wherein giving an Account of the Christians then under a severe Persecution for their Religion by the Emperor's Order he tells him that there was a great number of Men obnoxious to Sufferings upon that Account that many of all Ages of all Orders and Degrees and of both Sexes were every Day called in Question for it that the Contagion of that Superstition as he calls it had spread its self not only in great Cities but also in Towns and Country Villages insomuch that the Temples of the Heathen Gods had for some Time before been in a manner desolate and their Worship and Sacrifices intermitted Now this is certain that there can be no Effect without a Cause of sufficient Power to produce it And it was evidently impossible that Christianity should make so swift a Progress and prevail so much in the World as it did in so short a time only by Natural Means For without good Skill in the Languages of the several Nations wherein the Apostles were to preach the Gospel it had been in vain for them to have gone about to Convert all Nations Or if they had attempted it 't is impossible it should have been with success And how can it be conceived possible that twelve grown Men who before understood not a word of any but their own Mother Tongue and that perhaps not well who had never been bred up to Study and who were then past the proper Age of learning Languages should yet be able in so short a time to become perfect Masters of all the Languages then in use in the World so as to speak them readily and fluently as if every one had been their own Native Tongue and that after this they should have time enough still left to go and preach the Gospel in all Countries So that the speedy Conversion to Christianity of such a great number of Men in all Parts of the World by their Ministry is a direct proof of that Gift of Tongues wherewith we believe they were endued And whoever can believe that they had this Gift which was peculiar and extraordinary and such as had never been heard of in the World before may I think more easily believe all the other Miracles that they are reported to have done which were not near so wonderful which were such as had been done by other Prophets in former Times But suppose this Story of the Gift of Tongues to be false and that indeed the Apostles were Men of such ready Natural Parts as to be able to learn all the Languages which they could have any use of in as few Days as it would have taken other Men Years to do it in or else that they had in truth been bred up to the Study of Languages from their Childhood and only concealed their Knowledge thereof until that famous Day of Pentecost that so then it might be taken to be Miraculous Yet what could twelve Men furnished with this excellent Skill do by their own Natural Power only towards the Conversion of the World to Christianity in so short a time For 't is to be consider'd that the Religion which they were to reach in the World was the most contrary that could be to the Carnal Lusts and Passions of Men that it promis'd no Worldly Greatness no Increase of Riches no Enjoyment of Sensual Pleasures but on the contrary taught all those that embrac'd it to be mortified to all these Things and not to set their Affections on any thing here below 'T is to be consider'd also that it proposed to Man's Belief such Doctrines as to the carnal Minds of Men could not but appear foolish or incredible As that the Eternal Son of God did for our sakes become Man and take on him the Form of a Servant that in that Form he submitted to be scornfully used cruelly scourged and at last barbarously Crucified as a vile Malefactor by his own Creatures that this same Jesus was afterwards declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the Dead that he was taken up into Heaven seated at the right Hand of the Father had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed to him was ordered to be Worshipped ●nd adored by all Men with the same Honour wherewith they honour the Father and was appointed by God to be the Judge of the quick and dead c. 'T is to be consider'd likewise that it was a Reli●ion perfectly destructive of all other Forms of Reli●ion then receiv'd or establish'd in the World and upon that Account only must needs meet with the strongest Prejudices all the Men it was preached to being before from their Childhood bred up and already fixed in another way And lastly 't is to be consider'd further that the Facts upon which this Religion was grounded that is by which the Divine Mission of the Lord Jesus was proved viz. his Miraculous Works were such as being above the known Power of Natural Causes were not like to be easily credited That he healed the Sick that he gave Sight to the Blind Hearing to the Deaf Speech to the Dumb Feet to the Lame and Strength to the Cripples that he did cast out Devils that he rais'd the Dead and all these only with a Word 's speaking that he fed sometimes great Multitudes of four or five Thousand with only so much Bread and Fish as to Appearance was not sufficient for twenty Men and that after they were all satisfied there was more in Bulk left in Fragments than there had been before in whole Provision That he walked on the Water as on dry Land That he had the Winds and Seas obedient to his Command And above all that he Raised himself to Life after he had been three Days Dead These and such like were strange Stories to be told to Men in order to persuade them to take upon them a new Religion What then I say could twelve Men tho' never so well furnished naturally with Parts and Learning and all other Endowments proper to qualifie them for such a Work do towards the persuading the World to embrace Christianity Suppose they had gone not as they did one into this Country another into that often singly seldom more than two in Company but all together in a

be unreasonable for us to desire the same unless we were to be put to the same Trials of our Faith that they were which in a Christian Country can hardly be And indeed as desirous as we seem to be of having such Evidence of the Truth of our Religion as we are told the Apostles had I believe there are very few of us but had rather be contented with less Evidence than have so much as the Apostles had with its appendant Burden which was to travel all the World over even into the most rude and barbarous Countries to plant Christianity expecting wherever they came Bonds and Afflictions meeting every where with the most violent opposition and roughest Usage encountring every where the greatest Dangers and sure at last to be made a bloody Sacrifice to the Malice and Fury of their Persecutors How much St. Paul alone endured and 't is like the Sufferings of the other Apostles were not much less you may see in 2 Cor. xi 23 c. and yet he was not then come to the end of his Sufferings In Labours abundant in Stripes above measure in Prisons frequent in Deaths oft Of the Jews five times received I forty Stripes save one thrice was I beaten with Rods once was I Stoned thrice I suffered Shipwrack a Night and a Day I have been in the Deep in Journeyings often in Perils of Waters in Perils of Robbers in Perils by mine own Countrymen in Perils by the Heathen in Perils in the City in Perils in the Wilderness in Perils in the Sea in Perils among false Brethren In Weariness and Painfulness in Watchings often in Hunger and Thirst in Fastings often in Cold and Nakedness Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the Care of all the Churches And therefore he might well say as he does 1 Cor. iv 9 c. I think that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to Death for we are made a Spectacle to the World and to Angels and to Men we are Fools for Christ's sake we are weak we are despised even unto this very hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling Place and labour working with our Hands being reviled persecuted defamed we are made as the Filth of the World and are the Off-scowring of all things unto this Day It was therefore plainly necessary that a Faith which was to undergo these severe Trials should be built upon the surest Grounds but for us and to enable us to overcome the World a Faith that is founded upon less certain Evidence may be as sufficient 2. The Second Case before-mentioned was of those who heard with their own Ears the Testimony which the Apostles gave concerning our Lord and saw with their own Eyes the wonderful Works that they did in Confirmation of their Testimony We could wish at least that we had such strong Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion as they had and if we had we see not why there would not be as much Choice and consequently as much Virtue in our believing as there was in theirs But here it may be considered 1. That it was the Lot but of very few even of those that lived in the Apostles times except of the Jews that dwelt in Judea to hear the Apostles themselves or to see with their own Eyes the Miracles that they wrought and even of these there were but few that had the opportunity of seeing many of their mighty Works so that all things considered the Evidence that we have of the Truth of our Religion if it be not fully equal to is very little inferior to that which they had for it being as has been formerly shewn morally impossible that the Gospel History which is now in our Hands should be forged or spurious or corrupted and altered what can be thought to be wanting in the Clearness of the Evidence that we have being given in Writing and not by word of Mouth is made up by the Fulness and Abundance of it we having in the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists several Witnesses testifying the same Miracles and every one of them Witnessing more Miracles than any except those who were constant Attendants upon our Lord or Companions of the Apostles were in a Capacity to witness But 2. Granting it to be true that in the Apostle's times those to whom the Gospel was preached had generally clearer and stronger Evidence of the Truth of Christianity than we have now yet I say even that Evidence of Sense which they had was not more apt or like to convince and persuade them than the Proof which we now have tho' in it self it be less is to convince and persuade us For when Men have already taken up an Opinion no matter upon what Grounds or when by their Worldly Interest they are engaged to be of such an Opinion it can't be expected that the same Reasons I mean Reasons of the same strength in themselves should be sufficient to persuade them to alter their Opinion which would have sufficed to have fix'd and establish'd them in their former Notions And this is plainly the Difference between those Times and ours for when the Revelation of the Gospel was first made by Christ and his Apostles all both Jews and Gentiles were most strongly prejudiced against it each of them having been bred up in a Persuasion that their own way of Worship was right add the Jews in particular having had good Assurance that their Law given by Moses to which the Doctrine of Christianity seem'd very opposite had been of Divine Institution But however when a Man has been bred up in the Belief of any thing and has believ'd it a good while he takes it for granted that he had reason to believe it whether be had so or not so that the Prejudice against Christianity was as powerful tho' not altogether so just in the Gentiles whose Religion was meerly fabulous as in the Jews whose Law was indeed of Divine Institution And besides which was an Impediment alike common both to the Jews and Gentiles they could not either of them then embrace and profess the Christian Religion without apparently hazarding the Loss of all things that were dear to them in this World And how very apt a strong Worldly Interest is to blind Mens Eyes and to byass their Judgments is what we cannot but daily observe in all other Cases But our Case now is quite otherwise our Prejudices and our Interest are both for Christianity for we suck'd it in with our Mothers Milk and we found it the establish'd Religion of the Country where we were Born for which Reasons we believed it or at least were strongly inclined to believe it before we knew or had beard of any other Reasons so that to us who are already inclined on this side to us who to be sure are not prejudiced against it to us whose Interest