Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	damn_v	delusion_n	1,893	5	11.0930	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29626	The famine of the word threat[e]ned to Israel, and Gods call to weeping and to mourning being two sermons preached on the fast day, Novemb. 13, 1678, and on the fast day, April 11, 1679 / by James Brome ...	Brome, James, d. 1719.; Brome, James, d. 1719. Gods call to weeping and to mourning.	1679 (1679)	Wing B4856; ESTC R18967	48,082	74

they regarded not the persons of the Priests and favoured not the Elders And indeed as nothing doth more provoke God than such a scoffing humour and such a contemptuous usage of his Servants and Messengers so nothing doth sooner precipitate his Judgments nay nothing can be a more certain prognostick that they are even at the door than that is for there can be no worse symptom to a people than to laugh at the only means to cure them and if this once grow common it must needs make their condition desperate for then it comes to Gods turn to laugh and to mock too Because I have called and ye have refused Prov. 1.24 15 26. I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and m●●k when your fear cometh Now if this was one reason why God resolved to send a Famine of the Word amongst the Jews to abolish their Worship and banish them from their Priests because they made so light of them nay did even take a pride to despise and contemn them to vilifie and abuse them what can we expect less in this Nation who have far surpassed that people in this scoffing vein Search the Annals of all History and compare the manners of all the Nations of the Earth with ours and you shall find this vice no not even amongst Turks and Heathens so predominant as it is in ours and he that considers the base and unjust accusations the vile and ignominious obloquies the sordid and unworthy aspersions the black and malitious calumnies in a word the general despite and contempt that is thrown upon the present Ministry of the Church of England may cause him justly to believe that God hath very great reason to revenge this injury by depriving them of such Pastors whom they use so despightfully 2 Thess 2.11 12. and to send them strong delusions to believe a lie that they might all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness I wish that this mischief had not spread it self so universally over the face of this Nation but alas the disease is grown now so Epidemical that the Priest affords matter of sport for all companies and he that can be so ingenious to have a fling at him shall be cryed up for a man of great wit and attainments though in other things he is looked upon as very mean and inconsiderable nay our Children too like the Jewish I mentioned before have drawn in these prejudices with their very breath for a man can scarce walk the streets in many places but he shall hear some of them speak something contemptible of a Minister if he chance to pass by as if those who were formerly reputed the glory of Christendom were now to be esteemed the very refuse of the people nay the off-scouring catharmata ludibria the laughing stocks and the most hateful of all mankind I remember that it was part of the Liturgy in the Greek Church of old to praise God that out of his infinite condescension he had given them Ministers and Teachers not only of the same nature and infirmities with themselves but also of like guilt and under the same condemnation because thereby having in themselves a sense of their own infirmities and knowing the burden of sin and the subtilty of Satan they might the better know likewise how to offer up Sacrifices and Oblations both in behalf of themselves and the people but how is the scene altered when instead of prayers we meet with curses and the failings of some are either imputed to all or else magnified to so high a degree as if we were the Pests and Grievances of the Nation And now if God look upon the dishonour done to his Ministers as done to himself if St. Paul speak true 1 Thes iv 8. that they who despise them despise not men but God according to that usual saying Every mans messenger is as himself I cannot see why God should any longer suspend his judgments from us who stand guilty before him of so foul a misdemeanour why should he not deprive us of those persons whom we thus set at nought and use so contumeliously and it may be some of us would be glad if God should do so but should this happen to us I dare very confidently affirm that we should find it by too woful experience the greatest curse yet that ever befel this Kingdom 2. A second reason that might enforce God to hasten such a judgment upon Israel by rooting out their Religion was their depriving the Priests of that Lot and Portion which he himself had set apart for their use whoever knows any thing of the Jewish Oeconomy cannot possibly be ignorant that the Jews by a more especial injunction of God himself were commanded to pay the tenth of all their substance to the Priests who served at his Altars which tithes God was pleased to call his own and to sanctifie himself commanding that no part of it Levit. xxvii v. 30 31. whether it was good or whether it was bad should be so much as changed by any of the people now notwithstanding all this so covetous and worldly minded were the generality of the Jews that they made no conscience to defraud God of his own and the Priests of that which was allotted for their share and though when God reproved them for their unjust and fraudulent dealings towards him they did justifie themselves and expostulate the case with him and were so insolent as to ask him the question notwithstanding they could not but know their guilt Wherein they had done him any injury God deals very plainly and tells them that it was in robbing him of his Tithes and his Offerings Will a man rob God Mal. iii. 8. yet ye have robbed me but ye say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and in offerings Well but what was the fatal consequence of such filthy defraudations what did they get by their Rapine and their Sacriledge the next verse tells you the curse of God was their reward Verse 9. Ye are cursed within curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation And may not we justly dread the same curse whose defraudations are as great and Sacriledg as insufferable for though there is a certain portion of tithes set apart for our present Ministers under the Gospel which our pious and good Aucestors have bestowed upon the Church and the Laws of our own Nation have ratified and confirm'd and God himself under the Gospel doth allow and commend yet such is the unsatiable avarice of some worldlings amongst us that they make no conscience to defraud the Ministers of their due nay have the impudence in their vulgar discourse to assert very commonly that it is no sin to cheat the Parson as if the taking away the Corn which belongs to me were not as