Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	ancient_a	church_n	doctrine_n	1,896	5	6.2759	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79420	A discourse of divine providence I. In general: that there is a providence exercised by God in the world. II. In particular: how all Gods providences in the world, are in order to the good of his people. By the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D. sometime fellow of New-Colledg in Oxon.; Treatise of divine providence	Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680.; Adams, Richard, 1626?-1698.; Veel, Edward, 1632?-1708.	1684 (1684)	Wing C3708; ESTC R232630	167,002	420

A Discourse OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE I. In General That there is a Providence Exercised by God in the World II. In Particular How all Gods Providences in the World are in order to the good of his People By the late Learned Divine STEPHEN CHARNOCK B. D. sometime Fellow of New-Colledg in OXON Psalm 103.19 His Kingdom ruleth over all LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey near the Stocks-Market 1684. TO THE READER Reader THOU art here presented with a little piece of a Great Man Great indeed if great Piety great Parts great Learning and great Wisdom may be admitted to claim that Title And we verily believe that none well acquainted with him will deny him his right however malevolent Persons may grudge him the honour It hath been expected and desired by many that some account of his Life might be given to the world But we are not willing to offer violence to his ashes by making him so publick now he is Dead who so much affected privacy while he lived Thou art therefore desired to rest satisfied with this brief account of him That being very young he went to Cambridge where in Immanuel Colledge he was brought up under the Tuition of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury What Gracious workings and Evidences of the New-Birth appeared in him while there hath already been spoken of by * Mr. Johnson in his Sermon on occasion of Mr. Charnocks death one who was at that time his Fellow Collegiate and Intimate Some time he afterward spent in a private Family and a little more in the exercise of his Ministry in Southwark then removed to New-Colledge in Oxon where he was Fellow and spent several years being then taken notice of for his singular Gifts and had in Reputation by the most Learned and Godly in that University and upon that account the more frequently put upon Publick work Being thence the year after he had been Proctor called over into Ireland to a constant publick Employment he exercised his Ministry for about four or five years not with the approbation only but to the admiration of the most Wise and Judicious Christians and with the concurrent applause of such as were of very different sentiments from him in the things of Religion Nay even those that never loved his Piety yet would commend his Learning and Gifts as being beyond exception if not abve compare About the year 1660. being discharged from the publick exercise of his Ministry he returned back into England and in and about London spent the greatest part of fifteen years without any call to his old work in a setled way but for about these five years last past hath been more known by his constant Preaching of which we need not speak but let them that heard him speak for him or if they should be silent his Works will do it He was a Person of excellent Parts strong Reason great Judgment and which do not often go together curious Phansie of high Improvements and general Learning as having been all his days a most diligent and methodical Student and a great Redeemer of time rescuing not only his restless hours in the Night but his very walking time in the Streets from those impertinencies and fruitless vanities which do so customarily fill up mens minds and steal away their hearts from those better and more Noble objects which do so justly challenge their greatest regards This he did by not only carefully watching as every good Christian should do but constantly writing down his Thoughts whereby he both govern'd them better and furnished himself with many materials for his most elaborate Discourses His chief Talent was his Preaching Gift in which to speak modestly he had few equals To this therefore as that for which his Lord and Master had best fitted him neglecting the practice of Physick in which he had arrived at a considerable measure of knowledge he did especially addict himself and direct his Studies and even when Providence denyed him opportunities yet he was still laying in more stock and preparing for work against he might be called to it When he was in Employment none that heard him could justly blame his retiredness he being even when most private continually at work for the Publick and had he been less in his Study he would have been less liked in the Pulpit His Library furnished tho not with a numerous yet a curious Collection of Books was his Workhouse in which he laboured hard all the Week and on the Lords Day made it appear he had not been idle and that tho he consulted his privacy yet he did not indulge his Sloth He was somewhat reserved where he was not well acquainted otherwise very free affable and communicative where he understood and liked his company He affected not much Acquaintance because be would escape Visitants well knowing how much the ordinary sort of Friends were apt to take up of his time which he could ill spare from his beloved Studies meeting with fevv that could give him better entertainment vvith their company than he could give himself alone They had need be very good and very learned by whose converse he could gain more than by his own Thoughts and Books He was a true Son of the Church of England in that sound Doctrine laid down in the Articles of Religion and Taught by our most famous ancient Divines and Reformers and a real follower of their Piety as well as a strenuous maintainer of the Truth they professed His Preaching was mostly practical yet rational and argumentative to his hearers understandings as well as affections and where controversies came in his way he shewed great Acuteness and Judgment in discussing and determining them and no less skill in applying them to practice So that he was indeed a workman that needed not to be ashamed being able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince gain-sayers Some have thought his Preaching too high for vulgar Hearers and it cannot be denyed but his gifts were suited to the more intelligent sort of Christians yet it must withal be said that if he were sometimes deep he was never abstruse he handled the great Mysteries of the Gospel with much clearness and perspicuity so that if in his Preaching he were above most it was only because most were below him Several considerable Treatises on some of the most important points of Religion he finished in his ordinary course which he hath left behind him in the same form he usually writ them for the Pulpit This comes out first as a Prodromus to several others designed to be made publick as soon as they can be with conveniency transcribed which if the Lord will and spare life shall be attested with our hands and whatever any else shall publish can be but imperfect Notes his own Copies being under our revisal at the request of his Friends taken from him in the Pulpit in which what mistakes do often happen every one

tells them this was for their good when there was no present appearance of any good in it It should be good in respect of Gods Favour towards them which retired to return with the greater force ver 6. I will set mine eyes upon them for good I will build them and not pull them down God would give them a more durable settlement In respect also of that frame of heart they should have toward God their knowledg of him and cleaving to him ver 7. I will give them a heart to know me and they shall return to me with their whole heart God had but a moiety of their hearts before but then he should have the whole And indeed it was remarkably for their good for they who before were addicted to Idolatry were never guilty of the same sin after And God kept them from being drawn away to it by the example and solicitation of those among whom they were The Church grows by tears and withers by smiles Gods Vine thrives the better for pruning God makes our Persecutions fit us for that for which we are persecuted As Saul by his persecution of David for the Title God had given him to the Kingdom made him fitter to succed him in the Throne and manage the Government God uses persecutors as lances which whiles they wound us let out the purulent and oppressive matter and makes them instruments of his Providence to work out his Peoples Happiness and thus makes the very wrath of man to be an occasion of his Peoples Praise Psal 76.10 The wrath of man shall praise thee God doth in this as a Father deals with his Son sends him to a sharp school that he may be Trained up in Learning 2. In the increase of the church The Jews Crucified our Saviour to diminish the multitude of his followers and by this means the number is increased The whole World runs after him by that means they used to stop their Course which Christ fore told that when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him And that a grain of Corn brings not forth more seed unless it be cast into the ground and dye 1. In the increase of it within its own bounds When the Israelites were most opprest in Egypt the more they multiplied † Exod. 1.20 When the Dragons fury did most swell against the Woman she brought forth a Man child ‡ Rev. 12.1 3 4 When the Roman Empire was at the highest and was most enflam'd with Anger against the Christians When the Learning of the Philosophers the Witchcrafts of Hereticks the Power of the Emperors and the Strength of the whole World was set against them the Christians grew more flourishing and unmerous by those very means which were used to destroy them Not only a new succession of Saints sprung up from the Martyrs Ashes but their Flames were the occasion of warming some so much with a heavenly fire that some persecutors have become Preachers Their very bonds for the Truth have sometimes a seminal Vertue in them to beget men to Faith in Christ Phil. 1.12 The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel 2. In the increase of it in other parts Pauls Prison made his Preaching Famous in Rome and was an occasion of bringing Christianity into Nero's Court that Monster of Mankind * Phil. 1.13 one might have looked for Saints in Hell as soon Phil. 4.22 his bonds were as great a confirmation of the Truth of his Doctrine as his Eloquence When Saul made havock of the Church and by that storm dispersed the Christians they like so many grains of Corn seattered in serveral parts of a greater Field produced the greater Harvest Acts 8.3 4. therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word As Clouds scattered by the Winds they Rain'd down the Gospel in several Quarters The Jews when scattered in their several slights did scatter among the Heathen the Notions of the true Religion When they shall go down to Egypt to secure themselves from Senacheribs Invasion they shall be a means to make many Converts among that Idolatrous Nation Isa 19.18 In that day the day of the Jews Trouble shall five Cities in the land of Egypt speak the Language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts so one expounds it but I rather think it meant of the times of the Gospel The flight of the Israelites shall be the occasion of some Egyptians Conversion A poor Slave in Naamans Family was an occasion both of the cure of his Body and of that of his Soul 2 Kings 5.2 3 17. So much for the first Reason drawn from an enumeration of things 2. Reason To prove that all Providence is for the good of the Church is Secondly Because God hath sometimes preferred Mercy to the Church and Care of it above his own concernments of Justice He values his mercy to them above his Justice upon his Enemies He consults their safety before he brings ruin upon the Wicked whose sins are full He first prepared the ark for Noah and sees him lodged in it before he begins to showr down destruction upon the World He hath sometimes punished a Nation more for their Offences against his People than their Sins against himself Amalek was guilty of many Idolatries and other sins against God but God chargeth none of them upon them but their malicious hindring the Israelites in their March to Canaan 1 Sam. 15.2 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt He shews his love to them and how much he values them that when he is acting Justice and pouring out his Wrath when he is as it were cutting and slashing on all sides and is in fury with wicked Men he hath nothing but sweetness and tenderness towards his own Amos 9.9 10. in the sifting of Israel and the Nations Not the least grain shall fall upon the earth All the sinners of my people shall dye by the sword While he thunders out his Fury upon wicked Men he hath his Eyes upon the least grain of the true Israel What would it be for God when he is raising the Glory of his Justice upon the People that have provoked him not to regard the concernments of this or that or many sincere Souls but put no stop to his Fury Yet he doth not a grain shall perish He is more desirous to hear of the preservation and welfare of a few Righteous than of the just Punishment of the Wicked wherein his Justice is gloriously interessed The Man cloathed with Linnen that was to mark the Mourners return'd to God and gave an account that he had done according to his Command * Ezek 9.11 the other five which were to kill returned not to give any account of their severe and sharp proceeding The Angels that held the