Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	great_a	time_n	4,486	5	3.5288	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41438	The interest of divine providence in the government of the world a sermon preached at Guild-Hall-Chappel, before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, Febr. xi. 1682 / by J. Goodman ...	Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing G1109; ESTC R20428	16,326	48

Jealousies to cure our Melancholies and consequently to promote Peace and Settlement both in Church and State Therefore I shall not doubt either of your patience or attention whilst I give account of these three things First I will shew what is meant by this expression the Lord reigneth Secondly I will demonstrate the truth of the assertion That God Almighty exerciseth a reigning Providence in the World Lastly I will bring this down to practice by discovering the great influence this truth hath upon all the interests of mankind And by that time I perswade my self you will be ready to make the application in my Text and give example to the rest of the World to rejoice that the Lord is King 1. I begin with the first what is meant by this expression the Lord reigneth I cannot imagine that any one that hears me should phansie this expression to give countenance to a Fifth Monarchy as they call it as if such an interest in the Government of the World was hereby asserted to the Divine Majesty as should repeal or disannul the Authority of Temporal Princes and Potentates or that they must become Usurpers because God is King For besides that as I shall shew anon they are only Gods Vicegerents and Instruments of his Government and so being subordinate cannot be repugnant to him Besides this I say it is evident that David who I suppose indited this Psalm reigned at this time as a Temporal Prince and neither thought his Royalty impeached by the Divine Soveraignty nor an invasion of the Divine Prerogative And as little can I suspect that any should be so unreasonable as to think that the supposition of a Divine Providence should supersede and discharge the use and efficacy of second causes for it is a reigning Providence we speak of now to reign is to command in chief not to transact all things immediately to prescribe to and govern rather than to dispatch business by himself That which therefore we are to understand by Gods being King is no more but that Omne regnumest sub graviori regno that the Lord God is Lord Paramount who though he not only suffers but inables other causes to act under him yet keeps the reins of Government in his own hand and consequently can and doth whensoever he pleases interpose suspend or controll them and over-rule all things to his own will and pleasure That things are neither carried by the hurry of a blind fortune or chance as the Epicureans dreamed Nor born away with the swinge of fatal necessity as the Stoicks imagined Nor yet left either to the will of man or the natural efficacy of second causes but that God sometimes interposes and always guides and governs them This is that which was darkly and figuratively but elegantly exprest by the Prophet Ezekiel in his first Chapter where the course of second causes is compared to the Wheels of a Chariot which run on in a Road with a mighty cariere but then v. 18. there are said to be eyes in those Wheels intimating that God takes notice how all things go and not only so but v. 20. there is said to be a Spirit that guides and governs all their Motions Thus the Lord is King and reigns in the World and so much for that point I pass to the second 2. Which is to make plain and demonstrative proof of this assertion that so we may discover a just foundation for that joy and triumph which the Text calls for upon that occasion and for this I offer these four following Arguments First I argue from the very nature and notion of a God after this manner Every man that frames in his mind any worthy notion of the Deity conceives him to be a Wise Powerful Just and Good Being and whosoever conceives of him any otherwise or leaves out any of these Attributes debases him below the common notion that men have of him and renders him no fit object of love or fear or worship and adoration as I shall shew more anon Now he that denies such a Providence as we have explained denies to the Deity all those perfections at once and in so doing forfeits and forgoes the most natural and general apprehension of a God so that either there is in effect no God or there is a Providence For if he cannot take notice how things go in the World we cannot esteem him Wise If he sees how things go but cannot help or hinder them we cannot allow him to be powerful and if he sees and can help but will not men will have no apprehensions of him as either Just or Good But because we certainly conclude him to have all those perfections when we acknowledge him to be a God therefore he doth govern the World And thus in short we have all the branches of Divine Providence at once demonstrated from his Nature and Being Secondly My second Argument shall be from the Spirit of Prophecy or from all those Predictions of things to come which have been verified in real effects in any age of the World He that denies that any thing hath been foretold and come to pass according to the Prediction must deny the Faith and History of all the World and he that grants such things cannot avoid the acknowledgment of a Providence For it is evident that he who certainly foretells what is to come must see through all the series of causes that tend to the production of such an effect and especially if he define the very precise time and other circumstances answering to the accomplishment of the Event his knowledge must be very accurate and intimate to the whole intriegue of causes But above all if he declare before-hand not only what shall come to pass according to the course of natural and necessary causes but even such things as are casual and contingent and such as are subject to the liberty and indifferency of the will of man and free agents Then whether men be able or no to discover the secret manner and means of this fore-knowledge it matters not it must be acknowledged that he not only is privy to the Cabal and sees the consultations and workings of these causes but that he also governs the result and isfues of them which is that we here mean by a reigning Providence as we before explained it Now all this matter of fact is evidently true in innumerable instances amongst all which I will only take notice of the Prediction of the deliverance of the Jews first from their Egyptian Bondage and then from the Babylonish Captivity In the former of these the Event was foretold above 400 Years before it came to pass and the accomplishment was exact to a very day as you find it observed Exod. 12. 41 42. the words are these And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt