Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70718	A faithful narrative of the life and death of that holy and laborious preacher Mr. John Machin late of Astbury in the county of Chester. With a præfatory epistle thereunto; written by that excellent person Sir Charles Wolseley Baronet. Published for the furtherance of real piety in ministers and others.	Newcome, Henry, 1627-1695.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714.	1671 (1671)	Wing N896; ESTC R30742	27,053	108

make my directory in that Case Alwayes when you think on your Friends let it be with a praying thought He would sometimes have his intimate friends write downe in his Day-book and so mutually what especial thing they should intercede for in one anothers behalf till their next meeting His Letters were frequent and full of Heaven commonly setting time apart for writing such letters as he was in arrear and seldom upon any business but Religion was interwoven and such plenty of sweet Scriptures and postscripts that sometimes some Scripture would be indorsed on the outside of his letters when sent by a friends hand In this useful part of Friendship he was abundant very profitable there remaining yet as is verily believed many hundreds of his good letters in the hands of friends wherein was scarce a syllable of any business but Religion O how much good might many Able and Holy Divines do this way to wit by serious letters to their Kindred and Acquaintance yea even to strangers which would do good not to one only but many yea to the generation to come How much doth the Church of God owe to the letters of some modern and primitive Divines and others Since a great part of our New Testament is the Letters of the Apostles the heavenly plainness of whose style this good Man did much imitate and it is well observed that the best part of the works of famous Writers is their Epistles And lastly he was eminent in Real Charity he had a faithful sympathy with those that were in any strait and affliction and a ready hand to help them He was far from that clumbzy frozen and strait-hearted manner of many that are ready to say go and be warmed and go and be cloathed that are readier to censure their Brethrens necessities and increase their burthens by reproaches than to reach out their hand to their assistance No he was a doing Christian according to yea and beyond his power In his accounts to his Father from the University they seldome found less than twelve pence a week to the poor besides sometimes half a Crown at a time And afterwards it was his delight to ingage others and to contribute himself in a liberal manner twenty shillings and five pound at a time to Charitable uses sometimes to make a stock for such as were poor and pious sometimes to help a Minister or other out of his straits for which the bowels of many have blessed God for him in divers places In short he was a Starr of the first Magnitude in the impartial judgement of those that throughly knew him Thus saith an Eminent Divine to him in a familiar Letter Dear Brother I earnestly desire correspondence with thee Thy Letters are precious and weighty to my Soul Thou art more in my heart and eye and thoughts than all the acquaintance I have in the world I have seen that in thee that hath no little convinced me of the Reality of Religion These are not the words of a flatterer but the overflowings of a sincere heart c. When we view him in his Natural and Moral accomplishments in his graces in his Relations in his publick and private behaviour and in his true humility and sincerity which crowned all the rest we must needs say he feared God above many and hath left but few such Ministers behind him He had apprehensions of his Death long before it came In a Letter May 1659. concerning an Old Disciple this Clause Will he not let me see him before I dye In another Novemb. 1659. these words Lam. 3.21 22 23 24 25 32. To which let thoughts be directed when no more is to be seen or heard of me but that I am thy Friend in store not lost but laid up J. M. In March 1663 he complains of frequent dejectedness and melancholy And this passage he had in a letter June 28. 1664. I have been very melancholy some while by fits what this precedes I know not But the all-wise God whose wayes are past finding out well knew that the shadowes of the Evening were coming upon him For intending shortly to remove to Seabridge he took in his way the house of a worthy Gentleman and there treated on these words Acts 20.24 Neither count I my life dear unto my self c. which he studied and preached as his last farewel to this world in a sickly condition having spent many Sermons before on Rev. 22.3 4 5. sweet preparations to life everlasting He grew worse and worse at Seabridge and it proved an high malignant Feaver His Wife was sent for who found him in his bed and then he told her he was ill but whether it were life or death he would not choose his Father should choose for him The season for opening a vein through the Physitians absence from home was mist and so his distemper prevailed Looking his Face in the Glass he brake out very affectionately into these words Ah Adam Adam what hast thou done what a beautiful happy Creature wast thou but now how poor and sorrowful c. art thou Ah Adam what hast thou done which greatly affected some that were present with him But his distemper grew higher whereby his Spirits were deadned in him so that when his Wife and Children were about him and she said Love thou sayest nothing to me nor to thy Children he only answer'd That he had said to her and them too How good therefore is it to observe what Parents and Husband say to us forasmuch as we know not which counsel may be their last and must stand for their death-bed charge unto us On the 4th of September being the Lords day though through his distemper he was scarce sensible yet perceiving it to be the Lords day he would needs be helped up and held up with pillows that he might kneel down and offer at prayer though he was disabled from performace On Tuesday Sept. 6. in the evening this holy Man breathed his last being the 17th day of his sickness and in the 40th year of his age and was buried Sept. 8. at Newcastle with a particular Encomium by the Preacher and the profound grief of all the Congregation The truth is this world was not worthy of him scarce any that began no sooner and lived no longer having done so much good in the world as he did in his capacity It is the sence and character of a learned and pious Divine and at this time a Dignitary in the Church I am so well satisfied as to his extraordinary piety in the general which I never yet heard or believe he departed from that I wish my everlasting portion may be with him And after To conclude I never knew one more publick spirited more sensible of mens spiritual necessities and more ready to his ability to supply them more zealous for Gods glory more delighted incessant importunate and succesful in prayer and more thankfully sensible of the returns thereof than this Holy Person was of whom this degenerate world was not worthy therefore having been abundant in the work of the Lord God hath satisfied him with never ending experience that his Labour from which he now rests may not be in vain in the Lord. The following of whose example will be the best amends greatest End of writing this his Life FINIS