Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A65555
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A practical and plain discourse of the form of godliness, visible in the present age and of the power of godliness: how and when it obtains; how denied or oppressed; and how to be instated or recovered. With some advices to all that pretend to the power of godliness. By Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Rosse.
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Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing W1512; ESTC R222295
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59,356
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200
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means which God hath appointed as well for the implanting as growth of Grace in our Hearts Those means are well known to be Prayer the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments to which we must join Meditation All these I said we must use 1. Constantly that is without omission or neglect of them in their due season 2. Devoutly always endeavouring to come to them with due temper and then engaging our Hearts in them And 3. Wisely remembering our Christian wants and applying these as the outward means which God has put in our power and whereby he has commanded us to address our selves to him for all Grace and Aids we can want But it may not be amiss to touch in a word or two upon each particularly First As to Prayer both publick and private As we would either bring or keep our Hearts under the Power of Godliness let none of the stated opportunities of it be neglected And when we come thereto let us before we open our Mouths set God before the Eyes of our Soul as then more especially present and take care we seek to him with our Souls and all that is within us Now to the end we may manage this spiritual help and office wisely let us because we apply it at present as a way or means to the Power of Godliness let us I say remember in what of the particulars so often mentioned we are deficient or whether not in all Do we want Knowledge of what we are to believe or do in order to Salvation Let us earnestly supplicate to God that he will inlighten our minds strengthen our powers assist and bless our endeavours after the Knowledg of the Holy He giveth Wisdom liberally to all who ask and upbraideth none Jam. 1. 5. Do we know enough but find it difficult to believe Faith is the Gift of God Let us beseech him he will both furnish us with more pressing Evidences of his Truth than haply are yet to come to our knowledge and more deeply affect our Hearts with those we have that being truly persuaded in our whole Christianity our Faith may never fail Do we want attentive and heedful Minds Let us beg of him that he will both set and keep his Law ever before us and write it in the Tables of our Hearts Do we want Diligence Resolution and Christian Strength for endeavouring to do what we see and believe we are obliged to Let us beseech our heavenly Father to quicken us by the Fear and Love of himself and to enable us by his Power from above that we may walk before him with a perfect Heart having respect unto all his Commandments Finally do we want the Christian temper above described Seeing it is God who turneth as he pleases and fashioneth the Heart of man within him let us never forget daily to importune him that he would both create and establish in us a right Spirit even such which may be according to his own Heart Thus used we shall certainly find Prayer a most admirable and effectual means to the setting up and maintaining the Power of Godliness in our Souls 2. Of the Ministry of the Word I have already spoken in part and as it is a means of Knowledge and Faith particularly The constant devout and discreet attendance thereon will also certainly mightily operate to a considerative heedful state of mind to honest resolutions and Endeavours of Integrity or walking in all good Conscience before God and in a word to the due Christian temper Hereof the CXIX Psalm is in a manner throughout an ample proof And 3. No less must I say of the Sacraments Reflecting upon our own Baptismal Vow when we are present at the Baptism of others and frequent renewing it at the Lords Table as it leads us to a more strict solemn and mature examination of our selves so certainly above all other means strengthens the Interest of Godliness in our Hearts I may confidently say one great reason of the Christian multitudes not living in better Conscience towards God is their having been accustomed to so much neglect of the Lords Supper The Bloud of Christ would both warm and aw mens Hearts 4. But we cannot always pray hear or communicate think or meditate we may oftener And this ought to go in conjunction generally with all those other Duties A man never prays as he should except he spend some thoughts before-hand in examining his Conscience the same may I say much more of receiving the Lords Supper this undoubtedly requires more thoughts foregoing And very little will be our Benefit by hearing except afterwards we recollect and by some Meditation endeavour to fix upon our Spirits what we have heard most touching our own condition I may not stand here to discourse that Meditation is either occasional or solemn Both of them certainly in their season ought to exercise every Christian as he is able to employ himself therein But occasional and transient thought as we may be oftner at walking travelling busied about outward affairs in the world so it will concern us more frequently to apply as a means to quicken the Power of Godliness in our Hearts We know who makes it a part of the godly mans Character as it is indeed his great preservative against both the Counsels of the ungodly and the Way of sinners that he meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night It was accordingly very much Davids own practice as we may observe through the whole Book of Psalms many of which were certainly composed in part or in whole by him upon his Bed by night as well as others by day And it were very well if more of the waking part of our repose were spent in communing with our own Hearts and God upon our Bed Then generally we are or may be still and free from outward disturbances But as men that are wise in this Generation employ and catch all seasons of getting so should those who are or would be Children of Light all opportunities for holy thought as being singularly serviceable to the Power of Godliness And thus as to the private Directory part both particular and general § 4. Something may be done as to the Publick and for propagating the Power of Godliness in others by Magistrates Ministers Parents or Heads of Families First All these sorts of men might happily join in promoting the due Observation of the Lords day Magistrates in awing and driving Idlers or such whose Devotion leads them not to Church Morning and Evening Ministers in being diligent and zealous in the discharge of their Duty discreetly suiting both their Sermons and Catechisings to this end of affecting mens Hearts with the Power of Godliness and as they see fit complying with such methods as those above propounded thereto Parents and Masters of Families in being aiding and assistant to the Magistrate and Minister in seeing their Children and Servants duely and orderly frequent the Church come as required to Catechism or the Sacrament
man designing such life resolve never to trouble their heads with the understanding or comprehending such Doctrines which so much disturb them and as they will tell you embroil the world These men study Ignorance for the sake of a stupid Quiet and designedly abandon and defie all means of Religious Knowledge A desperate sort of blind men indeed Now there is no doubt but both and all these our Church ignorants and our Outlying-ignorants and that whether through supine negligence and sloth or through resolute design and obstinacy all of them I say Deny the Power of Godliness whatsoever they may have or retain of the Form For they stop the very first passage by which Godliness can come at their hearts or ever have any power over them namely they suffer it not to enter into their Vnderstandings 2. Men obstruct and so deny the Power of Godliness by voluntary Vnbelief And I must here say the same of the Vnbelief of this Age which I did just now of its Ignorance There is speaking only of such who have their Senses little or no grose Vnbelief to be found amongst us which is not voluntary it being generally matter of mens choice either in it self directly or indirectly in its causes If men affect Ignorance and so believe not either because they understand not the Doctrines to be believed or see not the Evidences which perswade them who shall say that Unbelief is not chosen when the Ignorance whence it derives is apparently such But if any who both understand the Christian Doctrine and are acquainted with the Evidences upon which it is pretended to be believed do yet withstand and cavil at those Evidences endeavouring to find or make flaws in them whereas in truth there are none and then dispute touching their insufficiency exposing them and demanding Evidences either impossible that is such which the nature of the Cause admits not or unreasonable if I say any men in these circumstances and thus acting believe not it is plain such mens Vnbelief is matter of Industry Endeavour and Design and so not only of deliberate but obstinate choice Now such perverse spirits may be found now adays too rife as well as those more lazy Vnbelievers before mentioned And both sorts undoubtedly deny the Power of Godliness for both obstruct the perswasion of its reality in their hearts without which persuasion it is plain Religion must be but an insignificant pretence of no prevalence or force Lastly men may hinder and so deny the Power of Godliness by a voluntary Heedlesness It will look somewhat hard perhaps in the judgment of most to call all the Inadvertencies and Incogitancies which in common conversation betray men into sin voluntary ones inasmuch as many seem meerly casual others after a sort necessary and natural Infirmities And again on the other side men ordinarily give themselves so great a loose and even the best so much remit that holy Sollicitude and Watch which they ought constantly to maintain over themselves that it will be difficult most times to say touching this or that particular inadvertent fit it is not at all voluntary I would be understood to speak of men awake and in their Senses Health and the like that is as in the former cases neither chosen in its self nor cause In plain terms we so far abandon our Minds and Hearts to the World and Vanity or we indulge our Pleasures and Appetites so much that these draw and strangely detain or enslave our Thoughts And while we so intently and constantly pursue such Objects if unawares and inadvertently we are surprised with sinful concernments passions and engagements about them who can avow that inadvertency no whit voluntary when the indulgence which drew it on was plainly so But this may seem less culpable in these our days and perhaps to some very venial and excusable For alas how few are there who in this particular are not guilty more or less of denying the Power of Godliness As therefore we complained before of a designed Ignorance and Unbelief so must we here of such a thoughtless unconcerned temper which is matter of some mens study and endeavour To be ever Airy and free from any intent thought void of all sollicitudes and what they call easie to a mans self but especially to be above all religious apprehensions and concernments that is in plain English to put little or no difference between what we call moral good or evil some men look upon as a great pitch of happiness Whereas therefore thoughtfulness does breed concernment and bring men to put a difference betwixt Actions they endeavour by all means they well can to hinder the Entrance of thought into them They take care not to be alone nor in serious thoughtful company They divert themselves to other business or rather possibly to Jollity or Madness they say to Conscience when about to dictate to them Duty or forbid them Sin as Felix to St. Paul Act. xxiv 25. Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee This is indeed an heinous sort of obstructing the Power of Godliness Such resolute heedlesness as this may seem rather a suppressing the Power of Godliness already partly in possession than an obstructing the passages by which it is to enter But let it be stiled how or ranked under what ever head it shall it is surely a practice very common and a dangerous well nigh desperate method of denying the Power of Godliness § 3. But there is yet another kind more dreadful and which exceeds all the former as well in Guilt as in audacious or daring Violence namely when men though they have not been able to keep out of their minds all notices and belief of Religion nor it may be are able though they do endeavour as those before to suppress exterminate or banish the frequent recurring dictates of awakened Conscience this possible so haunting them that they hear its voice whether they will or no shall yet notwithstanding all for the love of some longcourted Pleasure or Profit control all these Dictates and in a resolved course of sin overbear all opposition from them They stand in their own hearts convinced haply both of the nature and obligation of their Duty so as to have nothing of sound Reason to object against it They want not Arguments or Motives to recommend their Duty or dissuade their beloved Sin but the plain Truth is they are unwilling to part with their Sin and so no Argument will move them For they have long heard of the Wrath of God revealed and to be revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. which means has been effectual to assert Godliness into its due power in others and even these men themselves whether they will or no cannot very oft but give credit to these Doctrines yea they run in their minds more than they desire they should Yet