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	doctrine_n	true_a	3,178	5	4.8694	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05221	The spirituall spring A sermon preached at Pauls, vvherein is declared the necessity of growing in grace, and the goodly gaine that comes thereby, &c. By Richard Lee, preacher of the word of God at Woluerhampton in Staffordshire.	Lee, Richard, d. 1650.	1625 (1625)	STC 15354; ESTC S108400	16,886	24

is that we must not onely be carefull to haue graces but to increase in those when they are begun God would haue vs good Proficien●● in his schoole and to thriue vnder his hand to mend our pace in our Christian iourney to build vpon the foundation already layd Gods campe admits of no dwarfes his flourishing pastures of no stooklings his family of no vnchrists It is that with Grace as with Nature in growth 〈…〉 makes to bee at a stand and olde age makes to decay but good men Psalme 84.7 they goe from strength to strength The Prophet alludes to the growing of a childe which as it multiplies in yeares waxeth stronger Pro● 4.18 The iust shineth more and more vnto the perfect day As in the ●reake of day we haue a scarce-discerned light after a while the morning shewes her white limbe through nights black curtains and so by degrees wins the field of darknesse comes 〈…〉 yea to a golden splendor In the like manner saith the Wise man doth graces lustre creepe on to perfection in Gods seruants Dauid compares a Christians goodnesse to the spring-time Psalme 92.14 when all but rotten trees bud and blossome In the Gospell our Sauiour reprehends the sloathfull seruant that puts not forth his ●●●ent Math. 25. Math. 13. Againe he compares Grace vnto a g●aine of Mustard seede which is a very little seede yet in some Countries is of so great a stalk that birds may build their neasts in it In Syria saith ●ai●tan Thus you see God stands for it how holy Writ bla●eth on it with sprinkling brightnesse Reason Now Reason shall stand vp like an armed m●n to defend i● Let vs briefly then consider his the Necessity secondly the 〈…〉 thirdly the danger of not growing First Necessity pleads for it because first wee haue no set pitch in this life we must rest when wee are dead here is our nonage when we are at full age to our inheritance we goe This life is our spring-time when we are ripe God reapes vs into his barne We are here as young Plants in a Nurserie when wee are growne vp God will transplant vs. 2 Wee went on a pace in euill in our vnregeneracie when wee serued the diuell haue not wee more reason to runne faster now hauing a better Master a credibler seruice and greater wages 3 All will be little enough in times of tryall Desertions temptations sicknesses crosses and death will looke vs in the face The wings of our hope will bee cut off find our prayers will haue their moultring time wee shall fight then against our selues like gyants we gleane but happinesse now wee shall mow misery then store will be no sore but a supersedeas in all our tryals let vs barrell vp plenty of grace and feather our neasts prepare oyle in our lamps against that time Secondly see the benefits that accrew by our growing 1 God shall haue much glory Ioh. 15.8 Herein 〈◊〉 Father glorified that ye bears much fruit 2 Themselues shall haue much benefit by it Luke 8 1● they that sow much shall reape much to increase in grace is to furnish our selues with faith against tryals with ioy in miseries strength on thy death-bed ability to pray and the like for he that doubled his fiue talents was made Ruler ouer many things Matth. 25.21 His that soweth liberally 2 Cor. 9. ● shall reape liberally 3 Others gaine by our wealth and gleane at our haruest We shall by our good instruction and examples set feathers to other folkes arrowes when our hearbs are growne we shall fraught our neighbours gardens our light shall enlighten them our liues shall shame them and set Conscience on working for the fuller the Fountaine is the bigger the streame will be Thirdly the danger of not growing Minimè verò bonus est qui melior non vult fieri Ber. ep 91. Qui melior esse non cupit nec est bonus 1 Such haue no grace at all onely guilded outsides That seede which growes not is rotten vnder the clods He was neuer good that mends not The goodnesse of the ground is knowne by the crop 2 Painted corne ripens not these disgrace the meanes God hath giuen them as the Word and Sacraments a leane-fac'd seruant disparageth his Masters house-keeping 3 The curse of God lights on them Wee say if our children corne cattell or grasse prosper not that they are bewitched What a good Farme and thriue not surely Gods blessing is not there It is a heauy iudgement on the enemies of the Church to be as the grasse vpon the house tops which withereth afore it grow vp Psal 129.6 Non progredi est regredi 4 Not to goe forward is going backward we cannot stand at a stay either ascend or descend coldnesse lets in custome and custome causeth defending of sin Vse 1 Let scruteny be made in the first place let vs Ministers try your sufficiencies God will one day search with candles Good gold feares not the ballance nor touch-stone Zeph. 1.12 but a bankrupt abides not the counting-booke You haue heard the fitnesse of this duty let something be said as a Iacobs-staffe to take the height of your graces I purpose by Gods assistance first to spread a plaister then to apply it first to draw then to shoote A little to discouer the markes of growing and then to lay my finger where it smarts To deliuer somewhat as I may say in complexo altogether Know this that growing children are hungry they eate much and often he waxeth but slowly that panteth not after the word of God the bread of life Furthermore note that as the Philosopher saith Arist de ortu interit c. 5. Augmentation keepes the same species when knowledge turnes into idle disputes and beleeuing becomes presuming and a tender conscience fals to vaine scruples as we see in our bedlam Anabaptists and phantasticall Brownists whose doctrine is criticall and their conuersations hypocriticall here is not Augmentation but Mutation not cherishing but changing A true grower addes daily some cubit to his stature and in holding the truth he beleeues the Philosophers prouerbe That he can neuer offend in the excesse Againe Philosophy saith Circa quali●ates bonas nemo peccat in excessis there must be ●n apt proportion in augmentation It is vnseemely and monstrous in nature for a childe to grow in armes onely and not in the legges or in legs and armes but not in body so to haue more knowledge and lesse humility to thriue in ioy and be ●●d●-bound and hand-bound in good workes is neither kindly nor comfortable Wee are to put forward the slowest growing grace In a word some tokens that wee are of a larger size are more accidentall as it is a thousand to one but our selues or others or both our selues and others will see●s ●aller then wee were and our ouer●●●pping of those euil● that were before too high for vs So also growers shall

haue ●●yals the best schollers are most posed the highest trees subiect it to windes the diuell and his agents a●●ault the richest b●●ties The hotter the day the ●uster the ●yes the more gracious the more opposed and lesse esteemed of the world Good men are like a Pyramid the nearer heauen the lesse in mans eye But we may yet sift this poynt more narrower and proceede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 step by step Try how thou are bettered in foure things First In Mortification doth thy bloud ●●●e more to see iniquity committed Is it thy hearts solace to see superstition and prophanensse goe downe the winde Is thy hand and heart set against them Dost thou more tragically butcher thine owne euill and is now thy coruptions soone crushed if they begin to swell Secondly In Vi●ification hast thou more spirituall iournies to heauen Art thou earnester in thy thoughts and sighes Doth loue striue for the strength of a Gyant If it be thus with thee thou art a good tree that growes downeward in roote and vpward in body and branch Thirdly how is it with thee in holy duties Dost thou sweepe thy heart cleaner and adorne the inward man more then thou hadst wont before thou commest to Gods ordinances Art thou more sincere reuerent and deuout in performing thy seruices 〈◊〉 of old Though Sathan knocke now at thy heart to enter in with his bastard 〈◊〉 thou more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him and resoluest the Minister shall plow no more on the sands nor sow on the waters but let him shoot and hit the white But principally the stronger Christian the mightier in Prayer Louers loue meetings and the neerer marriage the oftner they meete for in this sense the prouerbe is true After building comes begging Fourthly there is a sensible mending in workes The fatter any one is in Grace the more hee sweates out good workes He hath a more quicke-edg'd purpose to take all occasion● of doing good hee spreads his wings wider to helpe more people hee dies now like a lofty Hawke at the best workes hee that before was all for good to mens bodies which are workes good in their kinde these he performes more then before but yet withall lookes higher and labours to spread Gods Gospell and to hoyst vp the sayle of drooping Religion and with his Prayers purse and power doth his endeauour to beate downe Popery and prophanenesse and to be a light to them that sit in darkenesse Vse 2 Antipodes opposite to this doctrine are first such as grow not secondly or grow but in generall graces thirdly or such as fall backe It blots with blame yea bitterly bites Non profici●●●s Many are as ignorant as sinfull as dull as fruitlesse as twenty yeares agoe they goe round as a horse in a mill they goe to the Church to the Sacraments to family-prayers ●●nne vp and downe as Ants in a Mole-hill and doe nothing and yet thinke they haue Religion enough Quomodo proficis si tibi iam sufficis Ber. de consid l. 2. Such are frozen on their dr●gs twice dead and pluckt vp by the rootes Nay we haue another generation of people that enuy the growing man If any be like Saul among the people higher by the head and shoulders in matters of Religion he is hated as loytering seruants doe their fellowes that out-worke them Dealing with his neighbours as a Gardner with his hedge if any part of it out-sprout the rest he clips it downe As Esops Foxe hauing lost his taile would perswade all other Foxes to cut off their tailes Act. 13.10 Paul tels vs that an hinderer is the child of the deuill As for those silly ones that are ouer-learning and neuer 〈◊〉 come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3.6.7 but thinkes he should be as Pegasus haue a golden bridle to stop his post-hast to God These are as the prouerbe is Grecisemper pueri saith an Egyptian apud Plat. in Time● Alwayes children Boyes and Trewants must be whipt Ambrose elegantly obserues in Luke 21. the danger of a suckling the ioy to haue it weined and so grow vp Abraham saith hee feasted when Isaac was weined In ceruitu impij ambiulant Eras coloqui de naufrag but the child that was not weined was ouerlaid by the mother Thou art a wicked man Circular motion is the motion of the heauens but not the heauenliest motion nor the perfectest Fruitlesse dead trees must be pluckt vp God may very well giue thee vp to hardnesse of heart and say as once a Captaine did to one of his watch finding him a sleepe he flew him saying Dead I found thee and dead I le leaue thee for being dead spiritually God may iustly damne thee eternally And standing so worse thou mayst be better thou canst not be The lying stone gathers mosse the standing poole mudde The bird mounting vpon wing is out of feare but sitting on the ground is in danger both of snare and Fowlet This Atheist may stand in his owne light and spurne against our truth with this poore obiection That grace is a simple essence and not naturall and so not capable of growing Answ It is true that a simple essence growes not in God the fountaine or as I may say in the abstract but secondarily in vs it may be further reuealed and plentifully bestowed There is a spirituall growing as well as a naturall Secondly Others stop the mouth of Conscience with this that they know more then they did and can talke more of Religion then they had wont and haue more dexterity in prayer and the like Such must know that there are some generall gifts of grace which God bestowes on vnregenerate men as such as these are I haue named There is sauing graces as mortification godly sorrow humility and the like if thou mendst in these last kindes thou art happy indeede but if thou growest onely in such graces as Iudas Achit●phel or such hypocrites may haue thy shew is more worth then thy substance As a Cynamon tree thy barke is more worth then thy body Thy flourishing is but as a quagmire growne ouer with greene grasse Psal 129.6 Thy growing cannot last but as grasse on the house top to wither before it grow vp A tree cut vp by the rootes may sprout forth leaues for a while A man after he is dead for a time his nayles and haire may grow As for the former they are but as a dog in a wheele the melancholly Stoikes went beyond them and these of the latter sort it may be euill is at a stand in them through education or want of occasion as fire may want fuell but not one sinne yet hath his fatall blow as Goliah had nor so much as a Bucke that hath his deaths wound though he be not yet hunted downe I say in all thy flourishing shewes thou deceiuest thy brethren with shadowes and thy selfe with sinne Thirdly But this is not all we haue a disease called a consumption