Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	know_v	2,755	5	4.1178	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29362	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London, at the Church of S. Mary le Bow, the fifth of November, 1684 by Francis Bridge ...	Bridge, Francis, d. 1688.	1685 (1685)	Wing B4444; ESTC R3795	12,825	36

prays that he would take from them their Instruments of Cruelty that he would asswage their malice and confound their devices deprive them of the opportunities to do mischief by restraining their wrath and diminishing their Power by keeping them as he doth the Devil 2 Pet. 2.4 in Chains of darkness to be reserved unto Judgment This is comprised Verse 6. Break their teeth O God in their mouth break out the great teeth of the young Lions O Lord c. And happy is it for us that God will hear such Petitions that he will grant us Security against the subtle and undermining Adversaries of his Truth whose delight is in mischief who take great pains compass Sea and Land run to and fro over the whole Earth under pretence of making Proselytes but in reality seeking whom they may devour My Text I account the third part of the Psalm wherein is described the good Man's behaviour in such times of Vengeance as are here specified he will rejoyce that God hath vindicated his Honour and secured his Truth that the Dispensations of his Providence are not now so liable to the Cavils and Calumnies of the Scorner Not that we should imagine the Righteous Man here mentioned to be as his Enemies were before described a Person delighting in mischief that hath pleasure and satisfaction in anothers Ruin that will rejoyce at his Neighbours downfal though it contribute nothing to his own rise though he received no benefit or advantage thereby Whatsoever the Jews might pretend to this by that Commission God himself had given them for the total destruction of his Enemies therein mentioned I am sure the Gospel allows no such Spirit no such revengeful Temper no Fire from Heaven to fall upon the obstinate and ungrateful Samaritans therefore in the next words are contained the Reasons of this Joy 1. That there is a Reward for the Righteous that there is a Fruit of Righteousness that it is an advantage and security to be Good and Vertuous that though such Persons be oppressed for a time yet they shall not totally be suppressed but their Enemies shall fall before them by hidden and unaccountable Methods of God's Providence be consumed as Waters which run continually as a Snail which melteth and be suddenly snatched away as with a Whirlwind There will a time come when it shall appear to all Men that the Judge of the whole World shall do Righteously Therefore 2. It is said Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth we may safely trust in him It is a great temptation to question Providence when we see the wicked prosper and all things in security about them neither are they plagued like other men On the contrary Just and Innocent persons are plagued all the day long and chastened every morning It is natural to infer as the Psalmist did Psal 73.13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency To what purpose is it that I have taken such pains to serve God that I have abandoned my own inclination to promote his Honour that I have obey'd him with so great difficulty Nay the greatest cause of my trouble hath arisen from a strict adhering to his Commandments in that I have not swerved from his Precepts or gone on in a way of wickedness and perverseness as others have done How comes it to pass that I am thus destitute and forlorn The more I endeavour to please God the harder measure I meet with in the World This is very difficult to flesh and bloud and but few can attain the meaning of it The Righteous himself is ready to stumble and his feet to slip when he perceives such unequal distribution of Favours here below and can hardly recover himself till he go into the Sanctuary of God and there understand the end of these Men Verse 18 19 20. of the fore-quoted Psalm Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castest them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image This the Poet excellently well expresseth Claudian when he describeth himself doubtful whether there were a Supream Justice as long as Ruffinus a wicked and lewd person was in such prosperity But when he saw his overthrow and was acquainted with his Destruction Abstulit hos tandem Ruffini poena tumultus Absolvitque Deos It takes off the charge of Injustice from Divine Providence and makes the Wicked and Profane with horror and amazement acknowledge that there is a God that judgeth in the Earth that is able to exalt his Servants and be fully avenged of all the implacable Enemies of his Kingdom An easie Application will make out the Parallel I at first intended We have almost every where in the Psalms Prayers against and Thanksgivings for preservation from attempts of this nature David's Enemies were numerous whole Congregations of them and have not ours been so too The best Men have been subject to most Trials the maintenance of the true Religion is a great eye-sore to all its Opposers it causes Mutinies Seditions and Rebellions by those who cannot endure the least sence of Duty David was a Vertuous and Pious Man not only God's Deputy but his Friend too a great Souldier and a gracious Prince and wanted no accomplishment to oblige his Subjects to obedience and respect Yet for all this did he find many Adversaries his troubles were innumerable both from the Enemies of Religion and the ambition of his own Family And have not our Kings been persecuted on every hand ever since the Reformation only because they have been Defenders of the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith This makes both Papists and Fanaticks conspire their overthrow and all the mad Sects and Opinions in the World however disagreeing in other things yet concenter in this one Tenent to raise all the Tumults and Disorders they can in a well-setled Commonwealth and endeavour to break down the Hedge that all the Beasts of the Forest might enter in and destroy the Vineyard This is that which only galls them all other pretences are but frivolous and feigned and till this grievance be removed they will never leave Petitioning or Remonstrating against the miscarriages of the Government Give me leave to observe but one thing more before I conclude this point The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England was that which the Papists this day so wickedly endeavoured to overthrow They knew we alone were able substantially and rationally to oppose them by the Truth and Antiquity of what we maintain Doctrines as Ancient as our Saviour and his Apostles the Government confessedly prevailing in the Church since the first founding of it till some pretences contrary to it were started in the last Age These subtle contrivers of mischief knew all other Structures would fall and like Babels end in the

Truth hath said it and God who is Power is able to perform it Though hand joyn in hand the Wicked shall not go unpunished Prov. 11.21 And who knoweth what their punishment shall be inscrutable as to the beginning it shall come suddenly without observation in the manner we know not what it will be and in the end who knoweth how long it shall last it may reach as far as Hell it self and from thence I am sure there is no redemption Now what is our duty but to rejoyce in this Vengeance which was so great and so remarkable we may as it were wash our Feet in the bloud of those that would have destroyed us 2. We shall acknowledge the Providence of God and the Rewards he affords unto the Righteous 1. It is a pleasant and easie Task required of us to Rejoyce our Duty and Priviledge are so closely joyned together that we cannot perform the one without being made partakers of the other I shall not think it worth my time at present to set forth the lawfulness of appointing set Solemn days of Rejoycing as this is especially when the days of Purim and the Feast of the Dedication which our Saviour honoured with his presence were not of God's immediate appointment And that which may sway most with us all and convince us it is not Conscience but Obstinacy and endeavour to lessen the Magistrates Power that the Dissenters thus Argue when they themselves besides if not contrary to Establishment appoint set times of Humiliation and Thanksgiving as if it were better and more Orthodox from a Disobedient Schismatick than from the hands of a lawful Magistrate whom God hath set over us Taking it therefore for granted that such appointment of Festivals is lawful let us see what we ought to do in them to Commemorate and Rejoyce in God's Works The Sabbath and the Passover were commemorations of those great Works God had done for his People and this Day the Destroyer past over our Dwellings this is a Day of God's own making All days indeed are alike Created by the Lord whether Fair or Dark all alike made by Diespiter the Father of Days though times of anguish and perplexity are looked upon as if they were not Job 3.6 Nights rather than Days as Job said in his hasty fit Yet when the Sun shines clearly and we are under the bright influence of his comfortable Beams this is a Day indeed a Day of Gladness and Rejoycing and such is our Day a Day of God's making to which he hath a peculiar Title We may well say as they in the Gospel Luke 5.26 We have seen strange things this Day Nay Ask of the Days that are past and enquire from one side of the Heaven to the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Deut. 4.32 Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion then were we like to them that dream we were in a maze knew not well what to think of it it was none of Man's foresight or contrivance and at such times every Righteous person ought to Rejoyce God by black Days calls us to mourning and lamentation and it would be a Sin as ridiculous as odious in his sight in times of War Famine Pestilence c. to appear with a merry countenance in Feasting and Revelling and all the outward indications of Gladness and Security So here God by these Deliverances calls us to Rejoycing no heavy burthen The word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall Rejoyce saith Vatablus may well be turned into an Optative let him Rejoyce which is much at one for here is either the Practice of good Men or the Duty couched in the Exhortation If the Prophet had bid us do some great thing should we not have done it how much rather when he calls us to Triumph and Exult in his Mercies Nehem. 8.9 10. We have a pattern for such exercises This Day is holy unto the Lord your God mourn not nor weep Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this Day is holy unto the Lord neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord your strength Our Joy must not only be inward but outward too we must show it in our countenances and in our behaviour we must publish it unto the whole World that we Rejoyce in the rock of our Salvation and that 1. By acknowledging and owning of it publickly in the great Congregation constitute a solemn Day in condensis that we may stand so thick in the Church as may fill it from the entry of the Door to the very edge of the Altar for so the Vulgar and S. Hierom's Translation of Psal 118.27 seem to intimate Constituite diem solennem in condensis usque ad cornu Altaris Open therefore to me the gates of Righteousness I will go into them and I will praise the Lord. It is not every Rejoycing will serve the turn it must be a Spiritual Rejoycing we come unto the Sanctuary that is the first place we ought to appear in and give publick testimonies of our Joy 2. We are appointed not only a place where to meet in but a Practice what we are to do when we are there that is Trust in the Lord that judgeth in the Earth and be assured there is a Reward for the Righteous if we do well it shall be well with us he that hath done such marvellous things for us already will doubtless compleat his Mercy in our future preservation We may be well assured the Daughters of the Uncircumcised would have made this a Day of Triumph and we are delivered not only to stand and cry out of the foulness of the Plot or those Devillish Monsters Actors in it or bless our selves for so fair an escape No we ought to serve God in sincerity and persevere in our Duty When we are under the apprehension of danger we are all Godly on a sudden but our Goodness is as the morning cloud as the early dew it goeth away Hos 6.4 is quickly scattered and gone before the Sun be many hours high but by our Obedience alone we shall preserve our selves To day indeed is a joyful day but who knows what the next day may bring forth the implacable Enemies of our Peace are still working the same Designs carrying on our Sins are as many and daring as ever let us therefore pray to God that he may be to us as Jesus is a Saviour yesterday and to day and the same for ever If we can but truly pray as the Church doth O God we have heard with our Ears and our Fathers have declared unto us the noble works thou didst in their days and in the old time before them it may very reasonably follow O Lord arise help us and deliver us for thine honour Let us plead God's former Deliverances and by them have