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
A92077	Morbus epidemicus: or The disease of the latter dayes: discovered and laid open in a sermon out of the II Ep. of Timothy, ch. 4, v. 3, 4. / By John Ramsey, minister of East Rudham in the county of Norfolk.	Ramsey, John, Minister of East Rudham.	1656 (1656)	Wing R224; Thomason E892_2; ESTC R631	18,369	36

double wherein as in every motion there are two Terms 1. There is the Terminus à quo They shall turn away their ears from the Truth 2. There is the Terminus ad quem And shall be turned after Fables 5. The circumstance of the Time when the Disease shall be in the Paroxysm in the full heat and heighth And that we have in the first words of the Text For the time shall come They will not endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first part The nature of the Disease sound Doctrine A Metaphor or borrowed speech taken up from the natural Food or Physick of the Body and in a figurative and a spiritual sense translated and applied unto the Soul For the Soul as it stands in need so it hath its proper Food and Physick aswell as the Body and that is the Word of God The Word of God is the Food of the Soul 1. The Word the Food of the Soul whereby it lives as the Body by the natural nourishment Food for all sorts of Christians Milk for new-born Infants and Babes in Christ Meat strong Meat to those that are of full age Even those that by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.13 14. And as the Word of God is the Food 2. The Word the Physick of the Soul so is it likewise the Physick of the Soul A Metaphor whereunto St. Paul alludes and whereat he frequently glances through these Epistles If any man consent not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To wholesome words even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.3 And the Apostle elsewhere commends it to his Scholar Timothy under the same name and title 2 Tim. 1. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold fast the form of wholesome words This Physick of the Soul may be said to be wholesome words or sound Doctrine in two respects 1. First formally and in its own nature as being healthfull in it self 2. Secondly causally by way of Energie and operation as healing in the effect First sound Doctrine is healthfull in it self 1. First healthfull in it own nature (a) Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit Senec. de Benef. lib. 2. c. 18. Medici pedes alas Cantharidis cùm ipsa sit mortifera prodesse dicunt Plutarch de audiend Poetis and whereas the natural Physick is many times made up of rank and deadly Poyson yet so corrected and tempered by Art that the malignity and venome is taken out and proves a soveraign Antidote and Preservative This spiritual Physick hath no Venome and Poyson in it but is altogether pure and simple and every way suitable to the Souls health Two Ingredients there are in the Word of God that make it thus healthfull in it self A double Ingredient in the Word 1. The one Truth 2. The other Holiness The first Ingredient in the Word is Truth 1. The first Truth John 17. v. 17. Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth As being an exact Idea a lively Portraicture the perfect Copy and Counterpart of the minde and will of God (b) Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet Joan. Picus Mirandula And as it is Truth in it self so it makes an impression of Truth upon the Soul even as the Seal stamps it own form and figure upon the body of the Wax The Truth of Faith and Manners Truth of Doctrine and Life both these are the effects of the Word of God A second Ingredient of sound Doctrine is Holiness for as it teacheth men to believe aright 2. The second Ingredient of the Word Holiness so it likewise instructs them to live well To live soberly righteously and godly in this present world This is the proper (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. in Paedag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. l. 1. c. 1. End of it to make men better to spiritualize their natures to sanctifie their affections and to bring them unto happiness If any man consent not to wholesome words and to the Doctrine which is according to godliness 1 Tim. 6. v. 3. Those onely are wholesome words that are according to godliness This is the specifical form that distinguisheth them from all other The Apostle reduces and referres these wholesome words to two Heads 2 Tim. 1. v. 13. Hold fast the form of wholesome words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love Faith in Christ and Love toward our Christian Brethren These are the very abstract and summary abridgment of sound Doctrine Secondly 2. Healing in the effect sound Doctrine is healing in the effect like unto the Tree of Life which was planted in the streets of the new Jerusalem that bare twelve manner of fruits and the Leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the Nations Revel 22. v. 2. The Word of God comes to have this healing effect Two manner of ways two manner of ways 1. By a formal contrariety to the Disease 2. By a particular Application to the Patient First 1. First by a formal contrariety to the Disease the Word heals by way of contrariety to the Disease And herein lies the difference betwixt Food and Physick Food is the conversion of the nourishment into the substance of the Body And in that respect Nutrimur similibus we are nourished by things of the same or like nature But Physick is the removing of obstructions the disburthening of superfluities the purging out of malignant humours And therefore Morbi curantur contrariis Diseases are best cured by the contraries There is a contrariety betwixt the Body and the Disease And there is as great a contrariety betwixt the Disease and the Physick 1 Tim. 1. v. 9 10. The Law is not made for the righteous but for the lawless and for the disobedient and for the ungodly and for sinners And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound Doctrine notorious and enormous sins such as are there rehearsed by the Apostle are contrary to sound Doctrine And sound Doctrine is every way as contrary to gross and open sins And it declares and manifests this contrariety by a free and round admonition in a severe and sharp reproof Titus 1. v. 13. Rebuke them sharply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuttingly after the manner of (d) Chirurgum misericordem esse non oportet Celsus Chirurgions as the word imports that they may be sound in the Faith (e) Nec deest censura quae increpet nec medicina quae sanet Cyprian Cutting Reproofs and the paring mens consciences to the quick are an excellent means to make men sound in the Faith There is no way to cure a Gangrene but by cutting off the part affected and by (f) Quae ferro non curantur ignis curat Regula Medicorum cauterising the mortified member If this be not done speedily the whole Body must needs perish The words of the wise are as

MORBVS EPIDEMICVS OR The Disease of the Latter Dayes Discovered and laid open in a SERMON Out of The II Ep. of Timothy ch 4. v. 3 4. By JOHN RAMSEY Minister of East-Rudham In the County of Norfolk We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed Jerem. 51.9 Livy of the Romane State p. 3. Ad haec tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum est LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by Philip Briggs at the Dolphin in St. Paul's Church-yard M.DC.LVI To his right worthy and Learned Friend Mr. JAMES DUPORT One of the Senior Fellows and Vice-Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge SIR IT was the grave advice of St. Hierom to his friend Rusticus Hierom. ad Rustic Ep. 39. Ne ad scribendum citò prosilias levi ducaris insania If I have seemingly transgressed the Rule of the Ancient and this Citò be objected and laid to my charge as an argument of over-much lightness I suppose they that know me in part will readily become though not my Advocates yet my Compurgators And that number of yeers with a surplusage which exempted and discharged the Levites under the Law from the burden of their Office will be thought a sufficient warrant so far forth as concerneth the Age of the Publisher to license the Sermon to the Press As for the Sermon it self the Subject matter of it is spent in the Discovery of the Disease of the Latter Dayes A disease so much the more dangerous by how much it is the more common and Epidemical It is observed of our blessed Saviour upon his first entrance into his publick Office Matth. 4.23 And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdome and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the People And I have herein followed after a sort Christs example and in my first essay in this kind attempted the Cure of that which is causally and virtually all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the People and that is The not enduring Sound Doctrine That the Remedy is accommodate to the Distemper of the present Times I suppose will not be denyed And I shall accompany and send it into the world with this hearty and pithy prayer Faxit Deus ut sit aeque commodum ac accommodum God grant it may prove as profitable as it is truly seasonable If the succinct handling and cursory dispatch of the several parts be prejudged and censured as a fault Let such consider That he who adventures upon a long Journey and is to call in at several places must not protract the time nor stay long in any And as for my choyce in the Dedication I shall make use of no other Apologie then that known Rule in the Civil Law Regulae Juvis Mancipato Patre mancipantur Liberi I may add Etiam Libri and the Truth is one and the same The Father hath been long since bound unto you with the cords of a Man with bands of Love many real and liberal favours And now this sorry Sermon * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Lib. 1. Stron as a Childe of the same Parent becomes bound unto you But I must not exceed the measure of an Epistle and am therein cautioned by the Pen of a Heathen The Letters of Friends and Lovers must not be over-long nor fill both Hands I have no more to say But that next the glory of God and the common Benefit of his Church the propriety and particular interest in this poor Piece and Paper present is wholly yours together with the Author Your very affectionate and observant Friend JOHN RAMSEY 2 Tim. 4.3 4. For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth and shall be turned after Fables THe first words of the Text The coherence of the Text. which stand as a Porter or Portall at the Door of Entrance and lead us into the inner Rooms For the time will come imply and point out unto us that the Text is a Prophecy which in the genuine acception and signification of the word is a Prediction or foretelling of things to come For the Writings of Paul to Timothy though they pass under the name of Epistles Letters of direction and advice sent from him as an Apostle of Christ and a Messenger of the Churches yet in these Epistles of his there are several interspersions and sprinklings of Prophecy three whereof are very observable and remarkable above the rest The first Prophecy concerns that grand Apostacy and falling away from the Faith once delivered to the Saints by Popish idolatry and superstition 1 Tim. 4.1 Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the later Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spirits of errour by an usual Hebraism and Doctrines of Devils The second Prophecy respects the general Atheism and profaneness of mens lives 2 Tim. 3.1 This know also that in the last days perilous Times shall come Heretical Doctrines of Devils as the Apostle stiles them are the Product of the later Times But the deplorable loosness and lewdness of mens manners are the issue of the last days and so nearer the end of the world than the former This the Apostle makes good by a particular enumeration of sins and sinners Vers 3 4 5. For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankfull unholy And then in the close he claps in with this signal character Vers 5. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof as a cloak and covering for all the rest The third and last Prophecy is in the Text and notes out unto us an utter aversness and abhorrence from sound Doctrine which is the onely means to rectifie mens judgments in point of Faith and to correct and reform their dissoluteness and renders them more impatient of the Remedy than of the Malady And so it follows in the Text For the Time shall come The Text then as it lies before you holds forth and presents unto your view the Disease of the later days and for the more methodical and orderly resolution of the words we may take notice of a fivefold specialty 1. The nature of the Disease specified The division of the Text. They will not endure sound Doctrine 2. The cause of the Disease and that is their Lusts After their own lusts 3. The signs or symptoms of the Discase and they are two 1. The first is in the ear Having itching ears 2. The second is the satisfying or scratching this itching ear with a multiplied variety of Instructors They shall heap to themselves Teachers 4. The effect of the Disease and that is

falling off from God and shall be turned after Fables that is a conversion or falling on to the creature For as there is no vacuum or emptiness in nature but it is always replenished and filled with some kinde of Body even so there is no vacuity of sin in the Soul and no sooner hath the minde taken the leave and bid Adieu unto the Truth but it is forthwith entertained and taken up with fond Fables dangerous Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable Heresies or Heresies of damnation as St. Peter stiles them To the denying of the Lord that bought them in his several natures as God and Man yea to the denying of each person in the blessed Trinity and hereof the present Times afford us most sad and wofull experieuce wherein men having once shaken hands with fundamental and saving Truths they are immediately proselyted and perverted to gross errours of all sorts and sizes they turn Anabaptists Familists Quakers Ranters and what not and so bring upon themselves quick destruction And as this follows by a spiritual kinde of necessity there being no vacuum in sin no more than in nature so it chiefly comes to pass and takes effect through the just judgment of God receiving in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That recompence of their errour that was meet as St. Paul speaks of the Gentiles Rom. 1.27 And because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might believe a Lye As the same Apostle tells the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2.10 11. They that will not believe this Truth are justly given over to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That great and prodigious Lye of Antichristian Doctrine And (k) Quia nox faciunt bona quae cognoscunt non cognoscunt mala quae faciunt August seeing they do not the good which they know they are so seduced by the spirit of ignorance and errour that they shall not know the evil that they do But if any demand and ask concerning the time when their Disease shall be in the Paroxysm 5. The time of the Disease the fifth part of the Text. in the full heat and heighth and propound the Disciples question touching the destruction of Jerusalem Matth. 24.3 Tell us when shall these things be St. Paul shall answer the question out of the Text For the time shall come This he spake full sixteen hundred years ago and what was then a Prophecy and a Prediction of a thing to come is now a History and a Relation of what is past And I may a little alter St. Paul's words and turn his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time shall come into The time is come and apply and take up our Saviours words to his Countreymen at Nazareth Luke 4.21 This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears And it may be there are some Readers that will make good St. Paul's Prophecy and will not endure sound Doctrine either Text or Sermon Like unto those of the Popish party (l) Joan. Manl. Collect. whom the Frier justly reproved and told him plainly of it That the Truth he preached was like Holy Water which every one desired and called for with a great deal of earnestness yet when the Sexton cast it on them and sprinkled them therewith they would turn their backs upon it And if there be any such let them make inquiry and narrow search into the cause of the Disease and look to their lusts Let them see if there be not in them a lust of proud ignorance or wanton curiosity or sordid covetousness Let them examine and try it by the several signs and symptomes The Itch of the Ear and the heaping to themselves Teachers young and youthfull Teachers ignorant and unlearned Teachers false and flattering Teachers and let them take heed and beware in the last place of the lamentable effects of it They shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned after Fables But in case men will not endure sound Doctrine The application must the Ministers of God prove mealy-mouth'd and be as men in whose mouths there are no reproofs Or shall they take up the Prophet Jeremy's resolution Jer. 20.9 Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his Name Nay rather let them attend and obserue Ezekiel's charge Ezek. 2.7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most rebellious The Word of God must be spoken and sounded forth both from the Pulpit and the Press whether men will hear (m) Mens boni studii ac pii voti etiamsi effectum non invenerit coepti operis habet tamen praemium voluntatis Salvian de Gubern Dei Praefat. or whether they will forbear and so much the rather when men stop their ears and turn their backs upon it If the Iron be blunt there must be put to more strength Eccles 10.10 The more (n) Gravissimus nodus in ligno non potest expelli nisi gravissimo oppressorio Ambrose knotty and cross-grain'd the Timber is the more sharp and strong must the Wedges be and the forcible blows must be redoubled and repeated and the more thwart and opposite men declare themselves unto sound Doctrine the Ministers of God must be the more importunate and vehement in the pressing and urging of it that is the ground of the Apostles exhortation in the words before the Text and is noted out unto us in the Particle For the first word of the Text. Preach the Word Be instant in season and out of season Reprove Rebuke Exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine 2 Tim. 4.2 For the time will come that they will not endure sound Doctrine And it is a strange kinde of For as if the Apostle should argue in this manner Seeing men stop their ears like the deaf Adder Cry aloud and spare not and cause them to hear whether they will or no and being fallen into a spiritual Lethargy a deep and dead sleep labour to awaken and to arowze them up and sith (o) Mundus senescens patitur Phantasias Gerson contra superstitiosos in this fancy-full Age of the World men are wholly given over to Dreams and Dotages imploy and improve both power and parts to the utmost of your ability to disabuse and undeceive them of their errours And give me leave to apply it to my Brethren of the Ministery The conclusion and to speak it home to my self and others in the Apostles words Preach the Word Be instant in season out of season Reprove Rebuke Exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine And the reason is here rendred in the words of the Text For the Time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth and shall be turned after Fables FINIS