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	true_a	world_n	4,846	5	4.9933	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90512	Gospell courage, or Christian resolution for God, and his truth. In a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at Margarets in Westminster, at a publique fast, the 31. of May, 1643. / By Andrew Perne Master of Arts, sometimes fellow of Katherine Hall in Cambridge: now minister of Wilby in Northampton-Shire.	Perne, Andrew, 1594-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing P1577; Thomason E55_12; ESTC R16176	18,919	39

are Laodiceans luke-warme neither through Protestants nor ranke Papists Eliah never lived in a more halting age than we doe men stand watching which side will prevayle and doe determine to close and comply with that they will bee wiser then to suffer for Christ bee sure to save one stake and to sleep in a whole skin they were for the old Elsabeth wayes and when the Popish language of Priests and Altars and the superstitious bowings and gestures vvere brought in under a pretence of Authority they could then tune their tongues and soon learne their postures and now Authority discountenances them they can forbeare and if times should turne head againe they would doe as they did So that we may complayne of this time as they did of Neroes that the World had lost his Conscience it was growne so highly wicked Men make now no conscience of things in Religion their feare towards God is taught them by the precepts of men they willingly follow the Commandement whether it be for or against God Inconstancy in any thing is naught but worst of all in Religion Vse 2 Of Exhortation that you would get keep and increase this frame of Spirit in you that you would be resolute and couragious and undaunted for your God and for your Religion looke through and over all dangers in nothing terrified by your adversaties thinke not death too great a danger to cope withall for God and his Truth How many and how weighty are the Motives I might use to perswade you to this I know that many of you have stronger in your owne bosomes and breasts yet the Ordinance of God being powerfull give mee leave to use these First Consider that your God and your Religion are the best things you have things of the highest nature of the greatest consequence of the neerest concernment things above us and not under us things that must dispose of us and we must not dispose of them wee had better lose all then lose our God and his Truth If we lose Father Mother House Land Life and all for God and his Gospell Wee shall soone finde better yee know who hath promised it if you beleeve not him you will not mee we cannot bee losers but by flying Religion is worthy of all a mans courage where can we lay it out better nay so well It is the errand that you are met about at this time and therefore I praylook to it Nay it is the errand that you are come for into the World to finde out the true God and the true Religion Jer. 6.16 Thus saith the Lord stand yee in the wayes and see and aske for the old path where is the good way and walke therein and you shall finde rest to your soules It is the businesse of a mans life to find out the true God and the true Religion Nay this is your wisedome wisedome consists in finding out truths and the greatest wisedome in finding out the most rare pleasant and profitable truths Now Religion is a mystery all her wayes are pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace And what would it profit a man to winne the whole world and loose his owne soule a man is sure to loose it in a false Religion and save it in a true Nay this is your blessednes Matth. 13.16 Blessed are your eyes for they see and your eares for they heare what was it that made them thus blessed but seeing Christ in the flesh and hearing the Gospell Religion is an eternall good and doth a man good for ever when this life is ended Nay this is your Honour and take it from mee you shall not excell except you be resolute for your God and for your Religion The Bereans were Noble in searching out the truth of Religion And the Elders obtained a good report Heb. 11.2 and honourable Name with God and his Church by standing for his truth unto the death And t' is the most dishonourable thing in the World for a man to forsake his God and to flye from his Religion It is a shame for a boy to runne from his Master worse for a wife to runne away from her Husband but the greatest of all for a man to runne away from his God Oh! quit your selves like men contend earnestly for the faith let not the ruine of Religion be in your hands whatsoever we leave our Children let us to the utmost indeavour to leave the true God and the true Religion 2. Consider this That you have resolution and courage and why may not God have it and his Cause God hath the most right to it and to all that you can lose in this quarrell as your valour and courage comes from God so why may it not be for God All waters fall into the Sea from whence they come why not this Can you be stiffe and resolute for the world and worldly things not lose a foot of Land nor a Priviledge nor custome and have you no spirit for God shall men stand upon their punctilioes and shew their mettle for every toy draw their Swords for the Wall when 't is none of theirs And shall wee like tame fools suffer every one to wipe our noses of our God and of our Religion Wee shall find some of the Saints of God in the Scripture that were of meek and of calme spirits but onely in the Cause of their God As Moses the meekest man upon the earth but when hee saw the golden Calfe hee breaks the Tables which were the workmanship and the writings of God And see what he does more in the 32. Exod. 27. Put every man his sword by his side and goe in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Campe and slay every man his Brother and every man his Companion and every man his Neighbour Is this your meek man that fights even up to the eares in blood but this was the Cause of God And so the three Children all the courage and resolution wee read of them was for their God Let not a contrary spirit bee found in us resolute stiffe and peremptory for every thing but for God and his Cause 3. Consider That all men are resolute for their God and for their Religion for all Nations will walke every one in the name of his God It 's naturall for men How resolute are Papists and Mahumetans for their Gods though of dirt deafe and blind neither able to heare nor to helpe them in their distresses and shall we be cold and carelesse for our living God Ier. 2.10 Pass over the Isles of Chittim and send and see and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing why what 's this Hath a Nation changed their Gods which are yet no Gods Look about where you please search the world and see if you can see such inconstancy and impiety is there any Nation that hath changed their God they have taken up although they be no Gods at all Be astonished O Heavens here

and Religion but for ever and ever One phrase only I conceive needs opening which is this What it is to walke in the name of a God and it stands under divers senses First to bee called by his name as Wives Children Disciples are called by the Names of their Husbands Parents Masters So here all Nations will tryumph and will be willing to owne and not be ashamed of the Name of their God and wee will not be ashamed of our glory Deut. 28.10 and all the People of the Earth shall see that thou art called by the Name of the Lord the 2 Chron. 7.14 If my People that are called by my Name c. Secondly to goe furnished with the divine Authority of God Mar. 11. Blessed is he that commeth to us in the Name of the Lord and so the 1 Cor. 5.4 In the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit c. 3. To walke in the Power and strength of God the 1 Sam. 17.45 Thou comest to me with a sword and a speare and with a shield but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts saies David to Goliah which is in the strength of God Fourthly to walke in the scare Lawes Ordinances and whole worship of God And this I conceive to be the proper meaning of this place The Doctrines are many We shall therefore play the Travaller passe by some Townes though good call in at others and make our stay in that that is most convenient Doct. 1 There is a GOD. This truth we read in the Booke of nature that lies continually open before us written in so great and Capitall Letters that one though stone blind if he have other senses may read it And Conscience within teaches this All Nations agree in it There is a peradventure indeed in every mans heart that there is no God and according to the strength of this in the soule so is the life God lesse But there is a semi-certainty in every soule that there is a God and when this prevailes then a Man will be devoute in his way And therefore saith the Heathen Menciuntur qui dicunt se non sentire esse Deum they lie in their throats that say they thinke there is no God But we leave this Severall Nations have severall Gods Or there are many false Gods in the World In the 1 Cor. 8.5 There be Gods many and Lords many No truth so generally and universally granted as this That there is a God but none so much controverted as who the true God is Man brings into the World with him notions and sure apprehensions of a deity Education and Custome do specificate and shape these generall notions of a GOD and a Religion to that God and into that Religion that the Countrey accounts the true From hence he that is borne in Turkey is a Mahumetan In Italie a Papist in England a Protestant So soone as Men are borne they fall a groaping for a God and for a Religion One there is but who and which wee know not and that that is first put into our hands by our Parents and Governours that we close withall And this is the State and condition of all Men living the best and dearest Saints of God are thus by nature and would have beene Turkes and Papists had they bin borne there till God seized upon them by his grace regenerated them and reveal'd himselfe unto them Yee were without God in the World as well as others A God then there is but who and what 〈◊〉 one the People and Nations of the World cannot agree and therefore how many have the Nations who are left unto the light of nature set up for Gods that had Country Gods and Citie Gods and houshold Gods and particular personall Gods Gods for all places for Heaven and Hell and Sea and Land for all occasions for war and peace and plenty and health and sicknes the number of their Gods as some of their own Authors have summed them up was above thirty thousand The Papists in our dayes have more If yee say what 's the cause of this that the World should be thus out in so great a point Reas 1 All have lost the knowledge of God in Adam that was our great losse for his sin God hath withdrawne himself hid himself in secret will not fully sufficiently or savingly reveale himself by the Creatures to the sons of men but hath chosen a new way to vent himself which is by Iesus Christ Mat. 11.27 No Man cometh to the father but by mee saith Christ and so Ioh. 11.6 No man knoweth the Father but the son and he to whom the Sonne shall reveale him There is not in all the Booke of Nature one Iota or one hint of Jesus Christ Many nations are without the Gospell few persons know Jesus Christ I pray God you may looke to your selves and therefore are wilde and vaine and various in their Imaginations of God It comes from the infinite disproportion that is between God and Man Reas 2 What House will yee build mee saith God I fill Heaven and Earth the Heaven of Heavens are not able to containe mee So what thoughts will yee reare up to entertaine the great God in How will yee doe to stretch those narrow Soules of yours that the King of glory may come in It is impossible for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle but how impossible for God to come into his Creature The sences which are the Lanes or Gates which lead to the soule neither is there any thing in the understanding but it is first in the sences these are all too narrow God is invisible and cannot be seene Thou canst not see my Face sayes God to Moses and yet he had and could see great and dreadfull things but had hee seene this his soule would have ran away He is ineffable bigger then all definitions and descriptions greater then words can tell It s peculiar to God to exceed knowledge And therefore the Logicians have wisely excluded him out of their Predicaments ubique prosens sed latens nothing more present then God and nothing more unseene Obj. If you say but this Reason shuts out all Men yet there are that doe know him Answ It doth indeed shut out all from any naturall knowledge of him by naturall meanes the knowledge of God is a supernaturall grace bred onely by the spirit of God in the hearts of the Men of his good will This Spirit doth supernaturally stretch out the narrow soule of Man doth in large and widen it and raises it up about its own nature to conceive aright of God This Spirit lifteth up the doores and sets open the Gates that the King of glory may come in And because the faculties cannot bee wound up to infinitenesse that they may hold proportion to the immensity of God therefore the spirit does two things First it creates an eekening in the soule which