Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A49187
|
A practical discourse concerning repentance and the nature of the Christian religion. By A. Lortie, rector of Barton, near Nottingham. Imprimatur, Oct. ult. 1692. Guil. Lancaster, R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris.
|
Lortie, André, d. 1706.
|
1693
(1693)
|
Wing L3078; ESTC R218635
|
34,929
|
144
|
Men with Abomination and Horror as a damnable Contrivance of Hell and the Devil Nay if it were not more apt to reform Mens Lives and Manners and make them much better and holier than any other Religion that was established in the World before I don't see what Reason we could have to think that God is the Author of it or that God will have us prefer it to his former Revelations But I am sure if it was true that the Christian Religion did not exact a perfect Comformity to the Laws of Nature but encourageth Men to or indulgeth them in the Practice of Immorality and Wickedness we could never perswade the wise Heathens and much less the Jews and we our selves should have no Reason at all to believe that it proceeds from God For the only convincing Reason that we have to prove that our Saviour's and the Apostles Miracles which both Jews and Heathens attributed to the Power of Magick or at best to God's Permission to try the Children of Men were affected by the immediate Power of God in confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel is because the Doctrine of the Gospel or the Christian Religion is infinitely averse to the Genius of the Devil and most agreeable to the Spirit of God the Dictates of right Reason and our own Consciences that is the divine and everlasting Laws of the Kingdom of Heaven If the Design of the Christian Religion had been to alienate Mens Minds from God and Goodness we could not but conclude it to be the Works of the Devil But if it tends to the Glory of God and the Good of Mankind if it be apt to promote true Piety and Vertue and if its Design be to inspire Mens Minds with great and worthy Thoughts of God and suitable Affections towards him and to reduce the World to the Practice of Charity Justice and Humility Chastity Temperance and Sobriety Patience Meekness and Gentleness and all other divine Vertues then it is impossible or at least absolutely unreasonable to attribute the wonderful Deeds that were wrought in confirmation of the Truth of its Promises and Threatnings to a wicked malicious proud unjust revengeful and impious Spirit It being then evident that all those Doctrines which reconcile Vice with Religion are false and Diabolical we may therefore be sure if we explain any obscure Saying of Scripture so as to make it encourage or palliate Wickedness and excuse Men from being holy and doing Righteousness we put a false Sense upon it Our Traditions are false and abominable if by them we make the Commandments of God of none effect That 's the First Inference Secondly Those Men are infinitely mistaken who fancy the Essence of Religion to confist in Speculation and not in Practice and cry out against Morality as if true Morality was not true Religion Hollness is the end of Faith and the end of Divine Revelation it is the Law and the Prophets and the very Gospel For God's Design in the Gospel is no other than that of the Law or any former Revelation As we read of the Housholder of the Parable Matth. 21.33 c. That he sent several of his Servants at several times and last of all his own Son to those Hubandmen to whom he had let out his Vineyard and that all the Messages he sent were to no other end but this viz To demand the Fruits of his Vineyard So God at sundry times has sent divers Messengers to the Sons of Men Angels and Prophets and at last his only begotten Son And to what end was all this but to excite Men to pay him those Fruits he expects from them to take them off from their Sins and perswade them to their Duty and Allegiance to make them good and obedient that they may become his good Subjects and may be Partakers of his Holiness and divine Nature and so of his everlasting Kingdom We must then beware of those who make the end of Religion and the Essence of it to consist in Speculation and not in a holy Practice Those Men know not the Power of the Gospel they are not acquainted with the Nature of the Kingdom of Heaven they are ignorant of what they pray for in their daily Prayers when they say unto God Thy kingdom come Thirdly It follows that our chief and main Business is to study our Duty to learn it and to practice it that we may work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as it is Phil. 2.12 Those are in a great Error who imagine we must always rest in the Doctrines of Repentance and Faith against the express Commandment of the Apostle Hebr. 6.1 For as St. James says What doth it profit though a man say he has faith and have not works can faith save him Faith without works is dead and therefore unprofitable Jam. 2. at the 14 and 26 Verses They are then ignorant and sensless Christians or rather no Christians at all who do not much regard God's Commandments or do not much care to learn his Will and what it is he requires of every one of us who undervalue and despise those Books and Discourses that instruct them in all the parts of their Duty and teach them that without the sincere Performance of it it is in vain to hope for Heaven and rather delight in curious and speculative Notions fondly perswading themselves that the Knowledge and Belief of such will bring them to everlasting Happiness and fully discharge them from the Practice of the whole Duty of Man as if there was a way to be righteous without doing Righteousness But if we are seriously desirous of the things that belong to our Peace that our Faith may be approved and may be such as will be accepted of God and if we will not deceive our selves with a vain and dead Faith If we design in good earnest to have a Share in Christ Jesus to enjoy the Benefit of that glorious Redemption he hath wrought in the behalf of fall'n Mankind and to be included in that Act of Grace and Indemnity he hath obtained for all Rebels that will return to their true Allegiance that is all penitent Sinners Then it concerns us to return sincerely and impartially under the Dominion of the Kingdom of Heaven and become God's faithful Subjects which cannot be if we do not conform to his divine Laws Our Business therefore must be to study diligently and learn his whole Will and to practice it with all the Zeal and Sincerity of our Souls Our Business if we will be Christians indeed and not barely in Name is to know perfectly what is our Duty to God what is our Duty to ourselves and what is our Duty to all other Men. We must know exactly what is the Duty of Children to Parents of Parents to Children of Servants to Masters of Masters to Servants of Husband and Wife of Friends and Enemies one to another of the Poor to the Rich and the Rich to the Poor and
of heaven is at hand but the Hour now is that we must bid all Men repent because the Kingdom of God is come and that is inconsistent with a state of Sin and Wickedness The Times of our Ignorance God winked at but now he expects we shall all repent And the reason of it we find Acts 17.31 Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he has ordained whereas he has given assurance to all men in that he has raised him from the dead Finally in Luk. 12.48 we read that unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required What manner of persons than ought we to be we to whom Christ is preached and the Kingdom of God fully revealed what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness as St. Peter has it in his 2 Epist 3.11 Hence we may take occasion in the 4th place to consider what sort of Persons are the Subjects of the Heavenly Kingdom that we may assuredly know whether we are such or not that if we are we may praise God for it and continue to be so or if we are not we may see what is to be done to become such It is evident that a thorow Conversion from Sin to Holiness is the Business of Christianity The Design of Christ's coming into the World was to make Men truly holy The only Preparation necessary for the Entertainment of the Messiah or the Reception of his Heavenly Doctrine consisted in having this work begun in them by Repentance Repent ye said the Baptist for the kingdom of heaven is at hand A Christian therefore a true Christian I mean and not one in name only is one that has forsaken all his evil ways and is turned with all his heart unto the Lord his God to do his whole Will and keep his Commandments as long as he lives They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 It is one who has denied himself and taken up his cross Matt. 16.24 One that treads apon the steps of his Saviour and runs with patience the race that is set before him looking unto Chrst Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now set at the right hand of God Hebr. 12.1 2. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature says the Apostle St. Paul 2 Cor. 5.17 And Rom. 6.3 c. They that are baptised in Jesus Christ are baptised into his death therefore they are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead even so they also should walk in newness of life Leaving therefore the principles of the doctrine of Christ they go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has it 6.1 In a word true Christians are a peculiar people purified from all iniquity and zealous of all good works Tit. 2.14 But if you will know more particularly what manner of men true Christians are in their Life and Conversation you must read all the Precepts of the Gospel For we can never take them for true Christians that do not love Jesus Christ and are none of his Friends And I am sure all those are mere Hypocrites who pretend to love him and yet keep not his Commandments He has said it expresly If ye love me keep my commandments John 14.15 And at the 21 ver of the same Chapter He that has my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me or as it is at the 23 ver If a man love me he will keep my words By this we shall know certainly whether we are his Disciples or not Love is the fulfilling of the law as we read Rom. 13.10 that is it is the sum of it Charity comprehends all the Precepts of Christianity and implies all the Duties of Religion Therefore our Saviour has made it the Criterion or the Sign and Mark to know true Christians by John 13.35 In the 15th Chapter of the same Gospel at the 12th ver He calls it his Commandment This is my commandment that ye love one another as I loved you And at the 14th ver Ye are my friends saith he if ye do whatsoever I command you Than we are not his Friends if we do not whatsoever he commands us then surely we are not Christians But there 's no difficulty in the case we are true Christians we are his Friends if we do whatsoever he commands us Some Men perhaps at the first blush will be apt to think that this Representation of a Christian is defective because though I shew him to be one that renounceth Sin and the Devil and makes it his Business to frame his Life according to the Commandments of God yet I do not mention the particulars of his Belief But they may consider that this were needless to our present purpose and superfluous it being supposed that he who yields himself intirely and without any reserve to our Lord Jesus Christ to do his whole will doth most sincerely believe his holy Gospel and receives and adheres to all the Truths revealed in it It were unreasonable in this occasion to think that a too general Catalogue of the Articles of his Faith since 't is most certain God requires no more and no more is necessary to the Design of the Gospel and the Business of Religion that is to make Men truly holy Men may be ignorant of the meaning of several obscure places of Scripture nay and be mistaken in their Understanding of several places for no body is infallible and yet be right good Christians if they do but answer the Design of Christianity which cannot be mistaken but wilfully So that if a Man can say The Design of Christianity I am sincerely willing to obey my Creator and Redeemer in all things commanded by them I do entertain and harbour no Lust in my Breast I do heartily endeavonr to have a right understanding of the holy Scriptures and chiefly of the Gospel and to know what Doctrines are delivered there in order to the bettering of my Soul by them and the direction of my Life and Actions according to them If a Man can but say this truly of himself he may be sure whatsoever Mistakes he may labour under they cannot be such as will undo his Soul since they do not hinder him to answer the Design of the Gospel and the end of our Saviour's coming into the World that is to return sincerely and heartily to the Obedience of God to submit to his divine Government and frame his Life according to the Laws and Constitutions of his most Heavenly Kingdom It is certain Faith is required to no other end but this whoever reads the Scriptures cannot but see that this is the thing aim'd