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
A82313	The building and glory of the truely Christian and spiritual church. Represented in an exposition on Isai. 54, from vers. 11. to the 17. Preached to His Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax and the general officers of the army, with divers other officers, and souldiers, and people, at Marston, being the head-quarter at the leaguer before Oxford, June. 7. 1646. / By William Dell, minister of the Gospel, attending on His Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax in the Army. Together with a faithful testimony touching that valiant and victorious army, in the epistle to the reader. Published by authority.	Dell, William, d. 1664.	1646 (1646)	Wing D918; Thomason E343_5; ESTC R200942	30,138	43

heaven and so he will give Nations and Kingdomes for them and hath said The Nation and kingdome that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations that be utterly wasted On that this Kingdome in it selfe and in its representation would avoid this evill as they would escape this end The 4. Monarchies for opposing the Spirituall Church have fallen for its sake and so shall every other Kingdome and Common wealth that undertakes against it Verse 16. Behold I have created the Smith that blowes the coales in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work and I have created the waster to destroy Verse 17. But no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper c. Thou art saith God to the Church a small weak despised contemned persecuted people but thy safety protection blessing lyes in me and in my power and wisedome and lovs Behold I have created the smith c. That is I have formed him that makes the Sword and Gun and Pike and that prepares the Ammunition and both he that makes the weapon and he that useth it are in my hands and they shall only do what I would have them do and no more and so No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper God blunts the edge of the weapon and weakens the hand and puts fear into the heart of him that useth it and so no weapons that have been used have prospered hitherto and if any more weapons shall be used hereafter they shall be as unprosperous as these And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn Two wayes you see the enemies of the Church assault the Church by their hands and by their tongues and this latter way is the more dangerous of the two by the former they scourge the Church with rods by this latter with Scorpions This weapon of the tongue is the most dangerous weapon that ever was used against the Church in any age and the last refuge of the Devill and his instruments to annoy the Church And thus when the enemy failes at the strength of his weapons he undertakes againe with the malice of his tongue and with this the enemy strikes against the Saints that professe the truth and against the truth it selfe professed by the Saints Against the Saints that professe the truth clothing them with odious names and loading them with base aspertions Independents and Sectaries and Schismaticks and Hereticks some such there are indeed in the Kingdome but they abuse the precious Saints of God with these and other reproaches and so crucifie Christ againe in his body not between two theeves but between two hundred theeves that so it may be the greater difficulty to discerne him Their tongues rise up in judgement against them it intimates they shall have specious pretences against the Church Oh these are the men that would turn the world upside downe that make the Nation full of tumults and uproares that work all the disturbance in Church and State it is fit such men and Congregations should be suppressed and that they should have no imployment in Church or State it will never be a quiet world till some course be taken with them that we may have truth and peace and government againe And thus they have faire pretences against the godly and use the glorious names of truth peace and government to the destruction of them all And this is the sense of these words for their tongues to rise up in judgement against them Yea me thinks this phrase intimates thus much as if they would call in the aide and power of the secular Magistrates against the spirituall Christians and then their tongues rise up in judgement against them indeed and except they engage the Magistrates power against the Saints they think they can never doe them mischiefe enough And thus their tongues rise up in judgement against the Saints that professe the truth 2. As the enemy strikes with their tongue against the Saints that professe the truth so also against the truth professed by the Saints and this they call by way of reproach new light as their predecessors at the beginning of the breaking forth of the Gospel in this Kingdome called it New learning yea they call the truth error and the very minde of Christ in the word heresie and the power of godlinesse Independency and the contending for the faith once given to the Saints faction and sedition and the like and this grieves the Saints a thousand times more then any personall reproaches to heare the truth and light and life and spirit of the Gospel despised and spoken against and blasphemed this is that that fetches not only teares from their eyes but even drops of blood from their hearts the truth of God being much dearer to them then their estates or names or lives But see how God conquers this weapon of the enemies tongue to the faithfull aswell as the former weapons of their hands every tongue that riseth up in judgement against thee thou shalt condemne All that speake and rage and raile and reproach and slander and vilifie and abuse the Saints either by their tongues or pens thou by thy uprightnesse integrity innocency truth faithfulnesse shalt condemn them thy wayes and thy works that are led and acted in Christ and his Spirit shall be the condemnation of all thine enemies and their misreports and slanders shall be done away as a mist before the Sun and thy righteousnesse and integritie shall break forth in that clearnesse and brightnesse and strength that they shall sit down astonished and amazed and they shall be condemned not only by the word and by the Saints but by all the common morality of the world yea and by their own conscience so that they shall carry their guilt with them night and day and shall not be able to look the godly in the face whom they have so reproached the very presence of the Saints shall be the condemnation of their enemies who have before so unworthily judged them yea the whole world shall see the faithfulnesse and integrity of the Saints of God and shall justifie them and condemne their enemies and shall say lo these are the men that the world judged for Sectaries and Schismaticks and what not see how faithfull they have beene to God and the true Church of God and to the State and surely th●y must needs be bad men that are enemies to these And thus while our enemies judge us they shall be condemned themselves And this shall certainly be done as sure as the word of God is true and as sure as the Lord lives to make good his word For This is the heritage of the Servants of the Lord That is you shall have this by as sure right as any man hath an inheritance that is entailed upon him This is your heritage O ye servants of the Lord to make voyd the force of every weapon that is used against you and to condemne every tongue that judgeth you This promise is our portion the lot of our inheritance and in this we rejoyce that while we serve the Lord truly and faithfully neither the hands nor tongues of the enemy shall hurt us but in the end we shall be more then Conquerours over all Let my portion fall in this pleasant place and I shall have a goodly heritage And their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord That is these servants of mine are not men of a humane and morall righteousnes only but they pertake of the righteousnes of God in Christ Their righteousnesse is of me or thus though they are sinners before the world for as the world reckons their own sinne for righteousnesse so it reckons Gods righteousnesse for sin yet they are righteous before me and in my eyes So that how ever the world reckons us evill doers and not worthy to live in the world yet God reckons us righteous and our righteousnesse is before him To conclude seeing God hath engaged himselfe to secure us in his wayes both from the weapons and tongues of men Goe and tell the Foxes that we will walk without feare in the world both to day and to morrow and the third day we shall be perfected FINIS Jer. 36 32. John 8. 44. Deut. 33. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Revel. 5. 9. Vse Vers 11.

The Building and Glory of the truely Christian and Spiritual CHURCH Represented in an EXPOSITION On Isai. 54 from vers 11 to the 17. PREACHED To His Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax and the General Officers of the Army with divers other Officers and Souldiers and People At Marston being the Head-quarter at the Leaguer before Oxford June 7. 1646. By WILLIAM DELL Minister of the Gospel attending on His Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax in the Army Together with a faithful TESTIMONY touching that valiant and victorious Army in the Epistle to the Reader Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Verse 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Psal. 69. 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Published by Authority LONDON Printed for G. CALVERT at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1646. To the READER HAving obtained this grace from God to be called into some friendship and familiarity with Jesus Christ so as to hear and receive from him something of the minde and bosome of the Father according to his free grace who hath mercy on whom he will and having after many tears and temptations not unknown to many yet in the body obtained this further grace to speak the Word of God with boldnesse I have also been counted worthy to be taken into some fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and to endure the contradiction of sinners and oft-times to encounter the rage and madnesse of men yea and to fight with men after the manner of beasts altogether brutish and furious And thus it hath fared with me often especially at two remarkable times The one at Lincoln upon occasion of two Sermons preached there on these words of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 9. 7. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end Wherein giving unto Christ his own proper due many were angry I had taken too much from men to whom yet nothing belongs but iniquity shame and confusion they could not bear this that the Lord alone should be exalted But that Doctrine of truth the Lord hath strongly upheld with the right hand of his righteousnesse and the glory of it hath since shone into many hearts in this Kingdom much contrary to their desire The other time wherein I met with remarkable opposition was lately at Marston the Head quarter at the Leaguer before Oxford whither some coming out of the City of London in all probability out of some special designe seeing the old malignity now acts in a new form and is daily coming forth in a second and more plausible cunning and deceiving edition became exceeding angry and headie against the plain and cleer truth of the Gospel delivered in this following Exposition wherein the whole truth and substance of what was then delivered is exactly set down and nothing abated but rather some things farther pressed adding as Jeremiah in the second roll many like words to the former New some of these men seeing themselves and their new designe cleerly discovered by the light of the Word and made altogether naked suddenly they grew fierce and furious contradicting and blaspheming yea some of them speaking the language of hell upon earth of which there are some witnesses as became men of such a generation These men according to the operation of that spirit which works mightily in the children of disobedience come and fill the whole City with lyes and slanders laying to my charge things that I knew not the falshood and untruth whereof there are some hundreds and some of them of great and eminent worth and piety ready to witnesse Wherefore of meer necessity I was constrained to publish this Exposition as a witnesse to this present and the following generations of these mens resisting the Spirit and acting against Christ himself in the Word And though the discourse be very plain not savouring of any accuratenesse of humane wisedom and learning yet they that are themselves spiritual will acknowledge somthing of the Spirit in it and for that cause will rellish and love it though others will therefore be at the greater enmity against it But for my part I have set down my resolution in the Lord in this Cause of Jesus Christ not to weigh all the power of earth or hell one feather but to put it to the utmost trial whether the truth of the Gospel or the slanders and lyes of men shall prevail whether the smoke of the bottomlesse pit that comes forth out of the mouth of these and many others shall be able to blot out or darken the brightnesse of Christs coming in the Ministery of the Gospel yea and whether the power and malice of the devil and the world shall be stronger then the love and protection of Jesus Christ And I doubt not but the more the world acts in the Spirit of the devil the more will Christ enable us to act in his own Spirit till all at last shall be forced to acknowledge that the Spirit that is in us is stronger then the spirit that is in the world And what now have all these men obtained by all their malice and fury but a greater and more open discovery of the truth and to cause that that light of the Gospel that onely shone in one Congregation should through the printing of it have its beams scattered in many parts of the Kingdom and wherever the truth comes the children of the truth will entertain it ask no body leave And thus through the over-ruling power of Gods wisedom do these men betray their own and their fellows cause and overthrow their own and their ends and whilst they think to oppresse the truth propagate it the more and thus shall truths enemies perish and the truth it self flourish yea flourish through slanders oppositions contradictions blasphemies and all the vilenes and villany in the world And all this confidence in us arises hence because Christ is not as a dead man but is risen and ascended and sits at the right hand of God and fills all things doth all things in heaven and in earth in the world and in the Church among his friends among his enemies till these be made his footstool which is the very thing we are now in expectation of Now one thing more which I think fit to acquaint the world withal in this Epistle is this That none of these thorny hearers durst after come to discourse with me or to look me in the face but one among them that seemed of a better temper then the rest upon the urging of a godly Citizen then present did speak with me and the question he asked of me was this Whether I thought that all Presbyterians were carnal Gospellers I told him I was far from thinking any such thing for I knew

the very presence of God himself is there as he saith I will dwell in them and walk in them Agreeable to this is that of Christ where he saith All this shall they do to you for my Names sake that is when the Name of Christ is called upon us and we are taken into his Name that is into his righteousnesse and life and truth and wisedom and holinesse and into his Nature which comprehends all this then when the world perceives the Name of God in the Sons of men and the nature of God in the natures of men then presently they fall a persecuting the Saints for this Name and Natures sake and he that strikes at God in his Saints would if he could strike at God in himself And therefore let the world take heed what they do in this point for while they persecute the Saints they are found fighters against God himself because God is one with them and they are one with God in Christ And let the Saints be admonished so to hide and retire themselves into God through Christ that whoever is an enemy to them and opposes them may rather be an enemy to God and oppose God then them they living and acting in God and not in themselves Now this affliction the Church meets with in the world is profitable for the Church it is good for it that it should be afflicted for the more it is afflicted in the flesh the more it thrives in the Spirit this affliction stirres us up to the exercise of our faith and prayer yea then is our faith most active and vigorous and our prayers most fervent till they fill the whole heavens again then are we most in the use of the Word then are we set off furthest from the world then do we keep closest to God then have we neerest intercourse and communion with him so that we could better want fire and water and the sun then want affliction which God out of his meer love through his over-ruling power and wisedom causes to work unto us for good So that we who are placed in the hand of Christ are set in such a condition wherein nothing can do us any harm for ever but evil it self must work good unto us But we proceed tossed with tempest Where we see that the Church is not onely afflicted but violently afflicted one wave comes against it after another as in a tempest and the more spiritual the Church is the more doth the world become as a raging sea against it because the more spiritual the Church is made it is set in the more contrariety to the world and the world to it The Psalmist describes this temper in the world against the Church They came upon me like a ramping and a roaring Lion And again They came upon me to eat up my flesh as they would eat bread When the Saints have appeared in the Spirit and acted in the Spirit how violent and enraged hath the world been against them it would tosse them as in a tempest from place to place from post to pillar as they say till it hath quite tost them out of the world Yea men naturally meek and moderate how fierce have they become against the Saints when there hath appeared any glorious discoveries of Christ in them For the enmity that is in the seed of the Serpent against the seed of the woman will be still breaking forth And though it may for a time be covered under many moral vertues and a form of godlinesse yet when God leaves them to themselves and lets them act outwardly according to their inward principles how ernelly and maliciously and fiercely and desperately do they act against the Saint of God Yea there is not that enmitie between Turk and Jew as there is between carnac Gospellers and spiritual Christians the former hating these and being angry against these to the very death And whenever the Lord shall suffer these to exercise their enmity against the Church then shall the Churches condition become such as it is here described afflicted and tossed with tempest and not comforted The Chuurch of God in all the evil it meets withal in the world hath not one drop of comfort from the world it hath affliction tribulation persecution from the world but no comfort This we see in Christ the Head you know what he suffered in the world in the days of his flesh he was despised and rejected of men and so full of sorrows that he took his name from them and was called A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief At last out of meer envie and malice they apprehended him bound him buffeted him spit on him crucified him and all this would have been but a small matter to have suffered from the Heathen but he suffered all this from the onely visible Church of God in the world who put him to the most painful and shameful death of the Crosse between two malefactors to bear the world in hand that he was the third and the chief And in all this evil he had no body to pitie him or have compassion on him but they laughed at him and derided him and mocked and jeered him but no body comforted him And as it was with Christ the Head so it is with Christ the body and members they in all the evils and woes and sorrows and oppositions and persecutions they have from the world have no body to comfort them or take compassion on them Refuge failed me saith David no man cared for my soul Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse saith Heman Psal. 88. 18. Brethren and Beloved ye that are partakers of the heavenly calling and of the divine nature if ever the Lord suffer the world to prevail against you to afflict you and tosse you from one evil ●o another as in a tempest to reproach you throw you out of your comforts banish you imprison you c. you shall finde no body to comfort you no body will take notice of you or regard you or own you or pitie you or be so sensible of your condition as to say Alas my brother You must look for affliction in the world but you must look for no comfort there When God shall cast us into sorrows and sufferings let us not look for one worldly man to stand by us no not of those that now smile upon us and pretend friendship to us no nor yet of our neer relations but then that shall be fulfilled I was a stranger to my brethren an alien to my mothers children Nay yet further they that are weak or worldly Christians will stand aloof from thee and will be shye to own and countenance and encourage and comfort thee publikely The disciples of Christ when he was led to the Crosse they all forsook him and fled and left him to tread the wine-presse alone And so if you suffer in the righteousnesse and truth of God you shall finde little comfort from men O thou