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	ground_n	pillar_n	16,417	5	10.6783	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27173	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall, December the 27th, 1685 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1577; ESTC R16491	13,439	28

World Also to beseech him to encrease it in us That Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith And by that Faith we may overcome the World and all Temptations And gain comfort and assurance to our immortal souls against that day of sorrow when all our Friends and Enjoyments shall be useless and we shall be refresht and supported by nothing but our Christian hopes and the belief of things not seen That as the Apostle speaks we may be kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation To be fervent and assiduous in these requests is a contending for the Faith in a way acceptable to God profitable to our selves more likely to secure us from a change than a blind Zeal and ignorant Declamations against the errors of others That Religion can never perish which God appointed to save Souls If we affectionately embrace ours which is certainly the most pure and primitive in the World If we use and profess it to that purpose to make our selves eternally happy it will secure us from the fears and from the danger of its being corrupted or Destroyed and it will recommend it to the acceptance of others when they see it makes us the Friends and devout Worshippers of God A great Zeal against those that dissent from us may proceed from ill nature or from ill designes But a great Zeal for our own Souls diligent care to endeare our selves to God and secure his mercys to us that 's liable to no suspicion that well becomes the nature of our excellent Religion and is indeed the end of it So that we cannot contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints nor for our benefit or the conversion of others than by a devout attendance upon Acts of Worship and Piety and joyning hertily with our Church in those Religious dutys she requires from us Lastly This contention for the Faith includes that we should give it all that reputation and establishment in the World of which we are capable in our several places This is the most direct meaning and design of the Text according to some Translations which render the words by another construction That ye should assist and confirm the Saints in their Faith That is Edifie the Church do what ye can towards the enlarging and settlement of it We have had for these last ages much contending about the Faith but little hath been done for it Some have been very forward to pull down what they thought amiss but built up nothing They shewed a great aversion to some Religions but no love to any So their contention was only for War And the result of it was that the Church was neglected and spoilt its patrimony made a prey its discipline destroyed And Religion it self made contemptible by being depriv'd of its necessary maintenance and authority And that brought in at last Libertinism and a sad inundation of vice and irreligion For plainly all the World understands the sure way to keep out all false Religions is strenuously to mantain the true one to make it honourable and of force to restrain dissolute looseness and to provide it with supplies for the necessity of its ministrations We need not dispute and scuffle with all the errors that are broacht and have been in every age But embrace and assert the truth and support it with our might and interest in the World That 's a good way to shew our selves in earnest in contending for the Faith to be willing to contribute what we can with our credit and our substance to make it reverenc't and obeyed It was ever accounted an Act of Piety to God and Charity to human Souls to make pious foundations for the divine honour for to sound the praises of God in the Earth To provide for his Ministers that they may attend holy Offices without Distraction And to erect and adorne houses for divine worship that it may have as much solemnity and veneration as lies in us to procure Primitive Christians betimes even under poverty and persecutions were very Zealous in these and gave us a good exemple As miracles ceased and those extraordinary means which supported Religion they upheld and advanc't it in the ordinary ways of things here below with their abilities and their power and estates They thought no cost better spent no labour better bestow'd than what serv'd to promote Christianity and recommend it to the World They understood that our Christian Faith is a body of Divine Science and several Ordinances and administrations which to be learnt and taught and ministred as they should want the help and contributions of human piety and charity And that the Church was instituted by our Blessed Lord to preserve and propagate the purity of this Faith to be the ground and the pillar of truth as the Apostle speaks And Experience hath since approv'd the same that when the Church hath been expos'd to rapine and violence and trampled under foot by prophaneness and faction that swarms of Heresies and Schisms have sprung up and so much wickedness and folly and confusion that there was hardly any face or outward appearance of Christianity amongst us when within the remembrance of many God permitted it to be our case and our grief The purity and unity of the Faith never suffer'd more in any place in this World And in that miserable state of things much of our People have lost the sense of three or four of the most important of Christian duties Loyalty Church-Communion Reverence in Divine Worship and Justice Charity for its maintenance Notwithstanding what the laws of God and the laws of the Land command most expresly about our subjection and faithful obedience and service to the King Yet many as we have seen too lately think themselves at liberty to set up or take down a Prince as they please and to chuse whom they shall obey or whether they shall obey any body at all Many also as appears every where judg themselves in a state of freedom to be under the guidance of whom they please of such a Sect or of their own brains as they think most expedient How far and how long they shall be members of the Church and whether at all or no we see how many act in this without any scruple as their interest or fancies determine And as if nothing were said in holy Scripture of our submission to those that have rule over us in the Lord and our obligations to live in the bonds of Unity and incorporate our selves with that body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour How unseemly is the deportment of many in the house of God how little care is taken to make his service venerable and becoming his Greatness we can all witness The publick attendance upon Religion is in many places so unlike divine Worship so far from being the humble adoration of the Great King of Kings that it hath not in it so much as that common respect which we pay to our Superiors