Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	abundant_a	goodness_n	lord_n	1,757	5	4.1358	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49542	Gods wonderful mercy in the mount of woful extremity. Or, the recovered captive Being a plain relation of Gods unspeakable goodness in rescuing one of the meanest of his flock from the paw of the roaring lyon, and pangs of unconceivable horror through long and strong temptations and spiritual desertions. Published 1. For the encouragement of poor distressed consciences, worried with temptations, and almost quite wearied with waiting. 2. For a caution to secure sinners, lest they also come into such or sorer torment. 3. For a call of all (in whose hearts are the ways of God) to bear a part in the high praises of him whose wonders are in the deep. By Charles Langford.	Langford, Charles.	1672 (1672)	Wing L384; ESTC R213608	68,281	168

particulars would be long In a word thou thinkest possibly as once good David in another case that all men are liars thy temptations may beget such hasty expressions as to say the case hath not been with others as they represent it or to doubt their deliverance to be but feigned at the best or else a short parrole a meet reprieve not a discharge from the like or worse enthrallment Or if things have been truly related it only proves what God can do not what Hell will do as if the mercy of God did not bear an equal proportion with his power Think of what thou wilt or canst that may make against thee and yet I shall continue to beg Give not up your hopes hold on seeking after God you have not yet waited forty years he will come in a time when you look not for him Your case is not yet desperate 'T is not so bad with you but 't was as bad with me 2. My earnest suite is also that in stead of regarding dreams visions voices and other delusions you give credit to the un-erring word of God and oppose that against them all The generall drift design and scope of the book of God is to perswade man unbelieving man that God is mercyful That sin never damned any man yet simply and of it self but as qualified by wilfulness and unbelief That though God be a consuming fire a jealous God yet fury is not in him Is 27.4 His jealousie he puts upon him as a Cloak a meer covering a loose garment and this he never puts on till provoked by the obstinate refusals of love and mercy Even under the dark and terrible administrations of the Law how clearly did this doctrine shine forth Exod. 34 6 7. The Lord the Lord gratious and merciful long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgressions and sin This is his name for ever this his memoriall to all generations This the strong tower of souls hungring and thirsting after righteousness Oh le ts not be beaten out of this perswasion by any Hellish suggestion What great advantage the Devil makes of dreams visions and the like now under the Gospel wherein God speaketh to us only by his Son Heb. 1.1 2. the woful experience I have doth in some measure manifest The overmuch credit I gave to the delusion laid upon me in my first sickness was the root of all the rest This is my second request oppose the word of God against all such Hell-hatcht conceipts as would put you upon the wrack of affrighting doubts Fly from these to that least you suffer as I have done 3. Moreover let me begg this that you stand not to hear what every one saith about Religion but fall thou upon the profession and practise of real Godliness with all the speed thou canst He that is a professor in truth and not in hypocrisy to which conscience it self is able most commonly to bear witness hath the name and glory of the Lord engaged for his relief He that beareth his testimony for G●d and his truths in sincerity God cannot find in his heart to do by him what in justice he might The sins of such as these strike high at the honour of God and therefore well might the Lord destroy and blot out their names for ever But yet he will not Dan 9 18 19. They bear his name upon them what would the more wicked part of the world say if God should arm himself with fury against his own would they not say where is now your God what is become of all your prayers and all your services which you pretend were done for his glory The merciful Lord foreseeth this and his own glory restraineth the hands of the destroyer Deut. 32.26 27. I said I would scatter them into corners and blot out their remembrance from among men were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy God will not doe against the Professors of his name as much as he can for fear least the enemy should say and do more then he ought Our God is seldom employed in long and wrathful rebukes of his own when they are exposed to the outward rage of their enemie● He spareth them then however they escape at another time Oh! then let me intreat thee to make choice of the wayes of holiness as the best and safeest wayes to walk in Run not to seek for shelter from your fears and sorrows amidst the prophane rout of merry worldlings Their sparks of joy cast but little light and how soon shall that be put out alas poor souls the way of peace have they not known City of refuge The horns of the Alter is the likeliest place for security against the Avenger of bloud Consort thy self with those that walk in the truths of practical piety according to the mind of God plainly revealed in his holy word My deliverance God wrought for his own name sake There were sins enough in me fuel enough to maintain the fire of divine displeasure for ever But the name and glory of God are pretious to him If thou hast made profession in sincerity and truth thou maist expect deliverance more then others A sincere professor under teoubles hath more reason to hope then others for the glory of the Lord is engaged for his defence 4. I have this further to add from my own experience That though thing expectation of deliverance must be from God yet not without the use of means 'T is the God of peace alone that can make peace in thy troubled soul or else all thy labour will amount to nothing The lips and labours of the most learned are but fruitless Is 57.19 till the Lord create the fruits of them both and make them yeild peace Cent. 1.18 And yet 't is good to feed by the Shepherds tents A faithful Gospel ministry is an unvalluable mercy Their gifts in preaching and writing are the purchase of the bloud of Christ From the fountain of sacred truths are these Buckets filled And all for the use of poor weak souls that want skill and strength of their own God hath crowned the labours of such and made them men of renown for conversion of souls their labours are the issue of the blessed spirit Ob then lets not rob the Lord of his glory in raising up such lights who have spant themselves in guiding our feet in the ways of peace by their pretious labours the word of God hath been so unfolded and the glorious attribute● so explained and sweetly applyed that if poor souls have not been much advantaged the fault hath been too much their own Let me begg of you then to praise the Lord for and to make use of and shew all the due respect you can to these they are the horsemen and the Chariots of the Gospel-Israel the best visible assistance that Earth can afford for management of our spiritual war against the powers of Hell By the

1. Kings 18.17 Insomuch that I think 't would be no mistake should I affirm this for a certain truth That Satans furious attempts made most what upon the inward peace of Gospel professions who having escaped the polutions that are in the world through lust and committed the keeping of their souls into the hands of an able preserver are not allwayes raised by him in hope of bringing them back into their former bondage or undoing their souls by desperation But that he may stir up a greater dislike in the hearts of his Vassals to the ways of purity Offences are the trade that Satan sets up and drives The miseries of us are the mirth of him But woe to him by whom they come and woe to the world because of them Let the Reader know for a certain truth that however carnall hearts conceive of the way that is called Holy branding it by the names of melancholly mopish and m●d wisdom is justified of her Children all her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 carnal and sensual delights are not in the least to be compared with spiritual and divine Ps 46.4 the River that makes glad the City of God is more deep more durable more delightful then the Egyptian Nilus the waters of Siloam run but softly the consolations of God found in the way of holy obedience make no great noise in the ears of common observers who are meet strangers to such joyes but they are therefore the more deep and solid My long experience hath taught me in the midst of all the intricacies of providence to hold this for a certain truth that godliness never took away any mans peace nor ungodliness never gave it The closest conformity to the commands of God never did any man harm nor did the pleasures of sin ever do any man good the wise lord of all hath thought fit to train me up under many spiritual afflictions and sore temptations I am now arrived at the borders of Death through age of much of my part life may I truly say in the words of the distressed Psalmist that in it my Soul hath been full of troubles Ps 88.3 by reason whereof my life hath oft drawn nigh to the grave yet in the greatest of my extremities have I ever seen a real-worth in holy strictness such a worth have I seen in that that I may truly say not it but Satan taking advantage of my want of it was that which did me harm the bitter cup of external internal or eternal evils receiveth it Fulness from an evil nature a naughty heart whoever is employed in the filling of it the fountain for fetching of it is within our selves destruction when it cometh as a whirl-wind suddenly surroundingly and on every side so that to determine from what particular point it blows may seem impossible yet must it be granted that its ingendring was in the deep and deadly Caverns of an earthly and an evil heart whatever instrumentallity Men or Devils have in the infliction of our troubles our destructions are undeniably not from them but from our selves Oh! then let none say or think that 't is Religion but irreligion preciseness but dissoluteness drawing nigh unto but departing away from the living God much reading praying hearing searching the Scriptures consorting with the godly c. But the contrary have been the causes though the other sometimes the occasions of hellish horrors and disquietness of mind Rom. 7.8.11 Oh! no no 't is sin that is the root of bitterness springing up into troubles a sinful nature a sinful life or the least sinful omission any one act of sin though never so small is enough to infuse that horror into the soul that all the pleasures of time shall never be able to claw off Thus that sinful nature which I brought along with me into the world and by which as soon as I had attained to my ripeness of years I began to manifest whose child I was bringing forth such fruits whereof I am ashamed This I say was the root of all the bitterness I have hitherto tasted of 't was not too much preciseness which the enemies of true Godliness falsly so call that wrought this disturbance in me For at the time when my troubles began I had neither affection to nor acquaintance with any other way of serving the God of heaven then what was common carnal and external Q. How then comes it to pass that the whole Earth upon the matter lyeth still and is at quiet not troubled themselves with such strange kind of doubts fears and distractions of thoughts about their Eternal state as you speak of nor troubling others with their complaint about them Sure coming too near the heels of Religion is the cause of such fractions of the bones of inward peace or else why should not others be thus perplexed Ans I answer that however the Objection is manifestly rooted in the minds of carnal men who by reason of their fondness of their false peace not willing to raise disturbances within themselves like no worship of God save that which biteth not but contrarily bite and devour such as do yet so false and ground less is this Objection that in few words I shall only say 1. That however t is true de facto that most of those who ingage in the ways of God meet with great troubles and distress of conscience at the first entrance yet de jure no sort of men are more the sons of consolation than they 2. Such distresses are most needful most profitable things and such as commend the wa●es of God above all others For consider 1. How else should the heart of man who by nature drinketh in iniquity as a thirsty man water be put out of his seeming delightful way of sinning 't is the way that Heaven hath pitcht upon to save men from Hell this to acquaint them with the bitterness of sin here 2. How else should the heart of a sinner be prepared to entertain the terms and tidings of a Saviour Christ believed in Christ relyed upon Christ owned and embraced and submitted unto 1 Tim. 3.16 is one of the greatest misteries of Godliness in all the world and nothing prepareth the heart more to hearken to and embrace the tidings the tenders and the terms of so sweet a name as Jesus is then spiritual distress souls weary and heavy laden Mat. 11.28 and none but such have to do or will have to do with Iesus Christ 3. How should the Law of God be found powerful to kill or the Gospel of Christ powerful to quicken any other way We read of Gods magnifying his word above all his name 't is his aim and delight to do so he will have men to know his word to be a word of power an instrument of life or death a two edged sword and therefore not to be jested with and the ordinary way of effecting this is