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	faith_n	justify_v	5,380	5	8.8463	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36270	A sermon preached before His Majesty on Good-Friday at Whitehall, March 24, 1664/5 by J. Dolben ...	Dolben, John, 1625-1686.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1831; ESTC R5322	28,655	60

of Nazareth appears every way to have been such a Person as all Predictions and Types have fore-shewed and to have been so used as they assure us he was to be and no other is pretended to answer those prefigurations in any degree Pilate was as good a Prophet as Caiphas and being over-ruled by the Spirit of God wrote more then he understood but not more then was true in this Title and Recognition Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews ANd now perhaps some of you are ready to say that I have spoken a great deal to my Text but little to my Auditory Why should I bring you back to the first Elements of Christianity who have been baptized into Christs death in your infancy grown up in the profession of his Gospel have had Christ in many Sermons evidently set forth crucified among you and received him often in the holy Sacramental representation of his Death After so many pledges of service and love enterchanged between you what reason have I to doubt of your being Christians I do not doubt it But give me leave to tell you There goes more to that then we generally imagine every man is not a Christian who believes his Creed nor does every one believe the Creed who supposeth and takes it for granted Many of us believe the Articles of our Faith as we do the Antipodes or the story of the Trojan War we care not whether they be true or no And such have need sometimes to be catechized in the grounds and more in the importance of their Faith And many others who explicitely believe the Truth are so far from obeying it that they hold it in unrighteousness and these ought often to be told that they believe enough to condemn but not enough to justifie and save them Suppose then that you have devoured all the scandal of the Cross and what is an offence to Jews and to Greeks foolishness is to you the wisdom and power of God the one appearing eminently in the contrivance of this Mystery and the other in the great things wrought thereby And now upon the whole matter your armes are open to receive Christ for the very reasons which provoke the Jews to reject and scorn him you can discern the Lord of Glory through the disguise and form of a servant contemplate him triumphing over the powers of Death and Hell in a servile ignominious Crucifixion and therefore because he came not down from the Cross you will believe him Pardon me if I say you may do all this and yet be Jews To make it appear let me mind you of the Jews miscarriages in this behalf We have found them blameable 1. For not accepting Jesus as their King 2. In the reason why they refused him Because he he was a Spiritual not a Temporal Prince Be faithfull then to your own souls and in this solemn season of self-examination ask your Consciences these two Questions 1. Whether you do sincerely own and receive Jesus for your King 2. If you find your selves faulty and deficient in that Duty Whether the reason why you do not cordially embrace him be any other then that of the Jews because his Kingdome and his Laws are spiritual and you are Carnal 1. Whether you do own and accept Christ for your King I know you are apt enough to admit his other Relations to you every one hearkens willingly to the glad tidings of a Mediator and a Saviour 'T is pleasant to think of a Sacrifice considerable enough to atone for our sins of such a High Priest entred within the vail interceding on our behalf at Gods right hand who will surely be heard when he prays and who hath already obtain'd eternal redemption forus Nay we can like well that he be a King too provided that as his Kingdome is not of this world so he trouble not us with it in this world pretend not to govern us till we come to heaven 'T is not amiss that he be powerfull enough to overcome our Enemies to spoil Principalities and Powers lead captivity captive and after that give gifts unto men when he hath through his Death destroyed the Devil who had the power of Death that he be able and willing to enstate us in eternal life and assume us to the participation of his Kingdom Tell me now I pray you what temptation had the Jews why they should not be as good Christians as we upon their own grounds if this be all what carnality of theirs would have resisted the proposition of such a Sacrifice to expiate for their sins Why should not a Pharisee be content that he might have an Advocate always pleading for him at the Throne of Grace What could move the grossest dreamer in the Sanhedrim to refuse a reversion of eternal glory in heaven after the enjoyment of those present selicities which he desired on earth There is something surely more then this in the accepting and acknowledging Christ for our King or else the Jewes would have accepted him too The Duty of a subject to a Prince is expressed in one word Obedience The Tributes of our Esteem Honor Reverence and Recognition are good circumstances in the performance of our main Duty but without it are follies or crimes I need not teach the Court how little Complements signifie you know that for the most part they are like Nil's in a Cypher us'd onely to amuse to conceal not explain our minds Nor shall I need to say here the profession of that Duty and service which we mean not to performe is no more then a Complement unless it prove a scorne too for in severe examination to acknowledg our Sovereigns Power and yet refuse his commands is at once to recognize and defie him to call Christ our Prince and not submit to his rule and Laws is but to bow before him cry Hail King of the Jews and crucifie him Obedience hereby appears to be the natural necessary Duty of a Subject to a Prince because it supports and maintains the end of the Relation between them enables the Prince to do his Office It is the end of all Government to procure the good of the whole Community but no Governour can do that unless he be obeyed without obedience the Scepter is but a Reed in his hand a Rod of weakness and contempt not of power 'T is folly to expect to sit quietly under our own Vines and Fig-trees enjoying all the benefits of peace and plenty unless we conform to those Laws which preserve peace and effect plenty by regulating every man in the orderly pursuit of his own honest ends without enterfering with those of his Neighbour 'T is madness to look that a King in his single Person should suppress Rebellions repel the force of invading Armies drive Enemies Fleets from his Coasts or conquer them upon their own But by the free and hearty obedience of his People He can do whatsoever his whole Kingdom can do Because thereby their entire

strength is concentred in Him and He can manage and employ it as easily as the members of his own body The same obligation both of Duty and Interest have we to obey Christ of Duty that we defraud him not of what we owe him and Interest that he may be able to do us the good which he designs For neither can he subdue his and our Enemies to the purposes we are concern'd in nor make his Subjects happy without the concurrence of their obedience He cannot destroy the works of the Devil if we will persist to employ our selves in his works resolve to be slaves still notwithstanding all the liberty purchased for us and when the Captain of our Salvation hath cast down and bruis'd his head made it easie and safe for us to tread upon our old Enemy we set him up again and fall down and worship him Nor can he bring us to heaven unless we conforme to the Laws and conditions by which we are to be advanced receive his Kingdome first into us that we may be afterwards received into it For whatever God might have done if we suppose a time before the method of our Redemption was decreed It will be safe to say that since he hath limited himself by an express act and declaration of his will and Covenanted with Christ that upon his voluntary laying down his life as a ransome for the World he should have power to bestow the Kingdome upon such and such onely as Believe and Repent no man now can look to go to Heaven by Christ but he whose Faith receives Christ for his King and whose Repentance grieves for having offended him and resolves to serve him faithfully for the time to come These are the two joint inseparable Conditions of our Salvation neither of which will singly avail us For as it is impossible to Repent without Faith to convince us of the necessity and benefit of that Duty so our Repentance it self instructs us that Faith alone is not our whole work Because we Repent not that we have no Faith seeing we suppose Faith to be the principle which moved us to repent but we grieve to find our selves defective in our obedience that we have not perform'd what we believe our selves bound and engaged to For this is the proper business of Faith to shew us our King and direct us in our duty to him If we onely believe the Theory of the Gospel acknowledge the truth of all that our Saviour hath taught and no more This makes Christ but such a King as GROTIUS think's Pilate took him for a kind of Rex Stoicus a Prince and author of some rare opinions and speculative truths and Christianity it self but a sect as Tertullian often calls it in a better sense combined in the asserting an excellent Hypothesis not a Kingdom and body Politique join'd to one Common head by which all the members are guided in the actions of life and pursuance of real solid concernments Me thinks the Lawyers who are versed in matters of government give us a good Notion of Faith when they joyn it with and make it Synonymous to True Allegiance And a Prohibition from them would be seasonable in this case to track the exorbitances of some Divines who evaporate all Religion in Notions Had Christ been proposed to us onely as Prophet such a Faith had been a hand fitter to receive him it might have apprehended Visions and Revelations well enough but seeing he is a King and delivers commands Obedience onely is relative to them And we may believe St. James who tells us that Faith which works not when t is bidden by such an Authority is Dead The Faith which onely lives and can make us do so is that which expresseth it self by lively operations being animated and actuated by an obedient Love that Generous Principle which even in humane affairs noble produceth all the great and worthy things in the world by those Persons who serve the Prince whom they love vigorously and Bravely That Obedience onely can bring us back to God we may know by this that Disobedience cast us out of his favour and presence and if the effect of our Redemption be to recover us the Paradise and the favour of of God which we lost at first by disobeying his commands it must also put us into a state of obedience without which we cannot be capable of recovery the Cherubim with their flaming sword will still fight against us upon the old quarrel and it must find a way to help us in that state or else we shall quickly lose all again It was very agreeable to the Majesty and goodness of God to compassionate the weakness of his poor Lapsed Creature so far as to make our task easie and proportion'd to our infirmity to accept sincere honest endeavours instead of exact unerring obedience which Adam fail'd of and we in the ruine of our nature could by no mean have performed But to be reconciled to disobedience is inconsistent with every one of his attributes even goodness it self would cease to be good should it Patronize and encourage evil now disobedience is all Evil transgresseth and violates the whole Law at once The soul that doth ought presumptuously disobeying with a high hand reproacheth the Lord and despiseth his comandments I may add and his Mercy and Grace too which are afforded to invite and help us to obey and would not have been given us to that purpose were disobedience by any means reconcileable to our obligation and Gods favour And between Obedience and Disobedience I know no Medium That pretence of serving Christ out of Gallantry is something that I confess my self not acute enough to understand any further then as a colour for not serving him at all For precarious Authority is a contradiction in Terms the Prince who hath no other is a Tenant at will holds his Crown and Dignity in a kind of Villenage and servile dependance on the Pleasure of his Subjects and where Christ hath no greater command then so he may be any thing else but cannot be a King My Brethren be not deceived though God so loved the world as to give his onely begotten Son to die for us yet doubtless he loved his Son whom he sent from his bosome infinitely more then all the world for whom he gave him and therefore will be sure to provide for his honour before our safety To which purpose we see he hath setled his Kingdom on such terms as that we shall not have the benefits we expect unless he have from us the glory due to him We cannot be saved unless he be obeyed and we become so far both his Servants and Friends as to do whatsoever he commands us God will certainly assert his own Laws and vindicate his Sons Honour and that may be done whatever becomes of us Christ may be glorified even in our destruction and will be so if we envy him the glory of saving us He