Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A34429
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An exhortation to firmness and constancy in true religion in a sermon preached at St. Mary Islington, Feb. 2, 1689/90 / by Shadrach Cooke ...
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Cooke, Shadrach, 1655?-1724?
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C6037; ESTC R20683
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19,785
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32
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I may say with the Apostle Beloved if in these things our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And this will be such a Qualification as will keep us steady and immovable against all Opposition We shall have that Conviction from within and those regular Motions in our Hearts as will dispose us to a sutable Behaviour in all our Actions For as a good Tree cannot bring forth corrupt Fruit so a Mind well Principled and Indued will be evermore happily disposed to Subdue and Conquer whatever may tempt us to this Sin And believe me it requires a firm and well settled Faith to bear us up against all those Hardships and Difficulties that oppose us in our Christian State Whence you see how necessary and requisite it is seriously and often to consider the Case between God and our Souls to become every day more and more confirmed and settled in the great and weighty Concerns of our Faith and our Religion And hereupon we may do well in our present Circumstances to consider the Nature and Excellency of that Faith which is professed among us that we grow in it more and more and be firm and constant to it For we enjoy God be blessed a Faith truly Orthodox and Catholick in the best and purest Church upon Earth That doth not prohibit or lock up the holy Scriptures from any but doth enjoyn and practice the constant and daily Use and Reading of them Where Sacraments are administer'd as Christ enjoyn'd them in a most grave solemn and decent Manner Whose Prayers are most pious and heavenly every way suted to our several Wants and Necessities and able to warm our Souls with a most fervent Zeal and Devotion Let us study to improve in the knowledge and practice of this Faith which will happily secure us from all dangerous Errors and Superstition Here we are taught and enjoyn'd due Obedience to God strict Loyalty to our Prince Love and Charity to all Men. Its Doctrins are Sound and Orthodox It s Discipline Pure and Primitive And as many as walk by this Rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God And now having so Good so True and Sound a Faith and Religion if we desire and expect that God should preserve and continue it to us Let us hold fast this Profession of our Faith without wavering That nothing prevail upon us to injure desert or betray this truly Catholick and Apostolick Faith as professed in the Church of England The more we consider of or know it the better shall we like it and become the firmer in it upon a due and serious Examination and right Understanding of it We shall find it will both deserve and instruct us in a firm Constancy and Resolution against all Opposition and Difficulty whatever Finally my Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might Put on the whole Armor of God that ye may able to stand against the Wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers against spiritual Wickedness if the darkness of this World on High places wherefore take unto you the whole Armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil Day and having done all to Stand Eph. 6.10 4. It may be again requisit herein to set before us the Pattern and Example of Christ who was eminent in all Perfections but especially Remarkable for this insomuch that he himself tells us For this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear Witness unto the Truth Which he never dissembled but constantly asserted with the greatest Courage and Resolution I speak openly in the Synagogue So far was he from Fear or Cowardice and so compleat this Pattern that he underwent the extreamest Sufferings even unto Death for Truth and a good Cause This Captain of our Salvation being so Brave and Generous we are obliged both in Favour and Duty to imitate and resemble his Courage and Constancy and like him firmly maintain Truth and Integrity whatever it costs us This will resemble us to Christ at present and bring us to the Enjoyment of him hereafter Whereupon I shall conclude with the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.13 I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good Confession that thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. For another prevention or direction against this great Evil let us often think and consider of that great and terrible Threatning here mentioned And that if we be ashamed of him and his Words in this Adulterous and Sinful Generation of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels And certainly frequent and serious reflexions on that great and glorious Appearance and that his coming in such a Solemn and Terrible manner to recompence Punishment on us should preserve us firm and steadfast in all holy Duties For should it not make us even now shrink and tremble to think with our selves that he will call us to a strict Account and punish us most severely for these things another Day How shall we look or what shall we be able to say when we come to appear before him in such Majesty and Honour Wherefore if we keep the Thoughts of this so great and terrible Appearance always fresh and settled in our Minds it will make us not dare to be guilty of so great a Sin as we will answer hereafter at our utmost peril For if we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 6. Let us be strict and sincere in all holy Duties That we adorn the Doctrin of Christ in all things and walk worthy of our Profession A good Faith is the most of all indanger'd by an undue and irregular Practice If by our ungodly and wicked Lives we Dishonour our Religion we make a very forward step towards a denial of it and it may be just in God quite to remove it from us If therefore we would consult the Interest of true Religion and do design or would desire the security and continuance of it Let us walk conscienciously by the Rule we profess and not dare any longer to continue practices so repugnant to all Piety and Religion remembring what the Apostle threatens some Who because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie 2 Thess 2.10 But to compleat and perfect all we must be sure to superadd in the Seventh and Last Place our most humble and hearty Prayers to Almighty God That he by his Grace or Holy Spirit would assist us against this great and fatal Evil. That he would support us under all Dangers and carry us through all Temptations That he would stablish strengthen settle us That he would graft in our Hearts the Love of his Name increase in us true Religion nourish us with all Goodness and of his great Mercy keep us in the same That he being our Ruler and Guid we may so pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things Eternal That so Christ our Lord may not be ashamed of us when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work 2 Thess 2.16 17. FINIS
call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel They despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices Whence we proceed to consider Fifthly A consequence of most dreadful Ruin and Destruction for the great End and Design of that his most Solemn coming to Judgment is to pass an irrevocable Sentence of Happiness or Misery on all Mankind and so accordingly this here before us must signify or imply the most dreadful Case or Condemnation of such Sinners at that Day This then shall be their Sentence Depart ye Cursed into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And the very worst place in this shall be assigned them They shall have their Portion with Hypocrites for such they are in the highest Nature and Degree They who believe in God and do thus shamefully Dissemble with him or deny him in an Adulterous and Sinful Generation when it may be most Glorious or Necessary to own or attest his Truth strictly to maintain Faith and a good Conscience are the most Guilty and shall be the most Miserable of all Men in another World Of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels And having thus as briefly and as plainly as I could set forth the dreadful Punishment of such Men especially as here intimated or represented by our Saviour I think it may be very needfull and requisite to propound in the Fifth and Last place The means to avoid this so very Great and Dangerous Evil. In order whereunto I shall lay down these following Rules or Directions 1. Let us consider The shortness and great uncertainty of this present Life This being a most likely means to prevent all Temptations to this Evil which are occasioned through Mens overmuch Concern or Fondness for this present World This as we before observed doth too often make us withdraw our Thoughts from God and become Treacherous against him Wherefore if Men would learn to set a due Estimate on Things here below and consider these Worldly Pleasures and Enjoyments as they are in themselves mean and transitory and that as Solomon saith All is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit We should be less desirous or inclined to purchase them at so high a Price Is a little temporal Interest that may soon come to nothing Is a vain blast of Honour or Ambition or any thing that we can aim at in this World Satisfactory and Lasting Why then should they any wise dissettle us in the great Concerns of Faith and Religion Can any Thing in this World be worth the buying at so dear a Rate The fashion of this World saith the Apostle passeth away And would we but esteem of it accordingly it would induce us to have meaner thoughts of Things here below and set them upon Things above And hereupon we should be fully convinc'd That Truth and Religion were the only solid and lasting Comforts and that we have nothing here so valuable as Faith and a good Conscience But if we are still resolved to make Mammon our God and to prefer the Pleasure or Interest of this World before all Things it is to be expected and not wondered at that Men should be ashamed of Christ and his Words in this Adulterous and Sinful Generation 2. Let us duly consider and reflect-upon The great Concern and Interest of our Soul Which seems to be the very means or remedy here propounded by our Saviour himself for the prevention of so great an Evil Ver. 36. For what shall it profit a Man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul Whâ—soever therefore shall be c. Suppose we could promote the highest Interest here in this World yet this is not able to preponderate or make amends for the Loss or Damage we sustain thereby or undergo for it Our Souls or Spirits are of a most durable and lasting Nature Now Religion promotes their great and highest Interest by adhearing closely to Faith and a good Conscience We procure the Love and Favour of God which is better than Life it self We lay up an incorruptable Treasure in Heaven We secure our best part That which is indeed only and properly our selves Let us then but value these our Souls at a due and reasonable Rate and we shall not be apt to be seduced by unworthy Compliances to renounce or be ashamed of our highest Interest and to cast away our selves for ever Would we thus frequently think of and deeply consider the great Value and Interest of our immortal Souls it would happily secure our falling into so great an Evil and most effectually subdue all kind of Temptations to it unless Men were disposed to run themselves upon the most apparent Ruin and Destruction And this will bring me to a 3. Thing requisite thereunto A due and frequent Examination of our present Faith and Religion 'T is a duty plainly laid down and strictly injoyned by the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates A firmness in Faith doth necessary imply a precious Knowledge and Understanding of it for we cannot be said to be withdrawn from what we do not first own and understand Now 't is much to be feared and suspected That too many who seem to be very Resolute and make a very great Noise about Faith and Religion do not rightly if at all conceive or apprehend what they mean by them For Men are apt to take up with Hear-say Education or the like Whereas that Faith is only and properly ours which we embrace upon our own Knowledge or Approbation And now to prevent or avoid the Evil before us let us duly weigh and consider how we are disposed and qualified in the great and weighty Matters of Religion There is much talk and a great noise made about it in the World But doth my Soul rightly apprehend or consider what is meant by it or what is the design of it Do I believe the Word of God and those great and mysterious Truths he hath discovered to me Am I afraid of his Judgments assured of his Promises and convinced of his Veracity in all Things Do I trust upon his Power Mercy and Goodness And am I assured of his just Anger and Severity Am I convinced and perswaded in the Truth and Excellency of those Things I profess to believe And is all this firmly fixed and rooted in my Soul Not in Word or in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth And do I believe with all my Heart with all my Soul and with all my Mind Hereupon