Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60457	Two funeral sermons preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth Together with a preface, giving some account of the reasons, why they are now made publick. By Humfry Smith, M.A. and vicar there. Licens'd, Feb. 23. 1689/90. Z. Isham.	Smith, Humphry, b. 1654 or 5.	1690 (1690)	Wing S4087A; ESTC R220069	33,836	78

bring him Refreshment That ●e read them as they were plac'd by his order on the Wall near his Bed that he meditated continually upon them pray'd and often wept and so dyed But I advised my hearers at last to avoid the failings and defects of him I interr●d as well as to imit●●e those things in him that were virtuous and holy and this was another ground of Offence Such advice it is true I then gave as I have on such occasions several times before and since For is not what you will find I added a very great truth viz. That the best of us are infirm and fallible And does not St. John tell us plainly if we make any different Pretences we deceive our selves and the truth is 1 John 1. 8. not in us It is the peculiar Glory of the Holy Jesus to have given a Pattern to the World free from all blemish and imperfection wherefore when one of the greatest of his Servants recommended the following 1 Cor. 11. 1. of himself he limited the Counsel to those Instances only wherein he followed Christ Having met with such usage on the score of this harmless Discourse The regard that I had for my own injur'd Reputation drew from me three Letters to him who as I had reason to believe gave some occasion to these Reports But though I could get only some doubtful Answers to the two first and none at all to the last I should not have attempted this publick Justification of my own Innocence had I not found it call●d in question again because of the Second Sermon here printed This was preached on Nov. 21 1689. at the Funeral of a Person whom I look● upon as honest and peaceable one who several times express'd much Friendship towards me and to whom as I am not consetous to my self that I ever offer'd any injury whilst alive so I am sure I intended none being dead But it was not long after his burial that I was surprised with the news of no small clamour about this Sermon also being told that several had declared themselves offended at it that at least some Passages of it had been put in writing sent away as far as London and there spoken against with much wrath and violence You that will be pleas'd calmly to read it over will I believe find it some difficulty to discover where the Grievance lyes And indeed the charge against it though very heavy hath been so sparing of Particulars that I hardly know which are the Places I am to vindicate Besides the Text which hath been dislik'd but for which I hope you do not expect I should go about to make an Apology the only thing insisted on that I can hear of hath been a few words in the Conclusion Words which are thought to bear hard if not on the Person gone down into the Grave yet on some he hath left behind him To clear my self fully from this Accusation would be to mention some late Transactions which have already made a noise not only in this Place but in some sort through the Nation I shall therefore attempt it no further than by this Appeal which I make to every reasonable and intelligent Person acquainted with our Circumstances of what Perswasion soever viz. Whether the things I spake were not plain and notorious Truth and whether they were not such Truth as was fit to be spoken by me on the occasion I then had for it These things Brethren are what I thought proper to say to you by way of Introduction to the ensuing Discourses which being thus drawn into the World may they be in some degree or other useful to all that read them May they contribute something towards an Holy neglect of the present things and a due provision and regard for those that are to come The great ends for which both of them were sincerely design'd and to which it is now heartily pray'd they may be successful by Yours in all the Offices of Christian Love and Duty H. S. The First SERMON PSALM 39. 6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew ADversity is one of the best Instructers Wisdom being not so easily learnt in any other School as in that of Affliction Prosperity like some over-strong Light dazles the Eyes that they can take in but imperfect and confusd notices of things but Calamity sets all right again as it prepares the Mind for a due Estimate or Judgment so it removes all the false Colours which are apt to cozen us David according to the Opinion of several Vide Theodoret Oper. tom 1. p. 544 Commentators labour'd under some extraordinary pressure as when the foregoing so when this Psalm was penn'd And hereupon we have him mounted up a degree higher than ordinary above Earthly things freed from the false Notions and Opinions of the World stript of all the prejudices of sensuality and passing a right judgment on this mortal life Verily says he in the foregoing Verse every man at his best state is altogether vanity and his words in my Text seem to be yet more comprehensive Surely every man walketh in a vain shew Not to say any thing of a different reading In imagine Dei Ita legêrunt S. Ambrosius S. Hieronymus ●lii non pauci made use of by some of the Ancients the words as here render'd agreeably to the manifest design of the Psalmist in this place give us an account of humane life the condition of Mankind in this present World Short indeed the Sentence is but very expressive as you will soon perceive by viewing a little the several particulars we find in it Namely these four 1. The Persons concern'd 2. Their Business or constant Employment 3. The Scene of their Travel 4. The Assurance with which the Psalmist thus represents them First We find in the Words the Persons concern'd in this Sentence of David Every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. v. 5. every one that lives and breathes All the whole Race of whatsoever Sex or Age or Condition There is not the least exception either of the highest or else the lowest All are concluded from him that 's clothed in Purple to him that 's cover'd with Rags from the Prince on the Throne to the Slave that grindeth at the Mill. Secondly Their Business or Employment They walk They are constantly going onward they are in perpetual motion always Travellers whilst on Earth The journying they are engag'd in towards their long home is not to be interrupted by an hours stay or so much as one minutes rest Thirdly We have the Scene of this travel or motion a Scene proportion'd to the thing that moves in it A vain shew About the meaning of which word there is some difference amongst Expositors Some there are who take it for a Shadow and with these agrees that Translation our Church makes use of in the office of Burial For man walketh in a vain shadow A Shadow which is a thing gloomy but

length bring us to a glorious Eternity Thirdly and Lastly our Estate at present being vain let us account the possession of that better one we have been speaking of no evil Let us not be unwilling to enter when God's time shall come upon these never fading Enjoyments our selves or seem to envy the fruition of them to our departed Friends Indeed for those who are without the Pale of the Church or for the negligent within it to be amazed at the Apprehensions of death is but what is natural is but what is too reasonable But for Christians to be so affected shews that something is yet amiss with them that though they are Israelites travelling for Ca●●aan they have not quite forgot the things of Egypt that some remains are still in them of the Love of this present World or else some Tincture of Infidelity Certainly Brethren if we are as we ought to be if the Sacred Truths of the Gospel are throughly assented to in our Minds and the Power of Religion has new form'd o●● Hearts we shall be ready to say under the expectation of our own deaths with an humble Confidence in the Merits of our Redeemer Come Lord Jesus come quickly and at the departure of our Christian Friends The Lord hath taken away blessed be the ●ame of the Lord. As for our Neighbour and Friend whom we have now committed to the Grave as I am not fond of such a Task in this Place so I am not sufficiently qualified to give you the perfect Character of him Our Christian hope is that he hath exchanged a Scene of Vanity for eternal Glory He hath long been exercised with a troublesome a painful Disease a Sacred Discipline sufficient to instruct him in the Vanity of the World and we hope he was not unfruitful under it Yea he manifested that he was not by an upright and just and as I am inform'd a very charitable Conversation His Death-bed shew'd him Devout and Pious and he was frequent in the Acts of a Duty which as it is extreamly unsafe to begin on it it is neither safe to give over on it Repentance But I shall conclude all with that advice which I have often given on such occasions because it is some of the best I can give on such occasions The Failings the Defects that you observ'd in him for the best of us are infirm and fallible learn to avoid The things that were Virtuous and Holy Comely and of good Report resolve to transcribe and imitate The Second SERMON ECCL 4. 2. I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive PLato in his Apology for Socrates tells us Plat. Oper. p. 360. that That excellent Person made it his business for some time to find out a prudent Man He diligently search'd amongst the several Ranks of People to discover if it were possible one truly Wise A Task somewhat like it is that which a more excellent Person by a much more excellent Spirit is engaged in here in this Book of Ecclesiastes He gave his heart to seek and to search out by Eccl. 1. 13. wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven he made a very strict enquiry and the thing he lookt for was Felicity what sort of People are in the Condition most desirable and blessed He seeks for these amongst the Gay and the Pleasant those who give themselves up to the gratification of all their irregular Appetites but here he cannot find them He continues his enquiry amongst the Industrious and the Careful and with the same error and disappointment He searcheth amongst the Knowing and the Great the Plodding and the Active the Men of Design and Business yea he runs through the several Orders of the World but his labour is still fruitless all the discovery he is able to make being only this VANITY AND VEXATION OF SPIRIT His search being unsuccessful above Ground he tries withal a little what can be met with under it views the hollow Eye-pits the shatter'd Bones and mouldring Ashes in the Grave And of this enquiry behold the result I praised the dead says he which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive The general Design of the Preacher in these words seems plain enough they being a declaration that in the accounts of Happiness the Condition of the dead is to be prefer'd to that of the living The former of these two states is what he lately examined and tho' as he thought fit to govern himself he met with nothing in it but corruption and uncertainty yet returning and considering the Calamities of Life Death appear'd desirable and he began to praise it Like one amaz'd with many grievances before his Eyes he cries out and seems to say such words as these Death is the tying indeed which humbleth the Pride of the highest Mortal down to the level of the meanest Slave yea some curious researches have afforded us but imperfect relations of the difference it leaveth between the Man and the Beast however we cannot easily imagine it to be more ●ntolerable than the present Bondage Tho' the House we must all go to at last be so dreadful to us that we are apt to recoil and shrink and not ●ield at any rate to be willing to enter it yet is ●t possible to conceive more unsufferable things ●n it than the Labours and Sorrows which now ●lmost perpetually oppress the Sons of Men A very ancient Commentator dis●overs a mystical Sense in this place Si renunciâsti seculo si abjecisti vitia si jam non moveris ad peccatum sed mortuus es ad peccatum melior es illo qui vivit peccato ●rit in te mors ista laudabilis O●igen in Num. 12. Homil. 7. ●nd would understand by the dead ●uch as are dead to sin and by the ●ving those that still go on in it An ●nterpretation which contains a Truth a very great Truth but not I think what is agreeable here I shall consider the words according to their literal meaning which I take to be this That the miseries mankind is expos'd to in this present Life are sufficient to make them consider Death as a thing of advantage Man saith Job lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more He goes into the Region of Death but he does not return and make discoveries of the place The evils of Life are things of Sense we see them we very often feel them but of what shall be hereafter the only information we can receive is by Reason and Revelation In the following discourse I shall therefore endeavour to shew the advantages of th● dead above the living both these ways as they are to be discern'd 1. By meer Natural Eyes 2. By the Eye of Faith 1. The benefits of Death as consider'd by natural Men are but mean and low yet something we know they have been able to perceiv●● in it preferable to the Evils of this