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	holy_a	pillar_n	2,667	5	9.8906	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86368	Eighteene choice and usefull sermons, by Benjamin Hinton, B.D. late minister of Hendon. And sometime fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge. Imprimatur, Edm: Calamy. 1650.	Hinton, Benjamin.	1650 (1650)	Wing H2065; Thomason E595_5; ESTC R206929	221,318	254

would prophane the Name of God by swearing as they would have had him by the fortune of Casar So hainous a sinne was it thought by this Martyr to swear by the creatures If it be objected That the Scripture maketh mention of some holy men that have sworn by the creatures as that Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh Gen. 42.16 2 King 2.4 Gen. 42.16 and that Etisha swore by the soule of Eliah 2 King 2.4 The answer is That either they are not oaths but onely vehement obtestations as some Divines do hold or if they be oaths yet because they are contrary to the Word of God that we are not to imitate their examples but we may say of them as St. Angustine said in another case Haec quidem in Scripturis santis legimus non ideò tamen quia facta credimus facienda creáamus ne duns passins sectamur exempla violemus pracepta We read saith he indeed of such examples in the Scriptures not that because we believe they vvere done we should therefore believe they may lawfully be done left so we violate the commandement of God vvhile that vve seek to imitate the examples of men But thus much likevvise for the object of an oath I come novv to the conditions Thou shalt swear in truth in judgement and in righteousnesse The first condition vvhich is required in an oath is that we swear in truth God to inflame us the more vvith the love of Truth is called in the Scripture Deut. 32.4 John 14.6 John 15.26.1 Tim. 3.15 the God of Truth Our Saviour calls himselfe the truth the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of truth Gods Word is called the Scripture of truth and his Church is called the pillar of truth To note unto us That they who are Members of his Church they who are instructed in his holy Word they who are led by his holy Spirit they who are redeemed by his Son and adopted by God to be his children they of all others are to stand for the truth to imbrance it in their hearts to testisie it in their words and when occasion requires to confirme it in their oaths And to this end God hath given us his sacred Name as a Seal to ratifie and confirme the truth that in matters of importance the truth vvhereof cannot otherwise be known but by taking an oath vve might use Gods Name and call God as a vvitnesse to the truth of our speech Whensoever therefore vve take an oath vve must be sure that the matter be true vvhich vve swear otherwise vve commit a most bainous sin in calling God as a vvitnesse to that vvhich is false And vvhereas an oath is of two sorts either assertory of things that vve affirme or promissory of things vvhich vve promise to performe vve must be sure that in them both we do swear the truth For if either vve doubt of the truth of the matter or have not a full purpose to performe our promise in taking such an oath vve for-swear our selves There are some that vvill make conscience of an assertory oath and vvill be sure they sweare nothing but that vvhich they know to be the truth yet for keeping their promise they make no great reckoning though they have bound themselves by oath for the performance thereof But every single promise if the thing be lawfull vvhich a man hath promised doth bind a man conscience to the performance of it and when an Oath is added there is a double bond And therefore it is said Heb. 6.17 That God widing more abundantly to shew the stablenesse of his counsell to the heirs of promise bound himself by an Oath that so saith he by two immutable things namely the promise which he had made and the Oath which he had taken we might have strong consolation So that taking of an Oath doth bind a man doubly to the performance of his promise Nay if that a man have once taken an Oath though he were induced thereunto by fraud and deceit yet the thing being lawfull he is bound to performe it And this we may see by the example of that Oath which was made to the Gibeonites Josh 9.19 for vvhen the Gibi●nites came craftily to the Jewes as though they had been men of a far country and had brought them to swear that they would not hurt them and the Iewes knew afterwards who they were and therefore were offended that they should be spared yet Ioshua and the Princes dia save their lives in regard of the oath which they had made unto them And because Saul afterwards brake this oath by destroying the Gibeonits there was a famine in the land for the space of three years and till seven of Sauls Sonnes were bang'd for this fact God was not appeased So grievous a sinne is the breach of an Oath in the sight of God And therefore whensoever we take an Oath we must alwayes have an eye to this first condition that we swear in truth Now there are two things contrary to the truth of an Oath First fraudulent and deceitfull swearing when we take an Oath with an intent to deceive them unto whom we sweare pretending one thing and intending another Such an Oath was that which Cleomenes took who having made a truce with his enemies for certaine dayes in the meane time set upon them perfideously in the night pretending that the truce was made onely for the dayes Such an Oath was that which we read of in Theodoret. A woman with child was hired by some to Father her child upon Eustathius the Bishop of Antioch The woman being examined and put to her Oath swore that Eustathius of Antioch was the Father of it whereupon the Bishop was deposed and banisht She afterwards falling into grievous sicknes confessed that she had wrongfully accused the Bishop and yet denied that she was forsworn because howsoever she pretended the Bishop yet she meant it not of him but of another in the City of the same name And such an Oath was that which was taken by Lasus vvhen he had stolne a fish out of a Fish-mongers shop as we see in Atheneus For Lasus having stoln it another received it both denyied it being both brought before the Magistrate put to their oath Athen. deipnos Lasus swore thus that he neither had it nor knew any other that stole it the other swore thus that he neither stole it nor knew any other that had it because he himself had it and Lasus stole it These are fraudulent and deceitful Oaths Secondly Contrary to swearing in truth is false swearing or perjurie when a man takes an Oath and yet knows that that which he swears is false And this hath been alwayes accounted both before God and man a most horrible odious and damnable sin Lying of it self is a heinous sinne and therefore called Prov. 12.22 an abomination to the Lord because that God who is the God of truth cannot but hate and abhorre

he shews by the Author thereof two waies First Negatively that the Scriptures are not of mans invention For the prophecy saith he came not in old time by the will of man Secondly Affirmatively that the Holy Ghost was the Authour of them But holy men of God saith he spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost But some man may say Indeed the Apostle saith thus but how doth he prove it He saith as St. Paul doth that the Scriptures are inspired of God 2 Tim. 3.16 but how doth he prove it When Aristotle that great profound Philosopher saw the books of Moses and read what he wrote about the Creation of the world he misliked his Books because he proved not that which he wrote Hic omnia dicit nihil probat This man saith he saith every thing but he proyes nothing But we are to remember that though we may doubt of that which men say because all men are lyars as the Scripture saith and so need proofs to consume their sayings yet the Scripture being the Word of God is of it self sufficient to credit and need not any proof for the confirmation of it The Jewes have a saying that the Law doth not need any fortification in regard that God was the Authour of it and so God being the Authour of the whole Scripture it needs no fortification or proof to strengthen it but whatsoever we find written therein we need make no question of the truth thereof but are bound to believe it True may some say if we were assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God that God not man was the Author of them then we need make no question of the truth of those things which we find therein But how shall we know them to be Gods word and that no other was the Authour of them Which because it is the summe of that which the Apostle delivers in these words I purpose briefly to handle this question How a man may know and be fully assured that the Scriptures must needs be the word of God Concerning which question there is a great controversie between us and the Church of Rome They say that the onely Testimony of the Church is sufficient to perswade us that the Scripture is the Word of God and that if it were not for the Testimony of the Church we could not give any credit to it We say that the Scripture is known to be Gods Word by the inward Testimony of Gods Spirit and that without this Testimony to perswade us hereunto the testimony of the Church and of all other whatsoever is insufficient Titubabit sides nostra si Scripturae vacillet autoritas August de Doct. Christ lib. 1. cap. 37. Our faith will stagger saith St. Augustine if the authority of the Scripture stand not firme But how can the authority of the Scripture stand firme if it be built onely upon so weak a foundation as the testimony of man For the Church is subject to errour both in doctrine and manners and therefore this testimony may deceive us But we require an infallible proof for the certainty of the Scriptures They say that the Testimony of the Church is infallible and when we wil have them to prove it they prove it thus because it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 as the Scripture tells us Thus if a man doubt of the authority of the Scripture to prove it they send him to the testimony of the Church and while he doubts of the truth of the testimony of the Church to prove it they send him back again to the Scripture But if the Church be sufficient to perswade a man that the Scriptures are the word of God how comes it to passe that Turks Insidels who have often heard this testimony of the Church are not yet perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures How many thousands of Jewes are now living in Italie and many of them in Rome who deny the Gospel and are not yet perswaded that Christ is come If the onely Testimony of the Church be sufficient why make they not proof thereof upon them that the World may see the virtue and efficacy of it But we know experience tells them daily to their faces that they cannot do it and if you ask them the reason they can give none but this because of the blindness and unbelief of the Jewes why therefore say we that that which is able to assure a man that the Scripture is Gods word must be able to illuminate his understanding and to give him faith that he may believe it but this is onely the work of Gods spirit There is nothing more ordinary among the Prophets then when they delivered Gods vvord to the People to tell the People that it was Gods vvord which they delivered Heare the word of the Lord saith Esay 1.10 The word of the Lord came unto me saith Jeremie 1.4 and thus every one of the Prophets from the first to the last do testifie that they delivered the vvord of God Esay 53.1 But who hath believed our report saith Esay so that where there was one that believed it there were many that did not and therefore if neither the vvord it self nor the testimony of the Prophets concerning the vvord could perswade them that it was the vvord of God much lesse is the testimony of the Church sufficient when St. Paul preached at Phylippi Acts 16. there were many that heard him but it is said there of Liddia onely that God opened her heart so that she attended unto that which he spake Acts 16.14 now if she could not so much as attend unto those things which St. Paul delivered unlesse that God had first opened her heart much lesse could she have believed that that which he spake was the vvord of God but by the inward operation of Gods spirit The Word is sometimes called a light because it is lightsome in it self as the Sunne but as the Sunne though it be never so lightsome yet it cannot be discerned by those that are blind So the Word though in it self it be never so glorious yet it is not apparent to us till our hearts be opened The Word is sometime compared to seed because it is fruitfull like the seed that is sowen but as the seed which is sowen cannot bring forth increase but by the influence and virtue which it receiveth from Heaven no more is the word fruitfull and effectual in us till God by his spirit give a blessing unto it The word is not unlike the poole in Jerusalem whereof there is mention John 5. The poole though it cured all outward Diseases yet it had not this virtue but then onely when the Angell did stir the waters the word though it be the means to cure our inward infirmities yet it cannot do it but onely by the motion of Gods spirit Now the first Disease which is to be cured is out spiritual blindnss whereby we are