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	religion_n	true_a	7,548	5	5.1593	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31858	Sermons preached upon several occasions by Benjamin Calamy ...; Sermons. Selections	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1687 (1687)	Wing C221; ESTC R22984	185,393	504

the discountenancing of sin and vice that did give more forcible arguments for the one and against the other that did lay greater stress upon a pure mind and a blameless life and less upon voluntary strictnesses and indifferent rites and ceremonies than we do I would very soon be of that Church and even entice all I could to it but till such an one can be found nay so long as it is manifest that all the zealous opposers of the Church of England do hold opinions either destructive of or in their plain tendencies weakening the force of all the precepts promises and threatnings contained in the Gospel and such as if they do not encourage men to yet at least furnish them with pleas and excuses for their wickedness I am sure it is our interest no less than our duty if we sincerely love God and our souls and have any real desire of our own or others welfare faithfully to adhere to that Church we have the happiness to be members of and vigorously to maintain and defend it A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL The Fourth Sermon ROM XII 16. Be not wise in your own conceits THERE is hardly any vice that men do so readily condemn in others and yet so easily overlook and excuse in themselves as this of self-conceit or a fond opinion of their own great wisedom and understanding None of us can endure that another should assume to himself continually to prescribe to us or usurp so far upon us as to be always imposing on us his own private customs humours or manners as if we had no wit or judgment of our own whereby to govern and order our own affairs and yet it is to be feared most of us who call this intolerable pride in another are so deeply in love with our selves and our own ways that we cannot forbear to censure and despise to charge with folly and ignorance all that do not believe and practise just as we our selves do Every one thus in his own vain imagination presuming himself wise and good enough to set a pattern and give law to all round about him It is the observation of the great French Philosopher That the most equal distribution God hath made of any thing in this world is of judgment and understanding because every man is content with his own and thinks he hath enough and though as to the outward gifts of nature or fortune he be willing to yield to others yet he doubts not but he himself is as far removed from a fool hath as large a share of reason and discretion is as able to manage himself and his own business as any other whatever Whence it is that all men are apt so confidently to lean unto and rely upon their own understandings so peremptorily to trust to and follow their own judgments so resolutely and inflexibly to adhere to their first choices and determinations scorning and taking it in great snuff and dudgeon to be taught advised check'd or controlled by any Now this is to be wise in our own conceits against which the Apostle here in my Text cautions us when any man hath a vast and undue opinion of his own powers and faculties and thinks of himself above what is meet when he will hearken to none other nor believe any one but just himself when he knows all things does all things is all things to himself and within himself alone not needing at least in his own big thoughts any ones help counsel or assistence In short when he rates and values himself above his true worth and despises others and judges meanly of his Betters then a man may be said to be wise in his own conceit Which self-conceit undoubtedly lies at the bottom and is the original cause of all Atheism and sceptical disputes against Providence and Religion of all undutifull carriage towards governours and superiours and of all those uncharitable separations and unchristian divisions that are so rife amongst us and do so sadly threaten the ruine both of our Church and State Whereas on the other side the great foundation of all true Religion and civil order the onely effectual means of procuring and advancing peace real wisedom and truth amongst men is an humble and lowly esteem of our selves a modest diffidence of our own apprehensions an hearty and serious acknowledgment of our own defects and a willingness to be instructed directed ruled and governed by others who are better and wiser than our selves I shall at this time propound to you some plain instances wherein this sort of pride or self-conceit doth shew it self particularly in matters of Religion together with the folly and mischiefs of it I. This self-conceit shews it self in being confident and positive about things which we do not understand and in intermedling with affairs which do not belong to us II. In being obstinate and pertinacious in some singular fancies and opinions though upon never so slight grounds at first believed and entertained III. In affecting to impose our own humours and conceits upon others and in despising and condemning all that are not in every thing just of our own mind and persuasion I. This self-conceit appears in being confident and positive about things which we do not understand and in intermedling with affairs which do not belong to us When we reject every thing as false which we cannot presently comprehend and damn every thing of which we cannot easily give a satisfactory account when we speak evil of those things which we know not as St. Jude says of some in his days when nothing shall escape us which we do not streight arraign and bring to the bar nor any thing pass with us for wise good or decent but what is exactly fitted to our own palate and suited to our raw and unwary notions of things when we measure and judge of the nature of God the counsels of heaven the methods of Providence the constitutions of our governours the doctrines of our approved teachers the reasonableness of publick laws the designs and undertakings of other men truth and falshood good and evil onely according to the agreement or disagreement of things with our private fancies childish prejudices and rash judgments But more particularly 1. Hence it is that men are apt to quarrel with God and Religion and endeavour either to dispute or rally them out of the world Into this one principle I think may be resolved the most considerable if any such there be nay almost all the objections that ever were framed against the existence of a God and the truth and certainty of Religion viz. that there are many things commonly taught and believed which some pert young sinners cannot by any means understand and therefore all of it must presently be false They cannot possibly frame a notion of a spirit or immaterial substance Every thing they think of is clothed with corporeal accidents they cannot conceive an infinite Being nor solve all the difficulties about eternity omnipresence

thus when they have vented a most cursed malitious lye with the woman in the Proverbs they wipe their mouths and say they have done no wickedness and would have you impute it wholly to their zeal and not to their malice This I cannot better represent unto you than by translating the words of an ancient Father who thus describes some in his days There are saith he who shall endeavour to shadow and disguise the malice and ill-will they have conceived against any sort of persons or company of men with the false colour of zeal for the glory of God and sorrow for the wickedness of the times and then looking very sadly and premising a deep sigh with a dejected countenance and dolefull voice they vent their lies and slanders and therefore saith he they doe all this that they may the more easily persuade those who hear them of the truth of what they relate that the story may be the sooner believed and more readily swallowed as seeming to be uttered with an unwilling mind and rather with the affection of one that condoles than any fetch of malice I am grievously sorry for it saith one for I love the man well he is one of excellent parts and hath many things very laudable in him but and then he aggravates this particular sin whether truly or falsly imputed to him it matters not to the highest degree Another tells you I knew so much of him before but it should never have gone farther for me but now seeing the matter is out though perhaps he was the first broacher of it he shakes his head and lifts up his eyes and tells you it is indeed too true he speaks it with grief of heart and then tells it in every company he comes in but adds it is great pity he otherwise excells in many things but in this he cannot be excused Thus far my Authour There is saith Solomon Prov. 12.18 that speaketh like the piercings of a sword and Prov. 18.8 the words of a tale-bearer are as wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly Curse the whisperer and double tongued for such have destroyed many that were at peace saith the son of Syrach This if any thing is point blank contrary to charity for love covereth all sins Prov. 10.12 Charity hideth all things 11. Yet farther Charity believeth all things hopeth all things It maketh us to believe all the good of others we have the least probable ground for and to hope that which we have no reason to believe We very easily believe those things to be which we before-hand wish were true and therefore charity being a wishing well to all men must needs incline us to believe well also of them this daily experience tells us that where we love there we are very unapt to discern faults though never so plain and obvious to the impartial and disinterested witness the strange blindness men generally have towards their own though never so gross and foolish The judgment of charity is very large and comprehensive it takes in all and believes well of every one who continues within the pale of the Christian Church doth never presume to judge mens hearts or pry into their secret intentions Nay where there is some reason to doubt of a man's truth and sincerity yet charity hopeth the best It despairs of no man's repentance and salvation but entertains some hopes that even the worst of men the most refractory and disobedient will at length amend and grow wiser Whoever sins charity hopes it is out of weakness or surprise or inadvertency and not out of wilfulness or habitual custome whoever mistakes charity hopes the errour proceeds from ignorance onely or unavoidable prejudice or unhappy education and not from a bad and wicked mind or from any worldly sensual interest And in this particular is the charity of our Church much to be commended who contents her self with propounding an undoubted safe way to Heaven without passing any reprobating sentences and anathema's on all other Churches and societies of professours and excluding them from all hope of mercy or possibility of salvation And indeed it concerneth us all to take great care rightly to discharge this office of charity since according as we judge others so shall we our selves be judged it is our interest as well as our duty to be very mild and mercifull in our censures of others and to judge of them with favour and allowance since with what measure we measure unto others it shall be measured unto us again 12. Lastly charity endureth all things never will be wearied or tired out is not fickle and wavering thinks nothing too much to doe nothing too great to undertake nothing too hard to undergo for the good of others Love sticks not at any thing nay makes any duty or labour easie and pleasant as Jacob after his disappointment grudged not to serve the other seven years for the sake of Rachel Love is strong as death many waters cannot quench it nor the flouds drown it nothing can allay the heat of its endeavours or stop its progress it easily surmounts all difficulties and triumphs over all opposition though we meet with great ingratitude contradiction and unworthy returns from those whom we have obliged yet love is not apt to repent of the good it hath done but still perseveres endeavouring to overcome evil with good unkindnesses with courtesies Love doth not invent excuses or seeek delays when a fair occasion of exercising it self is offered it makes us willing for some time to leave our own business though of near concernment to us to expose our selves to heat and cold to wearisome and painfull journies to deny our selves our own ease and pleasure and profit in some measure rather than to forfeit an opportunity of shewing a great kindness Charity endureth all things This now is that affection of love which we ought to bear one towards another this is that kind benign and gratious temper which manifests us to be the children of God and to partake of his nature and to be like unto him who is good and doth good which shews us to be the followers of our Saviour in deed and in truth who went about doing good and which alone can fit us for that Kingdom wherein true love undisturbed peace and universal charity dwells and reigns for evermore To convince you of the necessity of this frame and temper of spirit let me onely put you in mind of what St. Paul saith in the beginning of this Chap. that though a man should be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels had the gift of all languages and could discourse with the greatest eloquence and efficacy yet without this charity he would be but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal Though a man had the gift of prophecy and could foretell things to come were inspired from above and were able to convert others to the Faith and propagate the Christian Religion in