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	lord_n	word_n	4,134	5	3.9920	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20225	A platforme, made for the proofe of Gods prouidence that is, for examining of the truth of this doctrine, whether God by his prouidence rule all things generally, and euery creature and action particularly / by Arthur Dent.	Dent, Arthur, d. 1607.	1608 (1608)	STC 6646.7; ESTC S332	15,893	48

the iudgements of all men before the Lords and wee may perswade our selues with strong and sufficient arguments that the Lord made all things in great wisdome and mercy and in a worde that the Lord made nothing vnaduisedly or without cause but though we know not the causes of his workes because of the weakenesse of our vnderstandings yet hath hee made all things according to his wisdome and mos● mightie mercy Thus farre Chrisostome If therefore by the testimonie of Aristotle nature made nothing in vaine As that m● who was vtterly ignorāt of true religiō affirmed of nature which he yet iudge● to be both blinde and brutish how much more are we bound to attribut● vnto the most wise creator of all thing● this perfection in his creation that he made nothing in vaine but all thing● in great wisdome since all his worke● redounded to his glory which is th● last and the cheifest end of all things and by the common consent of all men euery thing is iudged either perfect or vnperfect by the attaining of his ende There is a fourth argument thus made against the prouidence of God If God who is most wise and righteous in his iudgements doe gouerne all things euery particular thing there shold not be so great troubles in cōmon wealths and specially in the Church whereof the Lord hath a speciall care for that it is his Sanctuarie but both in Church and common-wealth there is great vnquietnesse so that all lawes both diuine and humane are openly violated good men most cruelly are delte withall euill men do reioyce and triumphe in their wickednesse without controlement God therfore gouerneth not all things that are in common-wealths and in the Churches This argument thus drawne from the nature of Gods iustice which semeth to be contrary to his gouernement by his prouidence if he shold see moderate and suffer all these outrages and disorders is one of the cheifest proppes of Epicurus his opinion And this argument troubleth many that now liue dayly labour to bringe Epicurus name in obloquie with all men yet are content to liue like Epicures and this argument also the Turkes and our capitall enemies the papists obiect most against vs and sure it carrieth such waight with it that Dauid confesseth that he was so astonied that his feete were almost gone his steppes had welnere slipt when hee saw the prosperitie of the wicked and punishments and hard entertainement of the godly vntill he went into the sanctuarie of God then vnderstoode he their ende that is vntil Dauid entered into Gods schoole learned by his worde holy spirit that he ordered all things most wisely iustly After Pomp●y had bene put to the worst in the battaile fought betwixt Caesar and him in the confines of Pharsalos and escaped by flight to Mytilene he went to Cratippus and disputed with the Philosopher in his garden whether he thought there was any God which by his prouidence ruled in earth and for that before in very bad quarels ●ee had had most prosperous successe as when he had subdued and in battaile vanquished the inhabitants of the East part of the worlde and was now in a most good cause ouercome stripped of his armie and forced to flie away himself alone most shamefully he hereof gathered that God regarded not what was ●one amōgst men but y t all things were ●one by chāce Thus doth the wise mē of 〈◊〉 world iudge speake of such euents But the holy ghost teacheth vs to iudge ●ar otherwise of them When Moses in his song Deut. 32. was to deliuer to the ●eople the threatnings of God if they were disobedient which afterward the ●ebellious Israelites felt he vseth this preface Perfect is the work of the migh●ie God for all his waies are iudgement God is true without wickednes iust and righteous is he teaching hereby that whatsoeuer the world doth prate of the causes of afflictions that God with great wisdome doth sende forth of his treasures all sortes of calamities some-time by them to punish the wicked sometime to exercise the godly with them For the sinnes of the peopl● the hipocrite doth raigne that is tirant● sit in the throne of Iustice which vnder pretence of executing iustice ar● but hipocrites and oppresse the people Iob 34. verse 30. Woe be to thee saith the Prophet Isaiah which spoilest for thou shalt be spoiled And indeed one tyrāt plagueth another though tyrants be a plague to all nations Kingdomes yet are they themselues in due time in like sort punished by other tyrants In the person of Sennacherib the iudgements of God are very liuely set forth by the prophet Isaiah in the tenth Chapter of his prophesie The Lord stirreth vp the King of the Assirians to punish the eastern people Sennacherib was a wicked man and he is a scourge to wicked people yea hee cruelly vexed the people of God hee spoileth almost all Palestina he beseigeth Ierusalem the cheife Citie of that country And thus saith God of him by the Prophet in that place O A shur the rod of my wrath and the staffe in their hands is mine indignation I wil send him to a dissembling nation and I will giue him a charge against the people of my wrath to take the spoile and to take the pray and to treade them vnderfoote like the mire in the streete But he thinketh not so neither doth his heart esteeme it so and so forth And a little after thus saith God by the Prophet of him But when the Lord hath accomplished all his worke vpon Mount Sion and Ierusalem I will visit the fruite of the proude heart of the King of Ashur and his glorious and proud lookes Because hee said by the power of min own hand haue I done it and by my wisdome because I am wise And a little after this thus saith the Prophet Shal the axe boast it selfe against him that heweth therewith If Pompey had looked on this example thus laide forth by the Prophet hee might haue bene better occupied instructed thē he was by his toying with Cratippus and this would haue taught him that thought the Lord suffereth tyrantes to bee for a time a plague to any nation yet in his appointed time hee suffereth them to bee punished by other tyrantes and to haue the same measure that they measured vnto others Now if wee compare Sennacherib and Pompey that gloried in this Litle The greate which name Silla gaue him for his victories wee shall finde many things a like in their histories Both of them was an are in the hand of God to strike the people of the East both of them destroyed Palestina and afflicted the people of God Sennacherib deseiged Ierusalem Pompey tooke it the Assirian was put to flight by an Angel and was slaine in his temple that is in his sanctuarie by his owne Sonnes Pompey was put to flight by Caesar and flying to Ptolomie King of Egipt whose father being dispossessed of his Kingdome he had restored againe to his crowne therefore Ptolomie should haue bene as a sonne vnto Pompey was there in Egipt with him miserably slaine So vnsearchable are the waies of Gods iudgements for that which Michah speaketh of the Caldeans in the 4. chap. of his prophesie They know not the thoughts of the Lord they vnderstand not his counsell therefore they shall be thrashed as sheaues in the barne may be spoken of all these Giants and proude tyrantes who for that they know not the counsaile of the Lord shall in his appointed time beare the punishement of their pride Neither doth the holy Ghost teache vs that the wicked onely are punished but that the Church of God is also afflicted though for another ende and purpose And there may many reasons be brought to shew why the Churche of God is subiect to so many calamities but I will at this time alleadge onely three by which as by many other wee may know that the Lord in truth and iudgement doth exercise his Churche with afflictions The first is that so long as we cary about with vs this burthen of corruption we are not onely subiect to sinne but doe continually by sinning prouoke the Lorde to deals in iustice with vs And therefore it is agreeable to the iustice of God that wee bee chastened of the Lord with a fatherly rod which may kéepe vs in obedience yea wee must all say with Ieremy in the third chapter of his Lamentations verse 22. It is the Lords mercies that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not My seconde reason is this It is best for vs to bee humbled vnder the mightie hand of God for wee know how feirce and haughty minded we are by nature so that it is necessarie for vs that God keepe vs vnder his schooling and so haue vs in some awe Therefore Dauid saith in the 119. Psalme ver 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keepe thy word And ver 71. It is good for me that I haue bene afflicted that I may learne thy statutes The third reason is deliuered by Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians the 11. Chapter verse 32. When wee are iudged wee are chastned of the Lord because wee would not be condemned with the world Therefore let vs conclude this whole discourse with Moses thus The iudgements of the Lord are true and righteous neither let vs measure them according to our own cōceit iudgemēts which are very deceauable but let vs know that the godly are punished for their sinnes they dayly commit that they may be humbled and that they perish not with the wicked but God in punishing the wicked doth shewe and open the treasures of his long sufferance patience and iustice but when hee afficteth vs he maketh vs like to his owne Sonne Christ and stirreth vp in vs an earnest desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Let vs in the meane time giue our selues to harty and earnest prayers praying continually with the Saints of God Come Lord Iesus yea come quickly Amen Amen

the Moone are gouerned partly by chance and fortune partly by the counsailes and deuises of men and partly by a brutish or sencelesse force of nature Ther is a third opiniō of the Stoickes which is that all things are ruled by fate or destinie that is by a secret order and linke of causes in which chaine all things are so surely tied that both God himselfe and man are straighted within those boundes This was a very dainty opinion in the iudgement of the Poets who to excuse the weaknesse of their God Iupiter fained that he wept for that he was so hindered by the force of destinie that he could not set Sarpedo at liberty The fourth opinion is Platoes who graunteth that God by his prouidence ruleth all things in generall which afterward God commiteth to petty Gods halfe Gods and Deuils who haue the charge and care of particular things From these foure opinions spring all other whatsoeuer touching Gods prouidence and there is no one opinion which may not easily be reduced to one of these But some of vs euen of vs Christians flying one danger runne into another and for that they dare not deny that God by his prouidence ruleth all things yet will they not graunt that by it he gouerneth euery particular thing least they should thereby be driuen as they thinke to some absurdities thus whilst they would auoide absurditie they commit impiety and fall away from the truth most dangerously But farre be this from your heart Right worshipful and that it may neuer possesse you auoide the cause that worketh it in them which is ignorance of the word of God and for that God in great mercy hath kindled in your heart a desire of knowledge quench not that godly desire in you but pursue hotely with harty and feruent prayer after knowledge and you shall finde it And if you shall finde it you shall certainly know that there will no absurdity be inforced vpon any doctrine grounded vpon Gods worde and that you need not feare this doctrine as they do I wil first discourse briefly of the truth of it and will proue that God gouerneth by his prouidence all things generally and euerie particular thing particularly then will I answere to all those chiefe obiections which are brought against it and by which some vaine men thinke to make the doctrine absurde To the first For that this argument hath bene diuersly handled and men haue bene verie curious in discoursing thereof especially since what way soeuer they winde themselues many absurdities do seeme to follow them it will be best I thinke for me to keepe me in the high beaten way least seeking by wayes I wander out of the way I meane to discourse so of this doctrine as I am taught in the worde of God and then diligently to remooue all those things what soeuer they be not beseming y e most pure nature of God which in y e iudgement of men shall some hereof to follow But if my ignorance were so great that I could not remoue these inconueniences yet not withstanding are you and all Christians bounde to receiue with all humilitie this true doctrine and to blame me not the doctrine if I be not able to cleare it of all those things which in the iudgement of man may seeme absurde And although it is not my purpose to examine all that Philosophers and others say against the gouerning of euery thing by the prouidence of God yet in my minde all that they can say against it may by this one argument be easily ouerthrowne If he be a God which they all confesse though they would denie it yet may it easilie be proued against them hee is a most perfect thing but that which is most perfect hath nothing perfecter then it selfe neither can we imagine any thing to be more perfect then that which of it selfe is truly and absolutely most perfect therefore there is nothing neither can we imagine any thing to be more perfect then God here vpon I inferre if God did not gouerne al things in general euery thing in particular wee might well imagine that there was something more perfect then God euē such a diety which had charge and care of euerie particuler thing but it is shewed that no such diety or God-head cau be imagined It is false therfore that they hereupon would infer that God by his prouidence ruleth not euerie particular thing the contrarie is true which we teach for else surely that God which they dreame of to liue idleis at ease and to haue no care of any thing as they babble is not in truth a God but as Tullye sometime said of their maister Epicurus so say I of them that they in wordes acknowledge a God but in truth deny that there is any But leauing Philosophers let vs see what the Scripture teacheth vs the first place I wil vse for the proofe of this Doctrine I take out of y e Epistle to the Hebrues the 1. Chapter verse 3. where it is saide of the Sonne of God that He beareth vp that is mooueth and gouerneth all things by his mightie worde he that granteth that he ruleth all thinges excepteth no one thing from his gouernement wee may then well conclude out of this place of God that God gouerneth all and euery thing But lest I should leaue any starting hole for the aduersarie to winde out at let vs further see what the Scripture teacheth vs of the gouerning of euery particular thing by Gods prouidence Neither will I heape vp many places but content my selfe with a few examples out of which the truth of this doctrine may be gathered And thus I do endeuour to proue it breifly All the creatures of God are either indued with the gift of free choise or els want this libertie of choise they that haue it are Angels both good and euill and men also both good and euill they that want this libertie of choise are all other liuing things created by God and also those his creatures which haue no life and yet of all these creatures God hath a speciall care so as hee disposeth of euery one of them according to his pleasure The booke of Iob and the Psalmes do very often handle this argument so that if I should gather out of them all their proofes I should write out almost their whole bookes yet some I will bring and leaue the rest for you to gather hoping it will be a meanes to bring you to the often reading of them In the 147. Psalme the Prophet saith thus of God that the couereth the Heauen with cloudes and prepareth raine for the earth and maketh the grasse to growe vpon the mountaines But the cloudes the raine and the grasse are things without soule and life and yet by his wonderfull prouidence he driueth and ruleth at his pleasure the cloudes in the aire he sendeth the raine downe vpon the earth and he maketh the grasse to grow In the