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
A68954	A three-fold treatise containing the saints sure and perpetuall guide. Selfe-enriching examination. Soule-fatting fasting. Or, meditations, concerning the word, the sacrament of the Lords Supper, and fasting. By the labours of that late Reverend, and learned divine, Master Robert Bolton ...	Bolton, Robert, 1572-1631.	1634 (1634)	STC 3255; ESTC S106789	149,468	268

the Word of God to a love and liking of the heavenly knowledge therein contained and to a sound and sincere practice of it in our lives and conversations may be this The Word of God is as it were an Epistle or Letter as one of the Fathers calls it written from God Almightie unto us miserable men published by his owne Sonne sealed by his Spirit witnessed by his Angels conveyed unto us by his Church the Pillar and ground of Truth confirmed with the bloud of millions of Martyrs which hath alreadie brought thousands of soules to Heaven and fills every heart that understands it and is wholly guided by it with Light and Life with Grace and Salvation Now let us imagine a man to have a Letter sent unto him but by an Earthly King or some great Prince in the World wherein hee should have a Pardon granted him for some capitall Crime and high Offence whereby hee were lyable to a terrible kind of death or wherein hee should be fore-warned of some great and imminent danger hanging over his head and readie every houre to fall upon him or wherein hee should have assured and confirmed unto him under the Kings Seale some rich Donation or great Lordship Now I say if a man should receive but a Letter from some high and mightie Potentate upon Earth wherein any of these favours should be conveyed unto him how reverently would he receive it how thankfully would he accept of it how often would he reade it how warily would he keepe it how highly would he esteeme of it Why in this royall and sacred Letter sent from the King and great Commander both of Heaven and Earth all these favours and a thousand more joyes and comforts are conveyed unto every beleever and practiser thereof In that we are fore-warned lest by our ignorance impietie and impenitencie wee fall into the Pit of Hell and everlasting horror In that we have promised and performed unto us the pardon and remission of all our sinnes whereby wee justly stand guiltie of the second death and the endlesse torments of the damned By the vertue of it we are not onely comforted with grace in this World but shall undoubtedly be crowned with peace glory and immortalitie in the World to come Such a Letter as this hath the mightie and terrible God most glorious in all Power and Majestie who is even a consuming and devouring fire sent unto us miserable men by nature wretched and forlorne creatures Dust and Ashes why then with what reverence chearefulnesse and zeale ought wee to receive reade heare marke learne understand and obey it A second Motive may be the precious golden and divine matter which is contained in the Booke of God and that true and ever-during happinesse to which it onely can bring us There is nothing proposed and handled in the Word of God but things of greatest weight and highest excellency As the infinite majesty power and mercy of God the unspeakable love and strange sufferings of the Sonne of God for our sakes the mighty and miraculous working of the holy Spirit upon the soules of men There is nothing in this Treasury but Orient Pearles and rich Iewels as promises of grace spirituall comfort confusion of sinne the triumph of godlines refreshing of wearied soules the beautie of Angels the holinesse of Saints the state of Heaven salvation of sinners everlasting life What Swine are they that neglecting these precious Pearles root only in the Earth wallow in worldly pleasures feede upon vanities transitorie trash and vanishing riches which in their greatest need will take them to their wings like an Eagle and flie into the Heavens Besides the Word of God is only able to prepare us for true happinesse in this world and to possesse us of it in the world to come It only begets in us a true intire and universall holinesse without which none shall ever see the face of God or the glory of Heaven for it is impossible hereafter to live the life of glory blessednes in Heaven if we live not here the life of grace and sincerity in all our waies It is called the immortall Seed because it regenerates and renewes us both in our Spirits Soules and Bodies in our Spirits that is in judgement memory conscience in our Soules that is in our will and affections in our Bodies that is in every member If the Prince of this world hath not blinded the eyes of our minds and that we be not reprobats as concerning salvation it only is able to inlighten our understandings to rectifie our wills to sanctifie our hearts to mortifie our affections to set Davids Doore before our lips that are offend not with our tongues to set Iobs Doore before our eyes that they behold not vanity to manacle our hands feet with the cords and bands of Gods Law that they do not walke or worke wickedly nay and it is able to furnish and supply us with sufficiencie of spirituall strength to continue in all these good things and in a godly course vnto the end And if we be once thus qualified we are rightly fitted and prepared for the glory that is to be revealed As before this holy Word did translate us from the darknesse of sinne into the light of grace it can now much more easily with joy and triumph bring us from the light of grace to the light of immortalitie and everlasting pleasures at Gods right hand A third Motive may be this Wee must be judged by the Word of God at the last Day If any man saith Christ Ioh. 12. 47 48. heare my words and beleeve not I judge him not for I came not to judge the World but to save the World He that refuseth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken it shall judge him in the last Day Whensoever wee shall come to judgement and appeare before Gods Tribunall and wee little know how neere it is two Bookes shall be layd open unto us the one of Gods Law another of our owne Conscience The former will tell us what wee should have done for the Lord hath revealed it to the World to be the rule of our faith and of all our actions The other will tell us what wee have done for Conscience is a Register Light and Power in our Vnderstanding which treasures up all our particular actions against the Day of Triall discovers unto us the equitie or iniquitie of them and determines of them either with us or against us Now we must not take any exception against the first that is the Law of God For the Law of God saith David Psal 19. 7. is perfect converting the soule The testimonie of the Lord is sure and giveth wisedome unto the simple Wee cannot against the second that is the Booke of our Conscience for it was ever in our custodie and keeping no man could corrupt it there

But notwithstanding the prophanenesse of the Preacher is no priviledge to the hearer either of negligence or disobedience He that turnes his eare from hearing of the Law truly preached though by a Pharise even his prayer is abominable Prov. 28. 9. Hee that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 13. Hee that obeyeth not the Sonne in his Ministers lawfully sent though not sanctified themselves shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Christ himselfe in the Gospel bids his followers to observe and doe whatsoever they were bid by the Scribes and Pharises which sate in Moses Chaire but not to doe after their works for they said and did not Every Minister is to be heard received and followed so farre as he followes and delivers to the Church the Truth of God and Doctrine of the Apostles For therein he is an Angel of the Lord of Hosts and Embassadour in the stead of Christ. And all the parts of the Ministerie in his hand he following the Word shall as certainely be accomplished as if an Angel or Christ from Heaven should presently and potently execute them If hee denounce Iudgements against sinne it is as if the voice of God himselfe should be heard from Heaven as if the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah should roare If he poure the Oyle of comfort into a wounded and distressed Conscience it is as sure and certaine as soft and sweet to the beleeving soule as if the Angels should comfort him as they did Christ in his Agonie or as if Christ himselfe should mercifully reach out his glorious hand through the Clouds and binde up his broken heart and bruised Conscience with a Plaister of his owne precious Bloud If hee instruct admonish reprove exhort perswade from ground and warrant out of the Word it is all one as if Christ himselfe should doe it who hath said He that heareth you heareth me Let men therefore pretend what they will if they will not heare beleeve and obey the Lord speaking in the Ministerie of the Word though the meanes and Messengers be never so base and vile fraile weake and sinfull Let an Angel come from Heaven a Devill from Hell or a man from the dead yet would they not beleeve For if a man were truly humbled hee would tremble at Gods Word of whomsoever hee heard it If hee had a spirituall taste hee would relish the heavenly food whosoever ministred it If hee had Gods holy Spirit hee would know and acknowledge his Sword which is the Word of God in whose hand soever he saw it And untill he have this spirit a spirituall taste and an humble heart hee will not beleeve especially with effect fruit and practice let him pretend whatsoever he will neither Angels nor men dead nor living Moses nor the Prophets Peter nor Paul not Christ nor God himselfe if the one were living againe upon Earth or the other would be pleased or it were possible to speake immediately to him For conclusion of this Point let us know That the Ministerie of the Word is Gods Ordinance which dependeth not upon the worthinesse of him who delivereth it neither is it made void and uneffectuall by his weakenesse and wickednesse but it hath it vertue force and power from the blessing of God and from the inward operation of his Spirit who applyeth it to the hearts and consciences of men and thereby illuminates their understandings begetteth faith in them and all sanctifying and saving graces I but will some say it is a very wearisome tyring and tedious thing to be tyed to the hearing of so many Sermons to meditate of them conferre of them with our neighbours teach them our families and practise them which are urged upon us as necessarie Christian duties It is a strange thing and sore case that some men will not be perswaded to take halfe so much paines to goe to Heaven and eternall Rest as many thousands to goe to Hell and everlasting torment How many tyre and torture themselves with carke and care with much toyle and travell to heape up those riches which in the meane time are matter of much vexation unto them and hereafter will be witnesses against them and eate their flesh as it were fire as Iames speakes How many spend their wits their spirits their time that they may become some-body in the World and climbe by indirect and unlawfull meanes and steps unto those high places from whence hereafter they must be hurled with greater confusion and a more fearefull downe-fall into the Pit of Hell How many waste their wealth weaken their strength consume their marrow fill their bones with rottennesse and their bodies with diseases with lust and uncleannesse with following the Whorish woman whose paths lead unto the dead with tarrying long at the Wine and pouring in of strong Drinke for which at length they shall be sure to be filled with drunkennesse and with sorrow even with the Cup of destruction and trembling they shall drinke of it deepe and large and wring it out to the dregges How unwearied have Idolaters ever beene in the wicked worship of their false gods And many Heretikes in the false worship of the true God In thrusting towards Hell they neither spared cost nor charge losse nor labour They have beene prodigall both of lives and living of bloud and children You know amongst the Iewes some mingled the rufull cryes of their dearest children with Musicke and melodie lest they should be moved to compassion while they were cast into the fire to be burned up in sacrifice unto the Idoll Moloch Scribes and Pharises compasse Sea and Land to make a Proselyte Baals Priests lanced and cut their flesh before their Idoll untill the bloud gushed out The blinded Papists at this day whip themselves waste their goods and consume their bodies with wearisome Pilgrimages to see some counterfeit Reliques and rotten Bones or to visit accursed Idols and Popish Saints Nay some of them transported with a more bloudie rage and furious spirit of Antichrist suffer as it were with senselesnesse with desperate and damned boldnesse most horrible and exquisite torments for butchering of Kings for which they hope to merit Heaven and to sayle through a Sea of Royall bloud to the Haven of endlesse rest though indeed and truth they justly light short and sinke before they are aware into the deepest Lake of the hottest fire and most consuming flame of Hell Now I pray you shall these services of Sathan be followed and pursued with such heat and eagernesse with such paines and patiencie of all miseries and vexations and shall not the Lords owne Ordinances and the true worship of the true God have power to make us step out of our doores with patience and pleasure to heare the Lords will revealed unto us to receive salvation to our soules and a Crowne of immortalitie to our heads Can some be

feare lest thou be forsaken Why then thinke upon thy Saviours mournfull cry upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 5 It may be thou art a true-hearted Nathanael in whose spirit there is no guile hates all sinne heartily both in thy selfe and others desirest and laborest to please God in all things and to keepe a good conscience before all things in the World and yet thou findest and feelest in thy brest many times a heavy sad and unchearefull heart why then heare David a man after Gods owne heart of a more excellent spirit and eminent graces than thou art complaining Psal 43. 5. Why art thou so heavie O my soule and why art thou so disquieted within me 6 Art thou grievously troubled with the haunt and horror of some speciall sinne of which thou canst not be so easily rid and doest thou therefore goe mourning all the day Why then looke also upon David Psal 32. In such a case he roared all the day his bones were consumed and his native moisture was turned into the drought of Summer 7 Art thou vexed to the heart and fearefully haunted with some horrible and hatefull injections of Sathan thoughts framed by himselfe immediately and put into thee perhaps tending to Atheisme or to the dishonour of God in some high degree or to the disgrace of his Word or selfe-destruction c. or the like thoughts which thou canst not remember without horror and darest not reveale or name for their strange and prodigious hatefulnesse Why then consider how this malicious Fiend dealt with the Sonne of God He suggested unto his most holy and unspotted imagination these propositions first Murther Make away thy selfe Math. 4. 6. secondly Fall downe and worship the Devill Vers 9. What more fearefull and horrible apprehensions And yet these were suggested to our blessed Saviour to him perhaps more sensibly to thee more secretly His pure and holy heart uncapable of sinne did reject them with infinite contempt and himselfe did utterly conquer and confound the Tempter and that for thee and thy sake too And if thine heart rise against abominate abandon grieve and be humbled for them they shall never be layd to thy charge but set on Sathans Score For all them thou mayest goe on chearefully and comfortably in the course of Christianitie And so doe And let not Sathan attaine his divellish end by them which is to worke astonishment in thy minde horror in thy conscience heavinesse in thy heart distractions in thy thoughts c. that thereby thou mayest be disheartened and disabled for the chearefull discharge and performance both of thy particular and generall calling Or else art thou long after thy conversion assaulted with perhaps sorer spirituall pangs and more horror than at thy change Consider David Iob Hezekiah 8 Hast thou lost thy goods or children Doth the Wife that lyes in thy bosome set her selfe against thee Doe thy neerest friends charge thee falsely Art thou diseased from top to toe Doe the Arrowes of the Almightie sticke fast in thy soule Thy affliction is grievous enough if thou hast any of these But doe they all in the greatest extremitie concurre upon thee at once Hast thou lost all thy children and all thy goods Doth thy Wife afflict thy afflictions c. If this be not thy case thou commest short of Iob a most just man and high in Gods favour 9 Hast thou given thy Name to Religion and art a Professor of Grace and art thou therefore villanously traduced with many slanderous nick-names and odious imputations Art thou called Puritan Precisian Hypocrite Humorist Dissembler c Why gracelesse wretches when hee was upon Earth called Christ Iesus Devill See Math. 10. 25. Ioh. 7. 20. Contemne thou therefore for ever the utmost malice of the most scurrill tongue 10 Art thou a loving and tender-hearted Mother unto thy Children and hast thou lost thy dearest Why the blessed Mother of Christ stood by and saw her owne onely deare innocent Sonne the Lord of Life most cruelly and villanously murthered upon the Crosse and die a shamefull death before her eyes Ioh. 19. 25. 11 Art thou a woman who in the time of thy travaile art pressed with many wants with want of comfortable companie desired helpes a fairer roome and other worldly comforts and conveniences Why yet comfort thy selfe with this That holy Virgin which brought into the World the Worlds Saviour brought forth that blessed Babe in a Stable and laid him in a Cratch Luke 2. 7. It is very like farre more poorely in respect of worldly comforts than the poorest sort of women amongst us with lesse comfortable helpers and in a lesse seemely and commodious place for such a purpose 12 Hath thy Faith lost its feeling and besides doth God looke upon thee with an angry countenance and is thy heart filled with heavinesse and horror Yet for all this let the hand of Faith by no meanes loose it hold-fast upon the precious sufferings and saving bloud-shed of thy deare Redeemer Thou hast before thee a matchlesse and transcendent precedent in this point Thus cryes holy Iob having besides his unparalelled varietie and extremitie of outward afflictions the Arrowes of the Almightie sticking fast in him and drinking up his spirits Though hee kill me yet will I trust in him Cap. 13. 15. So Abraham Rom. 4. 18. 13 Doest thou day after day poure out thy soule in prayer before the Throne of Grace with all the earnestnesse and instancie thou canst possibly and doest thou still rise up dull and heavie and uncomforted without answer from God or comfortable sence of his favour and love shed into thine heart Why yet pray still assuredly at length thou shalt be gloriously refreshed and registred in the remembrance of God for a Christian of excellent faith See a patterne of rare and extraordinarie patience this way Math. 15. 23. c. 14 Doth the World Sathan carnall men thine owne friends formall Teachers suppose and censure thee to be a dissembler in thy profession and will needes concurrently and confidently fasten upon thee the imputation of Hypocrisie Why yet for all this let thy sincere heart conscious to it selfe of it owne truth in holy services like a strong Pillar of Brasse beat backe and reject with noble contempt and glorious disdaine all their impoysoned Arrowes of malice and slander this way Thou hast a right worthy patterne in the Booke of God for this purpose Iob had against him not onely the Devill his enemie pushing at him with his poysoned weapons but even his owne friends scourging him with their tongues yea his owne Wife a Thorne pricking him in the eye yea his owne God miserably lashing his naked soule with Scorpions powerfull motives to make him suspect himselfe of former halting and hollow-heartednesse in the wayes of God yet notwithstanding all this his good and honest heart having beene long before acquainted with and knit unto his God with sinceritie and truth makes him boldly