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
A77434	Errours and induration, are the great sins and the great judgements of the time. Preached in a sermon before the Right Honourable House of Peers, in the Abbey-Church at Westminster, July 30. 1645. the day of the monethly fast: / by Robert Baylie, minister at Glasgow.	Baillie, Robert, 1599-1662.	1645 (1645)	Wing B459; Thomason E294_12; ESTC R200181	39,959	57

ERROURS And INDURATION ARE The Great Sins and the Great Judgements of the Time Preached in a SERMON Before the Right Honourable House of PEERS in the Abbey-Church at Westminster July 30. 1645. the day of the Monethly Fast By ROBERT BAYLIE Minister at Glasgow 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a Lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth Matth. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves Matth. 15.14 Let them alone they be blinde Leaders of the Blinde and if the Blinde lead the Blinde both shall fall into the Ditch London Printed by R. Raworth for Samuel Gellibrand at the Brasen-Serpent in Pauls Church-yard 1645. Die Jovis 31 Julii 1645. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament That Master Baylie who preached yesterday before the Lords of Parliament in the Abbey-Church Westminster it being the day of the Publike Fast is hereby thanked for the great pains he took in his Sermon and desired to print and publish the same which is to be printed by none but such as shall be authorized by the said Master Baylie Job Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Ido appoint Samuel Gellibrand to print my Sermon ROBERT BAYLIE FOR The Equitable READER HOwsoever I have not adventured to offer unto the Right Honourable House of Peers any Dedicatorie Epistle having taken up alreadie so much of their pretious time in their patient and favourable audience of my prolix enough Sermon Yet presuming upon thy courtesie who shalt be willing to reade the subsequent Notes of that which to their Honours was preached without any variation I have made bold to speak in thy eares as the custome is some words of a Preface At the first instant of my calling to this service the words of my Text were cast into my minde where they remained without my least inclination towards any other till I had delivered from them what followeth I have been for a long time in the opinion that Errour and Induration are albeit not the only yet among the principall both sins and miseries of this time and place Hardnesse of heart is ever a sinne The sinfulness of Induration but then most sinfull when most unseasonable If ever there was a time to weep this must be it when not only the mouth of the Lord from his Word is calling but his hand also from the Heaven is drawing us to it He is a stubborn child from whose eye the rod of the Father can draw no water It is a hard stone which the hammer cannot break It is a piece of unnaturall metall wich the fire cannot dissolve And yet this is the complaint of the best discerning Christians every where That though the Lord at this instant be dealing with us by the rod the hammer the fire of his judgements we are so far from heart-melting that in this extraordinarie and untimous hardnesse of our heart more of the wrath and judiciall hand of God doth appear then in any or in all our judgements beside This plague of the Lord on the spirits not only of the World but of many his dear children ought to be the subject of our deepest groans and lowdest cries to the Heaven whence alone the remedie of this our spirits disease can come For there is but one Father and one Lord and one Physitian of the spirits of men My weak endeavours towards this great Cure must be fruitless till his hand make the application of these prescriptions which with all the faithfulnesse and care I was able for the time I have collected only out of the book of his own method of Physick As for the other evill of Errour Error no lesse sinfull then ●ice it hath been the studie and work of some here and elsewhere to extenuate the sinfulnesse thereof and to arme the conscience of all they could perswade against the sense of its burthen as if the conscience ought to be impenetrable and secure from all Wounds which vice and fleshly lusts doe not inflict But I believe if Errour and Vice were Well weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuarie though you put to vice the grossest aggravations whereby the passions of the soul and actions of the bodie make it justly abominable yet if you Will allow to Errour but the grains of its ordinarie circumstances especially that one of our Text Induration its most familiar companion it will be found to have such a weight of malignitie that if betwixt the two any inequality do appear the sinfulnesse of the last will prae-ponder The intoxication of the spirit of the minde by the venome of Errour is as much contrarie to the Divine Nature and Will is as much hatefull to the Spirit of light and truth and as evidently damnable as the corruption of the will and inferiour affections or any member of the bodie with whatsoever vice or more bodily transgression I hope I have proved this by places of Scripture unanswerable Whence it necessarily followeth that it is more Toleration of errours a grievous sin at least no lesse unlawfull for a Christian State to give any libertie or toleration to Errours then to set up in every Citie and Parish of their Dominions Bordels for Vncleannesse Stages for Playes and Lists for Duels That a libertie for Errours is no lesse hatefull to God no lesse hurtfull to men then a freedome without any punishment Without any discouragement for all men when and wheresoever they pleased to kill to steal to rob to commit adultery or to do any of these mischiefs which are most repugnant to the Civill law and destructive of humane societie But that which my Text points at in Errours The errours of our time appear to be judiciall is not so much their sinfulnesse as their judgement That God in his wrath had given over that people to errour If ever the plague of erring from the wayes of truth was sent upon a land it seems this day to lye upon us The Finger of God in this our judgement is demonstrable by divers Characters imprinted upon the face of our present Errours above all that in ordinarie and not judiciall Errours useth to appear I point at four eminent singularities in them Their various multiplicity Their palpable evidence Their incredible increase and in the midst of universall complaints against them A totall neglect of their cure First their variety is prodigious 1 By their variety I cannot say that all which stand in the ancient Hereseologies of Philastrius Epiphanius or Augustine can be found among us or Were ever to be found upon Earth in any one age But this may be confidently averred That more Errours have set up their head and shewed their mis-shapen countenances lately here then in any one place of the world this day are known I adde that there is not any Errour spoken

Princes or States refuse or delay to grant Ecclesiastick Government to the Churches that live in their Dominions Have the Independents the Brownists or the Anabaptists or any of the Hetorodox Societies among us wanted their own Government since the first hour of their self-erection The Judgement of this Errour appeareth in three Circumstances It is demonstrate to be a Judgement and Plague First That it is evident to all Secondly That it were most easily amended Thirdly That it is singularly hurtfull The Evidence of it may be seen in the confession of all The greatest and most unreasonable Sectaries will not deny but every true Church should be without all delay invested with Government And if you will speak with the men who most have and do retard the erection of the Government desired they will professe their true intention and desire to see the Church-Discipline established For this evil Anarchy hath been so oft by so many of Gods faithful servants witnessed against that now it s defended by none Concerning the second The facility of its erection it is as clear For I pray who are the men that will take it upon them to impede it Can we at this present or could we for some yeers complain of the violence of a seduced Court Can the blame be cast on any Popish or Prelaticall Faction Will either Brownists or Anabaptists professe their deniall to us of what they long ago have taken to themselves Who then must answer to God for our shamefull Anarchy for so long a time The hurt of it is too too perspicuous Whosoever will lay the Sword the Pestilence and all the Calamities that destroy the Land on our delay to build the House of the Lord shall have for him the Prophet Zechariahs direct Warrant Zech. 8.10 Before these days there was no peace to him that went out or came in because of affliction For I set all men every one against his neighbour And if we indeed believe It is not the strength of men but the Lord Christ who setleth troubled Kingdoms What hope can we have that he will ever settle our State so long as his Church lies neglected in so wofull a confusion Beside outward Judgements this Errour is the cause of the greatest spirituall Mischiefs The hedge of Discipline lying level with the ground makes open doors yea invites and calls for all the devouring beasts to prey on the Flock of Christ From this it is that so many thousand souls are permitted to perish eternally in ignorance in profanenesse in Heresies in damnable Sects without the least controll or any mans endeavour to reclaim them So long as the Law permits no Pastor in England to exercise his Pastorall charge on any person he may well weep and mourn when the devil in his sight plucks away numbers of his Sheep but with his Shepherds Crook with the Ordinance of Christs Discipline to hold off that Lion it is not in his power It is not onely the passionate desire of all the Reformed Churches abroad of all the godly and Orthodox Party at home but also their confident expectation That the Honorable Houses without further delay will at last set up the walls of the House of God who now is going on apace by so many Successes to ruine their enemies and to settle the state of their affairs much according to their hearts desire The neglect of this piece of Thankfulnesse may provoke the Lord to repent him of his favours and to call back in one day what he had been giving in many I point but at one other Judiciall wandering False Doctrine is a Judiciall Errour that which usually and properly goeth under the name of Errour the word of our Text false Doctrine contrary to the ways of Gods Truth That Errour is a sin and a Judiciall one infliflicted by God as a punishment of former sins we may see in divers Scriptures 2 Thess 2.10 11. Because they received not the love of the Truth for this cause God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a lye Here Errours are Judgements which God puts Satan to bring on men for their coldrife entertaining of the truth And how grievous a Judgment Error is this and other Scriptures clear Here it is made a cause of damnation That they might all be damned who believed not the Truth The Socino-Remonstrants have taught our new Masters to extenuate much and at last to deny the sinfulnesse and danger of Errour They would hide the Vipers sting till the pretty and beautifull worm be once taken into the bosom where a little warmed it makes it quickly appear how innocent and harmlesse a creature it is They tell us that all sin is in the Will Errour is a dangerous evil and the cause of damnation but the seat of errour is the minde Is not the minde the most high and divine facultie of the soul Is not the corruption of the best things truely worst The mindes pollution with the darknesse of errour is eminently contrary to the light and truth of the divine nature Against this greatest of errours the excusing of all errours we should minde the truth of God who cannot lye In the place cited errour is made the cause of damnation elsewhere the Apostle tells us That false Doctrine eats up and kills the soul as a Canker Gangrene or Pest doth the body 2 Tim. 2.17 Also false Teachers are called Ravening Woolfs who tear and rent in peeces the souls of the seduced Acts 20.29 The Apostle Peter is in the same minde 2. Epistle 2. He tells us the condition of false Teachers They bring in damnable Heresies their wayes are pernicious their distruction is swift their damnation slumbereth not It is as certain as was the damnation of the Devils of the old world drowned in the deluge of the Sodomites All this is Peters Doctrine And this he had from his Master Christ Matth. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets When they have the fairest shew of piety he that knows the heart pronounceth They are but ravening Woolfs Matth. 15.14 If the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall in the ditch If we beleeve the Lord a false Teacher doth not onely destroy himself but draws with him all his blinded Scholers into the ditch of the same perdition 1 Cor. 12.25 27. The Apostle tells us The nature of Shism That the Church is the Body of Christ and that Schismaticks make a Schism in Christs Body that is they rent his Body in peeces they who crucified him would not rent his seamlesse Coat but Schismaticks can tear his skin cut his flesh rent his Joynts and Members in peeces Understand the Language of them who plead for liberty of errours What is meant by liberty of conscience and what is the true sense of their language who require a toleration of Errours If you beleeve Christ or the Doctrine of Paul attested by Peter and the rest both Prophets and Apostles whom I have not time

mens own lusts to break out on the objects set before them For these acts of Judgment both in our Text and oft elsewhere in Scripture the cause of mens sins not as they are sins but as punishments of sin is ascribed to him 2 Thess 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth God shall send them strong delusions to believe a lye He was to send on them The Man of sin whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and with all deceiveablenesse The committing of the sin is ascribed to the sinner who believes the lye the tempting to it is ascribed to Satan and his Antichristian Instruments the sending out both of Satan and Antichrist the giving over to delusion is ascribed to God the righteous Judge by these means punishing former sins Rom. 1.18 21 24 26 28. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousnesse of men because when they knew God they glorified him not as God wherefore God gave them up also to uncleannesse For this cause God gave them up to vile affections God gave them over to a reprobate minde The sinfull acts flow from the reprobate mindes and vile affections of the sinners yet God the Judge is thrice said to give them up to these their own sins Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this day Let their Table be a snare a stumbling-block and a recompence to them Let their eyes be darkned that they may not see 2 Chron. 18.22 The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy Prophets Many such places there are where God as a righteous Judge is made to give over sinners to the devil to other wicked men to themselves to be led in more and greater sins as punishments of the former Thus far Protestant Divines do go Protestants are unjustly accused for making God the author of sin and all the acts which any of them ascribe to God about the causation of sin may be referred to one of the three named All which stands well with the holinesse of his Nature and extreme contrariety to sin The Papists and Arminians do slander us most unjustly as if we did blaspheme the holy Lord in making him the author of sin All of us ever have abhorred such Doctrine We never ascribed to God more acts of providence about sin then the most clamorous of our enemies themselves expresly have done The three forenamed acts by Bellarmine and Arminius are attributed to God in as ample and unadvised expressions as ever fell from the Pen of any of our approved Divines I grant the Libertines of old This is the blasphemy of the Libertines and of M. Archers book justly burnt therefore and their children the Antinomians this day do cast out on this subject many abominable Blasphemies but these were ever detested by all Orthodox Protestants as the vomit of the father of all lyes and blasphemies which makes us the more to marvel what these men can mean who lately here under the name of M. Archer a famous Independent in his time have printed the worst and grossest of these Blasphemies Surely if such kinde of Doctrine be entertained by any of that Party our Disputations will not stand long at Church-Government but the world will be confirmed in that opinion which some wise men long ago have given out That Independency was not so much loved for it self as for somwhat else A liberty without censure to vent such Doctrines as the conscience of Orthedox Divines will never be able to hear with patience But in this I will not enter The zeal of the whole Assembly and both the Honourable Houses against the blasphemous Heresies of that infamous Book doth quiet and secure our mindes herein The fourth word to be exponed Why doth the Church complain of these acts of God about her sins is the Interrogation and Complaint Why hast thou made us to erre The Church being now before God and laying hold on his fatherly compassions pours out before him the troubles of her heart That which troubled them most was their sins and obstinacie in Rebellion which they complain to the Lord had befallen them in his great wrath through his deserting of them and giving them over to be led away by their own lusts and Satans tentations This part of Gods wrath upon them in punishing their sins with more blindnesse and making them erre farther from his ways was their greatest misery the true cause of all their outward plagues and a greater plague then all the rest as we may see in the sixth of this Prophecie where the Lord for contempt of the Prophets Ministery doth punish the body of that people with Spirituall Judgements and makes their heart fatter their minde blinder then before And from this Spirituall evil he makes all their Temporall desolation to flow as out of its proper Fountain Of this misery the people here complain to God not to lay their sins off themselves on the Lord but to witnesse their deep sense of them as coming on them through Gods just desertion and deserved judgement Not to upbraid the Lord with their miseries but to spread them out before his feet as their onely hope from whose hand alone they expected a remedy The first Doctrine The godly pour out all their complaints in Gods bosom From the words thus exponed observe first The children of God in their worst estate are so familiar with their heavenly Father as to pour out in his bosom the complaints of whatever misery lies upon them At this time as appears by the words both before and after the peoples condition was exceeding hard We are all as an unclean thing our iniquities as the winde have taken us away Thou hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our iniquities His zeal strength and mercifull bowels seemed to be restrained towards them yet they come before him and that which troubled them most their wandring from his ways they spread it out before his feet as the matter of their chiefest complaint The truth of the Doctrine may be seen Lam. 4.1 The Proof hereof Remember O Lord what is come upon us consider and behold our reproach In all the Chapter and the whole Book there is a familiar complaining to the Lord of all their miseries Moses and Aaron in all their tribulation run to the door of the Tabernacle Jacob at the side of the foord Jabbuk in his great fray for Esau betook himself to weep and pray David in his present danger of stoning by his own men comforted himself in God Hezekiah spread out before the Lord the railing of Rabshakeh and after his desperate sicknesse turned himself to the wall to pour out his heart to God The examples of this practice are innumerable The Reason of it is The Saints interest in God The Reason He is their Father