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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	england_n	king_n	lord_n	4,602	5	4.1139	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88993	A sermon preached to the Honorable House of Commons, at their late solemne fast, Wednesday, Feb. 26. 1644. / By John Maynard, minister of the Word of God at Mayfield in Sussex, and a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Maynard, John, 1600-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing M1452; Thomason E277_2; ESTC R200000	34,511	39

called heresie as in Pauls time though the truth be scorned reproached evill spoken of though the wise men of the world thinke no better of those that buy truth than of such as pay dear for a trifle and say of them in their hearts A fool and his money are soon parted though thou must bee counted a fool and a mad man as Festus termed Paul yet buy it howsoever 5. Be content to buy Truth with expence of time though that be very precious esteem that time well bestowed which is laid out for Truth Doe not say Wherefore is this waste Though time cannot be bought with gold yet it is well spent for the purchase of Truth Apelles beholding a curious picture Drawne by Protogenes admired the wormanship but understanding that it had been seven yeers in hand he said the grace of the work was not answerable to the time and paines bestowed upon it But if those whom the Lord in his providence hath called together shall be able by the good hand of their God upon them to draw to the life that glorious body of Truth in all its lineaments for matter of doctrine worship government discipline I doubt not but in conclusion it would be found time well imployed though it should cost more moneths then some expected And as in this more publike enquiry after truth so in particular searchings after it bee carefull to redeem time from other occasions that thou mayest spare it for buying of truth It is part of the blessed mans description His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law he doth meditate day and night 6. Peace is one of the great blessings of God upon a people and yet if need be we must part with this also to purchase truth If peace may be hadwith truth it is exceedingly to be desired as in toher respects so for truths sake to which if well improved it may be very serviceable and usefull towards the opening of a free trade for truth which is many wayes obstructed and interrupted by war But when truth cannot be secured but by the sword and all wayes are tried which are consistent with the purity safety and honour of truth and recourse is had to warre as the last remedie in such a case peace it selfe must be broken that truth may be preserved and purchased Object Some may say there is no sufficient cause at this day in relation to truth Answ and the businesse of Religion to ground a necessary warre upon I answer 1. I doe not take upon me to assert that this warre was primarily and originally a warre of Religion But secondly if that were granted I desire that case betweene the Tribes of Israel may be considered The two Tribes and an halfe beyond Jordan built an Altar by the River tidings came to the rest of Israel who apprehended this as an Act tending to the falsifying and corrupting of the Truth of God and the Ordinances of his Worship This was conceived a just ground for a Warre For the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shilo to goe up to warre against them But yet desiring a peaceable accommodation if it might be had without prejudice to truth they resolve to treate with them and send Phineas a man of great eminencie and ten Princes with him These deale throughly in the businesse and presse it home upon them the Defendants make a free and candid declaration of their intentions shewing that this Altar was not erected for Burnt offering nor for Sacrifice but onely for a Monument of their interest in the God of Israel whereupon both the Ambassadours and at their returne the people were fully satisfyed Now suppose this Altar had beene built for sacrifice as was suspected and compare with this the many hundred Altars I beleeve lately erected in this Land to the darkning at least of those great Truths of the Gospel that Christ is the only Altar which sanctifyeth all the offerings of the faithfull that His Sacrifice of himself once offered by Himself is the onely Propitiation adde hereunto the Idolatrous bowings and cringings the Crucifixes and Images set up in many places the indeavours to corrupt the Truth and Doctrine of Christ in divers points of great importance the plots laid to stop the course of the Gospell propagating of the truth the obstinate resistance against such a Reformation as the Truth of God cleerely revealed in His Word requireth c. And see whether there were not many causes for a Warre against the Enemies of the truth in England for one which Israel had though that had beene such as was surmised Oh that the Lord would deliver our King from those that are Adversaries of his Truth and make him an Instrument to execute His wrath upon the great whore that so the Truth of God might have a free passage through the severall Regions of the World I have read of some Mariners who being tossed on the sea in a Tempest were so superstitiously slavish as to vow or promise at least upon their safe arrivall on the shore to build a Temple the mortar whereof should be tempered with Malmsey I desire it may be considered whether those be not more lavishly prophane who being terrifyed with the stormes of warre could be content to make the sacred Truth of God more precious then all the golden veynes in the bowells of the Earth to serve in stead of mortar for the cementing or rather daubing up an unsound peace with men Object But it may be said the losse of peace implyeth by consequence the losse of life the expence of bloud and precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Answ I answer it is true and doubtlesse The Lord will make inquisition for their bloud And yet in the last place even this precious bloud of God his people is not too precious to be adventured or spent in the necessary defence of Gods Truth Did not Christ himselfe shed his most precious bloud worth more than all the best bloud under Heaven to seal the Truth of the Gospell the truth of all the promises of the new Covenant none of all which had been true if Christ had not shed his bloud to verifie them For all the Promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen The Law is true in it selfe but the Truth of the Gospell and Word of Promise dependeth wholly upon Christ The Law hath an intrinsecall and native truth Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the Booke of the Law to doe them But the Truth of the Promise is borrowed the promise of the pardon of sinne of justifying the ungodly of being mercifull to unrighteousnesse passing by iniquity blotting out transgressions c. seemeth to crosse the Truth of God His Justice and Holinesse if ye consider it without reference to Christ It is true then onely in Christ the Truth of this Testament

a steady course towards its full accomplishment and moveth on in a streight line to its finall period where it arriveth most exactly in its owne proper poynt of time The Power of God his truth brought Israel out of Egypt at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self-same day it came to passe All Pharaohs oppositions all his tergiversations could not prorogue the terme of Israels bondage one day beyond that terme which truth had prefixed nay these served rather to spinne out that interim to fill up that voyde space of time that the truth might take place in its owne time Woe to them who stand up against the Power of truth at such a time when any of its great workes are to be accomplished for the Israel of God Those persons or what degree soever Meane men Nobles Peeres Princes who happen to stand up as Adversaries against the truth at such a time seeme to have beene borne in an evill houre Pharaoh I am perswaded might have gone to his grave with a great deale lesse guilt upon his conscience had he lived and reigned in another Age and not at that time when the Power of truth was to be put forth in Israels deliverance some of his Ancestours perhaps had hearts as bad but had no such occasion in so high a degree to treasure up wrath against their owne soules the like may be said of his Courtiers and People that joyned with him in that designe When the Lord by visible and glorious signes of the times and extraordinary dispensations of providence owneth the cause of his People in bondage and saith againe and againe Let my People goe let my People goe that they may serve mee according to mine owne minde and direction then let men tremble to hearden their hearts and oppose God lest in the issue it appeare that for this cause they were set up that the Lord might make his Power knowne upon them On the other side the Power of truth is strong for all that embrace it and labour to promote it It will carrie them through all dangers and difficulties and in the end crowne them with Glory In a word this Power of truth is sufficient to deliver poore slaves and captives out of the power of Satan and to make them free Then said Jesus to those Jewes which beleeved on him If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make ye free In a Sea-fight betweene the Spanyards and Hollanders it is sayd that a poore captive in one of the Spanish Galleyes had his chayne wherewith he was fastned broken asunder by a Cannon shot himselfe not hurt and perceiving that he was loose leapt into the Sea with a Peice of his chayne and escaped to the other ship by this strange providence regaining his liberty many seeme afraid of the truth especially when it commeth thundring like a Cannon shot from the mouth of some Boanerges but if thou receive it yeeld and subject thy self to it it will never hurt thee no it will breake thy chayne those chaines of death and darkenesse whereby Satan holdeth thee captive and make thee free and though thou mayest carry a piece of thy chaine with thee to thy dying day yet it will wholly free thee in the end Buy Truth and walk in the power of the spirit of Truth and ye shall be mighty in the strength of Christ to overcome and shall sit downe with Him in his Throne even as he overcame and is set downe with His Father in his Throne 2. Many and great ingagements lie upon us of this Nation and in particular upon us of this generation to make us buy truth and stand for Truth to the uttermost Wonderfully hath the Lord wrought for the bringing in the restoring preserving and propagating of the Truth among us To say nothing of the first introduction of the light in or neere the Apostles times How graciously did the Lord visit this Nation about 200. yeers before Luthers dayes by the ministery of Wickliffe and others raising up a succession of faithfull witnesses to seal the Truth with their blood in the severall Reignes of our Kings who according to the blindnesse of those times gave their power to the Beast Then followed that strange act of Henry the eighth in abolishing the Popes Supremacy next the wonderfull workings of our God upon the heart and by the hands of our English Iosias King Ew●r● 6. In whose Reigne it is very observable that by an admirable conjuncture of providence the Churches of Germany should be under persecution and the Churches in this Land should enjoy a short breathing time of Peace that so England which had need to borrow light from forreigne parts might be supplyed from Germany Divines were called both such as were Orthodox and such it seemeth who were tainted with the Lutheran errour one at least viz Brentius a man noted to bee much infected aswell with that great errour of ubiquity as that of the Corporall presence in the Sacrament a person of eminent authority for his Learning and manifold accomplishments and one who had he accepted of the call might have sowed such seed in one or other of our Universities as might have overspread the Land perhaps those weeds which might have sprang from it would not have been rooted out unto this day especially if that be considered that our leading men Cramner Ridley c. were supposed not to be wel informed in that point at that time I conceive there was a gracious overruling providence of God in it diverting him and moving him to decline so faire an offer though it seemeth hee was troubled to finde a place wherein to hide his head with safety On the other side the Lord was pleased to incline the hearts of Martyr Bucer and Phagius three pious and Orthodox Divines to accept the call What were all our multiplied deliverances in the Reigne of Queen Elizabeth among the rest that of 88. And since her time from the Powder-treason and now of late a wonderfull series or large Catalogue of extraordinary events brought about by the mighty hand of God what are all these I say but the glorious workings of our God for the procuring and continuing unto us these precious opportunities of buying truth and therefore they ought to be mighty provocations to our spirits not to neglect such a price put into our hands unlesse we will shew our selves of all people upon the earth most unthankfull and so most unexcusable Let me name one of the last sort that as in the dayes of Josh. The Lord hearkened to the voice of a man saying Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moone in the valley of Aialon and the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about an whole day so whereas our Parliaments have formerly been made like fleeting meteors or