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	holy_a	word_n	2,175	5	3.9389	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B00055	Love and obedience or, Christs precept and promise. Being a sermon preached on Whitsunday last, 28 of May, 1637. in Guild-hall chappell, before the right honorable the Lord Major of this city of London.	Freake, William	1637 (1637)	STC 11347; ESTC S123109	14,888	23

diligently all the Commandements which I command you to doe hee explaineth his meaning in the words following that is To love the Lord your God and to walke in all his wayes Deut. 11.22 Whereunto agreeth that speech of the beloved Disciple to the full I Iohn 5.3 This is the love of God that we keepe his Commandements Plainely shewing the truth of this assertion observed from the scope of the words that the best Testimony of mans love to God is the sincerity of mans obedience to Gods revealed Word Which if it be so then wretched is that errour of multitudes of men and women who contenting themselves in this case with a verball profession take liberty to shame the same by a disorderly conversation whose Religion can not better be exprest than by comparing it to that language which the Jewish children spoke in the dayes of Nehemia Nehem. 13. ver 24. For as they spoke their Hebrew in a broken manner halfe the speech of Ashdod and halfe of Ammon and halfe of Moab and could not speake in the Iewes Language but according to the language of each people So too many amongst us when they are put to it to speake out their Religion in their practice utter it in such a broken manner so mingled with the practice of a prophane life that they appeare to be meerely Hybridae of a mixt race as were Iewish children halfe Christian halfe worldling whose profession and practice being layd together miserably shame each other Should a man demand this question of the veryest Epicure and dissolute liver of the griping oppressour or prophane Sabbath-breaker of the blasphemous swearer or time-serving Atheist if he love God or not he will answer that it were pitty of his life else I would then gladly know what evidence such a person can have in his heart what testimony he can give unto the world that there is any love of God in him at all while so contemptuously and wilfully he continueth to breake Gods Commandements Assuredly men doe not gather Grapes off Thornes nor Figs off Thistles saith our blessed Redeemer Math. 7.6 The tree is knowne by his fruite and by their fruits yee shall know them ibid. ver 20. Mens love to God is best discerned by their lives and if they love God truely they wil keepe his Commandements conscionably It is a good note of Musculus in his Comment upon my Text Observatio preveptorum Dei omnibus Christi fidelibus eo loco habenda est ut si illa desit in ipsam Christi dilectionem peccasse convincamur The conscionable observance of Gods Commandements is so materiall and absolute a marke of a true Christian as that where this is wanting the lives of men convince them to their faces that the love of Christ dwelleth not in them I will conclude this observation therefore with that saying of St. John 1. Ioh. 2.4 He that sayeth I know him and keepeth not his Commandements the same is a liar and the truth is not in him Testifie therefore my beloved I humbly beseech you your love to our blessed Lord and Redeemer by yeelding a carefull and quicke obedience to his holy Commandemen for he loveth me not that keepes not my word saith our Saviour in this chap. ver 24. But if any man love me he will keepe my word ibid. v. 23. and hee that hath my Commandements and keepeth them is he that loveth mee ibid. v. 21. 2. Which thing we might the rather be induced to do if we would but duly consider the force of Christs argument as it is couched in that forme of eloquution which he is pleased here to use si me diligatis for he saith not si in me credatis if ye beleeve in me that I am the Son of God and Redeemer of the World then keep my Commandaments He saith not quoniam mihi serviatis because ye here profest your selves my servants and Disciples seeing ye cal me Lord and Master therefore keepe my commande ments he saith not quoniam potestatem meam cognoscatis because ye know I have power to kill and power to make alive therefore keepe my Commandements though any of these had beene an argument strong enough to have convinced them but si me diligatis if ye love me c. as if he had said yee have seene what love I have expressed to all of you how freely I have chosen you how tenderly respected you and what care I have to instruct you in the knowledge of the things that belong to your salvation and I shall shortly give you a full and unanswerable demonstration of my unparaleld love in giving my life for you if then ye love me as ye professe to doe by that love ye professe to beare me I adjure and charge ye thatye keepe my Commandements An argument I confesse of small force and validity to a base and servile nature but to a free-borne and ingenuous disposition to a sanctified soule it is an argument of that force that none can be more perswasive none so fully prevailent Dilectio fortis ut mors saith the Spouse in the Canticles 8.6 and where that is the object of our respect it draweth us most effectually I lead them with the cords of a man even with the bonds of love saith the Lord concerning Israel Hos 11.4 as intimating plainly unto us that as nothing but death can divert that soule which truely loveth God from a chearefull and conscionable obedience to his revealed will So no obligation in this world tyeth the soule of a true Christian to so strict an obedience as the serious considerations of Gods undeserved love when a man shall consider truely as St. Bernard expresseth it that Prior Deus dilexit nos antus tantum gratis tantillos tales That God should love mankinde and love him first so infinite a Majestie such abject creatures so freely so exceedingly with such large expression thereof to those who are every way so unworthy so undeserving of the least jot if considered in our selves And seeing it is true that nulla major ad amorem provocatio quam praevenire amando as saith holy St. Augustine divinely There is no more kindly attracting of love than in loving to prevent We must needes acknowledge this argument of our blessed Lord to be most forcible if rightly understood si me diligatis if ye love me keepe my Commandements And conclude with Augustine in his owne words in the same place Nimis durus est qui amorem etiamsi nolebat impendere nolit rependere That man is composed of too hard a mettall who though he like not to love first will not requite it and love againe either first or second 3. And yet it were some diminution to the strength of this argument if our Blessed Lord in this his love to mankinde should any way appeare to respect his owne benefit But see the freedome of his love and thence observe yet a further force in Christs argument Christus non sibi

may well be promised in the whole sheafe which filleth the bosome And thus the holy Apostles had it from the time that Christ breathed on them saying Receive yee the holy Ghost Iohn 20.22 in some measure and so they might well love him in some sort and in some sort might keepe his Commandments and yet be capable of the promise of the Comforter in some more ample measure for all that so that now the doubt is answered and Christ may proceed to his Prayer and we to the consideration of the further particulars therein comprized Ego rogabo Patrem ille dabit c. In which words is a most materiall observation touching our faith in the blessed Trinity Here is the Article offered and set down in the three Persons 1. Ego 2. Ille 3. Altum Ego rogabo there is Christ the Sonne Jlle dabit He shal give there is God the Father personally named Ego rogabo Patrem ille dabit And alium Paracletum another Comforter a third person the Holy Ghost Here is then one Person praying the other prayed unto the third prayed for Filius orans Pater donans Spiritus consolans A most plaine ground for the point of the holy Trinity and a most evident distinction of the Persons And heere this prayer of Christ sets us to seeke his other Nature Here he intreats as inferiour to his Father which sheweth him perfectly man But in the 26. vers of the next Chapter as equall to his Father in the nature of God hee joyneth in this giving with like Authority Rogabo as Man Dabo as God when that Comforter shall come whom I will send unto you from the Father And thus finding the Father giving here and the Sonne sending there we have an infallible proofe of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Father and from the Sonne And lastly the Deity of the Holy Ghost and his equality to the Father and to the Sonne are herein plainely demonstrated For our Saviour Christ in sending and procuring a Comforter in his absence must needs send and procure them one equall to himselfe one every way as good or else they had changed for the worse and so might well have prayed him to let his prayer alone they were better as they were and if he did not send them an equall Comforter they were like to be at a losse But our Saviour meant not so therefore he saith Another Comforter which shall abide with you for ever an everlasting Comforter from the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Isaiah 9.6 These things thus cleared I proceed to some doctrinall observations 1. That the Holy Ghost is not given but from the Father whose absolute gift he is for Ille dabit saith my Text according to that Luke 11.13 It is our heavenly Father that giveth the holy Ghost to them that aske it of him And therefore is he called The promise of the Father Luke 24.49 And that Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father John 15.26 And in this Chapter ver 26 our Saviour stiles him The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father saith he will send in my Name 2. With a grave Expositor I here observe Non dari Spiritum sanctum nisi interventu Christi Mediatoris That the Father giveth not the holy Spirit unto any but through the intercession of our blessed Lord the Sonne of the Father For Ego rogabo Patrem saith my Text ille dabit Therefore doth he stile himselfe the Doore beside whom there is no right entrance to the participation of this divine donation Ioh. 10.9 and Mat. 11.29 the easer of those that are weary and heavy laden who never finde true rest but in this comforter promised in the words of this Text therefore doth he stile himselfe the way the truth and the life in this chapter verse the sixth to shew us that there is no way to true life eternall but by this spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne no way to attaine this spirit but by the Sonnes intercession to the Father 3. It is worth your noting to whom this comforter is promised it is onely those who love Iesus Christ and keep his Commandements for so much the connexion of the two generals in my Text doth evidently demonstrate If ye love me c. J will pray Therefore saith our Saviour in the verses after my Text If any man love me he will keepe my word and my Father will love him and we will come in unto him and dwell with him How my Father will love him and we will come c. O quanta dignitas quantus honor Deum diligentibus mandata ejus observantibus saith an ancient Father of the Church What a dignity what an honour doth accuree to those who love God truely and keepe his Commandements What sweetnesse of comfort can be comparable to this by retaining the true love of God as a resident guest in the heart to have the blessed Comforter in my Text to have the blessed Trinity it selfe dwelling within us saith Arden acutely This is to have God the Father by the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the sacred influence of his sanctifiing Spirit ruling and reigning and residing in our hearts This is truely to make our soules and bodies Temples of the holy Ghost as St. Paul speake 1. Cor. 6.19 This is to acquire an infallible testimony to our owne soules that we are in Christ and Christ in us that the benefit of our Saviours prayer is extended to us as touching the comforter promised in my Text For he that keepeth his Commandements saith St. Iohu dwelleth in him and he in him and and hereby shall we know that he abideth in us even by that spirit of love and obedience even by that spirit which he hath given us 1. Ioh. 3.24 4. We may not omit to take notice that this blessed Spirit is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comforter to intimate Christs intention in sēding him In the world yee shall have affliction but be of good cheare I have overcome the World Ioh. 16.33 and in the meane while I will pray unto the Father and he shall give you another comforter Indeede the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the originall as the learned in the Greeke Language well understand doth in the genuine etymology thereof signifie an advocate qui accusatis in necessitate constitutis adsit opem ferat proijs loquendo saith the Etymologist one that may assist and plead for such as are accused before a Iudge and stand in danger of a censure Therefore doth our Saviour exhort his Disciples when after his death they should be called before Kings and Princes for his name sake to flye to the advice and assistance of this holy Advocate for it is not ye that speake but the Spirit of God which speaketh in you saith our Saviour Mat. 10.18 19 20. That we might learn thence when in our