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	particular_a	universal_a	2,043	5	9.2335	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12182	Evangelicall sacrifices In xix. sermons. I. Thankfull commemorations for Gods mercy in our great deliverance from the papists powder-plot. 2. The successefull seeker. 3. Faith triumphant. 4. Speciall preparations to fit us for our latter end in foure funerall sermons. 5. The faithfull covenanter. 6. The demand of a good conscience. 7. The sword of the wicked. By the late learned and reverend divine, Rich. Sibbs. Doctor in Divinity, Mr. of Katherine Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher to the honourable society of Grayes-Inne. The third tome. Published and perused by D. Sibbs owne appointment, subscribed with his hand to prevent imperfect copies after his decease.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1640 (1640)	STC 22491; ESTC S117285	286,033	622

that once the heart hath enough from heaven-ward it hath enough from heaven God hath said and promised it then the heart by a worke it hath of it selfe speaks to it selfe and to the whole man to seeke God The heart will not stoop without reason the heart of an understanding man but when it sees the command first seeke my face then it answers thy face Lord will I seeke So that this command of God and this incouragement and warrant from God Seeke yee my face it was in Davids heart it was written and set and grafted in his heart and then his heart being awed with the command of God God hath said thus the heart goes again to God thou hast said thus Lord Thy face will I seeke See the depth of Davids speech when hee faith Lord thy face will I seeke It came from his heart root not only from the heart but from the heart grounded upon the command and incouragement of God Seeke my face there is the ground the heart digesting this thorowly this is Gods Command I understand it and understand it from God I see the authority from whence itcomes therfore I wil stirre up my selfe Thy face Lord will I seek I shall have occasion to speake somewhat of it afterwards in the next thing his obedience therefore I goe on Thy face Iehovah will I seeke Here is his returne againe to God that he will seeke the face of God I will seeke thy face in all my necessities then I will seeke to thee and in all thine ordinances I will seeke to thee whereinsoever thy presence is discovered thy presence is in all places especially in thine ordinances thy presence is in all times especially in the time of trouble and need in all times of need I will seeke to thee in all exigences I will seeke unto thee and in all thi●…e ordinances wherein I may find thee I know I may meet with thee there thou givest thy people meetings in thine ordinances it is thy walke therefore thy face Lord will I seeke where I may be sure to meet thee in thine owne way and ordinances So much for the meaning Thy face Lord will I seeke Here is first of all an Application and obedience from Application they be words of particular Application Thy face will I seeke God had given him a ground Seeke yee my face his heart makes the Application Thy face I will seeke applying the generall incouragement to himself in particular So that you may observe hence that The ground of all obedience of all holy entercourse with God is a Spirit of Application Applying the truths of God though generally spoken to our selves in particular It is spoken here in the plurall number Seeke yee my face but the generall implies the particular as London is in England Seeke yee my face all yee that are the people of God but I am one of them what though I be not named that tenent in Popery is against sense when a man is condemned by the law is his name in the law It is against such a fact hee is a Malefactor And so the particular is included in the generall Seeke yee my face David knew that reason taught him that and not Religion Now the ground of Application of divine truths to our selves in particular is this that the truth of God setting aside some circumstantiall things that arise sometimes to particular persons that sometimes limit the command to one person or the promise to one person cut off those distinctions all comfortable truths agreeto Gods people in all ages while there is a Church in the world Al truths are eternall truths die not as men doe David is dead and Moses is dead but this truth is not dead Seeke yee my face Paul is gone and Peter is gone we are the Davids and the Mose's the Peters and the Pauls now those truths that were good to them are good to us Whatsoever was written before was written for our comfort There is an eternall truth that runs through all ages of the Church that hath an everlasting comfort God hath framed the Scriptures not to be limited to the times wherin they were written as the Papists idly speak Bellarmine and others as if they were occasionall things that the Scriptures were written by occasion of such and such men and concerned only those times but the Scriptures were written for all times and it concernes a times to apply all truths to themselves setting aside those circumstances that are applyed to particular men which are easie to discern in Heb. 13 that that was said to Iosua Ios. 1. the Apostle applies it to the Church in his time and to all Bee not afraid I will not faile thee nor forsake thee it is a generall truth And Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse that whosoever beleeves as Abraham is a sonne of Abraham These truths are universall and concerne every one as well as any And so many other places of Scripture The promise of the blessed seed the beleeving of it runs from the beginning of the world in all ages to the comming of Christ. All other promises were but an inlargement of that that was the Mother-promise that is the ground of Application that the generall truths agree to all the Churches The truth of God is the portion of every child of God he may claime every promise and ought to follow the direction of every command The reason is because al the Church of God are Heires alike Heires of the Promise Children of Abraham Heires of salvation they have interest in Christ-alike in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen in whom all the promises have their making and their performance And by reason that there is an indifferent equality in regard of the maine things of all the children of God they have interest alike in all the benefits by Christ in all truths in all substantiall duties to God and all favours from God that is the ground of the equity of Application But if you will have the ground of the necessity of it nature will shew that for the truths are food if food bee not taken what good doth it doe without application The word of God is a sword what will a sword doe if it hangs up in a mans Chamber or if it be not used when the enemy approacheth The Application of the sword of the Spirit gives the vertue to it it is to no purpose else divine truths are physick if it be not applyed what use is there of physick There is a necessity if wee will obey God of a Spirit of Application there is nothing that will doe good but by application neither in nature nor in grace There must bee a virtuall application at least the heavens worke upon the earth there is no Application bodily the heavens are too high but there is a virtuall Application there comes light in and influence to these inferiour bodies therefore we

partake of the meanes of salvation and yet live in sinnes against conscience they get knowledge by the Ministery and by good bookes and acquaintance and such like they have a savour in the use of good things something they have some little apprehension of the estate of a better life Againe for another end God reveales to them the excellent estate of his children sometimes to keepe them in better order to awe them that they be not open enemies to the Church but may doe good service for conceiting that there is such a happinesse and that perhaps they may partake of it they will not carry themselves malignantly against those that are true professors There are severall degrees of wicked men some are well-willers to good things though they never come farre enough Some are open malicious persecutors Some againe are better then so they have a hatred to goodnesse but they doe not openly shew themselves as hypocrites c. God reveales these good things to wicked men to keepe them in awe The net drawes bad fish as well as good so the net of the Word it drawes wicked men it keepes them from violence and open malice besides even the Majesty of the word and the convinction of that excellente state that belongs to Gods Children it keeps them from open malice and persecution This is another end that God aymes at what may we learn hence Seeing this is so it should teach us that we refuse not al that ill men say they may have good aprehensions give good counsel It had bin good for Iosiah to have followed the counsell of wicked Pharaoh a heathen God oft enlightens men that otherwise are reprobates refuse not Gold from a dirtie hand do not refuse directions from wicked men because they are soandso refuse not a pardon from man a base reature We ought not therfore to have such respect of persons as to refuse excellent things because the person is wicked But that which I intend to presse is this If this be so that wicked men may have illumination whereby they discover an excellencie and likewise may have desires raysed up to wish and desire that excellencie It should stir vs up to goe beyond wicked men shall we not goe so farre as those goe that shall never come to heaven we see here Balaam pronounceth the end of the righteous to be happie This should therfore stir us up to labor to be in a different estate from wicked men Let vs therfore consider a little wherein the difference of these desires is the desires that a Balaam may have and the desires of a sound Christian wherein the desires of a wicked man are failing These desires first of all they were but flashes for we never read that he had them long they were meere flashes as a sudden light that rather blinds a man then shewes him the way so these enlightnings they are not constant Wicked men oft times haue sudden motions and flashes and desires oh that I might die the death of the righteous oh that I were in such mans estate but it is but a sudden flash and lightning They are like a torrent a strong sudden streame that comes suddenly and makes a noyse but it hath no spring to feed it The desires of Gods Children they are fed with a spring they are constant they are streames and not flashes Againe this desire of this wretched man it was not from an inward principle an inward tast that he had of the good estate of Gods Children but from an obiectiue delight and admiration of somewhat that was offered to his conceite by the holy-ghost at this time It was not from any inward tast and rellish in himselfe that he speakes but from somewhat outward as a man that saw and heard excellent things that ravished him with admiration though he had not interest in them himselfe Againe in the third place this desire of the happinesse of the estate of Gods children it was not working and operative but an uneffectuall desire it had only a complacency and pleasing in the thing desired but there was not a desire to worke any thing to that end This wretch therefore would bee at his journeys end before he had set one step forward to the journey It was a desire of the end without the meanes It was not an operative effectuall but a weake transient desire Where true desires are they are not only constant and proceed from an inward interest tastof the thing desired but they are effectuall and operative they set the soule and body the whole man on worke partly to use the meanes to attaine the thing desired and partly to remove the impediments for where desire is there will be a removing of the impediments to the thing desired as hee that intends a journey hee will consider what may hinder him and what may helpe him in it he that sets not about these things hee never meanes it for a man cannot come to his journeyes end with wishing we can attain nothing in this life with wishing There is a working I say that tends to remove impediments as farre as we may and tending to use all means to effect and bring the thing to passe We see then there is a maine difference betweene the desires of this wretched man Balaam and the desires of the true Church of God To goe on and follow the point a little further Where desires are in truth the party that cherisheth those desires will bee willing to have all helpe from others to have his desire accomplished If a man desire to demolish a place if any will come and helpe him downe with it or if any man desire to weed his ground he that will helpe him he will thanke him for his paines Where there is a true desire there is a willing closing with all that offer themselves that the thing desired may be brought to passe Where there is a desire of the happy estate of Gods children there will be a willing entertainment of any helpe Let a man come to a man that desires grace and glory and discover his especiall sins that hinder him you must weed out this and you must pull downe this he will thankfully imbrace all admonitions because he truly desires the end therefore hee desires the meanes that tend to the end hee desires the remooving of the hindrances hee will be thankefull therefore for any helpe that he may have and especially that of the ministery that it may powerfully enter into his soul and rip him up why because hee desires to please God in all things and he would not cherish a motion or desire contrary to the spirit of God therefore the more corruption is presented and made odious to him the more the inward man is discovered the more hee blesseth God and blesseth the blessed instrument and of all meanes he is willing to attend upon such Where there is swelling and rising against the