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	true_a	12,025	5	5.5435	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02276	The spouses hidden glory, and faithfull leaning upon her wellbeloved. Wherein is laid down the soules glory in Christ, and the way by which the soule comes to Christ. Delivered in two lecture sermons in St. Andrewes church in Norwich. / By Iohn Collings Master of Arts, and preacher of Gods word in Saviours parish in Norwich.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1646 (1646)	Wing C5340A; ESTC R174086	70,368	91

THE SPOUSES Hidden Glory AND Faithfull Leaning upon her Welbeloved Wherein is laid down the Soules Glory in Christ and the way by which the Soule comes to Christ Delivered in two Lecture SERMONS in St Andrewes Church in Norwich By IOHN COLLINGS Master of Arts and Preacher of Gods word in Saviours parish in Norwich 1 Iohn 3.1 The world knowes us not Isaiah 43.1 Feare not I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine 2 When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee LONDON Printed for William Franckling and are to bee sold at his Shop near the signe of the George in Norwich 1646. TO The Right worshipfull and truly honoured Patriot of his Countrey Sir IOHN HOBART Knight and Baronet one of the Members of the Honourable House of COMMONS Honoured Sir GOodnesse is the Honour of Greatnesse and Grace is the Beauty of Goodnesse Greatnesse without Goodnesse is like a grossy body with a sluggards spirit too heavy to beare its owne burthen and Goodnesse without some Authoritative Greatnesse is like a soule in separation happy in it selfe but it wants an organ to move in terrestrials But he to whom God hath given gracious Greatnesse is one that hath ten Talents one upon whom opportunities wait to do his God Honour And it is the greatest happinesse can betide a creature to have an opportunity to throw his two mites his little all into the Treasury of the Lords Glory Our actuated habit of Love to Gods Church and Spouse is the greatest way of honouring our God The Bridegroom honours those that he makes his Brides Vshers And it is the most endearing service wee can doe our Master to have a care of his Lambs Simon Peter lovest thou me feed my Lambs his Lambs in the Fold which are his Church Sir God hath called you to this Honour though not to feed yet to provide their Shepheards a Crook Alas what shall wee doe our Saviours Lambs stray and wander in dangerous pastures and wee have no Crook to reduce them we can only feed them when they please to eat we have no hedge of Government to keep them in their pastures nor Crook to reduce the wanderers here is our misery God hath made us watchmen wee may give good counsell to the unlawfull straglers but wee want our watch-bill to stay them if they will goe Blessed be the God of heaven that hath not only made you Honourable in the sight of men but more in his owne sight because zealous for his Bride Christs Spouse in this Kingdome is in the wildernesse and woe unto us that we can imagine the heart of any so hard as to contribute a vote to keep her there much more to hedge up her way with thornes that she cannot get out At whose hands will the blood of those the wolves destroy be required Blessed be the God of heaven that hath given you an heart to wash not only your hands but tongue also of the blood of those that perish in this Kingdome for want of Government I have here presented your Worship with a member of Christs Church endeavouring to limn out the Spouse in her Hidden Glory if she wants expected beauty t is the Limners fault she is truly Glorious in her selfe and her Bridegrooms eyes but her glory is hidden to the world Is it not pity so glorious a creature as this Spouse is in the perfection of her members should want Order in her House and bee prostituted to every one that hath wickednesse enough to defloure her May the number of those encrease thar are the friends of Sion and the generation of those perish that make it their designe to lay yet more waste the City of God already neare to bury her selfe in her owne ruines It is alas too true Sir and unhappy too that God hath put weaknesse into your hands though your heart longs to bee at Temple-work Your selfe are in a wildernesse of Affliction whiles you should and would gladly bee lending your hand and votes to help the Spouse in England out Gods will must bee done though wee bee patients The Lord prosper the Nehemiahs that are at the work and lessen the number of the Sanballats that hinder it and in Elijahs absence double his spirit upon his Elishaes and the Lord grant that in your wildernesse of Affliction you may lean upon you Beloved and the Bridegroom grant such an happinesse to his Spouse as to spare her friends life that you may come out of your wildernesse of Afflictions leaning upon your Beloved and do your God more service by living to his glory and contributing your dying Votes to the happinesse of his Bride which is Sir the daily prayer of Your Worships devoted servant IOHN COLLINGS TO The Right Honourable and truly Noble the Lady Francis Hobart encrease of all happinesse c. Madam I Must ingenuously confesse it was my owne ease was the first inducement to me to offer these unpolished meditations to the censure of the world whom I hear already saying is Saul also among the Prophets having promised more coppies then I was willing to transcribe But when that had raked the embers something else blew the coales I well knew that the Presse was so tainted it would be a suspition of faction to be seene under it and if ever now was the time to be a Foole in print But when I considered the vanitie of my former and the incertaintie of my latter days I thought it was time to redeem the time not only because my days were evil but because my span might be almost measured out And I thought if these meditations might not have the happinesse to shew some soule the way out of the wildernesse Leaning upon its Beloved yet they could not be denyed so small a blessing as to keepe some Bookish eyes from dirtying themselves with po●ring in the excrements of Factious brains and pens which present themselves in our unhappy dayes upon every shop-board to Athenian gazers by busying them in these papers a little After these thoughts had wrested my notes out of my hands which at the first composure I had thought like a dying infant should only have lookt upon the world misliked it and gone out again My neere relation to your Honours house told me it would be no good manners to speak of a wedding and not invite your Ladyship especially being one of the Children of the Bride-chamber to it The truths here may appeale to your Honour for a confirmation and I doubt not but you will and can signe them from precious experience having already Set to your Seale that God is true Nay I dare be further bold to say that the marriage of the Lamb could not be consummate without you And I was loth to present a Bride lame to so glorious a

those that know not what to doe to be saved those that feele themselves even in the jawes of hell hee makes apprehensions of his wrath precede the apprehensions of his love But woe and alas how many thinke they have a part in Christ That the Devill hath as great a part in Christ actually as they have heaven is growne the common journeyes end and let men ride which way they list Not the most debauched wretch in a Congregation but aske him what hee thinks shall become of him if he dyes in that condition why he hopes he shall goe to heaven nay I wish he doth not say he is sure of it too All men are sinners He is lost but Christ came to seek and save that which was lost Tell him of mourning for his sinnes if he meanes to be comforted of humbling himself if he means to be exalted of feeling hel if ever he means to feele heaven O then you are a legall Preacher Heare what the other side saith what those you call● Antinomian Preachers O these are the onely Gospel-preachers to them This makes them passe for such honest men O they shew a fine Cushion-way to Heaven that you shall not need wet a a foot or eye in But let them preach what they will friend beleeve him who although he knowes but little yet knowes you must goe out of the wildernesse if ever you come there The way is neither the Drunkards Ale-way nor the Adulterers uncleane way nor the Covetous man his dirtie way nor the Ambitious mans high-way nor the Hypocrites hidden way nor the Carnall-Gospellers formall way nor the Antinomians easie way It is a way through a wildernesse not a way in a wildernesse The Spouse is not described by her staying in the wildernesse but by comming out of the wildernesse Who is this commeth out of the wildernesse Secondly Doth the Spouse of the Lord come out of a wildernesse of sorrow leaning upon her Beloved First she is in then she commeth out then this reproves the folly of those that preach men found before they were lost and of those that dreame of leaning before they are in the wildernesse The Spouse leans but it is when she is comming out of the wildernesse Is there none that preacheth downe a needlesnesse of duties that mocks at mourners that learne people a way to be found before they are lost Examine the Scriptures before you trust them under a pretence of exalting Faith doe they not cry downe sorrow for sin and all preparatory duties Nay they doe cry downe the preaching of the Law to bring men to see they are in the wildernesse that they might leane Doe they make you beleeve that preaching the Law is a piece of Anti-christianisme and no one ought to preach it And for their parts they will take heed of it for feare of preaching away their hearers O beware of this leaven For my part I had rather heare them then beleeve them and yet I would not much care for that neither were it nothing but to consider First That this way of preaching hath beene that which God hath most blest by his Servants labours Witnesse our Rogers our Hooker our Pious Shepard those three to which many threes may be added thougn they will scarce come up to the first three Those three Constellations of Heaven that gave more light to darke Travellers that wandred in the night of sinne while they shined in our Firmament then all these Ignes fatui Oh! I would I could not construe it false-fires mis-leading poore Travellers Was ever any of these Leaders so honoured though they have beat up their Drums almost in every street of the Kingdome for followers as to gather such Troopes of Saints to the Christian warfare as these before mentioned Did ever God honour their labours so much as these who poore soules shone in their dayes like lights under Bushels too had onely the corner of a Pulpit or a Pulpit in some blind corner tolerated them Nay looke upon these that have lately fallen into this Veine and were Preachers of Gods whole truth before was not their first fruits better and more accepted of God then their harvest is now Hath not God distinguished which way of preaching he will most honour by making the first ripe grapes sweeter then the whole Vintage were it onely for this And Secondly For the constant experience of the Saints of God let them speake their minds freely hath not this beene the way of their conversion Have not the best Saints in Heaven cryed out of the belly of Hell before God heard their voice Was not Paul strucken downe to the earth before he went in the Triumph of Glory Did not the Gaoler come in trembling and fall at the Apostles feet and cry what shall I doe to be saved before they bid him beleeve and thou shalt be saved Neither can they evade it with saying That trembling was not an humiliation for sinne but occasioned for feare his prisoners were gone Least people should wrest it in that manner The Holy Ghost hath cleared it to their hand for before wee read of his trembling Paul had cryed with a loud voice vers 28. Do thy self no harme for wee are all here Neither do wee read that he trembled for th●t at all but like one strucke senselesse and his spirits dead as it were in a fit of desperate madnesse was about with his Sword to let out his owne blood Now I say were it no more then to heare such doctrine contrary to the Doctrine which God hath chiefly honoured in his Servants lips by making it efficacious for the salvation of their soules and contrary to the experience of the generalitie of Gods Servants if not contrary to the Preachers owne former and better thoughts and practice it would be sufficient to make me suspend my faith from being too hastie to beleeve this new way to Heaven But it is enough to confirme me to heare my Christ calling Come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Before you are sensible of an heavy load you will need no ease and to heare my Text speaking of leaning but in a wildernesse Nay it may be noted too The Text saith Who is this that commeth Not who is this that jumpeth up from the wildernesse I cannot fancy this going to Heaven at a running jump nor can I like this pressing faith without preaching repentance also Faith is an act of an humble soule Nor can the soule apprehend the beautie of Christ and love Christ before it apprehends it 's owne miserable condition The onely harme this Doctrine doth is to make poore soules presume insteed of beleeving for alas Tell an impenitent soule of beleeving it apprehends it easie because it doth not understand it and runnes on upon a supposition that it hath faith when alas it beleeveth no more then the Divell beleeveth sorrow for sinne is better understood by a carnall heart then faith

is for the truth of it is the humbled soule onely can tell what faith is The other sees neither the want they have of faith nor yet the nature of that precious grace Shall I tell you what pious Master Rutherford sayes concerning this Faith saith he is bottomed upon the sense and paine of a lost condition Povertie is the nearest capacitie of beleeving This is Faiths method be condemned and be saved be hang'd and be pardoned be sick and be healed Faith is a flower of Christs onely planting yet it growes out of no soile but out of the margin and banck of the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone Antinomians saith he againe make faith an act of a loftie Pharisee applying immediato contactu presently his hot boyling and smoking lusts to Christs wounds blood and merit without any conscience of a precedent command that the person thus beleeving should be humbled wearied loaden grieved for his sinnes I confesse saith he This is hastie hot worke but it is a wanton fleshly presumptuous opinion that it is an immediate worke to lay hold on the promises and be saved In his Book of the Tryall and Triumph of Faith you hear the opinion of Gods Servants and the Text mentions a comming too pedetentim gradatim little by little step by step Those that come cannot goe so fast as these illegall Sectaries because they are weary and heavie loaden Those that learne people to jumppe must take away Math. 11.29 the heavie load of sinnes which the Spouse hath upon her shoulders keepes her from that hastie motion that Antinomians make I doe not speake to limit the Almighties power but to shew you his ordinarie dispensations not what he can doe but what he will doe what he hath used to doe and God ordinarily walkes in his owne paths not in the paths our fancies make for him we may looke for God in his ordinary wayes of Providence and dispensations to the soule if he comes in a new way it must be beyond our expectations though not beyond our faith that he can doe it yet beyond our faith that he will doe it When wee have no word to assure us what shall faith be builded upon God can turne mid-night into mid-day ipso facto But wee know in Gods ordinary course of Providence first comes the dawning of the day then the morning then the noone-day God can take a soule and marry it and never humble it but where hath he promised it where hath he done it or if he hath done it wee say one Swallow makes not a Summer one example make● not a Rule one president makes not a Law It is no rule for thee or me to trust in that no more then the saving of the thiefe upon the Crosse might be a safe president for us to deferre repentance tell our dying day Let thee and I learne to be humbled to get broken hearts to loath our selves see our owne misery Sorrow is the ordinary doore to joy Humiliation the ordinary step to exaltation Mourning for sinne the onely preface to Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in Gods ordinary way of dealing out grace The Latine is full Quae est illa quae ascendit that ascends from the wildernesse Our Translation commeth up implying an ascensive motion t is hard running up an hill They that runne up a mountaine if they runne too fast they may quickly runne themselves out of breath It is bad jumping over a broad ditch especially if it be drowning depth for feare if wee jumpe short wee jump our last It is a great jump from the bottome of Hel to Heaven to take it at one leape I wish those that dare take it do not fall short and drown themselves eternally I had rather go up Gods steps then make such a hasty motion God give me grace to ascend up the Saints staires to the chambers of glory Elijah was such a favourite to heaven that God sent a coach for him but those that will expect till that fiery Chariot be sent downe for them too I suppose may waite something a longer time then they desire O beg of God to humble you to powre out his spirit of mourning and supplications upon you this will learne you to beleeve friends It is the humbled soule only that can construe that word Faith it is Hebrew to others it poseth the impenitent heart Faith is a riddle to them Christ findes his Spouse in the wildernesse and there he gives her his shoulder to leane upon But Thirdly She commeth up leaning out of the wildernesse Is it the duty of a soule that is in a wildernesse of sorrow or affliction or temptation or desertion to leane upon the Lord Christ Then this may reprove those that are in these wildernesses and yet cannot be perswaded to leane upon the Lord Christ hence they cry out O faith is impossible is it possible to beleeve that Christ Jesus will save me me that have scorned his salvation and slighted his mercies And because thou hast slighted mercy wilt thou therefore still slight mercy still refuse his offer of grace Thou sinnest as much now in not beleeving there is mercy for thee that hast despised mercy as thou didst sin in despising that mercy O why is it harder to raise up then to cast downe a soule Why wilt thou not beleeve O thou of little faith Is the mole-hill of thy sins like the mountaine of his mercies doth the voice of thy sins roare like the voice of his loving kindnesse Is there any humbled soule before the Lord O do not provoke God by thy infidelity now he hath made thee capable of faith You that are Christians for shame in your severall wildernesses of afflictions temptations and desertions doe not O do not cast downe your heads and say who shall shew us any good or if you do say againe with the Saint in the ensuing words Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Beleeve in your depths of sorrow beleeve in your most trying afflictions most sadding temptations most killing desertions beleeve me it is the greatest honour you can put upon the Lord Christ And it is the greatest dishonour you can put upon your God to have any diffidence in the Lords armes any distrust in the Lords free-grace It is the property nay it is the duty of the Spouse to come out of wildernesses leaning Fourthly Doth she leane upon God before she can come must he worke the first motion to make her willing before she can beleeve in him Then how are those to be here reproved that would make mans will to be the Author of its first motions unto God Pelagius was a great defender of it First he would hold That the grace of God was not necessary but by the law of nature we might be saved 2. That the grace of God which the Apostle speakes of was only in giving the law of nature 3. Driven from this he would maintaine that the faculties