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	heart_n	word_n	1,814	5	3.8480	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12788	A learned and gracious sermon preached at Paules Crosse by that famous and iudicious diuine, Iohn Spenser ... ; published for the benefite of Christs vineyard, by H.M.	Spenser, John, 1559-1614.; Marshall, Hamlett.	1615 (1615)	STC 23096; ESTC S521	35,428	60

therefore conceiued no need of repentance and redemption by an other Sauiour Thus he generally affirmeth of the Iewes whose eares and hearts were by custome growne more then as all men naturally are so obstinately hardned in contempt against the word of truth that Mat. 11.21 had the signes and wonders that were done amongst them beene done in Tyre and Sydon nay in Sodom they would haue repented in Sackcloth and Ashes as the Nineuites did at the preaching of Ionas onely And this is that obstinate opposition of some against the ordinary meanes of mans saluation that caused not onely the Prophets to mourn but our Sauiour Christ to sit down and to weepe ouer Ierusalem when he saw that shee would not bee gathered to her Redeemet as if Christ should haue said as God by our Prophet What could I haue done more for my Vineyard which I haue not done 3 After the consideration of this so exceeding great cost and care bestowed vpon the Lords Vineyard wee are in the third place to looke vnto the end of these his labours and husbandry bestowed on his Church that is the same which euery man which plāteth a vineyard doth expect of his plants fruits I looked for grapes fruites naturall and proper to a Vine proper to a Christian that receiueth the nature the sappe the spirit of the roote Christ Why the good workes and fruites of Christians are compared to grapes and themselues to vines I partly shewed before For as nothing is created for it selfe so the poorest creature that GOD hath made is inabled with some gift to imitate the bounty and goodnesse of the Creator and to yeeld somthing from it selfe to the vse and benefit of others and this is their naturall worke thus the Sun and Moone and Starres as they are indued with light vertue so they restlesly moue to impart their light and influence to the inlightning and quickning of the inferiour world Thus doe the cloudes flie vp and downe emptying themselues to inrich the earth of which notwithstanding they reape no haruest Thus doth the earth without respect of her priuate profit liberally yeelde her riches and fatnes to the innumerable armies of creatures which all sucke her brests and hang on her for maintenance as on their common mother and not to depart frō our Parable thus doe all fruit-bearing trees spend themselues and the principall part of their sappe and moisture not on the increase of themselues but in making some pleasant fruit or berry of which neyther they nor their young springs shall taste and this when it is ripe perfect they voluntarily let fall at their masters feet thus neither doth the Vine make her selfe drunke with her owne grapes nor the Oliue annoint her selfe with her own oyle and yet they striue to abound with fruites For the more euery thing furthereth the common good of the world the higher is the excellency of the nature thereof and the greater resemblance it hath to the Creators goodnesse Now when heauen and earth are fruitfull in their kinde when neyther beast nor tree are idle but are alwaies bringing forth something to the good of others when not onely the creatures vnder man but the blessed Angels of heauen are ministring spirites perpetually and willinglie seruing for our good when God the father himselfe with the Lord our King are yet working and diuiding the streames of their goodnesse to the best behoofe of the world how can it bee allowable that when all the Armies of heauen and earth the Creator with the creatures are thus busied in bringing forth fruit onely man should remaine vnfruitfull his faculties and graces idle himselfe a burthen to the earth It cannot be for not onely the Church of God for the gathering of her children the propagation of truth and piety amongst them but the world it selfe for the vpholding of her estate doth necessarily require mans fruits for seeing we grow together as members in a body and branches in a tree the life and sappe strength and helpe of the root and head cannot be deriued to vs vnlesse it be conuaied by ioynts and by sinewes by armes and by boughes by the mutuall ministery of man by the works of iustice and mercy from one to another and therefore vnlesse the Pastor yeelde the fruit of his light and knowledge vnlesse the Magistrate do yeelde the fruit of his iustice and authority vnlesse euery priuate man doe yeeld forth the fruite of those faculties graces which they receiue not for themselues but for the good of the body they are no parts of Christs body neyther haue they the spirit of the head the spirite of loue in them but they are theeues and murtherers enemies to Christ and to his Church they starue his body and purloine from their fellow members those good things which the mercifull head hath so intended by them to vs that the benefite might be ours and the thanks theirs and al might grow by the naturall fruits of loue But here ordinarily ariseth in the mind of man a vaine shift which much hindreth his fruitfulnes and maketh him draw in all to himselfe and recall his sappe from the fruits into the roote againe and that is a false reasoning with himselfe that because doe he the best he can yet his fruits will bee earthly and sowre and neuer perfect and kindely ripened because were they neuer so perfect and abundant yet they cannot merite lifes eternity to him that beareth them and because that which is wanting is fully supplied in the all-sufficient fulnesse and superrogatiue merits of the head and therefore it is but lost labour to spend himselfe in bringing forth such vnperfect fruites so helpeles in the worke of his owne saluation thus doth iniquity lie vnto her selfe and turneth the truth of God into a lie for though those three promises are all true yet the conclusion we inferre vpon them is altogether vncoherent True it is that though wee bee ingrafted into the eternall Vine Christ yet wee retaine something of the nature of the olde stocke whence wee were taken which giueth to our best fruites an earthly taste and some relish of the olde man True it is that though we are planted with the best heauenly plants of piety yet they grow in a forraine soile and in a colde clime farre from the Sun and our fruites are not concocted and perfect euen our most spirituall fruits our prayers haue not a pleasing taste vnlesse they haue some sweetning But this defect is supplyed by the great Angell of the couenant who when he presenteth these our fruits to God the great husbandman addeth to them of his owne precious incense which helpeth their infirmity and harshnes and maketh them acceptable Renel 8.4 Again true it is that these our fruits were they neuer so abundant and as excellent as mans perfectly restored perfection can afforde yet can they not merite those crownes and kingdomes and the eternity of that glory but

was to be planted in Canaan What are Leuiticus and Deuternomy but the heauenly rules and orders of husbandring disposing and pruning and dressing this vine to preserue it in state And lastly what are the histories of Iosua and Iudges and Kings but the mighty planting of it in the land of Canaan the casting out of the Cananits like stones thorns the weeding out of those mighty Nations which might hinder the growth of the Vine There the heauens and the earth the sunne the fire the cloudes and the sea together with the Angels host of heauen all were commanded in their seuerall callings to attend vpon this Vine for they were the people which the Lord called to be a holy generation his royall Priesthood and that was the place of which he prophesieth Psal 132. The Lord hath chosen Sion and loueth to dwell in it saying here is my rest for euer here will I dwell for I haue delighted therin I will surely blesse her victuals satisfie her poore with bread I will cloath her Priests with saluation and her Saints shall shout for ioy Now those temporall blessings of peace and abundance those temporary deliuerances from al enemies those miracles and those wonders and that sensible presence of God himselfe in the middest of them though they seeme strange in our eyes and at the reading of them doe make vs Christians to say Hee hath not dealte so with any Nation Hee hath not dealt so with any Christian Church yet wee are deceiued for the gracious kindnes of God died not with Israel but rather those visible mercies towards Iudah were the visible seales of his inuisible and perpetual graces towards his Church and euery part therof for where he hath an outward Church there he hath also some elect to bee placed in it for eternity and where any of his elect are there are all things necessary to their accomplishment his Ministers his Word his Sacraments his Graces his Protection his exceeding loue For seeing those outward visible Churches bee as it were the Lords Worke-houses wherein hee frameth the inuisible members of Christs body by grace and proportioneth them to glory that etern all wisdome and loue will so prouide order and proportion also those means one to another and all vnto the end that it may iustly challenge the whole world what should I say What could I haue done for my Vineyard which I haue not done And here though occasion is offered It were a good thing to prayse the Lord and to sing vnto the name of the most high to declare this his louing kindnes in the morning and his truth all the day vntill night season for so much of our life is Angelicall as is spent in songs of thankefulnes vnto our God yet I must leaue this work to be the sacrifice of your priuate deuotion In which that one onelie benefit vpon the Christian Church is more then wee shall be able to comprehend that this Vineyard this Paradice whereof himselfe vouchsafeth to be the husbandman hee hath purchased to himselfe by the price of bloud not as Ahab purchased Naboth his Vineyard by the cruell shedding of the right owners bloud and vniust robbing the possessor of it but by giuing an infinit price for it the bloud of his onely beloued sonne to redeeme it where it lay ingaged in the hand of iustice and the Apostle concludeth necessarily Rom. 9. Hee who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for his Church how shall hee not with him giue all things to her he that hath yeelded vp the person of his infinitly beloued to be a sacrifice for her sins and doth giue his flesh to feede his Church and his bloud to bee her drinke how iustly may hee demaund What could he doe more for his Vineyard which hee hath not done But here though it be with the consent of all tongues acknowledged that the blessings of God vpon his Church and euery part thereof are exceeding great yet this challenging as it were of his own omnipotency What could I haue done more which I haue not done rayseth a doubt not to bee ouerpassed For might not this house of Iudah the inhabitants of Ierusalem haue replyed in the wordes of the Leper Math. 8.2 Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane the ordinarie obiection which many godles persons in our times doe frame both against God and themselues attributing their impenitency not to their owne obstinacy and corruptions but to Gods vnresistable will for if hee would say they he could sanctifie vs and make vs cleane also Wherein first that is vndoubtedly true that God who made Iron to swimme and rockes of stone to yeelde forth streames of water who made Aaron his dried staffe to bud and bring forth Almonds in a night he who could of stones raise vp children vnto Abraham if hee would by miracle could mollifie these obstinate sinners also and make their rockie hearts gush forth with teares hee could make them of stones children and of withered stickes fruitfull trees and that in a moment by the might of his omnipotent power but as in the gouernement of the world hee hath set downe an ordinary course according to the nature of his creatures which he doth not alter but vpon speciall occasion as our Sauiour noteth in the cure of Naaman and in the feeding of the widdow of Sarepththa Luke 4.27 so in the ordering of his Church also conuersion of the soules of men he hath set down an ordinary course of secondary spiritual causes agreeable to their end and fitted to perswade the mind of man as principally the word of truth and light in the mouth of his messengers accompanied with a measure of his spirit Thus by Moses and the Prophets hee conuerteth sinners if men will not heare them no though a man should rise from the dead saith our Sauiour they will not belieue for these are so forceable and so proportionated in his wisdom to the heart of man so seconded with the graces of his powerfull spirit both for the instructing of the mind and thereby the inclining of the will that vnlesse a man hath more then ordinarily corrupted himselfe in sin vnlesse he be like these trees in Iude his Epistle Twice dead and plucked vp by the rootes vnles hee bee like Lazarus not onely dead but stinking also in his graue habitually corrupted and that with such kinds of particular vices as are opposite to the receiuing of the life of grace it could not but draw him vnto God Of this sort are those obdurate sinners which haue hearts and cannot repent Rom. 2.5 for though all inherent sinne be contrary to God and his truth yet some sinnes and vices are more opposite to Christ then others which maketh some sinners conuersion more difficult then others Thus our Sauiour affirmeth that Publicans and Harlots shal sooner come to Gods Kingdome then proud Pharisies that stand vpon their owne righteousnes according to the Law and