Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A54456
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England's present, great and most incumbent duty viz. to meet God in the way of his judgments / by Robert Perrot.
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R. P. (Robert Perrot)
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1676
(1676)
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Wing P1644; ESTC R30100
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54,399
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96
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the face in New-England as one writes several Horses being there eaten in pursuit of the enemy for want oâ— provisions But though the Lord hath some times threatned this yet blessed be God he hath not yet inflicted it How dreadful an Arrow this is appears by the monstrous and horrid effects thereof as Lam. 4. 10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people O tremble ye women that are at ease and hear and be troubled ye careless daughters Isa 32. 9 11. For what are we better than they This cannot but be looked upon as exceeding sad heavy and horrid as indeed it is But what is sin then that occasions this Thus the Lord has this and several other judgments yet to inflict as Captivity Earthquakes of which in several Counties there has been somewhat a-late Or the Lord can punish by resolving to punish no more I mean with outward punishments As he threatens Hos 4. 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery c. and vers 17 Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone And Isa 1. 5 Why should ye be stricken any more c. And this is very sad For though former judgments have not wrought upon a people yet there may be hopes God pursuing them still with judgments that they may at length be prevail'd with but where Remedies are no more used it argues the case desperate And God hath not only temporal but spiritual judgments to inflict which though least fear'd or felt are the sorest and heaviest of all As to be under a spirit of slumber to hear but not to understand to see but not perceive to have hearts made fat and gross and ears dull of hearing c. Rom. 11. 8 c. To be given up to strong delusions and to believe lies 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12 as many are in these days because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved nor believed the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness So for people to be given up to their own hearts lusts and to walk in their own counsels as Psal 8. 12 So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts c. A dreadful so indeed one of the saddest in the whole book of God worse than to be given up to the Plague Sword c. So we read of a spiritual judgment upon Egypt Isa 19. 11 12 13 14 c. God having mingled a perverse spirit a spirit of frowardness foolishness and madness in the midst thereof so as to deprive them of all wisdom and understanding that they could neither give counsel nor know which way to turn themselves but erred in every work of their hands and were like a drunken man lying in his Vomit who the more he stirs the more he defiles himself and so the more they went on to give counsel the more harm and mischief they did So that all were confus'd and neither persons of high nor low degree had their wits or senses about them neither did any of their businesses prosper or were brought to perfection Herodotus writes of a certain King of Egypt called Psammetychus that he lay with a mighty Army 29 years compleat before the City of Azotus A wise enterprise was it not Thus the Lord wants not plagues still to inflict upon an incorrigible people so that if we still stand it out against him we shall certainly fall before him and he will carry it and have the day Obser 4. If Gods Israel if his people refuse to return to him they must expect no more to be spar'd than others Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel God is here no respecter of persons Jer. 15. 7 I will destroy my people such they professed themselves to be sith they return not from their ways And chap. 12. 7 I have forsaken mine house I have left mine heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies and as I live saith the Lord though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Jer. 22. 24 25 c. Vse Let not any then bear themselves up with this that they are Gods Israel his People as if this would secure them for it will not Therefore thus will I do to thee O Israel And Jer. 7. 12 Go ye now says the Lord unto my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel So may the Lord say Go to Jerusalem go to those Seven once so famous Churches of Asia yea go to Germany and go now to New-England and see what God is doing there Nay this is so far from securing a People that this the rather more incenses his wrath and necessitates his punishing of them Amos 3. 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And Ezek. 9. 6 Begin at my sanctuary c. Obser 5. God does not willingly inflict more and heavier stroaks upon his people For while he threatens here to deal severelier with them he does withal admonish them to meet him which shews he had rather be so prevented and that mercy rather pleases him his usual and ordinary work And he does indeed threaten that he may not inflict Lam. 3. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly c. And how shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel c. Hos 11. 7. Vse Let us not then by our incorrigibleness force him to what he is unwilling and hath as it were a reluctancy CHAP. III. The main and principal Observation Obser 6. WHen God is in the way of his judgments it is his Peoples great duty and concern for to meet him As here he admonishes them Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel And that the Lord doth here invite his people to meet him it doth in a word denote 1. His being angry with them 2. His coming forth as a formidable enemy against them 3. His being yet placable and that there is a possibility yet of appeasing him if his people do but timely address themselves to him But 4. That he will else certainly go on to do what he threatneth Now in the further carrying on this Proposition of so great importance I shall do these Three things 1. I shall shew you how we are to meet God 2. Why we are so to meet him give you the Reasons and grounds thereof And then 3. Apply it 1. How we are to meet God in the way of his judgments 1. More generally We are so to meet him as may best appease him and therefore so meet him as