Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	believe_v	word_n	1,745	5	4.0513	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67173	The mourners memorial in two sermons on the death of the truly pious Mris. Susanna Soame, late wife of Bartholomew Soame of Thurlow, Esq., who deceased Febru. 14, 1691/2 : with some account of her death / by Timothy Wright, Robert Fleming.	Wright, Timothy.; Fleming, Robert, 1660?-1716.	1695 (1695)	Wing W3712; ESTC R25216	54,544	137

most serious meditation on this sorrowful occasion To them who by patient continuance in well-doing c. A Scripture that was eminently Exemplified in her Life and is now more fully accomplished and made good to her in her death and upon both accounts I hope so much the more adapted for our present instruction in Conjunction with that awakening and teaching Providence which gave the occasion to this Discourse upon it Which is designed both for an instructive lesson to the living and a solemn Memorial of the dead and therefore I shall endeavour by the Divine assistance to cast it into such a Method and form as may be in some measure accommodate to both parts of that design but to the latter in subserviency to the former as that which is principally to be regarded in such sacred discourses In the Words we have two things more generally offered to our serious consideration 1. The descriptive Character of the Heirs of future blessedness they are such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality 2. The final Happiness unto which they shall at last be advanced by the gracious designation and appointment of their Heavenly Father And this is briefly sum'd up in those two comprehensive words Eternal life which indeed are both too big for our thoughts in this dark imperfect state and are only throughly understood where what is signified by them is fully enjoyed The Character of the Persons here spoken of is full extensive the felicity that awaits them at the end of their course is great and glorious and the Connection that is between them is firm and certain resulting from that divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is spoken of in the preceding part of the Context that righteous Judgment of God whereby he makes a true Estimate of Persons and actions according to the proper Rules of Judgment and will therefore render to every one according to his deeds And so with little variation we may summe up the sense of the Words in this Doctrinal Conclusion viz. Doct. That all they who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality shall at last obtain the full possession of what they seek after in Eternal life This is a Conclusion of that indubitable certainty that the Truth of it cannot be call'd in question without denying at once the divine veracity and remunerative justice for as much as the written word of God according to which his final distribution of Eternal Rewards and punishments shall be made at the last day hath expresly declared that it shall be thus And that in many other places of Scripture as well as in the Text And therefore looking upon it as altogether needless to insist upon the direct proof or Confirmation of this Truth amongst those that do acknowledge the divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and believe them to be the Word of God All that I shall do further in speaking to it shall be first to explain and then to apply it to our selves on this sorrowful occasion In the Explication there are three things to be distinctly considered and spoken to viz. 1. The Extensive import of the Character by which the Heirs of future blessedness are here described 2. The nature and Excellency of that final happiness which doth by the divine Ordination and appointment belong to them as their everlasting inheritance 3. What kind of connection there is between the one and the other i. e. between the qualifications imported in this Character and that felicity to which all that bear it shall at last be advanced 1. That which doth most fitly come under our consideration in the first place is the extensive import of their Excellent Character who are here spoken of And as in the general we see they are described by the Spiritual and Heavenly Tendency and scope of their desires and aims which are too high to be confined to this lower World or to take up their Rest in any thing that is measured by Time So more particularly there are three things in this Character to be distinctly explained 1. The great and Noble Object of their earnest desire and constant aim expressed here by Glory Honour and Immortality 2. Their Souls Actual Motion towards this Object here express'd by their seeking after 〈◊〉 3. The regular Way and right Line in which their desires move and their aims are directed towards this blessed Mark and that is a patient continuance in well-doing First We may understand somewhat of the Excellency of the Character here given us of the Heirs of future Blessedness by considering the Object of their earnest Desire and steady Aim which indeed is great and noble well-beseeming the dignity of an heaven-born Soul even Glory and Honour and Immortality or as it is in the Greek incorruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three words that carry a great deal in them the two first expressing the substance of what they seek after Glory and Honour and the third subjoyned partly to set forth the perpetuity and everlasting duration of both and partly to denote their own endless existence and continuance in the full possession and enjoyment of them when once they shall have reached the Mark at which they aim I Shall neither trouble my self nor you with a needless enquiry into the more nice and critical distinctions that some may conceive to be between these two words as to the proper import of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory and Honour Thus much being sufficiently evident not only from the third word that is subjoyned to them but also from the manifest scope of the Text that they are principally designed both together to denote that everlasting happiness in another World which is in the close of the verse summ'd up in those other two words Eternal life intimating that to be the great thing which all the faithful servants of God and Disciples of Christ do in subordination to the Glory of their great Lord and Master chiefly seek after Yet so as not to exclude from being a part of the Object of their Desire and Aim whatsoever in this life is necessary as preparative and introductory to the Glory and Happiness of another Much less excluding whatsoever else there may be in that future blessedness it self which cannot so aptly be conceived of under the notions of Glory and Honour especially if more strictly and properly understood such as that eternal satisfaction that inexpressible Joy and that inconceivable delight which will undoubtedly accompany the glory and honour of that immortal state Nothing short of that Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. that fadeth not away can indeed ultimately terminate the Desires or fully answer the Aims of the Persons of that singular and noble Character which we are now considering It is not any worldly honour or greatness tho' they should be advanced never so high in those secular dignities which many are so ambitious to climb

And then the higher their presumptuous and groundless hopes have been raised the greater will their shame and disappointment be when they and their hopes shall perish together 3. The firm and certain connection which the gracious Promise and Covenant of God hath made and settled between a patient continuance in well-doing here and the enjoyment of eternal life hereafter may further serve for the comfort and encouragement of all his sincere and faithful Servants under all the difficulties and hardships afflictions and sorrows exercises and Tryals which they undergo here in the course of their obedience He that hath obtained a clear prospect by faith of the invisible World and of the glory honour and incorruption which are to be eternally enjoyed there by all that regularly seek after them here and is withal conscious to himself that he is one of that happy number can easily see through the darkest cloud and discern a comfortable end of all his present troubles And therefore his Faith mightily animating his Hope and his Hope proportionably strengthening his Patience he doth not faint in the day of Adversity nor is he weary of well-doing Prov. 24. v. 10. because he is sufficiently assured that the time is short and so that it will be but yet a little while before all Tears shall be wiped away from his eyes and all Isa 25. v. 8. grief and sorrow banished from his heart and endless Joyes succeed in their Rev. 7. v. 17. room 4. The same consideration may serve as a sweet and comfortable allay to the sorrows of such as are mourning for the death of such of their near and dear Relatives or Friends who in their life-time gave sufficient proof of their exemplary care and diligence to persevere in such a steady course of duty and obedience as hath eternal life and glory connected with it It is indeed very selfish and unbecoming our Christian hope with immoderate and unallayed grief and sorrow to lament the death of such For asmuch as altho' their absence and departure from us be very sensibly our great loss their presence with the Lord is in an infinitely higher degree their gain And therefore methinks even natural affection which makes us wish well to our dear Relatives especially when sanctified by Grace and assisted by faith should give some check to our immoderate grief for the Removal of such of them from us by the stroke of death concerning whom we have such comfortable and well-grounded hopes For why should we grieve at or regret their happy advancement unto that immortal glory and honour which they had been long seeking for but could never reach before 5. What we have heard may serve both for our direction and excitation unto such a regular and steady course of obedience here that we may all obtain eternal life hereafter Let us endeavour therefore to have that Truth which hath been this day suggested to us out of the Word of God so deeply impress'd upon our very hearts that the thoughts of it may continually dwell with us and have a constant influence upon us by the grace of God for the engageing us to the most strenuous diligence and constancy in prosecuting our present duty as that which hath by the divine ordination and appointment a direct tendency to our future eternal felicity Let us never forget that the only way to glory and honour and a blessed immortality is a patient continuance in well doing And so let none of us any longer indulge our selves in the neglect of that upon which our eternal welfare doth so evidently depend but let the time past suffice us to have wrought the Wills of the Flesh and to have misemployed the active strength and vigour of our Souls in minding only earthly things And now let us resolve by the grace of God to call off our hearts and affections from this lower World and all its perishing vanities and so set our selves in good earnest to seek those things that are above Minding the great Duties of Christianity with a more serious care than ever we have hitherto exercised about them Making True practical Religion more our business as it is what will turn to the best accompt unto us at last O let none of us be guilty of such preposterous folly in the great concernments of our immortal Souls as we would be ashamed of in the management of our secular affairs separating the Way from the End as if the one might be attained without a serious and due attendance to the other The Way in which we must seek for future glory and happiness if ever we would have it is plainly delineated to us in the Text And all those that are gone before us and have actually received the Reward of the eternal inheritance both sought and obtained it in this way and no other even by a patient continuance in well-doing It doth therefore concern us to tread in their steps that we also may in due time and in our appointed order come to the fruition of the same happiness with them And so my earnest exhortation to you is in the words of the Apostle Heb. 6. 11 12. That every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises And here for your further excitation I shall now on this solemn occasion set before you the illustrious and worthy Example of our deservedly honoured and lately deceased Friend whose immortal part is now with Christ For She was indeed One upon whose Heart and Life the divine Spirit and Grace had in most conspicuous and shining lineaments drawn that excellent and noble Character by which the Heirs of Blessedness are described in the Text And to that in the several parts of it I shall principally confine my self in the following Account that I shall give you of her Wherein my more immediate design and aim is to shew you how eminently this Text of Scripture was exemplified in her that you may thence be the more confirmed in your comfortable and well-grounded assurance of her being now happily possessed of that Eternal Life which by the divine designation and appointment belongs to all that bear that Character And therefore not to say any thing of her natural endowments either intellectual or moral altho they were such as made the Grace of God to shine with the greater lustre in her discreet and well-ordered conversation I shall speak only to those that were manifestly divine and supernatural And for as much as my happy acquaintance with her did commence too late to capacitate me to give you any particular account of the more early impressions of the Divine Grace upon her Soul or the more distant Passages of her pious Life and that I may keep my self as remote as may be from all suspition of flattery and falsehood in the payment of this my last solemn

Gods sight they have it may be more right to than many others who can talk better and more as well as there ought to be a just caution in the admitting Persons who may be vitious and scandalous However for my own part I must say that I would in this case be under a great Dread and Fear to reject any poor Soul in whom I think I see tho' in a small degree and as a grain of mustard seed Aliquid Christi any thing of Christs Image For I judge we err more safely on the side of Charity if indeed it be possible so to err than on the side of a precipitant and presumptuous judging of ones state and fitness from Rules of our own prescribing when none can tell me what the least degree of sincerity and grace is which God doth accept and which gives one right to participate of all Ordinances She was a careful and impartial Searcher of the Scriptures which she read with great judgment and observation with the use of the best helps she could have for that end But though she studied to understand every part of Scripture yet she was most conversant in the more spiritual parts thereof She took many a mental walk in the delicious Garden of Davids Psalms and sat oft with great pleasure under the close Arbour of Solomon's song which as she learned over by heart as to the Words in her Childhood so attained in a great measure both to understand and experience in her riper years And together with the Scriptures she read with great pains and judgment many of the most solid and practical English Writers as her Books she hath left behind will witness to such as have them when they see the many Marginal Writings wherewith she hath filled them according as she was edified and affected her self with what she read And tho' her Characters be such as none can well understand yet the consideration of those Truths that she thereby points at will discover both the judiciousness and seriousness of her spirit And I hope these very hints though it may be not distinctly apprehended may be a leading Example of seriousness and piety to her surviving Relatives She was laborious and almost unwearied in Duty especially Fasting and Prayer which last Ordinance seemed to be the very food she lived on and the air she breathed in She hungred and thirsted after God as the hart after the water books and would often pleasantly reflect on an expression of Mr. Rutherfoords to that purpose in his Book of Letters which she greatly delighted in and say I think God feeds me with hunger viz. After the enjoyment of God and manifestations of his Love She was zealously bent to advance Gods Honour and propagate the Gospel which I hope others will imitate her in and used to say For what else hath God given me life and any share of worldly things And upon this account her Temper being naturally timerous she would oft with great earnestness complain of her self That she feared her fears were such as might dishonour God and disparage her Profession in the eyes of such as are without though yet her fears were more visible to her self than any else However this fearful Temper did represent Death to her oft in Melancholly Ideas Yet she would commonly say I fear not to be dead but only to dye neither do I fear Death so properly as the very fears thereof Upon which account she would oft chide her self as acting so irrationally and unchristianly But God gave her in a great measure the Conquest over such Fears before her Death However this Temper of hers made her oft say That for her own part she could never joyn with that Prayer in the Service-Book From sudden Death deliver us For she feared a lingring rather than a sudden death which God in some measure did satisfie her in In the midst of her Complainings on whatever account she would still break out with a Caution to her self But what do I I must praise as well as pray for my mercies are more than my wants yea even my wants may be my mercy And therefore she would beg the assistance of others in this work and say I desire you to praise as well as pray on my account Yea which may seem strange notwithstanding her fears as to her self she was of a bold and confident Temper in the publick Concerns of Religion and would not easily be shaken in her resolutions that way whatever Opposition or Reflection she might meet with on that account from an ignorant World And if there were any that thought or spoke contemptuously of serious piety she could not but with generous pity and compassion reflect upon them She had a very particular regard for her Relatives and Friends especially as to what might be conducive to the real profit of their Souls And I may say That she travelled as it were in birth for her Children a second time that she might see Christ formed in them And I hope that as God was pleased to give her much satisfaction in this before her death so her Prayers may come to be yet further answered in due time this way She had attained a well-grounded Assurance of her Interest in God and Christ which to my observation she never actually doubted of even in the midst of Temptations Although her natural Temper being suspitious and not easily satisfied in such a grand concern she would oft put up Questions as to this matter to such as she could be free with in such a way as if she seemed to doubt thereof and would oft say If it be so and so with me why am I thus Yet as she hath intimated to some this was rather that she might be further satisfied from the Reasons of others as well as from her own Evidences for she thought she could never be too sure of this weighty and concerning Business She had several times some unusual Impressions of things upon her Spirit especially in Dreams which though she was cautious not to lay too great a stress on for she founded on a surer word of Testimony yet she could not but take particular notice of At one time said she for I give this in her own words as near as I can remember I dreamed that I saw the representation of two Humane Bodies but so glorious above what our frail Bodies are here as admits of no comparison They were to my Apprehension like the finest and purest Amber with Rays proceeding from them like the shinings and glances of Diamonds or Rubies and so transparent that the beautiful contexture and motion of the internal parts appeared no less plainly to me than the external figure Which whilst with Ravishment I looked upon methoughts it was suggested to me Such shall the Bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection be This extraordinary Dream she would speak of sometimes in these or the like words but never without a sensible emotion and emphasis which added to