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	word_n	14,132	5	4.8692	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30445	A sermon preached at the funeral of the most reverend Father in God, John, by the divine providence, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, primate and metropolitan of all England, who died at Lambeth the 22nd day of November, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried at St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, on the 30th of that month, Anno Dom. 1694 by ... Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5902; ESTC R22882	18,942	42

A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Most Reverend Father in GOD JOHN By the Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND Who Died at Lambeth the 22d Day of November in the 65th Year of his Age And was Buried at St. Lawrence Jewry in London on the 30th of that Month Anno Dom. 1694. By the Right Reverend Father in GOD GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARUM LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Most Reverend Father in God IOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury II Tim. 4. 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith THERE is a time to weep and a time to rejoyce every one here present will readily agree with me that this is a time to weep But it will look like the venturing on a Paradox to say that it is also a time to rejoyce which on this occasion seems to bear a harsh and uncouth sound What! to rejoyce that both Church and State have lost the Patern that he whose remains are now before us set us and the support that he gave us But we are Christians as well as Men and while Nature feels so great a loss and sinks under it our Christianity must shew it self Faith must triumph over Sense and Grace over Nature While we mourn our own loss let us rejoyce at his Crown and Glory in our Holy Religion that has produced and now compleated so great an Example of Sublim and Heroical Piety and Vertue and has let the World see what the power of these Principles are which we profess when they are truly believed and steadily pursued Notwithstanding all the tenderness that this melancholy Solemnity inspires I must still say that we ought to rejoyce that to all those convincing Arguments by which he so often and so clearly proved the Truth and Excellency of our Holy Faith he has added this plain and sensible demonstration letting the World see in himself what a sort of a Man a Christian is Words have not that energy which facts have A shining Life has an authority to perswade beyond all the force of Arguments or the beauties of Rhetorick Men are disposed to believe a Man who has shewed in a long series of many years that he believed himself And that he was not only convinced but overcome by his own Arguments And therefore how sensibly soever you all and I my self may feel that this is a time to mourn yet suffer me to stop your tears and to temper your sorrow a little by adding that it is also a time to rejoyce both for his sake who is now delivered from the storms and tempests of this Life and upon the account of that Holy Religion in which he was so great an Instrument and to which he was such a lasting honour If we trace his steps and imitate his vertues we shall quickly follow him to that blessedness of which he is now possessed The Instructions that he gave us and the Life that he led among us are no small advantages to direct us to follow him as he followed his meek and lowly Master while we consider the end of his conversation the scope and design 13. Heb. 7. of it all and that happy conclusion that God has now put to it for happy it is in it self and happy to him how melancholy soever it may seem to us And since great Examples give the clearest and most effectual instruction and afford both the pleasantest and usefullest Entertainment I will now endeavour but in a plainness suitable to that in which he lived to gather together some parts of his Character and to set him out to you such as you all knew him to be tho' not with that force with which he for so many years and in this place did fix your attention and conquer your thoughts yet with a simplicity that will perhaps more effectually prevail upon you than more studied Composures I am sure you will believe me because the greatest part of that which I am to say was known to you And if you will but remember what you heard from him and what you saw in him I am confident you will all acknowledge that I am using great Reserves and that I say much less than you think It being fit that a modesty of stile should appear in the whole contexture of this Discourse since a modesty of deportment did shine with so peculiar a lustre in all the parts of his Life I will say no more of my Text than what shall be just necessary to shew how pertinent it is to my Subject and how naturally it will take in the several branches of his Character St. Paul was now a Prisoner at Rome he appealed to Caesar and had Ver. 16 17. appeared oftner then once before him He found that he was in the Paws of a Lion that delighted in Blood and who to cover himself from the just fury of the Romans for his burning their City was endeavouring to expose the Christians to their rage and he complains that he was forsaken by his friends when it might seem that he needed their assistance most Whether St. Paul knew that his death was near by a special Revelation as St. Peter did or whether he gathered 2. Pet. 1. 14. it from other Circumstances it is plain he was now looking for it he reckoned it so certain that he considered it as a thing then a doing for the preceeding Words which are rendred I am ready to be offered up do strictly signifie I am now as a Sacrifice and my blood is a pouring out after the manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the libations in Sacrifices He considered his death as a thing resolved on and to be speedily executed so that his departure was at hand This Thought must needs strike deep the Darkness and Solitude of a Prison the Solemnities of a Day prefixed the Pomp of an Execution and the Circumstances both of Ignominy and Pain with which it might be accompanied did concur to heighten that gloomy Prospect But that which secured his Quiet in opposition to all that Agitation of Mind was a Firmness arising out of a strict Review of his past Life Conscience upon such occasions will not flatter but speak out and will rather aggravate matters too much and his told him he needed fear nothing he had a Witness within as well as a Judge and a God above The Testimony of a good Conscience was the foundation of his Joy and gave him a well-grounded Confidence in God The whole Period running thus For I am now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge will give me at that day and not

of this Apostle of the Gentiles if Modern Examples are proposed to you that so you may learn to follow them as they followed the Apostles of Christ still allowing that vast distance that is between even the greatest of those that minister in Ordinary Functions and men inspired whose Commissions were unlimited and their Assistances proportioned to the Services to which they were called and to the Times in which they lived I do now return to the sad Occasion of this present Assembly to consider how truly these words give us the Character of him over whom we do now mourn and upon whose account we ought also to rejoice His first Education and Impressions were among those who were then called Puritans but of the best sort Yet even before his mind was opened to clearer thoughts he felt somewhat within him that disposed him to larger Notions and a better Temper The Books which were put in the hands of the Youth of that time were generally heavy he could scarce bear them even before he knew better things he happily fell on Chillingworth's Book which gave his mind the ply that it held ever after and put him on a true scent He was soon freed from his first Prejudices or rather he was never mastered by them yet he still stuck to the strictness of life to which he was bred and retained a just value and a due tenderness for the men of that Persuasion and by the strength of his Reason together with the clearness of his Principles he brought over more serious Persons from their Scruples to the Communion of the Church and fix'd more in it than any man I ever knew But he neither treated them with contempt nor hatred and he disliked all Levities and Railings upon those Subjects This gave him great advantages in dealing with them and he still persisted in it how much soever it was either disliked or suspected by angry men As he got into a true method of study so he entred into friendships with some great men which contributed not a little to the perfecting his own mind There was then a Set of as extraordinary Persons in the University where he was formed as perhaps any Age has produced they had clear Thoughts and a vast Compass great Minds and Noble Tempers But that which gave him his last finishing was his close and long Friendship with Bishop Wilkins He went into all the best things that were in that Great man but so that he perfected every one of them For though Bishop Wilkins was the more Universal man yet he was the greater Divine if the one had more flame the other was more correct Both acted with great plainness and were raised above regarding Vulgar Censures But if Bishop Wilkins had a Talent so peculiar to himself that perhaps never man could admonish and reprove with such weight and authority and in a way so obliging as he did so no man knew better than this his great Friend the art of gaining upon mens hearts and of making themselves find out that which might be amiss in them though the Gentleness and Modesty of his Temper had not so well fitted him for the rough Work of Reproving Having dedicated himself to the Service of the Church and being sensible of the great Good that might be done by a plain and edifying way of Preaching he was very little disposed to follow the Patterns then set him or indeed those of former times And so he set a Pattern to himself and such an one it was that 't is to be hoped it will be long and much followed He begun with a deep and close Study of the Scriptures upon which he spent four or five Years till he had arrived at a true understanding of them He studied next all the antient Philosophers and Books of Morality Among the Fathers St. Basil and St. Chrysostom were those he chiefly read Upon these Preparations he set himself to compose the greatest Variety of Sermons and on the best Subjects that perhaps any one Man has ever yet done His joining with Bishop Wilkins in pursuing the Scheme of an Universal Character led him to consider exactly the Truth of Language and Stile in which no Man was happier and knew better the Art of preserving the Majesty of things under a Simplicity of Words tempering these so equally together that neither did his Thoughts sink nor his Stile swell keeping always the due Mean between a low Flatness and the Dresses of false Rhetorick Together with the Pomp of Words he did also cut off all Superfluities and needless Enlargements He said what was just necessary to give clear Idea's of things and no more He laid aside all long and affected Periods His sentences were short and clear and the whole Thread was of a piece plain and distinct No affectations of Learning no squeezing of Texts no superficial Strains no false Thoughts nor bold Flights all was solid and yet lively and grave as well as Fine so that few ever heard him but they found some new Thought occurred something that either they had not considered before or at least not so distinctly and with so clear a View as he gave them Whether he explained Points of Divinity Matters of Controversy or the Rules of Morality on which he dwelt most copiously there was something peculiar in him on them all that conquered the Minds as well as it commanded the Attention of his Hearers who felt all the while that they were learning somewhat and were never tired by him for he cut off both the Luxuriances of Stile and the Length of Sermons and he concluded them with some Thoughts of such Gravity and Use that he generally dismissed his Hearers with somewhat that stuck to them He read his Sermons with so due a Pronunciation in so sedate and so solemn a manner that they were not the feebler but rather the perfecter even by that way which often lessens the Grace as much as it adds to the Exactness of such Discourses I am sure I have before me many Witnesses to what I say The World has already seen such Essays of this and shall I hope see so much more that I need say the less on this Head He saw with a deep Regret the fatal Corruption of this Age while the Hypocrisies and Extravagancies of former times and the Liberties and Loosness of the present disposed many to Atheism and Impiety He therefore went far into this Matter and as he had considered all the antient and modern Apologies for the Christian Religion with an Exactness that became the Importance of the Subject so he set the whole Strength of his Thoughts and Studies to withstand the Progress that this was making In order to that he laboured particularly to bring every thing out of the clearest Principles and to make all People feel the Reasonableness of the Truths as well as of the Precepts of the Christian Religion When he saw that Popery was at the root of this and that