Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	acknowledge_v	civil_a	great_a	41	3	2.0729	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40374	Scotland's present duty, or, A call to the nobility, gentry, ministry and commonalty of this land to be duely affected with, and vigorously to act for, our common concern in Caledonia, as a mean to enlarge Christ's kingdom, to benefit our selves, and do good to all Protestant churches.	Philo-Caledon.; Foyer, Archibald.; Ridpath, George, d. 1726.; Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing F2048; ESTC R13808	23,400	30

tho the Directors are not free of this Neglect yet it cannot be denyed that much of it lyes upon the Ministers score who were too slack in providing Able Zealous and faithful Men to send with every Ship to Excite Directors to their Duty yea to furnish sit Men for the Service in proportion to the encouragement agreed unto by the Directors which might have been a mean to have prevented both much Si● and much wrath 9. It is also to be considered by these immediatly concerned in this Company whether much of the Money imploied in this Undertaking was not sinfully acquired many got their Riches by Deceit and Oppression and is it any wonder that the Lo●d should let them know that his Eyes are upon all their Paths that he ponders their Goings and their Doings and that he will not bless the Revenues of the Wicked 10. and lastly Our bad Lives at Home is a great Cause of the B●sling and Disapponting of our Undertakings Abroad Some even of our Great Men eng●ged in this Affair given over to all Lasciviousness and Uncleanness to work Wickedness with Greediness yet neither State nor Church check their Impieties And can we expect that God will bless their Designs who so Dishonour him or the Nations that bear not Testimony against them or that so long as we in this Nation continue in so defiled and unreformed a State there can ever proceed from us any pure Stream any happy Colony or any Undertaking acceptable to God 6. What is now to be done to retrieve our Loss What is the Duty that both Ministers and People are called unto with reference to this great Concern I shall not here speak of Addresses to the King or Parliament that belongs to others no effectual Legal Course ought to be omitted But my work is the Religious part and our Addressing to the King of Heaven in a due manner I think we should cry both to our King and our God If some Men got their Will we should be allowed to cry unto neither But that which I would humbly propose is what no Christian can oppose unless he be under a dreadful Infatuation 1. Let Church and State solemnly Renew their Covenant with God to be his and to Serve him in opposition to the Devil the World and the Flesh Whatever may be Mens various Sentiments about speculative or disputed Points yet none can deny but it is our Duty to embrace from our Souls and consent unto God's Covenant of free Grace not only as it offers to us Salvation throw Christ but as it contains our Duty to God regulated in his Word Now if we are by our Baptism entred into this Covenant and must renew it after Backsliding or else turn Apostates and perish Why should not the Nation do that which Israel did of old when the Lord convinced them of their Folly and Sin● I know the mixing of things Civil and Religious in Covenants and pressing them on people and treating the Refusers as Enemies hath been much disliked by the Godly who were free of Faction but to renew our Baptismal Covenant Nationally is what no Christian can disclaim And I think all should be content to joyn in this till we be more unite in our Sentiments as to Government I am apt to think that a blessed change would follow upon the right and solemn managing of this most necessary and singularly useful Duty The General Assembly may with due deliberation draw a plain Formula which being Printed that People may gravely ponder it a day of Fasting and Humiliation may be appointed throw the Kingdom for confessing our iniquities and lying low before the Lord in the sense of our Provocations And the Lords day thereafter People having been instructed by their Pastors in the nature of this Duty of yeilding themselves in a pe●petual Covenant never to be forgotten then at the close might Minister and People avouch the Lord to be their God with uplifted hands If this were conscientiously gone about I am hopeful there should be a loosing of Bonds and somewhat of Heavenly influences Communicated to this poor withered Church and Nation and that our Covenanted God would not refuse us a Token of Good It were also desireable that each Presbitry would keep a Day by themselves and each Family apart and no doubt each serious Person would follow the Example for confessing Sin and wrestling for a blessing upon this Noble but long slighted Duty in the performance of it by the whole Nation 2. There is great need of a particular day of pleading with God for his favour to the great National undertaking of settling our American Colony I wonder how any that wish the Enlargement of Christs Kingdom or have any Knowledge or Impression of the importance of this Design can oppose it Some have look't with a Squint Eye upon this Duty And I shall touch their Objections against it 1. They say it is a Monopoly a few only concerned and why should the Nation be called to Fast and Pray upon its account I Answer 1. The Parliament in their Address to the King declared it their own and the whole Nation 's Concern as indeed it is and the General Assembly had no narrow thought of it when by their Act they appointed all the Ministers of this Church to pray for its Success And we cannot imagine that ever they would have refused a Solemn Fast for its distress 2. Neither had the Commission so mean thoughts of it the last Summer when they came to Glasgow upon its service as doth appear from what they did there and by the Letter they wrote to the Colony And I heartily wish that the leading Members of that Commission and all others influenced by them may think of timely and suitable Measures to prevent or rather wipe off the unbecoming Imputation of being Time servers by having shewed so Universal a Zeal for the Caledonian Interest during its seeming Prosperity and changing their Note so meanly when they see it in Distress and frown'd upon by the Favourers of a Foreign Interest for selfish Ends. 3. The Commission in December last tho they refused a Fast for which they have their account to make to the Assembly yet acknowledged the importance of Caledonia by their Letter to all the Presbyteries of this Church And tho' they should happen to escape Censure here for a time yet how can Ministers of the Gospel of Christ which is all Truth answer before His Tribunal for Trimming and Juggling thus in a Case of so great Importance as the Caledonian Interest is to both the Religious and Civil Concerns of this Nation To refuse a Fast to gratify the Unaccountable Backwardness of one Party and to tell the other Party who Addressed for a Fast that tho' they did not appoint a Nominal Fast yet they appointed a Real One by Recommending Prayers c. Is this that plain Simplicity and Singleness of Heart which we pretend to and preach to others If the

forget the Promises of Increa●e and Prosperity that are made to Zion in the Old and New Testament and which shall doubtless be accomplished in the Latter-days We cannot mistake in expecting the down fall of Antichrist the ruine of the Turkish Empire the National Conversion of the Jewes and the fulness of the Nations and what a Glorious time will it be when all these things shall be fulfilled then Holiness shall abound and be the Motto engraven on our smallest Enjoyments War shall Cease throw all the Earth Kings shall no more contend about Clods of Clay but shall be employed in bringing their Glory to the New Jerusalem and they shall be indeed nursing Fathers to a Church I hope these days are not far off tho' some have too boldly pretended to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power and keept up from us that we may pray the more Ardently yet he who hath promised to come will come and will not tarry Christians therefore are not only called to keep up Communion with God as to their own Souls but they ought with great Vigour to mind the case of Zion And it is certain That one Reason why many have ground to complain of their Souls Leanness is because the Churches Condition is not more minded by them and their present Case at home makes them forget the Afflictions of Joseph in the persecuted and oppressed Chu●ches abro●d Nor are they duely melted to think of the Blindness of the Jews the Mahometan Delusions and the Heathenish Idolatry It is not said that we pray no more to have the Mountains removed which stand in the Gospels way Is not God the hearer of Prayer And how many precious returns might we have at the Throne of Grace if we were Jacob-like wrestling the break of the Day How did Daniel Fast and Pray when the time drew near of the long looked for Liberty The Promise put Life into his Prayers and the assurance of being heard made him the more Fervent O that God would pour out a Spirit of Prayer on the Reformed Churches that they may set a part Days of Humiliation and crying unto God both for themselves and for the Jews who were once a peculiar Treasure but are now called Lo-ammi that they may be Conve●ted to the Messiah and for the poor Pagans that the ends of the Earth may see the Salvation of God There is a Restlesness amongst us about wordly Concerns to compass Sea and Land to get some wordly Pelf but we are not Earnest and Keen to Trade for Religion and to acquaint poor perishing Souls with their need of Christ. How will the Memory of worthy Mr. Eliot the Apostle of the Western-Indians be fragrant to all the Godly who was so Instrumental in bringing the poor Idolaters in America to Know and to Adore the Supreme Majesty and what a Stain will the Slackness of others when fair Opportunities have been ossered them be upon their Names Yea shall Papists signalize their Zeal in Training and sending out Men for this Service or rather for drawing deluded Creatures blind-fold from one Error to another and Protestant Churches do nothing for bringing them into the light of Truth and way of Salvation I verily think if there were many pleading with God we should yet see the Waters of the Sanctuary begin to swell and overcome all Opposition Neither High nor Low should confine their Prayers to themselves and their own Families The greatest in degree and the meanest Believer should cry unto the Lord to pity the dark Places of the Earth but especially Ministers should be the Lord's Remembrancers and plead fervently That the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and that Heraulds of Peace may be sent into Satan's Camp to bring over poor Souls led Captive at his Will 2dly If it please the Lord to grant us a Settlement in Caledonia it would be an excellent Mean to spread Christ's Kingdom Which may be evinvinced from these Considerations 1. A new Colony of professing Christians might be planted there who would own God to be the God of that Land and so become a Covenanted People and would proclaim the News of Christ and set up his Worship 2. It 's hopeful that Colony should be among the best in all the World were once a Pious praying People sent thither For 1st Our Doctrine is most agreeable to the Scriptures 2. Our Worship most Pure 3. Our Government most Adapted to advance the True ends of Government in Christ's House beyond what Prelacy or Independency can pretend to 4. Our Disciplin if Rightly Managed the most effectual to bear down Sin and encourage Piety Now all these Meeting together in the hands of Zealous Ministers in a New Colony must render Zion in that place Beautiful as the Morning clear as the Sun fair as the Moon and Terrible as an Army with Banners 3. It might be expected that there the many faults which have spoiled our Civil Policy here should be avoided which would exceedingly tend to the keeping out of many Evils that ●ine Justice and destroy Love amo●gst us 4. It would be a Place to which many Nations would resort for Trade and so have occasion to behold the comely order of Gods House It was frequent Converse with the Jews that gave occasion to the Nations to know Israels God and so proved a Mean to gain many Proselites How much more may we expect this from Caledonia since Christians will not keepup such distance from the Heathen as the Jews did 5. We may justly expect that this Colony shall not be confined to Darien but shall spread to more Places and so the Lords In erest daily gain Ground when a People please God their Co●ds 〈◊〉 be lengthned as well as their Stakes strengthned 6. This might p●ove a 〈◊〉 Mean to Convert even Papists But 7. Especially ●o g●in ●ouls ●o Christ among the poor He●thens I know Conversion is God's Work but he works ordinarily by Means and there is great appearance that this People would become Docile and p●iable to the Gospel of Christ. For 1. They are naturally a Kind well conditioned and tractable People and have many good Moral Virtues among them 2. The great Aversion they have to the bloody Spaniards would induce them to love our ●eople and our Religion the more 3. Our People would ●e favourable ●o them and instead of Enslaving or otherwise wronging ●hem would seek their Good and endeavour to Civilize them and acquaint them with many useful Trades to render their Lives more Comfortab●e 4 They will instruct and train their Children in God's way and when they see our Care of their Young they will trust us the more and love us the better 5. Some of themselves may in time be in case to ins●ruct their own Friends in the way of God and teach them to Read and let them see in their own Language how it hath been