Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	call_v	gospel_n	word_n	4,095	5	4.5531	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33270	A brief and pithy treatise about comfort which Gods children have, or at least earnestly desire, and long after whilst they are in this world : together with the observations of comfort and the removal of them / by John Clark ...	Clark, John, 1630-1669.	1670 (1670)	Wing C4467; ESTC R11148	24,538	144

suspend their comfort upon such a kind or proportion of sorrow for sin may without difficulty be rightly determined by any one but a Papist or a like principled So then while the troubled soul rakes in its own sores to find a sorrow proportionable to the sins they stand guilty of they too much justify that doctrine which in their principles they will most fearlesly deny and while through this error they seek righteously by the law they do unwittingly keep themselves under the curse at least as to their own sense and lose the benefit of the Gospel at least as to the present comfort of it Gal. 3.10 21. 3. Prop. Every degree of true godly sorrow bears a Gospel proportion to every sin that is it is that sorrow which the Gospel requires not by way of satisfaction as the law doth but to put the sinner into a preparative capacity to receive Christ and pardon through him For this is not the difference between the law and the Gospel in requiring the same thing that the law requires a greater degree the Gospel is content with a less degree but the true difference consists in this that what the law requires it requires in perfection in order to justification immediately but what the Gospel requires it requires in sincerity with reference to Christ and life by him But what then Is the least degree of this or any other grace in sincerity and truth the most that the Gospel requires No verily for the Gospel cal s for perfection yea and a greater perfection than the law it self doth but this is the indulgence of the Gospel that the first and least degree of grace in truth and sincerity puts the person into a respective capacity of partaking of the promises and benefits of the Gospel it allowing him and requiring him all the remainder of the days of his life to be perfecting his graces thereby to be growing up in Christ his head when he comes to be fully and perfectly united to Christ he may in him be perfect in holiness and happiness together 4. Prop. That is true sorrow which produceth a willingness to be delivered from the power of all sin a reall willingness though the flesh may gainsay and be unwilling For it is no strange thing for such contradictions to be found in Gods children so long as they have flesh as well as spirit the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary I choose to note out sorrow by its effects rather than by describing it in its nature because it is much more discernable in its effects than in its nature and the truth of it in this effect as much if not more than in any other effect thereof 5. Prop. That is godly sorrow which produceth a sight of our need of Christ and a willingness to close with him on the terms of the Gospel For whereas the tenour of the Gospell is comprehended in those two words repent and believe such a repentance is spoken of as prepares and leads a man to Jesus Christ and that is the repentance which God requires and in the Gospel calls for I need not precisely distinguish between godly sorrow and true repentance which are frequently used as terms of the same import in scripture although it do distinguish them also but so as that godly sorrow doth certainly produce repentance to salvation and therefore whether mediately or immediately it matters not but certainly that sorrow is according to God and the Gospel which prepares the heart to receive Christ by faith and then it is easie to judge whether that sorrow for sin which brings a man to see an absolute necessity of Christ and produceth a willingness to close with him upon the terms of the Gospel be a godly sorrow or no. 6. Prop. The fear of Hell and damnation is no unlawful or ungospel ingredient of godly sorrow It is matter of great perplexity to the souls of many of Gods Children to find upon serious consideration that the fear of being everlastingly damned hath a great influence upon that sorrow for sin and fear of sinning which they really find in themselves judging all such sorrow to be carnall because it proceeds not purely from a principle of love to God Indeed I cannot but look upon it at least as a piece of great inconsiderateness in some who teach that godly sorrow for sin doth purely respect God and his goodness and that that which respecteth the safety of the soul from damnation is legall and carnall which is a doctrine that is contrary both to the principles of nature and the word of God and Gospel of Jesus Christ Whoever thought it unlawfull to fear the plague sword famine poyson or the like upon this very account because they are destructive to the body or to sorrow for those outward evils when present as well as to fear them when they are yet but imminent and that for the bodies sake the being whereof is endangered thereby And if it be lawfull to fear and grieve for the sake of the body those evils which threaten the ruine thereof how much more consentaneous to reason is it to fear and grieve for sin and its consequents upon the souls account which is thereby endangered to be lost for ever But to let pass such argumentations Hath not God also in his word both permitted and commanded that we should have so much respect to our own immortal souls as well as to his pleasure and honour as for the sake of them and their safety to fear sin hell damnation yea and God himself too because of his power to destroy Heb. 4.1 Mat. 10.28 And if to fear sin upon that account so as to avoid the commission of it then also upon the same account to grieve and sorrow for sin when committed and if we may fear God because of his power to destroy then may we also sorrow for sin through fear of Gods displeasure and the displaying of that his power for the everlasting destruction both of the soul and body of the sinner I say not but that sorrow for sinners arising from a principle of love to God may be esteemed the more childlike disposition and an higher attainment and therefore to be laboured after yet this I say also that it is not at all alien from the property of a good Son to grieve for an offence committed against his father for fear of the effects of his fathers displeasure These propositions may be so applyed as to resolve all doubts and scruples that may arise concerning the occasion measure truth or Gospel rectitude of sorrow for sin whereby it may be distinguished from legall and carnall or defective which are usually the matter of the troubled souls perplexities about this point SECT IX Of the pardonableness of sin AS the assurance of the pardon of sin cannot but be matter of great joy to the people of God and is

but little satisfaction to the troubled soul to say with some that the Apostles it is impossible to renew them again to repentance doth not speak of an absolute impossibility but of a very great difficulty as when Christ seemed to make it an impossible thing for a rich man to be saved yet that it was not impossible with God I will not take upon me to disprove that interpretation but that which will be most satisfactory is to suppose the worst as to be sure the troubled soul will doe and so to look upon it as reall impossibility for such an one as the Apostle there speaks of to be renewed again to repentance And then I shall first lay down these unquestionable propositions by way of premisall 1. Prop. It is certain that those who have not onely received some enlightnings and common graces of the Spirit but are also really and truely sanctified may through temptation and infirmity doe those things which they know to be sin as no doubt but David knew murder and adultery to be sins and Peter could not but know it to be a sin to deny Christ and to common experience will bear witnesse to the same 2. Prop. It is as certain that the will may consent to the commission of known sins David was not constrained to the commission of the forementioned sins 3. Prop. And it is no less certain that such may be renewed again to repentance as David and Peter were Yet no doubt but such circumstances do render the sin more than ordinary hainous From hence we conclude that except we make the doctrin all and historical parts of Scripture absolutely repugnant and contrary to each other yea one doctrinall part to another we may safely say that a person who hath been enlightned and received the knowledge of the truth hath tasted the heavenly gift been made partaker of the Holy-Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come may with external evident compulsion commit great and known sins without being sealed up under impenitency or his sin necessarily acquiring the black and horrid die of unpardonableness thereby But then as touching the meaning of the Apostle in the forementioned places to me it seemes plain to any considerative and impartiall eye that the Apostle speaks onely of total Apostacy and pronounceth that dreadful doome onely against Apostates i. e. those who having received and owned the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ do afterwards without any compulsion or other seeming necessity wholly renounce Jesus Christ and all the truths of the Gospel and become open and professed enemies thereunto This is apparent in the former place where the Apostle saith not if such shall fall into sin but if such shall fall away that is wholly turn away from Christ and the Gospel utterly renouncing them as fables and impostures And for the other place it is as apparent that the Apostle speaks not of every wilful sin or sin against knowledge but such wilfull sinning as whereby a man declares himself an adversary and professed enemy to Christ and the Gospel as it were trampling upon Christ in that he makes no more account of his blood than of the common blood of a malefactor and doing despite to the spirit of grace by whom he had before been brought so far onward in Christianity as to own Christ and to acknowledg the truth of the Gospel and make a profession of religion For further satisfaction I refer you to Dr. Gouge upon these places in his Comment on the Epistle to the Hebrews But these things are so clear that whether we look upon these places as containing a description of the sin against the Holy-Ghost or not yet it is manifest that howsoever the troubled soul may apprehend it self guilty of sins aggravated with wilfulness or other like hainous circumstances yet if they come short of totall apostacy from Christ and open renouncing of the Gospel they cannot reasonably conclude from these places that there sins are unpardonable and themselves sealed up under a state of impenitency and there fore they are to look upon these thoughts as temptations cast in by the Devil for the hindrance of them from returning to Christ for the cure of their spiritual distempers and the recovery of the joys of their salvation SECT XI Of the day of grace the time of visitation or the accepted time IT is certain that there is nothing so irrecoverable or irrevocable as time when it is once past and gone so that if any ones salvation do depend upon any certain particular or limited time it is as impossible for such an one to be saved if they overslip that time or opportunity as it it to call time back again Hence it ariseth that unspeakable horrour which sometimes seizeth upon the soul by apprehending that the day of grace is past and gone equall with that which ariseth from the apprehension of having committed the sin against the Holy-Ghost because it is equally impossible to recall that time which God hath fixed by a firm decree as to obtain the pardon of that sin which God hath absolutely pronounced unpardonable Now therefore for extricating the troubled soul out of this Labyrinth it will be necessary to enquire whether there be any such fixed or limited time which it is and how it may be discovered There are three expressions in scripture which are commonly looked upon as pointing out to us such a limited time In Luke 19.44 it is called the time of visitation In 2 Cor. 6.2 there is mention of the accepted time and the day of salvation It will be necessary to premise something for explication of these expressions that the way for resolving the doubts hence arising may be the more clear We must observe that the time or day of visitation is used very variously in Scripture For sometimes there is mention of a visitation in a way of judgement and sometimes in a way of mercy And indeed in the old Testament it is most frequently used for the time of Gods Punishing or destroying a people for their sins as in Jer. 10.15 Jer. 50.27 Isa 26.14 And in Numb 16.29 it is used to signify an unusual and strange kind of death and destruction This kind of visitation is desirable to none But otherwhile it is used to signify Gods merciful providences to a person or people By his common providences of mercy he is said to visit as Psa 8.4 and Psa 65.9 But in the new Testament the word is most commonly used to signify more speciall blessings 1. As the great and general blessing of sending Christ into the world to redeem his people Luk. 1.68.78 Luk. 7.16 And the particular time of this visitation is over to all not to the prejudice but to the generall benefit of the world 2. It is used to signify all means of grace and offers of mercy by Christ in the Gospel Luk. 19.44 How the time of this visitation is