Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	abraham_n	covenant_n	durable_a	16	3	16.2240	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10659	Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.	1631 (1631)	STC 20934; ESTC S115807	428,651	573

but Gods Love and Mercy is the onely reason of making promises The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor choose you saith Moses to Israel because ye were more in number then any people but because the Lord Loved you that is the ground of making the promise and because he would keepe the oath which he had sworne to your fathers that was the ground of performing his promise For thy Words sake and according to thine owne heart saith David hast thou done all these great things According to thine owne heart that is ex mero mot●… out of pure and unexcited love thou didst give thy Word and Promise and for thy Word sake thou hast performed it not for any thing that was in mee for wh●… am ●… O Lord or what is my house hast thou brought me hitherto Thou wilt performe saith the Prophet the Truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworne unto our fathers from the dayes of old Why Truth to Iacob and Mercy to Abraham We must note the promise after a sort began in Abraham therefore he is call'd the Father of the Faithfull and when God makes a promise it is onely out of Mercie but the Promise was continued unto ●…a cob who being Abrahams seede was an hei●…e of the Promise and so the inheritance which was out of mercy given unto Abraham did out of Truth and fidelitie descend unto Iacob the seede of Abraham and therefore we shall finde Covenant Mercy and Oath ioyned together in the Scripture to note unto us both the ground of making the Covenant Mercy and the ground of performing the Covenant made the Truth and Fidelity of God Thy God shall keepe unto thee the Covenant and the Mercy which he sware unto thy fathers saith Moses To performe the Mercy promised to our fathers and to re member his holy Covenant The oath which he sware to ou●… father Abraham c. saith Zachary in his song Th●… wee see that the Promises are the tokens and fruits o●… Gods meere Love And in that regard they are apt to cleanse or to moue us to any dut●…e which God requires of us For Love and mercy being by faith apprehended are strong arguments to love and feare God againe is love him because he loved us and they shall feare th●… Lord and his goodnesse the goodnesse of the Lord begetteth feare and that is all one as to cleanse and purifie for the feare of the Lord is cleane and pure There is an uncleane feare like that of the Adulteresse who feareth her husband lest hee should returne and deprehend her in her falsenesse to him but the true feare of the Lord is cleane like that of a chaste spouse who feareth the departure of her Love There are none so destitute of humanity as not to answere Love for Love Secondly Promises are the Efficient causes of our Purification as they are The grounds of our Hope and expectations Wee have no reason to Hope for any thing which is not promised or upon any other conditions then as promised Hope is for this reason in Scripture compared to an Anker both sure and stedfast because it must have something of firmenesse and stabilitie to fasten upon before it can secure the Soule in any tempest To hope without a promise or upon any promise otherwise then it stands is but to let an Anker hang in the water or catch in a Wave and thereby to expect safetie to the Vessell This argument the Apostle useth why we should not cast away our confidence or slacken our hope because there is a Promise which by patience and doing the Will of God we may in due time receive and which is a firme foundation for our Confidence to ●…est upon So Abraham is said to have beleeved against hope in hope that hee should be the father of many nations and the ground of that hope is added According to that which was spoken to that word of Promise ●…o shall thy se●…de be And else where he is said to have looked for a City which had foundations that is a Citie which was built upon the Immutable stabilitie of Gods ●…ath and Promise Thus we see Promises are the grounds of our Hop●… and Hop●… is of a cleansing nature The Grace of God saith the Apostle teacheth as to deny 〈◊〉 and worldly lusts and to live ●…oberly righteously and Godly in this present World the reason whereof is presently enforced Looking for that blessed Hope and the Glorious appearing of the great God And againe He that hath this hope in him saith S. Iohn namely to bee like him at his comming Purifieth himselfe even as He is Pure Hee that hopeth to be fully like Christ hereafter and to come to the measure of the stature of his fulnesse will labour to his uttermost to bee as he was in this World For a man hopes for nothing de futuro which he would not presently compasse if it were in his power No man is to bee presum'd to Hope for the whole who hates any part or to expect the fulnesse who rejects the first fruites of the Spirit He that loveth not his brother whom hee hath seene how can hee love God whom he hath not seene That is He that cannot endure nor looke on that little glimpse and ray of Holynesse which is in his brother in one of the same passions infirmities and corruptions with himselfe will much lesse be able to abide the light of the Sonne of righteousnesse and that most orient spotlesse and vast Holynesse which is in him The same reason holdes here he that cannot endeavour to purifie himselfe here doth never truely hope to be like Christ hereafter He that directs his course towards Yorke can never bee presumed to hope that hee shall by that journey get to London when he knowes or might easily be informed that it is quite the other way And the truth is no wicked man hath any true or a●… saint Peter cal●… it lively Hope to come to Heaven Blind presumptions ignorant wishings and wouldings hee may have but no true Hope at all For that ever supposeth some knowledge and preapprehension of the Goodnesse of that which is Hoped for and there is nothing in Heaven which wickedmen do not hate as very evill to them the Presence of the most Holy God the purity and brightnesse of his Glory the Company of Christ Iesus and his Saints c. If they might be suffered first to have a view of it and see what is there doing what Divine and Holy imployments take up all the thoughts desires and powers of the blessed company there they would abhorre no place more Hope begets Love whom having not seene ye love saith the Apostle Hope to bee like Christ hereafter will worke a love and desire to expresse so much as wee can of his Image here Hee that longs for a thing will take any present

they expose him to the envie accusations violences of wicked men Fourthly from their uncertainty of abode they perish by an evill travell either Gods curse or some particular humour lust or project overturnes a great estate and posterity is beggerd Fifthly from the certainty of an everlasting separation from them vers 15. 16. and this he saith is a sore evill which galles the heart of a worldly man that hath resolved upon no other heaven then his wealth when sicknes comes to snatch him away from this his Idoll there is not onely sorrow but wrath and ●…ury in him vers 17. Sixthly from the disability to use or enjoy them when a man through inordinate love or distrustfull providence or sordidnesse of spirit or encumbrances of employments will not while he lives enjoy his abundance and when he dies hath not either by his owne covetous prevention or his successors inhumanity an honorable buriall Chap. 6. vers 1. 2. 3. Seventhly from the narrownesse of any satisfaction which can be received from them vers 7. All the wealth a man hath can reach no higher then the filling of his mouth then the outward services of the body the desires of the soule remaine empty still A glutton may fill his belly but he cannot fill his lust a covetous man may have a hovse full of monie but hee can never have a heart full of mony an ambitious man may have titles enough to overcharge his memorie but never to fill his pride the agitations of the soule would not cease the curiosity of the understanding would not stand at a stay though a man could hold all the learning of the great library in his head at once the sensualitie of a lascivious man would never be satiated it would be the more enrag'd though hee should ty●…e out his strength and waste his spirits and stupifie all his senses with an excessive intemperance When men have done all they can with their wisedome and wealth they can fill no more but the mouth and poverty and folly makes a shift to doe soe too vers 8. the desires wander the soule ●…oves up and downe as ever vers 9. Eighthly from their disability to protect or rescue a man from evill to advance the strength of a man beyond what it was before vers 10. Though a man could scrape all the wealth in the wo●…ld together he were but a man still subject to the same dangers and infirmities as before nothing can exalt him above or exempt him from the common Lawes of humanity neither shall he be ever able to contend with him that is mightier then he All his wealth shall be never able to blinde the eye or bribe the Iustice or testraine the power of Almighty God if hee bee pleased to inflict the strokes of his vengeance vpon his Conscience The fourth degree of vexation is from the Review of them First if a man consider the meanes of his getting them His conscience will oftentimes tell him that peradventure he hath pursued indirect and unwarrantable wayes of gaine hath ventured to lye flatter sweare deceive supplant undermine to corrupt and adulterate wares to hoard up and dissemble them t●…l a dearer season to trench upon Gods Day for his owne purposes that so he might not onely receive but even steale away blessings from him Secondly if a man consider the manner the inordinate and over-eager way of procuring them How much pretious time hast thou spent which can never be recal'd againe for one houre whereof a tormented soule in hell would part with all the World if he had the disposall of it to be but so small a space within the possibilities of salvation againe how much of this pretious time hast thou spent for that which is no bread and which satisfieth not How many golden opportunities of encreasing the graces of thy soule of feeding thy faith with more noble and heavenly contemplations on Gods truth and promises on his Name and Attributes on his Word and worship of rouzing up thy soule from the sleepe of sinne of stirring up and new enflaming thy spirituall gifts of addressing thy selfe to a more serious assiduous durable communion with thy God of mourning for thine owne corruptions of groning and thirsting after heauenly promises of renewing thy vowes and resolutions of besieging and besetting heauen with thy more vrgent and retired prayers of humbling thy selfe before thy God of bewayling the calamities the stones the dust of Sion of deprecating and repelling approching Iudgements of glorifying God in all his wayes things of pretious spirituall and everlasting consequence how many of these golden opportunities hath thy too much absurd love and attendance on the world stolne from thee and surely to a soule illightned these must needs be matters of much vexation Thirdly if a man consider the use he hath made of them How they have stolne away his heart from trusting in God to rely on them how they have diverted his thoughts from the life to come and bewitched him to dote on present contentmens to love life to feare death to dispence with much unjust liberty to gather rust and securitie in Gods worship How much excesse and intemperance they have provoked how little of them have been spent on Gods glory and Church how small a portion we have repaid him in his Ministers or in his Members how few naked backes they have clothed how few empty bellies they have filled how few langvishing bowels they have refreshed how few good workes and services they have rewarded These are considerations which unto sensible consciences must sometime or other beget much vexation Fourthly if a man consider his owne former experiences or the examples of others that bring the vanitie of these earthly things into minde How some of his choysest pleasures have now out-liv'd him and are expir'd how the Lord hath snatched from his dearest embracements those Idols which were set up against his glory how many of his hopes have fail'd of his expectations and presumptions proved abortive how much mony at one time a Sicknesse at another a Suite at a third a Thiefe at a fourth a shipwrack or miscariage at a fifth yea at a twentieth time a lust hath consum'd and eaten out How many examples there are in the world of withered and blasted estates of the Curse of God not onely like a moth insensibly consuming but like a Lyon suddenly tearing asunder great possessions The last Degree of Uexation from the Creature is from the Disposing of them All Creatures sinners especially that have no hope or portion in another life doe naturally love a present earthly Immortality and therefore though they cannot have it in themselves yet as the Philosopher saith of living Creatures the reason why they generate is that that Immortality which in their owne particulars they cannot have they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so farre as they are able procure in the species or kinde which they thus preserve so rich and worldly