Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A46792
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A thanksgiving sermon preach'd upon the fifth of November, 1689 by Ben. Jenks.
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Jenks, Benjamin, 1646-1724.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J623; ESTC R28742
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21,433
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42
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into the Dust at the remembrance of his Glory to whom all Nations are counted even less than Nothing and Vanity Not to dress a God in our Fancy such a one as our poor selves to worship our own misconceits instead of the True God who if we Adore not after the Canon of of his own Word 't is not so much honoring him as humoring our selves with the Will-worship not required at our hands Tho here we need not seruple those lowly Forms of Address which speak us sensible of the vast disproportion between us and our Glorious Maker whose least angry Finger on the Wall could so dash a great King in the midst of all his Jollity Dan. 5. that the thousand Lords his Guests and all his Concubines with the richest Fare and Wine and Musick could no more recover him to his late cheerfulness than they could cease to admire his present Dejection Nor is God less to be honored in his Merciful than in his Majestick Relations those allaying the brightness of his Glory and inviting us out of our Dust as with a Scepter extended to warrant our Approaches Indeed then is he most highly honored when most dearly loved for tho Fear may dwell with Hatred Honor is still the product of Love which sets upon its Object the greatest value and entertains it in the highest Room of the Soul. But we do rather Scandalize than Magnifie the God of Love If we fansie him in such horrid Appearances as fill us more with dread than love so that in our Worship we are only dragg'd to him and never taken up delightfully with him looking upon him only as the Malefactor at the Bar eyes the Scarlet Robe ready to appall the last residue of his Hope with a killing Sentence We must not endure any such Opinions of God as reflect disparagement on the Infinite Goodness which so eminently declares his Greatness in doing such noble works of Mercy as all the Power in the World could not and all the Patience in the World besides would not do But when we behold him as the Father of Mercies and Fountain of all Goodness the most amiable Being whose Love is as boundless as his Nature from which Love the mighty Frame of Nature sprang and who so loved the World even when lost that he took the most amazing method for our recovery to make us gainers even by the sad losses of our Fall putting our Salvation in much safer Hands than when it hung only upon our own Free Will and giving the surest word of Promise that he will put his Spirit in his People which shall cause them to walk in his Statutes and his Fear in their Hearts that shall not suffer them to depart from Him so that we are kept now by the power of God himself through Faith to Salvation By this sweet Contemplation of his first loving us the Divine Love is apt to limn its own Effigies on our Souls and powerfully incline us to him as the blessed and only centre of their Rest And what greater thoughts of God can we conceive in our Minds than to look upon him in Christ reconciling the World to himself by that Redeeming Love which well may be stiled Inestimable whose prevalent strains chang'd our Judge into our Advocate and made him pursue his Enemies with nothing but Bounty and compass them about only with Songs of Deliverance Here the heavenly Criticks themselves can but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift up the Curtain to pry into this Mystery of Divine Love but even the Tongues of Angels are at a loss when they would turn the Admiration into Expression Never can we more highly exalt the Name of God than to shew him to the World in such lovely Representations not only as the greatest but the best that has done such unspeakable things to approve his love and engage ours and still supplies a world of Creatures that all depend on him for their Being and every Comfort There are such Pleonasms and Redundancies of his kindness that a great deal still falls even to their share who will never so much as thank him for it And thus we do Magnifie the God infinitely Good when we stand in admiration of such Benignity that we should have any comfort with our lives when we have done so much to spoil all with our sins Yea that not a minute should pass but brings us a new favor from above and gives us more assurance still that he desires our felicity and cannot design our ruin who is love it self and hates nothing that he has made delights not even in the death of sinners nor is willing that any should perish indeed suffering none to perish for the want but only for the contempt of mercy who stands not watching for advantages against us but in fatherly consideration of our Frame makes merciful allowance for our Infirmities and all Dispensations still carry so sweet a savour of good Will to Men that not only when he gives us the smiles of the World 't is to draw us to himself with such Cords of Love but even when he threatens it is to prevent the evils denounced yea when he touches with the Rod 't is but to reduce us into the way of Bliss and supersede our eternal smart And thinking thus well of God we do magnifie the Lord and exalt his Name To do all to the Glory of God an Expression oftner us'd than understood is still to propose this End to our selves that the great and good God may be more known and admir'd rever'd and loved believed and obeyed by us and all Men aiming and endeavouring with whatever we are Masters of and all the interest we have in the World to do service to the Truth and promote the credit of God's holy Religion that it may look like it self in us and the way of Truth may not through our means be evil spoken of And when by due Methods we earnestly pursue our own felicity so we bring God the greatest Glory But that we should be willing to perish our selves for the advancement of his Glory as some have screwd it up is a thing so harsh and extravagant that the very naming it is enough to disprove it seeing God has wrought our Salvation in the frame of his own Glory and he can have no ends in our serving him but that we may thereby serve our own best advantage And this is the greatest honor he expects from us that we should do all we are able to promote our own and others happiest Interests in believing the infallible Truth of his holy Word and making the greatest Conscience in all things to be determined by it Nor only giving a total deference to his Will but reposing all our bliss in his Hands For we cannot honor one more than to reckon him worthy in all things to be hearkened to and sole-sufficient to be relied upon as the wisest and ablest best and willingest to do us good But the Properties of
sooner is any thing to his Praise set a foot amongst them but 't is frown'd upon droll'd away and hist out Not so much as his Name must be mentioned unless in Oaths for fear of spoiling all good Company But besides this Profane Generation that instead of joining to Magnifie the Lord do nothing but vilifie and would if they could even nullifie God Instead of exalting his Name acting as 't were in perfect spight and defiance of him who has told us he will not hold them guiltless that profane it Tossing that tremendous Name in their unhallowed Mouths as a thing of nought and their Blessing and Praising is even nothing but Cursing and Damning There are others a new sort of Nonconformists who peradventure will find that they have not done well to be so angry to stand off from contributing to make up this Harmony to Magnifie the Lord with the rest and exalt his Name together When 't is so good and pleasant for Brethren to dwell together in Unity and best and pleasantest of all to unite in the Praises of him who obliges and blesses us all No Good Fellowship in the World comparable to this when we can as readily concur to celebrate as to participate the Blessings that the Church may go up with general Shouts and Acclamations and the noise of Axes and Hammers in the Temple may not drown the voice of Rejoycing and Salvation That what is as Life from the dead to some may not be as the shadow of Death to others And O that in this sense the Church would once cease to be Militant and learn at last to accord in beginning the Eternal Triumph with one Mind and one Mouth to glorifie God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ O that Hearts and Tongues and Pens might all agree here that some may not be snagling as Saws when others are running as oiled Wheels with enlarged Hearts That we would not postpone the Publick Good to private Piques nor shew our selves so mighty sollicitous for our own little concerns as for the Glorification of the Power Wisdom Mercy and Faithfulness of God in appearing as he has done for his Church But O what a Soil is that wherein the most auspitious Influences of Heaven produce nothing but Briars and Thorns How contrary is this to him that brings good out of evil when we are only for fetching evil out of good and so full of Discontent and Contradiction that there 's no room at all in us for the Praises of God Some may think it a great matter to be quiet that the Government is much beholden to them as extremely obliging when they say nothing but vouchsafe only to hold their Tongues and not load every one with Complaints when the truth is they have all the reason in the World to give Thanks instead of making a Hubbub as if sorely pinch'd and wrong'd But when every Malecontent must set up for a Pope to make a whole Kingdom answer it at their infallible Bar and damn all the Country that are not for driving just the same way as themselves The same Pride that has mislead some will hardly suffer them to own that they have erred And then in what disposition are they to admire the Goodness and gratefully commemorate the Blessings of God when they are All-a-mort and even continually cruciating themselves with the matters to them cross and offensive Here they sit down restive and averse to all Thankfulness poring and hatching on their Grievances till they overlook all that the gracious Lord has done for them and grow not only rude and surly with Men but sour and sullen even to God himself Instead of that cheerful Spirit of Thankfulness which makes Society easie and delightful and sheds abroad the sweet Satisfaction which is like Oil and Wine to facilitate and exhilarate our motions they hang the head and tragically exaggerate the matters they take to be ill and dolefully forebode worse to cast a damp on their own Spirits and exasperate or deject all whom they can influence And here every little busie-body fansies himself no less than an Atlas to bear up the Pillars of the Earth and support a sinking Kingdom betraying nothing so much as Pride and Ill-humor Envy and Vengeance a canker'd Breast and a raw sore Mind unacquainted with the way of Peace To lie barking at the Sun and Moon which God in our doleful distress has raised up to illuminate and refresh our Land. Thus Usurping Judges make bold to shoot their Bolts and dogmatize after some of their own preconceiv'd Measures not allowing a step out of the common Road to unravel what others had so wofully perplext Like idle Spectators on the Shore stand censuring Mariners toiling in a Storm for not observing every Punctilio in Mood and Figure They think Physick may be administred to a wretchedly distemper'd Body without any disturbance When indeed considering into what Exigencies a Jesuitical Conduct had cast us well may we wonder and bless the God who watches for good over us that we are so well as we are that all is not desperate and that any hopes of a better Regulation than those of late are yet before us No marvel if Papists hold themselves agrieved but murmuring Protestants look now somewhat monstrous compos'd of such Contradictions as need an Oedipus to unriddle them when they would have their Religion Regnant and yet they keep a Coil at the Extirpation of that which struggled so hard to ruin it How long shall the Lord bear with such as despise all the Riches of his Goodness and huff and pish at Mercies too good for their betters because every thing is not exactly tasteful to their particular Appetites and hardly forbear to snap at the Hand that brings them all the Tokens of his Love May not he expostulate with them as Num. 14.11 How long will this people provoke me and how long will it be ere they will believe me for all the signs which I have shewed among them When still we are as Incredulous and Misdeeming as if nothing at all had been done for us nothing conferr'd upon us And may we not thus tempt God to bring us yet lower when we are so out of sorts that we are got no higher O when will Dust and Ashes know it self and leave off such Arrogance and daring the free dispencer of every Mercy to turn us out of all To contribute somewhat if it be possible to help us out of this ill Humor to get that foul Jaundice out of our Eyes which discolors the fairest Blessings and makes them mistaken for Grievances and Calamities That the Tares of our Divisions may not still prevail to choak the sweet Fruits of our Thanks and Praise that the strings out of Tune may at last cease their jarring and vain jangling and be wound up into an harmonious Agreement with the rest and change the Cynick Tone into the more becoming Accents of Praise and Thanksgiving to God rejoicing in